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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.

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

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

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, June 11, 2011

Drowning in a River of Tears, The Denver Nuggets as of Spring 2011, Part Two

Part One of this series is located here.

A TALE OF TWO COACHES: RICK CARLISLE VERSUS GEORGE KARL
In the most recent Real Coach Ratings, the Coach of the Mavericks, Rick Carlisle, was ranked along with Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl as the worst playoffs coach among current coaches in the NBA. Prior to the 2011 playoffs Karl and Carlisle had both lost about ten playoff games that they should have won according to the Quest for the Ring (QFTR) Playoffs Series and Coaches Database. See the User Guide for Real Coach Ratings for documentation on the validity of the Database and of the Real Coach Ratings that use that database.

Due to having extensively covered George Karl and the Nuggets since late 2006, Quest for the Ring (QFTR) knows and has reported most if not all of the mistakes that Karl makes. But what specific mistakes Carlisle made while over the years losing about ten playoff games that he should have won is not yet known by QFTR. In any event, Carlisle has in 2011 stopped making at least some of the mistakes he made in prior years since at least in 2011 he has completely turned his coaching around and is now getting wins that should have been losses.

Due to time constraints we very rarely if ever do an out of season (or unscheduled) calculation so we’ll have to wait until August or September to find out the exact change, but we know already that Rick Carlisle in the 2011 playoffs has very substantially improved his Rating. After all, he defeated Phil Jackson and the Lakers four games to zero, the kind of shocking result that will lead to a big improvement in Carlisle’s rating from just that one series alone. And Carlisle is also going to get a smaller boost from doing better against the Miami Heat than baseline.

Suffice it to say for now that Rick Carlisle has moved well ahead of George Karl so that Karl is now unequivocally the worst playoffs coach currently coaching in the NBA. And the Nuggets are stuck with Karl through 2013-14 if I am correct remembering the news from a few months ago that Karl received a three-year contract extension.

With Carlisle as their coach the Mavericks have played smart both defensively and offensively in the 2011 Championship. The details and the evidence are for another Report, so you’ll have to trust me for now, and I repeat for emphasis, the Mavericks have played smart on both offense and defense. In a sense, the Mavericks have been The Quest for the Rings’ model team in the 2011 playoffs.

But given Carlisle’s dismal track record coming into the 2011 playoffs and given how the Mavericks trailed about half a dozen teams when you looked at the Real Player Ratings, we definitely did not see Carlisle’s and the Mavericks’ better than outstanding 2011 playoffs campaign coming. So this is another reminder that although overall basketball is much more predictable than football it is still fundamentally unpredictable and only a fool or a “rookie writer” will even begin to think that he or she can correctly predict playoff results in advance.

In Game five of the 2011 Championship the Dallas Mavericks made 13 threes and passed the ball around enough to defeat the Miami Heat and take a 3-2 lead in the series. Jason Terry made three of those threes.

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE COLORADO RANCH
It is hard to imagine that a George Karl coached team would ever make thirteen threes in a Championship game (or take a 3-2 lead in a Championship series for that matter). Why? Simply because Karl vastly prefers running all his players including his guards into the paint all night long for offense as opposed to running an offense much heavier on passing, floor spacing, and open jump shooting up to and definitely including shooting threes. In short, Karl is heavily biased in favor of what you might call a “Paint Offense” whereas Rick Carlisle (and many other successful playoff coaches) have most definitely not been anywhere near as insistent on (or obsessed if you prefer) with drives to the hoop. In 2011 Carlisle has been using the much more powerful and flexible “Floor Offense” instead of the Paint Offense.

With Karl preaching the Paint Offense for at least the last three seasons, the Nuggets have become the team that year after year gets to the line for free throws more than any other team. Karl is so insistent on it that heavy Nuggets free throw shooting generally carries over into the playoffs. Nuggets players are threatened with loss of playing time if they make jump shots at typical rates you find on the other teams of the League.

