SCROLL DOWN about 1/8 the way down the page for a specific Report that you are following a link to. OR SIMPLY CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO IT IN A NEW TAB.
QFTR Reports are indicated by titles in white and they are positioned about 1/8 the way down the QFTR home page.

.
CONTENT IS KING HERE but we don't completely ignore the need for speed; so we pledge that the big (overloaded according to some of the geeks and nerds) QFTR Page will fully load in about 12 seconds or less despite the fact that it is loaded with just about every pro basketball resource that anyone could want or need. The 12 seconds or less load time pledge, however, requires (1) A true high speed internet connection (2) A minimum of 8GB RAM computer and (3) An operating system and browser that are not overloaded at the time of the visit and (4) An operating system that is not sick from malware. If you don't meet one or more of these qualifications, it is recommended that you visit QFTR only when you are NOT visiting a lot of other pages at the same time. In other words, clear out most or all of the other pages and load QFTR by itself!
.

The graphic just above here lists some specific things that you miss when you do not visit QFTR regularly and when you have not favorited or bookmarked QFTR. The following explains what you miss more generally because the following is a summary of what QFTR is and what QFTR does.

The primary mission of QFTR is to explain exactly how pro basketball playoff games and Championships are won and lost. There are sub objectives that you can find out about right here in the intro and in the QFTR User Guide.

QFTR is a no cost and big benefit way to escape the trap of being as dumb about basketball as everyone else. If you give it a chance, QFTR will make sure that you are not just another dumb ass wearing the rose colored glasses by giving to you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Along with meeting the primary objective, QFTR posts a lot of useful and informative features, most of which you can not get anywhere else and some of which some fat cats would rather you not have access to.

QFTR is a one of a kind project and QFTR does not exist in one of the usual "content boxes". QFTR bridges the wide gap between the basketball statistics geeks and nerds on the one hand and the rest of the basketball community on the other hand.

QFTR is 99% free of unsupported opinion and hype. QFTR is chock loaded with evidence, proof, and details.

QFTR has none of the usual editorial limits and it starts where ESPN and so forth leave off. At least as surprisingly, it is chock loaded with quality control, which is disturbingly rare for Internet Sites, which have become notorious for lack of quality control and reliability. When a feature stops working it is removed. Links are updated at least twice a year.

QFTR is 100% independent, free of charge, non-commercial and completely non-profit. QFTR has none of the usual editorial limits and it starts where ESPN and so forth leave off. There are few if any people better than your QFTR producer of taking advantage of free resources on the Internet, and the free nature of QFTR is his way of giving as good as he gets.

QFTR has produced the equivalent of more than twenty books about basketball, which is more than two million words. To find specific things, consult any of the report title link lists and / or use any of the Google custom search boxes that are on the home page.

QFTR is here on Google Blogger and it is no where else. Blogger is the only known place that can handle everything that QFTR produces. Twitter and Facebook are ridiculously too limited for what QFTR does. And QFTR does not waste valuable and limited production time on Twitter, Facebook or any other source of cheap and fleeting traffic.

IF YOU DO NOT BOOKMARK THIS SITE YOU MAY OR MAY NOT LOSE ACCESS
Although through 2012 Google Search has indexed QFTR well and although as of 2012 QFTR shows up in search results surprisingly well, there is no guarantee that it will show up well in search results in the future. Search results change from time to time for mysterious reasons and QFTR is currently showing up in search results as a special case rather than because it has enough traffic to qualify to show up well in results in accordance with the usual process. Therefore, to say the least, there is no guarantee that QFTR will continue to show up well in search results in the future. Therefore, to avoid the possibility that you will lose access to QFTR, you must bookmark this page (add it to your favorites).

2013 is year number seven for QFTR, which is here for good. Every year is better than the one before and every year we have more fun than any basketball person should be allowed to have while meeting the primary and the secondary objectives. Visit QFTR regularly and you will definitely learn things you were not supposed to know and you will definitely get a break from the same old, limited content found at the sites that exist in one of the same old boxes.
.
PLEASE EXCUSE OUR MISLEADING WEB ADDRESS
This Site started out as a Site dedicated to the Denver Nuggets but graduated from that and became a full scale NBA Site in the summer of 2008. But reducing Nuggets coverage has been a very gradual process and although QFTR does cover all teams in the NBA, QFTR will for the foreseeable future cover the Nuggets especially thoroughly.

But because "Nuggets 1" has become more and more misleading, we have since 2009 been exploring various alternatives for a new Internet address. But changing web addresses is saturated with geek / nerd complications and confusions regarding the consequences of changing, resulting in the change getting postponed year after year. So do not be confused or fooled by the Internet address "Nuggets 1". QFTR covers every NBA team to one extent or another. Although the best teams, the Nuggets, and from time to time certain selected teams get the most serious coverage, any team can potentially show up in any Report, and every single NBA team is included in our most important Reports. In conclusion, "Nuggets 1" is how we started but does not reflect where we are now.

WORD IS BOND

.
In the list of recent reports that follows, choose and click on a report and your tab will reload with that report showing about 1/10 the way down the page, with the title in white.




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.

For this and all the other charts, a minimum of 300 minutes of playing time is required. A player must have made at least 6 assists per 36 minutes (or at least 1 assist every 6 minutes) to be 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 point guards in the NBA in 2011-2012 rated and ranked:
Player               Tm   MP   FG  FGA  3P 3PA  FT FTA ORB DRB  AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS  FG%  3P%  FT%
Steve Nash PHO 1961 5.4 10.2 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.5 2.9 12.2 0.7 0.1 4.2 1.0 14.2 .532 .390 .894
Rajon Rondo BOS 1957 4.7 10.5 0.2 0.8 2.0 3.3 1.1 3.6 11.4 1.7 0.1 3.6 1.8 11.6 .448 .238 .597
Jose Calderon TOR 1799 4.4 9.5 1.2 3.2 1.2 1.4 0.4 2.8 9.4 0.9 0.1 2.1 1.9 11.1 .457 .371 .882
Chris Paul LAC 2181 7.0 14.7 1.3 3.5 4.3 5.0 0.7 2.8 9.0 2.5 0.1 2.0 2.3 19.6 .478 .371 .861
Andre Miller DEN 1809 4.8 11.0 0.4 1.7 2.7 3.4 1.1 3.3 8.8 1.3 0.2 3.5 2.6 12.7 .438 .217 .811
Tony Parker SAS 1923 8.0 16.7 0.3 1.1 4.2 5.3 0.4 2.8 8.7 1.1 0.1 2.9 1.4 20.5 .480 .230 .799
Jamaal Tinsley UTA 507 4.0 10.0 0.7 2.6 0.9 1.2 0.4 2.8 8.7 1.2 0.6 3.7 3.3 9.7 .404 .270 .765
Deron Williams NJN 1999 7.0 17.3 2.1 6.2 4.6 5.5 0.4 2.9 8.7 1.2 0.4 3.9 2.2 20.8 .407 .336 .843
Ricky Rubio MIN 1404 3.6 10.0 0.8 2.4 3.2 4.0 0.5 3.8 8.6 2.3 0.2 3.4 2.5 11.2 .357 .340 .803
Jonny Flynn TOT 416 4.0 11.3 0.9 2.9 2.5 3.4 0.7 2.7 8.3 0.5 0.2 3.1 2.0 11.3 .351 .294 .744
Jeremy Lin NYK 940 6.5 14.7 0.9 2.9 5.6 7.0 0.7 3.4 8.3 2.1 0.3 4.8 3.0 19.6 .446 .320 .798
Baron Davis NYK 595 4.1 11.1 1.6 5.1 1.0 1.5 0.8 2.6 8.2 2.1 0.2 4.6 3.7 10.8 .370 .306 .667
Jose Barea MIN 1032 5.8 14.6 1.8 5.0 2.7 3.4 0.5 3.5 8.1 0.7 0.0 3.6 2.1 16.2 .400 .371 .776
Derrick Rose CHI 1375 7.9 18.2 1.4 4.5 5.1 6.3 0.7 2.7 8.0 0.9 0.7 3.1 1.4 22.3 .435 .312 .812
John Wall WAS 2386 5.7 13.5 0.0 0.6 4.8 6.1 0.7 3.8 8.0 1.4 0.9 3.8 2.1 16.2 .423 .071 .789
D.J. Augustin CHA 1408 4.7 12.5 1.6 4.6 2.7 3.1 0.6 2.2 7.8 0.9 0.0 2.8 1.7 13.6 .376 .341 .875
Beno Udrih MIL 1080 4.9 11.1 0.6 2.0 1.3 1.8 0.9 2.5 7.6 1.2 0.0 2.6 2.3 11.6 .440 .288 .709
Greivis Vasquez NOH 1706 4.7 11.0 0.9 2.8 2.0 2.5 0.5 3.2 7.6 1.3 0.2 3.1 2.7 12.4 .430 .319 .821
Earl Watson UTA 1033 1.9 5.6 0.3 1.8 1.1 1.6 1.0 3.2 7.6 1.9 0.8 3.0 3.7 5.2 .338 .192 .674
Ramon Sessions TOT 1707 5.1 11.9 0.9 2.0 4.1 5.2 0.7 3.8 7.5 0.9 0.1 3.0 2.1 15.2 .428 .443 .782
Player Tm MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS FG% 3P% FT%
Raymond Felton POR 1906 4.9 12.1 1.2 3.8 1.9 2.3 0.5 2.3 7.4 1.5 0.2 3.2 2.3 12.9 .407 .305 .806
Kyle Lowry HOU 1510 5.0 12.2 1.9 5.0 4.1 4.7 0.9 4.2 7.4 1.7 0.3 3.1 3.2 16.0 .409 .374 .864
Goran Dragic HOU 1752 5.7 12.3 1.4 4.2 3.1 3.9 1.1 2.4 7.2 1.7 0.2 3.2 3.4 15.9 .462 .337 .805
Nate Robinson GSW 1192 6.2 14.6 2.0 5.5 2.8 3.4 0.5 2.6 7.0 1.8 0.1 2.3 3.6 17.2 .424 .365 .832
Manu Ginobili SAS 792 6.8 13.0 2.4 5.7 4.0 4.6 0.8 4.5 6.9 1.1 0.5 2.9 2.5 20.0 .526 .413 .871
Charles Jenkins GSW 893 5.2 11.7 0.1 0.8 1.4 1.6 0.3 2.4 6.9 1.3 0.2 2.4 3.4 12.0 .447 .150 .872
Jason Kidd DAL 1379 2.6 7.1 2.1 5.8 0.6 0.7 0.4 4.8 6.9 2.1 0.3 2.4 2.2 7.8 .363 .354 .786
Jameer Nelson ORL 1706 5.5 12.8 1.8 4.9 1.5 1.9 0.6 3.2 6.9 0.8 0.1 2.8 2.7 14.3 .427 .377 .807
Stephen Curry GSW 732 7.1 14.6 2.7 6.0 1.9 2.3 0.7 3.6 6.8 1.9 0.4 3.2 3.0 18.8 .490 .455 .809
Ty Lawson DEN 2124 6.3 13.0 1.2 3.4 3.0 3.7 0.9 2.9 6.8 1.4 0.1 2.5 1.6 16.9 .488 .365 .824
Mike Conley MEM 2174 4.9 11.3 1.0 2.6 2.3 2.6 0.4 2.2 6.7 2.3 0.2 2.1 2.2 13.0 .433 .377 .861
Jarrett Jack NOH 1530 6.3 13.7 0.9 2.6 3.0 3.5 0.5 3.6 6.7 0.7 0.2 2.5 2.2 16.5 .456 .348 .872
Devin Harris UTA 1741 5.0 11.2 1.6 4.4 3.2 4.3 0.2 2.1 6.5 1.3 0.3 2.5 2.8 14.8 .445 .362 .746
Kyrie Irving CLE 1558 8.1 17.3 1.7 4.2 4.0 4.5 1.0 3.4 6.4 1.2 0.5 3.7 2.5 21.8 .469 .399 .872
C.J. Watson CHI 1159 5.0 13.6 2.1 5.4 2.6 3.2 0.7 2.6 6.2 1.4 0.2 3.0 3.2 14.7 .368 .393 .808
Shelvin Mack WAS 779 4.1 10.2 0.6 1.9 1.9 2.7 0.6 3.7 6.1 1.3 0.1 2.2 2.3 10.6 .400 .286 .712
Jerryd Bayless TOR 705 6.0 14.1 2.2 5.3 3.8 4.5 0.4 3.0 6.0 1.2 0.2 2.7 3.6 18.0 .424 .423 .852
LeBron James MIA 2326 9.6 18.1 0.8 2.3 6.0 7.8 1.5 6.2 6.0 1.8 0.8 3.3 1.5 26.0 .531 .362 .771



