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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Nuggets Get Easy Win Over Hurting Wolves 122-107

Neither the Wolves nor the Nuggets had a whole lot to play for here, as the regular season fates of both teams was already decided before the tip. The Nuggets shot with an accuracy of 50%, whereas the Wolves were 47.8% accurate, so you can see right away that neither team was playing remotely like the Spurs do on defense. The Wolves were devastated due to the injury loss of Kevin Garnett, and in any event are near the bottom of the Western Conference and are already thinking about the draft and about prospective off-season trades they need to make if they want to challenge the Nuggets in the Northwest division next year. The Nuggets were locked into the 6th rank of the West before the tip of this game, and the Spurs were locked into the 3rd rank, meaning that the Spurs and the Nuggets already knew they would be meeting in the playoffs even before this game was played.

In this game, the Nuggets worked on defending the pick and roll, in preparation for Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and the Spurs. Offensively, they worked on penetration, and they ended up with an impressive 60 points from the paint.

The Nuggets used their big skill advantage and their motivation to stay charged up for the playoff series with the Spurs to overwhelm the Wolves in the 3rd quarter and cruise to a win that was much easier to get than the score indicates, 122-107. For the game, the Nuggets had a huge 34 points off of fast breaks, whereas the Wolves had 19. Each team had 17 turnovers.

The Nuggets drew twice as many shooting fouls as did the Wolves and made 32 of 40 free throws, whereas the Wolves were limited to 17 of 22. Despite the fact that Marcus Camby sat out this one with a sore right knee, the Nuggets, led by 10 rebounds by Nene and 10 by Kleiza, out rebounded the Wolves 44-37. We are starting to see more and more evidence that Camby's defensive skills have finally started to rub off on others. In this game, played without Camby, the Nuggets nevertheless had 10 blocks, twice as many as the average for an NBA game. Reggie Evans made 3 blocks, Melo made 2, and Jamal Sampson made 2 in just 5 minutes. It will be practically a crime if Camby is not named the Defensive Player of the Year. Heck, he should be named the Defensive Coach of the Year to boot.

George "Scrooge" Karl, being much more of a scrooge than an intense basketball coach these days, decided to use the fact that the game was not in the least a must win to allow all of his doghouse players out on the court, so that they could shed some bench rust. In the cases of Yakhouba Diawara, DerMarr Johnson, and Jamal Sampson, though, the minutes they played in this game were not enough to get rid of the majority of the rust, and so none of them are going to be ready to be a significant asset in the Spurs series. Mr. Karl's move goes under the category of too little, too late.

And just when you thought that the Coach could not be any more mean to J.R. Smith then he already has been, Coach Karl disrespected J.R. Smith in this game, hopefully but probably not by accident. Smith was put in with only 2:20 left in the 4th quarter, with the game long since decided. Not only was Smith the only Nugget from the doghouse who was not given substantial playing time in this game, he was by far the last one to appear in the game and was the only one besides Sampson given just a token amount of playing time. And the 2:20 he played was all in garbage time. It would have been better if Smith had not played at all rather than to be put in at the very end, as if he was not worthy of being on the team at all. I hate to say this, but if George Karl returns as the Coach of the Nuggets next season, which is very, very likely now, J.R. Smith would be much better off if he playes for another team next year. Even getting just 12 minutes a game on a different team would be an improvement over what he is getting from the Nuggets now, due to the fact we have a Scrooge for a Coach.

And before we leave the subject of who would be better off on another team, let me say that in my opinion it is time for Kevin Garnett to follow in the lead of Allen Iverson and try to get traded to a contending team. Or if that is not quite possible, he should try to get traded to any team, because after he arrives on a losing team, they have a good chance of becoming a contending team quickly. This would be at least as good for the Wolves as it would be for Garnett, as they could get truly valuable, mostly younger players for Garnett, and together with the draft make big strides toward becoming competitive, as they were for so many years until just a few short years ago.

The Wolves have the promising rookie guard Randy Foye, who led them in this game with 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, and he had 9 rebounds and 5 assists. And keep in mind the Wolves have one of the better scoring centers in the League, Mark Blount, who had 18 points in this one on 8 of 15 shooting, along with 7 rebounds. Ricky Davis had 11 assists, but only 11 points on 4 of 12 shooting. Just these three alone could form the nucleus of a post-Garnett Wolves, dominated by promising younger players and a skilled veteran or two to help lead the rebuilding effort. If the Wolves just tinker around the edges in the off-season, than they will be in for more frustration next year. The Nuggets are most likely going to be even better when Kenyon Martin returns, the Jazz are going to hold their own as they always do, and either Seattle or Portland, but I'm not sure which, is probably going to be somewhat better next year too. So let the Wolves liberate Garnett and let the Nuggets liberate J.R. Smith if not George Karl, and let bygones be bygones.

