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REPORTS--#21 THROUGH #40


Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Denver Nuggets have Defensive Problems and the Solution is Sitting on the Bench

The Nuggets are following about the same defensive strategy as last year: aggressive and extra energetic, heavy fouling, a lot of switching, and mostly man to man with little zone. Interestingly though, the results have been different.

So far in 2009-10, the Denver Nuggets, for the first time in at least several years, have a very good perimeter defense. Players such as Aaron Afflalo, J.R. Smith, Chauncey Billups, and Ty Lawson are getting the perimeter defense done with some help from Nuggets forwards and centers.

But the Nuggets’ paint defense is very poor so far. The Nuggets are giving up far more back door layups and paint defense breakdowns than last year. Man to man defending in the paint is not as good this year as last. The defensive situation is basically the reverse of last year vis a vis perimeter versus paint.

For dependable playoffs wins, you need to have a more balanced defense than the Nuggets have this year. Worse for the Nuggets, if you have to be stuck with one or the other, its somewhat better to have a porous perimeter defense and a solid paint defense than the other way around. To sum it up bluntly, you absolutely must defend the paint well in the playoffs.

As a result of their weakness in crucial paint defending, the Nuggets overall are not as good defensively so far this year as they were last year.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets’ relatively poor defensive rebounding has been made even worse by the poor paint defending of the team. After Marcus Camby was given away by the owner due to the economics emergency, the Nuggets overnight went from being a great defensive rebounding team to a relatively poor one. They have never recovered, because none of the primary centers and forwards are great defensive rebounders, and a secondary problem is that Nuggets’ guards are not getting all of the rebounds that guards should get.

To solve the rebounding problem, the Nuggets have to get their guards to get more rebounds (which is reasonable to ask for since the paint defense breaks down so much) and they have to play power forward Renaldo Balkman more, who is an outstanding rebounder and an outstanding man to man defender.

Getting Carmelo Anthony to rebound more is a possibility too, but since Anthony has taken the offense on his back (and it was smart for him to do that) you don’t want him to start worrying about exactly how many rebounds he gets. Not to mention that Anthony will never be a great rebounder regardless of how much effort he puts into it. The costs exceed the benefits with respect to demanding that Anthony gets many more defensive rebounds.

The best defensive rebounders on the team are both sitting on the bench all the time: Renaldo Balkman and center Johan Petro. Nene and Chris Andersen are solid but not spectacular, but Kenyon Martin is a sub par rebounder at least as far as the playoffs are concerned and, as almost everyone knows, Carmelo Anthony is not even a good defensive rebounder. He is mediocre at best.

So we need to come back to Balkman: he is the solution to multiple problems that the Nuggets are having on defense right now. Renaldo Balkman is an excellent man to man paint defender and an excellent rebounder. Balkman is better at both of those things than Chris Andersen, but he is less popular in Denver so for that stupid reason Andersen plays and Balman does not. But the Nuggets need both of them.

Offensively, Balkman is similar to Chris Andersen: he fits in with the Nuggets’ fast breaking and free wheeling offense. Like Andersen, he gets a lot of offensive put backs, he can initiate or finish a fast break, he chooses shots wisely, and he can dunk the ball well. He is by no stretch a zero (or a very low number) offensively.

WILL THE NUGGETS SOLVE THEIR DEFENSIVE WEAKNESS BY PLAYING BALKMAN?
Will the Nuggets improve their poor rebounding and porous paint defending in order to shore up their defense, which in turn gives them a decent chance for a rematch with the Lakers in the 2010 West final? Most likely not; because Balkman is on the bench. And once George Karl has more or less benched someone in November, in most cases that player is more or less benched for the season.

Sure, Karl will once in a blue moon play a more or less benched player such as Balkman. He has to play such a player when there is an injury or two. But on those occasions the player will be judged far more critically than players who were never in that black hole known as the George Karl bench. So inevitably it will be back to the bench with that player after a game or a few games, unless there is a long term injury situation.

Do you remember that song “Hotel California”? “You can check out any time, but you can never leave”. That’s George Karl’s bench. A player on Karl’s bench can check out for a game or two or three, but he can’t completely break free from that bench until at least the following season.

