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TOP NBA POINT GUARDS OF 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the leading point guards of the NBA in 2011-2012 ranked according to number of plays made per 36 minutes playing time. This is "AST" in the chart. The assists and all other items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

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This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the best point guards in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player               Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB DRB  AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Steve Nash PHO 1961 5.4 10.2 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.5 2.9 12.2 0.7 0.1 4.2 1.0 14.2 .532 .390 .894
Rajon Rondo BOS 1957 4.7 10.5 0.2 0.8 2.0 3.3 1.1 3.6 11.4 1.7 0.1 3.6 1.8 11.6 .448 .238 .597
Jose Calderon TOR 1799 4.4 9.5 1.2 3.2 1.2 1.4 0.4 2.8 9.4 0.9 0.1 2.1 1.9 11.1 .457 .371 .882
Chris Paul LAC 2181 7.0 14.7 1.3 3.5 4.3 5.0 0.7 2.8 9.0 2.5 0.1 2.0 2.3 19.6 .478 .371 .861
Andre Miller DEN 1809 4.8 11.0 0.4 1.7 2.7 3.4 1.1 3.3 8.8 1.3 0.2 3.5 2.6 12.7 .438 .217 .811
Tony Parker SAS 1923 8.0 16.7 0.3 1.1 4.2 5.3 0.4 2.8 8.7 1.1 0.1 2.9 1.4 20.5 .480 .230 .799
Jamaal Tinsley UTA 507 4.0 10.0 0.7 2.6 0.9 1.2 0.4 2.8 8.7 1.2 0.6 3.7 3.3 9.7 .404 .270 .765
Deron Williams NJN 1999 7.0 17.3 2.1 6.2 4.6 5.5 0.4 2.9 8.7 1.2 0.4 3.9 2.2 20.8 .407 .336 .843
Ricky Rubio MIN 1404 3.6 10.0 0.8 2.4 3.2 4.0 0.5 3.8 8.6 2.3 0.2 3.4 2.5 11.2 .357 .340 .803
Jonny Flynn TOT 416 4.0 11.3 0.9 2.9 2.5 3.4 0.7 2.7 8.3 0.5 0.2 3.1 2.0 11.3 .351 .294 .744
Jeremy Lin NYK 940 6.5 14.7 0.9 2.9 5.6 7.0 0.7 3.4 8.3 2.1 0.3 4.8 3.0 19.6 .446 .320 .798
Baron Davis NYK 595 4.1 11.1 1.6 5.1 1.0 1.5 0.8 2.6 8.2 2.1 0.2 4.6 3.7 10.8 .370 .306 .667
Jose Barea MIN 1032 5.8 14.6 1.8 5.0 2.7 3.4 0.5 3.5 8.1 0.7 0.0 3.6 2.1 16.2 .400 .371 .776
Derrick Rose CHI 1375 7.9 18.2 1.4 4.5 5.1 6.3 0.7 2.7 8.0 0.9 0.7 3.1 1.4 22.3 .435 .312 .812
John Wall WAS 2386 5.7 13.5 0.0 0.6 4.8 6.1 0.7 3.8 8.0 1.4 0.9 3.8 2.1 16.2 .423 .071 .789
D.J. Augustin CHA 1408 4.7 12.5 1.6 4.6 2.7 3.1 0.6 2.2 7.8 0.9 0.0 2.8 1.7 13.6 .376 .341 .875
Beno Udrih MIL 1080 4.9 11.1 0.6 2.0 1.3 1.8 0.9 2.5 7.6 1.2 0.0 2.6 2.3 11.6 .440 .288 .709
Greivis Vasquez NOH 1706 4.7 11.0 0.9 2.8 2.0 2.5 0.5 3.2 7.6 1.3 0.2 3.1 2.7 12.4 .430 .319 .821
Earl Watson UTA 1033 1.9 5.6 0.3 1.8 1.1 1.6 1.0 3.2 7.6 1.9 0.8 3.0 3.7 5.2 .338 .192 .674
Ramon Sessions TOT 1707 5.1 11.9 0.9 2.0 4.1 5.2 0.7 3.8 7.5 0.9 0.1 3.0 2.1 15.2 .428 .443 .782
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Raymond Felton POR 1906 4.9 12.1 1.2 3.8 1.9 2.3 0.5 2.3 7.4 1.5 0.2 3.2 2.3 12.9 .407 .305 .806
Kyle Lowry HOU 1510 5.0 12.2 1.9 5.0 4.1 4.7 0.9 4.2 7.4 1.7 0.3 3.1 3.2 16.0 .409 .374 .864
Goran Dragic HOU 1752 5.7 12.3 1.4 4.2 3.1 3.9 1.1 2.4 7.2 1.7 0.2 3.2 3.4 15.9 .462 .337 .805
Nate Robinson GSW 1192 6.2 14.6 2.0 5.5 2.8 3.4 0.5 2.6 7.0 1.8 0.1 2.3 3.6 17.2 .424 .365 .832
Manu Ginobili SAS 792 6.8 13.0 2.4 5.7 4.0 4.6 0.8 4.5 6.9 1.1 0.5 2.9 2.5 20.0 .526 .413 .871
Charles Jenkins GSW 893 5.2 11.7 0.1 0.8 1.4 1.6 0.3 2.4 6.9 1.3 0.2 2.4 3.4 12.0 .447 .150 .872
Jason Kidd DAL 1379 2.6 7.1 2.1 5.8 0.6 0.7 0.4 4.8 6.9 2.1 0.3 2.4 2.2 7.8 .363 .354 .786
Jameer Nelson ORL 1706 5.5 12.8 1.8 4.9 1.5 1.9 0.6 3.2 6.9 0.8 0.1 2.8 2.7 14.3 .427 .377 .807
Stephen Curry GSW 732 7.1 14.6 2.7 6.0 1.9 2.3 0.7 3.6 6.8 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.0 18.8 .490 .455 .809
Ty Lawson DEN 2124 6.3 13.0 1.2 3.4 3.0 3.7 0.9 2.9 6.8 1.4 0.1 2.5 1.6 16.9 .488 .365 .824
Mike Conley MEM 2174 4.9 11.3 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.4 2.2 6.7 2.3 0.2 2.1 2.2 13.0 .433 .377 .861
Jarrett Jack NOH 1530 6.3 13.7 0.9 2.6 3.0 3.5 0.5 3.6 6.7 0.7 0.2 2.5 2.2 16.5 .456 .348 .872
Devin Harris UTA 1741 5.0 11.2 1.6 4.4 3.2 4.3 0.2 2.1 6.5 1.3 0.3 2.5 2.8 14.8 .445 .362 .746
Kyrie Irving CLE 1558 8.1 17.3 1.7 4.2 4.0 4.5 1.0 3.4 6.4 1.2 0.5 3.7 2.5 21.8 .469 .399 .872
C.J. Watson CHI 1159 5.0 13.6 2.1 5.4 2.6 3.2 0.7 2.6 6.2 1.4 0.2 3.0 3.2 14.7 .368 .393 .808
Shelvin Mack WAS 779 4.1 10.2 0.6 1.9 1.9 2.7 0.6 3.7 6.1 1.3 0.1 2.2 2.3 10.6 .400 .286 .712
Jerryd Bayless TOR 705 6.0 14.1 2.2 5.3 3.8 4.5 0.4 3.0 6.0 1.2 0.2 2.7 3.6 18.0 .424 .423 .852
LeBron James MIA 2326 9.6 18.1 0.8 2.3 6.0 7.8 1.5 6.2 6.0 1.8 0.8 3.3 1.5 26.0 .531 .362 .771



Saturday, November 3, 2007

Game Preview: Nov.4: Hornets at Nuggets

NOTE: I'll use 2006-07 stats for the Nuggets for the first 5 games of the season.

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS

KEY
POS. NO. PLAYER
HEIGHT WEIGHT
PPG RPG APG (Points, Rebounds, & Assists Per Game)
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
2006-07: 28.9 6.0 3.8
The first Nugget to score 30+ points in the first two games of the year since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in 95-96.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
Career: 14.8 7.4 2.2
Has recorded 11 of his 13 total points and seven of his 10 total rebounds during the first half in the first two games.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2006-07: 11.2 11.7 3.2
Recorded his 21st career 20-rebound performance (16th as a Nugget) with 21 rebounds at Minnesota on 11/2.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2006-07: 2.1 1.7 0.9
Failed to score in seven minutes of action at Minnesota on 11/2.


Point Guard 3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2006-07: 24.8 3.0 7.2
Made 15-16 free throws at Minnesota on 11/2 and is now shooting .880 (22-25) from the foul line this season.


HORNETS PROBABLE STARTERS

KEY
POSITION NUMBER PLAYER
HEIGHT WEIGHT
2007-08 AVERAGES (2 Games)
HIGHLIGHT NOTE


Small Forward #16 PEJA STOJAKOVIC
6-10 229
2007-08 AVERAGES: 18.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 31.2 mpg
Note: Scored 18 points, including four three-pointers, 11/2 vs. POR…had 19 points 10/31 vs. SAC, shooting 7-of-12 from the field.


Power Forward #30 DAVID WEST
6-9 240
2007-08 AVERAGES: 15.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 28.5 mpg
Note: Had 17 points for the second-straight game 11/2 vs. POR…also had three steals and two rebounds vs. POR…scored 17 points and had eight rebounds 10/31 vs. SAC.


Center #6 TYSON CHANDLER
7-1 245
2007-08 AVERAGES: 12.5 ppg, 12.0 rpg, 32.5 mpg
Note: Tallied his second-straight double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds 11/3 vs. POR…went 6-of-6 from the FT line vs. POR…15 points and 13 rebounds 10/31 vs. SAC.


Shooting Guard #9 MORRIS PETERSON
6-7 220
2007-08 AVERAGES: 10.0 ppg, 28.9 mpg
Note: Had seven points 11/2 vs. POR…scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting 10/31 vs.
SAC…hit three three-pointers after going 5-of-26 from behind the arc during the preseason.


Point Guard #3 CHRIS PAUL
6-0 175
2007-08 AVERAGES: 20.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 9.0 apg, 31.5 mpg
Note: Scored a team-high 19 points 11/2 vs. POR…tallied a double-double 10/31 vs. SAC
with 22 points and 12 assists.

NUGGETS INJURY REPORT
OUT: Anthony Carter suffered a 3rd metacarpal fracture on his right hand and underwent successful surgery on 10/10. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks
OUT: Chucky Atkins suffered a severe right groin strain at Phoenix on 10/25 and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

HORNETS INJURY REPORT
NO Injuries

ON THE AIR
Tonight’s game will be televised on Altitude with Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings handling the telecast. The game will be broadcast on KKFN AM 950, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUP: C Marcus Camby vs Tyson Chandler
Tyson has 2 inches and 10 pounds on Camby but Camby has the veteran smarts and is playing his best basketball ever. As in all situations where Camby is matched against a bigger player, at least until Kenyon Martin is ready to go full out, the Nuggets are cruising for a bruising if Nene is absent without leave.

PG Allen Iverson vs Chris Paul
One of the more interesting point guard matchups you will see this season, both are smart players who can adjust their game to meet the specific situation at hand. But Iverson is much more experienced, more aggressive, and doesn't carry (we hope) as much of a scoring burden for the Nuggets as Paul carries for the Hornets. And Iverson has more freedom to make adjustments from George Karl than Chris Paul has from Byron Scott.

NUGGET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Stay Cool and Confident - The Nuggets are off to a calm, cool, and confident start, similar to last year, and they need to stay that way. They need to keep turnovers and 3-point attempts within reason.

Distribute the Ball if at least a couple players besides Melo and A.I. are hitting- I have decided to modify this key to victory because, as Iverson realized in the Wolves game, it doesn't make much sense to distrubute the ball alot if no one is able to hit, which happens all too often to the Nuggets. Iverson, in the first two games, as already demonstrated how you make sure you win with the two different situations. So A.I. should evaluate the Kleiza-Najera-Wilks-? situation during the second quarter and halftime and distribute to these players more or less depending on whether they are hitting shots or not. If they are not hitting, A.I. knows what to do, and Paul is not going to be able to stop him.

Somebody's going to have help Camby deal with Chandler-West-Stojakovic in the post. That somebody is supposed to be Nene, but if he's still out of condition, Martin and Melo are going to have to step it up. Camby, of course, should continue to rebound and block the hell out of the ball.

HORNET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Get Chris Paul into the lane as much as possible Aside from setting up a lot of different scoring plays, this has the side benefit of possibly wearing Iverson out.

Go all out from 3-point land The Hornets are off and running as a good passing and 3-point shooting team, and the Nuggets are simply bad at defending the three, and not a good 3-point shooting team themselves as of yet.

Try to rattle Iverson or double team Melo If you don't do either, you are asking for trouble. Go for steals against Iverson on defense and screen him out a lot on offense. And you might want to double team Iverson a few times and hope the open man will miss, which is a good bet with the Nuggets.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS
No team is an easy win for the Nuggets, and a team like the Hornets, with five solid and relatively consistent starters, is especially dangerous to the Melo-A.I.-Camby dominated Nuggets. While they have no veteran superstars as of yet, the Hornets have built a team that features quality starters at all five positions, while the Nuggets have three superstar starters, a rehab work in progress at the 4-spot, and a big problem at the 2-spot. Beyond the starting five, there isn't too much to get Nuggets fans worried about on the Hornet's roster. Once again, Melo, A.I., and Camby will be called on to carry the load and scrape out a victory against the starting Hornets. This is the kind of game where the home court advantage can come in very handy, so the Nuggets will have to hope that their fans are loud enough to disrupt the concentration of the Hornets. It's either going to be a very close win for the Nuggets or a Hornets win of up to a dozen points or so. Don't tick me off George Karl: stop panicking and pulling the plug on players who have played well in recent games after just 6-7 minutes.

