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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



Friday, November 16, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 17: Knicks at Nuggets

KEY FOR STARTERS
Position Number Name
Height Weight
PPG RPG APG FG% (Points, Rebounds, & Assists Per Game, Field Goal Shooting %)
Recent Highlights

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
2007-08: 25.7 5.0 5.2 .453
Is averaging 29.3 ppg in the Nuggets six wins, however just 18.3 ppg in their three losses so far this season. Has scored 10+ points in 138-straight games, which ranks as the second-longest active streak in the NBA.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 8.5 5.1 0.4 .477
Posted a season-high 14 points on .778 (7-9) shooting from the field in 23 minutes vs. Portland on 11/14. Has tallied five or more rebounds in six of his seven appearances this season, despite averaging just 22.1 mpg.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 9.8 13.2 3.2 .514
With his 13 rebounds vs. Portland on 11/14, he has now pulled down 10+ boards in eight of Denver’s nine games. His 3.3 apg average currently leads all NBA centers so far this season, as does his 1.73 assist-to-turnover ratio.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 4.9 1.8 1.1 .471
Is 6-1 as a starter so far this season (.857), after going just 8-11 (.421) in his 19 starts as a rookie last season. Is 5-1 as a starter so far this season (.833), after going just 8-11 (.421) in his 19 starts as a rookie last season.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 25.0 3.2 8.0 .454
Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists. Scored a season-high 37 points while shooting .700 (14-20) from the field vs. Cleveland on 11/12.


KNICKS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward #23 Quentin Richardson
6’6” 235
2007-08 7.3 5.7 0.9 .333
Scored seven points and had six rebounds in 28:24 at LA Clippers, Nov. 14…Scored 19 points and had seven rebounds in 42:11 vs. Orlando, Nov. 9…Scored seven points and had three rebounds in 21:46 vs. Denver, Nov.6…Scored six points (2-5 3-PT FG) and had two rebounds in 35:51 at Cleveland, Nov. 2.


Power Forward #42 David Lee
6’9” 240
2007-08: 10.3 8.8 1.1 .492
Scored a career-high 24 points (8-12 FG) and had a season-high 16 rebounds in 49:54 at Sacramento, Nov. 16…Scored 14 points and had 14 rebounds in 39:05 of starter action vs. Miami, Nov. 11


Center #34 Eddy Curry
6’11” 285
2007-08: 19.3 7.5 0.6 .610
Ranks among the league leaders in FG% (.610, 64-105 FG)…Scored 27 points and had nine rebounds in 34:18 at Sacramento, Nov.16…Scored 24 points and had eight rebounds in 34:40 vs. Denver, Nov.6…Scored 18 points and had seven rebounds in 32:55 at Cleveland, Nov. 2.


Shooting Guard #11 Jamal Crawford
6’5” 200
2007-08: 19.6 3.0 5.4 .400
Ranks among the league leaders in minutes per game (41.5)...Scored 25 points and had eight assists and five rebounds in 44:04 vs. Denver, Nov. 6…Scored 24 points and had seven assists in 42:00 vs. Minnesota, Nov. 4


Point Guard, #25 Mardy Collins
6’6” 220
2007-08: 2.0 1.3 1.3 .300
2007-08: Averaging 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game…Started and scored four points and had two assists in 18:41 at Sacramento, Nov. 16…In his first
game action of the season, scored two points and had three rebounds and two steals in 20:47 vs. Miami, Nov.11.


TEAM STATS COMPARED

Points Per Game:
Denver...108.3
New York..99.6

Field Goal Accuracy
Denver....475
New York..437

Rebounds Per Game:
Denver....44.8
New York..44.5

Assists Per Game:
Denver....24.1
New York..17.8

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.
OUT: Nene suffered a torn ulner collateral ligament in his left thumb at Boston on 11/7 and underwent successful surgery on 11/9. He is expected to miss six weeks.
OUT: Steven Hunter underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on 11/16 and is expected to miss six weeks.

KNICKS INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Jerome James: Left Knee Tendinitis/Right Foot Bone Spur & Cyst
QUESTIONABLE: Zach Randolph: Personal Reasons
QUESTIONABLE: Reynaldo Balkman: Sprained Right Ankle

ON THE AIR:

Tonight’s game will be televised on Altitude with Chris Marlowe calling the action and Scott Hastings providing analysis. The game will also be broadcast on KKFN AM 950, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUPS:

SG Jamal Crawford vs. J.R. Smith and Yakhouba Diawara One of the few chances the Knicks have to win this game is if Jamal Crawford gets 24-30 points, 7-10 assists, and some rebounds, to at least match what he accomplished against the Nuggets in New York 11 days ago. At the same time, the Knicks will have to hope that J.R. Smith has one of his off nights and that Diawara doesn't do much offensively as well. Crawford is too quick to be effectively guarded by Diawara on every possession. There has been alot of Nuggets news that has seemed too good to be true, or too good to last, lately, and one such news story is Diawara's scoring. However, Diawara has a history of teasing fans with some scoring and then becoming a very bad shooter again. Whether Diawara can keep his modest but important scoring going is an important factor for the Nuggets, who are much more desperate than most teams for scoring by reserves, because when the reserves don't score they are benched completely by George Karl, and benched players never score.

C Eddy Curry vs. Marcus Camby PF Zach Randolph is apparently not playing due to a death in his family; PF David Lee will be the substitute starter. Lee is average at best and will have a difficult time against Kenyon Martin. 11 days ago in New York, the Knicks got alot of second chance points in the paint while substantially denying Carmelo Anthony and other Nuggets both penetration to the hoop and second chance scores of their own. Since Nene is still not available, one of the only ways the Knicks could compete in this game would be to try to repeat what they did in that game, but since Randolph is out, Curry and Lee would both have to have huge scoring, rebounding, and defending games in the paint.

NUGGET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Stay cool and confident. I’m going to have to keep including this key until the Nugget's players and coaches maintain their confidence more consistently. They also need to avoid the drama from having criticism and dirty laundry in the newspapers. And they need to avoid ugly off-court incidents. Yeah, I'm looking at you when I say that, J.R. Smith.

Avoid the temptation of taking too many 3-point shots. Quite honestly, I think the Nuggets got off to a lucky start for 3-point shooting, and there is the risk that players such as Diawara, Najera, Kleiza, and maybe even Iverson will attempt too many 3-pointers. Let's not get carried away, especially in this game. I am a little worried about that ugly 1/13 on threes shooting against the Trailblazers carrying over into this one. But there is no need for 3-point heroics in this game, because the Knicks most likely can not beat the Nuggets whether or not the Nuggets make some threes.

