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Saturday, April 7, 2007

Nuggets Reject Mavericks 75-71

The Nuggets won only their second game of the year without scoring 100 or more points, 75-71 over the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, by scoring only 75 points, they won in such a way as to allow even a scrooge to be happy. They played one of their most stingy on turnovers games of the season, with many of the turnovers they did have being offensive fouls called by referees who were fully into the scrooge theme themselves. The Nuggets had just 11 turnovers, which is like the Suns having, say, 75 points. Although the Nuggets may never win this way again in our lifetimes, it nonetheless was a confidence booster for them; they won in such a defensive way and with so little scoring that they have seen and appreciated "the other side," what to an offensive minded basketball fan is the dark side of basketball, the defense wins games side.

With the possible exception of Najera, the Nuggets have no players who think that defense alone can win basketball games. Even Camby with his jump shooting and flashes of point guard style is not a pure defensive player, and Reggie Evans would be concentrating on scoring at least as much as rebounding if he felt he could make some shots. And Nene is aggressive and successful to the hoop over and over in games now and in this one, he typically attempted just one shot from more than about a yard away from the basket. The Nuggets were not meant for the dark side, but by winning there, the big pressure put on them by the idea that they can not win without offensive heroics has been reduced big time.

When Dallas' second-leading scorer, Josh Howard, sprained his right ankle going for a loose ball at midcourt with 4:40 left in the first quarter and didn't return, when Dirk Nowitzki was harassed by Nene, Melo, and J.R. Smith, and had 6 turnovers while being held to 22 points on 9/23 shooting, and when the Maverick's third ace scorer, PG-SG Jason Terry, who has developed into one of the best shooting guards in the NBA, missed 5 of 6 threes and finished with 13 points on 6 of 20 shooting, you know it was a very tough night at the office for the team with the best record in the NBA by 5 games over the 2nd place Suns. Howard will return for the next Mavs game. The Mavericks overall were 30 of 83 from the field for .361, one of the very worst outings of the year for them.

The Nuggets had the same affliction, which is so common on the dark side; they couldn't score either, especially in the first half, and they finished just 27 of 76 from the field for a percentage of .355. Misery loved company in this one. Other than George "Scrooge" Karl, there were very few Nuggets fans at the end of the 1st half who were not thinking that the Nuggets were imploding again offensively and were going to get blown out in the 2nd half when the Mavericks finally started hitting their 3-point shots and when the Nuggets started getting torched by some bench player who has his best game of the season. The first half was the Great Depression for the Nuggets, and every one of them was still in single digits at intermission. Iverson and especially Melo missed just about every jumper they attempted; Melo in particular looked like it would be at least a week before he could hit a few, and he made matters worse by missing everything from the same small area on the right side 2-3 feet farther out from his normal midrange jumper. Fans who have been worried about Melo ever since he returned from one of the longest suspensions in NBA history, or at least since George Karl raised the white flag on all run and gun all the time and signalled that he would like for the Nuggets to play more on the dark side, and Melo can keep some of his shooting to himself, thank you, were thinking that the kid had finally cracked and was going to end up with almost nothing offensively and boos from the stands when the final buzzer sounded.

In the third quarter Melo concentrated on defense and Iverson, who is always aware of such things, was aware that Melo was missing everything and so picked his own scoring up out of the gutter, and he also found Nene and Kleiza, the two Nuggets who have improved the most since the start of the season. Without Nene, the Nuggets could not possibly compete on the dark side. At the end of the third quarter, the Nugget's 37-30 halftime deficit had become a 52-51 lead.

J.R. Smith, who played most of the fourth quarter after playing little before it, was playing defense as if it was his calling card but could not, of course, make things easy on the Nuggets by getting a few 3-pointers. With the Nuggets, win or lose, it's always a struggle; they are, after all, America's Grapes of Wrath team from the poor side of town. So while Smith harassed Mavericks shooters in to some misses and had a steal and a block, he struggled his way offensively to exactly 0 points by missing both 3-pointers and both of the layups he tried. Kleiza made 1 of 3 long rangers, and it was that shot that completed the Nugget's improbable recovery from the Great Depression and gave them a one point lead with 3:43 left in the third. But in a game like this, I'm thinking this was just a lucky shot. Kleiza and J.R., the only two players on the Nuggets who have a current 3-point shot, attempted few of them and made fewer. Iverson attempted two with no success, so the Nuggets as a whole made just 1 of 7 threes, a performance that usually will get you routed against any of the best teams in the West. But the Nugget's defensive intensity limited the Maverick's open looks, and with Howard gone and Terry put off his game by the hounding Nuggets, the Mavericks made just 3 of 17 three pointers and lost the game from that miserable result right there.

When Mavericks scored the first 6 points of the 4th quarter and took a 57-52 lead with 10:17 left, George "Scrooge" Karl, who by this time was grooving on the miserly scoring, was alive enough to call a time out early in the Mavs run, and thereby prevented Dallas from running away with the game right then and there. After the timeout, A.I. missed a jumper but then settled for a layup after J.R. intercepted a Nowitzki pass. But with Melo missing two more jumpers, and fans thinking he should have been benched awhile back, and the Dallas center Erick Dampier getting a slam and G-F Jerry Stackhouse a three, the Mavericks were up 62-54 with 7:44 to play, and that seemed like a huge lead in a game like this. But Nene, who was enjoying the novelty of an extremely low scoring game where his scoring and rebounding could easily be the difference, was not deterred, and drew a foul from Dirk while he was slamming it home, and then converted the +1 to reduce the Dallas lead to five. After several misses from both squads, Dampier hacked Melo, who made two free throws, and then Nowitzki was called for travelling of all things by the scrooge referees, whereupon Nene sprung into action again and on a finger roll once again drew a foul from Dirk, who was as rattled as he ever gets, which was not very rattled but just enough rattled for the Nuggets to get the win. Once again Nene made the shot despite the foul and converted the free throw, so now it was tied at 62.

When Jason Terry got his only 3-pointer with 4 minutes to play, it offset Melo finally hitting a jumper and Iverson making a couple of free throws, so it was now tied at 67. Melo, now climbing out of his scoring hole, made another turnaround, but this was answered immediately by Nowitzki's jump shot. After A.I. made a fadeaway jumper, Nene was called for fouling Nowitzki, who of course made both free throws, so now it was tied at 69 with 1:51 to go. After Iverson and Camby on the follow could not get it in from point blank range, Nowitzki missed a 15 foot jumper from the left side. That was the miss that broke the Mavericks, and if Nowitzki had gone inside or even out to the perimeter for a second Terry three that I have a hunch would have dropped, this would have been an overtime game or one of those common 1 or 2-point Dallas road wins. But Nowitzki failed to take advantage of the scrooge referees, and took too many midrange and long range jumpers for a game of this type. Nowitzki should attend the A.I. summer camp so that he can learn how to adjust his game on the fly better. So the Mavericks were left with only 8 of 11 free throws, while the Nuggets were referee sponsored for 21 of 27.

After an in your face Camby to Melo alley oop dunk, to make it 73-71 with 1:11 to go, Stackhouse repeated the Nowitzki mistake and was blocked by Camby on a shot he probably should not have been taking anyway, from almost exactly the same spot from which Dirk had just missed. But Dampier was there for the rebound and, of course, Avery Johnson called for time with 45 seconds left. Then Melo completed his recovery from his 3 quarter depression by thinking like a football corner and, correctly realizing that Nowitzki was still thinking jump shot and that the play was not going to go inside to his man, Dampier. Melo also was aware that Stackhouse was open behind him in the left corner. So he ran off of Dampier and intercepted the Nowitzki to Stackhouse pass, which qualifies him to play corner for the Broncos if basketball ever goes out of business.

Then the Nuggets wisely chewed some clock and then settled for an 18-foot Camby jumper, which of course was a miss, because nothing is ever easy for the Nuggets. But Nene, who knew this was a game he could put his stamp on, as described earlier, was there for the rebound that iced the win for the Nuggets. Melo made both free throws after Terry's intentional foul with 9 seconds left. The struggle was over, and the Nuggets had defeated the Mavericks while playing almost like the Spurs.

So the Nuggets got their confidence boosting win on the dark side, George "Scrooge" Karl was as happy as a scrooge can be with the ugly and miserly win, and the fans finally got to see their team win a close game at home versus one of the best teams in the West. Nene came up huge as he intended, and A.I. ran things to the extent it was possible. And Melo finally realized his dream of playing cornerback.

