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REPORTS--#21 THROUGH #40


Saturday, May 23, 2009

A Quick Fast Break Celebration: Kobe Bryant Holds the Line Against the Radical Nuggets in Denver, Lakers Win Game Three 103-97

POST GAME 3 CELEBRATION
In game 3 of the 2009 West Finals, Kobe Bryant, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, and Pau Gasol, with some help from other Los Angeles Lakers, successfully defended basketball from the team attacking the sport, the Denver Nuggets. (See any of numerous recent reports for details of what the Nuggets have been up to, why it will eventually fail, and why it's bad for basketball.)

1,001 thank yous to Phil Jackson for staying the course and for not allowing Denver to change basketball into something it is not.

Shame on you George Karl; you should know better than this that you can not twist basketball into being a heavily or at least a substantially biased in favor of defense game. And nor of course can you turn it into being a violent sport in the football modality.

The Nuggets threw everything they had into the effort to change the sport, including superhuman efforts from Chris Andersen and Nene, but the Lakers and of course the referees held the line and defended the sport supremely well in game three.

The Nuggets threw every possible defensive action, ones in the rules and ones outside of the rules, in this radical experiment to try to win with defense only. They threw every foul, every push, every trip, every rough defend, every close defend, every block, every goal tend, every pass denial, every paint denial, every easy shot denial, and every easy score off fast breaks off defensive stops that they could come up with. But in the end, both Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin were sitting on the bench fouled out of the game, Kobe Bryant was shooting free throws, and the Nuggets' radical all defense attack had fallen short to one of the greatest players of our day, a player who, unlike Allen Iverson, was meant to play both guard positions at once: Kobe Bryant.

It took them awhile, laugh out loud, but eventually the Lakers made enough free throws to win it.

Sorry Denver, but that is the way it is. You want to play with no offense to speak of? Then get out of the NBA and find another sport!

Thanks LA for getting this series back into the right Universe.





LATEST KOBE BRYANT VIDEOS


[This is a fast break type of posting, a short post needed to be pushed out the door quickly to be timely. In the great majority of cases, a fast break posting is followed up by much longer articles, that will contain a lot of proof for any points made in the fast breaks. Remember that many Quest reports have much more detail than this one; Quest for the Ring prides itself on game, team, and League breakdowns that are as long as necessary to make and prove the points.]

Unedited, Raw Game Notes are Here



BallHype: hype it up!




You Can Post Your Response to Anything on Quest Here

Friday, May 22, 2009

Have we Arrived in the Alternate Universe?

I have bizarre dreams on occasion, and most of the time I can't remember them right after I wake up, let alone later in the day. But I do remember a dream I had last night, and not only that, I think it may have been one of those symbolic dreams that many psychologists claim exist.

The dream was that I was all of a sudden in a completely different place, and everything was strange and confusing. I was on a University campus managing some kind of store, maybe the gift shop. But I didn't know how I got there. So one of the "scenes" I remember from this dream was that I was on these steps to this big building, and I was stopped there talking with a group of two or three women. It was like one of those science fiction movies where the main character has been displaced and doesn't know it until he finds out to his horror that he has left his previous time and place.

So I was asking these women about what day and year it was, and the date was not much different. But then I asked them about where exactly I was. They told me I was at Virginia Tech, which as you may know was the scene of a terrible mass murder in I think it was April 2007. When they told me I was at Virginia Tech, I asked them "You mean I'm where the mass murder happened?" And then this woman looked at me strangely and told me she didn't know what I was talking about. Because she told me there had been no mass murder, no murders at all in fact.

So a little later in this dream, not long before I wake up, I realize that the reason I am confused is that I underestimated just how displaced I am. I realize I am actually in the "Alternate Universe," often referred to as the "Parallel Universe," the one which mirrors the Universe you or I are actually in, but can (at least according to science fiction) be different in some respects.

Why did I think of and tell you this story of this crazy dream? Because I am beginning to wonder whether the 2009 playoffs are taking place in the Alternate Universe rather than the Universe I am used to.

In the Original Universe the Nuggets were supposed to be lucky to win a few more than they lost this season, to be lucky to make the playoffs at all, and to be very lucky to win more than one or two playoff games before being bounced out. We know what is happening is a huge contrast to that.

In the Original Universe, everyone up to including the owner and managers of the Nuggets assumed there was a zero or almost zero percent chance that the Nuggets would still be alive as of this day. So the owner and/or the manager of the Nuggets and of the Pepsi Center where the Nuggets play booked a different event for Memorial Day 2009, having no idea that the Nuggets were still going to need a place to play as of that date.

It didn't turn out that way in the Parallel Universe, creating the hyped spectacle of wresting entertainment CEO Vince McMahon trying to pass himself off as more ethical than Nuggets' management.

Nuggets' management is grossly overrated these days and, reflecting the ultra wealthy owner, is shamelessly greedy and capitalist in the business sense. But they are not to my knowledge unethical or immoral within the context of the business world they operate in. So only in the Alternate Universe would Vince McMahon be able to claim that he is a better business person, and is more ethical, than the Nuggets' managers and Owner.