The other major component of the Nuggets’ offense has been the fast break, which has been a staple in Denver going back many, many years (long before Karl’s arrival). The high altitude in Denver allows the Nuggets to maximize the advantage they get from being a “running team” (or fast pace team) but more so in the regular season than in the playoffs.

Unless at least two of the guards and one of the starting guards on a team are truly among the fastest in the NBA, or unless we are talking about games played at high altitudes, fast pace teams do not get a large advantage even in the regular season. Moreover, the fast break offense pays off even less in the playoffs than it does in the regular season (since for one thing in the playoffs no team playing in a high altitude has to play on back to back nights).

But the bigger problem for the Nuggets trying to win playoff series with Karl is that the Paint Offense is doomed to be much less useful and productive in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. The reasons why have been repeatedly given before and are beyond the scope of this Report, but to summarize, you have the best paint defenses in the playoffs and you have ramped up defenses in the playoffs. (You can use any of the custom search boxes to track down previous reports on this fairly important subject.)

In summary, George Karl’s two favorite offensive themes or components are less effective in the regular season than in the playoffs and are generally ineffective in the playoffs. Put another way, Karl and the Nuggets try to twist basketball into being more like football (via the trying to get fouled all the time) and also they try to twist basketball into being more like track and field (via the fast pace). But basketball is neither football nor track and field nor anything other than basketball itself. There is plenty of room for different strategies within basketball, but if you bring in a foreign concept from outside basketball you are never going to be successful winning a lot of playoff games and series.

A TALE OF TWO SHOOTING GUARDS: JASON TERRY AND JR SMITH
For the last several years Jason Terry has been and still is the Mavericks’ best shooting guard (or 2-guard) and J.R. Smith has been and still is the Nuggets’ best shooting guard. Only you might not know that Smith is (and has been ever since he arrived on the team) the Nuggets’ best 2-guard because George Karl has refused to start J.R. Smith and has refused to give him the playing time he deserves for most of the time since Smith came on to the Nuggets.

Smith and Terry have had extremely similar Real Player Ratings over the last three seasons. (They had virtually identical ratings in 2008-09. Then Terry was very slightly better than Smith in 2009-10 but then Smith was very slightly better than Terry in 2010-11). But Smith has played for 6,300 minutes in those three years while Terry has played for about 7,600 minutes in the those years 2008-09 through 2010-11, about a fifth more than Smith.

Terry himself has received less playing time than he really deserves simply because he has started few games in those three years because Carlisle signed on to the strategy (which QFTR disagrees with) of having the best shooting guard on the team come off the bench late in the first quarter (rather than start). None other than Spurs Coach Greg Popovich, who has won the Quest several times, has used that strategy (with Manu Ginobilli not starting but instead coming in late in the first) but again, we do NOT think that is a good idea.

Meanwhile, there is no evidence that Karl subscribes to the “best 2-guard comes off the bench late in the first quarter” strategy. In other words, Karl believes (as QFTR does) that it is better to start your best player at every position including 2-guard. So when Smith has not started much for the Nuggets in all the years 2006-07 through the present it is because Karl does not agree that Smith has been the best 2-guard on the team, or else he secretly does agree but wants to punish Smith for what to Karl is Smith’s bad personality and bad playing style; see below for a little more on this subject.

Getting back to comparing our two shooting guards, J.R. Smith and Jason Terry (the one who has practically won the 2011 Quest for the Ring and may have won it as you read this) if Jason Terry really should have started and should have played for at least 9,000 minutes during the three years then you can quickly calculate that J.R. Smith has been shorted about 2,700 minutes in those three years (9,000 minus 6,300). Conservatively speaking, compared with Jason Terry, J.R. Smith has been shorted by 2,400 minutes in those years, or 800 minutes per year.

