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REPORTS--#21 THROUGH #40


Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Situation: Real Team Ratings as of March 5, 2010: the Los Angeles Lakers Regain the Lead Over Denver and Gain on the Leading Cleveland Cavaliers

REAL TEAM RATINGS
NBA 2009-10 REGULAR SEASON
AS OF MARCH 5, 2010

1 Cleveland Cavaliers 48.00
2 Los Angeles Lakers 38.20
3 Orlando Magic 33.00
4 Denver Nuggets 29.10
5 Dallas Mavericks 20.10
6 Atlanta Hawks 16.90
7 Utah Jazz 16.90
8 Boston Celtics 15.30
9 San Antonio Spurs 5.60
10 Portland Trail Blazers 5.10
11 Oklahoma City Thunder 4.70
12 Phoenix Suns -0.80
13 Charlotte Bobcats -9.30
14 Chicago Bulls -14.50
15 Miami Heat -15.00
16 Milwaukee Bucks -16.10
17 New Orleans Hornets -17.00
18 Houston Rockets -18.40
19 Memphis Grizzlies -19.70
20 Washington Wizards -30.50
21 Toronto Raptors -35.40
22 Detroit Pistons -39.20
23 Philadelphia 76ers -40.70
24 Los Angeles Clippers -43.30
25 New York Knicks -45.20
26 Indiana Pacers -48.70
27 Sacramento Kings -51.40
28 Golden State Warriors -60.20
29 Minnesota Timberwolves -70.50
30 New Jersey Nets -84.10

CONFERENCE AND LEAGUE FINALS PROJECTIONS AS OF MARCH 5, 2010
2010 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
Los Angeles Lakers over Cleveland Cavaliers 4-3

2010 NBA WEST FINAL
Los Angeles Lakers over Denver Nuggets 4-2

2010 NBA EAST FINAL
Cleveland Cavaliers over Orlando Magic 4-2

CONTENDER BREAKDOWN
Includes links to the best team performance page available on the Internet

CURRENT MAJOR CONTENDERS
Los Angeles Lakers
Cleveland Cavaliers
Orlando Magic

CURRENT WILD CARD CONTENDERS
Denver Nuggets
Boston Celtics
Dallas Mavericks

CURRENT LONG SHOT CONTENDERS
Atlanta Hawks
San Antonio Spurs
Utah Jazz

THE EAST SITUATION: CLEVELAND HAS A GOOD LEAD OVER ORLANDO
Since about the first of the year, the Celtics have consistently disappointed while the Cavaliers have surged and while the Orlando Magic have moved steadily ahead. The Celtics have had serious injury problems, so it is certainly possible that they remain at least even with the Magic at full strength. However, we decided to bump the Magic ahead of the Celtics, at least for now, due to:

--The nightmare loss by the Celtics to the worst team in the League at home: the New Jersey Nets. Probably no NBA finalist in history has ever lost to the worst team in the League at home.

--Two days earlier, on February 25, the Celtics were buried at home by the Cavaliers themselves by 20 points.

--The Orlando lead over Boston in the Real Team Ratings (above) is now almost 18 points, which together with home court advantage would make Orlando a pretty good favorite over Boston in a series. The Celtics are also 33 points behind the Cavaliers, which unless there is a big change or a miracle means the Celtics can not beat the Cavaliers in a series this year.

Among the top Celtics, power forward and historical superstar Kevin Garnett has missed 11 out of 59 games so far this year and star and small forward Paul Pierce has missed ten games so far this year. On the other hand, superstar and point guard Rajon Rondo, solid starter and shooting guard Ray Allen and starting center Kendrick Perkins have missed only one game each.

It seems that although the Celtics have been hampered somewhat by injuries, they are falling short of Cleveland and very possibly Orlando even after adjusting for injuries. The Celtics are fooling themselves if they think that just getting injury free alone will enable them to battle the Cavaliers to the end this year. Rather, even at full strength, the Celtics can probably win only three games at the very most in a best of seven against Cleveland this year, unless they ramp it up a little.

In any event, the Celtics are injury free as of the date of this report. The Orlando Magic are also injury free. The Cleveland Cavaliers are largely injury free, but they have just lost superstar center Shaquille O'Neal until sometime during the first round of the playoffs (late April). O'Neal had surgery on his sprained right thumb and will be out eight weeks. It could have been much worse: the surgery could have been a month from now in which case O'Neal would have been lost for much of the playoffs.