Kleiza played 19 minutes and was 1/3 for 3 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and an assist. Blake played 33 minutes and was 2/5 and 1/2 from the line for 5 points, and he had 3 assists and 3 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 23 minutes and was 0/4 and 0/2 on 3's for 0 points, and he had 1 steal, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 rebound.

Nene played for virtually the whole game and was 7/12 and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal.

Camby played 38 minutes and was 1/8 and 3/4 from the line for 5 points, and he had 14 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, and 1 steal.

A.I. played for 39 minutes and was 9/23, 0/2 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 22 points, and he had 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 7/21 and 9/11 from the line for 23 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

The next game will be tomorrow night, Saturday April 7, in Los Angeles to play the Clippers at 8:30 pm mountain time.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Nuggets Go On 1st Half Onslaught & Hold On Against Kings 120-115

The Nuggets rebounded ferociously and shot the lights out on the Kings in the first half and then held on in the second half as the Kings, all of whom except for Artest shot poorly in the first half but better in the 2nd, chipped away at the Nuggets lead in the 2nd half but fell short and lost the game 120-115. PG Mike Bibby was 3 of 8 from long distance, but only 1 of 5 from inside the 3-point arc, and that along with Camby's blocks turned out to be the main reasons why Sacramento's marathon 2nd half rally came up short. Most of Bibby's shots from inside the 3-point arc were just inside that line, so Bibby was guilty of unwise shooting, a crime that could get him at least partly benched if he was playing for George Karl. So Bibby finished 5 of 17 overall and had 4 turnovers to go with his 9 assists, and there was no other King feeling the hoop, as the Kings came up short despite getting plenty of good looks late.

For the Nuggets, it was Nene who provided the key spark offensively. There is apparently an unwritten contract between Nene and Camby now, where Camby is allowed to take the jumpers he likes so much as long as Nene tries to get almost all his points from point blank range. How can you argue with Camby's shot selection when he is the mainstay of the Nuggets defense and leads the NBA in blocks, with 3.1 per game, not to mention that he practically leads the League in rebounds and gets an amazing number of assists and steals for a center. Without Camby the Nuggets would be lottery toast, and Camby has been creative rather than reckless in his shooting, so people should be very careful with their criticisms of Camby's guard tendencies on offense.

Nene and Camby have been playing at the same time more and more, and if Camby is farther out, the defense can not collapse on Camby-Nene at the same time, leaving Nene room to do damage at the hoop. So Nene has become the anti-Camby offensively, barrelling his way to the hoop for the vast majority of his attempts and, unlike Reggie Evans, making most of them on the first try. Nene in this game was 8 of 11 on layups and dunks, and 9 of 13 overall. When you add his 10 of 13 free throws, his onslaught on the Kings amounted to 28 points. And all this from a player whose knee was and still is to some extent giving him stiffness and pain from the surgery.

The Nuggets are now at least a conscious basketball team, instead of a mindless one, which partly offsets Karl giving them among the worst rotations and therefore the worst bench outputs in the NBA. They are aware of their bad habits of defensive laziness and sloppy execution leading to turnovers, and they have successfully reduced those habits, though not enough to get them into or even close to the upper half of the League on either defense or execution. So they have responded to the frantic preachings and the pleas of their coaches and the media. Getting still better on defense or execution might be close to impossible at this point, because every Nugget except for Najera and Evans is offensive minded at heart. I don't think you would want the Nuggets to be in the upper half the League defensively, because to get this squad to that level, you would sacrifice enough offense as to make this squad of Nuggets a loser because, with rare exceptions, most heavy scoring offensive players in the NBA can not simultaneously play intense defense and yet keep scoring at a fast rate.

And the Nuggets don't even have many set plays, nor do they have much of a set half court offense. They are like scavengers on offense, taking whatever they can get and relying on fast breaks and defensive breakdowns of their opponents more than most other teams. In order to play like that, they can not totally commit to intense defense; they must be constantly ready to fast break down to their end to run their kind of ragtag offense. To the extent the Nuggets have won this year, it has all been from the offense; the Nuggets are 37-13 when they score at least 100 and 1-23 when they don't. Turning the Nuggets into a defense first team is out of the question.

The bad news about Melo in the last month is that, under the restrictions of George "Scrooge" Karl, he no longer is available to surge for more than 35 points, so that the Nuggets might beat one of the Texas teams or Phoenix, and the other bad news is his disappearing 3-point shot. The good news is that Melo is so reliable now with his 18-23 shots a game that you can pretty much pencil in 27-32 points for him before every game and you will be right almost every time. His midrange jumper is there most games now, and when it's not, he almost always has the sense to go to the hoop more. Even the referees are cooperating with the "automatic but limited Melo machine" concept, as he is gradually getting more foul calls while usually being spared being called for offensive fouls, which was a bigger problem early in this season. And although Melo can not match Kobe Bryant's 87% from the line, he does very nicely at 80.5% from there. So in summary, you can just about forget about the idea of Melo being like Kobe Bryant and winning any playoff games by surging or exploding, but you can count on him contributing a base of about 30 points every single game.

The idea that Allen Iverson was or still is some kind of ball hog or someone who insists on hoisting shots no matter what the circumstances has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be pure rubbish. Iverson realizes the Nuggets, except for Najera and Evans, are an association of scoring fanatics, and he has fully adjusted his game to facilitate the all-out scoring style of his teammates. That's why he loves playing in Denver, and why he wanted to go there more than anywhere else. He never had this many scoring fanatics in Philadelphia, and now we see that Iverson was imposing his concept of basketball on the Sixers rather than scoring just to pump up his statistics. But the Sixers organization and, indeed, the majority of NBA teams, do not have the front office skills or the long term courage to have alot of offensive gunners on the roster over a period of years. Too many have bet the ranch on the idea that "defense wins titles," which is one of those almost meaningless generalities that you could prove wrong without much difficulty, especially if you went back to the earlier years of the League. And if the Suns win it all this year, there will be real hell to pay on that subject. So Iverson has found his place and, let's face it, he'll be happy staying with the Nuggets even if they get bounced in the playoffs 4 games to none.

In this game, Iverson had another 10 assists and even had 5 rebounds to go along with his 16 points on 6 of 13 shooting. This was classic A.I., jump shooting A.I., the kind of shooting that the worry warts thought that Iverson could not produce any more. Is there anything the Iverson critics are ever right about?

Either Mr. Karl was in an unusually generous mood following his son's hopefully successful cancer surgery in Idaho, or someone higher up had a word with him and told him that frantic fans were calling for his head over the J.R. Smith benching, because J.R. remained mostly sprung from the Karl doghouse and played for 21 minutes. The ace 3-point shooter was 4 of 9 from downtown and was 5 of 12 overall for 16 points, an explosive output for 21 minutes. J.R.'s defense is now sometimes almost as intense and dangerous to the other team as his shooting, and no one can complain about his mere two turnovers in this game.

Also out of the Karl doghouse to some extent was Reggie Evans, who had 6 rebounds in 13 minutes. Had Evans been played more in the second half, the Nuggets would have held on to their huge lead better and so they would have been more like one of the Texas teams and less like the team that always scares their fans half to death in the 4th quarter no matter how big their lead is at halftime, because Evans is one of the very best players in the league for snagging misses and denying 2nd chance opportunities to teams that are frantically trying to catch up.

But don't kid yourself, when Najera comes back from his left tibia contusion and J.R. has a bunch of turnovers in a short period of time again, George "Scrooge" Karl will most likely place both Evans and J.R. back in the doghouse again and, as a result, the whole team will be in there with them.

Reggie Evans played 13 minutes and was 1/2 from the line for 1 point and he had 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 3/7, 1/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line 9 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Steve Blake played 31 minutes and he was 2/7 and 0/2 on 3's for 4 points, and he had 8 assists and 1 rebound.

J.R. Smith played 21 minutes and was 5/12, 4/9 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 16 points, and he added 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and a block.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 9/13 and 10/13 from the line for 28 points, and he had 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.

