Real Player Ratings for the 2011 West Semifinal Game Four: Oklahoma Thunder 133 Memphis Grizzlies 123, 3 Overtimes
2011 SEMIFINAL OKLAHOMA THUNDER VS MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES GAME FOUR REAL PLAYER RATINGS
MAY 9 2011
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
OKLAHOMA THUNDER 133 MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 123, 3 OVERTIMES
BEST OF SEVEN SERIES TIED 2-2
KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
--These are the above average players who would have or should have played but did not.
--The reason is shown after the player if and only if it is known with at least 85% certainty.
--Usually the reason is known with 100% certainty.
--If the reason is not known with at least 85% certainty, the reason "unknown" is given.
--Injuries are NOT perfectly reported and information about them is archived nowhere on the Internet. Therefore, it is possible that when Quest for the Ring identifies "coaching error" or "unknown" as the reason, the real reason may have been an injury.
--If the reason "traded" is shown then in many cases a player who was obtained in that trade played instead.
GRIZZLIES Rudy Gay >>> injured
THUNDER All above average players played in this game.
REAL PLAYER RATINGS FOR THIS GAME
--Real Player Rating shows you the real basketball quality of players quickly and accurately.
--Players who played at least 7 minutes in the game are included.
--Each player's hidden defending rating from the regular season is used as the Hidden Defending Adjustment (HDA). Obviously, players in any individual game including this one were not exactly as good defenders as they were on the average during the regular season. But since there is no way to provide HDA for individual games and since it is better to have some reasonable HDA than none at all, we use the season HDA as a reasonable substitute.
--Beginning in 2011 we show just the combined listing; in prior years we separately showed the rank lists by team but this is now considered to be unnecessary.
James Harden, SG 1.079 THUNDER
Marc Gasol, C 1.055 GRIZZLIES
Russell Westbrook, PG 1.042 THUNDER
Zach Randolph, PF 0.985 GRIZZLIES
Kevin Durant, SF 0.938 THUNDER
O.J. Mayo, SG 0.917 GRIZZLIES
Nazr Mohammed, C 0.851 THUNDER
Greivis Vasquez, PG 0.800 GRIZZLIES
Shane Battier, SF 0.690 GRIZZLIES
Nick Collison, PF 0.664 THUNDER
Mike Conley, PG 0.625 GRIZZLIES
Daequan Cook, SG 0.621 THUNDER
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 0.559 THUNDER
Serge Ibaka, PF 0.402 THUNDER
Eric Maynor, PG 0.332 THUNDER
Kendrick Perkins, C 0.256 THUNDER
Tony Allen, SG 0.221 GRIZZLIES
Sam Young, SG 0.178 GRIZZLIES
Darrell Arthur, PF -0.117 GRIZZLIES
SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS FOR A SINGLE GAME
Perfect Player for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.200 and more
Historic Super Star 1.080 1.199
Super Star 0.960 1.079
A Star Player / A well above normal starter 0.860 0.959
Very Good Player / A solid starter 0.780 0.859
Major Role Player / Good enough to start 0.700 0.779
Good Role Player / Often a good 6th man, can possibly start 0.620 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.540 0.619
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.460 0.539
Poor Player / Should never start 0.380 0.459
Very Poor Player 0.300 0.379
Extremely Poor Player 0.299 and less
AVERAGE RATINGS BY POSITION
Not all positions are created equal. In pro basketball, point guard and center are the most important positions, power forward is in the middle, and small forward and shooting guard are the least important. (Some teams will have a different pattern.) The following are good estimates for average ratings by position among all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more. There are very few small forwards and shooting guards who don't fit at other positions who are superstars. Most superstars are players who can play point guard, power forward, or center.
Point Guard .750
Shooting Guard .635
Small Forward .645
Power Forward .715
Center .755
All Positions / All Players (NBA Overall Average) .700
To quickly and fairly compare two players who play different positions, convert their Ratings as follows:
Point Guards: Subtract .050; for example, .700 becomes .650
Shooting Guards: Add .065; for example, .700 becomes .765
Small Forwards: Add .055; for example, .700 becomes .755
Power Forwards: Subtract .015; for example, .700 becomes .685
Centers: Subtract .055; for example, .700 becomes .645
REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION FOR THIS GAME
--Shows the real basketball production (or quantity) of players.
--Players who played at least 7 minutes in the game are included.
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown; as described above hidden defending ratings from the regular season are used.
--Beginning in 2011 we show just the combined listing; in prior years we separately showed the rank lists by team but this is now considered to be unnecessary.