But even though Terry generally has not started he has gotten a lot of playing time, so perhaps we need more evidence to prove that Smith has been cheated beyond any shadow of a doubt (and also to get a handle on by just how much he has been shorted). If you broaden this out and look at playing time of all shooting guards sorted by Real Player Rating you find that Smith has, very conservatively speaking, been shorted an average of 400 minutes per year. (The real number is most likely at least 500 minutes per year.) Using 400 minutes, Smith has been shorted rock bottom minimum 2,000 minutes in the five years 2006-11.

In gross total, Smith has played 9,181 minutes for Denver in those five years or 1,836 minutes per year. He should have played rock bottom minimum 2,250 minutes per year during those five years or 11,250 minutes. So again, J.R. Smith has been shorted rock bottom minimum 2,000 minutes in the five years 2006-11.

To be honest, in recent years I thought that shortage was going to pile up to be even worse than it has been, but nevertheless, it’s enough of a shortage to affect Smith’s development adversely and it is enough to justify Smith getting out of Denver. Read the following carefully.

REASON ONE WHY J.R. SMITH NEEDS TO GET OUT OF DENVER
As a rule of thumb, players should try to get to other teams whenever they are shorted by 1,000 minutes or more in any two year period and especially whenever they are shorted by 2,000 minutes or more in any five year period. Whenever the cumulative shortage exceeds 1,000 minutes the player starts to substantially lose actual basketball development and also reputation around the League. These in turn easily lead to a loss of a very substantial amount of salary money in future years.

Smith’s contract with the Nuggets is now expired and so Smith is a free agent. If Smith signed a new contract to remain on the Nuggets for 2011-12, he will almost certainly be shorted another few hundred minutes and so by the end of next season he will be short more than 2,500 minutes, more than 500 minutes MORE than the 2,000 minutes that strongly justifies a player seeking to get to another team. Therefore, it is safe to say that for the playing time reason alone J.R. Smith needs to get out of Denver and get to a team that will play him for the minimum minutes he deserves.

GEORGE KARL’S MISTAKEN VIEWS ON HIS BEST SHOOTING GUARD
Why exactly does Karl short J.R. Smith playing time year after year after year? Let’s summarize briefly. As has been reported here at QFTR extensively before:

--George Karl dislikes J.R. Smith’s personality because Karl vastly overrates the impact of personality on basketball results. Regardless of how “bad” J.R. Smith’s personality is (and Karl has probably overestimated how “bad” it actually is) players with “bad” personalities can and do help win playoff games and Championships all the time, bad personality and all. In fact, if anything, in the playoffs, having a bad personality likely helps a little rather than hurts the chances of winning. At a rock bottom minimum we know here at QFTR that in general (and absent any unusual and significant adverse incidents and circumstances that might actually affect basketball production) a “bad personality” in general does NOT hurt the cause of winning playoff games and Championships.

--George Karl dislikes J.R. Smith’s playing style (which has been modified by Karl as described below) because for one thing Karl thinks that all players including 2-guards should drive into the paint and head for the hoop as often as possible whereas Smith’s classic playing style was almost exactly the opposite extreme to Karl’s strong preference: Smith came into the NBA loving to make threes and this was very, very reasonable because Smith was (and still is for the most part) extremely good at doing this.

JASON TERRY VERSUS J.R SMITH
Here you have in 2011 Jason Terry on track to win The Quest for the Ring whereas a very similar 2-guard by the name of J.R. Smith (and his agent) are trying to escape from the Nuggets and from the clutches of George Karl. The Mavericks are going to pop the champagne even if they fall short of winning the Quest (because just winning the West and winning three games in the Championship is more than enough to celebrate already). Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets’ rose colored glasses wearing fans and organization continue to delude themselves that they can still somehow recreate the miracle of 2009 when they reached the West Final only to be totally decimated on their own home court by the Lakers in their elimination game. They are still deluding themselves and still wearing those rose colored glasses even though most of their superstars are gone and even though they can not even correctly identify who their best 2-guard is and/or they can not refrain from cheating that 2-guard out of playing time and starts.