In the Original Universe, Carmelo Anthony was supposed to be following George Karl instructions, and as a result he was, by his standards, shooting poorly this year. There was little reason to suspect that Carmelo was going to be all that great in the playoffs. But in this Other Universe, to say Anthony is on fire would be an understatement.

In the Original Universe, Nene would not make it through the season due to some new fluke injury or health problem. But in this Alternate Universe, not only has he made it through, but he has also with lightning speed and laser-like concentration and determination exceeded expectations on the offensive end, an amazing .604 point blank range freight train shooter, far greater than in any prior year when, to remind you, he hardly played anyway.

In the Original Universe, Chris Andersen in the summer of 2008 was unemployed and was drawing little interest from League managers and scouts. So when he was picked up by Denver on the cheap after Marcus Camby was given away, the reasonable, logical assumption was that he was, at best, going to be a role player. But in this Other Universe, to call Andersen a role player is another stupid understatement; try something like "Role Player for the Ages."

In the Original Universe, Denver's defensive specialists would not be substantial offensive contributors. In this Alternative Universe, all of them, especially Anderson, and even including Dahntay Jones, became offensive contributors as the Nuggets generated a huge amount of fast break and in transition scoring from defensive stops of various kinds off of aggressive, high energy defending.

In the Original Universe, the Detroit Pistons were one of those franchises that holds on to the good on both ends of the court "glue" type players, whether or not they feel a rebuilding wind coming on. In the Alternative Universe, Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars seems more like the leader of the Gang That Can't Shoot Straight.

At the beginning of the 2008-09 season, Dumars trades Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson. But then the Pistons join a growing list of teams unable to unravel what I call the Iverson Puzzle. Iverson is bounced around from point guard to 2-guard, and from starting to not starting. At least partly due to the continual experimenting, the Pistons start losing more and more, including a large number of home losses to medium and a few poor teams.

By March Iverson gets disgusted with the whole thing and decides to use his sore back as an excuse to quit playing for the Pistons. Meanwhile, Rasheed Wallace is apparently too old now, and Rodney Stuckey is too young to be a reliable point guard, and so between all of that the Pistons' season ends up in the dumpster.

And it may be some time before the Pistons are able to climb out of their dumpster dive. Good luck, Dumars, trying to dig out of the hole you just dug yourself. I don't think high quality players will be beating down your door to play for you any time soon.

So in summary, in this Crazy Theme Park type of Universe, at the franchise level, the Pistons (three rings) look like the Nuggets (zero rings) have generally looked over the years, whereas the Nuggets look a lot like the Pistons.

Assuming we are now actually in the Other Universe, what I want to know is: Who is responsible for getting us here? Because as you know, I'm always out to blame someone for anything bad and to credit someone for anything good.

Was it someone turning that spooky wheel on the LOST island? Was it Obama, thinking the only way we will get out of the depression is by booking over to the other Universe? Was it Vince McMahon. Was it Dahntay Jones, known for his beyond the rules actions?

Who knows; all I know is that although I have to learn that sports is far less predictable than economics and politics, the unpredictability of this year's NBA playoffs is bordering on intolerable. So if in fact we are not in the Correct Universe right now, I demand to be returned to it immediately.

You can stay in this weird one if you choose. I warn you though, choose your Universe wisely.

So what say you Phil Jackson?, who was yet another character who seemed to be in the Wrong Universe during Game two of the Lakers-Nuggets series, when he forgot to take Pau Gasol out for some badly needed rest, and when he drew up the asinine three attempt by the ice cold Derek Fisher for the attempt to send the game into overtime.

Phil, what do you say we book it back to the Old, Regular Universe? You have nine rings there, a really nice ranch in Montana, and a good chance to at least get into the Championship if not to win it. Whereas in this bizarro Universe, the Nuggets seem to have at least a 50/50 chance of stopping your chance of winning the Quest for the Ring for the 10th time.

Even if we have to make a stopover at the LOST island, or at George Karl's place, in order to get back to the Correct Universe, I'm down with that.

Just like I would hope and expect it to be the case with the Lakers right now, I am ready to do anything to get back home in good shape.



Unedited, Raw Game Notes are Here



BallHype: hype it up!




You Can Post Your Response to Anything on Quest Here

Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant: The Latest and Most Popular Videos

For those who don't have the time to read reports, let me sum up in very quickly the "marginal factor" why the Nuggets are in this series with the Lakers. Were it not for this extra factor added to the foundation of a high energy and aggressive defense, the Nuggets would not be where they are.

Of course the marginal factor has to be an offensive one, because it is clear that the Nuggets are coached much more poorly on offense than on defense.

The extra factor is that Carmelo Anthony is back to being a power scorer again after dropping out during the regular season this year. Specifically, his shooting percentage is back up close to .500, which is one of the main requirements for being a successful power scorer. Moreover, for the first time ever, Anthony brings fairly good three point shooting to the playoffs.

Much more detail is in other reports.

Here we are going to check out the latest and the most popular videos for Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant, the two power scorers involved in this series. How about you pick out some and watch some videos and you can be the judge of who is the better player and/or of who is going to advance to the Championship this year.