Videos: Nuggets 99 Timberwolves 91

More videos can be found below all the posts on this page, and there is a huge selection of videos on the +Nuggets 1 Videos page

Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, & Marcus Camby Carry the Nuggets Past the Wolves, 99-91

The totally new Timberwolves lineup came out with a lot of energy and determination to win their home opener, and took a 19-6 lead over the poor shooting and poor defending Nuggets, but the Nuggets did not break down or lose their cool. At one point, Melo, Iverson, and Camby were a combined 1/17, and it seemed that the world was coming to an end if you looked at the box score. But all three Nuggets superstars treated their early pounding as just another day at the office, and chipped away piece by piece at the Wolves lead, reducing it to 52-49 at the half. Is this that mental toughness that George Karl talks about? Probably not, but since I don’t know what exactly mental toughness is, I can’t rule out the possibility. I would rather just call it smart basketball and extremely hard working and talented players doing what they do. I guess I just like using terms that everyone understands.

The 3rd quarter was grinded out to a 25 a piece draw. Then, as in the Nugget’s opening game against the Sonics, the Nuggets ramped up the defense, cut way down on the turnovers, and mostly avoided unwise shots to shut down the overwhelmed Wolves in the 4th. The Wolves ended up with 28 personal fouls, whereas the more careful and veteran Nuggets had just 17 fouls called against them. You can complain all you want about all the Melo and Iverson turnovers, but keep in mind that Melo is rarely in foul trouble and Iverson is almost never in foul trouble. That’s good, because I, for one, don’t want to find out what mistakes Karl is going to make in dealing with foul trouble. The Nuggets doubled up the Wolves on free throw attempts, and made 28/38 of theirs versus 14/19 for the Wolves.

The quick Wolves had 12 steals off the Nuggets, while Iverson had 3 steals and the Nuggets as a whole had 7. The Nuggets finished with 18 turnovers, while the Wolves had just 12, but this Wolves advantage was offset by poor shooting (.398). A good chunk of that poor shooting was really outstanding blocking by Marcus Camby who, with 6 blocks in this game and 5 blocks in the opener, is off and running for another season of leading the NBA in blocks. The Nuggets had 9 blocks altogether. .

Rashad McCants, out of North Carolina, playing in his 3rd season, all of them for Minnesota, has a golden opportunity to get his career untracked on the current roster, and he came out ready to roll. He finished 9/18 and 3/7 from long range for 23 points, but he sort of ran out of steam and couldn’t hit huge shots late in the 3rd and in the 4th.. Telfair at PG, however, was only 4/13 and he had just 5 assists in 35 minutes. Telfair was 4/7 on jumpers but could not convert on 4 layups. Iverson has yet to meet a PG who can score this season. And Greg Buckner, the veteran shooting guard who played for Denver during Melo’s first two years, did not have enough in his tank to make up for Telfair.

Both Al Jefferson and Theo Ratliff played tough defense; particularly on Camby and Melo in the 1st half, but Camby made the necessary adjustments, and learned how to defend Ratliff, and especially the dangerous Jefferson, well by the time of the 4th quarter, which decided the game. And Melo showed that patience is a virtue; after he got untracked, he was near perfect in the 2nd half. Melo finished with 33 points on 13/22 shooting. Melo made 6 of 13 jumpers, and converted on 2 of 5 threes. The frisky Wolves caused 7 turnovers by Melo.

Iverson had his second genius game in a row. When the role players were scoring two nights ago against the Sonics, Iverson was the Jason Kidd or Steve Nash of the Rockies. When the role players were not scoring in this game, he shifted into his driving to the hoop mode he perfected in recent years in Philly. So although Iverson was only 2/11 on jumpers, he used his intelligence to win the game anyway; he was awarded 16 foul shots by the referees, and he made 15 of them. And to think he used to worry that he would never get calls when he was young! And it was Iverson who, having drawn fouls all night on the Wolves, put them to bed for the night by burying a 3 with 32 seconds left, giving the Nuggets a clinching 99-91 lead. The Wolves may have been frisky early, but it was past their bedtime by the time Iverson turned the lights out.

Offensively, Camby was all but shut down by Ratliff and Jefferson early, but was, like Melo, nearly perfect in the second half, and emerged with 14 points on outstanding 7/10 shooting. Bobby Jones played a little and got to the line twice, once on a flagrant foul, but then George Karl yanked him before he could get anything going.

If you were to judge from the first two games, which is very dangerous because they were played against two teams that many think are going to finish near or at the bottom of the heap this season, you would have to say that the Denver Nuggets are potentially a Championship team. Everyone knows Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, and Marcus Camby are good. But few know that these three are all playing their best basketball ever.

Melo is no longer focused mostly on scoring. He has rounded out into a multi-dimensional player, generous enough to find the open man when he is jammed rather than take a bad shot, and tough enough to bang the boards and play better defense than in years gone by.

Outside of Camby, the front court has all Nuggets fans nervous as hell. Nene, half sidelined from having put on too much weight in the off-season, and from continuing residual problems with one of his calves, is currently, at best, half the player he was just 6 months ago in the Spurs series. Reggie Evans, the rebounding beast who helped Denver from being blown out when they were turning it over like crazy last year, is gone, and neither of the players obtained for Evans, Steven Hunter and Bobby Jones, are going to get much playing time barring an injury.

Kenyon Martin is strictly limited to a maximum of 20 minutes a game, as nervous Nuggets coaches, trainers, and doctors watch carefully, with telephoto lenses trained on his knees when he comes down from a jump, in fear that one of the sports world’s all time most extensive rehabs might not also be one of the all-time greatest sports medicine successes. If the Martin rehab is a success, there are going to be a few sports medicine professionals who have the accomplishment of a lifetime under their belts. Martin is a little rusty and, understandably, not yet willing to go all out until he himself is convinced that the historic double knee rehab is a definite, irreversible success. Everyone being satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the K-Mart rehab has succeeded will be this year’s Christmas present for the Nuggets and their fans, and it’s going to be one heck of a present if it’s under the Colorado spruce on the festive morning. After the 1st of the year, look for Martin’s playing time to slowly increase, with the objective being to get it up to 30 minutes a game by the first of April.

So let’s see, who right now is totally reliable in the front court? Just Camby and Melo, who are part of the core. The rest of the front is not yet fully up to speed and ready to help the core to win a Championship. The Nuggets are close, but not quite there yet.

For now, Marcus Camby has to assure wins by playing off the charts. He has to make up for everyone else’s problems. Meanwhile, Tim Duncan has a track record of wilting if his role players are not producing. You can bet the ranch on Camby’s defense even when times are tough. Camby’s defense is certainly a better investment than the dollar these days. Camby is the ultimate basketball defender, someone you know is going to ramp it up a little bit more to make up for a Nene who partied too hardy in the off-season, for a Martin who is being brought back step by step, for an Evans who is just plain gone, and for a coach who is unable to have the courage to develop any younger player to come to Camby’s assistance.

Last year I was calling Karl the scrooge, for his refusal to distribute playing time the way most other coaches do. I think it’s time to also start referring to Karl as the cowardly lion. He is afraid of this, that, and the other thing, but he shares with lions a big temper and a rigid hierarchy system. The odd thing is, the Nuggets go better with Karl’s approach than any other team would, because the Melo-Iverson-Camby trio is seriously one the best of all time, and players such as Linas Kleiza, Yakhouba Diawara, and Eduardo Najera are more inconsistent than the comparable role players on other teams. In other words, if there ever was a team that George Karl could do less damage to with his approach, the Nuggets are it. And that means that those who have been thinking that the Nuggets can not make it to the West final because George Karl will always get his clock cleaned in the playoffs, which would include me every day, may be in for a big shock in May.

Championship teams have almost always consisted of a core of 2 or 3 players who are virtually unstoppable, and whose talent is at the maximum end of the scale, or off the scale in the case of a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.. For the Spurs, obviously, you have had Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Now we have, for the Nuggets, Marcus Camby, Carmelo Anthony, and Allen Iverson. If all three continue to play, from both a performance and a basketball intelligence perspective, slightly better than they ever have before, then they would form the Championship core for the Nuggets,

However, you do have to get more than next to nothing from role players to win the West or the Championship, obviously. But Nuggets fans are, apparently, going to continue to be tortured by the likes of Najera, Kleiza, Diawara, and the ultimate inconsistent, J.R. Smith. And then there is Nene, who is threatening to join this “who knows what you’re going to get on any given night, and it could be nothing” group. Having Nene join the group would be an especially cruel torture for Nuggets fans, since Nene has the build and raw skills to do extremely well near the basket. as long as he keeps his body in shape, which is precisely what he did not do over the off-season. Not one or two, but every single one of the players named above has turned out to (or is threatening to, in the case of Nene) be much more inconsistent than what is needed, for a Championship team, to go along with the core trio. What the Nuggets have to do between now and late April is already clear: they have to work like hell to create a half decent squad that Melo, A.I., and Camby can be proud of.

My contention is that a truly great Coach (or coaching staff, if you prefer) would have been able to have Kleiza further along in his career and more consistent by now. He obviously has the raw shooting talent, but it hasn’t been molded into what you might call playoff talent. Playoff talent is where raw talent is converted into successful performance in high pressure. Najera is an aging veteran and very few coaching staffs could get him to change his ways. Yakhouba Diawara has been the one player that George Karl has gone all out to develop, but Yak keeps returning the favor with disasters such as tonight’s 0 points coupled with his getting his head handed to him by McCants.

The ultimate here today and gone tomorrow Nugget is J.R. Smith, who was part of the leading scoring tandem in the League a year ago, and is not on the court at all now. The J.R. Smith situation is such a huge fiasco that I don’t have the space to get into it here. Suffice it to say now that no one can figure out how to reestablish J.R. Smith as a contributor, least of all the cowardly lion. And that is a crime.

To sum up this game simply, Melo, Iverson, and Camby almost single handedly beat Jefferson, McCants, Ratliff, Gomes, Buckner, and Telfair. But the Nuggets clearly, and by a good margin, are going to lose to any of the top teams in the League whenever they play like they did tonight. Melo, Iverson, and Camby can not be expected to almost single handedly beat teams like Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio, and Boston. Sorry George, it just doesn’t work that way.

Najera played for 14 minutes and was 0/3 and ½ from the line for 1 point, and he had 3 rebounds and as steal. Kleiza played for 16 minutes and was 2/7 and 0/3 on 3’s for 4 points, and he had 4 rebounds. Nene played for 23 minutes and he was 1/3 and 4/8 from the line for 6 points, and he had 6 rebounds and an assist.

Martin played 18 minutes and was 3/7 for 6 points, and he had 5 rebounds and a steal.

Mike Wilks played 30 minutes and was 4/7 and 0/2 on 3’s for 8 points, and he had 3 assists and 2 rebounds.

Marcus Camby played 39 minutes and was 7/10 and 0/1 from the line for 14 points, and he had 21 rebounds, 6 blocks, 3 assists, and a steal, and that is not a misprint.

A.I. played 38 minutes and was 4/14, ¼ on 3’s, and 15/16 from the line for 24 points, and he had 8 assists, 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and a block.

Melo played 44 minutes and was 13/22, 2/5 on 3’s, and 5/7 from the line for 33 points, and he had 6 assists, 5 rebounds, a steal, and a block.

The next game will be Sunday Nov. 4 in Denver to play the Hornets at 6 pm mountain time.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

GAME PREVIEW: Nov. 2: Nuggets-Timberwolves

NOTE: I'll use 2006-07 stats for the first 5 games of the season.

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS

KEY
POS. NO. PLAYER
HEIGHT WEIGHT
PPG RPG APG (Points, Rebounds, & Assists Per Game)
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
2006-07: 28.9 6.0 3.8
Finished the preseason ranking sixth in the NBA in scoring with an average of 19.0 ppg in five games.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
Career: 14.8 7.4 2.2
Shot an impressive .619 (13-21) from the field during his three preseason appearances


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2006-07: 11.2 11.7 3.2
Finished the preseason ranking first in the NBA in rebounds with an average of 15.0 rpg in three games.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2006-07: 2.1 1.7 0.9
Closed out the preseason with 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals at Portland on 10/26.


Point Guard 3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2006-07: 24.8 3.0 7.2
Finished the preseason tied for first in scoring (21.0) and ranking sixth in assists (6.0) in six appearances


TIMBERWOLVES PROBABLE STARTERS

KEY
POSITION NUMBER PLAYER
HEIGHT WEIGHT
PRESEASON STATS: PPG FG% RPG APG SPG/BPG


Small Forward #8 Ryan Gomes
6-7 250
Preseason: 9.2 pts (53.8%), 5.5 reb, 1.2 ast, 0.50 stl


Power Forward #25 Al Jefferson
6-10 265
Preseason: 17.9 pts (55.2%), 13.4 reb, 0.9 ast, 0.63 blk


Center #42 Theo Ratliff
6-10 235
Preseason: 7.6 pts (60.0%), 4.4 reb, 1.0 ast, 2.80 blk


Shooting Guard #1 Rashad McCants
6-4 210
Preseason: 15.2 pts (52.0%), 2.6 reb, 2.6 ast, 1.20 stl


Point Guard #3 Sebastian Telfair
6-0 175
Preseason: 8.3 pts (38.1%), 3.7 reb, 3.7 ast, 1.33 stl






NUGGETS INJURY REPORT
OUT: Anthony Carter suffered a 3rd metacarpal fracture on his right hand and underwent successful surgery on 10/10. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks
OUT: Chucky Atkins suffered a severe right groin strain at Phoenix on 10/25 and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

TIMBERWOLVES INJURY REPORT
OUT: Guard Randy Foye: Sidelined indefinitely with a stress reaction in his left patella, an injury that caused him to miss five preseason contests (Oct. 15-23).
OUT: Forward Mark Madsen: Underwent surgery on Aug. 17 to repair the pectoral muscle in his right shoulder, and is expected to be sidelined until mid-November.

ON THE AIR
Tonight’s game will be televised on Altitude with Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings handling the telecast. The game will be broadcast on KKFN AM 950, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUP: SG Yakhouba Diawara vs Rashad McCants
George Karl probably will stick with Yak over Linas Kleiza as 2-spot starter. Rashad McCants, with Ricky Davis gone, has the chance of a lifetime to get his career untracked. Will McCants explode against Diawara? It’s within the realm of possibility. It's also a very real possibility, as always, that Yak will come up almost empty offensively. If the Wolves clean up at this position, and Al Jefferson hangs tough against Camby and Martin, this will be a contest.