Moreover, Karl consistently is biased in favor of reserves who are guards, particularly point guards and especially, although this may be just a coincidence, short point guards. Since overall Karl is not at all generous with playing time for reserves, you can deduce quickly that forwards who are not starters can end up very deep on the bench, which is precisely where Renaldo Balkman is this year.

But last year, Karl was a defensive animal more so than this year, and Balkman played, and Balkman had a very, very high Real Player Rating:

Carmelo Anthony DEN 0.901
Nene Hilario DEN 0.880
Chauncey Billups DEN 0.870
Chris Andersen DEN 0.835
J.R. Smith DEN 0.824
Renaldo Balkman DEN 0.815
Kenyon Martin DEN 0.754
Anthony Carter DEN 0.669
Linas Kleiza DEN 0.610
Dahntay Jones DEN 0.445

Balkman most definitely deserves a lot more playing time. More importantly, the Nuggets’ defense definitely needs Balkman to get a lot more playing time.

The Nuggets, despite the fact they use offensive strategies that are destined to fail sooner or later in the playoffs, are chock loaded with offensive talent. They have more than enough scorers. They can definitely afford to reduce the playing times of two or three guards. One possibility is that George Karl has a very bad habit of playing two point guards at once and, if he just stopped that, he would open up a good chunk of playing time for Balkman.

So far, since the strengths and weaknesses of the Nuggets’ defense have flipped around, opposing teams have not yet taken full advantage of the Nuggets’ poor paint defending. Opposing teams are still thinking that you can't score easily against the Nuggets in the paint. Soon though, it will be common knowledge around the League that unlike last year you can beat the Nuggets in the paint, at which time the Nuggets will be in much more jeopardy than they are now.

The bottom line: get Balkman in there now, Nuggets, or pay an increasing price as the season goes along. You have no chance of winning the West final with your defensive rebounding and paint defending the way it is now.

SUNS CHEATED AGAIN; COACH TOSSED WHEN HE PROTESTS
For the second straight year, the Phoenix Suns were cheated out of overtime and a very possible victory in Denver. This year’s annual “Suns are Cheated in Denver Game” was on Saturday night, December 12. Phoenix Coach Alvin Gentry was thrown out of the game with a few seconds left for going ballistic after Steve Nash drove through the porous Denver Nuggets paint defense and was fouled repeatedly by Nene. The only problem is: there was no foul called. So Nash could neither finish his layup nor make his free throws and the Suns could not tie the score. For the second straight year, a Phoenix at Denver overtime game was truncated into a Denver victory.

Last year, Dahntay Jones tripped Grant Hill going in for the tying score and there was no foul call.

Although so far it’s not as extreme as it was last year as far as the rate or, of course, the total number of improbable or lucky wins goes, the Nuggets are this year once again racking up lucky wins, often with unwitting, we hope accidental assistance from the referees. The Nuggets have won at least four disputable games so far, at least half of which should have been losses. Believe it or not, so far, this year’s disputable win rate is lower than last year’s. Last year's Nuggets disputable, controversial win rate was nothing short of science fiction.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Real Player Ratings for the 2009 West Final, Game 3: Lakers 103 Nuggets 97

Editorial Notice: Quest for the Ring will be between now and the end of 2009 providing a complete Real Player Rating Series Report, like the one below, for each and every 2009 West Final game, for each and every 2009 East Final game, and for each game in the 2009 NBA Final Series. The Mavericks-Nuggets West Semifinal series is also being covered this way in full.

Following the posting of the Real Player Ratings Series Reports, we will post the Real Game Ratings Reports for all of these games. Following these Real Game Ratings, which were just created in the spring of 2009 and which have hardly appeared on Quest at all yet, we will pick some games to focus on for full scale text Reports. In the text reports, we will of course as appropriate make use of and link back to the completed performance measure reports.

Quest for the Ring, as of spring 2009, has realistically and strategically decided to concentrate its advanced performance measurement, reporting, and analysis capabilities on the games that matter the most each year in the NBA: the conference final games and the NBA Championship games.


USER GUIDE
The Real Player Rating User Guide is a necessary reference for anyone who wants to truly understand the value of, the validity of, and the ways you can use the following measures. Moreover, 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.