Get on the boards and deny the Knicks as many offensive rebounds as possible. The Knicks, at least if Zach Randolph is playing, are one of the better rebounding for second chance scores teams in the NBA, and the Nuggets without Nene are one of the worst teams for denying second chance scores from offensive rebounds. But with Randolph out, this is a golden opportunity for Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, Carmelo Anthony, and Eduardo Najera to prevent that kind of thing from happening.

KNICK'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Double team Melo or Iverson, usually Melo. There is a reason most teams do this. You want to double Melo unless Iverson is killing you, in which case you probably should start doubling Iverson and going for steals off him. Also, you should always try to get Melo into foul trouble, because the reward is huge if you succeed.

Bring in the co-star of the Knick's soap opera, Stephon Marbury, as soon as possible. There is nothing to lose, because the Knicks can not win with Mardy Collins playing alot of minutes. Maybe Marbury will be fired up from this past week's soap opera, and will make alot of shots. Or, if the Knicks can not play Marbury much, tell Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford to try to keep the Knicks in the game by hitting some threes.

Penetrate to the hoop as much as possible and get as many second chance points as possible. It worked 11 days ago, and the Nuggets still are vulnerable to this, but it's going to be more difficult to do with Randolph out.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS

Zach Randolph's grandmother has passed away and so it appears that the extremely important Knick Randolph will not play. I don't know about and don't care about the details, but it appears that PG Stephon Marbury has now officially become the J.R. Smith of the New York Knicks, the black sheep in other words. Wasn't it a hoot when Marbury told the press that he has "alot of stuff on Isiah"? Why couldn't J.R. Smith have thought of that tactic to try to save his job last year? Because George Karl, unlike the Knick's coach, is a model citizen and a gentleman. (See, I don't always criticize Karl.)

To top it off for the Knicks, F Reynaldo Balkman is out with a sprained right ankle. So the Knicks have managed to be just as shorthanded as the Nuggets, who remain without PF Nene and their two designated point guards, Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter. But the Nuggets are used to playing without those three by now, whereas the Knicks are going to be in a state of disarray if not outright confusion. One thing that is not confusing to me is that the Knicks need another new coach.

The Knicks played last night in Sacramento and the Nuggets have had two nights off.

The Knicks have virtually no chance to win this game. It's that simple. The only way the Knicks win is if the Nuggets play their worst game of the season right here. Both Melo and A.I. would have to be off, and the Knicks would have to clean up again on the offensive boards even though they don't have Randolph. Also, the Knicks would have to hit a substantial number of threes and Jamal Crawford would have to score and assist alot. The odds on all of those things happening are about 1 in 100.

The only other way for the Nuggets to blow it that I can think of would be for the Nugget's coaches to go back to playing just 8 players for substantial minutes in the game, and then getting too little output from the 3 non-starters. But George Karl likes Bobby Jones and Jones is the 9th guy, so that is unlikely.

So now that I jinxed it by predicting a near certain win, I will be sweating it out all game that the Nuggets are going to blow it. I should never, ever, predict a Nuggets win, but I could not resist in this case.

DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK
Every so often, a player is benched or has his minutes cut way back, to under 10 minutes, for no apparent reason. That happening again is what I'm worried will tick me off big time one of these days.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Nugget's Day Off and 4-Game Winning Streak Videos



ALLEN IVERSON, CARMELO ANTHONY, GEORGE KARL INTERVIEWS AND OTHER GOOD CONTENT VIDEO

Videos: Nuggets 110 Trailblazers 93

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 Easily Defeat The Trailblazers-Oden 110-93, But What Will Happen When the Wolf is at the Door?

In what was a relatively boring game where the Trailblazers-Greg Oden never tried to get anything going in the paint, and played too much zone defense for their own good, the Nuggets led from halfway through the 1st quarter, built their lead gradually the whole rest of the game, and defeated the Trailblazers-Greg Oden 110-93. Any team with an extremely important player out due an injury should be renamed “Team Name-Injured Extremely Important Key Player Name,” just so you know. It’s only fair. Had Oden been playing, this would have been one of those games where the Nugget’s turnovers and vulnerability to second chance scores would have had them on the brink of losing. It’s true that Nene is out for the Nuggets, but he seems to always be out, and he is not at Oden’s level.

This is going to be the easiest home stand of the season for the Nuggets. Three of the four games are played with the team coming in having played the night before, whereas the Nuggets had the night before to rest and plan up. First the Cavaliers, then last night’s Trailblazers, and then the Knicks on Saturday night came or will come to town having played the night before. Aside from the uneven amount of rest factor itself, you have added to that the Denver high altitude factor, which tends to slow teams that are not used to it down a little bit and make their shots off by that inch that can change a hit to a miss. PG Jarrett Jack had this to say about the set-up for this game: “It has an effect. It's even worse because of the altitude. You can't get used to the altitude in a couple of hours time. That's asking too much."

The Blazers had no one to stop Kenyon Martin from dunking on them all night. Martin was 6/6 at the hoop, and 7/9 overall for 14 points, his best offensive output so far. Even more importantly, K-Mart was even better on defense in general and on low post defending in particular this game than in recent games, in which he was already very good. Martin had two steals, a block and a dunk in a 49-second stretch in the 2nd quarter, which was when the Nuggets established a fairly large lead over the Blazers. Martin played 23 minutes on the rehabbed knees.

But there wasn’t a whole lot of in the paint defending to do, as the Blazers tried and failed to make their very good jump shooting, including 3-point shooting, work for them. The Blazers came in over 40% from downtown, but left at about 38%, as they could make only 4 of 19 long range shots. Had they made the 8 that they were capable of, the game would have been a real contest from that alone, especially since the Nuggets could not buy a 3-pointer, as they went 1/13. Jarrett Jack was 3/6 and Brandon Roy was 1/3 from long range, but Steve Blake, last year’s Nugget’s PG and Tony Parker victim, was 0/4 and the rest of the Blazers were 0/6. With this game factored in, the Spurs have now moved back in front of the Nuggets in made 3-point shots, which has been the case since about the turn of the century. But all the Nuggets have to do is stay within a single made 3-pointer per game to avoid badly losing out to the Spurs in this important aspect of the game.

Even the PF LaMarcus Aldridge was shooting jumpers all night, and he did make some short jumpers, missing the midrange ones. Aldridge overall was 5/11 for 15 points. PG Jarrett Jack continued his good jump shooting this season in this game, but never made an inside shot and never got to the free throw line. The other Portland PG, Steve Blake, also known as “Owned by Tony Parker,” has been even worse a shooter so far this year than last year for the Nuggets; in this game he was 0/6 with 4 assists in 30 minutes. Blake did play some defense, though.

But the really big disaster for the Blazers was the poor output from Brandon Roy. He couldn’t get 2 layups, was blocked on another, made 3 of 9 jumpers, and finished with only 10 points on 3/12 overall in 28 minutes. His recent great games have not translated into his being the go-to guy in a tough game like this. Had the Blazers given Roy the kind of preference that Melo and A.I. get on the Nuggets, they might very well have been able to make a challenge for this game.