Saturday, November 24, 2007

A Close Call: The Nuggets Barely Get By the Inexperienced Timberwolves 99-93

The Minnesota Timberwolves in general and especially SG Rashad McCants in particular missed enough shots (54 of 88) and made enough turnovers (21) to lose to the Nuggets 99-93, despite having lead and looked like the more deserving team for most of the game. The Wolves had 5 turnovers and 3 missed layups in the critical 4th quarter alone. But the Nuggets played without much inspiration or energy, and it was luck more than anything else that got them this win-luck regarding who they were playing, a team with no veteran superstars after it pawned off Kevin Garnett to the Celtics, who are now a threat to win it all. Thanks for nothing Minnesota General Manager Kevin McHale! The Nuggets made only 7 points off fast breaks against the lowly Wolves, less than half of their average. The team that loves to showboat didn’t get to that much by playing listlessly on defense all night. George Karl stuck to his regular time out schedule as the Nuggets fell further and further behind in the 2nd quarter.

McCants missed 3 threes, 5 long two's, and 2 midrange jumpers. Had he made just 3 of those, the Nuggets would have been pushed to the brink of blowing a home game to a team that has a record of 1-9. And had the Wolves made 18 of 24 free throws instead of just 15 of them, they could have easily won from just those two things alone. Another thing that hurt the Wolves alot was foul trouble. Minnesota had 4 players who had to sit with serious foul trouble: PG Marko Jaric, SF Ryan Gomes, PG Sebastian Telfair, and SG McCants. In all, the Wolves were called for 31 fouls. But the Wolves continued to play hard defensively the whole game, and earned some respect of the refs, so their fouls went down as the game went along

The Nuggets gradually fell further and further behind during the 1st half. The T-Wolves led 51-40 with 2:41 left in the 1st half. The fans at the Pepsi Center were as quiet as they could be as they watched Camby and Allen Iverson having the same problem as McCants, Carmelo Anthony move back out of the picture after a fantastic 1st quarter, and the offensive disappearance of Yakhouba Diawara, Bobby Jones, and Linas Kleiza. Kleiza did not play at all as a result of a sprained left ankle suffered at Los Angeles Wednesday. In other words, the fans were quiet because there wasn't much to get them excited.

George Karl, starting with the L.A. game, has cut way back on the playing time of the non-starters again, and what little playing time they get has been mostly unproductive. Offensively, the Nuggets needed a strong game from Anthony, whom the Wolves did not double cover enough, backed up with good games from Kenyon Martin and Eduardo Najera, to win this game.

The score was razor close late in the third and through most of the 4th quarter. With 3 minutes left, Gomes made a three to give Minnesota an 87-84 lead. Melo missed a three but, fortunately, Al Jefferson traveled. After Melo dished to A.I. for a layup, for 87-86 Wolves, Jaric could not drive it in, and Jefferson then fouled Kenyon Martin, who made both free throws to give Denver a 1 point lead. Then disaster really struck for the Wolves, when Jaric was called for a charge on Anthony Carter with 1:38 left in a 1 point game. Now that’s luck for you, Nuggets fans. Anthony then sunk a 19 foot jumper for 90-87 Nuggets with 1:20 left. McCants then missed again, but Martin snagged the rebound and Camby emphatically slammed it home after Melo missed a 22 footer. So now it was 92-87 Nuggets with 46 seconds left. All the Nuggets had to do now was hit some free throws off intentional fouls, which they did.

In this game, Anthony continued to improvise with good spin moves for layups and dunks at the hoop, and made half his jump shots from inside the arc several of which with Ryan Gomes draped all over him. All of Melo’s shots were taken from his preferred side of the court, the right side. Anthony started to get back into the top NBA scorer race by making 31 points on 10/22 shooting. The Nuggets are 5-0 this season when Anthony scores 30 or more.

Although Allen Iverson missed all 8 of his jumpers, he got fouled enough and made enough free throws, 9 of 11, to salvage a 13 point game. More importantly, he found the holes in the Minnesota zone defense time and again and, as usual, created the Nugget’s scoring patterns on the fly. Iverson had 10 assists. You have to be a really good player to get a double double and have it considered a poor game overall. Iverson is the next best thing to having a coaching crew who can custom design a few set plays for their team. No wonder Karl likes Iverson so much, he makes up to some extent for the lack of some of the things that Karl doesn’t provide.

Defensively, the Nuggets didn’t need much of anything to win, and didn’t do much of anything all that great. Marcus Camby, who looked kind of tired in the 2nd half, finished with 18 rebounds and 10 points, his third straight double-double. Despite the fact that K-Mart played almost 30 minutes for the first time this year, and despite Melo getting a few boards, the Nuggets were heavily in their “let Camby do all the rebounding” mode, and the Wolves took full advantage as everyone except McCants kept finding open lanes and making moves on Camby into the paint all night long. The Wolves scored 40 of their 93 points from in the paint. Forward Craig Smith, C Al Jefferson, and especially F Antoine Walker were able to take full advantage of the absence of Nene, and the inability of Najera. Diawara, and sometimes Melo to stop penetration into the paint, to get inside time and time again. Fortunately the Wolves missed a whole lot of layups. "We missed seven, seven wide-open layups in the second half," Coach Randy Wittman complained after the game.

The Wolves played a tenacious defense, both in man to man and zone, and they succeeded at shutting down what little offensive potential the Nuggets brought to this game. Aside from Gomes and C Al Jefferson, another good defender was the starting point guard, Marko Jaric, who was all over Iverson for most of the game.

So the Wolves defensively set themselves up for the upset, but the inexperienced Wolves couldn’t get enough points even though they made 13 offensive rebounds to just 6 for the Nuggets. Although the Wolves made an impressive 10/24 threes, they were just 34/88 or .386 overall, as McCants drove them down the drain.

So remember, one of the Nugget’s wins this season will have been due to Rashad McCants being unable to make even 1 jump shot out of 10. It’s hardly anything to get inspired about. And Denver can forget about beating teams like the Jazz or the Spurs if they are going to play like this. If you are going to play without schemes, you at least have to come correct to a game with intensity and emotion, or you have no basis to expect to win. The one exception to that is if you are playing the most inexperienced team in the League, which is exactly what the situation was.

So it was a victory, but it seemed like a loss, and it was a game that made all the big fans of the Nuggets cringe at how this team will be destroyed if it plays like this against quality opponents. There is going to be some real dismantling of the Nuggets unless they bring more planning, and/or more intensity to games in the future, I can tell you that.

Nuggets guard Anthony Carter, back from a right hand 3rd metacarpal fracture suffered on Oct. 6 during practice, made his season debut, coming off the bench to score nine points in almost 22 minutes of action. "The hand felt great," said Carter. "I was deflecting balls, hustling, diving on the floor, and it held up."

Last year the Nuggets lost 9 home games to non playoff teams. Thanks mostly to McCants, they narrowly avoided that result here, though they didn’t deserve to.

RESERVE WATCH
Keeping Tabs on George Karl’s Frequent Inability to Get Enough Bench Performance

Safe range for total reserve minutes: 82-94
Actual minutes for the reserves in this game (see note below): 70

Minimum points needed from the reserves to make victory very likely: 33
Minimum points needed from the reserves to avoid being very likely to lose: 22
Actual points scored by the reserves in this game: 19

Minimum rebounds needed from the reserves to make victory very likely: 14
Minimum rebounds needed from the reserves to avoid being very likely to lose: 10
Actual rebounds by the reserves in this game: 11

Karl’s Grade: D
It would have been an F, but 70 minutes is better than 60-65 which Karl has been known to do. Also, led by Najera with 7, the reserves managed to get 11 rebounds, just barely enough to help out Kenyon Martin, Melo, and Camby.

NOTE regarding reserves: J.R. Smith is considered a starter and Yakhouba Diawara is considered a reserve for this calculation. George “I have no confidence in anyone except Iverson, Melo, and Camby” Karl refuses to start Smith whether or not Smith gets more playing time than Diawara. If and only if Diawara, or any one else who is starting instead of Smith, gets more minutes than Smith, will that player be considered the real starter instead of Smith. In other words, if Smith gets substantially more playing time than the official starter, he is going to be considered the true starter at the 2-spot.

The Nugget’s reserves were outscored 39-19 by the T-Wolve's reserves.

NUGGET’S ESPN RATINGS FOR THIS GAME

The first number is the player’s rating for the game and the other number with the + or – in front of it tells you how much above or below that player’s season player rating his performance in the game was.