DerMarr Johnson played 12 minutes and was 1/5, 0/3 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 5 points, and he had 1 assist and 1 block. Diawara played 24 minutes and was 1/3 and 2/4 from the line for 4 points, and he had 2 rebounds and an assist. Najera played 28 minutes and was 3/7 and 2/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 assist. Reggie Evans played 20 minutes and was 3/4 and 1/1 from the line for 7 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist, and a steal. As was the case in the early days of this season, when he got much more playing time, Evans produces almost every time he is on the court, and is the second most cheated player in terms of playing time this season, so he has the second strongest reason to play for someone else next year instead of for the Scrooge.

Blake played 34 minutes and was 2/6 and 1/3 on 3's for 5 points, and he had 10 assists.

Kleiza played 23 minutes and was 7/12, 1/5 on 3's, and 8/8 from the line for 23 points, and he had 10 rebounds.

Nene played 23 minutes and was 6/9 and 6/8 from the line for 18 points, and he had 10 rebounds and 3 steals.

Melo played 25 minutes and was 7/16, 1/1 on 3's, and 6/7 from the line for 21 points, and he also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.

A.I. played 33 minutes and was 10/17, 1/2 on 3's, and 4/6 from the line for 25 points, and he had 3 steals, 3 assists, a block, and a rebound. Iverson made 5 of 11 jumpers and 5 of 6 layups during his great game.

The next game will be Wednesday, April 18 in San Antonio to play the Spurs at 6 pm mountain time. That is the final regular season game.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Old Nuggets Return & Lose to Grizzlies 133-118

The Nuggets could not keep playing at the very high level they were at when they beat the Jazz on April 11 and the Hornets on April 13, and were almost run out of the arena in the 4th quarter of this game by the Grizzlies. Denver lost 133-118, and the Nugget's season-long winning streak ended at 8 games. The Nuggets could not keep up with, nor slow down, the hard charging Grizzlies, who had 30 fast break points to the Nugget's 21.

The Grizzlies were playing after three days off, while the Nuggets were playing with no days off, but the Grizzlies were hurting from injuries and have the worst record in the league, so the external factors more or less offset, and the Nuggets had no business getting hammered in the 4th quarter 38-23 and losing the game 133-118. The old, bad Nuggets came back with a vengeance for this game. Not only did the Nuggets play lazy and inept defense, but they also had 21 turnovers just when you thought they had turned over a new leaf in that area. In the Oklahoma game the night before, the Nuggets had just 8 turnovers. In this one, Blake had 7 turnovers, Iverson had 6, and the other Nuggets combined had 8. The Grizzlies had 14 steals against the Nuggets while the Nuggets had just 7 steals against the Grizzlies. The average number of steals in an NBA game is 7, so surrendering 14 steals is too sloppy by a mile.

In last night's nearly perfect game in Oklahoma, the Nuggets committed only 13 fouls, while they were called for 31 fouls in this game. The Grizzlies were called for just 21 fouls, which is about 1 fewer than the average for an NBA game. Even allowing for the possibility that the referees in this game were a little tough on the Nuggets, it is clear the Nuggets were much less intense on defense in this game than they have been over the last few weeks, and therefore much less able to avoid hacking the guy on the other team who has the ball.

The Nuggets made 45 of 86 shots for an accuracy of .523. So on shooting, there was no dropoff from the outstanding shooting they did during much of the winning streak. This is positive, because it shows that the Nuggets are still much better now than they were six weeks ago. Up until 4 or 6 weeks ago, whenever the Nuggets broke down, they would break down defensively, on turnovers, and on scoring all at the same time, but now when they break down, they do so on just two out of three of those things, so that is real improvement for you.

However, the Spurs will win almost any game where the Nuggets break down in any one of those categories. The Nuggets need to figure out ways to bend without breaking down completely, and they need to do this really fast.

The Grizzlies were playing without starting PG Damon Stoudamire and without starting SF Mike Miller, as well as without rookie Rudy Gay, who has been starting at shooting guard. These three being missing was not a big problem against the self-destructing Nuggets, though. Tarence Kinsey, a rooke G-F who has been averaging 7.3 points a game, had 28 points in this one on 10 of 18 shooting, and he also made 4 steals. Chucky Atkins, the veteran PG, had 28 points on 9 of 14 shooting, and he had 12 assists and 2 steals. Also leading the Grizzlies was PF Hakim Warrick, who had 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, and he added 11 rebounds and 1 steal.

For the Nuggets, Nene made all 6 layups and all 3 dunks attempted, and he had 22 points on 10 of 12 shooting and 10 rebounds. Although Camby had just 2 blocks, which is low for him, he had 11 rebounds, as the Nuggets were close to the Grizzlies in rebounding, at least. Although Blake had 12 assists, he also had the 7 turnovers, which was a surprising follow-up for his great game last night in Oklahoma. And Blake's scoring was not enough for a PG who plays 34 minutes: he had only 4 points on 2 of 5 shooting. The Nuggets have two players who simply don't take enough shots in many games, Najera and Blake. No playoff team can afford more than one such player, if that many. The Nugget's coaches do not seem to realize that no matter how much else a player contributes, you can't afford a player who plays alot of minutes but who does not want to try to score.