So the Nuggets won the game in the paint. They outscored the Blazers there 56-32. Overall, the Blazer’s jump shooting squad was 32/82 for 39.0%, while the Nugget’s, who had an offense balanced between inside and outside shooting, were 42/80 for 52.5%.

The Nugget’s coach’s new willingness to allow two mistake-prone but fast and dynamic players to play in the same game, Bobby Jones and J.R. Smith, has restored to some extent the status of the Nuggets as a running team. The Nuggets outscored the Blazers on fast breaks 21-11. Aside from getting the right players out there, you need to get more than your share of steals and turnovers in general to be a good running team, and the Nuggets did this in this game also, even though the Blazers, unlike the Nuggets, are normally careful with the ball. Both teams committed 17 turnovers. The Nuggets made 13 steals off the Blazers while the Blazers made 11 off the Nuggets. J.R. Smith led with 3 steals, and 8 other players had 1 or 2 steals each for the Nuggets.

After the game, both Carmelo Anthony and Iverson were quoted on the subject of steals and good defending in general allowing the Nuggets to run and produce more on offense. Melo: “Our defense is allowing us to get out on the open court. We don't want to play five-on-five basketball. We know if it's five-on-five, I'm going to get double-teamed." And Iverson: "Defensively, I think we made our presence felt. We were able to rebound the basketball and get out. When we rebound or get steals or get our hands on a lot of balls, then we are tough to beat because we get a chance to run out and make things happen."

Smith made a top of the key jumper, missed both 3-pointers attempted, and made 2/5 inside shots and all 4 free throws for a total of 3/8 for 10 points on shooting. He had a worse than usual 4 turnovers, but I really believe that you have to pay the J.R. Smith turnover and personal foul taxes if you want to have a solid chance to upset someone in the playoffs.

The stunning new willingness of the Nugget’s coaches to use 1-2 more players effectively in a game than they ever have in the last few years continues to be the biggest news of the new season. Carmelo Anthony won the NCAA Championship on a team that shared the playing time wealth in this fashion, as most of the better College teams do. So he’s alright with sharing the possession and playing time wealth on the Nuggets, and he’s averaging 5.2 assists a game this season, which is 3 ½ times the assists that the average forward makes.
PG Mike Wilks returned from an injury this game, and Iverson’s playing minutes have come down from the ridiculous, but Iverson continues to run things regardless of whether he is officially playing point guard or not. There are only 6 point guards in the League with more assists than Iverson right now. Iverson is effectively the point guard even when he is not playing the position, as long as he keeps getting a lot of possessions, which seems to be inevitable.

So the whole season may come down to whether George Karl can stay as logical and reasonable as he has been the last week or so. Whether he can have a rational and logical reason for being upset, as was the case at halftime in the Indiana game, and whether he can have a proportional and effective response to situations like that, instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water by, for example, attacking a player in the media and/or by completely or almost completely benching a player who made a few disturbing mistakes in a game, but whose positives outweigh his negatives.

In other words, when the Spurs, Rockets, or Suns are at the door, will the Coach cower in fear that his team can not possibly beat them because it does not have the “mental toughness,” whatever that is? Or will he let Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, and Allen Iverson answer the door? Kenyon would say to Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, and Shawn Marion, “Go ahead fools, make my day.” Melo wouldn’t say anything because he wouldn’t boast about his team but instead would wait for the results to speak for themselves. A.I. would say “You have to find a way to beat us and it is not going to be easy. We’re not talking about practice.” And Karl would be trying to decide whether he should be afraid of the wolves at the door anymore, and whether he should bench Kenyon Martin, Bobby Jones, J.R. Smith, or no one, for the rest of the playoffs.

This whole season is about trying to get George Karl to not be afraid anymore. So don’t answer the door when the Rockets, Suns, or Spurs come knocking, George. Let your team answer the door.

Mike Wilks played 14 minutes and was 2/4 and 1/1 on 3’s for 5 points, and he had 1 steal, 1 assist, and 1 rebound. Eduardo Najera played 22 minutes and was 3/5, 0/2 on 3’s, and 2/2 from the line for 8 points, and he had 6 rebounds and an assist. Yakhouba Diawara played 22 minutes and was 2/6, 0/2 on 3’s, and ¾ from the line for 7 points, and he had 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Linas Kleiza played 22 minutes and was 4/5, 0/1 on 3’s, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist.

Bobby Jones played 10 minutes and was 2/3 and 0/1 on 3’s for 4 points, and he had 1 steal.

J.R. Smith played 25 minutes and was 3/8, 0/3 on 3’s, and 4/4 on 3’s for 10 points, and he had 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 rebound.

Kenyon Martin played 23 minutes and was 7/9 and 0/1 from the line for 14 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and an assist.

Marcus Camby played 30 minutes and was 2/3 and ½ from the line for 5 points, and he had 13 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3 assists, and a steal.

Iverson played 34 minutes and was 8/19, 0/1 on 3’s, and 4/4 from the line for 20 points, and he had 7 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and 2 rebounds.

Anthony played 34 minutes and was 8/15, 0/2 on 3’s, and 9/10 from the line for 25 points, and he had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

The next game will be Saturday, November 17 in Denver to play the Knicks at 7 pm mountain time. The Knicks will be playing on back to back nights while the Nuggets will have two days off.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 14: Trailblazers at Nuggets

KEY FOR STARTERS
Position Number Name
Height Weight
PPG RPG APG FG% (Points, Rebounds, & Assists Per Game, Field Goal Shooting %)
Recent Highlights

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
2007-08: 25.8 5.1 5.4 .445
Has scored 10+ points in 138-straight games, which ranks as the second-longest active streak in the NBA. Recorded his first double-double of the season with 32 points and 10 rebounds at Indiana on 11/10.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 7.7 5.3 0.3 .429
Has tallied five or more rebounds in six of his seven appearances this season, despite averaging just 22.1 mpg. Pulled down a season-high-tying seven rebounds while playing a season-high 27 minutes at Indiana on 11/10.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 10.4 14.0 3.3 .507
His 3.3 apg average currently leads all NBA centers so far this season, as does his 1.73 assist-to-turnover ratio. With five blocks at Indiana on 11/10, Denver is now 3-0 this year when he has 5+ blocks (33-7 since 2005-06).


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 4.6 1.6 1.0 .500
Is 5-1 as a starter so far this season (.833), after going just 8-11 (.421) in his 19 starts as a rookie last season. Topped 10+ points for the second time this season with 11 points in 11 minutes at Indiana on 11/10.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 25.6 3.4 8.1 .458
Scored a season-high 37 points while shooting .700 (14-20) from the field vs. Cleveland on 11/12. Denver improved to an impressive 13-1 all-time when Iverson has a double-double with their win at Indiana.