WEST FINAL 2009 GAME THREE
MAY 23 2009 IN DENVER, CO
LOS ANGELES LAKERS 103 DENVER NUGGETS 97
LAKERS LEAD THE SERIES 2-1

BASIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS
The adjustment for hidden defending is not valid for individual games.

LAKERS BASIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Kobe Bryant, SG 1.206
Trevor Ariza, SF 0.799
Pau Gasol, PF 0.641
Shannon Brown, PG 0.314
Lamar Odom, PF 0.295
Derek Fisher, PG 0.290
Andrew Bynum, C 0.257
Luke Walton, SF 0.171
Sasha Vujacic, SG 0.120
Jordan Farmar, PG 0.114

NUGGETS BASIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Chris Andersen, C 1.075
Linas Kleiza, SF 0.949
Chauncey Billups, PG 0.711
Dahntay Jones, SG 0.690
J.R. Smith, SG 0.582
Nene, C 0.485
Carmelo Anthony, SF 0.475
Kenyon Martin, PF 0.206
Anthony Carter, PG 0.192


COMBINED SORT BASIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Kobe Bryant, LAL SG 1.206
Chris Andersen, DEN C 1.075
Linas Kleiza, DEN SF 0.949
Trevor Ariza, LAL SF 0.799
Chauncey Billups, DEN PG 0.711
Dahntay Jones, DEN SG 0.690
Pau Gasol, LAL PF 0.641
J.R. Smith, DEN SG 0.582
Nene, DEN C 0.485
Carmelo Anthony, DEN SF 0.475
Shannon Brown, LAL PG 0.314
Lamar Odom, LAL PF 0.295
Derek Fisher, LAL PG 0.290
Andrew Bynum, LAL C 0.257
Kenyon Martin, DEN PF 0.206
Anthony Carter, DEN PG 0.192
Luke Walton, LAL SF 0.171
Sasha Vujacic, LAL SG 0.120
Jordan Farmar, LAL PG 0.114

EVALUATION SCALE FOR BASIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS FOR A SINGLE GAME
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 0.800 0.899
Very Good Player: A Solid Starter 0.700 0.799
Major Role Player / Good Enough to Start 0.600 0.699
Good Role Player / Often a Good 6th Man 0.500 0.599
Satisfactory Role Player 0.425 0.499
Marginal Role Player 0.350 0.424
Poor Player 0.275 0.349
Very Poor Player 0.200 0.274
Extremely Poor Player .199 and less

--------------------------------------------
REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
Basic Real Player Production
The adjustment for hidden defending is not valid for individual games

LAKERS BASIC REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
Kobe Bryant, SG 49.46
Pau Gasol, PF 27.58
Trevor Ariza, SF 25.55
Lamar Odom, PF 8.85
Derek Fisher, PG 7.53
Andrew Bynum, C 5.39
Shannon Brown, PG 2.51
Luke Walton, SF 2.40
Jordan Farmar, PG 1.59
Sasha Vujacic, SG 1.44

NUGGETS BASIC REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
Chauncey Billups, PG 28.43
Chris Andersen, C 25.79
Carmelo Anthony, SF 17.56
J.R. Smith, SG 15.13
Nene, C 15.03
Linas Kleiza, SF 13.29
Dahntay Jones, SG 11.73
Kenyon Martin, PF 7.20
Anthony Carter, PG 2.88


COMBINED SORT BASIC REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
Kobe Bryant, LAL SG 49.46
Chauncey Billups, DEN PG 28.43
Pau Gasol, LAL PF 27.58
Chris Andersen, DEN C 25.79
Trevor Ariza, LAL SF 25.55
Carmelo Anthony, DEN SF 17.56
J.R. Smith, DEN SG 15.13
Nene, DEN C 15.03
Linas Kleiza, DEN SF 13.29
Dahntay Jones, DEN SG 11.73
Lamar Odom, LAL PF 8.85
Derek Fisher, LAL PG 7.53
Kenyon Martin, DEN PF 7.20
Andrew Bynum, LAL C 5.39
Anthony Carter, DEN PG 2.88
Shannon Brown, LAL PG 2.51
Luke Walton, LAL SF 2.40
Jordan Farmar, LAL PG 1.59
Sasha Vujacic, LAL SG 1.44