Camby played 34 minutes and was 6/11 and 3/4 from the line for 15 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Not only did Camby have most of the Nugget's 6 steals, but in this game, since the Nuggets had only 3 steals versus 9 for the Kings, he had most of the steals as well.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 6/13, 0/2 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 16 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo played 35 minutes and was 10/20, 1/2 on 3's, and 10/12 from the line for 31 points, and he had 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

The next game will be Friday, April 6 in Denver to play the Mavericks at 8:30 pm mountain time. The game will be on cable television, as the second game of a double header, so this is why it is a late starting game in Denver.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Dantley & Camby Lead Nuggets Over Lakers 111-105

Adrian Dantley was one of the great NBA players from the mid 1970's through the late 1980's. He was an all-star in 9 of his 15 seasons, and he led the League in scoring twice. An intelligent and intense competitor and one of the best pure shooters in history, he had a career scoring percentage of .540, one of the highest scoring percentages for a non-center of all time. He had 30+ points per game over four straight seasons, and he scored 23,177 points during his career, which placed him 9th on the all-time scoring list at the time he retired. And on April 3, 2007, Dantley was Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets and ensured their win over the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A., for only the second Denver win in L.A. in the last decade.

Dantley had the right players on the court at the right time, was masterful in his player time allocations, and called timeouts at the most strategic moments. The most critical moment of the whole game was probably with 2:30 left and the Nuggets leading 105-102. At that time, a minute and a half had gone by with no score by either side, following a 3-pointer by J.R. Smith that broke the tie with just under 4 minutes left. So Dantley called a timeout, allowing the somewhat tired players to catch a breather and to steel themselves for the final couple of minutes that would decide the game. The Nuggets had the lead and the ball and all they needed was a play. Following the timeout, Melo's missed jumper was rebounded by Camby, and when Camby's layup would not fall, Melo was right there to stuff it in, and that turned out to be the play that was all that was needed for the win,. So Dantley used that timeout to nail down a win.

Dantley was animated and inspiring while he was directing the team on the sideline, and now the Nuggets will have to worry about the possibility that another team will try to hire him away to be an assistant coach or even a head coach elsewhere. You don't go into Los Angeles and coach a team to a win in a game that your team was supposed to lose without being noticed. In any event, unfortunately, the big Dantley coaching success is probably going to be nothing more than a one hit wonder for Denver this season.

J.R. Smith was let out of the George Karl doghouse and had a very good if not spectacular 20 minutes. He hit on 4 of 8 shots for 10 points and he had 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Kleiza played 16 minutes, not as many as he has frequently been getting lately, but enough for him to contribute to this win greatly, as he hit on all 3 of the three-point shots he put up, and had 11 points on 4/5 shooting overall. The Nuggets were a very efficient 5/10 from long distance.

Making sure that both Kleiza and J.R. get at least 16 minutes or so is a strategy that has eluded George Karl, but it provides the Nuggets with just enough long range shooting power for them to have a chance to get a few playoff wins. The Nuggets are never going to get close to the Suns 9.6 3-pointers per game, or even to the Rockets and Warriors, who get more than 8 per game, but they may be able to get enough to have a chance to win a few playoff games, despite Melo's poor 3-point shooting this year.

J.R. Smith also upset the flow of the Lakers game. In a little throwback to the first 6 weeks of this season, when Melo and J.R. were the best scoring tandem in the NBA, the Nuggets had 15 fast break points versus just 6 for the Lakers. The Nuggets had 7 steals in this game, whereas the Lakers had just 3; Melo and J.R. had 2 steals each. And the Nuggets were not at all reckless or sloppy on execution, they had a reasonable 14 turnovers.

Kobe Bryant, since the Lakers lost big to the Nuggets in Denver on March 15, has gone on a scoring rampage, in order to overcome his team's injury quagmire and the scoring problems of various teammates. In so doing, he has all but clinched the individual scoring title for this season, which he will earn unless something really crazy happens. The Nuggets held Bryant to 39 points on 14/31 shooting, and with Bryant scoring from 43 to 65 points in 6 of the last 8 games, that was actually half way decent. But Lamar Odom was just 2 of 9 on jumpers, with 3 of the 7 misses being rejections by Marcus Camby. Camby also had 2 blocks on staring PG Smush Parker, whose scoring slump continued in this game. The Lakers played without starting center Kwame Brown for the final 28 minutes. Brown collided with Camby with 6:59 left in the second quarter and aggravated his sprained left ankle. After Brown left, neither PF Brian Cook nor C Andrew Bynum could get much of anything going, and starting SF Luke Walton remained reasonably contained.

Meanwhile, Marcus Camby had one of his best games of the season, and was the huge defensive force in the paint that forced Kobe Bryant to try to win it for the Lakers with his great jump shooting. Camby seems to play his best games on the road against winning teams, which is good because that is exactly what the Nuggets will need him to do in the playoffs. Camby had 20 rebounds and 6 blocks. He also had 21 points on 8/14 shooting. He hit on everything at the hoop, and was 3 of 9 on jump shots, most of which were short jumpers, which is the perfect shot for Camby, who wants to shoot some jumpers but needs to be alot closer to the basket than he will be if he's shooting longer range 2-pointers.

A.I. picked up on the positive vibe created by Dantley and ran the point well, with 10 assists and just 2 turnovers. With Melo missing most of his jumpers in this game, A.I. provided that type of shot in abundance; he made 7 midrange jumpers. A.I. played sort of like he used to in his very first years in the NBA, avoiding drives to the hoop and putting up mostly jumpers. Melo made only 2 of 12 jumpers, but offset that by getting all six layups and dunks attempted, and also by getting plenty of foul calls and making 15 of 18 free throws.

Ironically, Phil Jackson, the coach of the Lakers, with nine NBA titles under his belt, was admitted to the NBA Hall of Fame earlier in the day, whereas Dantley was overlooked. Dantley should know that a tiny number of very fortunate folks in almost all fields are showered with so many awards and honors that the later ones don't have any new effect on them, whereas many of the most talented people are never honored for the great things they do. But I am sure that if Dantley were allowed to coach the Nuggets for awhile, he would easily be admitted to the Denver Hall of Fame, were such a thing to exist. And people who have read my reports the past few weeks know that I am definitely not going to forget this outstanding coaching performance any time soon.

Reggie Evans played for 10 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points and he had 2 rebounds. Linas Kleiza played for 16 minutes and was 4/5 and 3/3 on 3's for 11 points. Steve Blake played for 22 minutes and was 1/4 for 2 points, and he had 6 assists and a steal.

Nene played 35 minutes and was 4/9 and 6/8 from the line for 14 points, and he had 6 rebounds.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 4/8 and 2/6 on 3's for 10 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist.

Marcus Camby played virtually the whole game and was 8/14 and 5/6 from the line for 21 points, and he had 20 rebounds, 6 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal.

A.I. played virtually the whole game and was 10/24, 0/1 on 3's, and 0/4 from the line for 20 points, and he had 10 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

Melo played virtually the whole game and was 8/18 and 15/18 from the line for 31 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 4 in Denver to play the Kings at 8 pm mountain time.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Iverson & Melo Ensure Nuggets Win Over Sonics 114-103

The Nuggets, once again facing elimination from the playoffs and worrying that some really, awful, horrible thing would happen if they do not get in the playoffs, though no one knows exactly what, defeated the Sonics 114-103. There were no 1/7 or worse shooting nights, but instead good shooting across the board. The jump shooting Nuggets hit on a sharp 41 of 74, which is a percentage of .554, whereas the jump shooting Sonics were 36 of 78 from the field, which is .462.

Carmelo Anthony led this jump shooting clinic by making 7 of 11 of them, all from the right side, with 4 of the 7 being very long 2-pointers. Linas Kleiza was 4 of 7 on 3-pointers and 4 of 10 overall, whereas J.R. Smith used his short 10 minutes on the court to make 2 of 4 threes. Allen Iverson missed all three of the long range shots that he hoisted, but make 7 of 11 midrange and short jumpers, with 6 of the 7 of those being midrange jumpers. Finally, Steve Blake hit 1 of 5 long range shots and 5 of 6 midrange and long 2-pointers to complete the lineup sweep. So Denver had no scoring disasters on this night, which is good because George Karl's over reliance on too small a number of players fails if any one of them has a really bad shooting night, which is possible for any of the Nugget's starters and very possible still for Kleiza.

Both squads were very sloppy in the 1st quarter and had numerous turnovers, but both settled down for the 2nd half to play a nicely executed half remarkably free of turnovers. The Nuggets led 28-18 after the 1st, but first the PF Chris Wilcox on the inside and then the PG Earl Watson from the perimeter burned the Nuggets during the second quarter, so it was almost tied at the intermission.

