As a basketball coach myself (obviously not on a college or NBA level), I greatly value efficiency. I use a very simple efficiency formula - something that is easy to grasp and calculate: points per field goal attempt. There are, I'm sure, far better, more complex ways of calculating it, but this really works for me.
So take two guys from the Bulls-Thunder game last night: Tony Snell (Chi) and Nick Collison (OK). Here were their respective lines:
Snell: 41 min, 4-15 fg, 2-11 3ptfg, 0-0 ft, 10 points
Collison: 20 min, 4-6 fg, 0-0 3ptfg, 1-1 ft, 9 points
So Snell scored 10 points on 15 field goal attempts. His efficiency was therefore 0.667. Collison scored 9 points on 6 field goal attempts, and thus his efficiency was 1.500.
Snell scored more points in the game, so he helped his team more in that most important department, right? Not in my book. He required so many more shots to get those 10 points. Collison, meanwhile, was brutally efficient. When he decided to take a shot, he averaged 1.5 points per shot attempt. Snell? 0.67.
Some guys are volume scorers, but give me efficient guys all day long. And it's not just about higher shooting percentage either. You could get 20 points by going 8-12 from the floor with 4 free throws, or you could get to 20 points by going 5-12 from the floor, having 4 of them be 3's, and hit 6 free throws. Either way works, and the point per field goal attempt number is still the same.