============== SUB RATINGS ==============
OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
All Tracked Offensive Plays

LAKERS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Kobe Bryant, SG 1.032
Trevor Ariza, SF 0.601
Pau Gasol, PF 0.341
Lamar Odom, PF 0.254
Jordan Farmar, PG 0.069
Derek Fisher, PG 0.051
Shannon Brown, PG 0.050
Sasha Vujacic, SG -0.082
Andrew Bynum, C -0.107
Luke Walton, SF -0.109

NUGGETS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Dahntay Jones, SG 0.772
Chris Andersen, C 0.660
J.R. Smith, SG 0.597
Chauncey Billups, PG 0.424
Linas Kleiza, SF 0.411
Nene, C 0.361
Carmelo Anthony, SF 0.273
Anthony Carter, PG 0.172
Kenyon Martin, PF 0.087


COMBINED SORT OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Kobe Bryant, LAL SG 1.032
Dahntay Jones, DEN SG 0.772
Chris Andersen, DEN C 0.660
Trevor Ariza, LAL SF 0.601
J.R. Smith, DEN SG 0.597
Chauncey Billups, DEN PG 0.424
Linas Kleiza, DEN SF 0.411
Nene, DEN C 0.361
Pau Gasol, LAL PF 0.341
Carmelo Anthony, DEN SF 0.273
Lamar Odom, LAL PF 0.254
Anthony Carter, DEN PG 0.172
Kenyon Martin, DEN PF 0.087
Jordan Farmar, LAL PG 0.069
Derek Fisher, LAL PG 0.051
Shannon Brown, LAL PG 0.050
Sasha Vujacic, LAL SG -0.082
Andrew Bynum, LAL C -0.107
Luke Walton, LAL -0.109

-----------------------------------
DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
All Tracked Defensive Plays
Does not include hidden defending because procedure is invalid at game level.

LAKERS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Andrew Bynum, C 0.364
Pau Gasol, PF 0.300
Luke Walton, SF 0.281
Shannon Brown, PG 0.264
Derek Fisher, PG 0.239
Sasha Vujacic, SG 0.202
Trevor Ariza, SF 0.198
Kobe Bryant, SG 0.174
Jordan Farmar, PG 0.044
Lamar Odom, PF 0.041


NUGGETS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Linas Kleiza, SF 0.539
Chris Andersen, C 0.415
Chauncey Billups, PG 0.287
Carmelo Anthony, SF 0.201
Nene, C 0.124
Kenyon Martin, PF 0.119
Anthony Carter, PG 0.020
J.R. Smith, SG -0.015
Dahntay Jones, SG -0.082


COMBINED SORT DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
Linas Kleiza, DEN SF 0.539
Chris Andersen, DEN C 0.415
Andrew Bynum, LAL C 0.364
Pau Gasol, LAL PF 0.300
Chauncey Billups, DEN PG 0.287
Luke Walton, LAL SF 0.281
Shannon Brown, LAL PG 0.264
Derek Fisher, LAL PG 0.239
Sasha Vujacic, LAL SG 0.202
Carmelo Anthony, DEN SF 0.201
Trevor Ariza, LAL SF 0.198
Kobe Bryant, LAL SG 0.174
Nene, DEN C 0.124
Kenyon Martin, DEN PF 0.119
Jordan Farmar, LAL PG 0.044
Lamar Odom, LAL PF 0.041
Anthony Carter, DEN PG 0.020
J.R. Smith, DEN SG -0.015
Dahntay Jones, DEN SG -0.082

-----------------------------------------
USER GUIDE
The Real Player Rating User Guide is a necessary reference for anyone who wants to truly understand the value of, the validity of, and the ways you can use the following measures. Moreover, 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.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It's all Good now that Allen Iverson is Back Home Again

Home is where the heart is, so home in Philadelphia is where you will now find Allen Iverson, who still in 2009 is the heart of basketball. Iverson is not the greatest team player in history, but Iverson haters and anyone else for that matter who thinks that basketball is a team sport only are very, very wrong. Basketball is a team and an individual sport at the same time, you silly fools. I ask the Iverson haters and basketball fools: can’t you walk and chew gum at the same time? Can’t you see that Rings are won by teams that have both high quality team play and historical superstar individual players? You need to find another sport if you disagree with this, because this is how it is and this is how it always will be while basketball is being played.