NUGGET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Stay Cool and Confident - The Nuggets can hardly lose as long as they stay calm, cool, and confident. They need to keep turnovers and 3-point attempts within reason, and it should be a relatively easy win. But yes, I know, the Nuggets are not known in recent years for easy wins.

Distribute the Ball - Iverson, the new NBA assists leader, needs to continue to do exactly what he did against the Sonics. Iverson dishing to Kleiza on the perimeter has become a particularly deadly Nuggets weapon. A.I. should avoid the big temptation of jacking up alot of long jumpers against Telfair, and he should let Melo and Kleiza worry about the threes for now.

Watch out for Al Jefferson- If Nene is not playing well, or much, then Al Jefferson poses a bigger threat. Camby and K-Mart alone are going to have to make sure that Al Jefferson, who had a big preseason, is kept under control.

TIMBERWOLVE'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Contain & Limit Melo as Much as Possible - This is always one of the keys for any opponent of the Nuggets. Under the Karl regime, Melo is alot more reluctant to shoot if double teamed than he used to be, so you can always double team him if all else fails.

Go After Iverson- Try to rattle Iverson by getting him into foul trouble and by pressuring him to turn it over alot. If you can rattle him enough, he might start resorting to the shoot first, shoot second, and pass third mentality, which would be very dangerous for the Nuggets.

Give Rashad McCants a Total Green Light - Tell McCants to shoot at will. McCants shot 52% in the preseason, and with Minnesota emptied of high octane veterans and hurting injury wise, McCants and Telfair have a rare, wide open opportunity to get something going. So Telfair, and especially McCants, should go all out for the home opener win.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS
Most folks are predicting that the Wolves are going to lose a lot of games this year, anywhere from 55 to 70 of them. But this is their home opener, and there are young players on the team who have the chance of a lifetime to improve their games. But if you had to predict, you would predict that no one for the Wolves is going to have a huge game, and so the Nuggets will control the tempo and, by the end of the 3rd quarter at the latest, the scoreboard. You would predict that the Nuggets will be leading by 5-10 at the half and by 10-15 as the final horn sells. Don't tick me off GK: pull ALL starters for any and ALL garbage time.

Videos: Nuggets 120 Supersonics 103

More videos can be found below all the posts on this page, and there is a huge selection of videos on the +Nuggets 1 Videos page



The Nuggets Contain Durant, Dominate in the 4th, and Win Home Opener vs Sonics 120-103

The Denver Nuggets and specifically Carmelo Anthony spoiled the first NBA game for Kevin Durant, as well as the Sonics coaching debut of P.J. Carlissimo, as they overwhelmed the Sonics in the 4th quarter to win going away the opening game of the 2007-08 season, 120-103. Durant was held to 18 points on 7/22 shooting and 5 rebounds Durant would have had to have been an instant superstar for the Sonics to have won this game. But Durant undoubtedly had a worse game playing SF matched up against Melo than he would have had playing SG matched up against Yakhouba Diawara. . Fortunately for the Nuggets, the new Seattle Coach did not think of trying that, or it could have gotten the Sonics into contention for this game..

Amazingly though, Yakhouba Diawara, who hardly played at all after March of last season, did better than almost anyone expected on offense.. There were Nuggets fans who were ready to jump out the window when they found out that Karl was starting him. But not only did he help spoil Durant’s first NBA game, he produced offensively as well, with 12 points on 5/8 shooting, and had a steal right off of Durant half way through the 2nd. About halfway through the 3rd, Diawara rebounded his own missed free throw and then Melo quickly pumped in a three, which gave the Nuggets a 74-64 lead. But swingman Damian Wilkins from outside , and PF Chris Wilcox from inside, who led Seattle in general with Durant limited and PG Earl Watson having a disaster of a night, got the Sonics right back in the game late in the 3rd quarter, to the extent of 79-78 Sonics with 3 minutes left to play in the 3rd.

Then Linas Kleiza, who was a deadly 5/10 overall from 3-point land, was lurking in the right corner to bury one of those right then, putting the Nuggets back on top for good. Following the Kleiza three, the kind of shot from a second team player that the Texas teams have been living off of for about a decade now, the Nuggets tightened up the defense to a degree that strongly suggests that the renewed emphasis and practice work on defense may finally be paying a few dividends. Seattle, a potentially explosive offensive squad itself, was held to 22 points in the 4th, and 45 points in the 2nd half.

The gold standard for defense is San Antonio’s mark of giving up just 90 points a game, or 45 points a half. So the Nuggets in the 2nd half not only had the 3-man reserve squad of Najera, Kleiza, and Diawara playing like starters, they also achieved a very high level of defense. And it came on pure hustle and skill from just about everyone out there. The Nuggets decided in camp that they were no longer going to dump all of the defensive chores on the front court, and on Camby and Nene in particular. How long they will be that generous to the defensive player of the year remains to be seen.

Nene was not a major factor defensively and was a non-factor offensively. He might be still hurting from a calf strain or, god forbid, a flare-up of his knee. Or more likely, Nene is always going to be the kind of player who starts out slow every new season and gets better and better as he gets his playing groove on during the season. It’s something about Brazilian rhythms, I think.

Marcus Camby had 15 rebounds and spent the night making sure that Wilcox and Collison, who had 19 rebounds between them, would not be able to spoil the surprising debut put on by the three reserves on opening night. Kenyon Martin, returning to the court for the first time in a year, after a second knee surgery, started at PF over Nene, somewhat surprisingly. After a shaky start that lasted almost the whole 1st half, a K-mart slam dunk with 34 seconds left in the 1st half made it 59-57 Nuggets. I would expect that K-Mart is going to be limited to no more than 20 minutes a game until at least the end of the year, to try to make absolutely sure about the knees.

George Karl, still living in fear of the world coming to an end, or maybe that J.R. Smith would turn into a vampire during the Halloween game and go for his blood, was as usual afraid to play most of the reserves, even though there were many to choose from who had very good camps and preseasons. But since both of the reserves he played off the bench, Najera and Kleiza, had outstanding games, he didn’t pay any penalty for being too afraid or lazy to play others in this game.

PG Mike Wilks, who was just added to the roster emergency style days ago after the Chucky Atkins (who is out until about mid-December) injury, is likely to be kicked off the team as soon as Anthony Carter comes back from hand surgery. But he was put in to relieve Iverson instead of Von Wafer, who played fairly well in the preseason. Last year, Wilks played for these Sonics, and got only 3.6 ppg with 11 minutes a game. In this game, Wilks played 11 minutes and had 4 points on 1/3 shooting, but no assists at all.

Iverson these days is a kind of stealth Steve Nash; he does so much on the court that you lose track of his main contribution, until you check the stats at the end of game and are blown away by how many assists he had (14). The Nuggets overall had an outstanding 31 assists, as the endless Melo and Iverson isolation plays from the Spurs series were put into mothballs in order to show the fans a proper opening night victory. .

So the Nuggets took care of business George Karl style. J.R. Smith, who did not turn into a vampire and go for anyone’s blood during the game, suspended for the first three games due to a bizarre nightclub incident, is not going to get much playing time even when the suspension is over, as long as at least three of the five between GF Kleiza, GF Diawara, SG Wafer, F Najera, and PG Chucky Atkins play well most nights. Since this game was against the Sonics, one of the weakest defenses in the League, it is way too early to know whether the Kleiza-Diawara-Najera shocker was just a flash in the pan against a team that could easily lose more than 60 games, or something born of real effort over the summer that might persist.

Najera comes and goes like the wind, and has only a small number of great games every year. Karl is going to continue to run Iverson into the ground rather than play Wafer. So that leaves Kleiza, Diawara, and PG Atkins, when he returns, as the three players who can make or break Karl’s frightful strategy of minimizing Smith . Knowing Karl, when Atkins returns in mid December, he will swing Iverson back over to SG and play the defensively weak backcourt of Atkins-Iverson way too much. But what shows up in the news is scoring more than anything else, so how much, if any, heat Karl gets for refusing to play Smith will be determined by the scoring or lack of scoring between Kleiza, Diawara, and Atkins. So Smith is not at all dead and buried as a Nugget just yet, and he may come back to haunt Karl much sooner than Karl would like.

As for Bobby Jones, only the most ambitious and fearless coaches (how about Jerry Sloan, for example) would bring him up to full speed. Unless the Nuggets lose someone up front, Jones is going to be a card carrying member of the Karl bench club, and his outstanding play in the preseason will be, at least for this season, for naught.

On three-point shooting, Carmelo Anthony started to import some of his 3-point mastery for Team USA to the NBA. Melo’s 3/6 and Kleiza’s 5/10 from long range were alone more than enough to defeat the Sonics on the scoreboard; Najera was 2/3 and Diawara was ½ to rub it in.

The Nuggets frequently win or lose based on just how out of control their turnovers are. They were completely out of control in the 1st quarter, and then less and less out of control as the game went on. By the 4th quarter, the Nuggets, and in particular Iverson, had all but eliminated turnovers, which all but eliminated any chance for the Sonics. Iverson had 7 turnovers but 7 steals. Fortunately for the Nuggets, George Karl is able to calculate that Iverson’s positives outweigh his negatives. Given the choice between having Karl play Iverson too much or too little, I’ll take the too much without hesitation.

The overmatched Sonics committed 27 fouls, whereas the Nuggets had just 21. The Sonics even had trouble at the line, making just 16/27 of their free throws. But nobody on either team had more than 4 fouls; Kleiza was the only Nugget who had 4.

Mike Wilks played 11 minutes and was 1/3, 0/1 on 3’s, and 2/2 on the line for 4 points.

Najera played 24 minutes and was 6/7, and 2/3 on 3’s for 14 points, and he had 4 rebounds, a block, and a steal. Nene played 15 minutes and was 1/5 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

Diawara played for 27 minutes and was 5/8, 1/3 on 3’s, and ½ from the line for 12 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Kleiza played for 27 minutes and was 6/12, 5/10 on 3’s, and ¼ from the line for 18 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Martin played for 18 minutes and was 3/7 and ½ from the line for 7 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and an assist.

Camby played for 34 minutes and was 1/5 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 15 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 3 assists.

A.I. played for 36 minutes and was 9/22, 0/3 on 3’s, and 7/9 from the line for 25 points, and he had 14 assists, 7 steals, and 5 rebounds.

Melo played for 39 minutes and was 10/21, 3/6 on 3’s, and 9/10 from the line for 32 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and a block.

The next game is Friday night, November 2 in Minneapolis to play the Wolves at 6 pm mountain time.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Game Preview: Oct.31: SuperSonics at Nuggets

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS

KEY
POS. NO. PLAYER
HEIGHT WEIGHT
PPG RPG APG (Points, Rebounds, & Assists Per Game)
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
Career: 24.1 5.7 2.9
Finished the preseason ranking sixth in the NBA in scoring with an average of 19.0 ppg in five games.

Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
Career: 14.8 7.4 2.2
Shot an impressive .619 (13-21) from the field during his three preseason appearances

Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
Career: 10.9 9.3 1.7
Finished the preseason ranking first in the NBA in rebounds with an average of 15.0 rpg in three games.

Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
Career: 4.4 1.7 0.9
Closed out the preseason with 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals at Portland on 10/26.

Point Guard 3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
Career: 27.9 3.9 6.2
Finished the preseason tied for first in scoring (21.0) and ranking sixth in assists (6.0) in six appearances

SUPERSONICS PROBABLE STARTERS

Small Forward #22 Jeff Green
6-9, 235
Last Game: 13 points, three rebounds and one assist in 28 minutes vs. PHX.
Preseason Averages: 9.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.8 apg and 25.5 mpg

Power Forward #54 Chris Wilcox
6-10, 235
Last Game: 27 points, nine rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes vs. PHX.
Preseason Averages: 16.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.4 apg and 25.3 mpg.

Center #4 Nick Collison
6-10, 255
Last Game: 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in 24 minutes vs. PHX.
Preseason Averages: 9.7 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 2.0 apg and 26.2 mpg

Shooting Guard #35 Kevin Durant
6-9, 215
Last Game: NWT-Sprained Left Ankle vs. PHX
Preseason Averages: 18.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.0 apg and 29.8 mpg.

Point Guard #25 Earl Watson
6-1, 185
Last Game: 11 points, six assists and two steals in 26 minutes vs. PHX.
Preseason Averages: 9.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 6.3 apg, 2.0 spg and 28.3 mpg.

NUGGETS INJURY REPORT
OUT: Anthony Carter suffered a 3rd metacarpal fracture on his right hand and underwent successful surgery on 10/10. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks
OUT: Chucky Atkins suffered a severe right groin strain at Phoenix on 10/25 and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

SONICS INJURY REPORT
No Injuries

ON THE AIR
Tonight’s game will be televised on ESPN with Mike Tirico calling the action and Hubie Brown providing analysis. The game will also be televised on Altitude with Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings handling the telecast. The game will be broadcast on KKFN AM 950, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.


TONIGHT’S MATCHUP – BY THE NUMBERS*
.............PPG... OPPG.. FG% 3FG%. FT%
NUGGETS 114.6.. 107.3. .492 .335. .723
SONICS.. 103.9.. 109.6. .460 .303. .693

........... RPG. APG. SPG. BPG. TO
NUGGETS 43.3 23.1. 8.63 3.88 17.3
SONICS.. 47.3 24.1 10.13 5.00 19.4
*2007 Preseason Statistics

Carmelo Anthony Speaks to Nuggets Fans on Season Tip-Off Eve

Carmelo Anthony has a brand new blog. You can comment on it if you want. He'll probably read the first few comments.

Here's his post as the new season gets underway:

[Start Melo Post]
"60 games..you heard it right. We're aimin high this season. I feel real good about our team this season, everybody's back! I take our squad at full strength against anyone in the L. I'm going to go all out and say we might have the best team in Nuggets history. It's great to be back on the court with KMart, AI, and the rest of the guys. We definitely have the talent and the depth to go all the way. Now we have all the pieces we just gotta get it done! All I know is that everyone's healthy and hungry for that championship! If we can stay healthy there's no reason why we cant win it all..watch out!
I had a little Halloween bash at my place last night. Everyone stay cool on Halloween. After a little trick or treat, it is game time."
[End Melo Post]

I want to add: will everyone stay cool during the whole season? No more suspensions Nuggets. And no more total benchings as punishment GK. Everyone just stay cool, like Melo says. They all stayed cool at Syracuse U and look what happened.