TRAILBLAZERS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward # 8 Martell Webster
6-7 235
2007-08: 13.3 4.6 1.6 .452
LAST GAME: Notched a career-high nine rebounds to go with five points and two assists in 36 minutes ... NOTEWORTHY: Counts two 20-point games ... Shooting 45.2% from the floor and leads team with 13 3-pointers ... Ranks third on team at 13.3 points per game.


Power Forward #12 LaMarcus Aldridge
6-11 240
2007-08: 19.6 8.0 0.6 .518
LAST GAME: Netted second double-double with 22 points (9-16 FG) and 10 boards in 37 minutes ... NOTEWORTHY: Tied a career high with 30 points Nov. 9 vs. Memphis ... Ranks among NBA leaders with 19.6 points and 8.0 rebounds ... Scored 20-plus four times.


Center #44 Channing Frye
6-11 245
2007-08: 5.1 4.1 0.9 .487
LAST GAME: Totaled six points, four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 19 minutes ... NOTEWORTHY: Recorded season-highs of eight points, seven rebounds Nov. 7 vs. New Orleans ... Is averaging 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per contest


Shooting Guard #7 Brandon Roy
6-6 211
2007-08: 20.6 3.0 5.3 .513
LAST GAME: Tallied 20 points (9-16 FG), three rebounds, one assist and one steal in 37 minutes ... NOTEWORTHY: Scored 20-plus five times ... Leads team with 20.6 points per game ... Tallied a career high 32 points Nov. 10 vs. Dallas


Point Guard #2 Steve Blake
6-3 172
2007-08: 5.0 3.1 6.1 .417
LAST GAME: Dished out a team-high eight assists to go with one point, two rebounds and one turnover in 19 minutes ... NOTEWORTHY: Ranks No. 1 in the NBA with a 6.14 assists-to-turnover ratio ... Is averaging a team-best 6.1 assists per game.

TEAM STATS COMPARED

Points Per Game:
Denver...108.1
Portland..95.1

Field Goal Accuracy
Denver....468
Portland..478

Rebounds Per Game:
Denver....44.6
Portland..40.9

Assists Per Game:
Denver....24.0
Portland..20.9

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.
OUT: Nene suffered a torn ulner collateral ligament in his left thumb at Boston on 11/7 and underwent successful surgery on 11/9. He is expected to miss six weeks.
PROBABLE: Mike Wilks suffered a right hamstring strain vs. New Orleans on 11/4 and has missed each of the last five games. He is considered probable for tonight’s game.

TRAILBLAZERS INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Josh McRoberts-left ankle
OUT: Darius Miles-right knee
OUT: Greg Oden-right knee
DAY TO DAY: James Jones-left knee is day-to-day.

ON THE AIR:

Tonight’s game will be televised on Altitude with Chris Marlowe calling the action and Scott Hastings providing analysis. The game will also be broadcast on KKFN AM 950, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUPS:

SG J.R. Smith vs Brandon Roy J.R. Smith finally had the kind of breakout game he had often a year ago, but his defense is not going to be good enough against Roy. Let's just hope that Smith does not overreact to Roy, lose his cool, and start turning it over a alot, start getting alot of fouls, and/or start taking a bunch of wild shots. Smith should continue to mix up drives and long range shots. It's Karl's job to get the right defender on Roy at all times; Diawara and Bobby Jones will do a much better job than Smith.

PF Kenyon Martin vs LaMarcus Aldridge With Oden out, Aldridge is the front court mainstay for the Blazers. He can score, he is an alright rebounder, and a good free throw shooter. Martin is still not there with respect to jump shooting, and he will have to get some second chance scores at the hoop to have a good night offensively. How Martin does defensively against Aldrige will be even more important than how he does in scoring for the Nuggets.

NUGGET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Stay cool and confident. I’m going to have to keep including this key until the Nuggets maintain their confidence more consistently. Portland can easily take a double digit lead in the 1st half of this game, and the Nuggets need to go about their business without worrying about what the refs are doing and about just how good the Blazers might be.

Cut down on blown defensive coverages The Nuggets are going to want to play man to man for the most part, and they need to have enough defensive intensity to prevent the Blazers from having the big jump shooting night that they are capable of, including on 3-point shots. Diawara and Bobby Jones will be important.

Avoid alot of mistakes, keep the turnover count down for a change. Portland is by far the worst team in the League with respect to forcing turnovers, so if the Nuggets, who are just about the worst in turning it over, turn it over a lot to this team, they will have only themselves to blame, as the Blazers have the capability to take advantage of turnovers with fast break scores.

TRAILBLAZER'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Double team Melo or Iverson, usually Melo. There is a reason most teams do this. You want to double Melo unless Iverson is killing you like he did the Cavaliers the other night, in which case you probably should start doubling Iverson and going for steals off him.

Hit a lot of 3-point shots. The Trailblazers are accurate from 3-point land, so they should take advantage of the many good looks the Denver defense will give them from long range.

Get a significant number of second chance opportunities. Both teams are very vulnerable to second chance scores. The Blazers are going to have to get more offensive rebounds than usual if they are to have a good chance to win this game. Aldrige, Frye, and Przybilla will have to beat Camby, Martin, and Melo to get a lot of offensive boards and second chance scores.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS

The Trailblazers come to Denver with no night off after having won 4 straight at home, including against the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night and the Detroit Pistons last night. Brandon Roy has been on a tear and is an extremely dangerous shooter. He's sort of a smaller and a little less aggressive version of Carmelo Anthony offensively.

Overall, the Blazers are not a rebounding team, and unlike most Nugget's opponents, they won't get alot of second chances for scores. This team lives and dies mostly on the jump shooting of Roy and PG Jarrett Jack. The Trailblazers are one of the most accurate 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, but they haven't capitalized on that to any extent so far. The primary threats to look out for in 3-point shooting are Brandon Roy and Martell Webster, with Jarrett Jack and James Jones secondary threats. G Sergio Rodriguez can hit clutch shots and can sometimes explode in a game.

Generally the Nuggets are going to have a substantial advantage over smaller, less powerful up front, poorer rebounding teams. Channing Frye apparently is starting at center, but you will see alot of Joel Przybilla who is a better rebounder. Camby and Kenyon should be able to get the job done tonight without too much trouble. If Greg Oden were playing, the Trailblazers would be truly dangerous, even playing with no rest. But he isn't playing, so this is the Nugget's game to blow. They blew many games against middle and lower teams, like this one, at home last year, and several of the ones they didn't blow completely were close calls. Tonight we find out more about how much that has changed.

DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK

The world did not come to an end when you ran a 9-man rotation. You have a big edge over Portland, so don't go back to a 7 or 8-man rotation for this game. If everyone is healthy, give a 9th man 10-11 minutes and keep A.I. under 40 minutes.

