Let me tell you, after months of boredom and little to write about during maybe the worst sports summer on record, it's great to have some exciting things going on in sports.So, instead of hearing about Mike Vick for the 100th time in a single day, we have NFL and college football, playoff races in baseball, trade demands in the NBA and, as if we needed it, more scandals.
- I'm torn about the Kirilenko trade demand. On one hand, I hate it when players who aren't franchise guys get paid max money, and then whine. However, those players are usually whining because their teams aren't doing well, and the reason is because their salary has handcuffed the team (Jermaine O'Neal, for example). That's not the case with AK-47 (which is, btw, the best nickname in the league). He's on a winning team, but he's incredibly frustrated by the fact that Jerry Sloan refuses to utilize his talents. So, despite the fact that I hate seeing highly paid guys demand stuff, I would love to see AK get traded to a team that will utilize him, because he's one of the more unique talents in the league. I've seen a lot of trade scenarios proposed, but I'm not buying the AK for Shawn Marion deal or any trade to Golden State. There's really only one team I see as a good fit who also has the contracts and players to offer in return, and shockingly I haven't seen it proposed anywhere.
Andrei Kirilenko to Memphis for Mike Miller and Stromile Swift: Seriously, who wouldn't want to make this deal? It's an easy call for the Jazz, they get some cap relief in the long term, and they get the perfect complement to the Williams/Boozer pick and roll tandem. Miller is one of the best pure shooters in the NBA, and is far more suited to the standard Jerry Sloan offense than Kirilenko is. For Memphis, they get maybe the most dynamic defender in the NBA, and a guy who is excellent in a transition, international-style offense. Memphis coach Marc Iavaroni comes from the Phoenix group of coaches, and is installing a similar up-tempo offense. Memphis, who is my dark horse pick for next year, would have a lineup of Lowry/Conley, Navarro, AK, Gasol, and Darko. Would you want to face that? This deal needs to happen.
- You know, I've reached the point that nothing Isiah Thomas does would surprise me. If it weren't for OJ, I'd say that Isiah has ruined his reputation more than any other former star athlete. Since he stopped playing, he's manage to destroy the CBA, underachieve as coach of the Pacers, completely destroy the Knicks franchise for the forseeable future, and get mixed up in a sexual harassment scandal that has made he and the Knicks organization look stupid and bigoted. This begs the question, "How does the man still have a job???" Look, I know he's a legend as a player, and yeah, he's a pretty decent evaluator of talent, but he's a complete and total failure as an executive. Isiah, for the sake of basketball fans everywhere and for the sake of your legacy, step down and leave the spotlight before you completely ruin all memory of your playing days.
As a side note, this whole Isiah trial has confirmed what we already know about Stephon Marbury, mainly that he's certifiably crazy. Really, it's been a real breakout summer in the crazy department for Starbury. I can't wait for the season, I have a feeling he's going to end up doing something completely absurd and unheard of. I don't know what, I just feel something coming.
- Moving out of the NBA and into late-season baseball, the AL looks all sown up, but we've still got legitimate races in all 3 divisions and in the wild card in the NL. This is where baseball gets good, because every game matters.
The Mets held off the hard-charging Phillies for at least one game behind a brilliant outing by Oliver Perez. Let me tell you this, Perez has had his problems with inconsistency, but his stuff is as good as anybody in baseball. He was dealing today, and everything was nasty. He made some hitters just look silly.
The Brewers lost what was probably the most important game of their season, despite a very good outing by their young stud Yovani Gallardo, who has really impressed me with the way he carries himself. He has great composure for a rookie to go along with his nasty stuff. After he gave up a walk and a single in the first inning, he faced Chipper-Teixera-McCann with runners on first and third and managed to get out of it with allowing just one run. In the next 6 innings, he struck out 7 and allowed 2 hits to match John Smoltz's great outing. Despite the extra-innings loss that probably spelled doom for the Brew Crew's playoff hopes, it was an impressive outing by the rookie.
- Switching gears yet again, did you see Matt Flynn over-the-head flip to Colt David on LSU's fake filed goal??? That might be the coolest play all year. Seriously, that was awesome.
-Say what you want about Florida's close call with Old Miss, but I can't get over the line that Tim Tebow put up. 261 yards and 2 TDs through the air, and 166 yards and 2 TDs on the ground (that gives him 17 TDs, 1 INT, 0 FUM through 4 games). Really, I just love this guy, he's totally unique. Typically when you think "running quarterback" you think the Mike Vick-type speed guy who makes quick moves to get some yardage and usually ends up sliding or running out of bounds (Pat White is a good example this year), but that's not Tebow. He doesn't have the mind-blowing speed or tricky moves of those guys, he runs like a fullback. Tebow doesn't avoid contact, he initiates it. Who knows how long he'll last playing that way, but it's a lot of fun to watch a guy who runs like he does.