Moreover, O’Neal previously missed half a dozen games but the Cavaliers had little if any trouble winning without him. The returning squad from 2008-09, especially the guards and power forward Anderson Varejao, have grown very comfortable indeed playing with LeBron James in a coordinated way. The Cavaliers know full well that if any player tries to be an alpha dog on a LeBron James team other than LeBron James himself, the net result will be bad. Put yourself under the LeBron James umbrella and do your absolute best under that umbrella and it’s all good. Realize too that O'Neal plays only about 23 minutes a game when he is not injured.

The Cavaliers did make an outstanding just before the trade deadline exchange where they received Antawn Jamison (veteran Wizards star, almost a superstar) for Zydrunas Ilgauskas (more or less replaced by Shaquille O’Neill and Anderson Varejao and fading badly from prior star status.)

The Cavaliers also picked up role player and point guard Sebastian Telfair in the just before the deadline trade. Cleveland was living dangerously with just two point guards on its roster. When starting point guard Mo Williams (solid starter and possible star) was lost to the Cavaliers for about a month starting January 21, the Cavaliers were left with only one true point guard, the very young but extremely good three-point shooter Daniel Gibson. The acquisition of Telfair increased the number of point guards on the Cavaliers from two to three. Three is enough to cover the Championship run if one of them is injured. Although LeBron James can play any position very well with the possible exception of center, you don’t want to run even a small chance that there will be only one true point guard on the team for a Championship run.

Telfair by the way has not actually played for the Cavaliers yet: he has been out since January 21 due to an injury but is due back very soon.

As for Orlando, they are proof positive that being able to hit threes and not being afraid to try a good number of them are major assets. Being able to hit threes becomes even more important come playoff time. Like it or not, the three point shot is a very important factor that you try to downplay at your own peril. There are five teams that make a greater percentage of threes this year than do the Magic, including amazingly the Nuggets, but the Magic attempt and make more threes than any other team by far.

The big success of the Magic this year proves to you that as long as you are among the better three-point shooting teams, you should strongly consider firing away from beyond the arc. If you are well above average at making them, don’t be timid about trying them; you will be heavily rewarded if you are good at making them and you are not shy about trying them. The Nuggets are technically better at making threes this year than are the Magic, but they make only two thirds as many threes due to George Karl thinking that attempting a lot of them has to be a bad thing.

Losing Hedo Turkoglu did not adversely affect either the defense or the offense of the Magic. Generally speaking, the most important positions for winning playoff games are point guard and center. The Magic happen to have one of the best point guards, Jameer Nelson, and also one of the best centers, Dwight Howard.

THE WEST SITUATION: LAKERS REGAIN THE LEAD OVER THE NUGGETS
It was quite amazing when on February 2 it was seen that the Denver Nuggets had moved ahead of the Lakers by about six points. But as you can see above, the Lakers in the last month have moved past the Nuggets again and are now nine points ahead. You will see more about the Lakers in the Championship section not far below.

Although at the beginning of this season we intended to mostly cover the Celtics and the Cavaliers, that plan was scrapped when the Nuggets pulled more rabbits out of more hats. We just can not shake these Nuggets no matter how hard we try; the Nuggets are the gift that keeps on giving for a site that has adopted explaining how basketball is won and lost as mission one. For one thing, the Nuggets keep winning a very large number of regular season games and yet they continue to have a complete inability to win the most important games in the playoffs. By figuring out and explaining why, we are making major progress in our mission.

Quite honestly, for everything we actually have time to do here at Quest, there are half a dozen or more things we pledged to do but never have time to do. The yearly Production Plan has become more and more of a joke. But at least the broad outline of the editorial plan survives the rock and roll month to month progress of our project. At least we don't ever drop our adopted focus on the playoffs and especially on the Championship. And we never will, because once you start focusing on the most important games, you don't ever want to go back to those meaningless games involving the Grizzlies or the Timberwolves, laugh out loud.

For the second straight year (or the third straight if you count acquiring Iverson in December 2007) the Nuggets produced stars or at least near stars out of thin air. This year, Arron Afflalo is playing far, far better than he did for the Pistons last year. And the Timberwolves foolishly let drafted point guard Ty Lawson (think young Allen Iverson without the drama) go to Denver for a song. Even before the arrivals of Afflalo and Lawson, the Nuggets already had superstar point guard Chauncey Billups and somewhere between good role player and superstar J.R. Smith (who knows anymore, laugh out loud). The four of those players together constitute one of the very best 4-guard rosters around this year (most probably the best) and probably the best such roster in the history of the Nuggets.

If Smith could be at the higher end of his huge possible range and if Afflalo keeps hitting threes at a miracle rate and keeps defending like there is no tomorrow, this group of four guards could be enough not only to scare the Lakers but to actually defeat them if it were not for the huge problem the Nuggets have created for themselves in the paint defensively. See any of three recent Reports for extensive details of the Nuggets' defensive mess.