The new Carmelo Anthony Blog: http://www.yardbarker.com/carmeloanthony

Monday, October 29, 2007

An Emergency Message to J.R. Smith

I hope somehow J.R. Smith gets this message:

J.R., do you think you are a pro basketball player or a black sheep character in a soap opera? Because you've had some "incidents", and people are saying "you know, neither I nor anyone I know would ever be involved with bizarre and damaging incidents like this". And then they are saying bad things about your personality and your mind and your character. And then they are also making bad decisions for you, like benching you for the first three games of the season. And then the fans at the Pepsi Center are going to be staring at you funny when you are sitting on the bench, which you are going to be doing way too much of. And you have to know that George Karl is licking his chops about all the bench time he is going to give your (expletive) this season.

You won't admit it, but I'm sure you are still hurting from all of that bull from last year. On December 16 2006, you were part of the top 1-2 scoring punch tandem in the NBA, and you were going in for an outstanding breakaway dunk in the heart of the biggest city in North America. You were a star at the top of the heap. And then you were attacked, cheated, and robbed by Mardy Collins, Nate Robinson, David Stern, and George Karl. You were in the right and they were all in the wrong. Every one of them went off the deep end.

But there is nowhere to go to get justice for all that went down. It will be an injustice to you for the rest of time. That's the way the society you are living in is sometimes. There is no justice for many of the attacks and mistakes that occur in it. Eventually you will learn that the only good thing you can do when stuff like this happens is to know that you were in the right, and to declare yourself to have been right and your attackers wrong, and then to move on with a fresh start. People have to do that in this society all the time. It's not logical but it's true. People in the right can be and are treated as if they are in the wrong. This is not a perfect society by any stretch. You are not living in a basketball video game.

You are making a bad situation worse by taking society's problems out on yourself. You are attacking, cheating, and robbing yourself with these crazy incidents you are having. You have given George Karl and his close associates a license to do even more damage to you and your career.

I'm pleading with you to stop. Just stop attacking yourself. Don't drive for a couple years. Don't go out to clubs unless you have Melo or your brother or your father or some type of agent or bodyguard with you. Don't take any funny pills. Don't get entangled with the funky club violence that has become common in Denver the last few years. That stuff is below your pay grade. Don't stay up to all hours and be late for the practice or the bus the next day. Ride with one of your teammates to the Center every work day. Please, I beg you. Stop making George Karl look good.

Another way to put all this, J.R., is that the respect you get is determined by your performance, but also by the respect you show yourself. Your performance has been well above average. Karl's lame brain has been unable to calculate that the good in your game outweighs the bad. The great majority of fans and analysts, including Hollinger of ESPN, know how good a player you are, but Karl is never going to listen to anyone on this subject except maybe the owner, and the owner is too busy to get involved.

I'm not asking you to change your personality like Karl does. Nobody can change their personality. I'm just pleading with you to treat yourself alot better than you have been. It's easy, but I'll tell you how in case you don't know.

Start by putting your foot down J.R.. Declare that, since you were in the right and they were in the wrong, that you are not any longer going to add to the bull that was piled on to you during the last year. Declare that you are going to be treated right and be given playing time commensurate with your abilities or you are going to demand a trade. Work with your agent on this. Better yet, get a fresh start with a new, aggressive agent. Denver is not the only town with a team, you know. I want you to stay, and most of the hardcore fans want you to stay, but Karl is definitely not your kind of coach, trust me. If the likes of Gary Payton. Kenyon Martin, and Carmelo Anthony can get trashed by this Coach, then what are the odds that you won't be attacked and maybe destroyed if you don't stand up for yourself? When K-Mart was benched, he informed everybody that he was in the right, and that is what you have to do. So demand what is due to you and if you don't get it, hand Karl your walking papers.

Play with more self-respect. Stop cheating yourself by instantly chucking up threes even when you are off balance. Look around more for the open man when you are guarded well. Don't wait until late in the game to start driving to the hoop. Stop thinking you can't straight up defend your guy, so that you have to be reaching in all the time. The way you play right now is a dead giveaway that you need more self-respect.

In summary, you have more than enough talent and performance, but you don't have enough self respect to be able to get enough respect from the fans and the coaches. So all you have to do is to show yourself alot more respect. You are not a character in a streetball video game or a damn soap opera. You are a well above average professional basketball player.

Please show yourself the respect that's due to you, J.R. Smith. In other words, show some pride. If you don't, we Nuggets fans are definitely going to lose you, and we don't want the story to end that way.

Respect,

Nuggets 1

ESPN and CBS Are Now Showing Iverson as the Starting PG for the Nuggets

ESPN and CBS are now showing A.I. as the starting PG for the Nuggets! This is great news. Now Karl can not run the too small and too slow Atkins-A.I. backcourt all day, because Atkins is out 6-8 weeks and Carter is out until mid-November. You never want to see injuries, but these start of the season injuries are a blessing in disguise for the Nuggets because they force their small guard loving Coach to change his ways.

The injuries indirectly force Karl to stop relying on just Iverson and Melo for scoring, because now he has to play A.I. at the point all day. Now we will get to see alot more of Linas Kleiza and Bobby Jones. The injuries also force the Coach to play J.R. Smith. I know Smith is very difficult to manage, but the Nuggets have got to get points and steals from somewhere other than just Melo-A.I..

I'm sick of the J.R. Smith soap opera and him sitting on the bench. J.R. deserves another full and total chance to play. If he blows it, then the Nuggets will know they have to trade him. To have him just sit on the bench and be a soap opera is not doing anyone any good. It's almost impossible to imagine that the Nuggets can reach the West final or the NBA final with J.R. sitting on the bench all year.

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As with everything else traffic varies widely from one forum to another. But basketball forums seem to have more staying power than basketball sites in general do.

Beware of "layered" sites. As far as we know, none of the following are layered sites, which are sites that allow contributions from the general public only in hard to find, low traffic areas, while the main areas are off limits for public input and are only for a chosen few. All of the following have at least some notable traffic, and all of them allow relatively equal and open participation. The order is from most recommended to least recommended, based on about half a dozen factors.

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Bleacher Report Open Posting Site
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Pro Sports Daily NBA Forum
Hoops Hype NBA Forum
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OTR Basketball Forums NBA Forum
Sporting News NBA Forum
KFFL NBA Forum

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ESPN NBA Message Board

TOP NBA SCORERS CHART 1 OF 3 >>> TOP VOLUME SCORERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the top scorers of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by points per 36 minutes playing time. This is "PTS" in the chart. The points and all other items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. A player must have scored at least 18 points per 36 minutes (which is 1 point every 2 minutes) to be shown here. Also, a minimum shooting percentage (field goal percentage) of .400 is required. Players with field goal (shooting) percentages of .399 or less are disqualified from being on this list of top scorers.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the top scorers in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:

Player               Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB  DRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Kevin Durant OKC 2546 9.1 18.3 1.9 4.9 6.1 7.1 0.6 6.9 3.3 1.2 1.1 3.5 1.9 26.2 .496 .387 .860
Kobe Bryant LAL 2232 9.3 21.5 1.4 4.6 6.1 7.3 1.1 4.0 4.3 1.1 0.3 3.3 1.7 26.1 .430 .303 .845
LeBron James MIA 2326 9.6 18.1 0.8 2.3 6.0 7.8 1.5 6.2 6.0 1.8 0.8 3.3 1.5 26.0 .531 .362 .771
Russell Westbrook OKC 2331 8.9 19.6 1.0 3.0 5.3 6.4 1.5 3.2 5.6 1.7 0.3 3.7 2.3 24.1 .457 .316 .823
Kevin Love MIN 2145 8.0 17.8 1.8 4.7 6.4 7.7 3.8 8.5 1.9 0.8 0.5 2.1 2.6 24.0 .448 .372 .824
Dwyane Wade MIA 1625 9.2 18.5 0.3 1.2 5.2 6.6 1.6 3.6 5.0 1.8 1.4 2.9 2.4 24.0 .497 .268 .791
Carmelo Anthony NYK 1876 8.5 19.7 1.3 3.9 5.7 7.0 1.7 4.9 3.8 1.2 0.5 2.8 3.0 23.9 .430 .335 .804
Dirk Nowitzki DAL 2079 8.2 17.9 1.4 3.7 5.5 6.1 0.8 6.5 2.4 0.7 0.5 2.0 2.2 23.2 .457 .368 .896
Derrick Rose CHI 1375 7.9 18.2 1.4 4.5 5.1 6.3 0.7 2.7 8.0 0.9 0.7 3.1 1.4 22.3 .435 .312 .812
Kyrie Irving CLE 1558 8.1 17.3 1.7 4.2 4.0 4.5 1.0 3.4 6.4 1.2 0.5 3.7 2.5 21.8 .469 .399 .872
LaMarcus Aldridge POR 1994 8.7 17.0 0.0 0.2 4.0 4.9 2.7 5.3 2.4 0.9 0.8 2.0 2.8 21.5 .512 .182 .814
Eric Gordon NOH 310 7.3 16.3 1.2 4.6 5.7 7.5 0.2 2.7 3.6 1.5 0.5 2.8 2.3 21.5 .450 .250 .754
DeMarcus Cousins SAC 1950 8.3 18.4 0.0 0.3 4.8 6.9 4.9 8.1 1.9 1.7 1.4 3.1 4.7 21.4 .448 .143 .702
Andrea Bargnani TOR 1032 7.3 16.9 1.2 4.0 5.3 6.0 0.8 5.2 2.1 0.6 0.5 2.4 1.8 21.0 .432 .296 .873
Deron Williams NJN 1999 7.0 17.3 2.1 6.2 4.6 5.5 0.4 2.9 8.7 1.2 0.4 3.9 2.2 20.8 .407 .336 .843
Blake Griffin LAC 2392 8.4 15.4 0.0 0.2 3.7 7.0 3.3 7.5 3.2 0.8 0.7 2.3 3.3 20.6 .549 .125 .521
Tony Parker SAS 1923 8.0 16.7 0.3 1.1 4.2 5.3 0.4 2.8 8.7 1.1 0.1 2.9 1.4 20.5 .480 .230 .799
Paul Pierce BOS 2075 6.8 15.4 1.7 4.7 5.1 6.0 0.6 4.9 4.8 1.2 0.5 3.0 2.6 20.5 .443 .366 .852
Louis Williams PHI 1682 6.8 16.7 1.8 4.9 5.1 6.2 0.6 2.7 4.7 1.1 0.4 1.5 1.9 20.5 .407 .362 .812
Al Jefferson UTA 2075 9.0 18.2 0.0 0.1 2.4 3.1 2.3 7.8 2.3 0.8 1.8 1.1 2.7 20.3 .492 .250 .774
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Danny Granger IND 2062 6.8 16.4 2.1 5.6 4.4 5.1 1.4 4.0 1.9 1.1 0.7 1.9 2.5 20.2 .416 .381 .873
Monta Ellis TOT 2120 7.6 17.7 1.1 3.4 3.7 4.7 0.3 3.1 5.9 1.4 0.3 3.0 2.3 20.1 .433 .308 .796
Manu Ginobili SAS 792 6.8 13.0 2.4 5.7 4.0 4.6 0.8 4.5 6.9 1.1 0.5 2.9 2.5 20.0 .526 .413 .871
Tim Duncan SAS 1634 8.0 16.1 0.0 0.1 3.8 5.5 2.4 9.0 2.9 0.8 1.9 2.1 2.2 19.7 .492 .000 .695
Jeremy Lin NYK 940 6.5 14.7 0.9 2.9 5.6 7.0 0.7 3.4 8.3 2.1 0.3 4.8 3.0 19.6 .446 .320 .798
Chris Paul LAC 2181 7.0 14.7 1.3 3.5 4.3 5.0 0.7 2.8 9.0 2.5 0.1 2.0 2.3 19.6 .478 .371 .861
Brandon Jennings MIL 2331 7.2 17.3 2.0 6.0 3.0 3.7 0.8 2.7 5.6 1.6 0.3 2.3 1.8 19.5 .418 .332 .808
David Lee GSW 2121 7.9 15.6 0.0 0.1 3.7 4.8 2.9 6.3 2.7 0.9 0.4 2.5 3.0 19.5 .503 .000 .782
Michael Redd PHO 770 6.7 16.8 2.0 6.2 4.1 5.2 0.7 2.9 1.5 0.6 0.0 1.7 1.4 19.5 .400 .318 .793
Dwight Howard ORL 2070 7.2 12.6 0.0 0.1 4.9 9.9 3.5 10.2 1.8 1.4 2.0 3.0 2.8 19.4 .573 .000 .491
Kevin Martin HOU 1264 6.3 15.3 2.2 6.4 4.6 5.1 0.4 2.6 3.1 0.8 0.1 2.0 2.0 19.4 .413 .347 .894
Jordan Crawford WAS 1753 7.2 17.9 1.6 5.6 3.3 4.2 0.9 2.5 3.9 1.2 0.1 2.9 2.3 19.3 .400 .289 .793
James Harden OKC 1946 5.7 11.6 2.1 5.4 5.8 6.8 0.6 4.1 4.2 1.1 0.3 2.5 2.8 19.3 .491 .390 .846
Marcus Thornton SAC 1780 7.1 16.2 2.2 6.3 2.9 3.3 1.7 2.1 2.0 1.4 0.2 1.7 2.2 19.3 .438 .345 .865
Josh Smith ATL 2329 7.8 17.0 0.4 1.7 3.1 5.0 2.1 7.7 4.0 1.4 1.8 2.5 2.7 19.2 .458 .257 .630
Amare Stoudemire NYK 1543 7.4 15.3 0.1 0.5 4.3 5.7 2.5 6.1 1.2 0.9 1.0 2.6 3.2 19.2 .483 .238 .765
Andrew Bynum LAL 2112 7.6 13.6 0.0 0.1 4.0 5.8 3.3 8.8 1.4 0.5 2.0 2.6 1.8 19.1 .558 .200 .692
Joe Johnson ATL 2127 7.2 15.8 2.1 5.4 2.7 3.1 0.9 2.8 3.9 0.8 0.2 2.0 1.3 19.1 .454 .388 .849
Stephen Curry GSW 732 7.1 14.6 2.7 6.0 1.9 2.3 0.7 3.6 6.8 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.0 18.8 .490 .455 .809
Drew Gooden MIL 1469 7.0 16.1 0.4 1.3 4.3 5.1 3.2 5.7 3.5 1.1 0.8 2.7 2.7 18.8 .437 .291 .846
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Antawn Jamison CLE 2151 7.0 17.5 1.5 4.5 3.1 4.5 2.1 4.8 2.2 0.9 0.7 1.5 2.7 18.7 .403 .341 .683
Al Harrington DEN 1761 7.1 15.8 2.1 6.2 2.4 3.6 1.5 6.5 1.8 1.2 0.2 2.3 3.7 18.6 .446 .333 .676
Nikola Pekovic MIN 1264 7.3 12.9 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.3 5.2 4.7 0.9 0.8 0.9 2.5 2.8 18.5 .564 .743
Klay Thompson GSW 1608 7.1 16.1 2.5 6.0 1.8 2.0 0.5 3.1 3.0 1.1 0.4 2.3 3.5 18.5 .443 .414 .868
Leandro Barbosa TOT 1382 7.1 16.6 1.7 4.4 2.6 3.2 0.9 2.5 2.5 1.5 0.2 2.4 3.5 18.4 .425 .382 .815
Chris Bosh MIA 2007 7.0 14.5 0.2 0.6 4.1 5.0 1.7 6.4 1.8 0.9 0.8 2.1 2.3 18.4 .487 .286 .821
Gerald Green NJN 781 7.1 14.8 2.0 5.1 2.3 3.0 0.7 4.3 1.6 1.3 0.8 2.5 3.7 18.4 .481 .391 .754
Carl Landry NOH 999 6.6 13.0 0.0 0.1 5.3 6.6 2.8 4.9 1.4 0.5 0.4 2.3 3.2 18.4 .503 .000 .799
Carlos Boozer CHI 1948 8.3 15.6 0.0 0.0 1.8 2.5 2.1 8.3 2.3 1.2 0.4 2.1 3.1 18.3 .532 .000 .693
Kevin Garnett BOS 1864 7.6 15.0 0.1 0.2 3.1 3.7 1.3 8.3 3.4 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.7 18.3 .503 .333 .857
Rudy Gay MEM 2422 7.2 15.9 0.8 2.6 3.1 3.9 1.9 4.3 2.2 1.4 0.8 2.4 2.1 18.3 .455 .312 .791
Nick Young TOT 1729 6.6 16.3 2.1 5.9 3.0 3.5 0.6 2.1 1.2 0.9 0.4 1.7 2.9 18.3 .403 .365 .852
Paul Millsap UTA 2100 7.3 14.8 0.1 0.5 3.5 4.4 3.1 6.6 2.6 2.0 0.9 1.9 3.8 18.2 .495 .226 .792
Jerryd Bayless TOR 705 6.0 14.1 2.2 5.3 3.8 4.5 0.4 3.0 6.0 1.2 0.2 2.7 3.6 18.0 .424 .423 .852