I personally don't know who is going to win anymore. Although Melo will not make 30 points every single game in this series, the Nuggets might still win a game when he does not score 30, due to their high energy and aggressive defense. Plus, if Melo makes 30 or more points in the clear majority of the games, 5 out of 7 of them for example, the Nuggets could obviously win the series just by winning those games.

CARMELO ANTHONY LATEST VIDEOS


KOBE BRYANT LATEST VIDEOS


CARMELO ANTHONY MOST POPULAR VIDEOS


KOBE BRYANT MOST POPULAR VIDEOS


[This is a fast break type of posting, a short post needed to be pushed out the door quickly to be timely. In the great majority of cases, a fast break posting is followed up by much longer articles, that will contain a lot of proof for any points made in the fast breaks. Remember that many Quest reports have much more detail than this one; Quest for the Ring prides itself on game, team, and League breakdowns that are as long as necessary to make and prove the points.]

Unedited, Raw Game Notes are Here



BallHype: hype it up!




You Can Post Your Response to Anything on Quest Here

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Were You Fooled into Thinking That Carmelo Anthony is Dumb?

As gradually reported in several recent reports, Carmelo Anthony has been busting out of several boxes during this playoff season:

1. Prior to this year, he was a star or better in only one out of four playoff series, the 2007 Nuggets-Spurs series. This year, so far at least, he has broken out of that great regular seasons followed by miserable post seasons box.

2. Prior to this year, Carmelo Anthony was willing to defer too much to other offensive players, such as Allen Iverson last year. This year, tired of all the playoff flameouts of prior years, Anthony has decided he isn’t going to defer to anyone, that he is going to become the power scorer in the playoffs that he clearly was meant to be. He was not willing to play an equal or inferior role to Chauncey Billups or anyone else in this year in the playoffs.

3. Prior to this year, he was willing to believe in George Karl as an offensive Coach. That started to come to an end a year ago when against the Lakers Melo correctly concluded that the Nuggets quit in the playoffs and that George Karl was the most important reason for that quitting. At this point, it is clear he has realized that Karl is a very good defensive Coach but is not a very good offensive Coach, which is absolutely true.

Did Chauncey Billups explain this stuff to Carmelo Anthony? I couldn’t tell you, but I tend to doubt it.

So the Nuggets, with their aggressive, hard fouling, bulldog defense, and the classic, power scoring Carmelo Anthony snag game two in the 2009 West finals against the Lakers in Los Angeles, and go back to Denver still holding on to the title of America’s most amazing basketball team in years, probably many years. The Nuggets and the Lakers are tied one game each in their best of seven games series.

Completely raw and unedited but accurate game notes are here. Don't expect careful sentence structure or perfect spelling in that game commentary there.

Quest for the Ring has been learning some new things from this improbable run of the Nuggets, many of which have been reported recently. The latest thing we have learned is that if you know a player is smarter than he appears, just wait for a year or two and sooner or later he will surprise or maybe even shock you. Just like in non-sports situations, there are NBA players who “play dumb” for various reasons.

Carmelo Anthony has been enjoying an extended childhood and playing dumb for the past few years, for so long that I was more and more thinking that he might actually be dumb. But give me credit; I never actually concluded that he was dumb; I will never again waste any time in the future thinking he might be dumb.

You have been a sly, deceptive, and crafty one, Melo, lurking in the background, assuming or at least appearing to assume Karl knew what he is doing for too long and waiting to prove him and everyone else wrong when the time was just right to do so, when there was enough defense on your team, combined with your offense, to actually win playoff games, including one in Los Angeles no less. By doing it this dramatic way, you can make up for most of the stupid statements that have been made about you for many years in one foul swoop.

Melo is now in effect manipulating the media almost as well as Obama does.

The last few years have been like the ultimate pump fake: Carmelo Anthony pump faked out the entire sports world, laugh out loud.

SELFISH PLAYERS?
Rather often you see people refer to the concept of a “selfish” basketball player. For example, almost all of the Iverson haters refer to him as being a selfish player. One of the reasons I have been investigating the Iverson mess is that it was obvious to me from early on that this is a dubious concept.

Saying it is dubious is too generous actually. Learn this well kiddies: there is almost no such thing as a “selfish basketball player” in the NBA. (I would expect that it is more possible to have a selfish player at the high school level, but I can assure you that a selfish high school player is never going to get close to the NBA.) Remember for the future, every time you post on the internet that this or that NBA player is a selfish player, you are making a fool out of yourself.

As an aside, will all the highly paid TV announcers please stop using the word “chippy” to describe games with a lot of fouls, contact, and raised tempers? That word is goofy to say the least. But I digress.

Players who take a lot of shots don’t do so for the hell of it or because they are selfish. They meet numerous preconditions for doing so….

Players who take scoring seriously are invariably players who have better track records than other players at heavily scoring the ball. They have higher scoring percentages over the years. They have a greater versatility in how they can score. They have spent more time in the gym practicing shots than other players have. They have the skills to make a lot of shots, and just as importantly, different kinds of shots. They have in games an ability to maintain some degree of balance between different types of shooting. They have the mindset that they will take responsibility for losing a game if they don’t choose their shots well and/or if they miss too many shots.