- I don't know if anyone else caught this, but I watched the very end of the Georgia-Alabama game and was completely dumbfounded by one of the announcers. I don't even know who was calling the game, but near the end of an extremely close, hard-fought game that went into overtime, during a stop in play one of the announcers asked the other completely out of the blue "what do you think Britney should do?" The other announcer, very confused, asked "Britney who?", and got a reply of "Britney Spears". To this he very rightly responded "who cares, we've got a freaking overtime game going on here, pay attention stupid" (ok, so I made that last part up a bit). Seriously though, what the #### was that? It was so absurd and out of place that I wasn't sure I heard it right. Did anyone else catch this?
- Lastly, the NFL. I must say this; I really dislike Terrell Owens. He's cocky, selfish, and acts like a diva. That said, his touchdown celebration and subsequent response to the NFL's fine were absolutely genius. That might never be topped, it was just sheer genius.
- The game I'm watching this week is Packers-Chargers, and I'm torn on who I want to see come out on top. On one hand, I'm a huge LT fan, and I absolutely love my NC State boy Phil Rivers (who had a seriously underrated college career). However, my grandparents are from Wisconsin and my Grandpa taught me to be a Packers fan. I love watching a rejuvenated Favre this year and I'd love to see them do well. I don't know who I'll be rooting for, but I'll definitely be watching that one, should be a good game.
- 35 days and counting until college basketball gets going, I can't wait.
If you haven't heard about it yet, you should check out Darko Milicic's rant against the officials at the Eurobasket tournament. I will warn you though, it's pretty vulgar, so if you get offended easily, stay away. Really though, somebody needs to tell Darko to get a handle on his mouth. After previously calling now-teammate Pau Gasol soft, now he goes and says this. It's not like the reporters didn't give him chances to get out of what he said either, but he just pressed on and kept getting more and more obscene. Really, I'm looking forward to the Darko era in Memphis, there's no telling what might happen. He's come off as completely crazy this offseason, the kind of quotes you usually see from Ron Artest, but his reputation as a player is that he's soft. Are we going to see crazy Darko next year? Are we going to see the lazy Darko who didn't play in Detroit? Who knows. Can we arrange for Memphis to trade for Steven Jackson or Artest? The comedy potential of that would be off the scale.
Greg Oden is having exploratory surgery on his knee. Now, to be perfectly honest, this is probably nothing. It's not reconstructive surgery, and Oden will probably be good to go in camp. However, if you're a Blazer fan, especially a long-time fan who lived through Bill Walton and Sam Bowie, then you've got to be feeling nervous about Oden's various maladies this offseason.
This just in, NBA players are stupid. Seriously, Shawne Williams, what are you thinking? Been reading "Stephen Jackson's Book on How to Stay Out of Trouble", have you? Pro athletes disgust me sometimes.
Important free agents still out there: Chris Webber, Michael Pietrus, Anderson Varejao, Sasha Pavlovic, and Charlie Bell. I'm surprised Webber isn't signed yet, I was sure he would've picked what contender he wanted to play with and signed up quickly, but he's still out there. Still, you gotta think he'll be signing with Dallas eventually. He's not going to San Antonio or Phoenix, so the Mavs are his best chance of snagging a ring.
Game 3 of the WNBA Finals tonight. I know, you probably don't care, but I'll be watching to see if Diana Taurasi drops 30 on the league's best defensive team again.
For all you basketball statheads out there, I'll be making a post shortly on some of the lesser known statistical measures out there, so make sure to check back on that.
Switching gears, reports say that Kevin Everett is making much better progress in his recovery than originally expected, and doctors are optimistic that he will walk again. My prayers go out to him and his family, you hate to see that happen in a sporting event, and it's good to hear that his condition is improving.
I went into Monday Night trailing by 15 points and with Edge James as my only hope. He produced 17 points, and I squeaked out a win. Course, I wouldn't have needed that if I'd started Adrian Peterson and LaMont Jordan, 40 points on the bench kind of sucks.
Again switching gears, Jerry Crasnick has a great article on my boy Troy Tulowitzki, who is putting together a very veteran-like rookie season for the Rockies. He trails Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins by just .001 in fielding percentage, but he's had 100 more chances than any other shortstop in the majors. Pretty impressive for a rookie. He's almost like the anti-Ryan Braun, who carries a big stick, but is the worst fielding regular in the league. The sheer gaudy offensive numbers will get Braun ROY, Tulo might be the more valuable rookie.