Videos: Nuggets 122 Cavaliers 100

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



Iverson, J.R. Smith, and The Nuggets Roll Over LeBron James & the Cavaliers, 122-100

Allen Iverson got a standing O for an outstanding night of scoring and assisting, Carmelo Anthony rose to the Nene is gone again occasion by pulling down 9 rebounds, and J.R. Smith exploded for 0 turnovers, 4 assists, 7 of 8 threes, and 29 points, as the Denver Nuggets rolled over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers from start to finish and won the game 122-100 for a 5-3 record. The Nuggets, led by Allen Iverson, shot a lights out .550 from the field, while the Cavaliers were just .419. Iverson had one of his best games yet as a Nugget. He assisted for 8 scores, had 2 steals, made more than half his jump shots, made almost all of his layups, got to the line 4 times, missed only 1 free throw, got the standing ovation, and was not overworked by Karl for a change. “Now about that Championship, Allen.” The Nuggets fought the powerful rebounding duo of C Zydrunas Ilgauskas and PF Drew Gooden to a draw, and closed off all of the possible ways that heroics from LeBron James might have pulled this game out with energetic defending and passing. James was contained right along with the Cavalier’s rebounders. James made 4 assists and 1 rebound to go along with his 27 points on 9/16 shooting.

The Nuggets are a team where sometimes lack of confidence goes before the fall, but they were confident from the start they could beat the Cavaliers and, when they did, upped their record to 7-2 in head to heads over them in the LeBron James era. So all those who say James is much better than Anthony will have to continue to not dare to bring up head to head contests in support of their arguments.

It could have been an even bigger win had the Nuggets not squandered about half a dozen fast break opportunities, mostly with passes that were too high or too strong. For the first time in memory, the Nuggets finished with less than the average number of turnovers for a team in a game, 1 less, anyway. And in a rare event, the Nuggets had fewer turnovers than their opponent, 13 versus 14.

Marcus Camby got a lot of help in rebounding in this game, despite the absence of Nene due to thumb surgery. Aside from Melo’s 9 boards, Bobby Jones, Kenyon Martin, and J.R. Smith all helped out to keep the dangerous Cavalier rebounders and second chance opportunities for Cleveland under control. The Cavaliers did get a big 17 offensive rebounds, but they would have needed more offensive boards dominance to have gotten motivated to make the game a contest.

Cleveland starting SG Larry Hughes, thinking that he was fouled by Melo several times with no call, said something really nasty to a referee and was given a double technical and ejected with 7:42 left in the 1st quarter. Hughes is off to a bad start and was taking his frustrations out from that start as much as from the perceived no calls.

The Nuggets, due to scrooge-like player usage and inconsistency among the reserves, often end up with terrible production from the non-starters. The rule of thumb is that the Nuggets will usually win if the non-starters total at least 15 rebounds and 30 points. In this one, the reserves made 15 rebounds and scored 46 points, with J.R. Smith by himself getting 1 shy of 30 points.

The Bobby Jones-J.R. Smith combo playing so well was shocking to see not because they are not great players, because I knew they were. It was shocking because it was considered so unlikely that Karl would give good minutes to both of these young turnover and foul prone players on the same night. Both Jones and Smith have substantial negatives, but their positives are going to very frequently exceed their negatives in a game. Basketball was neither designed as nor intended to be a game where being too afraid of negatives is rewarded. Both coaches and players are supposed to go out there and give it all they have and let the chips fall where they may, not sit around like Hamlet and be afraid to make moves.

So anyway, Bobby Jones played 23 minutes and had 6 rebounds and 2 assists to go with 8 points on 3/6 shooting, including 1 of 2 from downtown. And he played some nice man to man on LeBron James, who partly because of that defense, and that of Yakhouba Diawara, did not go to the hoop much at all in this game.

All 4 of the Texas and Arizona teams live off the 3-point shot. Those top teams of the West average between 7 and 10 made threes a night, with an accuracy ranging from 37%-40%. The Nuggets in this game were 12/22 from long range for an accuracy of .545. The Nuggets, who were a not good enough for the West playoffs 16th best team in made threes last year, are now the 7th best team this year, still well behind the leading Suns but, amazingly, a little ahead of all three of the Texas teams.

It’s way to early to think the Nuggets can stay ahead of the Spurs, Rockets, and Mavericks in this key component of winning a playoff series, but a fan can dream that this will continue. After all, it’s by no stretch just J.R. Smith who is doing well on threes. The Nuggets now have just as many players as the Spurs hitting on at least 1/3 of their three point shots, namely, 7 players. Along with Smith, the Nuggets have Linas Kleiza, Iverson, Yakhouba Diawara, Bobby Jones, Eduardo Najera, and Carmelo Anthony himself hitting 1/3 or better of the golden threes.

The 5 teams who are off to a great start in long-range shooting who are ahead of the Nuggets but behind the Suns right now are the Magic, the Raptors, the Warriors, the Grizzlies, and the Hornets. The early leaders among players in big 3 shooting are Ray Allen of the Celtics, Peja Stojakovic of the Hornets, and Rashard Lewis of the Magic. All three of them are burying about half of their attempts so far. But so is J.R. Smith. Since Smith has played only slightly more than half the minutes of Allen, Stojakovic, and Lewis, he is behind them in actual made threes. But if you look at the non-traditional statistic of made threes per minutes played, Smith is just about leading the NBA as the most dangerous 3-point shooter in the entire League. Only Peja Stojakovic of the Hornets and Victor Radmanovic of the Lakers are slightly ahead of J.R. Smith in threes buried per minute on the court.

Should this be enough to insure that J.R. Smith starts and never again is given a quick hook by George Karl? Of course it’s more than enough, but that doesn’t mean Karl is not liable to do it again when he cowers in fear as a team from Texas or Arizona looms in the playoffs. But regardless of to what extent Karl plays Smith the rest of this season, we can at least say that Smith has finally emerged from the triple disaster of the 2006-07 season: the neck tackle in New York City, the knee injury requiring surgery, and the refusal of Karl to play Smith much after his return from the surgery. Nene is gone again, but J.R. Smith is back, and if the Nuggets still refuse to use him much, he is going to get one hell of a contract when he gets traded to another team.

Everybody was tired in this game. The Cavaliers were, who checked into their hotel at 4 am of game day, tired from their tough win in Los Angeles against the Clippers the night before. J.R. Smith was tired of being a jerk in public, of being one dimensional on offense, and of being too often a turnover and defensive liability. Carmelo Anthony was tired of not pulling all his weight in rebounding and distributing to his open teammates. Allen Iverson was tired of being tired, which he has been way too often in games where he has been out on the court for about 45 of the total 48 minutes.