There aren’t that many players in existence who meet all those qualifications, but they are extremely important for winning pro playoff games. While there are fools who call such players “selfish,” I call players such as this “power scorers”.

Any player who does not meet those qualifications will not game after game take too many shots. Players with even half a brain know that if they do that they will be more and more benched and eventually they will be out of the League. If a younger player is taking too many shots, the coach simply informs him that he is not qualified to take as many shots as he is taking, and I can guarantee you that the player will reduce his shooting after that.

As has been stated many times at Quest, it is much easier to win playoff games with a power scorer than without one. This could not be more obvious than this year, when now that Carmelo Anthony has thrown Karl’s theory that no one should heavily dominate scoring out the window and has joined the other three power scorers on the final four playoff teams of 2009:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James
2. Orlando Magic: Dwight Howard
3. Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant
4. Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony

Wow, that is good company.

Carmelo Anthony has finally proved Karl was wrong about him when Karl claimed that Anthony would never be able to challenge for a Championship from the power scoring mode. I’ll be damned if he is not challenging for a Championship as a power scorer right here and now.

Last year Carmelo Anthony realized that Karl does not have all the answers for winning playoff games.

This year he decided to provide some of the answers himself.

So it turns out there is a little Che Guevara in Carmelo Anthony after all, a little bit of a rebel.

Now the next question is can Anthony continue to jab step the Lakers into the dust?



BallHype: hype it up!



You Can Post Your Response to Anything on Quest Here

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

George Karl Mostly to Blame for Nuggets' Game One Loss to Lakers: Too Many Defensive Guards, Not Enough Trust in J.R. Smith

The Nuggets, as everyone knew they would, brought a blend of tough and rough defense and a fast and furious offense too to Game One of the West Final Series against the Lakers. Also appearing was the classic Carmelo Anthony, a power scoring and even power defending Carmelo Anthony.

But unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While in the previous two seasons numerous huge Allen Iverson efforts ended up in a Nuggets loss, in this game it was a huge effort by Carmelo Anthony that ended up resulting in a loss rather than a win. The Nuggets lost 105-103 to the Lakers in game one in Los Angeles.

I will tell you the number one reason why the Nuggets lost this game to the Lakers, even though the Nuggets' defense held the Lakers offense to a miserable shooting percentage of 41.1%, while the Nuggets shot a very, very good 48.6%. The Nuggets should have won this game.

The number one reason the Nuggets lost it is among the sixteen reasons I thought back in January that would lead to the Nuggets not even winning a single playoff series: J.R. Smith has not been developed properly as a pro basketball player.

Not only does this relatively recent full report explain in detail why Karl failed with respect to J.R. Smith, but numerous references are made to this big problem in reports from 2007-08.

By the way, I thought that enough of the 16 factors would be in play and would cause Denver to fail to win a single playoff series, but what actually happened is that a smaller number of the 16 factors emerged than I expected. So the Nuggets were able to get by the walking wounded Hornets and the defensively challenged Mavericks. But the Lakers are another matter entirely.

But now back to the Smith situation:

Smith was trashed repeatedly in 2006-07 and in 2007-08 by Karl, in public no less, due to factors beyond Smith's control, namely, due to Smith's immaturity and impulsiveness.

Karl simply failed to see the potential in the very young player, and obviously wanted Smith to be traded. But Nuggets management did see the big upside potential, and they signed Smith to a mid-level contract in the summer of 2008.

But Karl has doggedly and seemingly vindictively persisted in refusing to make Smith a starter, even though Smith by early this season was no longer a defensive liability in any way, shape or form. If anything by early in 2008-09, Smith had become a defensive asset.

Well, if Karl does not like a guard in the mold of J.R. Smith, what kind of guard does Karl like? To get at this, let's see how the playing times for the guards other than starting point guard Chauncey Billups went in this game. This games' playing times, as you might expect, were reflective of what was typical throughout the season.

J.R. Smith (2-Guard) 25 minutes
Dahntay Jones (2-Guard) 16 minutes
Anthony Carter (Point Guard) 15 minutes
Linas Kleiza (Guard-Forward) 7 minutes

I hate to inform anyone who does not know, but of the above four players, there is only one who the Lakers would even consider having on their team and that one would be J.R. Smith. The other three they most likely would not want on their team at all, let alone starting. The reason is simple. For different reasons, the other three players are not full scale players offensively.

EARTH TO KARL:
It's time for some Earth to Karl transmissions:

Earth to Karl #1 Dahntay Jones will hardly be able to score much at all in this series against the Great Wall of Los Angeles: Gasol, Bynum, Odom, Ariza. And Kobe Bryant will not be slowed down by Jones anywhere near as much as was the young and slightly banged up Chris Paul. It just isn't going to happen on our planet.

You need someone else to guard Kobe Bryant, someone like J.R. Smith, for example, who can even when he is burned offset many of Bryant's scores with scores of his own. Or just keep Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin on Kobe all night. Or try Renaldo Balkman; he's got 2 inches on Jones and he is more defensively skilled than Jones is when all is said and done.

Mr. Karl, you are going to get killed by Kobe and Company if you keep thinking that you can get away with having Dahntay Jones guard Kobe Bryant.