Carmelo Anthony 44.0 +6.0
Marcus Camby 38.1 +2.4
Kenyon Martin 28.9 +11.4
Allen Iverson 21.6 -17.5
Eduardo Najera 20.1 +5.7
Anthony Carter 18.1 +0.0
J.R. Smith 11.8 -6.3
Yakhouba Diawara 0.2 -8.5
Bobby Jones -0.8 -8.1
Linas Kleiza Did Not Play-Injury

NOTE: these stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes.

Yakhouba Diawara played 15 minutes and was 0/1 on 3’s for 0 points, and he made 1 rebound. Anthony Carter played 22 minutes and was 2/4 and 5/6 from the line for 9 points, and he made 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 rebounds, and 1 block.

Eduardo Najera played 22 minutes and was 4/7, 1/2 on 3’s, and 1/1 from the line for 10 points, and he made 7 rebounds and 1 block. Bobby Jones played 11 minutes and was 0/4 for 0 points, and he made 1 rebound and 1 assist.

J.R. Smith played 23 minutes and was 3/9, and 2/7 on 3’s for 8 points, and he made 3 steals and 3 rebounds.

Kenyon Martin played 29 minutes and was 5/9 and 8/10 from the line for 18 points, and he made 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block.

Allen Iverson played 40 minutes and was 2/12, 0/2 on 3’s, and 9/11 from the line for 13 points, and he made 10 assists, 1 steal, and 1 rebound.

Marcus Camby played 38 minutes and was 4/11, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he made 18 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 4 assists.

Carmelo Anthony played 41 minutes and was 10/22, 0/2 on 3’s, and 11/11 from the line for 31 points, and he made 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks.

The next game will be Saturday, November 24 in Houston to play the Rockets at 6:30 pm mountain time. Both the Rockets and the Nuggets will be playing on back to back nights.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 23: Timberwolves at Nuggets: Another Easy to Win Game at Home

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: 25.4 4.4 5.1 .450
With his 24 points at L.A. Clippers on 11/21, he has now scored 20+ in 11 of the Nuggets 12 games this season. Averaging 27.0 ppg on .526 shooting during the Nuggets five-game win streak, while playing just 33.5 mpg.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 7.9 5.3 0.6 .476
Has collected three or more steals three times this year, including three in 23 minutes at L.A. Clippers on 11/21. His average of 3.90 steals per 48 minutes currently ranks fourth among all qualified players in the NBA.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 10.3 15.3 3.3 .510
Scored a season-high 18 points to go along with 18 rebounds and three blocks at L.A. Clippers on 11/21. Registered his third 20+ rebounding game of the season with 20 boards in 29 minutes vs. New York on 11/17.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 4.9 1.8 1.3 .489
Denver is now 8-2 (.800) this season with Diawara in the starting lineup, as well as 16-13 (.552) all-time. With his 10 points vs. New York on 11/17, the Nuggets are now 3-0 when he scores at least 10 points this season.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 24.9 3.0 7.6 .471
Led the Nuggets with 29 points (11-19 FG), nine assists and three steals in the loss at L.A. Clippers on 11/21. Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists.

NUGGET'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER


Shooting Guard #1 J.R. Smith
6-6 220
2007-08: 11.1 2.3 3.2 .437






TIMBERWOLVES PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward #8 Ryan Gomes
6-7 250
2007-08: 9.4 3.7 2.3 .392
Avg 12.7 pts in 3 road gms; season-hi 19 pts 11/4 @NY


Power Forward #25 Al Jefferson
6-10 265
2007-08: 20.7 10.8 1.1 .519
Season-hi 30 pts Wed vs. Cle; ranks 10th in reb (10.8)


Center #51 Michael Doleac
6-11 262
2007-08: 0.0 1.7 0.3 .000
Made 1st start since 2005-06 Wednesday vs. Cleveland


Shooting Guard #1 Rashad McCants
6-4 210
2007-08: 16.3 3.4 1.9 .460
Career-hi 33 pts 11/14 vs. Sac; 33.3% in 3 games since


Point Guard #55 Marko Jaric
6-7 224
2007-08: 6.3 2.6 3.1 .404
Started last 6 gms; season-high 10 ast 11/6 vs. Orlando




TIMBERWOLVE'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER

Power Forward #5 Craig Smith
6-7 272
2007-08: 7.5 4.3 0.1 .511

TEAM STATS COMPARED: This is the Best Statistical Preview You Will find anywhere!

Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets
TEAM....... W-L. PCT HOME ROAD EAST WEST DIV STREAK
Minnesota.. 1-8 .111... 1-5... 0-3.. 0-4.. 1-4.. 0-1. Lost 3
Denver......8-4 .667... 5-1... 3-3.. 5-2.. 3-2.. 3-0. Lost 1

TIMBERWOLVES........................NUGGETS
93.1 Points scored....................... 107.7
102.1 Points allowed...................... 99.3
.443 FG% own............................... .471
.475 FG% opposition....................... .435
.376 3PT% own............................. .353
.361 3PT% opposition..................... .345
40.9 Total Rebounds per game............44.9
39.2 Opposition Total Rebounds/game..46.1
12.9 Offensive Rebounds/game.........10.8
10.2 Opposition Offensive Reb/game...13.5
116 Offensive Rebounds.................. 130
252 Defensive Rebounds.................. 409
368 Total Rebounds........................ 539
6.8 Steals Per Game.......................10.7
7.9 Opposition Steals Per Game..........9.5
4.8 Blocked Shots Per Game..............6.1
4.2 Opposition Blocked Shots/Game.....4.7
18.6 Assists Per Game................24.3
20.7 Opposition Assists Per Game.....23.5
15.3 Turnovers Per Game..............16.7
14.0 Opposition Turnovers Per Game...18.4
1.2 Assist/Turnover Ratio............ 1.5
25.0 Fouls Per Game................. 22.0
18.8 Opposition Fouls Per Game.......24.3

NUGGETS INJURY REPORT

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.
DOUBTFUL: Linas Kleiza suffered a sprained left ankle at L.A. Clippers on 11/21 and is doubtful for tonight’s game
QUESTIONABLE: Anthony Carter has yet to play this season due to a right hand 3rd metacarpal fracture suffered on 10/6. He is expected to be activated this week for the first time of the year

TIMBERWOLVES INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Guard Randy Foye: Sidelined indefinitely with a stress reaction in his left patella, an injury that caused him to miss five preseason contests (Oct. 15-23).
OUT: Center Theo Ratliff: Has been sidelined for the past two games with a sore right knee, and is not with the team for tonight's contest.

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:





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.





TIMBERWOLVE'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.





OVERALL PREDICTIONS


DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK

The Nuggets Run Out of Mojo & Lose to the Clippers in LA 101-90

There is another reason besides inconsistent player minutes and the lack of enough set plays on offense why the Nuggets are not consistent, which is that most of the Nuggets are more inconsistent than the average NBA player in shooting accuracy from one game to the next. Each player other than A.I., Melo, and Najera seems to have sort of a ceiling on the amount of good shooting he can do in a given time period. When a player’s “quota” is used up, his shooting goes cold as Minnesota ice and the Nuggets are no longer even remotely the NBA’s best offensive team that they just fooled you into thinking they were. A simultaneous collapse of shooting accuracy among 5 players is one of the main reasons that lead to the banged up Clippers defending their home court and coming away with a 101-90 win.

The Clippers committed 24 turnovers to just 13 for the Nuggets, but when the Nuggets can’t score at least 100 points, they generally can’t win. The Nuggets made only 34/87 shots overall, or .391, and made only 4/22 threes, with Melo 3/8 from long range. The Nuggets even had trouble with free throws, getting just 18/31 of them, with A.I. 7/12 and Camby 2/6.

The Nugget’s win streak ended at 6 games, and their record became 8-4, which would project to a 55 win season if that winning percentage of .667 were maintained for the rest of the season. The Nuggets in their present condition are good enough to compete with the Rockets, Jazz, and Lakers for the 4th seed in the West. But unless the Nuggets in general and Carmelo Anthony in particular gain more offensive consistency, they are most likely not going to be able to compete for any of the first 3 seeds in the West. The Suns, Spurs, and Mavericks seem to be the three headed monster at the top of the West and there isn’t anything likely to change that any time soon. But the 4th slot, due to the somewhat unexpected difficulties of the Rockets, the Cinderella factor of the Hornets, and the Phil Jackson can only pull so many rabbits out of so many hats factor of the Lakers, is a slot that the Nuggets can definitely set their sites on. And the 4th seed is good enough for home court advantage in at least the first round of the playoffs.

Another Nuggets weakness, not shared by those big three teams except maybe by the Mavericks when playing the Warriors in the playoffs, is that they sometimes motivate a relatively obscure player to explode for a huge game against them. To say that the Nuggets don’t guard the perimeter very well and get beat there often is a truism that has been reduced but not eliminated this season by the Nugget’s increased but inconsistent attention to detail on defense. The frequently low intensity way the Nuggets defend issues an invitation to players on the opposing teams to kick it into high gear and do some real damage. So the Nuggets last year, and still this year, can be beaten by obscure role players, usually G-F swingmen, who come out of nowhere and give the Nuggets a loss by taking full advantage of all the open looks and sometimes easy penetrations to the hoop that they get. The Nuggets will guard the obvious threats to some extent even when they are relatively lazy on defense. But in the lazy defending mode, which will be common on back to back games, if the Nuggets don’t know a player, they won’t respect that player much, so if that player can hit the open shots, he can give the Nuggets a good slap up top the head for that lack of respect.

In this game, G-F Quinton Ross was the guy who the Nuggets didn’t respect and who provided the spark needed by the Clippers, playing without both Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, and playing with other players with other minor ailments, to win the contest. Not only did Ross get 17 points efficiently on 7/11 jump shooting, but he showed the kind of good man to man defending, including against A.I. and Melo, that the Nuggets often lack

The Nugget’s Linas Kleiza has been known to come out of nowhere and win a game against a team not guarding the perimeter. It happened about 4 times last year, most memorably against the Kings in Sacramento, but it hasn’t happened yet this year, because the Nuggets have not needed heroics on offense from anyone off the bench to win any of their games yet. But in this game, Kleiza was one of those Nuggets whose allotment of scoring was apparently used up. After he missed 3 threes in the 1st half, Karl lost his nerve and would hardly play him in the 2nd half. But he was in long enough to miss another 3, to finish with 0 points in 13 minutes.

Also for the Clippers, the center Kamen played very well inside, and Al Thornton, the Clipper’s No. 1 draft pick, started for the first time in his NBA career and had 12 points in 21 minutes, but on just 4/14 shooting.

