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[QUOTE="Brooky03, post: 5248414, member: 8594"]
The stats argument happened that season.  I was up to my neck in the stats.

Assist rate:  Virtually no difference (5 percentage points in KR’s favor; a fraction of an assist)
Turnover rate:  Virtually no difference (6 percentage points in Joe’s favor; a fraction of a turnover)
Shooting: KR 1.3 points per shot.  Joe 1.1  Miniscule difference (about a point per game if the minutes were switched, at the rate they shot)
Steals:  No difference.

Joe was clearly the better positional defender in the zone for anybody who watched the games (not that he was good).  Kadary was the better ‘highlight play’ defender who would see guards blow by him routinely, more often than ‘fat and slow’ Joe.

Kadary was a Freshman playing 20 minutes per game (17 or 18 when you take out the early season games he had to play).  Joe was a Sophomore playing 27.  That’s a pretty standard minutes split for the difference in seniority, especially when the Freshman wasn’t separating himself by any significant measure in productivity.

Joe’s shooting slumped that year, no doubt, but the offensive spacing was drastically better with Joe on the court.  Joe’s 3pt% was affected by the way teams extended their defense on him.  Kadary’s 3pt% was in spite of teams leaving him open.

Kadary dribbled better but didn’t use it to create for others at that point in his career.

Joe played 30% more than Kadary.  That’s far from unfair.

The quiet part we can’t say out loud because people will cry foul despite it very much being the reality: Joe was a short chubby white kid and Kadary was a tall athletic black kid.  Basketball fans are going to prefer the tall athletic black guy by default, so when their production is close, he’s going to seem like the clear and obvious better option in the face of other factors.
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