For more about George Karl's guard rotation errors this year, see this report.

Earth to Karl #2: Anthony Carter is too short against the Lakers, and you don't have an organized offense anyways, so why do you need him in there for more than 10 minutes a game to rest Chauncey Billups? You don't. Stop overplaying Anthony Carter.

But laugh out loud, I have been saying this for going on two years now, and Karl always insists on not only overplaying Carter, but on overplaying short, defensively oriented guards in general. There is only one thing worse than overplaying Dahntay Jones, and that is overplaying both Dahntay Jones and Anthony Carter in the same game.

Even worse still is having Carter and Billups, the backup and the starting point guards, in the game at the same time. In game one, this happened for almost half of the second quarter and for very close to 5 minutes of the 4th quarter. Wrong move, especially since it was Carter's lame inbound pass intended for, you guessed it, Chauncey Billups, that was picked off by Trevor Ariza, allowing the Lakers to take away Denver's last chance to win this game.

I mean, I couldn't dream this stuff up if I tried.

Earth to Karl #3: Kleiza was sort of an offensive asset last year, but this year, he fell off badly and should not be playing in this series. Period. At the very least, Balkman should be getting the minutes Kleiza is getting.

Earth to Karl #4: For the love of the man in the sky George Karl, if you could not bear to start J.R. Smith in this series (and long before it) why didn't you start Guard-Forward Renaldo Balkman? He is actually a better defender than is Dahntay Jones, and while not being a full scale pro offensive player, at least he is better than Jones offensively as well. He's very much like a younger and slightly less talented version of Chris Andersen.

KARL HAS UNDERESTIMATED BOTH SMITH AND THE GAME OF BASKETBALL
Sorry Mr. Karl, your inability to fully appreciate J.R. Smith and the offensive vision and weapons he brings on the court was what did you in in game 1. You have failed in your task to make Smith all that he can be; he needs to start to be all that he can be. Mr. Karl, you were destined to lose this game due to your conclusions and actions going back many, many months ago. And this Smith thing may very well do you in for the series.

Yes, this is a little thing compared to your offensive coaching shortcomings in general. But in a tight game in the Western Conference Finals, all it takes is a relatively little thing to lose a game you should have won.

To summarize mathematically, for the Nuggets to win, Smith needs to be playing 30-35 minutes a game, Balkman 10-15 minutes a game, Carter should be backing Billups, and Jones should be backing J.R. Smith. Carter and Billups should never ever be on the court at the same time.

Mr. Karl, your team needed J.R. Smith to start this game, to have the confidence of a starter, to have the 3-point shooting of a starter, and the courage to attack the Great Wall of Los Angeles of a starter. Bench players do not ever have much if any success taking it to the rack against the Great Wall of Los Angeles. You needed Smith to be in the flow with the other starters, to not be the odd man out at crunch time like he was.

Instead of a full scale, starting J.R. Smith at the end of the game, you had J.R. Smith standing there on the line with 3 seconds left and having to miss his second free throw on purpose so that the Nuggets might get lucky and be able to stuff in a tying bucket at the buzzer.

Instead, Kobe Bryant, another 2-guard like Smith, snagged Smith's intentional miss and heeved it down court as the last 3 seconds ran out.

Let's compare here:

Kobe Bryant, Lakers starter, 2-guard, Superstar and usually almost perfect, is fully trusted by his Coach even though he can be a little impulsive, headstrong, and immature. And even though he used to be much more so than now.

J.R. Smith: Nuggets reserve, 2-guard, definitely a Star and almost a Superstar, is NOT trusted all that much by his Coach because he can be impulsive, headstrong, and immature. And because he used to be much more so than now.

See the difference? See one reason that Phil Jackson is a better Coach than is George Karl?

Phil Jackson always respects offense, and he will make any player who can bring offense all that he can be. He will not stuff a player like J.R. Smith down a hole on the bench somewhere. Granted, the very risk-averse Lakers' managers would probably never "take a chance" with a very young and raw player such as Smith in the first place. But if they did have him, Phil Jackson would not stuff him down a rat hole on the bench.

Jackson does not mess around with trying to have someone win the Best 6th Man Award. He puts his best five players out there as starters, and he uses a large rotation, almost always 9 players and sometimes 10, with the 4-5 reserves being insurance policies for wins. The idea behind all these reserves as insurance is that you have four or even five wild card chances amongst your reservies to empower and enable a player who is "feeling it" in a particular game, and so is able to pump in 10-15 points in 10-20 minutes, and/or is able to make some brilliant stops.

Coaches: follow what Phil Jackson does! Trust me (or actually trust Phil, laugh out loud) you will win more games that way.

Another thing Mr. Karl does not understand besides the importance of offense in general is that 2-guards are supposed to be a little impulsive and headstrong and they are in most team situations supposed to be a little more concerned with offense than with defense. The position is called "shooting guard". Shooting as in what is done on offense. Get it?

Guards who are careful and thinking often and not usually instinctual and impulsive, are point guards, not shooting guards. You need both kinds of guards on your team to win the Quest.