In the 4th quarter, Carmelo Anthony, playing with five fouls, hit a 3-pointer that cut the Clipper’s lead to 88-81 with 6:01 to play. But Tim Thomas responded with a pair of 3-pointers 37 seconds apart for 94-83 Clippers, and it was pretty much over since the Camby-Iverson-Melo combo, playing on back to back nights with huge minutes, was fairly worn out by this point. The old man Sam Cassell, who was playing after having woke up with flu-like symptoms, came in late and helped to seal the deal for the Clippers.

It makes no sense to me, but George Karl commonly all of a sudden cuts way back, by almost half, on the playing time for players who have been playing well. And that’s when he’s being nice and not benching the guy completely. I think I mostly understand what the problem is after many moons of not being able to figure it out. Karl is first and foremost a man of too little confidence. He is a man who is constantly looking for reasons why a player should not play instead of for reasons why a player should play. It seems that he sees the gap between what is worked on in practice and what takes place in a game is as wide as the Grand Canyon so that, in his mind, no matter how much good work someone has done in practice, or in recent games for that matter, you can’t depend on that showing up in the here and now. Only veterans are dependable in the here and now. It is a sadly limited way of thinking about the potential and the possibilites of a basketball team.

Karl sees “personalities” everywhere. In this game, Karl was quoted as follows regarding the Clipper’s center: “Kaman's a force," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "I thought we did a good job on him most of the night, but he's a force and he's become a big part of the Clipper’s personality." The Spurs have the best basketball personality. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have a weak and wavering personality, and many individual players have personalities that are nowhere near strong or durable enough to withstand the immense pressures of pro basketball. By thinking like this, Karl develops inferiority complexes quickly and continuously. He has permanent inferiority complexes regarding teams like the Spurs and the Suns, and he continuously develops temporary inferiority complexes regarding the ability of individual players to contribute in individual games.

In this game, Karl’s confidence regarding the Nuggets evaporated like water on the pavement when the sun comes back out on a hot summer day. It went quick. He quickly lost confidence in Diawara, Bobby Jones, and Linas Kleiza in this game, despite the fact that all 3 young players are playing better than they did last year and have contributed significantly to the Nugget’s 8 wins. Whenever Karl’s nerve starts dissolving, he simply leaves Anthony, Camby, and especially Allen Iverson out on the court for longer than is prudent. Maybe Karl should chew gum like Michael Jordan did to reduce his nervousness. Nuggets fans don’t want to see a man not at peace with his team at the helm. It’s only an athletic game, not a contest to see which team has the best personality or set of personalities.

As a result of this development, not unexpected by the way, I am going to keep careful statistical track, from now on, of the performance of the reserves, which is one of a coach’s primary responsibilities when all is said and done. Just as pitchers need to be relieved in baseball, star basketball players need to be relieved by quality and ready to contribute backups. So I am going to provide what I will call the “Reserve Watch” for every game.

RESERVE WATCH
Keeping Tabs on George Karl’s Frequent Inability to Get Enough Bench Performance

Safe range for total reserve minutes: 82-94
Actual minutes for the reserves in this game (see note below): 74

Minimum points needed from the reserves to make victory very likely: 33
Minimum points needed from the reserves to avoid being very likely to lose: 22
Actual points scored by the reserves in this game: 19

Minimum rebounds needed from the reserves to make victory very likely: 14
Minimum rebounds needed from the reserves to avoid being very likely to lose: 10
Actual rebounds by the reserves in this game: 7

Karl’s Grade: D
(It would have been an F but 74 minutes is better than 60-65 which Karl has been known to do.)

NOTE regarding reserves: J.R. Smith is considered a starter and Yakhouba Diawara is considered a reserve for this calculation. George “I have no confidence in anyone” Karl lost confidence in Diawara and cut his playing time under 10 minutes in this game, effectively making Smith the real starter at the 2-spot.

The Nugget’s reserves were outscored 50-19 by the Clipper reserves.

NUGGET’S ESPN RATINGS FOR THIS GAME

The first number is the player’s rating for the game and the other number with the + or – in front of it tells you how much above or below that player’s season player rating his performance in the game was.

Allen Iverson 46.4 +5.9
Marcus Camby 40.9 +5.4
Carmelo Anthony 28.7 -8.8
Eduardo Najera 12.9 -1.0
J.R. Smith 7.5 -11.4
Mike Wilks 5.8 +0.6
Kenyon Martin 5.7 -10.8
Bobby Jones 3.1 -5.0
Yakhouba Diawara -0.6 -10.0
Linas Kleiza -1.2 -17.8

NOTE: these stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes

Mike Wilks played 21 minutes and was 1/3 for 2 points, and he made 2 steals, 1 assist, and a rebound. Yakhouba Diawara played 9 minutes and was 0/2 and 0/1 on threes for 0 points, and he made 1 rebound.

Eduardo Najera played 22 minutes and was ¾ and 2/3 from the line for 8 points, and he made 3 rebounds. Linas Kleiza played 13 minutes and was 0/4 and 0/4 from the line for 0 points, and he made 1 steal and 1 rebound.

Kenyon Martin played 23 minutes and was 0/5 for 0 points, and he made 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 assist.

J.R. Smith played 21 minutes and was 2/7, 1/6 on 3’s, and 1/1 from the line for 6 points, and he made 2 steals and 1 assist.

Marcus Camby played 39 minutes and was 8/15 and 2/6 from the line for 18 points, and he made 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, and a steal.

Carmelo Anthony played 39 minutes and was 8/23, 3/8 on 3’s, and 5/7 from the line for 24 points, and he made 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal.

A.I. played 43 minutes and was 11/19, 0/1 on 3’s, and 7/12 from the line for 29 points, and he made 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Nuggets Coast Again, Have No Problem With The Bulls 112-91

With F Tyrus Thomas playing god awful, SG Ben Gordon missing every shot, Ben Wallace a light-scoring center as always, and Coach Scott Skiles going crazy on the sidelines and a couple of times on the court in the face of an official, the Chicago Bulls are in disarray and were unable to compete with or even slow down the offensive juggernaut of the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets scored 72 points in the first half and that pretty much decided it. The Nuggets completed a 4-game sweep of their home stand and essentially led by substantial margins from start to finish in every single game. Overall, the Nuggets now head for Los Angeles to play the Clippers with a 6 game winning streak. The final score was Nuggets 112 Bulls 91.

By the end of the game, it wasn’t clear who should be starting for Chicago, though the rookie forward Joakim Noah made the best case to be a starter, with 16 points on 7/10 and 8 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block. In a game where Ben Gordon’s +/- stat was as bad as it gets, -30, Noah’s was -4. So Noah was just about the only Bull who was keeping up with the Nuggets.

The Bulls had 18 offensive rebounds to a measly 7 for the Nuggets, but when you are penetrating at will, doing well with jumpers and getting most, but not all of the hack-a-Nugget calls and making most of your free throws, you can get away with missing out on some 2nd chance scores. The Nuggets were wild and competent, while the Bulls were wild and incompetent; both teams had 21 turnovers. Iverson with 3 and J.R. Smith with 4 combined for 7 steals.

Marcus Camby, otherwise known as relatively unappreciated, had yet another night of all-around great basketball. We’re talking career best, never played better stuff: 20 rebounds, 12 points on 4/8, 5 blocks, 5 assists, and a steal. Personal fouls? None. What is the bigger crime? Is it that Camby does not get enough help with rebounding, which will kill the Nuggets when they play the Jazz, Lakers, or Spurs? Or is it the fact that fans still insist that he is a terrible jump shooter, which is plainly false. In this one, Camby was 4/5 on jumpers that included 2 midrange and 1 top of the key shot. Very late in the 3rd quarter, Camby made two quick jumpers, which gave Denver an insurmountable 94-69 lead. Anyone guilty of either crime should get at least a week in the slammer, except for Melo who, with 2 rebounds, is as guilty as anyone, but has to get off with probation because he has rare jump shot and finishing skills and he’s Iverson’s sidekick and an all-star and all that.

So far this season, even more so than last, Melo is too mellow, and not aggressive enough defensively. Similarly, on offense, he does not demand enough possessions from Iverson and Smith and Wilks and so forth. It’s one of the peculiar things about the Nuggets, almost kind of funny actually, but Melo is in fact mellow, a relatively easy to please dude who could hardly care less who exactly wins the scoring title in the NBA, and whether or not he is considered the Michael Jordan of the Nuggets. Melo just wants to keep being as dependable as the clock on the wall, and leave most of the strategy and tactics to his coaches and to key teammates such as Iverson, respectively. Furthermore, he believes strongly in a share the wealth philosophy. Wherever there is talent and effort to be found on the Nuggets, Melo will be in favor of bringing it to fruition even if that means that he will get fewer touches and points.

Another way to think about this is that Melo is always available with just about the same total skills and abilities as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant but, unlike them, he doesn’t get all bent out of shape if his touches or shots are limited. And if the Nuggets are too stupid to go through Melo more when the Spurs, Suns, Jazz, Lakers, or Mavericks are the opponent, well, in Melo’s mind, it won’t be his fault, because he is nothing more and nothing less than the ultimate team player and he doesn’t have any inclination whatsoever to try his luck at coaching. And why should he? It’s not his job in the slightest and he is not trained or experienced for coaching.

So another river that the Nuggets will need to cross to be able to defeat the Spurs and their like, in other in their quest for the ring, will be the one where they learn to make sure that Carmelo Anthony gets enough touches including, obviously, touches with some good set plays attached to them.

The Nuggets do like to run, but they like to win even more. They no longer run for the sake of running, which is another huge positive development this new season. The Nuggets had far more points in the paint (44) than they had fast break points (14). Hell, for that matter, J.R. Smith no longer shoots for the sake of shooting, Najera no longer fails to shoot for the sake of failing to shoot, Diawara no longer does whatever crazy thing he was doing last year to miss almost all of his shots, and Coach Karl no longer insists that Iverson must be on the floor at all times or the arena might cave in. There have been a lot of damaging obsessions tamed recently on the Nuggets, among both players and coaches.

I am going to start using some advanced statistics that are kept up to date thanks to the wonders of computers and thanks to our friends at huge media companies such as NBA.com and ESPN. Specifically, I am going to start using an ESPN summary stat called “player rating” to give readers of this report the quickest but best way to summarize how well players played in a game. The ESPN rating stat appears to be slightly too heavily weighted in favor of scoring, but the NBA.com stat called player efficiency is clearly very heavily weighted against scorers. For now, I am going to use the ESPN formula, but I am going to keep thinking about the possibility of blending the ESPN rating with the NBA.com efficiency stat in the future. I have to do a little more research before I know for sure that the ESPN stat is biased too much in favor of scorers, it may in fact be a very good statistic which reflects the fact that basketball is the most offensive of all the big 4 professional sports of North America.