Anybody know what A-Rod is hitting so far in the month of August? That would be .533/.600/1.367, yeah, that's right, a 1.367 SLUGGING PERCENTAGE. That's just obscene. My friend asked me the other day if i thought A-Rod would hit 60 HRs, and I said "no way". After looking at the numbers, I'm not so sure. 8 HRs in 20 games? He very well might with the way he's hitting. What was a close MVP race with Ordonez has turned into a runaway.
In the NL MVP race, much as I'd like to say my man Prince Fielder should win it with a spectacular second year, but I can't really endorse that even if the Brew Crew make the playoffs. The simple fact is that Ben Sheets has been every bit as important to that team as Prince has. Chase Utley would probably be the choice if he hadn't missed a good chunk of time with injury, but alas, he did. To me, it comes down to Matt Holliday and David Wright. Both have very similar offensive profiles, and it'll probably come down to team performance. If the Rockies pull off an improbable comeback and make the playoffs, Holliday has to be the choice, but otherwise I think the trophy goes to Wright.
If you haven't seen him yet this year, you should try to catch the late innings of a Cubs game to see Carlos Marmol pitch. He throws high heat, and his slider really breaks dramatically. I definitely don't consider myself an expert on pitchers, and often I can't even tell a pitch is breaking until I see the slow-mo replay, but Marmol's ball really moves. He's fun to watch.
Well, that's all for now folks. I'll leave you with this trivia question. Who holds the NBA record for most blocked shots by a rookie?
Well, as fantasy football exploded over the last few years, I resisted the urge to join in with the rising tide. I don't really know why, except for maybe the fact that I didn't want to put time in. Anyway, I've finally joined the crowd and am participating in my first fantasy football league. Now, if I'm going to do something sports-related, I like to do it right, so I've been making sure to read up on fantasy stuff and be well prepared. We had our draft tonight, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
The draft order was determined randomly at the start of the draft, and the 12th team added (just a few days ago) ended up nabbing the first pick. Here's how the order played out.
1) WAREAGLE (we figure him getting the #1 pick was compensation for his Michigan team getting embarrassed earlier today) 2) Mountain Men 3) The Doobie Doo-Wahs 4) The Techmo Bos (Me) 5) Dirty Mugs 6) UNC Sucks 7) Bengals Anonymous 8) kill me i'm a noob 9) Norv Turner's Neck 10) Beer 11) The Empty 7 12) Bootsy Collins
Picking 4th was not optimum, but it certainly could've been worse, and with the way things played out it turned out to be a great spot. Anyway, here's how the picks went.
RB Larry Johnson Edgerrin James Adrian Peterson Brandon Jackson LaMont Jordan
WR Torry Holt Lee Evans Greg Jennings Wes Welker
TE Tony Gonzalez Greg Olsen
K Stephen Gostkowski
DEF Denver
Well, I lucked out when The Doobie Doo-Wahs started their draft-long routine of drafting 1 to 2 rounds too early on every pick by taking Steve Smith with the 3rd pick, allowing me to grab Larry Johnson at #4. Edge James was a great value pick, though I didn't realize until a few rounds later that he and Johnson have the same bye week, but it didn't end up being too bad because I was able to load up on running backs with value picks later. I'm real high on Kitna since he has a great receiving corps, and Campbell was a solid high-upside backup I was able to grab late. I really wanted Alex Smith there, but he has the same bye week as Kitna, so I went with Campbell instead. I got my favorite wideout in Holt and another elite WR in Evans, then 2 high-ceiling guys. I really wanted Gates and even considered taking him over Holt, but Gonzalez is the second best TE, and Olsen is a real high-ceiling guy who should be catching plenty of passes a few weeks into the season. I was perfectly fine with Gostkowski, who should get lots of opportunities in a high-octane Pats offense, and the Denver defense should be fine. I wanted the Chargers D, but really, once you get past the Bears and the Ravens, the difference isn't that big.
Anyway, that's the team. I'm pretty happy with it, since I think I got great value with each pick and I filled out the roster pretty evenly. You can never have too many running backs, and the 5 I have should yield at least 3 top-flight backs. Anything more than that is gravy.
Well, after a marvelous vacation in Europe with the family, I'm back and ready to catch up on all the sports news that I missed in my absence. I had occasional internet access on the trip, but nothing constant, and I think a lot of stuff slipped through the cracks while I was out, so I'm gonna have to catch up.
The pressing business on hand is that we have a competition to finish. The NBA Legends competition finals between Hoffman and I was postponed until after my trip since we were so pressed for time beforehand. So, we need to set a date of some sort for that final round. I'm thinking some time this weekend, though I'm not sure exactly what's ahead for me over the next few days. At some point, I'll be moving back to the dorm, so I'll have to work around that, but it shouldn't be too much trouble. Hoff, let me know when things would work best for you.