An NBA coach, just like any coach, is supposed to make all of his players all that they can be. Sports is not about pigeonholing and red flagging players for personality characteristcs beyond their control and that have little impact on playing the game when all is said and done.

I will grant you that Karl has come a long way from two years ago, when Smith was not even allowed to play a dozen minutes a game in the Nuggets 4-1 first round loss to the Spurs. He wasn't allowed to play at all, in fact.

What a confidence booster and good development that was. Not.

Unfortunately, Mr. Karl has not come far enough with respect to J.R. Smith and, as a direct result, Smith has not come far enough and, as a direct result of that, the Nuggets lost game one of this series. One thing leads to another, you know.

More broadly, it seems at the moment that the Nuggets are going to lose this series. The number one reason will NOT be that defensive intensity and a lot of fouling is a hopeless strategy. (If that's the only way you can defend well, then you have no choice but to go for it.)

No, it seems that the Nuggets are going to lose the series because Karl and the Nuggets do not understand that basketball is NOT biased in favor of defense the way football is. Karl and the Nuggets do not understand that you can not have a substantial number of players out there who have very little role to play in the offense.



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Monday, May 18, 2009

That Team With Nine Rings to Play That Amazing Team--Lakers vs Nuggets, 2009

On every journey where almost everyone you run up against is tying to stop you from reaching the destination, you will eventually come to a river that seems too wide or too swift to cross, a mountain too towering and rocky to climb up and over, or a wilderness to big to find your way out of. The Conference finals, the final four of the NBA, have been where these kinds of almost insurmountable obstacles have been engaged and then the journey ended for dozens of very, very good and some extremely good teams over the decades.

There have been millions who have sworn that they saw NBA Champions never crowned playing and losing in some of the Conference Finals, because they were knocked off by a fluke or by unfair fate in the Conference Final.

How about for example the 2000 Portland Trailblazers, who lost to the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers in game seven of the West finals when the Lakers mounted the biggest comeback in a 7th game in history, 15 points, in the 4th quarter no less. And you thought Kobe Bryant and the Lakers had trouble this year with Aaron Brooks, Sean Battier, Ron Artest, and the Rockets? That was nothing compared to having to deal with the 2000 Blazers and their 15 point fourth quarter, game seven lead.

Conference Finals losers can be teams that may have been more talented than the ones that defeated them and that went on to the NBA Championship. They include teams that were proud, with amazing energy, amazing spirit, and amazing will to compete. Teams that were often younger, teams that had a dreamer or two, a player for example like the Nuggets’ Nene, whose dream to come to the United States and be in the NBA playoffs came true. Teams whose players did not have many fat Nike contracts, if any at all. Teams that millions swore were going to win it all. Teams that in a perfect world would never be called “the loser” of the Conference Final, but only maybe “the team that was not chosen”.

Or sometimes the Conference Final loser was and will be the team whose coaching staff did not understand the game of basketball as well as the other staff did.

Now the Nuggets have come to that river, or to that mountain, or to that wilderness. Or actually they have come up to all three at once; the Lakers are that good. They have come up to the Los Angeles “Nine Rings” Lakers. They have come up to the Great Wall of Los Angeles, formed by Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Trevor Ariza. Although probably not the biggest such Wall in NBA history, it’s the kind of wall that ordinary semifinal winners don’t get past.

ON THE QUEST TO DETERMINE HOW TO GET PAST THE WALL
What exactly separates the winners from the losers is what this site is all about. We already have made a lot of progress in identifying the real keys to winning the Quest, but there is a good distance to go still. We will produce as many reports and take as long as needed to find all of the reasons.

In the near future, we will have a page where there will be a summary, Master List of all identified factors that allow teams to win the Quest. We might call it the “How to Win the Quest for the Ring for Dummies Who Don't Have the Time to find out the Whys and the How’s". In other words, there will be a warning at the top that the devil is in the details and just knowing the summary is not going to get you very far, since you have to know how to specifically achieve those things, and since you have to know when you don't have the prerequisites to achieve one or more of them.

A FEW OF THE THINGS THE NUGGETS TAUGHT US IN 2008-09
The Nuggets, those unpredictable devils coached by someone who we sometimes think of as a blood relative of the devil, have helped this site a lot this year, by teaching us, among many other things, that:

1. You can not predict basketball winners or losers, even playoff series, weeks or months in advance. It’s not like if you are an economist predicting the unemployment rate or the gross domestic product that will be revealed at the next report, which is actually easy to get right by comparison. Injuries alone make the whole idea ridiculous, but predicting series far in advance would not work even if there were no injuries.

2. You can get one of the best defensive players in the League for almost no money, as the Nuggets did this year with Chris Andersen. All managers should donate $1,000 to charity as a penalty for not picking up the unemployed Andersen before the Nuggets did. What is wrong with you people, you 29 managements that just stood around with your hands in your pockets while the Nuggets swiped Andersen off the waiver wires for chump change, whereupon Quest made a fool of itself by reporting that the Nuggets could not go very far with Andersen, since clearly the other teams had little if any interest in him.