Here is the formula for the ESPN rating of a player:

Points + Rebounds + 1.4*Assists + Steals + 1.4*Blocks - .7*Turnovers + # of Field Goals Made +1/2*# of 3-pointers Made - .8*# of Missed Field Goals - .8*# of Missed Free Throws + .25 *# of Free Throws Made

So here’s how well the Nuggets and Bulls did according to this good summary stat. The first number is the player’s rating for the game and the other number with the + or – in front of it tells you how much above or below that player’s season player rating average his performance in the game was. For example, Camby had a monster game and his player rating is 49. Since his to date season player rating is 35, his game versus the Bulls was a big +14 above his season average. :

Marcus Camby 49.0 +14.0
Allen Iverson 33.8 -6.2
Carmelo Anthony 30.7 -7.6
Kenyon Martin 27.1 +9.5
J.R. Smith 22.9 +2.6
Linas Kleiza 16.8 -1.4
Eduardo Najera 12.6 -1.3
Yakhouba Diawara 9.8 -0.5
Bobby Jones 8.6 +0.0

Remember: These stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes.

So you can check this list for each game and very quickly determine who contributed the most, who had a great game, who had a worse game than usual, and so forth. But always keep in mind that the more minutes a player plays, the more he gets things accomplished on the court that count in the formula. Do not make the mistake of saying, for example, that since Diawara’s season average rating is rating is 10.3 and Iverson’s is 40.0, that that means that Iverson would get about 4 times as many game accomplishments if both played the same minutes. Wrong. The stat does not correct for different minutes. If Diawara plays about half as much as Iverson, which is roughly the case, the stat means that Iverson would accomplish about twice as much as Diawara, on average, if they were both out there for the same amount of time, not 4 times as much. So I am going to remind readers of the minutes factor whenever I report the player ratings.

Now while we are at it, let’s take a look at how the Nuggets are doing this year so far compared with how they did last year, according to the player rating comprehensive formula. The first number will be this year’s rating, and the second number is last season’s rating:

NUGGETS REPORT CARD
WITH 11 OUT OF 82 GAMES PLAYED IN THE 2007-08 SEASON

Allen Iverson 40.0 Last season: 39.4
Carmelo Anthony 38.3 Last season: 41.5
Marcus Camby 35.0 Last season: 32.4
J.R. Smith 20.3 Last season: 18.5
Linas Kleiza 18.2 Last season: 12.1
Kenyon Martin 17.6 Last season: injured
Eduardo Najera 14.0 Last season: 13.9
Nene: 12.6 Last season: 23.3
Yakhouba Diawara 10.3 Last season: 7.0
Bobby Jones 8.6 Last season (76’ers) 4.0

Remember: These stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes.

Since it’s so early in the season, I won’t comment too much on this, but I can’t resist a few observations. You can see proof here about my point that Melo is especially mellow this year. He’s the only Nugget other than Nene who isn’t playing better this year than last. He has surveyed his team and sees that everybody except for Nene is better this year than last, so he can ease back a little and the Nuggets are still better this year than last.

Najera played 18 minutes and was 3/3 and 2/2 on 3’s for 8 points, and he had 1 rebound and 1 steal. Diawara played 18 minutes and was 2/3 and ½ on 3’s for 5 points, and he had 2 assists and 1 rebound. Linas Kleiza played 26 minutes and was 4/9 and 0/3 on 3’s for 8 points, and he had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Bobby Jones played 19 minutes and was 1/3, 0/1 on 3’s, and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he had 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Kenyon Martin played 24 minutes and was 6/10, 0/1 on 3’s, and ½ from the line for 13 points, and he had 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Carmelo Anthony played 31 minutes and was 8/20, 0/3 on 3’s, and 10/13 from the line for 26 points, and he had 4 assists and 2 rebounds.

Iverson played 35 minutes and was 6/13 and 10/10 from the line for 22 points, and he had 6 assists, 3 steals, and 1 rebound.

Marcus Camby played 30 minutes and was 4/6 and 4/4 from the line for 12 points, and he had 20 rebounds, 5 blocks, 5 assists, and 1 steal.

The next game will be Wednesday, November 21, in Los Angles to play the Clippers at 8:30 pm mountain time. The Nuggets will be playing on back to back nights but the Clippers will not be.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 21: Nuggets at Clippers--A Winnable Game if the Team Spirit is Willing

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: 25.5 4.8 5.3 .467
Averaging 27.0 ppg on .526 shooting during the Nuggets five-game win streak, while playing just 33.5 mpg. Is averaging 29.3 ppg in the Nuggets six wins, however just 18.3 ppg in their three losses so far this season.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 8.2 4.9 0.4 .493
His average of 3.90 steals per 48 minutes currently ranks fourth among all qualified players in the NBA. Posted a season-high 14 points on .778 (7-9) shooting from the field in 23 minutes vs. Portland on 11/14.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 9.4 14.5 3.5 .494
Registered his third 20+ rebounding game of the season with 20 boards in 29 minutes vs. New York on 11/17. With his 13 rebounds vs. Portland on 11/14, he has now pulled down 10+ boards in eight of Denver’s nine games.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 5.4 1.9 1.3 .500
With his 10 points vs. New York on 11/17, the Nuggets are now 3-0 when he scores at least 10 points this season. 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.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 24.8 3.0 7.6 .460
Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists. Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists.

NUGGET'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER


Shooting Guard #1 J.R. Smith
6-6 220
2007-08: 11.7 2.6 3.7 .446






CLIPPER'S PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward #23 Ruben Patterson
6-5 223
2007-08: 4.4 2.7 0.9 .438
NOTES: Made 3rd start of season 11/17 vs. CHI, scored 5 pts (2-6 FG, 1-2 FT), 5 rebs, 1 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk in a season-high 34:23...In 2006-07 averaged career-highs in pts (14.7), rebs (5.4), ast (2.9, and min (31.0) with Milwaukee.


Power Forward #2 Tim Thomas
6-10 240
2007-08: 14.7 6.1 2.3 .398
NOTES: Is 25-67 (.373) from 3PT range, is 4th in NBA in 3PT attempts...6.2 reb. avg is 2.1 boards more than career average of 4.1...Had 14 pts (5-16, 1-1 FT), 8 rebs, 3 ast in 37:30 11/17 vs. CHI...13 3PT attempts on 11/16 at GSW, sets new LAC franchise record


Center #35 Chris Kaman
7-0 256
2007-08: 18.7 13.3 1.6 .504
NOTES: Fourth in NBA in rebounds (13.2)...Set career-high with 26 pts (9-19 FG, 8-9 FT) 11/2 vs. GSW...Had 6th doubledouble of season 11/16 at. GSW, (20 pts, 12rebs)...Scored 21 pts (10-17 FG, 1-3 FT), 8 rebs in 38:15 11/17 vs. CHI


Shooting Guard #5 Cuttino Mobley
6-4 215
2007-08: 15.4 3.6 3.4 .531
NOTES: Is 15th in NBA in FG %, shooting .531 this season, a dramatic 9 percent increase from his career-high .440 FG % last season...Made 3rd start of season 11/17 vs. CHI, played season-high 45:02, had 9 pts (3-10 FG, 2-2 FT), 4 rebs, team-high 5 ast


Point Guard #22 Brevin Knight
5-10 170
2007-08: 3.4 1.5 3.9 .333
NOTES: Made 2nd start of season 11/17 vs. CHI, had season-high 8 pts (4-8 FG), 3 rbs, 1 ast, 2 stl in 21:29...2nd on Clips with 10 stls this season...Has had a career-high 20 ast two times in his career, last time 1/11/05 at CLE.


CLIPPER'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER


Point Guard #19 Sam Cassell
6-3 185
2007-08: 14.2 3.0 5.2 .414

TEAM STATS COMPARED: This is the Best Statistical Preview You Will find anywhere!

Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Clippers
TEAM....... W L. PCT HOME ROAD EAST WEST DIV STREAK
Denver..... 7 3 .700 4-1. 3-2. 4-2. 3-1. 3-0. Won 5
LA Clippers 5 4 .556 3-2. 2-2. 3-3. 2-1. 1-1. Lost 2

Clippers............................Nuggets
96.9 Points scored................. 109.0
99.6 Points allowed................. 99.9
.422 FG% own........................ .476
.440 FG% opposition................. .436
.363 3PT% own....................... .374
.293 3PT% opposition................ .335
44.1 Total Rebounds per game.........45.4
46.2 Opposition Total Rebounds/game..45.6
11.0 Offensive Rebounds/game.........11.1
13.2 Opposition Offensive Reb/game...13.5
99 Offensive Rebounds............... 111
298 Defensive Rebounds............... 343
397 Total Rebounds................... 454
5.6 Steals Per Game..................10.4
6.9 Opposition Steals Per Game........9.8
5.1 Blocked Shots Per Game............6.3
6.1 Opposition Blocked Shots/Game.....4.2
21.1 Assists Per Game................24.9
21.4 Opposition Assists Per Game.....23.6
14.2 Turnovers Per Game..............16.6
13.8 Opposition Turnovers Per Game...17.6
1.5 Assist/Turnover Ratio............ 1.5
21.6 Fouls Per Game................. 22.0
21.2 Opposition Fouls Per Game.......24.0

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.

CLIPPERS INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Elton Brand (Left Achilles tendon)
OUT: Shaun Livingston (Dislocated left knee)
DOUBTFUL: Corey Maggette (Strained right hamstring)
DOUBTFUL: Al Thornton (Sprained right ankle)
PROBABLE: Cuttino Mobley (Strained groin)
PROBABLE: Quinton Ross (Bruised right 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 AM 1600, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUPS:

C Chris Kaman vs. Marcus Camby These are two of the best centers in the NBA. Kaman is a more consistent scorer than Camby, mostly because he doesn't do much jump shooting, but Camby is better at finding the open man and in transition.

SF Ruben Patterson vs. Carmelo Anthony Here's another opportunity for Anthony to have a big game for the Nuggets. Patterson is off to a poor start this season, and Anthony should be able to eat his lunch.

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.

2nd chance scores. With Brand and Maggette out, the Nuggets in general and Melo, Kenyon Martin, Najera, and Kleiza in particular should be able to get a bunch of 2nd chance scores via offensive rebounds.