In addition to that, a few words on the world of sports that may or may not be as incomprehensible as you would expect from someone who is majorly jetlagged.
- Barry hit his bloody homerun, just like we all knew was coming. Now maybe the world can get over one of the most twisted and divisive sports stories in recent memory.
- Man, don't the Falcons feel stupid for letting Matt Schaub get away now? Really, when was the last time an athlete fell from the sport's next uberstar/game-redefiner to complete disappointment and utterly disgusting human being as fast as Mike Vick did? It wasn't that long ago that he was the single greatest prospect ever to pull on an NFL jersey. People were going crazy to see him because he was such an unbelievably brilliant talent. He was going to become the face of the game and a hall of famer, the question was not "if", but "when" that was going to happen. Now, his disappointing career is almost certainly over and he is one of the most despised figures in sports. Unreal.
- Someone told me a funny joke the other day. They said that Miami was reuniting Shaq and Penny Hardaway and that the Celtics are seriously pursuing Reggie Miller to come out of retirement...What do you mean that wasn't a joke?...
- In the realm of actually good NBA moves, the Warriors bought out Adonal Foyle and his oversized contract, and the Spurs sign Ime Udoka to a 2-year deal at one mil a pop. Seriously guys, this is why the Spurs keep winning, they make moves like this.Easily my favorite for the ring headed into next year.
-How is Chris Webber still not signed? Shouldn't he have already picked the team he thinks best gives him a chance to win and gone ahead and gotten the vet's minimum.
- In other news, looking to add even more veteran depth to their bench, the Miami Heat sign Julio Franco...
- If Ryan Braun had been in the league since day 1, we would be talking MVP right now, despite his fielding struggles. As is, he's having one of the great rookie seasons I've ever seen.
- If you could bet on this sort of thing, the odds that Sam Cassell will not be the clips come year end would be astronomical. Absolutely no way he doesn't get swapped.
Alright, that's it for me because I'm about to pass out from exhaustion. Hoff, let me know about times for that final round.
As a last note to everyone, I read Dean Oliver's Basketball on Paper over my trip, and it is a revolutionary look at basketball statistics. I'll be covering some of it in my next "Analyze This" (coming after the competition is done), but I would strongly encourage you to read it if you are a coach, statistician, or avid fan. It's really a great read. Also, Jack McCallum's Seven Seconds Or Less is a great inside look at an NBA team. It's well-written, and has genuine laugh-out-loud parts as well as serious insight.
I am a statistics geek. There, I said it, it's out there for everyone to see. I see PPG and OBP in my sleep. I'm obsessed with analyzing players through statistics. The sports world is a-changin, and if you want to keep up, you better know all about B/40 (Blocks per 40 minutes), YAC (Yards After Contact), OPS (On-base Plus Slugging), BABiP (Batting Average on Balls in Play), and eFG% (Effective Field Goal Percentage). So, with that in mind, I'm going to look over some of the common statistics in sports and find out what the strengths and weaknesses of those particular statistics are. In addition, I'll look at some of the less common statistics that you may not have heard of. Due to the vast amount of statistics there are to look at, I think I'll probably make this a running thing where I'll do a post every week or so with more statistics. That is, unless people think this is a stupid idea, then I won't do it and just go cry in my closet instead, so let me know what you think. Anyway, for this time I'm just going to look over some basic, commonly used statistics.
BA (Batting Average)
What Is It? Batting Average is a baseball statistic that measures the ratio of hits to at bats.
How Is It Useful? BA has long been the standard measurement of a hitter's performance, and it makes sense. The more hits a player gets when he's up to bat, the better a hitter he is, right? In general, it usually is a pretty good predictor of a how good a hitter is, with a BA over .300 being pretty good, over .350 being top-notch, under .250 being pretty bad, and under .200 (the Mendoza line, named for famously poor-hitting SS Mario Mendoza) being absolutely terrible.
What Are Its Flaws? BA really has 2 major flaws. The first flaw is that it doesn't account for walks. For example, when evaluating a leadoff hitter, whose purpose is to get on base any way possible, BA tells you that Willy Taveras (.320 BA) and Dustin Pedroia (.322) are basically equal. However, Pedroia has drawn a walk 13 more times in 30 fewer ABs, meaning he gets on base at a significantly higher percentage than Taveras. The second problem is that BA treats all hits as equal, whether it's a bunt single or a home run. Lets take a look at the case of Prince Fielder (.278) vs. Juan Pierre (.280). Again, very similar batting averages. However, Fielder has 58 EBH (Extra Base Hits, i.e. doubles, triples, HRs) to Pierre's 17 EBH. Obviously, Fielder's power makes him the more effective hitter, but BA doesn't show that. The answer to these two problems, of course, is to use BA in conjunction with OBP (On Base Percentage) and SLG (Slugging Percentage) in order to analyze a player.