Iverson was punked by the Denver Nuggets, treated as a marketing asset and not as a weapon to try to win a Championship with. Detroit was even worse: the Pistons not only punked Iverson, but they punked all their players and all their fans for that matter. The Pistons totally threw away their 2008-09 season as they hunkered down awaiting the summer of 2010 free agency gold mine.

You never, ever throw away a season if you ever want to win a Ring, but Detroit did just that. Iverson quit Detroit late in that season, but even players who were still playing had partially quit. For example, Rasheed Wallace was only about 3/4 the player for Detroit in 2008-09 that he is now for 2010 Ring front-runner Boston. Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, Aaron Afflalo, and even Richard Hamilton didn’t go all out because General Manager Joe Dumars stupidly announced long before that season started that Detroit was in rebuilding mode, that all current Pistons might stay or go in the summer of 2010 depending on who knows what, and that the bulk of the rebuilding would take place in the summer of 2010. The coach, Michael Curry, was a rookie who never quit rearranging his lineups and rotations the whole season long; Curry literally was unable to decide which lineup and which rotations were the best. Is there really all that much to play for after that kind of announcement from the General Manager and with that kind of inept Coach (who of course was fired after the season)?

One can only hope that Dumars’ team fails to become a winning team even in 2010-11, after he picks up a big star or two, which will emphasize the points that you never ever waste a season, that you never ever announce rebuilding way in advance, and that you never ever assume your rebuilding is going to work out. Dumars needs to be taught a lesson that no one will ever forget.

So Iverson quit the Pistons in March 2009, but we know as fact that he was quitting a team that had quit as a whole. So Iverson was entirely logical to quit, which isn’t the first time he has been logical. Iverson is logical all the time, but he is not strategic. He sometimes does things that are logical in a narrow sense, but are counterproductive in an overall sense. Iverson is never going to coach basketball. He thinks well and correctly, but not strategically. He misses the forest for the trees sometimes.

If there ever was a great player who desperately needed quality coaching, Iverson is that one, but he never had a quality coach who really knew what he was doing with respect to him. He was cheated badly in that respect; his coaches all failed to coach him correctly.

Those who see the whole forest can think strategically. Coaches are supposed to think strategically, but some fail at this, either because they don’t think strategically either, or because they just are not any good at picking out the best strategy out of many possibilities. Phil Jackson picks out one of the best strategies to get things done on the basketball court and George Karl sometimes (often?) picks out one of the not so good strategies. Jackson wins Rings and Karl doesn’t. Strategies are very important.

I checked the depth charts on December 7, 2009, the day Iverson was to play for the Philadelphia 76’ers for the first time since exactly three years ago in 2006. ESPN did not have Iverson on the 76’ers depth chart at all yet, but CBS Sportsline showed Iverson as the starting point guard. Not the starting 2-guard, but the starting point guard. The media has through the years time and again showed Iverson as a point guard, but coaches making errors (by themselves or on orders from owners or general managers) have persisted from time to time in removing his point guard designation, foisting him onto the shooting guard position, and thus making a mess of both Iverson’s game and a bigger mess of the team offense.

Iverson has been repeatedly cheated and badly coached by a series of mistaken coaches, who, remember, are total dictators. A player can not refuse to play a position for any reason; Iverson is not at fault for refusing to play 2-guard; all players have to and always do play whatever position they are assigned to by the dictator coaches. Whether Iverson would have insisted on continuing at point guard had he had the power to do so is an interesting question that we will never know the answer to.

THE SPECIAL REPORT
This article is just an outline of the full treatment of this subject, which is found in a partly completed Quest Special Report: “Allen Iverson, What Could Have Been”. We are re-editing the existing chapters in that Report and will be adding many more chapters. We are going to make a complete record on how Iverson’s career and how was cheated out of a real chance to win a Championship Ring. And we are going to in great detail explain just how idiotic the Iverson haters are. Because there is so much other work going on, this is going to take a year or two, three years at the most, but I guarantee you this project will eventually be completed.