Don't get too flashy. It's a back to back nights game and everyone is going to be a little bit slower than usual, which could lead to an excessive number of turnovers and easy Clipper scores if the Nuggets try to showboat too much. A back to back game is not the kind of game for a lot of ally oops and dangerous passing. If you play relatively conservatively on offense, and take care of rebounding, the Clippers will not get as many possessions as they want.

CLIPPER'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.

Disrupt the Nuggets with steals or drawing fouls. One of the best ways to disrupt the Nuggets right now is to force a lot of turnovers and turn them into fast break scores. Another thing you can try is to try to get Melo or even Camby into foul trouble; Kamen may be just the guy who could get Camby into foul trouble.

Play Sam Cassell for a lot of minutes Tell Cassell, Mobley, and Thomas to try some open threes in the 1st half to see who, if anyone, has the touch. A bunch of 3-point scores will be necessary for the Clippers, unless the Nuggets come in very tired from a tough game the night before.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS

The unavailability of SF Corey Maggette until at least early December is devastating to the Clippers, as is the unavailability of PF Elton Brand until at least late January. Maggette is currently the 10th best small forward in the NBA, ahead of, for example, Andrei Kirilenko. He accounts for 20 points a game. The combination of being without Maggette and Brand will be the 1-2 knockout punch for the Clippers in some of their upcoming games, but whether this is one of them is totally uncertain, because the Nuggets are playing on back to back nights and the Clippers are not.

With Brand and Maggette out, the Nugget's front court should be able to contain that of the Clippers, provided that Melo is not lazy in rebounding. Iverson will probably have a good game, or at least try to have a good game, by driving inside often. How many calls he gets will be important.

The Nuggets can win with a combination of three point shooting, good rebounding, and decent defending against the dangerous scorers Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley, and possibly Sam Cassell. That Camby will need help with rebounding is 100% certain. In fact, there is a danger that Camby might get into foul trouble in this game.

As long as George Karl keeps playing 9 players for 10 or more minutes with Bobby Jones and J.R. Smith included among the 9, the Nuggets can win almost anywhere, anytime. Were the Nuggets to win this game, it would be huge, because the Clippers are going to be in the playoff hunt when Brand returns and winning in a back to back night game would pump the team up big time.

DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK

Keep playing a 9th man for at least 10 minutes a game. You backed into a 9-player rotation by accident by sticking with Yakhouba Diawara and Najera through thick and thin. Now that you finally have an excellent rotation, don't mess with what has the Nuggets at the top of the heap in the West.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Game Preview: Nov. 20: Bulls at Nuggets--The Nuggets Are Looking at 6 Wins in a Row

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: 25.5 4.8 5.3 .467
Averaging 27.0 ppg on .526 shooting during the Nuggets five-game win streak, while playing just 33.5 mpg. Is averaging 29.3 ppg in the Nuggets six wins, however just 18.3 ppg in their three losses so far this season.


Power Forward #4 Kenyon Martin
6-9, 240
2007-08: 8.2 4.9 0.4 .493
His average of 3.90 steals per 48 minutes currently ranks fourth among all qualified players in the NBA. Posted a season-high 14 points on .778 (7-9) shooting from the field in 23 minutes vs. Portland on 11/14.


Center #23 Marcus Camby
6-11, 235
2007-08: 9.4 14.5 3.5 .494
Registered his third 20+ rebounding game of the season with 20 boards in 29 minutes vs. New York on 11/17. With his 13 rebounds vs. Portland on 11/14, he has now pulled down 10+ boards in eight of Denver’s nine games.


Shooting Guard #5 Yakhouba Diawara
6-7, 225
2007-08: 5.4 1.9 1.3 .500
With his 10 points vs. New York on 11/17, the Nuggets are now 3-0 when he scores at least 10 points this season. 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.


Point Guard #3 Allen Iverson
6-0, 165
2007-08: 24.8 3.0 7.6 .460
Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists. Joins LeBron James and Baron Davis as the only players to currently rank in the Top-10 in both points and assists.

NUGGET'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER


Shooting Guard #1 J.R. Smith
6-6 220
2007-08: 11.7 2.6 3.7 .446






BULLS PROBABLE STARTERS


Small Forward #44 Adrian Griffin
6-5 230
2007-08: 0.0 2.0 2.0 .000
Note: Has appeared in two games this season, starting one.


Power Forward #5 Andres Nocioni
6-7 225
2007-08: 13.7 5.2 1.0 .422
2007-08: 26.9 mpg, .422 FG%, .268 3FG%, .714 FT% Note: In two starts this season, he is averaging 17.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.3 apg and 36.7 mpg.


Center #3 Ben Wallace
6-9 240
2007-08: 4.4 6.7 1.4 .356
2007-08: 1.22 bpg, 28.1 mpg, .356 FG%, .364 FT% Note: Set team season-highs with eight OR, six steals and three blocks @ LAC (11/17).


Shooting Guard #7 Ben Gordon
6-3 200
2007-08: 19.8 4.6 2.4 .392
2007-08: 1.33 spg, 37.6 mpg, .392 FG%, .286 3FG%, .909 FT% Note: Last year he became the third Bull (Rose, Brand) to average 20+ PPG since 1997-98


Point Guard #12 Kirk Hinrich
6-3 190
2007-08: 10.1 3.1 5.9 .327
2007-08: 1.22 bpg, 28.1 mpg, .356 FG%, .364 FT% Note: Set team season-highs with eight OR, six steals and three blocks @ LAC (11/17)

BULL'S KEY OFF THE BENCH PLAYER


Forward #24 Tyrus Thomas
6-9 215
2007-08: 7.7 5.6 1.1 .446

TEAM STATS COMPARED: This is the Best Statistical Preview You Will find anywhere!

Chicago Bulls vs. Denver Nuggets
TEAM... W L PCT. HOME ROAD EAST WEST DIV..STREAK
Chicago 2 7..222 1-3. 1-4. 1-4. 1-3. 1-1. Lost 1
Denver. 7 3..700 4-1. 3-2. 4-2. 3-1. 3-0. Won 5

Bulls...............................Nuggets
87.9 Points scored................. 109.0
96.4 Points allowed................. 99.9
.388 FG% own........................ .476
.440 FG% opposition................. .436
.270 3PT% own....................... .374
.378 3PT% opposition................ .335
42.4 Total Rebounds per game.........45.4
44.8 Opposition Total Rebounds/game..45.6
13.6 Offensive Rebounds/game.........11.1
11.1 Opposition Offensive Reb/game...13.5
122 Offensive Rebounds............... 111
260 Defensive Rebounds............... 343
382 Total Rebounds................... 454
8.8 Steals Per Game..................10.4
8.4 Opposition Steals Per Game........9.8
4.7 Blocked Shots Per Game............6.3
5,3 Opposition Blocked Shots/Game.....4.2
19.9 Assists Per Game................24.9
22.8 Opposition Assists Per Game.....23.6
15.4 Turnovers Per Game..............16.6
17.4 Opposition Turnovers Per Game...17.6
1.3 Assist/Turnover Ratio............ 1.5
21.8 Fouls Per Game................. 22.0
22.3 Opposition Fouls Per Game.......24.0

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.

BULLS INJURY REPORT:

OUT: Luol Deng (lower back pain)

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 AM 1600, with Jerry Schemmel doing the play-by-play and Jason Kosmicki hosting the studio courtside.

KEY MATCHUPS:

SG Ben Gordon vs. Yakhouba Diawara & J.R. Smith All 3 of these players are erratic scorers, but Smith and especially Diawara might not score much at all. The Bulls need Gordon to score at least 25 to have a good chance in this game. But Smith and especially Diawara have been defending well lately.

SF Adrian Griffin vs. Carmelo Anthony Anthony is overdue for a double double with over 30 points scored, and this is the perfect opportunity for one. It would take a miracle for Griffin to be able to keep up with Anthony defensively, and to get significant scoring of his own.

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.

Give Camby help on the boards. Melo, Diawara, Najera, and Kleiza have got to give Camby more help than he has been getting on the boards, with Nene out and Kenyon Martin still not 100%. Don't let Camby be the only guy who can stop the Bulls from getting alot of 2nd chance scores.

Go after plenty of 3-point shots. Why not? The Bulls are bad at defending the three, and the Nuggets are trying to develop into being a real 3-point shooting team before our eyes. Keep it going.

BULL'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.

Run the offense into the paint as much as possible. The only way anyone besides the Celtics have beaten the Nuggets so far is by attacking inside and getting alot of offensive rebounds and second chance scores. With Nene out, with Melo still relatively lazy in terms of going after defensive rebounds, and with Kenyon Martin not at 100%, the Bulls have a chance to stay in the game by running their offense inside all night. The Bulls They might also get Diawara or even Camby into foul trouble if they do this.

Get alot of steals. The Nuggets can get sloppy, and getting alot of steals is another one of the few ways that the Bulls can stay in this game.

OVERALL PREDICTIONS

For the rest of the season, the Nuggets will look back on this 4 game home stand and realize that it was, by far, the easiest part of their schedule. So the trick is to sweep these relatively easy 4 games by winning this one, so that they have "an extra one in the bank" to cash in when they lose a game at the buzzer in the future, or when they get cheated by a referee. In other words, the Nuggets need to continue to do what they were unable to do last year, which is take care of business at home.

The Bulls are not playing on back to back nights, but they are just about the worst offensive team in the League, and they have now resorted in desperation to making major shifts in their starting lineup and substitutions. Their best offensive player, Luol Deng, will be out with a lower back problem for this game. The Bulls have to plug in a poor-shooting reserve, GF Adrian Griffin, at Deng's small forward position. And, desperate for scoring, including 3-point scoring, the Bulls are starting Andres Nocioni at PF instead of Tyrus Thomas.

So this is yet another game that the Nugget's most likely can not lose unless they blow it.

DON'T TICK ME OFF MORE THAN USUAL GK

You've been ticking me off much less than usual, GK, so I won't even give a warning here. But, I'm warning you, I'll start giving warnings again if you mess up. (Did that count as a warning?)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Videos: Nuggets 115 Knicks 83

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





MELO NO LOOK PASS TO KENYON MARTIN FOR THE DUNK

The Nuggets Rout the Knicks 115-83, and a River is Crossed in the Quest for the Ring

The Nuggets led from start to finish and easily routed the New York Knicks in Denver 115-83. The Knicks were playing on back to back nights, while the Nuggets were playing after two nights off. PF Zach Randolph returned quickly after his Grandmother’s funeral and led the Knicks with 11 rebounds and 16 points on 8/23 shooting. PF David Lee also had 11 rebounds, and scored 9 points on 4/6 shooting. Black sheep PG Stephon Marbury played just 16 minutes but made 5 assists, and the Knicks overall had 20 assists while the Nuggets exploded for 32. None of the Knick guards were able to get anything going offensively; Jamal Crawford was the biggest disappointment.