Looking at it pessimistically on the other hand though, Ty Lawson at the moment is out indefinitely with a bruised shoulder. And J.R. Smith sometimes seems these days like he might at any moment become one of the worst 2-guards in history. (Contrary to popular belief, this was not always so, laugh out loud.) Further, the idea of Arron Afflalo being a 45% three point shooter in the playoffs may be nothing more than fantasy. Moreover, does Chauncey Billups run a world class pro basketball offense that has a little bit of organization to it? No he does not. For all of these reasons, even the Nuggets' "guard miracle" might fizzle out before the fat lady sings this year.

If the guard miracle does in fact fizzle, and given the Nuggets' defensive mess that George Karl refuses to even recognize let alone solve, the Nuggets could be left with a quick second or even first round exit this year. The other day I was thinking, for example, that if the Nuggets finish third seed and have to play a sixth seed Phoenix Suns, they could easily lose to the Suns who for one thing will not be at any disadvantage at all from the Nuggets' pushing the pace because they push the pace even more so than the Nuggets.

Owner Marc Cuban of the Mavericks tried at the trade deadline to give his team a major shot in the arm after they tanked badly in the second half of December and in January. They lost about as many games as they won during that time and that constitutes tanking if you are a team that really wants to and theoretically might possibly be able to go to the Championship. Marc Cuban by the way, to his credit, actively tries these days to help his team more so than any other owner, and you have to much respect that.

Five days before the deadline, the Mavericks traded Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross to Washington for 2-guard / small forward Caron Butler, who has generally been a star during eight seasons, center Brendan Haywood, who has been at least a solid starter and close to a star during nine seasons, and 2-guard DeShawn Stevenson, who was poor in 2008-09 but a role player the year before, and cash considerations.

Stevenson will seldom play because both Butler and Jason Terry are much better.

Butler is a very nice and very important pick-up, but Haywood may actually be more important since the Mavericks already had good guard shooting and plenty of outside shooting thanks to power forward and historical superstar Dirk Nowitzki before the trade. My opinion was always that starting center Erick Dampier was (a) overrated by the Mavericks and (b) not good enough to enable the Mavs to win a Ring, especially since Dirk Nowitzki ranges in and out of the paint both on offense and defense, creating a big need for a star, stay at home paint defender at center. Dampier is at best a solid starter and it seems unlikely he will ever be a star in the playoffs. He was badly beaten by the Nuggets last spring.

Sure enough, the Mavericks now consider Haywood to be the starting center and Dampier to be the reserve. This is a bigger upgrade for the Mavericks than many will think. But on the other hand it remains doubtful that Haywood will be good enough in the paint, in conjunction with Nowitzki, Dampier, and reserve power forwards Tim Thomas and Eduardo Najera to enable Dallas to tangle with the awesome front court of the Lakers. Beating the Nuggets in a playoff series this year, though, has once again doable for the up and down Mavericks, who are up again right now and gaining on the Nuggets.

It could end up being the Jazz instead of the Mavericks, though, who challenge the Nuggets for second in the West. Why? Because the Jazz are cranking so well that they are even winning on the road these days; maybe Jerry Sloan is not too old after all. And meanwhile the Mavericks all of a sudden have significant injury problems:

--Reserve but important power forward Tim Thomas is apparently out for the season for family reasons. Thomas has been caring for his wife who has been suffering from serious health issues. But as discussed, the Mavericks need every good paint defender they can get.

--Reserve but very important center Erick Dampier has been out since February 17 due to a finger dislocation. He is due back by mid March, however.

--Star 2-guard Jason Terry, who now along with Caron Butler forms what is probably the best 2-guard tandem in the League, took an elbow to the face March 3 against the Timberwolves but managed to return to the game. But he will soon have surgery to repair a broken orbital bone and will be out until probably late March or early April. But like with O’Neal in Cleveland, this would have been much worse if it had happened a month later.

The rest of the injury situation in the West is that the Denver Nuggets and the moving up from the outside Utah Jazz are currently injury free.

For the Lakers, as mentioned earlier, sometimes just satisfactory and sometimes good role player Sasha Vujacic has been out since February 19. Vujacic is not expected to return until late March after suffering a grade one shoulder sprain on his right shoulder. He still can't raise his right arm and isn't allowed to shoot yet. Also, Luke Walton, who is a good to major role player who backs up Ron Artest at small forward, has been out since February 19 due to a pinched nerve in the back. When Walton will return is quite uncertain, though it seems probably he will be available for the Lakers’ Championship run. His goal is still to get back for the playoffs and then after the playoffs make a decision about surgery.