HOME IS BY FAR THE BEST PLACE TO BE
So Iverson was cheered greatly in Philly on December 7, 2009 like he was for years and years before. He was starting point guard for the 76’ers just like he was at the start of his rookie year in 1996. Before Larry Brown came along and fouled things up after he decided to fight Allen Iverson rather than meet him half way.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Iverson was jerked from 1-guard to 2-guard, which eventually led to his being jerked from Philadelphia to Denver and then from Denver to Detroit. Now he is back where it all began, and where it was always supposed to be.

There was never any position and place for Iverson that could work other than point guard in Philadelphia. Iverson could have been a point guard in Denver, but Denver did not have the quality coaching to bring that about. So Iverson was and is like a rare and extremely valuable rock in the earth that is only found in one place. Any other position or place was doomed to failure.

But Iverson as point guard in Philadelphia was gold and was priceless. Had Larry Brown not wimped out and lashed out during his temper tantrums over Iverson and made the idiotic decision to move Iverson to 2-guard, the 76’ers most likely would have won at least one Ring with Iverson at point guard in Philadelphia. When Brown moved Iverson to 2-guard, it was like a Russian czar banishing someone to Siberia.

Iverson at 1-guard was how it was supposed to be according to what basketball actually, really is: a combination of a team game and an individual game. You need both a quality team game and players who can score one on one regardless of the defending. Iverson always knew this, Larry Brown not so much, and George Karl definitely not.

While playing both guard positions at once in the 2001 playoffs, Iverson took the 76’ers to the Championship and lost to Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, point guard Derek Fisher, and Coach Phil Jackson. That the 76’ers were even in that Championship was a miracle due to Iverson and Iverson alone. Just a few years earlier, the year before Iverson was first draft pick for them, the 76’ers were the worst team in basketball, a team that could not even win 20 games. This was a team even worse than recent Memphis Grizzlies teams. Iverson moved that pathetic 76'ers team up zillions of miles; he’ll get Hall of Fame just for that unheard of achievement alone.

Basketball was stale and kind of boring before in 2001 Iverson had the 76’ers in the Championship. The guy who lost the election was nevertheless the President, the economic boom of the Clinton years had come to a close, and in general society was teetering on the brink of disaster. In that year, most people were deciding to not believe in things anymore: to tune out and to chill out. But there was Iverson playing basketball the way anyone with historic one on one skills should play it, wrong position and all, a short 5 feet 11 ½ inches and all, bad team and all. Iverson was in effect playing with one hand behind his back, or else he was like two players in one, I’m not quite sure which is the better way to look at it.

But he was still the best and he was still taking the 76’ers to the brink of the most improbable, no, the most impossible ring you could ever imagine. It was impossible that the 76’ers, just a few years removed from 18-64 the year before Iverson arrived could even be in the Championship, let alone win it. Yet there they were, and there was Iverson; who other than the haters will ever forget it?

Iverson saved basketball from being stale, he turned on millions of fans, he developed a world-wide following which exists to this day, and he made a lot of money for a lot of people. Allen Iverson was basketball, still is basketball, and he will be basketball forever.

Now MVP, (future) Hall of Fame, and career 76’er point guard Iverson has come home. The haters are irrelevant again; they are just a bunch of jerks who don’t deserve the time of day. Meanwhile, Larry Brown is irrelevant now too; he currently is in charge of the worst offense in the League (Charlotte Bobcats) because for one thing he doesn’t fully appreciate what point guards can do.

All is right with basketball again now that Allen Iverson is back home.
























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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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

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

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

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

Blog Archive


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


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

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

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

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

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE

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

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



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


WORD IS BOND

WELCOME TO THE QUEST--THINGS ARE VERY DIFFERENT HERE

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

QUEST REPORTS #81 TO #100 GOING BACK IN TIME

RECOMMENDED SCHOOL--CLICK FOR DETAILS


VIDEOS

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

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

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

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

MOST RECENT LEAGUE WIDE REAL PLAYER RATINGS

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

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

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

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

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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