Overall, the Knicks shot just .381 while the Nuggets were an impressive .489. The Knicks were a modest 4/13 from 3-point land. The Nuggets, following a bad outing from long range against Portland, resumed their very good long range shooting by making 11 of 26 threes or .423. Carmelo Anthony was 2/2, J.R. Smith was 3/6, and Diawara was 2/3 from beyond the arc to lead the Nuggets in this crucial category.

The Knicks had 8 steals, accounting for almost all of the 11 Nugget’s turnovers, which is almost 7 fewer turnovers than the norm for the fast breaking but sometimes sloppy Nuggets. J.R. Smith and Bobby Jones, the two players most likely to be benched in error in the future by George Karl, committed just 0 and 1 turnover, respectively. G Fred Jones had 3 steals for the Knicks, and Kenyon Martin led the Nuggets with 4 steals

Marcus Camby, otherwise known as the “ultimate defender,” made 20 rebounds and 5 boards. Even though Zach Randolph played, the Knicks were unable to get their offensive rebounding machine into a very high gear. They finished with 17 offensive reboiunds, but the Nuggets had 18.

Using the NBA’s comprehensive but nicely simple efficiency stat, the Nuggets were led by Camby +29, Melo +23, Kleiza +18, Iverson +17, and Diawara +15. The Knick’s best players were David Lee +18, and Mardy Collins +13. According to the more complicated comprehensive ESPN rating, the Nuggets were led by Melo 40.7, Camby 38.3, and Iverson 30.7. According to this formula statistic, Melo was slightly better than normal, Camby was better than normal, and Iverson was well below his normal performance level.

I have been covering and reporting on the Nuggets for just a couple years now, and during that time one of the biggest problems I have identified with George Karl’s coaching style and methods is that he is too conservative with respect to giving the best reserves a good chance to contribute in games. He doesn’t give the reserves enough minutes. He continuously has put too many eggs in too few baskets, by over relying on key starters. Whenever even one key starter has a bad game under such a strategy, the game can be transformed from a win to a loss in short order. When two of the starters have poor games, a game can turn into an ugly fiasco quickly.

Unless you have a team like the Phoenix Suns, where every single starter is an all-star or a near all-star, the objective for a good coach should be to get as much contribution from reserves as possible without over using the reserves. It is rare in the NBA for reserves to be over used, so you can generally forget about that possible problem unless you have a truly incompetent coach.

There are two ways I use to determine whether the reserves were used enough in a game. I am going to show you one of the ways here. You start by counting up all the minutes of the starters and all the minutes of the non-starters. The sum of all minutes will be 240, or 5 players x 48 minutes in a game = 240 total player minutes. For a team like the Nuggets, the reserves should play a total of at least 82 minutes of the total time. That’s the lowest reasonable amount. A better minimum, which should produce more wins, is 88 minutes. Here is a chart that will enable you to keep tabs on George Karl as the Nuggets, with any luck, continue to move toward the West finals:

Total Minutes
Played by the
Reserves
Evaluation
<70 minutes.........Totally incompetent; you will lose a lot of games you could have won
70-76 minutes.......Incompetent; you will often lose games you could have won
76-82 minutes.......Very light use of the reserves and an inferior strategy; you will from time to time lose games you could have won
82-88 minutes.......Right on the money conservative use of the reserves.
88-94 minutes.......Right on the money generous use of the reserves.
94-100 minutes......Very heavy use of the reserves, and will generally be an inferior strategy resulting in losing some games that should have been won.
100-106 minutes.....Incompetent; you will often lose games you could have won
>106 minutes........Totally incompetent; you will lose a lot of games you could have won.

To sum this chart up, the reserves should be played for between 82 and 94 minutes a game, for the best chance of victory. Remember, this chart is custom made for the Nuggets. Teams such as the Suns and the Hornets, who have great starters at every position and poor reserves, would have a smaller number of minutes for reserves than the ones shown here.

Nuggets fans may be scratching their heads right now as to how the Nuggets lost to the Knicks on November 6 by the score of 119-112, and then routed them on November 17 115-83. While by no means the only reason, a big reason for the earlier loss to the inferior Knicks is that Karl gave the reserves a total of only 62 minutes, which is not even close to being competitive. Iverson was out there wearing out for 45 minutes. Melo played almost 40. Linas Kleiza played about 32 minutes and didn't do much except score 18 points. Camby played 35 minutes and Nene, who was somewhat out of condition, played 26 minutes. Diawara was cheated with only 9 minutes and J.R. Smith was given the short shrift with 23 minutes. Najera, at 30 minutes, was the only other player who played, so there were only a total of 8 players who played, 1 of which played an insignificant 9 minutes. This was a recipe for wearing out your starters and blowing the game to the Knicks. Melo having an off night and Diawara being a total non-factor offensively was all it took to turn the probable win into a certain loss.

The Knicks have terrible reserves, but they still got more playing time than the Nugget’s reserves did in that game: 66 minutes. So now you know the biggest reason why the Nugget’s blew double digit leads and got beat by a much less skilled team on November 7.

In the playoffs, not having your reserves ready to play and/or not giving them enough playing time will kill you even more quickly than doing that in the regular season. The Nuggets and the Spurs last Spring were total opposites with regard to how dependent they were on their starters. The Nuggets were mostly dependent on 5 players and almost totally dependent on 7 players, while the Spurs had a full 9 players they could rely on during the series. For any given game, the Spurs had many more possible combinations of good player performances that would give them a win than did the Nuggets.

Now fast forward to November 17, 2007, to the Pepsi Center in Denver CO. George Karl seemingly had some kind of a stroke, or an epiphany, or a brainstorm, or a panic attack, or something, after the Celtics disaster of November 7, because he hasn’t been coaching like George Karl since then. Last night’s Knicks game was the fifth game in a row where Karl has used the reserves enough and has scaled back the starter minutes so that the starters are not more tired than they should be, especially in the 4th quarter.

Remember all those blown games in the 4th quarter last year? Now you know the biggest reason they happened.

So, helped immensely by Karl’s huge change of policy, the Nuggets have won 5 games straight, with 4 of those games being the kind of start to finish dominations that teams like the Spurs and the Suns do commonly but never the Nuggets until now. Until these 5 games, it was never a safe bet to predict that the Nuggets would win a game, even against a lousy team. But with the reserves being used adequately, with Camby, Iverson, and Melo playing like all-stars, with Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith, Najera, and Linas Kleiza all solidly contributing, and with, to everyone’s shock and amazement, both Yakhouba Diawara and Bobby Jones being given substantial minutes in the same games and contributing substantially in the same games, the Nuggets suddenly look like a normal high powered Western team, the kind of team they take for granted in Texas but has never existed in the NBA in Colorado.

So now the question that looms over all Nuggets fans as we proceed from the introduction to the season to the first chapter of it, so to speak, is: "how long will all this last"? How long will Diawara keep hitting some shots in most games? How long will Camby and Iverson keep playing at career highs? How long before another injury? And perhaps most importantly, how long before Karl has another panic attack and shifts back to his old pattern of over relying on his starters and his favorites, and keeping anyone who makes him nervous tied down on the bench. As a specific example, Bobby Jones has been getting more playing time than anyone would have thought this early in the season. Close watchers of the Nuggets are nervous as hell that this could come to a crashing halt if the fast moving and aggressively playing forward were to make just one more mistake than Karl’s fragile psyche could tolerate, so that then he would be mostly or completely benched, and we would be back to playing with one hand tied behind our backs again.

The fact that the Nuggets have won 5 straight with a soft schedule means little. But the fact that they led from start to finish in 4 of those games means everything. All I could do during this five game winning streak was to look on in amazement, with my mouth and eyes wide open, and with my brain repeating in the background over and over again: “I see it, but I don’t believe it.”

The Nuggets have now, at least temporarily, overcome one of the big obstacles that was standing between them and success in their Quest for the Ring. They have crossed one of the rivers, but there are more rivers ahead, and some of them have rapids.

Mike Wilks played 13 minutes and was 0/1 for 0 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Eduardo Najera played 27 minutes and was 2/7, 0/1 on 3’s, and 2/3 from the line for 6 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and 2 assists. Linas Kleiza played 23 minutes and was 7/13, 2/7 on 3’s, and 2/3 form the line for 18 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. Yakhouba Diawara played 24 minutes and was 4/6 and 2/3 on 3’s for 10 points, and he had 3 assists, 3 rebounds, a block, and a steal.

Bobby Jones played 19 minutes and was 2/7, 0/2 on 3’s, and 2/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

J.R. Smith played 22 minutes and was 3/8, 3/6 on 3’s, and 3/4 from the line for 12 points, and he had 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds.

Kenyon Martin played 19 minutes and was 3/4 and 0/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 4 steals, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 assist.

Camby played 29 minutes and was 3/9, 0/1 on 3’s, and 0/2 from the line for 6 points, and he had 20 rebounds, 5 blocks, 6 assists, and a steal.

Iverson played 35 minutes and was 7/13, 1/3 on 3’s, and 8/9 from the line for 23 points, and he had 4 assists and 1 rebound.

Carmelo Anthony played 30 minutes and was 11/18, 2/2 on 3’s, and 0/4 from the line for 24 points, and he had 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. So Melo made two of two threes but missed all 4 free throws!

The next game will be Tuesday, November 20 in Denver to play the Bulls at 7 pm mountain time. Neither team will be playing on back to back nights.

SEARCH QFTR, THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 MILLION WORDS

Here are some quick links that you can use to find a place where you might post a link to any QFTR Report or to QFTR in general....


Share/Bookmark

AND HERE ARE MORE; HOVER YOUR MOUSE HERE TO EXPAND THIS MENU:

QUEST FOR THE RING (QFTR) IS FREE AND IS PRODUCED REGARDLESS OF TRAFFIC BUT IF WE GET A LITTLE MORE TRAFFIC WE WILL INCREASE PRODUCTION TIME FOR IT
Although there is a guaranteed minimum rate of Report production regardless of traffic, IT IS IN YOUR POWER to help increase the number of and frequency of QFTR Reports (or to in other words increase the number of production hours that go into producing QFTR).

All Quest Internet sites including QFTR are developed and produced according to both superseding criteria and site traffic. Beginning in 2011 QFTR is the only Site that Quest Internet has a guaranteed production level for, meaning that QFTR is NOT in competition with other Sites for scarce production time. (In other words, other projects are treated like garbage compared to the treatment that QFTR gets.)