True, Jason Terry has a much more mature personality than J.R. Smith. True, the majority would agree (and perhaps a large majority) that Jason Terry has a more likable personality than J.R. Smith. But in basketball terms, J.R. Smith is essentially just as good as Jason Terry, or at least he was until he modified his playing style and became a less valuable player!

Actually, the very detailed evidence is that J.R. Smith has modified his style less than it seems, and so therefore his value as a basketball player is not as negatively affected by George Karl as had been feared. Let’s take a look at that while continuing to compare Jason Terry and J.R. Smith….

JASON TERRY VERSUS J.R. SMITH ON THREES PER 36 MINUTES
2006-07 Terry 2.0 of 4.7 > 43.8%
2007-08 Terry 1.9 of 5.1 > 37.5%
2008-09 Terry 2.4 of 6.6 > 36.6%
2009-10 Terry 1.9 of 5.3 > 36.5%
2010-11 Terry 1.8 of 4.9 > 36.2%

2006-07 Smith 3.6 of 9.3 > 39.0%
2007-08 Smith 4.0 of 9.9 > 40.3%
2008-09 Smith 2.9 of 7.3 > 39.7%
2009-10 Smith 2.7 of 8.1 > 33.8%
2010-11 Smith 2.3 of 5.8 > 39.0%

30% on threes is equivalent to 45% on twos and 45% on twos is pretty good for a guard. The majority of guards can not shoot substantially better than 30% on threes and obviously those guards should be discouraged from shooting threes until and unless they can at least exceed 30%. Most of those don’t have to be discouraged since they are smart enough to know that less than 30% on threes and especially less than 28% on threes is not good at all.

Guards who shoot more than 30% on threes should be encouraged to shoot relatively open threes rather than discouraged as George Karl believes. 33.3% on threes is equivalent to 50% on twos and 50% on twos is very outstanding for a guard. 40% on threes is equivalent to 60% on twos which is unheard of for guards. Finding a guard shooting 40% on threes is like striking gold in your back yard. The very last thing you should do if you have a guard shooting close to 40% on threes is try to get him to shoot fewer threes! George Karl did not make a small mistake, but rather a really big mistake when he forced J.R. Smith to cut back on shooting threes.

George Karl disagrees because instead of being pleased and happy with J.R. Smith’s 3-point shooting in the three years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 during which Smith’s 3-point average was almost exactly 40%, Karl was unhappy instead of happy with Smith’s offensive decisions! I kid you not. He was in fact from all evidence very unhappy (in all three of those years including the first one, 2006-07) and spent all three years (and to a lesser extent the last two years trying (and substantially succeeding) to persuade J.R. Smith to ramp down on shooting threes! I kid you not. To be clear and for emphasis, what is clearly a good thing was regarded as a bad thing by George Karl.

Both Terry and Smith have been fully justified shooting every single three they ever shot in the last five years. The argument that Terry should have shot MORE threes than he did is very supportable whereas Karl’s argument that J.R. Smith should have shot fewer threes than he did is not supportable.

Karl disagrees because as you may already be aware, Karl believes that guards should often drive into the paint and try to get fouled. Even Karl is probably not deluded enough to believe that guards can make enough layups and dunks (against much taller forwards and centers who have ultimate paint defense responsibility) to justify a lot of driving into the paint by guards. Instead, Karl (and we think others in the Nuggets’ organization) have become obsessed in recent years with maxing out on getting fouled and getting to the free throw line and trying to win games by making a lot more free throws than the other team.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks this year could hardly care less about getting fouled. While Denver got fouled more than any other team this year (in the regular season) only six teams out of 29 were fouled LESS than the Dallas Mavericks were this year. In other words, Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks said “thanks but no thanks to the idea that getting fouled a lot is a good thing for an offense. Carlisle and the Mavericks are right whereas Karl and the Nuggets are wrong. Carlisle and the Mavericks are one game away from winning the 2011 Quest while the Nuggets are not.