TOP NBA SCORERS 2012 CHART 2 OF 3 >>> MOST EFFICIENT SCORERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the most efficient scorers of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by shooting percentage or in other words field goal percentage. This is "FG%" in the chart. All items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. To be on this chart, players had to have a shooting percentage of .500 or higher AND they have to have scored at least 9 points per 36 minutes.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the most efficient scorers in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player               Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB  DRB  AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Tyson Chandler NYK 2061 4.2 6.2 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.5 3.7 7.0 1.0 1.0 1.6 1.8 3.2 12.2 .679 .000 .689
DeAndre Jordan LAC 1798 4.1 6.5 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.8 4.0 6.9 0.3 0.6 2.7 1.5 3.8 9.7 .632 .000 .525
Tiago Splitter SAS 1121 6.8 11.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.8 3.0 6.8 2.1 0.7 1.5 2.8 4.3 17.6 .618 .691
Brandan Wright DAL 791 6.6 10.6 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.7 2.8 5.1 0.6 1.0 2.9 1.0 2.8 15.5 .618 .000 .634
Andris Biedrins GSW 739 1.9 3.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 2.2 6.4 0.8 1.1 2.2 0.7 6.1 3.8 .609 .111
Kosta Koufos DEN 792 5.2 8.7 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.5 4.3 7.4 0.7 1.1 1.9 1.5 4.4 12.0 .599 .600
Chris Wilcox BOS 481 4.8 8.0 0.0 0.0 1.8 2.9 2.8 6.3 0.9 0.8 0.7 2.2 4.8 11.4 .598 .615
Nick Collison OKC 1307 3.3 5.5 0.0 0.0 1.2 1.7 3.3 4.3 2.3 0.9 0.8 1.7 4.2 7.8 .597 .000 .710
Kenneth Faried DEN 1037 6.3 10.7 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.7 4.9 7.3 1.2 1.2 1.6 1.9 4.0 16.4 .586 .665
Amir Johnson TOR 1553 4.5 7.9 0.0 0.1 1.3 1.9 3.5 6.0 1.8 0.8 1.6 2.2 4.8 10.5 .576 .400 .690
Dwight Howard ORL 2070 7.2 12.6 0.0 0.1 4.9 9.9 3.5 10.2 1.8 1.4 2.0 3.0 2.8 19.4 .573 .000 .491
Nikola Pekovic MIN 1264 7.3 12.9 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.3 5.2 4.7 0.9 0.8 0.9 2.5 2.8 18.5 .564 .743
Joel Anthony MIA 1349 2.3 4.1 0.0 0.0 1.3 1.9 2.7 4.0 0.2 1.0 2.2 1.2 3.4 5.8 .559 .690
Andrew Bynum LAL 2112 7.6 13.6 0.0 0.1 4.0 5.8 3.3 8.8 1.4 0.5 2.0 2.6 1.8 19.1 .558 .200 .692
JaVale McGee TOT 1535 7.2 12.9 0.0 0.0 1.8 3.9 3.8 7.4 0.7 0.8 3.1 2.0 3.9 16.2 .556 .461
Marcin Gortat PHO 2114 7.3 13.1 0.0 0.0 2.8 4.3 3.2 8.1 1.0 0.8 1.7 1.5 2.4 17.3 .555 .000 .649
Al Horford ATL 348 5.9 10.7 0.0 0.1 2.3 3.1 2.7 5.3 2.5 1.0 1.4 1.7 2.2 14.1 .553 .000 .733
Blake Griffin LAC 2392 8.4 15.4 0.0 0.2 3.7 7.0 3.3 7.5 3.2 0.8 0.7 2.3 3.3 20.6 .549 .125 .521
Ryan Hollins TOT 522 3.2 5.8 0.0 0.0 2.7 5.2 2.3 3.3 0.6 0.3 1.2 2.4 5.4 9.0 .548 .520
Chris Andersen DEN 486 4.4 8.0 0.0 0.0 3.7 6.1 3.6 7.4 0.4 1.4 3.4 1.3 3.9 12.4 .546 .610
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Ian Mahinmi DAL 1139 4.1 7.5 0.0 0.0 3.0 4.6 3.4 5.7 0.4 1.2 1.0 1.6 5.6 11.2 .546 .000 .639
Greg Stiemsma BOS 766 3.1 5.7 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.9 2.3 6.1 1.3 1.7 4.0 1.6 6.8 7.6 .545 .707
Nene Hilario TOT 1110 6.8 12.7 0.0 0.1 3.7 5.4 2.0 7.4 2.6 1.4 1.2 3.1 3.1 17.4 .537 .000 .673
Jan Vesely WAS 1078 3.9 7.3 0.0 0.0 1.1 2.1 3.4 4.9 1.6 1.3 1.1 2.0 5.2 8.9 .537 .000 .532
Gustavo Ayon NOH 1088 4.6 8.6 0.0 0.0 1.3 2.1 2.8 5.9 2.4 1.8 1.5 1.5 3.9 10.6 .536 .000 .619
Serge Ibaka OKC 1792 5.3 9.8 0.0 0.1 1.6 2.4 3.9 6.1 0.6 0.7 4.8 1.6 3.6 12.1 .535 .333 .661
Jason Thompson SAC 1657 5.1 9.6 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.9 3.6 6.0 1.7 0.9 1.0 1.5 3.2 12.7 .535 .000 .602
DeJuan Blair SAS 1363 7.1 13.3 0.0 0.0 1.9 3.1 4.1 5.2 2.1 1.6 0.3 2.4 4.4 16.1 .534 .000 .613
Emeka Okafor NOH 781 5.3 9.9 0.0 0.0 1.8 3.4 3.2 6.6 1.1 0.7 1.2 1.7 3.4 12.3 .533 .514
Carlos Boozer CHI 1948 8.3 15.6 0.0 0.0 1.8 2.5 2.1 8.3 2.3 1.2 0.4 2.1 3.1 18.3 .532 .000 .693
Steve Nash PHO 1961 5.4 10.2 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.5 2.9 12.2 0.7 0.1 4.2 1.0 14.2 .532 .390 .894
Trevor Booker WAS 1261 5.2 9.7 0.0 0.1 1.6 2.7 3.4 5.9 1.1 1.4 1.2 1.7 3.9 12.0 .531 .500 .602
LeBron James MIA 2326 9.6 18.1 0.8 2.3 6.0 7.8 1.5 6.2 6.0 1.8 0.8 3.3 1.5 26.0 .531 .362 .771
Kevin Seraphin WAS 1176 6.2 11.7 0.0 0.0 1.4 2.1 3.2 5.4 1.0 0.6 2.3 2.0 4.1 13.9 .531 .000 .671
Semih Erden CLE 333 4.2 8.0 0.0 0.0 2.3 4.4 2.2 5.6 1.0 1.1 0.5 1.7 6.5 10.7 .527 .512
Manu Ginobili SAS 792 6.8 13.0 2.4 5.7 4.0 4.6 0.8 4.5 6.9 1.1 0.5 2.9 2.5 20.0 .526 .413 .871
Timofey Mozgov DEN 687 5.2 10.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 3.0 2.8 6.6 1.2 0.8 2.2 2.8 4.5 12.5 .526 .684
Greg Monroe DET 2082 7.0 13.5 0.0 0.0 3.5 4.7 4.1 6.9 2.6 1.4 0.8 2.8 3.1 17.6 .521 .000 .739
Jason Smith NOH 947 6.9 13.2 0.0 0.3 1.3 1.8 2.7 4.7 1.3 0.8 1.6 1.5 3.9 15.1 .520 .111 .702
Derrick Brown CHA 1443 5.3 10.2 0.1 0.6 2.3 3.5 2.4 3.5 1.7 1.2 0.3 1.4 2.4 13.1 .518 .250 .667
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Brendan Haywood DAL 1146 3.7 7.2 0.0 0.0 1.4 3.0 4.4 5.8 0.6 0.8 1.7 1.4 3.8 8.8 .518 .469
Dante Cunningham MEM 1124 4.6 8.9 0.0 0.1 1.4 2.2 2.9 5.0 1.2 1.3 1.1 0.9 3.1 10.7 .516 .000 .652
Aaron Gray TOR 813 3.7 7.1 0.0 0.0 1.1 2.1 3.7 8.8 1.2 1.0 0.8 2.3 5.6 8.5 .516 .532
Anderson Varejao CLE 785 5.2 10.2 0.0 0.2 2.0 2.9 5.0 8.2 2.0 1.6 0.8 2.1 2.8 12.4 .514 .000 .672
Ed Davis TOR 1534 4.0 7.9 0.0 0.0 1.7 2.5 3.1 7.1 1.4 0.9 1.5 1.6 3.7 9.7 .513 .000 .670
Ivan Johnson ATL 934 5.4 10.6 0.1 0.2 2.8 3.9 2.5 6.2 1.2 1.7 0.7 2.7 4.5 13.7 .513 .333 .720
LaMarcus Aldridge POR 1994 8.7 17.0 0.0 0.2 4.0 4.9 2.7 5.3 2.4 0.9 0.8 2.0 2.8 21.5 .512 .182 .814
Luc Mbah a Moute MIL 1009 4.7 9.3 0.0 0.1 2.4 3.7 2.7 5.4 1.0 1.4 0.8 1.4 3.3 11.9 .510 .250 .641
Jon Leuer MIL 555 6.3 12.4 0.2 0.6 1.4 1.8 2.9 4.9 1.6 0.9 1.1 1.2 4.3 14.1 .508 .333 .750
Joakim Noah CHI 1945 4.6 9.1 0.0 0.0 2.9 3.8 4.5 7.2 3.0 0.8 1.7 1.7 3.0 12.1 .508 .000 .748
Jordan Williams NJN 635 4.4 8.6 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.7 3.7 5.1 0.6 1.2 0.9 1.3 3.5 11.2 .507 .652
Thaddeus Young PHI 1755 7.1 14.1 0.0 0.1 2.3 3.0 2.8 3.9 1.5 1.3 0.8 1.1 2.6 16.6 .507 .250 .771
Omer Asik CHI 971 2.9 5.8 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.8 4.7 8.3 1.2 1.1 2.5 2.5 4.5 7.6 .506 .456
Samuel Dalembert HOU 1446 5.0 9.8 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.8 3.9 7.4 0.8 0.9 2.8 2.0 4.0 12.2 .506 .000 .796
Craig Smith POR 464 4.6 9.1 0.0 0.1 2.9 4.1 2.6 6.0 1.5 1.2 0.4 1.9 4.3 12.1 .504 .000 .717
Kevin Garnett BOS 1864 7.6 15.0 0.1 0.2 3.1 3.7 1.3 8.3 3.4 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.7 18.3 .503 .333 .857
Carl Landry NOH 999 6.6 13.0 0.0 0.1 5.3 6.6 2.8 4.9 1.4 0.5 0.4 2.3 3.2 18.4 .503 .000 .799
David Lee GSW 2121 7.9 15.6 0.0 0.1 3.7 4.8 2.9 6.3 2.7 0.9 0.4 2.5 3.0 19.5 .503 .000 .782
Pau Gasol LAL 2430 6.8 13.6 0.1 0.4 3.0 3.9 2.7 7.3 3.5 0.5 1.3 2.1 1.9 16.7 .501 .259 .782
Brandon Rush GSW 1717 4.9 9.8 2.1 4.6 1.4 1.7 0.7 4.6 1.8 0.7 1.2 1.4 1.3 13.3 .501 .452 .793