Well, it turned out that Andersen was the 2nd best total and per game blocker in the NBA this year, behind only Dwight Howard of the final four Magic in first. Since Andersen played only 20.6 minutes per game while Howard played 35.7 minutes per game, the true blocking leader was Andersen by a country mile; Andersen led the NBA by a massive amount in percentage of possessions resulting in his making a block.

For the overall picutre, here are the top 20 defenders according to the Basketball Reference site:

1. Dwight Howard-ORL 94.6
2. Kevin Garnett-BOS 97.5
3. LeBron James-CLE 99.1
4. Anderson Varejao-CLE 100.0
5. Kendrick Perkins-BOS 100.2
6. Tim Duncan-SAS 100.2
7. Zydrunas Ilgauskas-CLE 100.5
8. Chris Andersen-DEN 100.6
9. Yao Ming-HOU 100.8
10. Rajon Rondo-BOS 100.9
11. Lamar Odom-LAL 101.6
12. Trevor Ariza-LAL 102.1
13. Luis Scola-HOU 102.3
14. Gerald Wallace-CHA 102.4
15. Joel Przybilla-POR 102.4
16. Samuel Dalembert-PHI 102.6
17. Emeka Okafor-CHA 102.7
18. Rashard Lewis-ORL 102.8
19. Chris Paul-NOH 103.1
20. Ron Artest-HOU 103.3

You see how Chris Andersen is way, way up there, in between Yao Ming and Tim Duncan? That is some serious company. To say that Andersen was for real would be a stupid understatement.

The icing on the cake turned out to be that Andersen also converted numerous defensive rebounds to offensive rebounds and scores, by almost literally flying in from 10, 15, even 20 feet out, denying the defensive rebound to the dumbfounded would be rebounder, and stuffing it in for the score.

3. Your fans may forgive you even if you in effect declare that how you were playing the game in recent years was dumb and goofy. Or probably, it is more accurate to say that most of the fans you had back then have moved on to other interests, and now you have a new group of hardcore fans who won't know about or will make excuses about last year, and believe no matter what.

Change your scheme, and you get a whole new fan base, which makes running a sports franchise successfully far easier than I thought it was. Now I guess I know why NBA general managers are not fired all that often: their jobs are not as difficult as I was thinking.

I mean, the Nuggets' manager recently won an award for undoing the stupid mistake he made earlier, for getting rid of Allen Iverson, after he himself made the blunder of obtaining him less than two years earlier. How many awards have you won by undoing your own blunder, laugh out loud?

KARL DIDN'T LIKE HIS OWN TEAM, AND THE QUEST WAS BORN
One such 2008-09 Nuggets "super fan” would be George Karl, and I’ll tell you a secret: this was quite a reversal. Karl was not a big fan of the Nuggets in 2006-07, and he almost hated the Nuggets last year, in 2007-08. He hated his own team, apparently because he had no faith in offense winning a lot of games, and/or in his ability to coach offense.

Meanwhile, and by contrast, Quest was born as a Nuggets site in late 2006, and when the doctor slapped us in the ass and we started breathing as a basketball winning information machine, we were really, really liking the almost limitless offensive potential of those two Nuggets teams.

We followed every game, every move of those teams, and gradually grew to hate the failure of the Nuggets to do much with the offense other than watch Allen Iverson run around and take a lot of shots and make a lot of assists and get to the line a whole lot because the referees have a lot of respect for a Hall of Fame, less than six feet tall, point guard who is playing both guard pisitions at once but no one gives him credit for it since there is no such position.

But that was then and this is now.

GAME ON--TUESDAY MAY 19 2009
So go ahead Nuggets, you go out there and take your best shot against those Lakers with their metro area of over nine million people and with their nine rings. While you have less than three million and zero rings.

Try to confuse the Lakers, Coach Phil Jackson, and the referees, by having two completely different ways of playing. Sometimes you can play according to George Karl’s half insane all defense and fast breaking all the time way of playing, and sometimes you can play some real hoops, like you did in games four and five of the Mavericks series.

It appears that Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle and one of the top ten veteran players in the League, Dirk Nowitzki, were dead serious when they said that the Nuggets can advance to play in the Champjionship, most likely versus the Cavaliers. Endorsements from both the Coach and the best player don’t come along every day.

QUEST VIEW IN JANUARY, AND NOW ON THE EVE OF THE SERIES
While we still don’t think the Nuggets can get to the Championship, Quest is proud of the Nuggets and proud that this site was born as a site dedicated only to them. We’re alright with having been made to look a little foolish by predicting that the team would fall into many of George Karl’s traps, many of which are set up as a result of the man’s lack of confidence about his own teams and about the power of basketball to give the win to those who love to make hoops, regardless of supposed personality problems they may appear to have.

I mean, the man for real falls into his own traps! But the Nuggets players have lately shown some amazing ability to keep away from many of those George Karl traps.

Specifically, we predicted, way back in January, that the Nuggets would be bounced in the playoffs quickly again. We made it sound so official and authoritative, as if it definitely would happen. We were 100% convinced that the Nuggets would be limited by Karl in enough ways that they would lose again. But against the Mavericks if not before, they did a prison break out of that jail.