MATHEMATICAL PROOF THAT GEORGE KARL AND THE NUGGETS ARE WRONG AND THAT RICK CARLISLE AND THE MAVERICKS ARE RIGHT
Relatively simple mathematics proves that Karl and the Nuggets have a poor strategy. Let’s take a guard who shoots 36% on threes as an example. (Jason Terry has been almost exactly at 36% for the last three years while J.R. Smith was substantially over 36% in 2008-09 and again in 2010-11 but slightly below 36% in 2009-10.)

The 36% on threes is mathematically equivalent to 54% on twos, which is very, very outstanding for a guard. In fact, it is pretty rare for a guard who shoots only twos to ever exceed 50% on twos.

Now along comes George Karl and the Nuggets who claim that the guard shooting 36% (or even more) on threes should cut back on threes and drive into the paint for layups, dunks, and free throws (realistically the emphasis is on the free throws). Let’s say for argument (and to be honest QFTR does NOT know exactly what the percentage is so once again we’ll use a percentage that is lopsided in favor of the Nuggets’ side of the argument) that the guard successfully gets fouled 30% of the time he drives into the paint. In basketball the overall shooting foul per shot attempt rate is LESS than 20%. Although guards driving into the lane are fouled at a substantially higher rate than the overall rate (which, again, is under 20%) the actual percentage of the time that the guard will get fouled is going to most definitely be at least a little less than 30% so when I use 30% I am giving Karl and the Nuggets’ side of the argument every possible advantage here.)

An extremely good shooting percentage on free throws is 85% and once again I am giving Karl and the Nuggets an advantage in this argument. (I am arguing with one hand tied behind my back laugh out loud.)

Now we can compare a guard playing for a playoff winning coach who fires away on threes with the George Karl guard who drives into the paint a lot more. For both guards we will equally assume that 30% of the shots taken are jumpers from outside the paint but from inside the three-point line (which is a very reasonable estimate if I do say so myself).

GUARD ONE WHO PLAYS FOR GEORGE KARL
30% of his shots are threes
30% of his shots are twos from outside the paint but from inside the 3-point line
40% of his shots are drives into the paint for layups / dunks / foul shots

GUARD TWO WHO PLAYS FOR A COACH WHO WINS PLAYOFF GAMES
50% of his shots are threes
30% of his shots are twos from outside the paint but from inside the 3-point line
20% of his shots are drives into the paint for layups / dunks / foul shots

Let’s calculate the results for 100 shots taken:

SCORING OF GUARD ONE (WHO PLAYS FOR GEORGE KARL)
FOR EACH 100 SHOTS >
--He attempts 30 threes and makes 36% of them or 11 of them for 33 points.
--He attempts 30 twos and makes 48% of them or 14 of them for 28 points.
--He attempts 40 drives into the paint and:
--He makes 10 layups, dunks or short twos (mostly layups) for 20 points; that is, he scores outright 25% of the time.
--He gets fouled on 30% of the drives which would be 40 X 30% = twelve times
--He makes 80% of the free throws from those twelve times getting fouled which would be 24 free throws X 80% = 19.2 points.
--He neither scores nor is fouled (generally against taller, bigger defenders) 18 times (40 drives minus 10 layups minus 12 times fouled = 18 times which is 45% of the drives).

Adding it all up, guard one who plays for George Karl has 33+28+20+19.2 equals 100.2 points.

SCORING OF GUARD TWO (WHO PLAYS FOR THE COACH WHO WINS PLAYOFF SERIES)
FOR EACH 100 SHOTS >
He attempts 50 threes and makes 36% of them or 18 of them for 54 points.
He attempts 30 twos and makes 48% of them or 14 of them for 28 points.
He attempts 20 drives into the paint and:
--He makes 5 layups, dunks or short twos (mostly layups) for 10 points; that is, he scores outright 25% of the time.
--He gets fouled on 30% of the drives which would be 20 X 30% = six times
--He makes 80% of the free throws from those six times getting fouled which would be 12 free throws X 80% = 9.6 points.
--He neither scores nor is fouled (generally against taller, bigger defenders) 9 times (20 drives minus 5 layups minus 6 times fouled = 9 times which is 45% of the drives).