The Sonics were playing without their veteran scoring ace Ray Allen, who is out for the season and is having ankle surgery this week. Earl Watson, the starting point guard, stepped up and proved that he can fill in very well for the big scoring normally provided by Allen. He buried 6 of 15 long range shots and ended up with a career high 28 points on 9 of 20 shooting overall. Rashard Lewis, who torched the Nuggets last Wednesday in Denver for 33 points and 10 rebounds, was not contained in this game either, and he finished with 27 points on 8 of 16 from the field, and he had 9 rebounds as well. Lewis was 5 of 9 from beyond the arc. Overall, the Sonics were 12 of 30 from long range, whereas the Nuggets were 7 of 20, thanks mainly to Kleiza and J.R. Smith.

The Nuggets defense was, as usual, allowing for alot of good looks, especially from long range, but the Sonics without Allen did not have enough shooters to keep up with the Nugget's shooting, and they were badly beaten on the boards. Camby had 12 rebounds, Melo had 9, and Evans, who has had substantial playing time in only 7 of the last 21 games, had 6 rebounds in 19 minutes.

PG Earl Watson, SF Rashard Lewis, and PF Chris Wilcox kept trying to chip away at small Nuggets leads throughout the 2nd half, but neither Allen Iverson nor Carmelo Anthony were going to let the relatively soft Sonic defense stop them from finishing off the Sonics in the 4th quarter. A 12 point Nuggets lead half way through the 3rd quarter was down to 1 point with 6 seconds left in the quarter, but J.R. Smith, with two defenders on him, buried a 35 foot 3-pointer from the near left side and from well beyond the arc at the buzzer for the 3rd quarter. The Nuggets led 84-80 after three quarters.

An early 4th quarter Watson three was more than offset by threes from J.R. and Kleiza, but another Watson 3-pointer reduced the Nugget's lead to just 5 points, at 96-91, with 5:31 to play. Then Melo, who was still under his shot attempt limitation imposed by George Karl at the time, took charge and scored on 3 straight possessions, and it was 102-93 Nuggets with 4:14 to go. A Wilcox dunk was offset by a key jumper by Steve Blake. A little later, Rashard Lewis struck with just over 2 minutes left to make it 105-101 Nuggets. Then Iverson, who started out with cold as ice shooting in the 1st quarter and gradually warmed up as the game went along, as the best veteran players commonly do, closed out the Sonics by himself. First he drove to the hoop and layed it in and added the free throw off the foul on Watson. PG Luke Ridnour missed a three, which was rebounded by Blake, and Iverson iced the game with a jumper in traffic for a 110-101 Nuggets lead with 1:34 left. After Lewis made both free throws off a Melo foul, Iverson hit another tough jumper in traffic for a 112-103 Nuggets lead with a minute left, and that was more than enough to insure the win.

George Karl has now completed his blueprint for the Nuggets for the rest of this season and what we see in this game is another example of how if every one of the small number of Nuggets who are getting substantial playing time refrains from taking alot of poor or forced shots, and if they all keep their turnover count out of the red zone, the Nuggets are able to beat lottery teams without too much trouble. To which I say: big deal. The Karl approach fails to take full advantage of the Nugget's roster, which is necessary if the Nuggets are to have any chance at all against the Mavericks or the Suns in the playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs. Any injury to any of the 7 players who Karl overwhelmingly prefers, A.I., Melo, Blake, Camby, Nene, Najera, and Kleiza, though Kleiza is still on probation so to speak, will leave the Nuggets all but crippled. And the Karl strategy can fail even against a lottery team, as it seemed to last Wednesday against these Sonics, though I am willing to concede that the Nuggets failed Karl's strategy in that game and should have won.

But how can you possibly beat the Mavericks if all players including Melo and A.I. have been warned to limit their shooting, if both J.R. Smith and Reggie Evans are regarded as being more of a liability in a game than an asset, and if Yakhouba Diawara and DerMarr Johnson do nothing but take up space on the bench? The answer is obvious: you can not possibly beat the Mavericks or, for that matter, the Suns, the Spurs, the Jazz, the Rockets, or the Lakers.

And speaking of the Lakers, Coach Phil Jackson, who has won nine NBA titles to George Karl's none, clearly does not believe in shooting limitations or marathon benchings, and his superstar PG Kobe Bryant has left Melo in the dust in the top scorer race, has put himself in elite company in the record books, and has put Jackson's team back in the 2007 title hunt by scoring at will and single handedly rescuing the Lakers from their injury quagmire and their poor shooting younger players such as PG Smush Parker. Yes, basketball is a team game, but as in poker, you are supposed to know when to fold them. Sometimes, you have to rely on your best guy for awhile to get you out of a big ditch, so that you can live to fight in more ordinary ways another day. Meanwhile, Melo, though in no danger of going to the Karl doghouse, is on a leash, and could not possibly go even half as far as Bryant has recently in expanding his scoring role, without encountering the rath of Mr. Karl. So don't expect Melo to explode against the Mavericks in any of the playoff games; he's off the hook in that regard already, regardless of the need.

Evans played 19 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points, and he had 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 5/10, 4/7 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist. Blake played 31 minutes and was 6/11 and 1/5 on 3's for 13 points, and he added 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and a block.

Nene played 28 minutes and was 4/4 and 0/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.

J.R. Smith played 10 minutes and was 2/4 and 2/4 on 3's for 6 points, and he had an assist, a steal, and a rebound.

Camby played 36 minutes and was 3/5 and 5/6 from the line for 11 points, and he added 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played virtually the entire game and was 9/19, 0/3 on 3's, and 8/15 from the line for 26 points, and he had 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Melo played virtually the entire game and was 11/20, 0/1 on 3's, and 10/11 from the line for 32 points, and he had 9 rebounds and a steal.

The next game will be Tuesday, April 3 in Los Angeles to play the Lakers at 8:30 pm mountain time.

Post your response to anything on Quest HERE

GIVE US THE JUICE TO PRODUCE REPORTS MORE QUICKLY

Although there is a guaranteed minimum rate of Report production regardless of traffic, IT IS IN YOUR POWER to help double or triple the number of and frequency of Reports. Simply take two or three minutes as often as you can to recommend Quest and post links to Quest on your favorite sports and other sites. The resulting automatic increase of traffic will in turn increase the resources that go in to producing Quest, which in turn speeds up reporting. If you want, e-mail how you helped (include the url of where you posted a link to Quest) and we will throw some Internet love back to where you tell us on the Internet. Thank you.

Here are some quick links that you can use to find a place where you might post a link to Quest and/or to Quest content.

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BASKETBALL SITES THAT ARE OPEN FOR CONTENT FROM ANYONE
Note: Beware of "layered" sites. None of the following are layered sites, which are sites that allow contributions from the public only in hard to find, low traffic areas, while the main areas are off limits for public input and are only for a chosen few. All of the following have at least some notable traffic, and all of them allow relatively equal and open participation. The order is from most recommended to least recommended, based on about half a dozen factors.

Bleacher Report Open Posting Site
Inside Hoops NBA Forum
Real GM NBA and Team Forums
Pro Sports Daily NBA Forum
Basketball Forum NBA Forum
Sporting News NBA Forum
Hoops Hype NBA Forum
Armchair GM Open Posting Site
SportsTwo NBA Forum
NBA Dimensions NBA Forum
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NBA Boards NBA Forum
NBA Wire NBA Forum
KFFL NBA Forum

Note: there are other forums, but they are all very low traffic and activity compared to the ones above.

MESSAGE BOARDS AT HUGE COROPORATIONS
The Fox NBA board is very low traffic, and the MSNBC NBA board doesn't exist anymore. The CBS Sports NBA Message Board is a layered site; you can NOT post topics nor expect to be considered seriously there until you have spent a few years posting there. We do not recommend CBS Sports. So the only real, fully open NBA forum hosted by a big corporation is the ESPN message board. Be forewarned though that the ESPN board is dominated by very young fans who make very short comments. On the other hand, it is a high traffic site, so we won't stop you from posting a Quest link at ESPN if you want to.

ESPN NBA Message Board

LAKERS SIGN IN HOLLYWOOD

LAKERS SIGN IN HOLLYWOOD
The Nuggets are scary, but Lakers fans can breathe a sigh of relief when they think of who coaches them!

>>>I WANT TO STICK WITH THE WAY OTHER SITES PRESENT POSTS
Due to the number of, uniqueness of, and importance of the many other home page features we have, only one Report loads at a time, currently the one just above. To see the next Report (which would be the one that came out just before the one above) on this home page, click "Older Posts" that is at the very bottom of the Report showing above, just above the section header "Your Ball: Take Your Best Shot".