The most positive thing that happened in this game was Melo making 4 of 9 three pointers. Melo being able to make threes could get the Nuggets an extra win or two against the Spurs. Melo started this season with almost no three point shot, did better in December for a short time before he was suspended, and then had almost no long range shot again when he returned in January. And there was little improvement in February or March. Knowing he could not make many, Melo wisely did not take many three-point shots during all this time. But in April all of a sudden, Melo has made 11 of 27 threes, for a nice accuracy of .407. If this were to continue, it would be massive for the Nuggets, who will have to overcome one of George Karl's biggest mistakes, which is not understanding that you need to play players such as J.R. Smith, who sometimes has a few too many turnovers or a few too many fouls, but who can hit enough three-pointers, make enough fast break dunks, and get enough steals to more than make up for his mistakes. The Nuggets need J.R. Smith against the Spurs, it is that simple. But if Melo can partly make up for the absence of J.R. Smith by making alot of threes, that would help out alot.

To those who thought, based on the 8-game winning streak, that the Nuggets had totally transformed themselves and would go on to the Western Conference finals or even the NBA Championship series this year, my condolences, because you made the mistake that everyone who follows the Nuggets makes over and over until you learn your lesson, which is that you can not predict what the Nuggets are going to do from one game to the next. They don't just play a little differently in different games. No, they go from one extreme to the other, depending mostly on their confidence and discipline levels. And when the Nuggets are good, they are usually even better than the score indicates, and when they are bad, they are as bad or worse than the score indicates.

The Nuggets are a team that is highly skilled, but frequently undisciplined and unpolished. They are a team with alot of raw skills. They are a team that comes from the wrong side of the tracks and that never went to a fancy school. In basketball, a fancy school is a long playoff run. This is a team that wants to win at least as much and probably more so than any other team. And this is also a team that knows full well that it is equal to or better than any team in the League in terms of raw talent. So whenever the Nuggets take the court, they not only want to win more than anyone, they also believe they can win.

The Nuggets have the skills and the will to win, but they do not have enough experience, enough polish, enough discipline, or enough good coaching to make sure they win, as, for example, the Spurs usually do. And when the Nuggets fall behind quickly in a game and remain behind for most of it, as in this game, or else when they lose a substantial lead late in a game, as they have done many times, they know that something is wrong, but they don't know what. What is wrong, mostly, is that the Nuggets do not have enough experience, discipline, or good coaching to make sure that their raw skills result in real wins.

So there is often a conflict between their belief they can win, and what is happening in a given game. When a game goes south, they start losing their confidence, because they do not know how to fix what is wrong. Once the loss in confidence reaches the red zone on the confidence gauge, the Nuggets play even worse, and the opposing team more or less runs away with a game, even though they are much less skilled than the Nuggets. That is what happened in the 4th quarter of this game, and it has been happening about once a week all season long. It will most likely happen for at least one game in the Spurs playoff series, as well. The Nuggets will get blown out by the Spurs in a game, and then come back the next game and play fantastic and win it, as if nothing had gone wrong in the previous game.

Every team occasionally loses some of it's confidence and then gets blown out, but this has been happening to the Nuggets often this season, and not very often at all to the Spurs. Those who think the Spurs will blow out the Nuggets are going to be correct if the Nuggets lose some of their confidence in more than one game at the most during the series. The Nuggets can afford one confidence or discipline breakdown game, and probably no more than that. The Nuggets and the Spurs are opposites; the Nuggets run on skills and confidence, while the Spurs run on experience and discipline. And even if the Nuggets always keep their confidence, and always think that they can win, they will still have the problem of the lack of experience itself, as well as the lack of adequate discipline problem. So they absolutely must keep their confidence to have a chance.

What can be done this late in the season about these confidence and discipline breakdowns? Nothing. Only playing more basketball will give the Nuggets the experience and the discipline that they need. It wouldn't hurt to get better coaching either. Had the Nuggets not made the playoffs, it would have meant no playoff experience this year for this squad, which would have been a big lost opportunity.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/2 from the line for 5 points, and he had 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Kleiza played 21 minutes and was 4/8, 0/3 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Blake played 34 minutes and was 2/5 and 0/3 on 3's for 4 points, and he had 12 assists.

J.R. Smith played 20 minutes and was 6/11, 4/9 on 3's, and 3/3 from the line for 19 points. Since Karl is so hung up on Smith's negatives, I'll report that J.R. had 0 turnovers and 4 fouls, nothing to go cry in the corner over.

Nene played 32 minutes and was 10/12 and 2/3 from the line for 22 points, and he had 10 rebounds and 1 assist.

Camby played 30 minutes and was 6/12 and 2/2 from the line for 14 points, and he had 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 assist.

A.I. played for virtually the whole game and was 7/15 and 2/4 on 3's for 16 points, and he had 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds.

Melo played for virtually the whole game and was 8/19, 4/9 on 3's, and 8/10 from the line for 28 points, and he had 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

The next game is Monday, April 16 in Denver to play the Timberwolves at 7 pm mountain time.

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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.

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--How and Why the 2010 Los Angeles Lakers, the 2010 Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 2010 Boston Celtics Win or Lose in the 2010 Playoffs
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--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

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--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

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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.

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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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