Adding it all up, guard two who plays for the coach who wins playoff games has scored 54 + 28 +10 + 9.6 equals 101.6 points.

REASON TWO WHY J.R. SMITH NEEDS TO GET OUT OF DENVER
In conclusion, the star (or superstar) guard who shoots threes well who plays for George Karl gets 100.2 points per 100 shots taken while the very same guard who plays for a playoff winning coach gets 101.6 points per 100 shots. Every percentage assumption I made was in favor of George Karl’s side of the argument so the actual difference has to be more than what I calculated. The actual difference has to be rock bottom minimum 2 extra points for the guard who does NOT play for George Karl per 100 shot attempts. The real difference is probably in the range of 3 to 3.5 extra points per 100 shot attempts for the guard who does NOT play for George Karl. The difference is even more for guards who make more than 36% of their threes (including J.R. Smith).

That might not seem like much but it actually is enough to change the outcome of regular season and especially playoff games. It's going to be 3 to 3.5 extra points per 100 shot attempts LOST for ANY and ALL players who are great on threes but who get obsessed with driving to the hoop. Basketball teams need every seemingly little advantage they can get in order to win razor close NBA playoff games.

So therefore, we have reason number two that J.R. Smith should get out of Denver and try to find a coach who is not so hostile toward 3-point shooting in general and not so hostile to 2-guards shooting and making threes in particular.

As I have said many times before (sorry for the repetition going to any regular reader) no one is saying that J.R. Smith should not be taught that it is better to mix up his shooting and his offense overall so that defenders don’t know in advance he is going to shoot a three. No one is saying that J.R. Smith should not be discouraged from taking very hotly contested threes, or threes from well outside of the three point line. No one in his right mind would argue against those teachings.

But to teach J.R. Smith that he MUST cut way back on threes is exactly like a surgeon engaging in meatball surgery. Would you want your surgeon to be someone who wants to start removing organs left and right because you have a problem with one of your organs? No, you wouldn’t; you want the surgeon to just concentrate on the organ you have the problem with. But Karl engaged in the basketball version of meatball surgery on J.R. Smith.

EFFECTS OF GEORGE KARL ON J.R. SMITH
As mentioned elsewhere, (and admittedly I am often assuming the worst with respect to effects of George Karl laugh out loud) I was thinking that J.R. Smith’s playing time shortage was going to be even greater than it actually has been. Similarly, I was also worried that J.R. Smith might be permanently and seriously negatively affected to the extent he followed orders from George Karl. Fortunately, although we don’t know for certain what the final results will be, as of now there is relatively little evidence that Smith has been permanently or seriously negatively affected. Instead, it seems that it is more the case that Smith has been temporarily and not very seriously affected.

First let’s set the premise and remind readers of an extremely important reality. In basketball one of the keys to winning playoff games is that teams need players who specialize in and who are among the very best in one of the extremely important skills, with 3-point shooting being one of those extremely important skills. It is obvious that J.R. Smith’s 3-point shooting was so good when he started with the Nuggets in 2006-07 that he qualified to be what you could call a major asset for winning playoff games and series. So the relevant question is: when Smith followed orders from George Karl to cut back on 3-point shooting, to what extent did he lose that status of major (or key) asset for winning playoff games?