SB (Stolen Bases)
What Is It? Pretty obvious, it's the number of bases a player has stolen.
How Is It Useful? Well, it tells you which guys are speedy on the basepaths. Guys with lots of stolen bases usually make better top-of-the-order guys (if they can couple it with a decent OBP), and they can rattle pitchers when they're on base simply because of the chance they might steal.
What Are Its Flaws? Stolen bases is kind of a sneaky statistic in that it looks very simple at first, but has a lot more flaws than it appears. The first flaw of the SB statistic is that if a player who isn't a good baserunner tries to steal a lot, he'll probably get a decent number of steals, but he'll also get caught a lot. For instance, would you rather have Juan Pierre (33 SB in 42 attempts) or Shane Victorino (27 SB in 29 attempts)? The best solution is to look at SB% (Stolen Base Percentage, SB/(SB+CS)) to see how useful a player is when stealing bases. Keep in mind, however, that an out is far more important than an advance from first to second, so the percentage needs to be much higher than 50% for a basestealer to actually be useful. In fact, statistics have shown that on average, if you're successful less than 75% of the time, you're actually hurting your team more than helping it.
BPG (Blocks Per Game)
What Is It? A measurement for the number of shots a basketball player blocks on average each game (Total Blocks/Games Played)
How Is It Useful? A high BPG average is usually indicative o####ood post defender. An average above 2.5 is usually very good for a post player, and anything above the low-1s is good for a guard.
What Are Its Flaws As with all per game statistics in basketball, it suffers from not taking into account the number of minutes played. For example, Jermaine O'Neal averaged 2.6 blocks last year compared to Alonzo Mourning's 2.3. Thos look pretty comparable, with O'Neal having the slight edge. However, O'Neal averaged 15 minutes more per game than Mourning did, which puts Mourning's per minute average at a whole different level. The other flaw with blocks is that, well, it's just not a very good measure of whether you're a good defender or not. Players who block a lot of shots often do so by losing rebounding position to try for a block, and they often get in foul trouble by attempting blocks. Also, very good shot blockers tend to see their block numbers drop as players realize how good they are and decide to try and avoid them. If you watched an Ohio State game last year, you could see this happen as teams were very hesitant to go into the post against Greg Oden. So, what do we make of the blocks statistic then? Well, whenever evaluating a player by their blocked shots, be sure to incorporate fouls and rebounds into your equation. If a player has a high block per foul rate and they still rebound the defensive glass well, then they're probably a pretty good post defender. It's a little simpler for guards, since any shotblocking you get from them is an added bonus. If you see a guard/forward with high block numbers (like Gerald Wallace), that probably means they're a pretty strong defender.
FG% (Field Goal Percentage)
What Is It? A basketball measurement of how many field goals (any shot that isn't a free throw) you make per field goals you attempt (FGM/FGA)
How Is It Useful? It's very useful when trying to analyze a player's effectiveness as a scorer. Players who have a higher FG% are typically better shooters and therefore more efficient scorers. For example, Kobe Bryant has averaged 24.6 points per game in his career to Allen Iverson's 27.9 . However, Kobe's FG% is 30 points higher than Iverson's, indicating that he is the more efficient scorer of the two.
What Are Its Flaws? Mainly that it doesn't account for the difference between post players and guards. Post players regularly put up FG%s of over 60%, since the vast majority of their shots are right around the rim. Guards, on the other hand, are much more likely to be launching more difficult shots from further out. One answer to this is eFG% (Effective Field Goal Percentage), which weighs three-pointers as 50% more important than 2-pointers [(FG + 0.5*3P) / FGA]. eFG% is in general a much better all-around measurement than straight-up FG%, and generally what I use when analyzing players.
Sacks
What Is It? A football measurement for how many times a player tackles an opposing quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
How Is It Useful? It's a good way to measure how well a player (usually a defensive end) can get into the backfield and make plays. Double-digit sacks are very good for a defensive end/outside linebacker, and anything in the upper single-digits is pretty good for any other defensive position.
What Are Its Flaws? Hmmm, where to start? Well, first of all, it isn't really a very good indicator of whether or not a player is a good defender, since many rush ends concentrate on the sack at the expense of run defense. In general, TFL (Tackles For Loss) is a better statistic, and total tackles is also something you should take into account. For example, Mark Anderson of the Bears had 12 sacks, but only 28 total tackles. Compare that to Adalius Thomas, who had 11 sacks but 83 total tackles. Who would you rather have? The other thing to note is that sacks may also be the result of a strong secondary (good coverage resulting in the QB hanging on to the ball too long), or the result of a defensive scheme that emphasizes blitzing.