>>ALTERNATIVE HOME PAGES
There are three home pages, all of which have all of the Reports but which have completely different features appearing on the sidebar and below the one Report that is shown at a time. These pages have been designed so that they fully load in about 10 seconds (no more super long load times we used to be known for.)

HOME PAGE A: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE B: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE C: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES

>>REPORT READERS: Complete freedom to rapidly choose and read what you need or want to read. The latest 40 Reports are found near the top of all three of the primary home pages (linked to just above) while Reports #41-#100 are found in three separate readers placed at various points down the page on all three primary home pages.

>>EXPRESS VERSION: Every Single Report but no Features: a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>FAST BREAK VERSION: The Latest 100 Reports via Report Readers Only; no Features, a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>QUEST ARCHIVE HOME PAGES--REPORT ARCHIVES AND A SMALL NUMBER OF CLASSIC FEATURES THAT WON'T FIT ON OTHER HOME PAGES
QUEST 4: REPORTS 101-200
QUEST 5: REPORTS 201-300
QUEST 6: REPORTS 301-400
QUEST 7: REPORTS 401-500
QUEST 8: REPORTS 501-600
QUEST 9: REPORTS 601-700
QUEST 10: REPORTS 701-800

>>FEATURES ONLY HOME PAGES: NO REPORTS, JUST FEATURES THAT WE CAN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
QUEST OVERTIME
QUEST CLASSIC

>>COMPLETE TITLE INDEX: : A Complete Report Title Index, with Express Version Links to all Reports

>>LATEST 25 Reports: Direct links to the latest 25 Reports (with no truncated titles as you find with the poorly designed Google archive). This is located near the very bottom of this page.

>>GOOGLE ARCHIVE you will find this, with Reports shown by week not very far below.

>>I'M NEW AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO: Welcome to the Real Zone. Simply browse the page and see for yourself what is here. You will not be disappointed.

>>OR YOU CAN DO A CUSTOM GOOGLE SEARCH OF THE 13 BOOKS AND COUNTING CONTAINED ON THIS SITE>>>>>

SEARCH THE QUEST FOR THE RING--THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN 15 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT HOW LONG QUEST FOR THE RING HAS BEEN KEEPING IT REAL

The above shows you in two different ways the exact amount of time since The Quest for the Ring began to completely explain how the Quest is won, while having as much fun as possible at the expense of basketball pretenders and player haters. The first panel shows how long it has been in each of seven units. The second panel shows how long it has been in the more usual "remainder" way.

QUEST FOR THE RING SOMETIMES GOES INTO HIATUS
Regardless of any temporary unavoidable absences, the Quest is in this project to explain in detail for the very long term--indefinitely, for many, many, many years ahead. At this writing we have the equivalent of 15 basketball books under our belt and we plan on doing dozens more. Count on us being right where basketball is at, which is here, actually.

Blog Archive


QUEST REPORTS #41 TO #60, GOING BACK IN TIME


QUEST IS FREE BUT ABOUT 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME CAN GET YOU MORE OF IT

Although there is a guaranteed minimum rate of Report production regardless of traffic, it is in your power to help increase the number of and frequency of Quest Reports. All Quest sites are developed and produced according to both superseding criteria and site traffic. Like all sites started in recent years, Quest receives very little help from Google and other search engines. The search engines mostly serve to keep the older, popular sites popular; they preserve the same old, same old status quo.

The amount of reporting and the frequency of Quest Reports could easily be double what it is were site traffic higher. If Quest obtained the traffic we know it deserves, than production would go from the equivalent of roughly three books about basketball a year to at least five and to as many as six books a year!

WE NEED A GRAND TOTAL OF ABOUT 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME
Please take three or four minutes every now and then to recommend Quest and post links to Quest on your favorite sports and other sites. In other words, wherever possible use us to back up what you are posting and writing. The resulting automatic increase of traffic will in turn increase the resources that go in to producing Quest home page Reports. After helping us, feel free to e-mail how you helped and we will throw some Internet love back to your Internet hangout. The email address is thequestforthering1. This is a gmail address, so you use @gmail.com after that address.

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE: YOU CAN QUICKLY LOCATE AND GET THE SITE INFORMATION YOU NEED OR WANT RIGHT HERE

LATEST 25 REPORTS THREE AT A TIME -- TO LOAD THE NEXT THREE, CLICK ">" AT THE TOP ON THE RIGHT



QUEST REPORTS #61 TO #80, GOING BACK IN TIME


WORD IS BOND

WELCOME TO THE QUEST--THINGS ARE VERY DIFFERENT HERE

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING, ALSO KNOWN AS THE REAL ZONE
This is one of the most serious basketball sites on the internet, focusing on how and why playoff games and NBA Championships are won. We also love to take comedy and music breaks, but not every day.

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING. YOU HAVE LEFT THE HYPE ZONE AND HAVE ARRIVED IN THE REAL ZONE. Please check any rose colored glasses at the door. The Hype Zone is where you can find out about the personalities and the styles and how popular they are and what they are up to lately. The Real Zone is where we DO NOT think personalities and styles and how popular or unpopular they are things to waste time on just for ratings or traffic.

Instead of hype, here we post as much truth about how NBA playoff games and Championships are won as we can 365 days a year and at at any hour of the day or night. Please have a productive visit, and a nice trip back to the Hype Zone when your visit is over.


A SMALL SAMPLE OF CURRENT AND SOON TO COME QUEST FOR THE RING REAL ZONE TOPICS
--How and Why the 2010 Los Angeles Lakers, the 2010 Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 2010 Boston Celtics Win or Lose in the 2010 Playoffs
--The right "amount of" LeBron James
--How players we know deserve to win a first or second Ring can get one, highly talented players such as Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Rajon Rondo, and Dwyane Wade.
--How and why the Denver Nuggets Franchise has repeatedly fooled the public, and possibly themselves for that matter. (No, we still have not completely finished with the Nuggets, thanks to how successful they were in 2008-09, albeit there was no chance of a Championship; Continuing, much done already)
--How and why much of what you may think you know about Allen Iverson is dead wrong (Continuing, much done already)
--How and why the playoffs are something completely different from the regular season, and why your team may be simply not prepared for them despite a lot of regular season wins

A SMALL SAMPLE OF ALREADY COMPLETED QUEST FOR THE RING REAL ZONE TOPICS
--How and why Carmelo Anthony has been downsized due to a quest for "well-roundedness," and why this is really bad
--How and why the owner of the Nuggets shortchanged and cheated his team out of a possible Championship
--How and why being physical alone can not win you a Championship
--How and why the Nuggets' high fouling defense will take them only so far
--How and why George Karl is doing more harm than good with respect to J.R. Smith
--How and why George Karl's obsession with personalities is wrong and bad for any team
--How and why George Karl and the Nuggets can not win in the playoffs (2007, 2008) or a West final (2009). If Quest commits a foul, we own up to it, as we do right here: we thought the Nuggets could not win in the playoffs in 2009. They did win 10 games before being eliminated by the Lakers in the West final, so in response we corrected our evaluation of what you can do with the Nuggets' unique 2009 approach to basketball without, however, going overboard.
--How and why George Karl cheats the fans and the franchise out of performance and development of "reserve" players
--How and why playmaking is so important, probably more than you think, and how you manage playmakers correctly.
--How and why you have probably been fooled regarding the Nuggets' 2008 off-season and their 2008-09 defense

UNIQUE SITE DESIGN
The Quest is organized in a completely different way from what you are used to on the internet. We have combined the best features of the blog and the conventional web site formats, the latter being the norm for large organizations. However, since we do not like the idea of using flash to "wow" visitors, we do not use flash except within video and other discrete components. So we are state of the art in terms of expanding the power of visitors to get exactly what they want very quickly, but we do not have the latest flash gadgetry just to "keep up with the Joneses". More broadly, you will find that Quest for the Ring never seeks to keep up with the Joneses, simply because the Joneses never had the nerve and the intelligence to do what we do.

2009: A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION COMES TO QUEST
Just before the 2009-10 season tipped, the very large number of features and links to important resources were strategically reorganized and placed within an easy to use and clearly labelled section system. So ended the era of the rapidly developed, sprawling and slightly disorganized Quest, and so began the era of the big but under careful control and extremely well organized and professional Quest for the Ring.