And shockingly, and you had better sit down for this announcement, even George Karl was tired. He was tired of being an overly conservative scrooge with his rotations; tired of being afraid to give reserves who have proven they deserve a chance a chance; tired of over relying on and of running Iverson’s tank dry; maybe even tired of looking at J.R. Smith as a demon from hell sent to torment him and the public at large. I never thought I would see the day, but Karl effectively used 9 players in one game. That was not a misprint. Karl used 9 players in one game straight up, with no garbage time needed to get to that many. I had to say it twice because I still don’t believe what I just saw.

Yes, the Cavs were tired, which was the perfect set-up for the Nuggets to defend their floor against the tough front court of the East Conference defending Champions. But J.R. Smith and George Karl being tired of being too reckless, and too conservative, respectively, were it to continue, could be the perfect set-up for the Nuggets to finally be able to win some games against the Texas and Arizona teams. Circle this date on your calendars, Nuggets fans, because if the Nuggets actually win something in the playoffs this year, it will be J.R. Smith and especially George Karl changing their ways on this date that will have made it possible.

Unfortunately, I need to admit right here and now that I am getting way too optimistic, because it is certainly very possible that this excellent use of the full Nugget’s roster was more or less an accident. And whether or not it was an accident, it’s likely that Karl will wake up in the morning and be an overly conservative scrooge again, and resolve to never play Bobby Jones and J.R. Smith in the same game ever again. And also resolve to never again have Jones and Smith playing more than Karl favorites Linas Kleiza and that old standby, Eduardo Najera. He may swear that he will never be this un-scrooge like ever again.

Moreover, J.R. Smith is not going to play as good as he did tonight all the time, and the Nuggets still don’t have many set plays on offense, and Melo is not going to get 9 rebounds every night, and no team ever plays without a night off in the playoffs. So even if Karl were no longer a scrooge, the Nuggets might still lose in the playoffs anyway. But to see my team run by someone other than a scrooge was a sight I thought I might never see. It was like George Karl had lost his mind and thrown away his standards. And the results of that speak for themselves.

Diawara played for 24 minutes and was 1/5 and ½ on 3’s for 3 points, and he had 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Najera played 18 minutes and was 1/1 for 2 points, and he had 2 rebounds and a block. Kleiza played 16 minutes and was 2/4, ½ on 3’s, and 1/1 from the line for 6 points, and he had 1 rebound and 1 assist.

Bobby Jones played 23 minutes and was 3/6, ½ on 3’s, and 1/1 from the line for 8 points, and he had 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Kenyon Martin played 23 minutes and was 2/5 and 2/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 5 rebounds and a steal.

J.R. Smith played 24 minutes and was 10/13, 7/8 on 3’s, and 2/6 from the line for 29 points, and he had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal.

Marcus Camby played 31 minutes and was 3/5 and 2/6 from the line for 8 points, and he had 12 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Carmelo Anthony played 33 minutes and was 8/17, 0/2 on 3’s, and 6/7 from the line for 22 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals.

A.I. played 36 minutes and was 14/20, 2/4 on 3’s, and 7/8 from the line for 37 points, and he had 8 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.

The next game is Wednesday, November 14 in Denver to play the Trailblazers at 7 pm mountain time. The Trailblazers will be playing on back to back nights while the Nuggets will be rested.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Confidence

The Pacers game was a textbook case of how having or not having confidence can sometimes determine the outcome of a game. The Nuggets didn't have much confidence in the 1st half, and got some back in the 2nd half. The Pacers are not good enough to beat the Nuggets even if the Nuggets don't have good schemes, so it came down mainly to confidence in this game.


The Nuggets should have won at least one of the home games against the Spurs in April, but one reason they didn't was that their confidence had been drained by the statements of the coaches that the team did not have enough mental toughness, whatever that is, to compete with the Spurs. This year again, the Nugget's confidence is coming and going like the wind, sometimes in the same game.


This is confidence in action:

 

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 12: Cavaliers at Nuggets

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

NUGGETS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward 15 Carmelo Anthony
6-8, 230
2007-08: 26.3 4.6 5.3 .442
Recorded his first double-double of the season with 32 points and 10 rebounds at Indiana on 11/10.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 8.0 5.3 0.3 .431
Pulled down a season-high-tying seven rebounds while playing a season-high 27 minutes at Indiana on 11/10.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 10.7 14.3 3.6 .500
With five blocks at Indiana on 11/10, Denver is now 3-0 this year when he has 5+ blocks (33-7 since 2005-06).


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 4.9 1.6 0.9 .565
Topped 10+ points for the second time this season with 11 points in 11 minutes at Indiana on 11/10.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 24.0 3.4 8.1 .419
Denver improved to an impressive 13-1 all-time when Iverson has a double-double with their win at Indiana.



CAVALIERS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward #23 LeBron James
6-8 250
2007-08: 26.6 7.7 7.6 .446
LeBron James has 10 blocked shots in his last four games. His 10 blocks mark the highest four-game total of his career.


Power Forward #90 Drew Gooden
6-10 250
2007-08: 14.9 10.4 1.3 .453
Had 17 rebounds against the Clippers on Sunday, Nov. 11.


Center #11 Zydrunas Ilgauskas
7-3 260
2007-08: 17.6 13.1 0.6 .515
Zydrunas Ilgauskas posted his fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 15 rebounds at Sacramento on Friday night. Ilgauskas has grabbed at least 12 rebounds in all six games this season and ranks fourth in the NBA in rebounds per game (14.3 per game). He leads the NBA in offensive rebounds per game (6.0)


Shooting Guard #3 Sasha Pavlovic
6-7 239
2007-08: 5.4 2.0 1.2 .250
Scored 17 points in 35 minutes against Utah on Nov. 7.



Point Guard #1 Daniel Gibson
6-2 194
2007-08: 13.7 2.8 3.0 .549
Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson has connected on 18-32 (.563) from three-point range this season. He has hit at least three three-pointers in each of his last three games
and on the season ranks tied for third in the NBA in three-pointers made.

TEAM STATS COMPARED
Points Per Game:
Denver....106.1
Cleveland..97.3

Field Goal Accuracy
Denver.....457
Cleveland..438

Rebounds Per Game:
Denver.....44.4
Cleveland..46.1

Assists Per Game:
Denver.....24.0
Cleveland..18.7

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.
OUT: Nene suffered a torn ulner collateral ligament in his left thumb at Boston on 11/7 and will undergo surgery on 11/9.
QUESTIONABLE: Mike Wilks suffered a right hamstring strain vs. New Orleans on 11/4
and has missed each of the last four games. He is considered questionable for tonight’s game.