There you go, the first edition of Analyze This, maybe the first of many. Kudos to the first person who can name me all the players executing each statistic in the pictures.
There's been a lot of discussion about the Spurs' place in history after
their 4th title, and a lot of talk about where Tim Duncan falls in the pantheon
of all-time greats. Up till now, I had thought it was a pretty well-aknowledged
point that Duncan
was the greatest power forward in the history of the game. However, I've seen
recently that this is not the case.
We are always wary of labeling players as the "greatest
ever". Every time this gets brought up with any current player, we
immediately recoil and try to protect our legends. We'll talk about how much
better the competition was when so-and-so played, and how guys these days just
don't compare. We'll fondly remember a particular play we saw or an amazing game
we witnessed and, with the passage of time magnifying its greatness, we're sure
this present day kid could never do something like that. A player like Kobe
Bryant has had to spend his entire career fighting a losing battle against
skeptics who compare him to MJ, but who have already determined that MJ is
incomprable. Now, this is not always a bad thing, since players for the most
part will not live up to the legends of the sport's past. However, it's a shame
that we have this knee-jerk response that doesn't even want to look at the
facts. It's a shame because Tim Duncan is not only the best power forward ever,
but it's not even that close. If you're not a Duncan supporter, find some time to take an
unbiased look at his legacy, and realize that you're missing out on one of the
all-time greats.
Just as a prelude before I really get into it, I'll give this disclaimer.
I'm hardly the best person to evaluate historical players, cause I'm a young
guy and the only experience I have watching a lot of these guys is ESPN
Classic. I also realize that statistics are not always the best indicator of
productivity, and I've tried to pull from as many sources as possible, but
statistics have to play a big part in comparisons like this. Eyewitness
observers are all going to have different opinions when they watch these
different guys, and two guys who have seen both Kevin McHale and Duncan play in the same
games might have both have a different opinion of who is better. This is
why things like All-NBA and All-Defense team awards are important, because they
tell us what a whole group of experts watching at that time thought about the
player. Lastly, I'm not trying to take anything away from any of these legends.
If anything, I have come away with an amazing respect for guys who I hadn't
really taken a close look at before. I'm just trying to get you to realize how
amazing Duncan's
accomplishments have been.
Just to head this off before it comes up, a lot of people may complain about
the quality of the league that Duncan
has been dominating. This is almost a completely subjective measurement,
because who can say for certain if the league was better this year or 20 years
ago. One thing to note though is that Duncan
has played in an era with more good power forwards than perhaps any other point
in league history. I recall an SI article talking about the derth of great PFs
in the Western conference, and it was a list so deep that a healthy Antonio
McDyess coming off a 20-10 season was ranked second to last (in front of a
young Pau Gasol entering his second year). His competition included Webber,
Sheed, McDyess, Brand, Malone, Nowitzki, and more. Certainly, there has been no
lack of talent to oppose Duncan.
With that said, on to the discussion. Everybody on my list was elected
to the NBA's 50 Greatest team in 96, with the obvious exceptions of Duncan and
Garnett. I went out and looked at their career statistics, their playoff
numbers, and the awards that they have won in their career.
Sorry these are a little messy. I had these beautiful tables ready, but unfortunately, they didn't translate to here.
Career GP MPG PPG RPG APG BPG SPG FG% FT% TO PF T.
Duncan 746 37.5 21.8 11.9 3.2 2.4 .8
50.9 68 2.88 2.7 K. Malone 1476 37.2 25
10.1 3.6 .7 1.41 51.6 74.2 3.07 3.1 M. Malone
1329 33.9 20.6 12.2 1.4 1.3 .82 49.1 76.9
2.86 2.3 K. McHale 971 31.0 17.9 7.3 1.7 1.7
.4 55.4 79.8 2.5 3.7 C. Barkley 1073 36.7 22.1 11.7 3.9 .83 1.54 54.1 73.5 3.15 3.1 K.
Garnett 927 38.3 20.5 11.4 4.5 1.7 1.4
49.1 78 2.57 2.5 E. Hayes 1303 38.4 21
12.5 1.8 2 1 45.2 67 2.4 3.2 B.
Pettit 792 38.8 26.4 16.2 3 N/A N/A
43.6 76.1 N/A 3.2
Playoffs GP MPG PPG RPG APG BPG SPG FG% FT% TO PF T.
Duncan 137 40.1 23.9 12.5 3.5 2.8 .7
50.9 69.9 3.15 3.1 K. Malone 193 41 24.7
10.7 3.2 .7 1.34 46.3 73.6 2.85 3.4 M.