The Quest Home Page consists of numerous types of content, organized carefully into the new sections as of November 2009. Features can be any educational and / or entertaining thing you can think of, including everything from music players to videos to photos to breaking NBA news readers to top teams performance breakdown pages.

Quest for the Ring has a world class link system for those who know what they are looking for and wish to find and engage the appropriate link, But the Quest visitor does not HAVE to hunt for links to have an intelligent and entertaining experience. The Quest home page is big enough and chock loaded enough that link hunting is not absolutely necessary the way it normally is at many other basketball sites.

THERE MUST BE TEN WAYS TO READ REPORTS [PAUL SIMON LOL]
There are close to ten ways to find out about, select, and read Quest Reports! The standard, traditional blog presentation is available as one of the many ways to choose, access, and read reports. On the Home Page, only one report loads in the traditional format in order to keep this page as quick loading as possible.
See the "Total Freedom of Navigation" section for complete details about how to find, choose, and read reports.

One key place to find Older Reports is on sequentially numbered url's thequestforthering2.blogspot.com, thequestforthering3.blogspot.com, and so forth.

THE QUEST USER GUIDE VERSUS an about page
Other sites most often have undeveloped and limited in scope "about pages" which is usually all they have for what we call a "User Guide". Our User Guide material is a vast improvement, quantitatively and qualitatively, over a mere "about page" While many other sites don't help their visitors to make the best use of the content, we do. Also, the User Guide is chock loaded with invitations to visitors to participate in all kinds of ways, including for example advertising for free, link exchange, and getting a team site supported by Quest.

SEARCH THE QUEST FOR THE RING, THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN 15 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

QUEST REPORTS #81 TO #100 GOING BACK IN TIME

RECOMMENDED SCHOOL--CLICK FOR DETAILS


VIDEOS

QUEST FOR THE RING VIDEOS--The primary Quest video page with video juke boxes for all 30 teams

QUEST FOR THE RING VIDEOS #2--Specially chosen video juke boxes and individual videos

QUEST FOR THE RING PRIMARY HOME PAGE B--A few key video players are here

LATEST NBA.COM NBA VIDEOS
LATEST YAHOO SPORTS NBA / BASKETBALL VIDEOS
LATEST CBS SPORTSLINE NBA VIDEOS

MOST RECENT LEAGUE WIDE REAL PLAYER RATINGS

Note: This is generally a once a year, end of season Report. For many teams and players, more recent ratings are often available.

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

POSITION AND TEAM CODES
In the Real Player and related ratings shown for the League, two codes follow each players' name (and before his rating). The first code tells you the players' team and the second one tells you his position.

TEAM CODES
ATLA Atlanta Hawks
BOST Boston Celtics
CHAR Charlotte Bobcats
CHIC Chicago Bulls
CLEV Cleveland Cavaliers
DALL Dallas Mavericks
DENV Denver Nuggets
DETR Detroit Pistons
GOLS Golden State Warriors
HOUS Houston Rockets
INDI Indiana Pacers
LACL Los Angeles Clippers
LALK Los Angeles Lakers
MEMP Memphis Grizzlies
MIAM Miami Heat
MILW Milwaukee Bucks
MINN Minnesota Timberwolves
NJRS New Jersey Nets
NORL New Orleans Hornets
NWYR New York Knicks
OKLA Oklahoma Thunder
ORLA Orlando Magic
PHIL Philadelphia 76'ers
PHNX Phoenix Suns
PORT Portland Trailblazers
SACR Sacramento Kings
SANA San Antonio Spurs
TORO Toronto Raptors
UTAH Utah Jazz
WASH Washington Wizards

POSITION CODES
PG Point Guard
SG Shooting Guard
SF Small Forward
PF Power Forward
C Center

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.100 and more
Historic Super Star 1.000 1.099
Super Star 0.900 0.999
A Star Player / A well above normal starter 0.820 0.899
Very Good Player / A solid starter 0.760 0.819
Major Role Player / Good enough to start 0.700 0.759
Good Role Player / Often a good 6th man 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Preferably should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Generally should not start 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player .399 and less

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

--Shows the real quality of players
--Includes all tracked actions and also includes untracked or hidden defending
--The average Real Player Rating for all players who play 300 minutes or more is about .700.
--All players who have played at least 300 minutes are included here and in all other ratings to follow in coming days

MAJOR HISTORIC SUPERSTARS
1 LeBron James CLEV SF 1.382
2 Tim Duncan SANA PF 1.254
3 Chris Paul NORL PG 1.202
4 Dwight Howard ORLA C 1.121
5 Andrew Bogut MILW C 1.112

HISTORIC SUPERSTARS
6 Steve Nash PHNX PG 1.095
7 Jason Kidd DALL PG 1.092
8 Rajon Rondo BOST PG 1.084
9 Deron Williams UTAH PG 1.076
10 Dwyane Wade MIAM SG 1.075
11 Marcus Camby LACL C 1.071
12 Pau Gasol LALK PF 1.065
13 Greg Oden PORT C 1.060
14 Kevin Durant OKLA SF 1.051
15 Dirk Nowitzki DALL PF 1.034
16 Josh Smith ATLA SF 1.033
17 Kevin Garnett BOST PF 1.033
18 Manu Ginobili SANA SG 1.023
19 Kobe Bryant LALK SG 1.005

SUPERSTARS
20 Carlos Boozer UTAH PF 0.994
21 Lamar Odom LALK PF 0.982
22 Andrei Kirilenko UTAH SF 0.976
23 Chris Bosh TORO PF 0.972
24 David Lee NWYR C 0.971
25 Al Horford ATLA C 0.970
26 Marcus Camby PORT C 0.967
27 Jameer Nelson ORLA PG 0.959
28 Joakim Noah CHIC C 0.955
29 John Salmons MILW SF 0.937
30 Andrew Bynum LALK C 0.936
31 Troy Murphy INDI PF 0.934
32 Kevin Love MINN PF 0.934
33 Anderson Varejao CLEV C 0.933
34 Brendan Haywood DALL C 0.929
35 Vince Carter ORLA SG 0.928
36 Gerald Wallace CHAR SF 0.918
37 Sergio Rodriguez SACR PG 0.908
38 Tyrus Thomas CHIC PF 0.904
39 Derrick Rose CHIC PG 0.903

STARS
40 Baron Davis LACL PG 0.899
41 Russell Westbrook OKLA PG 0.897
42 Zach Randolph MEMP PF 0.885
43 Danny Granger INDI SF 0.885
44 Marc Gasol MEMP C 0.885
45 Joe Johnson ATLA SG 0.883
46 Chauncey Billups DENV PG 0.883
47 Roy Hibbert INDI C 0.880
48 Ben Wallace DETR C 0.877
49 Andre Miller PORT PG 0.874
50 Carmelo Anthony DENV SF 0.874
51 Brandon Jennings MILW PG 0.870
52 Tyrus Thomas CHAR PF 0.870
53 A.J. Price INDI PG 0.868
54 Paul Millsap UTAH PF 0.866
55 Craig Smith LACL PF 0.865
56 Samuel Dalembert PHIL C 0.864
57 Andre Iguodala PHIL SG 0.858
58 Raymond Felton CHAR PG 0.857
59 Delonte West CLEV SG 0.856
60 Al Jefferson MINN C 0.856
61 Eric Maynor OKLA PG 0.856
62 Serge Ibaka OKLA PF 0.855
63 Nene Hilario DENV C 0.852
64 Chris Andersen DENV PF 0.849
65 Shaquille O'Neal CLEV C 0.842
66 Brandon Roy PORT SG 0.842
67 Ryan Anderson ORLA PF 0.840
68 Antonio McDyess SANA PF 0.839
69 Tony Parker SANA PG 0.837
70 Paul Pierce BOST SF 0.836
71 Mo Williams CLEV PG 0.835
72 Kyle Lowry HOUS PG 0.835
73 Ersan Ilyasova MILW SF 0.828
74 Amare Stoudemire PHNX PF 0.828
75 Luke Ridnour MILW PG 0.827
76 Erick Dampier DALL C 0.826
77 Tyreke Evans SACR PG 0.825
78 Andris Biedrins GOLS C 0.825
79 Kyle Korver UTAH SG 0.824
80 Anthony Randolph GOLS PF 0.820