Marc Gasol, C 60.11 GRIZZLIES
Zach Randolph, PF 55.16 GRIZZLIES
Kevin Durant, SF 53.48 THUNDER
Russell Westbrook, PG 53.14 THUNDER
James Harden, SG 52.87 THUNDER
O.J. Mayo, SG 33.92 GRIZZLIES
Shane Battier, SF 26.91 GRIZZLIES
Mike Conley, PG 23.75 GRIZZLIES
Nick Collison, PF 23.24 THUNDER
Greivis Vasquez, PG 21.60 GRIZZLIES
Nazr Mohammed, C 17.02 THUNDER
Daequan Cook, SG 14.90 THUNDER
Kendrick Perkins, C 8.96 THUNDER
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 8.38 THUNDER
Tony Allen, SG 7.28 GRIZZLIES
Serge Ibaka, PF 6.83 THUNDER
Eric Maynor, PG 3.99 THUNDER
Sam Young, SG 2.85 GRIZZLIES
Darrell Arthur, PF -1.05 GRIZZLIES
=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS FOR THIS GAME ===============
OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS FOR THIS GAME
--Shows the real quality of players' offense.
--Players who played at least 7 minutes in the game are included.
--The hidden defending component is not a part of the offensive sub rating.
--Beginning in 2011 we show just the combined listing; in prior years we separately showed the rank lists by team but this is now considered to be unnecessary.
O.J. Mayo, SG 0.787 GRIZZLIES
Russell Westbrook, PG 0.706 THUNDER
James Harden, SG 0.666 THUNDER
Greivis Vasquez, PG 0.570 GRIZZLIES
Zach Randolph, PF 0.547 GRIZZLIES
Marc Gasol, C 0.502 GRIZZLIES
Kevin Durant, SF 0.455 THUNDER
Shane Battier, SF 0.385 GRIZZLIES
Nazr Mohammed, C 0.379 THUNDER
Mike Conley, PG 0.375 GRIZZLIES
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 0.296 THUNDER
Serge Ibaka, PF 0.246 THUNDER
Nick Collison, PF 0.183 THUNDER
Daequan Cook, SG 0.171 THUNDER
Eric Maynor, PG 0.137 THUNDER
Kendrick Perkins, C -0.062 THUNDER
Tony Allen, SG -0.106 GRIZZLIES
Sam Young, SG -0.164 GRIZZLIES
Darrell Arthur, PF -0.343 GRIZZLIES
THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385
DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS FOR THIS GAME
--Shows the real quality of players' defense.
--Players who played at least 7 minutes in the game are included.
--The hidden defending component is included as described above.
--Beginning in 2011 we show just the combined listing; in prior years we separately showed the rank lists by team but this is now considered to be unnecessary.
Marc Gasol, C 0.553 GRIZZLIES
Kevin Durant, SF 0.483 THUNDER
Nick Collison, PF 0.481 THUNDER
Nazr Mohammed, C 0.472 THUNDER
Daequan Cook, SG 0.450 THUNDER
Zach Randolph, PF 0.438 GRIZZLIES
James Harden, SG 0.413 THUNDER
Sam Young, SG 0.343 GRIZZLIES
Russell Westbrook, PG 0.336 THUNDER
Tony Allen, SG 0.327 GRIZZLIES
Kendrick Perkins, C 0.317 THUNDER
Shane Battier, SF 0.305 GRIZZLIES
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 0.262 THUNDER
Mike Conley, PG 0.250 GRIZZLIES
Greivis Vasquez, PG 0.230 GRIZZLIES
Darrell Arthur, PF 0.226 GRIZZLIES
Eric Maynor, PG 0.195 THUNDER
Serge Ibaka, PF 0.156 THUNDER
O.J. Mayo, SG 0.130 GRIZZLIES
THE AVERAGE DEFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .315
The breakdown between hidden and unhidden defending is available on request.
THE ALL IMPORTANT, AWARD WINNING REAL PLAYER RATINGS USER GUIDE
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.
ABOUT REAL PLAYER RATINGS REPORTS
Of the several dozen types of Reports that Quest for the Ring (QFTR) produces, Team Real Player Rating Reports are among the most important. A Real Player Rating Report gives you four very important ratings for every player in the Report:
--Overall Real Player Rating
--Real Player Production
--Offensive Sub Rating
--Defensive Sub Rating
These Reports are formatted reports. Formatted reports have a pre-set format and there is little or no custom commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.
There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.
In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.
QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.
During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.
These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.
Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).
Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.
After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.
If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.
This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.
So 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.