CAVALIERS INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Donyell Marshall PF Wrist I-L. Out until at least mid-November
OUT: Eric Snow PG Knee
PROBABLE: Larry Hughes SG Knee

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

KEY MATCHUPS:

SF Carmelo Anthony vs LeBron James Both have had 1 bad game so far this year, and both have missed a few more shots than usual. Right now, James has a slight lead on Anthony in points scored per game, 26.6 vs. 26.3. James is rebounding more this year than last at 7.7 rpg, and also assiting more, at 7.6 apg. Anthony is down from last year in rebounding at 4.6 rpg and up in assists, to 5.3 apg. But Melo has Iverson and Camby to rack up assists and rebounds, respectively. Melo has the richer team, but LeBron has the finals appearance. But Melo’s team took one game from the Spurs and LeBron’s team was swept.

C Marcus Camby vs Zydrunas Ilgauskas In the front court, both PF Drew Gooden and C Zydrunas Ilgauskas are off to solid starts whereas, for the Nuggets, Kenyon Martin is limited and not totally consistent yet and Anthony is on again, off again in rebounding. But Nuggets C Marcus Camby is having a career year and one on one will give Ilgauskas, who led the Cavs with 25 points Sunday in L.A., all he can handle. On the other hand, however, the Ilgauskas/Gooden combination is a stronger combo in the front court than anything the Nuggets have right now.

NUGGET'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Stay cool and confident. I’m going to have to keep including this key until the Nuggets maintain their confidence more consistently.

Plug in the big guy Steven Hunter for 12 minutes or so if the Nuggets are getting destroyed up front as in the Knicks game. Hunter had 5 rebounds a game in 23 minutes a game last year. What is there to lose if you’re already being destroyed?

Don’t be like the Clippers: guard Lebron James at all times. Unfortunately, the Nuggets don’t have the luxury of double teaming James much due to all the injuries and the Ilgauskas-Gooden problem.

CAVALIER'S KEYS TO VICTORY

Double team Melo. There is a reason most teams do this.

Pound the ball inside all night. The Knicks were very successful with it, and that was before Nene was injured, so the potential for destroying the Nuggets here is greater than ever.

Guard the 3-point tries. The Nuggets have been working hard to bring their 3-point shooting up to speed so that they can compete with the dreaded Spurs, and the work is paying off. The Nuggets were 16th in made threes last year, but are 8th so far this year.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS
Both teams come in with 4-3 records. The Cavaliers are playing on back to back nights of a long 6 game Western road trip. They are 3-2 on the trip, having defeated the Warriors, Clippers, and Kings, and having lost to the Suns and the Jazz in a close one. .

In the back court, the Cav’s Eric Snow is day to day at guard, but the more important Larry Hughes was back from a bruised knee on Sunday in Los Angeles and scored 12 on 5/8. The Nuggets are badly banged up at guard. Among the Nugget’s guards, stop-gap Wilks remains questionable, Chucky Atkins is out until sometime in December, and Anthony Carter is expected back sometime in the next 10 days, but apparently not for this game. Some Nuggets fans get nervous with Iverson playing point, thinking he’s going to hog it, but A.I is #6 in assists in the NBA right now and that “all Iverson all the time” thing was just a bad playoff strategy

The Cavaliers are one of the best rebounding teams in the League right now. In the front court, although the Cavaliers are without PF Donyell Marshall, the Nuggets are without PF Nene, who is more important to the Nuggets than Marshall is to the Cavaliers. And Martin is still getting up to speed. So as in the back court, you have a substantial advantage to the Cavaliers as a result of all of these injuries.

The point of going through all these injuries is to show that the Nuggets are weaker in both the front court and the back court from injuries than it is safe to be when playing a team like the Cavaliers. So the Cavaliers could easily win this game despite the home court and rest advantages for the Nuggets. If Melo doesn’t get at least 9 rebounds and 27 points, the Cavaliers will probably win this game. If he doesn't get at least 7 rebounds and 22 points, they will most likely win. And, as usual, the Nuggets will lose if the reserves don’t show up and most likely win if the reserves score at least 30 points and get at least 15 rebounds. I’m thinking the reserves get close to the 30 points in this one, but not to the 15 rebounds. So flip a coin to guess who will win, and look out for a very close finish in this game.

DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK
If the Nuggets get pounded at the hoop as expected, don't save Steven Hunter for garbage time. Use Adrian Dantley in garbage time. That's a joke if you didn't know.

Video: Nuggets 113 Pacers 106

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

Nuggets Mount a Furious Comeback to Win Over the Pacers in Indiana 113-106

The Nuggets won their first game against a team that has won at least 1 game this season, by turning an 18 point half time deficit into a 7-point margin at the end, 113-106. The three previous wins by the Nuggets were all against teams that still had not won a single game as of last night; they were a combined 0-16. But the Pacers were 3-2 going into this game. The Nuggets played worse than bad in the first half and better than good in the second half. Both teams were playing on back to back nights, and so the Nuggets had to fight fatigue as they mounted their huge comeback in the second half.

This game was the best of times, and it was the worst of times for the Nuggets, who are the Charles Dickens team of the NBA: two parts drama for every part execution, and a lot of sound and fury, generally signifying nothing. The sound and fury of George Karl was heard at halftime, complaining about the 13 turnovers, bad shooting, and worse defending of the 1st half. At least we now know he has a little fight left in him; you would seriously doubt he has any left judging from his sideline demeanor.

Fans following the game back in Denver were sure at halftime that this was curtains for this team for this season, and they were also thinking that the coaches were definitely going to be switched by the end of the season, if not over the all-star break. But a coach with a long legacy and a big contract such as George Karl has at least as many lives as a cat, and it is almost always too early to pronounce such a coach on his way out. He can mess things up until the cows come home and you will still be able to locate him sitting on the Nugget’s sideline with wreckage all around. It’s nice to hope for new coaches, but don’t start predicting them because you are going to be knocking your head against the wall before long.

It was 74-56 Pacers at the half, 88-82 Pacers after 3 quarters, and the Pacers were still leading 101-97 with 3:28 left in the game. But Iverson fed Melo on two successive plays for jump shot scores, with PF Jermaine O’Neil called for an offensive foul in between, for a 101 each tie with 3 minutes left. The key plays in the final three minutes that won it for the Nuggets were 3 Camby blocks on PG Jamal Tinsley, SG Danny Grainger fouling Melo. with a minute left with Melo. making both free throws for 106-101 Nuggets, and then, following Martin stealing off of Tinsley, Iverson turning the lights out with a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left for 109-101 Nuggets. A.I. is one of the best in the business of turning the lights out.