VERY GOOD PLAYERS / SOLID STARTERS
81 Eric Maynor UTAH PG 0.819
82 Carlos Arroyo MIAM PG 0.819
83 Antawn Jamison CLEV PF 0.819
84 Nazr Mohammed CHAR C 0.818
85 Luol Deng CHIC SF 0.817
86 Dorell Wright MIAM SG 0.817
87 LaMarcus Aldridge PORT PF 0.817
88 Carl Landry HOUS PF 0.816
89 Luis Scola HOUS PF 0.816
90 Nick Collison OKLA PF 0.812
91 Carlos Delfino MILW SG 0.809
92 Kendrick Perkins BOST C 0.807
93 Jermaine O'Neal MIAM C 0.805
94 Nate Robinson NWYR PG 0.804
95 Goran Dragic PHNX PG 0.803
96 Mike Bibby ATLA PG 0.803
97 Stephen Curry GOLS PG 0.803
98 Mehmet Okur UTAH C 0.800
99 Jose Calderon TORO PG 0.797
100 Jason Terry DALL SG 0.791
101 Ronnie Price UTAH PG 0.784
102 DeJuan Blair SANA PF 0.784
103 Chris Kaman LACL C 0.783
104 Shaun Livingston WASH PG 0.783
105 Joel Przybilla PORT C 0.782
106 David West NORL PF 0.781
107 John Salmons CHIC SF 0.776
108 Matt Barnes ORLA SF 0.775
109 Darren Collison NORL PG 0.775
110 Ronny Turiaf GOLS C 0.774
111 Udonis Haslem MIAM PF 0.774
112 Shawn Marion DALL SF 0.772
113 Jason Williams ORLA PG 0.771
114 Keyon Dooling NJRS PG 0.771
115 Andray Blatche WASH C 0.770
116 James Harden OKLA SG 0.770
117 Brook Lopez NJRS C 0.770
118 Ray Allen BOST SG 0.770
119 Amir Johnson TORO SF 0.769
120 Ty Lawson DENV PG 0.768
121 Beno Udrih SACR PG 0.768
122 Chuck Hayes HOUS PF 0.765
123 Matt Bonner SANA PF 0.763
124 Reggie Evans TORO PF 0.763
125 Gilbert Arenas WASH PG 0.760

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS / GOOD ENOUGH TO START
126 Zydrunas Ilgauskas CLEV C 0.758
127 Rasheed Wallace BOST PF 0.757
128 Lou Williams PHIL SG 0.756
129 Stephen Jackson CHAR SF 0.754
130 Dan Gadzuric MILW C 0.754
131 Jamario Moon CLEV SF 0.754
132 Ron Artest LALK SF 0.752
133 Rodney Stuckey DETR PG 0.749
134 Shelden Williams BOST PF 0.748
135 Oleksiy Pecherov MINN C 0.748
136 Aaron Brooks HOUS PG 0.747
137 Boris Diaw CHAR PF 0.746
138 C.J. Watson GOLS PG 0.746
139 Brendan Haywood WASH C 0.744
140 Emeka Okafor NORL C 0.742
141 Taj Gibson CHIC PF 0.741
142 J.R. Smith DENV SG 0.738
143 Mike Miller WASH SF 0.732
144 Channing Frye PHNX C 0.731
145 Louis Amundson PHNX PF 0.731
146 Elton Brand PHIL PF 0.726
147 D.J. Mbenga LALK C 0.725
148 Tayshaun Prince DETR SF 0.724
149 Francisco Garcia SACR SG 0.724
150 Tyler Hansbrough INDI PF 0.724
151 Trevor Ariza HOUS SG 0.723
152 Allen Iverson PHIL SG 0.722
153 Rashard Lewis ORLA PF 0.721
154 Richard Jefferson SANA SF 0.721
155 Luc Richard Mbah a Moute MILW SF 0.721
156 Jamal Crawford ATLA SG 0.721
157 Brad Miller CHIC C 0.720
158 Josh Boone NJRS C 0.718
159 Jason Richardson PHNX SG 0.718
160 Sebastian Telfair LACL PG 0.717
161 Marvin Williams ATLA PF 0.716
162 David Andersen HOUS C 0.715
163 Caron Butler DALL SF 0.715
164 Michael Beasley MIAM PF 0.714
165 George Hill SANA PG 0.713
166 Ronnie Brewer UTAH SG 0.712
167 D.J. Augustin CHAR PG 0.712
168 Monta Ellis GOLS PG 0.711
169 Sean May SACR PF 0.710
170 Anthony Tolliver GOLS PF 0.709
171 Kenyon Martin DENV PF 0.709
172 Tyson Chandler CHAR C 0.709
173 Rodrigue Beaubois DALL PG 0.707
174 Stephen Jackson GOLS SF 0.704
175 Shane Battier HOUS SF 0.703
176 Stephen Graham CHAR SF 0.702
177 Mike Conley MEMP PG 0.702
178 Earl Watson INDI PG 0.701
179 T.J. Ford INDI PG 0.700

GOOD ROLE PLAYERS / OFTEN GOOD 6TH MAN PLAYERS
180 Ramon Sessions MINN PG 0.699
181 Corey Maggette GOLS SF 0.699
182 Marcin Gortat ORLA PF 0.698
183 Terrence Williams NJRS SG 0.698
184 Jarrett Jack TORO PG 0.698
185 James Singleton WASH SF 0.696
186 JaVale McGee WASH C 0.694
187 Jose Juan Barea DALL PG 0.694
188 Marcus Thornton NORL SG 0.693
189 Daequan Cook MIAM SG 0.691
190 Jordan Farmar LALK PG 0.689
191 Kirk Hinrich CHIC PG 0.689
192 Carl Landry SACR PF 0.689
193 Shannon Brown LALK PG 0.687
194 Anthony Carter DENV PG 0.686
195 Jason Thompson SACR PF 0.686
196 Mike Dunleavy INDI SF 0.686
197 Robin Lopez PHNX C 0.684
198 Spencer Hawes SACR C 0.680
199 Rudy Fernandez PORT SG 0.678
200 Drew Gooden LACL PF 0.678
201 Steve Blake LACL PG 0.677
202 Bobby Simmons NJRS SF 0.676
203 Larry Hughes NWYR SG 0.675
204 Jerry Stackhouse MILW SF 0.675
205 Quentin Richardson MIAM SG 0.675
206 Rudy Gay MEMP SF 0.675
207 Darko Milicic MINN C 0.674
208 Drew Gooden DALL PF 0.674
209 Reggie Williams GOLS SF 0.673
210 Ronald Murray CHAR SG 0.671
211 Grant Hill PHNX SF 0.669
212 Nate Robinson BOST PG 0.668
213 Travis Outlaw LACL SF 0.668
214 Steve Blake PORT PG 0.667
215 Devin Harris NJRS PG 0.665
216 Antawn Jamison WASH PF 0.665
217 Danilo Gallinari NWYR SF 0.664
218 Wilson Chandler NWYR SF 0.664
219 Gerald Henderson CHAR SG 0.664
220 Tony Allen BOST SG 0.663
221 Kyrylo Fesenko UTAH C 0.662
222 Anthony Morrow GOLS SG 0.661
223 Jordan Hill HOUS PF 0.661
224 Jared Dudley PHNX SF 0.660
225 Daniel Gibson CLEV PG 0.660
226 Jeff Green OKLA PF 0.659
227 Josh McRoberts INDI PF 0.659
228 Anthony Johnson ORLA PG 0.658
229 J.J. Redick ORLA SG 0.658
230 Al Harrington NWYR PF 0.655
231 Luther Head INDI PG 0.654
232 Nicolas Batum PORT SF 0.653
233 Theo Ratliff CHAR C 0.650
234 Mario Chalmers MIAM PG 0.648
235 Brandon Bass ORLA PF 0.648
236 Kris Humphries NJRS PF 0.646
237 Chris Duhon NWYR PG 0.643
238 Nenad Krstic OKLA C 0.642
239 Kris Humphries DALL PF 0.642