TOP NBA SCORERS CHART 3 OF 3 >>> BEST THREE-POINT SCORERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the best 3-point scorers of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by 3-point shooting percentage. This is "3P%" in the chart. All items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. Players who make at least 2.2 three-point shots per 36 minutes and who have at least a .300 (30%) three-point shot shooting percentage are the only ones qualified to be on this list.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the best 3-point scorers in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:

Player                 Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P  3PA  FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Steve Novak NYK 1020 5.7 11.9 4.7 10.0 0.8 0.9 0.3 3.4 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.7 2.1 16.8 .478 .472 .846
Stephen Curry GSW 732 7.1 14.6 2.7 6.0 1.9 2.3 0.7 3.6 6.8 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.0 18.8 .490 .455 .809
Ray Allen BOS 1565 5.2 11.3 2.4 5.4 2.2 2.4 0.3 2.9 2.5 1.1 0.2 1.6 1.9 15.1 .458 .453 .915
Mike Miller MIA 752 4.4 10.0 2.5 5.6 0.1 0.2 1.1 5.1 2.0 0.7 0.3 1.4 2.8 11.3 .435 .453 .400
Jordan Farmar NJN 831 6.4 13.6 2.4 5.4 2.5 2.7 0.3 2.3 5.6 1.0 0.1 2.9 2.1 17.6 .467 .440 .905
Danny Green SAS 1522 5.0 11.3 2.4 5.5 1.9 2.4 1.3 4.1 2.0 1.4 1.1 1.6 2.5 14.3 .442 .436 .790
Kyle Korver CHI 1469 4.4 10.1 2.9 6.6 1.3 1.6 0.6 3.3 2.7 0.9 0.4 1.3 2.7 13.0 .432 .435 .833
Luke Babbitt POR 537 4.8 11.6 2.9 6.7 1.1 1.3 1.1 5.3 1.1 0.7 0.3 1.8 3.1 13.5 .410 .430 .850
Jerryd Bayless TOR 705 6.0 14.1 2.2 5.3 3.8 4.5 0.4 3.0 6.0 1.2 0.2 2.7 3.6 18.0 .424 .423 .852
Matt Bonner SAS 1326 4.2 9.5 2.9 6.8 0.4 0.6 0.8 5.0 1.7 0.4 0.6 0.4 1.8 11.6 .440 .420 .762
Richard Jefferson TOT 1748 4.2 10.1 2.3 5.5 1.2 1.8 0.5 4.0 1.8 0.8 0.4 1.0 2.5 11.9 .416 .420 .694
Gary Neal SAS 1206 6.3 14.5 2.5 5.9 1.5 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.5 0.8 0.1 1.8 2.2 16.6 .436 .419 .781
J.J. Redick ORL 1765 5.1 11.9 2.3 5.5 2.9 3.2 0.4 2.7 3.3 0.6 0.1 1.4 1.9 15.3 .425 .418 .911
Klay Thompson GSW 1608 7.1 16.1 2.5 6.0 1.8 2.0 0.5 3.1 3.0 1.1 0.4 2.3 3.5 18.5 .443 .414 .868
Manu Ginobili SAS 792 6.8 13.0 2.4 5.7 4.0 4.6 0.8 4.5 6.9 1.1 0.5 2.9 2.5 20.0 .526 .413 .871
James Jones MIA 666 3.1 8.1 2.5 6.2 1.4 1.6 0.3 2.3 1.0 0.9 0.5 0.5 2.4 10.0 .380 .404 .833
Chase Budinger HOU 1298 5.8 13.1 2.4 6.1 1.5 1.9 1.1 5.0 2.1 0.8 0.2 1.5 1.8 15.5 .442 .402 .771
Ryan Anderson ORL 1964 6.1 13.9 3.0 7.7 2.7 3.1 4.1 4.5 1.0 0.9 0.5 1.0 2.7 18.0 .439 .393 .877
John Lucas CHI 726 7.1 17.8 2.7 6.9 1.4 1.6 1.1 2.7 5.4 0.9 0.0 2.1 2.1 18.3 .399 .393 .875
Mo Williams LAC 1472 6.4 14.9 2.3 5.8 1.8 2.0 0.6 1.9 3.9 1.2 0.2 2.1 2.5 16.8 .426 .389 .900
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Cartier Martin WAS 391 5.4 12.3 2.7 6.9 1.0 1.7 1.1 4.2 0.9 1.0 0.2 1.2 3.2 14.5 .440 .387 .579
Randy Foye LAC 1682 5.5 13.8 2.7 7.0 1.6 1.8 0.5 2.4 3.1 1.0 0.5 1.6 2.8 15.2 .398 .386 .859
Chauncey Billups LAC 607 4.9 13.5 2.8 7.4 5.0 5.6 0.2 2.7 4.7 0.5 0.2 2.3 2.4 17.7 .364 .384 .895
Jannero Pargo ATL 671 5.6 13.6 2.8 7.4 1.0 1.1 0.5 3.4 5.2 1.1 0.1 2.6 3.4 15.1 .415 .384 .950
Roger Mason WAS 697 5.3 13.3 3.0 8.0 1.1 1.4 0.4 3.2 2.4 0.7 0.3 1.7 1.7 14.8 .399 .383 .778
Jason Terry DAL 2000 6.4 14.9 2.5 6.6 1.8 2.0 0.3 2.4 4.1 1.3 0.2 2.3 1.2 17.1 .430 .378 .883
Andrew Goudelock LAL 419 5.8 14.9 2.4 6.4 0.9 1.0 0.4 2.2 1.7 0.3 0.0 1.8 2.7 15.0 .391 .373 .917
Anthony Morrow NJN 1636 6.0 14.5 2.3 6.3 2.1 2.3 0.7 2.1 1.3 1.0 0.2 1.5 1.9 16.4 .413 .371 .933
Vladimir Radmanovic ATL 755 3.5 9.4 2.4 6.4 1.0 1.4 1.6 5.2 2.6 1.0 0.7 1.7 3.0 10.5 .376 .370 .759
Jason Richardson ORL 1591 5.5 13.5 2.3 6.3 0.9 1.6 0.8 3.6 2.4 1.2 0.5 1.4 2.1 14.2 .408 .368 .594
Jimmer Fredette SAC 1135 5.5 14.1 2.5 6.9 1.3 1.5 0.5 1.8 3.4 1.0 0.1 2.1 2.3 14.7 .386 .361 .833
Dorell Wright GSW 1650 4.8 11.5 2.3 6.4 1.7 2.1 1.3 4.8 2.1 1.3 0.6 1.1 2.1 13.7 .422 .360 .816
Kevin Martin HOU 1264 6.3 15.3 2.2 6.4 4.6 5.1 0.4 2.6 3.1 0.8 0.1 2.0 2.0 19.4 .413 .347 .894
J.R. Smith NYK 967 6.1 15.1 2.5 7.2 1.5 2.0 1.1 4.0 3.1 2.0 0.2 1.7 3.2 16.2 .407 .347 .709
Daequan Cook OKC 989 4.0 10.8 2.9 8.3 0.5 0.8 0.4 4.0 0.5 0.8 0.4 0.6 2.5 11.3 .368 .346 .636
Mickael Pietrus BOS 921 4.1 10.6 2.4 7.1 0.8 1.2 0.7 4.4 1.0 0.8 0.4 1.3 3.2 11.3 .385 .335 .645

Laugh Out Loud, George Karl: Have You Seen the News Lately?

Laugh Out Loud, George Karl: Have You Seen the News Lately?


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TOP NBA DEFENDERS CHART 1 OF 3 >>> TOP REBOUNDERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the best defensive rebounders of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by defensive rebounds per 36 minutes playing time. This is "DRB" in the chart. All items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. Only players who made at least 6.5 defensive rebounds per 36 minutes are shown here.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the best defensive rebounders in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player              Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB  DRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Dwight Howard ORL 2070 7.2 12.6 0.0 0.1 4.9 9.9 3.5 10.2 1.8 1.4 2.0 3.0 2.8 19.4 .573 .000 .491
Marcus Camby TOT 1352 3.4 7.6 0.1 0.1 0.8 1.7 4.2 9.9 2.8 1.3 2.3 1.5 3.4 7.6 .446 .400 .453
Tim Duncan SAS 1634 8.0 16.1 0.0 0.1 3.8 5.5 2.4 9.0 2.9 0.8 1.9 2.1 2.2 19.7 .492 .000 .695
Andrew Bynum LAL 2112 7.6 13.6 0.0 0.1 4.0 5.8 3.3 8.8 1.4 0.5 2.0 2.6 1.8 19.1 .558 .200 .692
Aaron Gray TOR 813 3.7 7.1 0.0 0.0 1.1 2.1 3.7 8.8 1.2 1.0 0.8 2.3 5.6 8.5 .516 .532
Joel Przybilla POR 449 1.8 3.8 0.0 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.3 8.7 0.5 0.3 1.3 1.8 5.3 4.4 .458 .611
Kevin Love MIN 2145 8.0 17.8 1.8 4.7 6.4 7.7 3.8 8.5 1.9 0.8 0.5 2.1 2.6 24.0 .448 .372 .824
Jamaal Magloire TOR 374 1.6 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.7 2.6 2.4 8.5 0.6 0.4 1.0 2.1 6.4 3.9 .378 .259
Omer Asik CHI 971 2.9 5.8 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.8 4.7 8.3 1.2 1.1 2.5 2.5 4.5 7.6 .506 .456
Carlos Boozer CHI 1948 8.3 15.6 0.0 0.0 1.8 2.5 2.1 8.3 2.3 1.2 0.4 2.1 3.1 18.3 .532 .000 .693
Kevin Garnett BOS 1864 7.6 15.0 0.1 0.2 3.1 3.7 1.3 8.3 3.4 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.7 18.3 .503 .333 .857
Jordan Hill TOT 551 5.4 10.8 0.0 0.2 2.0 3.1 4.0 8.2 1.0 0.9 1.8 2.0 4.6 12.7 .497 .000 .638
Anderson Varejao CLE 785 5.2 10.2 0.0 0.2 2.0 2.9 5.0 8.2 2.0 1.6 0.8 2.1 2.8 12.4 .514 .000 .672
DeMarcus Cousins SAC 1950 8.3 18.4 0.0 0.3 4.8 6.9 4.9 8.1 1.9 1.7 1.4 3.1 4.7 21.4 .448 .143 .702
Marcin Gortat PHO 2114 7.3 13.1 0.0 0.0 2.8 4.3 3.2 8.1 1.0 0.8 1.7 1.5 2.4 17.3 .555 .000 .649
Reggie Evans LAC 771 1.6 3.4 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.3 4.7 8.0 0.8 1.4 0.3 2.1 5.5 4.9 .472 .507
Udonis Haslem MIA 1589 3.4 8.1 0.0 0.0 1.9 2.3 2.7 8.0 1.0 0.8 0.5 1.4 3.2 8.7 .423 .814
Al Jefferson UTA 2075 9.0 18.2 0.0 0.1 2.4 3.1 2.3 7.8 2.3 0.8 1.8 1.1 2.7 20.3 .492 .250 .774
Andrew Bogut MIL 364 6.0 13.5 0.0 0.1 1.4 2.3 2.2 7.7 3.1 1.2 2.4 2.4 3.6 13.5 .449 .000 .609
Josh Smith ATL 2329 7.8 17.0 0.4 1.7 3.1 5.0 2.1 7.7 4.0 1.4 1.8 2.5 2.7 19.2 .458 .257 .630
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Blake Griffin LAC 2392 8.4 15.4 0.0 0.2 3.7 7.0 3.3 7.5 3.2 0.8 0.7 2.3 3.3 20.6 .549 .125 .521
Spencer Hawes PHI 920 6.1 12.5 0.1 0.5 1.6 2.2 3.1 7.5 3.8 0.6 1.9 2.2 3.9 13.9 .489 .250 .727
Kris Humphries NJN 2162 5.4 11.2 0.0 0.0 3.5 4.6 3.9 7.5 1.5 0.8 1.2 2.0 2.9 14.2 .481 .752
Chris Andersen DEN 486 4.4 8.0 0.0 0.0 3.7 6.1 3.6 7.4 0.4 1.4 3.4 1.3 3.9 12.4 .546 .610
Samuel Dalembert HOU 1446 5.0 9.8 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.8 3.9 7.4 0.8 0.9 2.8 2.0 4.0 12.2 .506 .000 .796
Nene Hilario TOT 1110 6.8 12.7 0.0 0.1 3.7 5.4 2.0 7.4 2.6 1.4 1.2 3.1 3.1 17.4 .537 .000 .673
Kosta Koufos DEN 792 5.2 8.7 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.5 4.3 7.4 0.7 1.1 1.9 1.5 4.4 12.0 .599 .600
JaVale McGee TOT 1535 7.2 12.9 0.0 0.0 1.8 3.9 3.8 7.4 0.7 0.8 3.1 2.0 3.9 16.2 .556 .461
Kenneth Faried DEN 1037 6.3 10.7 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.7 4.9 7.3 1.2 1.2 1.6 1.9 4.0 16.4 .586 .665
Pau Gasol LAL 2430 6.8 13.6 0.1 0.4 3.0 3.9 2.7 7.3 3.5 0.5 1.3 2.1 1.9 16.7 .501 .259 .782
Evan Turner PHI 1713 5.5 12.4 0.2 1.0 1.5 2.3 0.6 7.3 3.8 0.8 0.4 2.2 2.5 12.8 .446 .224 .676
Lavoy Allen PHI 624 4.6 9.6 0.0 0.0 0.6 0.8 2.7 7.2 2.0 0.7 1.0 1.2 4.2 9.7 .473 .786
Ersan Ilyasova MIL 1655 6.4 13.0 1.1 2.4 3.1 4.0 4.3 7.2 1.5 0.9 1.0 1.7 2.9 17.0 .492 .455 .781
Chris Kaman NOH 1372 7.0 15.7 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.8 2.3 7.2 2.7 0.7 2.0 3.4 2.8 16.2 .446 .785
Joakim Noah CHI 1945 4.6 9.1 0.0 0.0 2.9 3.8 4.5 7.2 3.0 0.8 1.7 1.7 3.0 12.1 .508 .000 .748
Zach Randolph MEM 735 6.5 14.0 0.1 0.4 2.8 4.3 3.8 7.2 2.4 1.0 0.2 2.0 2.8 15.9 .463 .250 .659
Ed Davis TOR 1534 4.0 7.9 0.0 0.0 1.7 2.5 3.1 7.1 1.4 0.9 1.5 1.6 3.7 9.7 .513 .000 .670
Tyson Chandler NYK 2061 4.2 6.2 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.5 3.7 7.0 1.0 1.0 1.6 1.8 3.2 12.2 .679 .000 .689
Derrick Favors UTA 1376 5.8 11.6 0.0 0.0 3.3 5.1 4.1 7.0 1.1 1.0 1.7 2.7 3.8 14.9 .499 .649
Marc Gasol MEM 2370 5.4 11.2 0.0 0.2 3.6 4.8 1.8 7.0 3.1 0.9 1.8 1.8 3.1 14.5 .482 .083 .748
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Enes Kanter UTA 874 4.8 9.7 0.0 0.0 2.9 4.3 4.4 7.0 0.3 0.7 0.9 2.2 3.6 12.5 .496 .000 .667
Nikola Vucevic PHI 812 5.8 12.9 0.1 0.4 0.8 1.5 3.9 7.0 1.4 0.9 1.5 1.5 4.9 12.5 .450 .375 .529
Kevin Durant OKC 2546 9.1 18.3 1.9 4.9 6.1 7.1 0.6 6.9 3.3 1.2 1.1 3.5 1.9 26.2 .496 .387 .860
DeAndre Jordan LAC 1798 4.1 6.5 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.8 4.0 6.9 0.3 0.6 2.7 1.5 3.8 9.7 .632 .000 .525
Greg Monroe DET 2082 7.0 13.5 0.0 0.0 3.5 4.7 4.1 6.9 2.6 1.4 0.8 2.8 3.1 17.6 .521 .000 .739
Ben Wallace DET 980 1.2 3.2 0.0 0.1 0.6 1.7 3.0 6.9 1.6 1.7 1.9 1.2 2.2 3.1 .395 .250 .340
Tiago Splitter SAS 1121 6.8 11.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.8 3.0 6.8 2.1 0.7 1.5 2.8 4.3 17.6 .618 .691
Roy Hibbert IND 1937 6.2 12.4 0.0 0.0 3.2 4.4 4.0 6.7 2.0 0.6 2.4 2.4 3.6 15.5 .497 .000 .711
Zaza Pachulia ATL 1640 3.7 7.4 0.0 0.0 2.6 3.5 3.4 6.7 1.7 1.2 0.6 1.8 3.8 10.0 .499 .741
Kurt Thomas POR 803 3.3 7.0 0.0 0.0 0.6 0.9 1.7 6.7 2.1 1.1 1.4 1.4 5.5 7.2 .465 .700
Channing Frye PHO 1669 5.5 13.2 2.0 5.7 1.6 1.8 1.5 6.6 1.9 0.9 1.5 1.4 3.8 14.5 .416 .346 .890
Paul Millsap UTA 2100 7.3 14.8 0.1 0.5 3.5 4.4 3.1 6.6 2.6 2.0 0.9 1.9 3.8 18.2 .495 .226 .792
Timofey Mozgov DEN 687 5.2 10.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 3.0 2.8 6.6 1.2 0.8 2.2 2.8 4.5 12.5 .526 .684
Emeka Okafor NOH 781 5.3 9.9 0.0 0.0 1.8 3.4 3.2 6.6 1.1 0.7 1.2 1.7 3.4 12.3 .533 .514
Al Harrington DEN 1761 7.1 15.8 2.1 6.2 2.4 3.6 1.5 6.5 1.8 1.2 0.2 2.3 3.7 18.6 .446 .333 .676