So all we ended up doing back in January by making it a foregone conclusion was a good job at setting ourselves up to look goofy. It was as if we were predicting the next number of jobs lost report, which you can do over 98% of the time without looking goofy, because it turns out that it is much easier to predict economics developments than it is whether a team will win a playoff series three months later.

In January we made a list of sixteen detailed reasons why the Nuggets would lose. In April! Many of the items on that list have not come to pass, as a result of this team being too smart and too athletic to fall into those traps.

On the other hand, if and when, as expected, the Nuggets lose to the Lakers, some of those reasons are sure to be involved.

But damn, all I had to do to avoid looking goofy during this whole "The Nuggets Shock America" thing was to phrase the claim this way: “The Nuggets will lose in the first round if many of the following things happen. And they will win if many of these things do not happen." But no, I had to sound like Nostradamus, laugh out loud.

It's funny how that, as well as Quest botched this up, writers who already have written millions of basketball words over more than a decade, such as David Friedman, know enough to couch all of their predictions this way: he starts all of his playoff predictions with: (name of team) will win if…, but (name of team) will win if. And he waits until just before a series starts to even do that.

That’s how we will be usually phrasing predictions in future reports, I can assure you. We made a few mistakes during your first million words, what more can I say?

But for the record, Friedman predicted the Nuggets would not get out the first round also. Laugh out loud; Mr. Five Million Words was wrong too.

Actually though, to be fair to ESPN writers, to sportswriters everywhere else, to Mr. Friedman, and to myself, I think hardly anyone in America other than a few teenagers and a few super fans in Denver predicted that the Nuggets would be playing the Lakers in the West finals this year.

THE NUGGETS' AMAZING SEASON
In the end all this Nuggets season was ever going to be about was whether the tragedy of last year would be repeated, if not in the same way in some other new, twisted way. The Nuggets went down in 2008 as the only 50 wins or more playoff team to not win a single, solitary playoff team!

The questions for this year were: Would the Nuggets quit the Quest again, during a game no less, as Carmelo Anthony realized they did last year? Would it be another sad year in general?

See Carmelo Anthony informing everyone, after game 3 in May 2008, that the Nuggets quit during the 2008 Nuggets-Lakers series, at the end of this report.

Although we knew this season could not possibly be as tragic as last year, we were convinced it was going to be another sad one. We thought that the Nuggets, having run out of money and offensive credibility, were simply not going to have the manpower to compete with teams such as the Hornets and the Mavericks.

THE GANG OF FOUR
We asked for example: is Chris Andersen anything more than a circus act, and who the heck is Dahntay Jones? We usually but not always spelled Jones’ first name right.

Andersen, Jones, the veteran Kenyon Martin, and the not as much of a little kid anymore either JR Smith were the Nuggets’ tough guys this year, the "we are going to get some stops from uncalled fouls and we don’t give a damn about it" crew.

But if that rough attitude you have with a bunch of your players is the only way you can defend, if you don’t have the best of hands for defending without fouling, and if you probably can’t get the referees to give you the calls they give to the well known defensive veterans, then you might as well defend that way, even though you most likely can not possibly win a Ring by doing that.

Another reason you can’t blame Denver for doing it though is because everyone with half a brain can realize that not all fouls are called in the NBA, and that the more aggressive and energetic a team is on defense, the more uncalled fouls they will “earn” from the zebras.

It’s as if the Nuggets were saying to the refs: “We know you won’t give us rogues many uncalled fouls individually, but we’ll operate our defense in overdrive and get a good number of uncalled fouls as a team. We will swarm you zebras with energetic and rough defending. Because maybe you will not individually but you will respect us as a team. And that will get us some wins”

And that rough and tough way of defending did get the Nuggets wins they would not have gotten otherwise, about 10-15 of them in the regular season. But as already reported, and as you will see proved in detail in the future, only a tiny number of teams have won the Quest while doing this, and all of them had a higher quality defense to go along with the rough defending.

OTHER 2009 NUGGETS
The Nuggets' center Nene played the whole year for the first time in the history of the World, and as someone who can hardly be stopped. I mean, Tim Duncan is probably happy he didn’t have to go up against the too much like a freight train to stop Brazilian.

We thought that certain players were still going to be little kids, whether or not they were benched by George “The Bencher” Karl.

But there are no little kids on the Nuggets this year, even Dahntay Jones you would hardly call a "little kid," and Karl has not forbidden anyone from playing in the playoffs this year. So the manpower has appeared out of nowhere, as has Karl liking his team for a change.

We were very happy especially that Carmelo Anthony this year proved that he is not a little kid anymore, and that he proved to be a little bit of a rebel, against his Coach to some extent. Being a man and being a little bit of a rebel are two among many prerequisites for winning the Quest. Not to mention that most teams that have won the Quest have had a player who is totally dedicated to and responsible for making hoops, with everything else paling in significance.

For the Nuggets it was not another sad year at all.

It was all just amazing.

=========================================================
CARMELO ANTHONY AFTER GAME THREE OF LAST YEAR'S 4-0 ROUT BY THE LAKERS OVER THE NUGGETS--THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN ON A PRO BASKETBALL TEAM



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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!

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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.

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TEAM CODES
ATLA Atlanta Hawks
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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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