Malone 94 40.4 22.1 13.8 1.4 1.3 .89
47.9 76.2 2.62 2.6 K. McHale 169 34 18.8
7.4 1.6 1.66 .4 56.1 79 1.9 3.4 C.
Barkley 123 39.4 23 12.9 3.9 .88 1.57
51.3 71.7 2.87 3.3 K. Garnett 47 42.6 22.3
10.5 5 1.9 1.3 45.8 76.1 3.43 3.2 E.
Hayes 96 43 22.9 13 1.9 2.6 1.13
46 65 2 3.94 B. Pettit 88 40
25.5 14.8 2.7 N/A N/A 42 77 N/A 3.14
Awards Seasons Rings MVPs All-Star Finals All-NBA All-Defense Played Games MVPs Teams Teams T.
Duncan 10 4 2
9 3 10 10 K.
Malone 19 0 2
14 0 12 2 M.
Malone 20 1 3
12 1 8 2 K.
McHale 13 3 0 7
0 1 6 C. Barkley
16 0 1 11
0 11 0 K. Garnett 12
0 1 10 0
7 7 E. Hayes 16
1 0 12 0 6
2 B. Pettit 11
1 2 11 N/A
11 N/A
You've probably been told that Duncan's
statistics don't hold up that favorably with the all-time greats, and that the
credit he is given is mostly based on his team success. As you can see, this is
simply not true. He's the 4th highest scorer, 4th highest rebounder, 4th
highest in assists, and 1st in blocks. In fact, the only really significant
category that Duncan
fails in is free-throw shooting, but we pretty much knew that going in. The
point is, Duncan's
statistics hold up just fine in comparison to everyone else.
Before I get too much further, there are really two special cases in this
list that I wanted to address.
Kevin McHale - His raw numbers just don't compare with the other guys. This
is mostly as a result of him sharing the front line with fellow greats Robert
Parish and Larry Bird. One can argue that McHale would've posted better numbers
if he had been the main focus of the offense (and his transcendent 86-87 year
when he posted 26-10 seems to agree), but that argument goes both ways. McHale
certainly would not have all his rings without those other Hall of Famers, and
I think it's safe to say that his field goal percentage was helped mightily by
the presence of Bird's keen passing eye. In the end, we have to evaluate
players by what they did, not what they could have done.
Bob Pettit - I almost hesitate to put him on this list because the league he
played in was so different than the NBA we see today. Also, since things like
blocks, steals, and All-Defense teams weren't recorded when he played, it's
almost impossible to measure his defensive presence. Just keep in mind the era
he played in when we're looking at his career.
Offense
Duncan is
certainly not the best offensive player in the group, that honor has to belong
to either the good Sir Charles or the Mailman. Both had higher scoring
averages, assist averages, and shooting percentages. Of course, Malone had Stockton and Barkley played with Mo Cheeks and Kevin
Johnson, the kind of point guard help that Duncan has been missing until the last few
years as Parker developed. Pettit's numbers jump off the page at first sight,
but you have to realize that he shot a very poor percentage for a post, and he
played in an era where 7 footers were extremely rare, and numbers were
typically inflated (see Chamberlain, Wilt). McHale was a highly efficient
scorer, but wasn't nearly as prolific as anyone else on this list. On my list, Duncan comes in as the
third most effective scorer, though Moses Malone and Garnett are very comprable
to him as a scorer.
Rebounding
I won't spend too much time on this since most of these guys have comprable
rebounding averages. Pettit was probably the first great offensive rebound in
the league as he was known for his relentlessness, though his rebounding stats
were definitely inflated by the era he played in (where guys averaging 20 rpg
was not unheard of). The only thing really to note is that Karl Malone
and McHale were significantly weaker rebounders than the rest of the group.
Defense
This is the category where Duncan
immediately jumps off the page. Despite having played less years than everyone
else, he leads the group in All-Defensive team selections by a wide margin.
Only Garnett and McHale are close, and they're 3 and 4 behind him. Duncan might be the best
ever at blocking shots without putting himself in position to foul, as his 2.4
blocks to 2.7 fouls attest. He's just a notch above everyone else defensively,
the only one close is Garnett, who is the more versatile defender. Check out
the Spurs' league ranks in defensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions)
since Duncan
arrived.
That's just obscene. For comparison, Garnett's T-Wolves have only been in
the top 10 once during his career.