QFTR has a production base that is completely independent of traffic. On top of that there is a standing offer that production will increase if traffic increases above a certain level.

Unfortunately, a disturbingly large percentage of existing QFTR production time is used up by tasks that are best described as maintenance, infrastructure, research, and / or development in nature. These tasks are the kind of drudge work which on the one hand is absolutely necessary to produce one of the World's most important and highest quality basketball Sites. But on the other hand, there is so much of that work to do that the amount of time left over for actually producing content that visitors can consume is disturbingly limited. But if you link to QFTR and then traffic increases, most of the resulting production increase would go to Report production and very little of the additional work would go into those things you don't directly see when you visit QFTR.

Until recently this standing offer was really just hypothetical because QFTR traffic was not near the threshold beyond which we will increase production. But recently, thanks to Google Search, QFTR traffic is much closer to that threshold, which means that if as few as a handful of people link to QFTR and we get traffic from those links, it will result in more production.

QFTR NEEDS LINKS OTHER THAN GOOGLE SEARCH LINKS
Fortunately, QFTR is indexed by Google Search to a good extent and obviously, Google Search is who you most want to be producing links for you. So we are way ahead of the near zero traffic that most newer, independent, non-celebrity sites that started with zero traffic get. But the law of unintended consequences has struck and much of the traffic we are getting from Google Search is not exactly the traffic we are most looking for. But to be clear, a small percentage of the traffic we are getting from Google Search is exactly what we are looking for and maybe it's just a rule that you have to get a lot of unimportant traffic in order to get the important traffic.

We are getting a lot of traffic to Reports that are older and/or or not the very most important ones on the Site. And we are getting a lot of "hit and run" traffic. Many of the Site visitors QFTR is getting from Google Search are the hit and run type. But like any other site producer, QFTR values returning visitors much more than "hit and run and never come back" visitors.

Most hit and run visitors are not really looking for much to begin with, and then many of them run away so quickly that they don't even get what little they came for even though it was there in front of them. So it would appear that most hit and run visitors are wasting their time. What happens is Google Search leads them to QFTR but not exactly to the page they want. But then the hit and run losers run so fast that they don't put in the 1-5 minutes needed to locate exactly what they want at QFTR. So they leave empty handed. So again, this is the kind of traffic that is better than nothing, and we do count all traffic as traffic, but it is not exactly what we are looking for.

Given the high level and unique nature of QFTR, it is possible that the traffic we are looking for doesn't exist to any significant extent, but we can't know that for sure unless and until more links to QFTR appear in places other than at Google Search. Specifically, right now only a very small number of basketball and sports sites link to QFTR, and we are looking for more of those. Since QFTR is literally a one of a kind site, bridging various content gaps that exist, it is no surprise that we have very few other sites linking to QFTR. We want to do everything possible to change that, and this message is partly what allows us to rest easy from knowing that everything possible was done.

Our traffic wishes are ridiculously modest. The number of and the frequency of Quest Reports would be up to double what they are if traffic was higher. More specifically, if QFTR obtained the traffic we know it deserves, and given the production math discussed above, production would go from the equivalent of roughly four books about basketball a year to five, six or seven books a year. We will increase production within that range in a linear, pro rata way. So for example, if traffic were just a little bit higher than the threshold, we would produce a little more than four books a year.

WE NEED A GRAND TOTAL OF ABOUT 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME
So please take three or four minutes every now and then to recommend QFTR and post links to QFTR on your favorite sports and other sites. There are many contexts in which you can do this. For example, you can wherever possible link to a QFTR Report to back up what you are posting and writing. Or if you have a Site you can link to QFTR in the sidebar (or wherever you link to other Sites).

Here are some quick links that you can use to find a place where you might post a link to any QFTR Report or to QFTR in general....


Share/Bookmark

AND HERE ARE MORE; HOVER YOUR MOUSE HERE TO EXPAND THIS MENU:


AFTER YOU LINK TO QFTR YOU CAN REQUEST ANOTHER REWARD
You can request a link at QFTR to your site. QFTR will on request strongly consider linking to your Site if you link to QFTR. If and when we get links to QFTR and people want QFTR to link back, we will do so in a new sidebar section. We can link to a home page or we can produce links to your latest content.

You may have something else in mind for a reward for linking to QFTR. If so, after linking to QFTR, feel free to e-mail QFTR at thequestforthering1. This is a gmail address, so you use @gmail.com after that address.
BASKETBALL FORUMS THAT ARE OPEN FOR CONTENT FROM ANYONE
Another place you can post links to QFTR Reports is at basketball forums. QFTR started out as a forum poster (and we wish we had the time to post at forums even now.)

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.

FORUMS THAT DO NOT USE TRADITIONAL FORUM TEMPLATES AKA OPEN POSTING SITES
Bleacher Report Open Posting Site
Armchair GM Open Posting Site

FORUMS THAT DO USE TRADITIONAL FORUM TEMPLATES
Inside Hoops NBA Forum
Real GM NBA and Team Forums
Pro Sports Daily NBA Forum
Hoops Hype NBA Forum
Sports Two NBA Forum
NBA Dimensions NBA Forum
NBA Boards NBA Forum
OTR Basketball Forums NBA Forum
Sporting News NBA Forum
KFFL NBA Forum

Notes: There may be a small number of newer forums not on this list (QFTR does not have the time for a full investigation here in 2012). Also, there were other forums when this list was first composed, but they were all very low traffic and low activity ones compared to the ones above. They may have much higher traffic now.

MESSAGE BOARDS AT HUGE COROPORATIONS
In general these are very high traffic but are largely worthless for getting getting quality traffic to sites like QFTR. The Fox NBA board is very low traffic, and the MSNBC NBA board doesn't exist anymore. The CBS Sports NBA Message Board is a layered site; you can NOT post topics nor expect to be considered seriously there until you have spent a few years posting there. We do not recommend CBS Sports. So the only real, fully open NBA forum hosted by a big corporation is the ESPN message board. Be forewarned though that the ESPN board is dominated by very young fans who make very short comments. On the other hand, it is a high traffic site, so we won't stop you from posting a Quest link at ESPN if you want to. (Welcome to the Internet, where the higher the traffic the more shallow the Site, and vice versa).

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?


CONTACT QFTR BY EMAIL WITH THIS ADDRESS
thequestforthering1 @ gmail dot com [Remove the spaces and replace "dot" with an actual (.)

Use this address for anything, including:
--To comment about a single Report
--To comment about more than one Report
--To comment about QFTR as a whole
--To comment about any QFTR feature, resource, or tool
--To comment about the primary or the secondary objectives of QFTR

--To get a question about basketball answered.
--To get a question about QFTR answered.
--To get a question about a QFTR Report answered.
--To get instructions on how to use a feature, resource, or tool found at QFTR

--To request a link exchange, which will probably be accepted if you have a Site related to basketball as long as that Site is not a predominantly hype Site.
--To request a free ad placement; No, you are not seeing things; QFTR will consider requests for a free ad from money making enterprises related to basketball, for example, basketball schools and camps.
--To request authority to use a QFTR Report on another site up to and including extensively quoting the Report. If you are willing to get permission, to not modify the content, to correctly attribute, and if you are willing to exchange site links if requested, then you can extensively quote just about any Quest report you want.

IMPORTANT: MENTION IN THE EMAIL WHETHER YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR COMMENT OR QUESTION APPEAR IN A REPORT
If you mention in the Email that you want to have your comment or question appear in a Report and if QFTR thinks it is interesting, important, and/or useful enough to appear, then your comment or question will appear in a Report (and QFTR will send the link to that Report to you in a return email). If you do not mention whether you want your comment or question to appear, we will probably not have it appear. Remember that if you do mention that you want it to appear, it will appear only if it has one or more of the characteristics mentioned just above. In any case, and this should go without saying, neither your email address nor any other identifying information you may have included in the email will ever appear at QFTR.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS REGARDING EMAILS SENT TO QFTR
The good news is:

--That every email will get a response.
--All of the FREE offers mentioned above are really on the table.
--If you have a good question or something important, interesting and /or useful to contribute, we will definitely present it in a QFTR Report (unless you say you don't want it to appear).

In any event, QFTR will keep your email address 100% private (never to be published or used for anything ever except possibly for an email response from QFTR).

AND THE BAD NEWS IS...
The bad news is that because QFTR has only roughly 1/10 of the time it would like for producing content and getting the background work done, and because we always have at least five things going on and roughly fifty other things we would like to be doing, we do not read or answer emails on a very timely basis. So allow up to 60 days for a response, but roughly 80% of emails should be read and answered within 30 days.



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.

COPYRIGHT 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Copyright © 2006 through 2013 by QFTR. All rights reserved.

THE QUEST FOR THE RING IS COPYRIGHTED. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. Original content is copyrighted. All reports (postings) and certain features are original content and are copyrighted. No original content appearing on either the main home page or on any other page operated by the owner, Basketball Winning, a non-profit organization, may be reproduced without prior approval. All copyright law rights are reserved.

PERMITTED USES
Since we want to increase knowledge about this website, we are likely to grant certain reproduction rights upon written request, provided that you agree to give attribution and to exchange links. If you operate a website and want some of our content for your site, simply get approval and instructions by emailing your request to: thequestforthering1. This is a gmail address, so add "@gmail" at the end. Allow up to 100 days for response although we will try to respond more quickly.

No permission is needed for widgets that (using RSS) contain titles of our Reports that link to this Site; permission is needed only when the Reports themselves are to be shown on another Site.

SEARCH THE QFTR--THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 MILLION WORDS
**********END OF QUEST FOR THE RING CONTENT**********

STAT COUNTER IS THE PRIMARY QUEST TRAFFIC COUNTER SINCE IT IS TRULY EXCELLENT

SITE METER: THE BACKUP QUEST TRAFFIC COUNTER

GA GC

Web Analytics

PM AM GS HS

This area is traffic related stuff which is necessary to help build traffic for this site. There are about a billion sites to compete with, you know, and our competitors have a critical head start on us. We will gain on them, count it. blogarama - the blog directoryAdd to Technorati FavoritesAdd to Technorati FavoritesBlog Directory for IL Top Basketball Sites

THE QUEST FOR THE RING FEED


GEOGRAPHY OF QFTR VISITORS

NOTES: The map of visitors resets and starts over about once a week. As with most Internet features, this one is very imperfect. Roughly 67% (2/3) of all QFTR visitors and clients show up on this map. Roughly 1/3 of visitors do not show up. None of the visitors who use the RSS feed and do not actually visit the site show up and also not all of the actual visitors show up.