All in all, the Lakers’ injury situation is not really that bad because Jordan Farmar can sub in for Vujacic quite well and because the Lakers practically don’t need Walton given how much massive firepower they have in the front court.

THE 2010 CHAMPIONSHIP
Let's first briefly summarize how this season's Championship projections have gone. For the Championship projection we are back where we started. At the beginning of the season and again right now we think the Cavaliers will meet the Lakers in the 2010 Championship and we think the Lakers will win the series 4-3. (4-2 would not be a surprise.) But the Cavaliers got off to such a stumbling start and the Boston Celtics got off to such an extremely strong start in November that we switched our prediction to Lakers 4 Celtics 2 for the 2010 Championship in December. Then the Celtics stumbled and the Cavaliers surged in the second half of December and in January, so the next change was to Cavaliers 4 Lakers 3 which was the projection from mid January until the end of February. When the Lakers vanquished the Nuggets 95-89 in an historical come from behind victory on February 28 in LA, we switched the Championship prediction to back where it started: Lakers 4 Cavaliers 3.

The Cavaliers have about a ten point Real Team Rating lead over the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2010 Championship. However, the Lakers could end up with home court advantage and they definitely have a coaching advantage that could easily be worth about 15 or even points. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson has been working very hard recently to get the Lakers tuned up for the coming playoffs. For example, Jackson recently correctly determined that the easiest way to beat the Nuggets is to over weight plays into the paint in order to take advantage of the Nuggets' poor paint defending.

Jackson and the Lakers have, at least since their second round series against the Rockets last spring, been taking their sweet time to determine and implement winning strategies against good teams they have to beat to win a Ring. But there is a big, big difference between being a little slow to figure out how to win and never being able to figure it out at all. Bet against Phil Jackson at your own risk; we think Jackson and his Lakers will be able to contain LeBron by just enough to get his 11th Ring, while Kobe Bryant will get his 5th.

Prior to now, we were thinking the Lakers would lose in the 2010 Championship because:

--The Lakers had poor guard play (other than Kobe Bryant)
--Phil Jackson didn't seem to know how to beat the Nuggets with their improbably jam packed with raw talent lineup yet
--Pau Gasol had serious injury problems
--Except for Kobe, the Lakers offense in general and passing game in particular was lagging. The defense was top notch but the offense was sagging pretty badly.

All of these things have been improving or are completely resolved with the possible exception of the first. One of the potentially better Laker guards, Sasha Vujacic, is now out indefinitely due to a sprained shoulder and that certainly does not help matters in the LA back court. But Kobe Bryant is certainly capable of making up for a back court that is poor to fair except for him. He's that good whether or not he is quite the all time best guard, which is debatable.

Remember, the Championship has a unique home court pattern. Instead of 2-2-1-1-1, the pattern is 2-3-2. This means that the team which has home court advantage can win the series at home either in game six or in game seven. The team without home court advantage in the Championship will often have to win the series on the road since the majority of Championships go for six or seven games. In order for the team that does not have home court advantage to win the series at home, they would have to win either game one or game two on the road and then win all three straight games home (games three through five). Home court advantage in the NBA playoffs is worth slightly more than home court advantage in the other series as a result of this oddity. Even if the team with the advantage loses one of the first two games, it will usually be very unlikely that it will lose three straight on the road, so at worse it will be 3-2 in favor of the other team when the series returns to the building of the team with the home court advantage. So the team with the advantage can still win the series in that scenario by winning games six and seven at home.

Should Cleveland get home court advantage, we are predicting that the Lakers will win one of the two games in Cleveland or, less likely will lose them but then win all three in LA and then win the Ring in either game six or game seven in Cleveland. Should LA get home court advantage, we are predicting that LA will win both of the first two games and then one of the three straight games in Cleveland, leaving them with the relatively easy task of winning either game six or game seven in LA. In short, we think the series is going to be close but we think the Lakers will have enough to prevail against LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

We could be wrong and this is not a guarantee of any kind. Injuries can and often do make projections such as this completely off. We just do these projections for the how the Quest is won information value of them.

THE ALL IMPORTANT, AWARD WINNING USER GUIDE
For complete details regarding how the Real Team Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

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

ESPN NBA Message Board

LAKERS SIGN IN HOLLYWOOD

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

>>>I WANT TO STICK WITH THE WAY OTHER SITES PRESENT POSTS
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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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QUEST REPORTS #81 TO #100 GOING BACK IN TIME

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VIDEOS

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

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MOST RECENT LEAGUE WIDE REAL PLAYER RATINGS

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

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

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

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

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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