TOP NBA DEFENDERS CHART 2 OF 3 >>> TOP BLOCKERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the best (defensive) blockers of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by blocks per 36 minutes playing time. This is "BLK" in the chart. All items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. Only players who made at least 1.5 blocks per 36 minutes are shown here.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the best blockers in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player              Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB  DRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Serge Ibaka OKC 1792 5.3 9.8 0.0 0.1 1.6 2.4 3.9 6.1 0.6 0.7 4.8 1.6 3.6 12.1 .535 .333 .661
Larry Sanders MIL 643 4.7 10.3 0.0 0.1 1.0 2.1 3.5 5.5 1.8 1.8 4.3 2.4 7.4 10.4 .457 .000 .474
Greg Stiemsma BOS 766 3.1 5.7 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.9 2.3 6.1 1.3 1.7 4.0 1.6 6.8 7.6 .545 .707
Chris Andersen DEN 486 4.4 8.0 0.0 0.0 3.7 6.1 3.6 7.4 0.4 1.4 3.4 1.3 3.9 12.4 .546 .610
JaVale McGee TOT 1535 7.2 12.9 0.0 0.0 1.8 3.9 3.8 7.4 0.7 0.8 3.1 2.0 3.9 16.2 .556 .461
Brandan Wright DAL 791 6.6 10.6 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.7 2.8 5.1 0.6 1.0 2.9 1.0 2.8 15.5 .618 .000 .634
Bismack Biyombo CHA 1455 3.2 6.9 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.5 2.8 6.3 0.7 0.5 2.8 1.8 3.6 8.1 .464 .483
Samuel Dalembert HOU 1446 5.0 9.8 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.8 3.9 7.4 0.8 0.9 2.8 2.0 4.0 12.2 .506 .000 .796
Ekpe Udoh TOT 1290 3.5 8.2 0.0 0.1 2.4 3.2 2.8 4.3 1.6 1.1 2.8 1.5 4.9 9.5 .431 .000 .754
DeAndre Jordan LAC 1798 4.1 6.5 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.8 4.0 6.9 0.3 0.6 2.7 1.5 3.8 9.7 .632 .000 .525
Jermaine ONeal BOS 570 3.3 7.6 0.0 0.0 1.3 2.0 2.3 6.2 0.6 0.5 2.7 1.3 5.1 7.9 .433 .677
Omer Asik CHI 971 2.9 5.8 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.8 4.7 8.3 1.2 1.1 2.5 2.5 4.5 7.6 .506 .456
Andrew Bogut MIL 364 6.0 13.5 0.0 0.1 1.4 2.3 2.2 7.7 3.1 1.2 2.4 2.4 3.6 13.5 .449 .000 .609
Roy Hibbert IND 1937 6.2 12.4 0.0 0.0 3.2 4.4 4.0 6.7 2.0 0.6 2.4 2.4 3.6 15.5 .497 .000 .711
Robin Lopez PHO 895 5.0 10.8 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.6 3.6 4.8 0.8 0.7 2.4 1.7 5.1 14.0 .461 .714
Anthony Randolph MIN 517 6.5 13.9 0.0 0.1 4.5 5.8 2.9 5.6 1.3 0.9 2.4 2.8 3.9 17.5 .470 .000 .762
Marcus Camby TOT 1352 3.4 7.6 0.1 0.1 0.8 1.7 4.2 9.9 2.8 1.3 2.3 1.5 3.4 7.6 .446 .400 .453
Taj Gibson CHI 1284 5.6 11.3 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.8 3.8 5.5 1.3 0.8 2.3 1.7 3.7 13.6 .495 .622
Kevin Seraphin WAS 1176 6.2 11.7 0.0 0.0 1.4 2.1 3.2 5.4 1.0 0.6 2.3 2.0 4.1 13.9 .531 .000 .671
Joel Anthony MIA 1349 2.3 4.1 0.0 0.0 1.3 1.9 2.7 4.0 0.2 1.0 2.2 1.2 3.4 5.8 .559 .690
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Andris Biedrins GSW 739 1.9 3.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 2.2 6.4 0.8 1.1 2.2 0.7 6.1 3.8 .609 .111
Timofey Mozgov DEN 687 5.2 10.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 3.0 2.8 6.6 1.2 0.8 2.2 2.8 4.5 12.5 .526 .684
Louis Amundson IND 753 4.3 9.9 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.9 4.5 6.1 0.7 1.3 2.1 2.2 6.0 10.2 .430 .427
Earl Clark ORL 559 3.3 9.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.9 2.3 5.7 1.2 0.8 2.1 1.6 4.6 7.9 .367 .724
Tyrus Thomas CHA 1013 4.3 11.6 0.0 0.1 2.2 2.9 1.7 5.4 1.2 1.3 2.1 1.9 5.1 10.8 .367 .333 .759
Elton Brand PHI 1732 6.0 12.1 0.0 0.0 1.8 2.4 3.0 5.9 2.0 1.2 2.0 1.4 3.7 13.7 .494 .000 .733
Andrew Bynum LAL 2112 7.6 13.6 0.0 0.1 4.0 5.8 3.3 8.8 1.4 0.5 2.0 2.6 1.8 19.1 .558 .200 .692
Dwight Howard ORL 2070 7.2 12.6 0.0 0.1 4.9 9.9 3.5 10.2 1.8 1.4 2.0 3.0 2.8 19.4 .573 .000 .491
Chris Kaman NOH 1372 7.0 15.7 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.8 2.3 7.2 2.7 0.7 2.0 3.4 2.8 16.2 .446 .785
Tim Duncan SAS 1634 8.0 16.1 0.0 0.1 3.8 5.5 2.4 9.0 2.9 0.8 1.9 2.1 2.2 19.7 .492 .000 .695
Spencer Hawes PHI 920 6.1 12.5 0.1 0.5 1.6 2.2 3.1 7.5 3.8 0.6 1.9 2.2 3.9 13.9 .489 .250 .727
James Johnson TOR 1561 5.4 11.9 0.4 1.4 1.9 2.7 1.7 5.0 2.8 1.6 1.9 2.3 4.1 13.1 .450 .317 .704
Kosta Koufos DEN 792 5.2 8.7 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.5 4.3 7.4 0.7 1.1 1.9 1.5 4.4 12.0 .599 .600
Darko Milicic MIN 472 4.5 9.9 0.0 0.0 1.2 2.8 2.7 4.7 1.3 0.7 1.9 2.4 4.5 10.2 .454 .432
Nazr Mohammed OKC 692 4.1 8.8 0.0 0.1 0.7 1.2 3.1 5.8 0.7 1.0 1.9 1.4 5.3 8.9 .467 .000 .565
Ben Wallace DET 980 1.2 3.2 0.0 0.1 0.6 1.7 3.0 6.9 1.6 1.7 1.9 1.2 2.2 3.1 .395 .250 .340
Marc Gasol MEM 2370 5.4 11.2 0.0 0.2 3.6 4.8 1.8 7.0 3.1 0.9 1.8 1.8 3.1 14.5 .482 .083 .748
Jordan Hill TOT 551 5.4 10.8 0.0 0.2 2.0 3.1 4.0 8.2 1.0 0.9 1.8 2.0 4.6 12.7 .497 .000 .638
Al Jefferson UTA 2075 9.0 18.2 0.0 0.1 2.4 3.1 2.3 7.8 2.3 0.8 1.8 1.1 2.7 20.3 .492 .250 .774
Josh Smith ATL 2329 7.8 17.0 0.4 1.7 3.1 5.0 2.1 7.7 4.0 1.4 1.8 2.5 2.7 19.2 .458 .257 .630
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Derrick Favors UTA 1376 5.8 11.6 0.0 0.0 3.3 5.1 4.1 7.0 1.1 1.0 1.7 2.7 3.8 14.9 .499 .649
Francisco Garcia SAC 798 3.9 10.3 1.7 5.9 1.1 1.4 0.5 4.0 1.4 1.6 1.7 1.0 3.3 10.6 .376 .290 .800
Marcin Gortat PHO 2114 7.3 13.1 0.0 0.0 2.8 4.3 3.2 8.1 1.0 0.8 1.7 1.5 2.4 17.3 .555 .000 .649
Brendan Haywood DAL 1146 3.7 7.2 0.0 0.0 1.4 3.0 4.4 5.8 0.6 0.8 1.7 1.4 3.8 8.8 .518 .469
Joakim Noah CHI 1945 4.6 9.1 0.0 0.0 2.9 3.8 4.5 7.2 3.0 0.8 1.7 1.7 3.0 12.1 .508 .000 .748
Tyson Chandler NYK 2061 4.2 6.2 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.5 3.7 7.0 1.0 1.0 1.6 1.8 3.2 12.2 .679 .000 .689
Kenneth Faried DEN 1037 6.3 10.7 0.0 0.0 3.8 5.7 4.9 7.3 1.2 1.2 1.6 1.9 4.0 16.4 .586 .665
Amir Johnson TOR 1553 4.5 7.9 0.0 0.1 1.3 1.9 3.5 6.0 1.8 0.8 1.6 2.2 4.8 10.5 .576 .400 .690
Kenyon Martin LAC 940 3.7 8.4 0.1 0.5 0.8 2.1 1.9 5.1 0.7 1.7 1.6 1.2 3.9 8.3 .441 .231 .370
Jason Smith NOH 947 6.9 13.2 0.0 0.3 1.3 1.8 2.7 4.7 1.3 0.8 1.6 1.5 3.9 15.1 .520 .111 .702
Tristan Thompson CLE 1424 4.9 11.2 0.0 0.1 2.7 4.9 4.7 5.1 0.7 0.7 1.6 2.0 3.4 12.5 .439 .000 .552
Gustavo Ayon NOH 1088 4.6 8.6 0.0 0.0 1.3 2.1 2.8 5.9 2.4 1.8 1.5 1.5 3.9 10.6 .536 .000 .619
Channing Frye PHO 1669 5.5 13.2 2.0 5.7 1.6 1.8 1.5 6.6 1.9 0.9 1.5 1.4 3.8 14.5 .416 .346 .890
Travis Outlaw SAC 500 4.3 12.6 1.2 4.3 2.2 3.3 1.4 3.0 1.2 1.4 1.5 1.4 2.4 12.0 .343 .267 .674
Kendrick Perkins OKC 1744 2.6 5.4 0.0 0.0 1.5 2.3 2.5 6.3 1.6 0.5 1.5 2.4 3.9 6.8 .489 .652
Tiago Splitter SAS 1121 6.8 11.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 5.8 3.0 6.8 2.1 0.7 1.5 2.8 4.3 17.6 .618 .691
Nikola Vucevic PHI 812 5.8 12.9 0.1 0.4 0.8 1.5 3.9 7.0 1.4 0.9 1.5 1.5 4.9 12.5 .450 .375 .529

TOP NBA DEFENDERS CHART 3 OF 3 >>> TOP THIEVES / FAST BREAKERS in 2011-2012 (complete regular season)
Each year QFTR publishes Real Player Ratings for every player in the NBA who has played at least 300 minutes. Real Player Ratings are comprehensive player ratings that are very carefully designed and quality controlled. Starting in 2012, the Ratings are supplemented by seven per 36 minutes charts which show player performance in seven of the very most important performance measures, all of which are components of Real Player Ratings (but there are other components that go into Real Player Ratings). These charts are stationed on the home page at all times. This is most likely the only place on the Internet where this key player information is shown in this optimal way.

