During the 2007 baseball season, I created a little stat called Hands On Runs or HOR, which is a simple to understand statistic that is indicative of how much weight a player carries within the framework of his offense.

There are two hands involved with every run scored; one from the runner scoring and one from the batter who drives in the run.

In order to calculate the percentage of runs a player has a hand in, I add the run total with the RBI total, then divide by the amount of runs their team has scored, and finally divide by two in order to get a percentage.

I have transferred the concept of the statistic over to basketball for what is called Hands On Buckets, or HOB.  With this stat, we add the field goal total of a player to his assist total and then divide by the overall number of field goals a team has made in order to get a percentage of buckets a player helped make over the course of a season.

John Stockton's 90-91 season in which he made 496 field goals and dished 1,164 assists giving him a 51.6 HOB%, is the best such season in NBA history.  This is better than Michael Jordan's 88-89 when he had a 46.9 HOB%, or Oscar Robertson's 48.6 HOB%, even Wilt Chamberlain's 63-64 in which he had a 47.2 HOB%.

2008-09 Leaders

1. Chris Paul, 53.4%: Paul finished the 07-08 season with a mark of 49.2 HOB%, which was slightly better than LeBron James' 46.0%.  Paul is 3rd in offensive rating with 128.2 and is on pace to break Stockton's record, but there is still a lot of season remaining.

2. Dwyane Wade, 48.0%: Wade's usage (35.8) is the highest of his career and though he isn't quite as efficient as a scorer as was in 05-06 or 06-07, he has been far more active as a creator for others.

3. LeBron James, 41.2%: LeBron is on pace to be every bit as all-around effective on the offensive end this season as last year, but he has been only hurt by Cleveland's frequent one-sided games, dropping his minutes per by five minutes.  This statistic relies on being on the floor.

4. Baron Davis, 38.2%: Baron is forced to do a whole lot more than he did in Golden State's freeing offense.  He is still putting up numbers, but the Clippers have struggled and he isn't nearly as efficient of a scorer as he was with the Warriors.

5. Derrick Rose, 37.5%: Rose is having an excellent rookie season and he's been carrying a much bigger load than the Bulls even expected him to because of the Kirk Hinrich injury.  Rose is just 15th in assist percentage, but he is fifth in minutes and eleventh in total field goals.

Team Leaders For 2008-2009 Season

Atlanta: Joe Johnson, 37.5%
Boston: Rajon Rondo, 32.4%
Charlotte: Raymond Felton, 33.6%
Chicago: Derrick Rose, 37.7%
Cleveland: LeBron James, 41.2%
Dallas: Jason Kidd, 31.8%
Denver: Chauncey Billups, 31.1%
Detroit: Allen Iverson, 30.2%
Golden State: Steven Jackson, 33.2%
Houston: Ron Artest, 24.0%
Indiana: T.J. Ford, 28.6%
LA Clippers: Baron Davis, 38.2%
LA Lakers: Kobe Bryant, 32.9%
Memphis: O.J. Mayo, 29.3%
Miami: Dwyane Wade, 48.0%
Milwaukee: Ramon Sessions, 28.9%
Minnesota: Randy Foye, 29.5%
New Jersey: Vince Carter, 36.6%
New Orleans: Chris Paul, 53.4%
New York: Chris Duhon, 30.6%
Oklahoma City: Kevin Durant, 27.4%
Orlando: Hedo Turkoglu, 26.5%
Philadelphia: Andre Miller, 31.4%
Phoenix: Steve Nash, 31.1%
Portland: Brandon Roy, 35.2%
Sacramento: Beno Udrih, 27.3%
San Antonio: Tim Duncan, 32.8%
Toronto: Jose Calderon, 34.2%
Utah: Ronnie Brewer, 22.1%
Washington: Caron Butler, 32.4%