Melo recently had a short but deep slump coinciding with the three game losing streak; during these 3 games he was only 18/67 (percentage = .269) for 55 points. Every year, Melo has to reacquaint himself with all the double teams he draws, adjusting his tactics to reflect how specific teammates are playing. I’m thinking that this was the main reason for this slump. In this game, Melo completed his second winner of a game out of the slump, He was 7/18 on jumpers, 3/5 on layups, and 10/23 overall for 32 points. The Pacers were unable to guard either Melo or Iverson without fouling; both were an identical 10/12 from the free throw line.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can keep Melo and Iverson’s combined foul shots under 16, you have a good chance of beating the Nuggets. Your odds go down as the number of free throws they get rises above 16. Both Melo and A.I. are over 80% from the line. In other words, don’t foul Melo and Iverson more than a total of about 8 times if you want to beat the Nuggets. Aside from fouling Melo and A.I. 11 times, the Pacers committed 17 other fouls, for a total of 28, too far above the NBA normal of about 22. The Nuggets committed just 18 fouls in total, with Martin and Najera responsible for half of them. Quite honestly, the rest of the Nuggets, except for Diawara and J.R. Smith when he’s riled up, generally don’t defend close enough to be eligible to commit fouls.

With Nene gone until mid or late December, Kenyon Martin’s minutes are rising earlier than according to plan. In this one, although K-Mart was only 1/6 for 2 points, he pulled down 7 rebounds and made 4 steals. Melo answered my call to fight for rebounds because it is crazy to think Camby alone can get most of them; he had 10 rebounds and 5 assists to go along with his 32 points. Camby had 10 rebounds, Iverson 5, and the Denver bench had 15 rebounds.

Here is an important rule of thumb as you ride the Nugget’s rollercoaster from someone who has thrown up his dinner a few times while riding it in seasons past. It is a fantasy to think that A.I., Melo, Camby, and K-mart can win games almost by themselves. If the reserves, with their small minutes from Karl, are able to get at least 14 rebounds and at least 33 points between them, the Nuggets will win most of the time. If the reserve’s scoring is under 22 points, or if their rebounding is under 10 rebounds, as is the case all too often, the Nuggets will almost always lose. In this game, the Denver reserves had 31 points to go along with those 15 rebounds.

For the Nuggets, a 20 point lead or a 20 point deficit is like a 12-14 point lead or deficit for most other teams. The Nuggets can easily give up 8-10 points in 2 or 3 minutes of turnovers and lack of defense. Conversely, the Nuggets can easily get 8-10 points in 2-3 minutes when one of the streaky 3-point shooters hits 2 or 3 3-pointers in a row. Here is your guideline to deal with the Nugget’s rollercoaster in the future. If the Nuggets ever lead by 30 or more anytime in the first 3 quarters, even they will have a very difficult time blowing the game, so a 30 point lead means the Nuggets are going to win in almost all cases. If the Nuggets are ever losing by 27 or more in a game, it is going to be a loss in almost all cases. In this game, the maximum Pacer lead was 25, so they fell just short of sealing the deal. Be ready for anything in the 4th quarter in a game if the margins never exceed those.

In fact, don’t predict anything with respect to the Nuggets who seem, as I indicated in the last report, to size up their opposition to determine whether they should start running and showboating against them, or if they should bow down in submission, and combine enough turnovers and blown covers to make it easy for that team to win. Losing to the good teams is a big fat self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one, but such is the limited psychology of our team.

Fans in Denver are confused and conflicted about this team that is not consistent from one half to the next, let alone one game to the next. I think the main reason for the confusion is that the Nuggets think about their opponents too much, and if they conclude or know in advance that their opponent is a good one with good offensive and defensive schemes, an inferiority complex kicks in for the scheme-less Nuggets, and it becomes a long shot that they will win. George Karl without any doubt has an inferiority complex. He disputed that the Nuggets could possibly win 60 out of 82 games when Carmelo Anthony tried to set that goal, saying that 55 was more reasonable, and that even that should not be considered a hard target. A deduction from that is that Karl still believes that it will not be possible for the Nuggets to beat the Spurs, the Mavs, the Suns, or the Jazz in the postseason this year.

But the main thing to realize here is that the psychology underlying most teams is similar to the psychology of their coaches. For example, Spurs Coach Greg Popovich has a certain way of thinking and acting, and the Spurs conduct their business on the court to a substantial extent in accordance with these ways of Popovich. The Nuggets are reflecting the here today and gone tomorrow, weaker confidence of George Karl. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Nuggets are never going to win a playoff series until they really believe they can win. If the coach doesn’t really believe it’s possible to win, then it almost certainly will not happen.

So I am hoping that the Nuggets soon stop sizing up their opponents and changing their playing intensity and style based on the supposed quality rather than the game of their opponent. I am also hoping that they come to believe they can compete with the Texas teams, Phoenix, and Utah, regardless of what Karl thinks or says on that subject. There is a psychology behind every player, every game, and every season, and the Nuggets are shooting themselves in the foot by not understanding how you win, or at least avoid defeat, in that mental aspect of sports. Here’s a formula to remember:

Desire to Win + Skills to Win + Strategies & Tactics to Win +Hard Work & Correct Execution to Win + Confidence to Win = Power to Win

The Nuggets have the first two components of that formula down, but they are having a heck of a time with all of the other three. Melo remarked regarding the Pacer win: “If this is not a confidence-booster, I don’t know what is.” Melo has admitted indirectly that the Nuggets don’t have enough confidence! Melo, the best way to have confidence when you need it is to not be losing it by stupid ways of thinking and stupid subjects of thinking. Forget about the damn other teams and how good they are or not are and just concentrate on yourselves and what you are doing on the court.

The story will read that the 2007-08 Denver Nuggets were confusing to just about everyone. They were the best of teams. They were the worst of teams.

Najera played 25 minutes and was 2/3 and 1/1 on 3’s for 5 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist. Yakhouba Diawara played 11 minutes and was 4/5 and ¾ on 3’s for 11 points, and he had 1 rebound.

Bobby Jones played 9 minutes and was 0/1 on 3’s and 2/2 from the line for 2 points, and he had 1 rebound.

Linas Kleiza played 31 minutes and was 7/12, 2/7 on 3’s, and 5/5 from the line for 21 points, and he had 7 rebounds.

Kenyon Martin played 27 minutes and was 1/6 for 2 points, and he had 7 rebounds and 4 steals.

J.R. Smith played 19 minutes and was 1/5 and ¼ on 3’s for 3 points, and he had 4 assists and 1 rebound.

Marcus Camby played 39 minutes and was 4/10 and 2/3 from the line for 10 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals, and 3 assists.

A.I. played 43 minutes and was 7/17, 3/8 on 3’s, and 10/12 from the line for 27 points, and he had 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals

Melo played 37 minutes and was 10/23, 2/6 on 3’s, and 10/12 from the line for 32 points, and he had 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, and 1 steal.

The next game will be Monday, November 12 in Denver to play the Cavaliers at 7 pm mountain time. The Cavaliers will be playing on back to back nights, whereas the Nuggets will be rested.

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BASKETBALL FORUMS THAT ARE OPEN FOR CONTENT FROM ANYONE
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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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FORUMS THAT DO USE TRADITIONAL FORUM TEMPLATES
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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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