Postseason
It's hard to argue with Duncan's
success in the postseason. When you compare his statistics, he's one of only 3
players on this list who didn't have their FG% drop in the playoffs. The other
players on the list saw their percentages go down as much as 5%, a significant
drop in efficiency. Garnett, for example, raised his scoring in the playoffs,
but also played more minutes and had his FG% drop by 3.5%. Of course, outside
of statistics, Duncan
also just flat-out wins, as his 4 titles and 3 Finals MVP awards show. McHale
has 3 titles, but wasn't the driving force behind those teams like Duncan was. Nobody else
on the list can boast multiple titles.
Analysis
While one player might be a better scorer or a better rebounder than Duncan,
nobody compines the entire package like the Big Fundamental does. Only K.
Malone and Barkley scored more than Duncan at
the same efficiency, but neither of them were anywhere close to the defender Duncan is, nor did they have the kind of playoff success
that Duncan has
had. Hayes and M. Malone were better rebounders, but they weren't as efficient
scorers, and also fall behind in defense and playoff success. Pettit's numbers
impress, but he wasn't nearly as efficient a player, and his averages are inflated
by the era he played in. McHale probably comes as close as anyone to matching
Duncan in scoring efficiency and defensive prowess along with postseason
success, but he's not as good a rebounder and was never the number one guy on
his own team, which meant he wasn't as prolific as the others on the list.
Garnett is arguably Duncan's
equal on the offensive end of the floor, and he is darn close on the defensive
end too. However, Duncan's
ability to lead his team to the championship, the ultimate goal of any player,
far overshadows Garnett's playoff struggles. Yes, Duncan has had the stronger
team more consistently, but you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that
Minnesota's lineup of Garnett, Cassell, Sprewell, and Szczerbiak was any worse than some of the teams Duncan has led to the title (keep in mind,
that team got beat in the west finals by a Laker team that ended up getting
destroyed by effectively the same Detroit team the Spurs beat the next year). Duncan will go down in
history as one of the game's greatest defensive players, but also as one of its
most complete players. There is little that he doesn't excel in, and he raises
his game to another level when it matters.
Going beyond the realm of statistics, Duncan is certainly not the most dynamic player to watch play. His game is lacking in the flair department, but there has never been a more fundamentally sound player. I know it sounds cliche to say that, since it's what everyone says, but it's absolutely true. Outside of a Kareem skyhook, there's not a post move in the game that Duncan isn't proficient at. He put on an absolute clinic in this year's finals, scoring at will against Anderson Varejao, who is a pretty good defender. Defensively, there's nobody as good as Duncan at protecting the rim without fouling, and he covers up a lot of his teammates' mistakes. The most impressive play for me in the finals was in game one, where Lebron knocked Bowen over on the blocks, only to find Duncan there to block the shot (clip). The most impressive thing to me is not the block, but that Duncan, realizing that Bowen is on the ground, then drops into a defensive crouch and follows Lebron out to the three-point line where he forces up a shot. He's great at poking the ball away from the man he's guarding, and he's a terrific help defender.
We're naturally predisposed to protect our legends, but no power forward in the history of the game has dominated both ends of the floor like Duncan does, nor can any PF match his playoff success. The Big Fundamental has been consistently brilliant since the moment he arrived and shows no signs of letting up after ten years. Barring injury, he'll only be adding to his illustrious numbers and putting more distance between himself and the rest of the crowd. At this point, his success is simply overwhelming, and he's clearly a cut above history's other representatives at his position.
NFL and college football, playoff races in baseball, trade demands in the NBA and, as if we needed it, more scandals.
he's manage to destroy the CBA, underachieve as coach of the Pacers, completely destroy the Knicks franchise for the forseeable future, and get mixed up in a sexual harassment scandal that has made he and the Knicks organization look stupid and bigoted. This begs the question, "How does the man still have a job???" Look, I know he's a legend as a player, and yeah, he's a pretty decent evaluator of talent, but he's a complete and total failure as an executive. Isiah, for the sake of basketball fans everywhere and for the sake of your legacy, step down and leave the spotlight before you completely ruin all memory of your playing days.
okie to go along with his nasty stuff. After he gave up a walk and a single in the first inning, he faced Chipper-Teixera-McCann with runners on first and third and managed to get out of it with allowing just one run. In the next 6 innings, he struck out 7 and allowed 2 hits to match John Smoltz's great outing. Despite the extra-innings loss that probably spelled doom for the Brew Crew's playoff hopes, it was an impressive outing by the rookie.
of the announcers asked the other completely out of the blue "what do you think Britney should do?" The other announcer, very confused, asked "Britney who?", and got a reply of "Britney Spears". To this he very rightly responded "who cares, we've got a freaking overtime game going on here, pay attention stupid" (ok, so I made that last part up a bit). Seriously though, what the 
e of the lesser known statistical measures out there, so make sure to check back on that.
onez has turned into a runaway.