Here we have the best thieves / fast breakers of the NBA in 2011-2012 as indicated by steals per 36 minutes playing time. This is "STL" in the chart. All items shown in the chart other than the percentages and the minutes played are per 36 minutes, which is much smarter to use than per game numbers.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. Only players who made at least 1.7 steals per 36 minutes are shown here.

This is one of the seven "7/36 Charts". A short user guide for these is found in this Report.

Here now are how the best thieves / fast breakers in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player               Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB DRB  AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Tony Allen MEM 1525 5.0 10.6 0.2 0.6 3.3 4.1 2.3 3.2 1.9 2.5 0.8 2.2 3.4 13.4 .469 .308 .800
Sundiata Gaines NJN 793 4.6 12.3 1.3 3.7 2.7 4.4 1.2 3.7 5.7 2.5 0.1 2.4 2.6 13.2 .376 .341 .615
Chris Paul LAC 2181 7.0 14.7 1.3 3.5 4.3 5.0 0.7 2.8 9.0 2.5 0.1 2.0 2.3 19.6 .478 .371 .861
Eric Bledsoe LAC 464 3.8 9.8 0.5 2.3 2.2 3.4 1.7 3.3 5.1 2.4 1.1 3.6 4.5 10.2 .389 .200 .636
Ronnie Price PHO 517 3.4 9.1 0.9 3.1 1.4 1.7 1.3 2.6 4.7 2.4 0.2 3.2 5.0 9.1 .377 .295 .800
Mike Conley MEM 2174 4.9 11.3 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.4 2.2 6.7 2.3 0.2 2.1 2.2 13.0 .433 .377 .861
Ricky Rubio MIN 1404 3.6 10.0 0.8 2.4 3.2 4.0 0.5 3.8 8.6 2.3 0.2 3.4 2.5 11.2 .357 .340 .803
Baron Davis NYK 595 4.1 11.1 1.6 5.1 1.0 1.5 0.8 2.6 8.2 2.1 0.2 4.6 3.7 10.8 .370 .306 .667
Jason Kidd DAL 1379 2.6 7.1 2.1 5.8 0.6 0.7 0.4 4.8 6.9 2.1 0.3 2.4 2.2 7.8 .363 .354 .786
Jeremy Lin NYK 940 6.5 14.7 0.9 2.9 5.6 7.0 0.7 3.4 8.3 2.1 0.3 4.8 3.0 19.6 .446 .320 .798
Iman Shumpert NYK 1705 4.5 11.3 1.0 3.3 1.8 2.3 0.9 3.0 3.5 2.1 0.2 2.3 3.7 11.9 .401 .306 .798
Corey Brewer DEN 1287 5.6 13.0 0.9 3.6 2.5 3.6 1.2 3.0 2.5 2.0 0.5 1.6 3.2 14.7 .434 .260 .692
Paul George IND 1958 5.2 11.7 1.7 4.3 2.7 3.3 1.0 5.8 2.9 2.0 0.7 2.2 3.5 14.7 .440 .385 .802
Kawhi Leonard SAS 1534 4.7 9.5 1.0 2.6 1.6 2.1 2.4 5.2 1.6 2.0 0.6 1.0 2.1 11.9 .493 .376 .773
Paul Millsap UTA 2100 7.3 14.8 0.1 0.5 3.5 4.4 3.1 6.6 2.6 2.0 0.9 1.9 3.8 18.2 .495 .226 .792
J.R. Smith NYK 967 6.1 15.1 2.5 7.2 1.5 2.0 1.1 4.0 3.1 2.0 0.2 1.7 3.2 16.2 .407 .347 .709
Delonte West DAL 1060 5.6 12.2 0.9 2.6 2.1 2.4 0.4 3.0 4.7 2.0 0.4 2.6 2.3 14.3 .461 .355 .886
Mario Chalmers MIA 1825 4.4 9.8 2.0 5.1 1.6 2.0 0.3 3.1 4.4 1.9 0.2 2.8 3.3 12.4 .448 .388 .792
Stephen Curry GSW 732 7.1 14.6 2.7 6.0 1.9 2.3 0.7 3.6 6.8 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.0 18.8 .490 .455 .809
Carlos Delfino MIL 1537 4.3 10.6 2.0 5.6 0.9 1.1 0.5 4.4 2.9 1.9 0.2 1.5 2.3 11.4 .402 .360 .792
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Earl Watson UTA 1033 1.9 5.6 0.3 1.8 1.1 1.6 1.0 3.2 7.6 1.9 0.8 3.0 3.7 5.2 .338 .192 .674
Trevor Ariza NOH 1350 4.5 10.7 0.8 2.3 2.1 2.7 1.1 4.6 3.6 1.8 0.7 2.0 1.9 11.8 .417 .333 .775
Gustavo Ayon NOH 1088 4.6 8.6 0.0 0.0 1.3 2.1 2.8 5.9 2.4 1.8 1.5 1.5 3.9 10.6 .536 .000 .619
Rodrigue Beaubois DAL 1151 5.9 13.9 1.2 4.1 1.8 2.2 0.6 4.1 4.8 1.8 0.9 2.2 3.1 14.8 .422 .288 .841
Reggie Jackson OKC 501 3.7 11.4 0.9 4.5 1.8 2.1 1.0 2.8 5.1 1.8 0.1 2.6 2.2 10.1 .321 .210 .862
LeBron James MIA 2326 9.6 18.1 0.8 2.3 6.0 7.8 1.5 6.2 6.0 1.8 0.8 3.3 1.5 26.0 .531 .362 .771
Nate Robinson GSW 1192 6.2 14.6 2.0 5.5 2.8 3.4 0.5 2.6 7.0 1.8 0.1 2.3 3.6 17.2 .424 .365 .832
Walker Russell DET 357 3.3 9.6 0.4 1.3 1.4 2.2 0.7 1.9 5.8 1.8 0.1 3.3 2.9 8.5 .347 .308 .636
Larry Sanders MIL 643 4.7 10.3 0.0 0.1 1.0 2.1 3.5 5.5 1.8 1.8 4.3 2.4 7.4 10.4 .457 .000 .474
Chris Singleton WAS 1431 2.9 7.8 1.1 3.2 0.8 1.1 1.1 4.8 1.2 1.8 0.8 1.0 4.4 7.7 .372 .346 .682
Dwyane Wade MIA 1625 9.2 18.5 0.3 1.2 5.2 6.6 1.6 3.6 5.0 1.8 1.4 2.9 2.4 24.0 .497 .268 .791
DeMarcus Cousins SAC 1950 8.3 18.4 0.0 0.3 4.8 6.9 4.9 8.1 1.9 1.7 1.4 3.1 4.7 21.4 .448 .143 .702
Goran Dragic HOU 1752 5.7 12.3 1.4 4.2 3.1 3.9 1.1 2.4 7.2 1.7 0.2 3.2 3.4 15.9 .462 .337 .805
Andre Iguodala PHI 2209 4.7 10.3 1.2 3.1 2.0 3.2 0.9 5.3 5.5 1.7 0.5 1.9 1.5 12.6 .454 .394 .617
Kyle Lowry HOU 1510 5.0 12.2 1.9 5.0 4.1 4.7 0.9 4.2 7.4 1.7 0.3 3.1 3.2 16.0 .409 .374 .864
Rajon Rondo BOS 1957 4.7 10.5 0.2 0.8 2.0 3.3 1.1 3.6 11.4 1.7 0.1 3.6 1.8 11.6 .448 .238 .597
Lance Stephenson IND 442 3.8 10.2 0.3 2.4 0.7 1.4 1.0 3.3 3.7 1.7 0.4 2.9 2.4 8.6 .376 .133 .471
Greg Stiemsma BOS 766 3.1 5.7 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.9 2.3 6.1 1.3 1.7 4.0 1.6 6.8 7.6 .545 .707
Jeff Teague ATL 2183 5.3 11.1 0.8 2.5 2.3 3.1 0.3 2.3 5.3 1.7 0.6 2.2 2.4 13.7 .476 .342 .757
Ben Wallace DET 980 1.2 3.2 0.0 0.1 0.6 1.7 3.0 6.9 1.6 1.7 1.9 1.2 2.2 3.1 .395 .250 .340
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Russell Westbrook OKC 2331 8.9 19.6 1.0 3.0 5.3 6.4 1.5 3.2 5.6 1.7 0.3 3.7 2.3 24.1 .457 .316 .823

From day one we knew that QFTR would never be a hang out place, a place where people come to comment on basketball news and blogs and what not. For one thing, we knew it could never possibly be even a moderate traffic Site (let alone a high traffic Site) regardless of the quality or quantity of basketball content loaded on to it. (It took years and about 15 books worth of content just to go from zero traffic to low traffic). Although you wouldn't expect it to be all that popular, it seems that a serious and unique basketball Site has even a lower potential audience than one would expect.

For another thing, QFTR is too serious for the quick little comments that are a dime a dozen at basketball Sites and blogs around the Internet. And most people who comment like to make only short little comments.

And of course it is well known that only a tiny percentage of blogs get more than a tiny number of comments and that essentially all of the blogs that do get comments are part of blog networks and/or they are run by celebrities.

And there are other reasons but those are the main ones.

The truth though is that your QFTR producer never had the resources to moderate and / or to participate in discussions at QFTR. Before there was a QFTR we participated in forums, and for about 18 months after there was a QFTR we still posted at a couple of forums, but we had to discontinue due to lack of time and because posting at forums was useless for getting traffic to QFTR that would return for future visits. As mentioned above in "Your Ball, Take Your Best Shot, Option 3," QFTR has only roughly 1/10 of the time it would like for producing content and for getting the background work done. So we are not even close to having the time to deal with comments that would go directly onto QFTR. So actually, we are glad that there has been very little interest.

Having said that, until January 2012 there was an option for commenting on Reports etc.. There was a page called "QFTR Discussions" where all comments on all Reports would appear in one place. These were going to be more serious and lengthy comments than the ones you see around the Internet.

Along with the discussion page there was to be an "open blog" called "My Quest for the Ring". Anyone who demonstrated the ability to make important, interesting, and/or useful contributions toward explaining how playoff games are won and lost would be given the keys and would be allowed to post whatever whenever. These would be full posts and not just comments. This would be a collaboration blog.

Both Discussions and My Quest for the Ring were nice, creative ideas, but there were no takers because of some combination of the following:

--Hardly anyone is qualified to discuss basketball at a high level.
--No one who is qualified has the time.
--QFTR traffic has been too low and/or it has the wrong people visiting, so therefore those who might have posted have never seen the option.

Although all of the links to these pages are removed from the QFTR home page as of January 2012 (except for the ones just above) the pages themselves are not being taken down. So if anyone (and it can be just one single person) is interested in posting to either of these Sites, please send an email to:
thequestforthering1 @ gmail dot com
[Remove the spaces and replace "dot" with an actual (.)

If even one person is interested and posts at either of those sites, we will restore all of the links that were removed.

RICKY RUBIO, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES POINT GUARD

RICKY RUBIO, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES POINT GUARD

>>>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 20 BOOKS AND COUNTING CONTAINED ON THIS SITE>>>>>

SEARCH QFTR, THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 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.

GOOGLE ARCHIVE



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






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 and lost. We also love to take comedy and music breaks, but not every day.

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING (QFTR). 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 that you most likely just came from 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 QFTR 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.


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.

Unlike many Internet operations QFTR is never going to quit due to low traffic; we have learned over the last decade that traffic is about 95% determined by variables completely out of our control. The 5% that we do control is not enough to change traffic in any significant way. The corporate, hype, and porn sites get all the easy (and sleazy!) traffic. QFTR gets a relatively small amount of traffic but how could it possibly be otherwise? QFTR gets high quality traffic from serious, intelligent people (who are in limited supply) and that is exactly how it was inevitably going to be.

2009: A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION COMES TO QUEST
The QFTR Home Page consists of numerous types of content, organized carefully into clearly labelled sections. Features can be any educational and / or entertaining basketball content 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 easy access to many of the Worlds' most important basketball resources. (We don't give a damn that all the outbound links might hurt our placement in search results, because we are not going to cheat visitors just to get more "fly by night" visitors.) But the Quest visitor does not HAVE to hunt for links to have an intelligent and entertaining experience because QFTR is a massive resource in and of itself.

THERE MUST BE FIFTY WAYS TO READ REPORTS [AS PAUL SIMON SANG YEARS AGO, LOL]
Well, maybe not fifty, but 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 not far below the main Report you have loaded for complete details about how to find, choose, and read reports.

THE QUEST USER GUIDE VERSUS THE MERE ABOUT PAGE
Other sites very often have undeveloped and limited in scope "about pages" which is usually all they have for what we call a "User Guide". The QFTR User Guide is a little blog in itself with several dozen articles explaining aspects of the Site and how you can benefit from them. This approach 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. You can access User Guide articles either by visiting the User Guide dedicated page or by locating the list of User Guide articles right on the primary QFTR Home Page.

SEARCH QFTR, THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 MILLION WORDS

RECOMMENDED SCHOOL--CLICK FOR DETAILS


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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