SATISFACTORY ROLE PLAYERS / USUALLY DO NOT START
240 Rasho Nesterovic TORO C 0.637
241 Hedo Turkoglu TORO SF 0.635
242 Johan Petro DENV C 0.635
243 Randy Foye WASH PG 0.634
244 Jrue Holiday PHIL PG 0.633
245 Mickael Pietrus ORLA SG 0.631
246 Jared Jeffries NWYR PF 0.627
247 Leandro Barbosa PHNX SG 0.626
248 Joel Anthony MIAM C 0.624
249 O.J. Mayo MEMP SG 0.622
250 Chase Budinger HOUS SF 0.621
251 Roger Mason SANA SG 0.619
252 Caron Butler WASH SF 0.617
253 Peja Stojakovic NORL SF 0.615
254 Marreese Speights PHIL PF 0.613
255 Jamaal Tinsley MEMP PG 0.613
256 Bobby Brown NORL PG 0.611
257 Jonas Jerebko DETR SF 0.610
258 Omri Casspi SACR SF 0.609
259 Kurt Thomas MILW PF 0.608
260 Thaddeus Young PHIL SF 0.607
261 Brandon Rush INDI SG 0.606
262 Hasheem Thabeet MEMP C 0.605
263 Damien Wilkins MINN SG 0.601
264 Rodney Carney PHIL SF 0.601
265 Earl Boykins WASH PG 0.599
266 J.J. Hickson CLEV PF 0.599
267 Willie Green PHIL SG 0.598
268 Anthony Parker CLEV SG 0.596
269 Jamaal Magloire MIAM C 0.594
270 Wesley Matthews UTAH SG 0.592
271 Devean George GOLS SG 0.592
272 Richard Hamilton DETR SG 0.592
273 Kevin Martin SACR SG 0.591
274 Andrea Bargnani TORO C 0.591
275 Ryan Gomes MINN SF 0.589
276 Thabo Sefolosha OKLA SF 0.589
277 Rafer Alston NJRS PG 0.589
278 Tracy McGrady NWYR SG 0.588
279 Marco Belinelli TORO SG 0.587
280 Michael Finley BOST SF 0.585
281 Marcus Williams MEMP PG 0.583
282 Martell Webster PORT SG 0.583
283 Charlie Villanueva DETR PF 0.582

MARGINAL ROLE PLAYERS / RARELY START
284 Derek Fisher LALK PG 0.578
285 Jannero Pargo CHIC PG 0.577
286 Toney Douglas NWYR PG 0.577
287 Chris Hunter GOLS PF 0.576
288 Derrick Brown CHAR SF 0.575
289 Yi Jianlian NJRS PF 0.575
290 Nathan Jawai MINN PF 0.575
291 Ime Udoka SACR SG 0.574
292 Sergio Rodriguez NWYR PG 0.574
293 Arron Afflalo DENV SG 0.573
294 Kevin Martin HOUS SG 0.572
295 Hakim Warrick MILW PF 0.571
296 Al Thornton WASH SF 0.569
297 Will Bynum DETR PG 0.568
298 Jonny Flynn MINN PG 0.568
299 James Posey NORL SF 0.564
300 Mikki Moore GOLS C 0.561
301 Darius Songaila NORL PF 0.561
302 Jerryd Bayless PORT PG 0.556
303 Jon Brockman SACR PF 0.554
304 Sasha Vujacic LALK SG 0.554
305 Dante Cunningham PORT SF 0.551
306 Michael Redd MILW SG 0.551
307 Eric Gordon LACL SG 0.550
308 C.J. Miles UTAH SF 0.549
309 Al Thornton LACL SF 0.547
310 Julian Wright NORL SF 0.545
311 Jeff Teague ATLA PG 0.544
312 Marquis Daniels BOST SG 0.543
313 Dahntay Jones INDI SG 0.542
314 Chris Douglas-Roberts NJRS SG 0.541
315 Zaza Pachulia ATLA C 0.538
316 Etan Thomas OKLA C 0.538
317 Sonny Weems TORO SG 0.537
318 Devin Brown NORL SG 0.533
319 Jason Maxiell DETR PF 0.532
320 Bill Walker NWYR SG 0.532
321 Courtney Lee NJRS SG 0.528
322 James Jones MIAM SF 0.525
323 Donte Greene SACR SF 0.524
324 Kenny Thomas SACR PF 0.523
325 Wayne Ellington MINN SG 0.521
326 Juwan Howard PORT PF 0.520

POOR PLAYERS / SHOULD NEVER START
327 Charlie Bell MILW SG 0.518
328 Corey Brewer MINN SF 0.518
329 Hakim Warrick CHIC PF 0.514
330 DeAndre Jordan LACL C 0.512
331 Rasual Butler LACL SG 0.509
332 Glen Davis BOST PF 0.508
333 Sam Young MEMP SF 0.508
334 Austin Daye DETR SF 0.507
335 Ronald Murray CHIC SG 0.504
336 Vladimir Radmanovic GOLS SF 0.494
337 Solomon Jones INDI PF 0.493
338 Ben Gordon DETR SG 0.491
339 James Johnson CHIC PF 0.487
340 Rafer Alston MIAM PG 0.482
341 Eduardo Najera DALL PF 0.482
342 Chucky Atkins DETR PG 0.477
343 Earl Clark PHNX SF 0.474
344 Joey Graham DENV SF 0.473
345 Fabricio Oberto WASH C 0.468
346 Jason Smith PHIL PF 0.466
347 Andres Nocioni SACR SF 0.464
348 Jared Jeffries HOUS PF 0.462
349 Nick Young WASH SG 0.462
350 Maurice Evans ATLA SF 0.462
351 Keith Bogans SANA SG 0.462
352 Josh Howard DALL SF 0.460

VERY POOR PLAYERS
353 Eddie House NWYR SG 0.454
354 Joe Smith ATLA PF 0.453
355 Kwame Brown DETR C 0.452
356 Antoine Wright TORO SF 0.451
357 Darrell Arthur MEMP PF 0.443
358 Jarvis Hayes NJRS SF 0.438
359 Ricky Davis LACL SF 0.437
360 Mardy Collins LACL PG 0.436
361 Malik Hairston SANA SG 0.433
362 Jeff Pendergraph PORT PF 0.432
363 Jermaine Taylor HOUS SG 0.428
364 Chris Wilcox DETR C 0.417
365 DeMar DeRozan TORO SG 0.414
366 Jodie Meeks MILW SG 0.413
367 Quinton Ross DALL SF 0.406

EXTREMELY POOR PLAYERS
368 Morris Peterson NORL SG 0.394
369 Josh Powell LALK PF 0.386
370 Jason Kapono PHIL SG 0.383
371 Jawad Williams CLEV SF 0.369
372 DeMarre Carroll MEMP SF 0.357
373 Ryan Hollins MINN C 0.351
374 Steve Novak LACL SF 0.345
375 Trenton Hassell NJRS SF 0.342
376 Brian Scalabrine BOST C 0.329
377 Michael Finley SANA SF 0.321
378 Sasha Pavlovic MINN SG 0.314
379 DeShawn Stevenson WASH SG 0.287
380 Malik Allen DENV PF 0.282
381 DaJuan Summers DETR SF 0.266

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.100 and more
Historic Super Star 1.000 1.099
Super Star 0.900 0.999
A Star Player / A well above normal starter 0.820 0.899
Very Good Player / A solid starter 0.760 0.819
Major Role Player / Good enough to start 0.700 0.759
Good Role Player / Often a good 6th man 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Usually do not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Rarely start 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player .399 and less

AVERAGE RATINGS BY POSITION
Not all positions are created equal. These are the average ratings by position among all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more. There are very few small forwards and shooting guards who are superstars. Most (but definitely not all) superstars are players who can play point guard, power forward, or center.

Point Guard .750
Shooting Guard .640
Small Forward .640
Power Forward .720
Center .750
All Positions / All Players (NBA Overall Average) .700

PLAYOFF GRADE PLAYERS
Playoff Grade Players have ratings of .560 and higher. Players with ratings below .560 should not play in the playoffs unless the team is forced to play them so that they have two players at a position and/or so that the team has at least eight players playing in the playoffs and/or because the coach is absolutely certain the low rating player will play better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season.

REGULAR SEASON STARTING PLAYERS
All starters on all teams should have ratings of .575 and higher. If a team has no player at a postion with at least a .575 rating, then it is extremely deficient at that position due to injuries or due to management incompetence.

THE ALL IMPORTANT, AWARD WINNING REAL PLAYER RATINGS USER GUIDE
The above are a few hightlights from the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. For complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide. The User Guide for Real Player Ratings is a necessary reference for anyone who wants to truly understand the value of, the validity of, and the ways you can use the Real Player Rating performance measures.

Also, you should become a regular visitor to Quest for the Ring if you want to get the full advantage of reading and using Real Player Ratings Series performance measures. The more you visit and check out ratings, the more quickly and easily you will be able to evaluate what you are seeing.

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