J.R. SMITH 3-POINT SHOOTING PER 36 MINUTES PLAYING TIME
2006-07 Smith 3.6 of 9.3 > 39.0%
2007-08 Smith 4.0 of 9.9 > 40.3%
2008-09 Smith 2.9 of 7.3 > 39.7%
2009-10 Smith 2.7 of 8.1 > 33.8%
2010-11 Smith 2.3 of 5.8 > 39.0%

By 2010-11 Smith had cut his 3-point shooting by more than 40% (by 42.5% to be exact) from what it was in 2007-08, a huge cutback, so to say that Smith followed Karl’s orders would be an understatement. He bent over backwards to follow Karl’s orders. But note that Smith was NOT given the starting slot despite following the orders and despite being better than the actual 2-guard starters for the Nuggets for the entire stretch of time from 2006 to the very present moment! This proves that Karl was NEVER going to allow Smith to start regardless of whether he followed orders or not.

Another observation that immediately jumps off the page is that J.R. Smith has made threes at almost a 40% rate for four of the last five years which makes him one of the very best 3-point shooting guards in the NBA which is, again, like finding gold in your back yard.

QFTR was worried that Smith’s 3-point shooting percentage would go down if he bent backwards to follow orders from George Karl. So far, the evidence shows that we were both correct and incorrect to be worried about that. In 2009-10 his 3-point percentage plummeted to 33.8%, still good enough to be good for a guard but far lower than Smith’s demonstrated level from other years. But just when we thought that doomsday had arrived Smith turned the decline around and made 39.0% of threes in 2010-11. This is a fascinating story and seems to indicate that if a player follows bad advice from a coach:

--In the short run there will be negative effects on both the team and on the player
--In the longer run there will be negative effects on the team but not much negative effect on the player.

Of course, we will have to find out in future years what happens. When J.R. Smith gets to a new team to what extent will he increase his 3-point shooting? And what will J.R Smith’s 3-point shooting percentage be on his new team(s) in future years. (I really doubt Smith is going to remain on the Nuggets for 2011-12 given how much he has been cheated by Karl.)

A TALE OF FOUR SHOOTING GUARDS
Check this out, a comparison over the latest three years of three players: J.R. Smith, Jason Terry of the Mavericks, and whoever was the primary starting 2-guard (instead of Smith) for the Nuggets. Dahntay Jones started instead of Smith in 2008-09 and Aaron Afflalo started instead of Smith in 2009-10 and in 2010-11.

2008-09 J.R. Smith Nuggets Real Player Rating .824; Playing Minutes: 2,245
2008-09 Dahntay Jones Nuggets Real Player Rating .445; Playing Minutes: 1,426
2008-09 Jason Terry Mavericks Real Player Rating .827 Playing Minutes: 2,491

2009-10 J.R. Smith Nuggets Real Player Rating .738; Playing Minutes: 2,076
2009-10 Aaron Afflalo Nuggets Real Player Rating .573; Playing Minutes: 2,230
2009-10 Jason Terry Mavericks Real Player Rating .791; Playing Minutes: 2,540

2010-11 J.R. Smith Nuggets Real Player Rating .828; Playing Minutes: 1,968
2010-11 Aaron Afflalo Nuggets Real Player Rating .711; Playing Minutes: 2,324
2010-11 Jason Terry Mavericks Real Player Rating .793; Playing Minutes: 2,564

Some important observations should be made.

Looking at the 2008-09 playing minutes, you can see that the fact that J.R. Smith was better than Dahntay Jones was clear even to George Karl. When Jones started over Smith in 2008-09 it was because Karl had promised himself that he would probably NEVER start Smith regardless of whether Smith followed orders or not and regardless of how much better Smith was than the next 2-guard.

As of now, for two years running (which is an eternity in basketball) J.R. Smith has been better than the two guard given the starting slot AND more playing time by George Karl! You would have to say that the playing time is the injury and the starting slot is the insult. J.R. Smith has received BOTH the injury and the insult for BOTH of the last two years. And there is zero reason to think this would not continue were Smith foolish enough to remain on the Nuggets in 2011-12.

Speaking of insult added to injury; consider that although George Karl’s Aaron Afflalo was much better in 2010-11 than he was in 2009-10, so was J.R. Smith, which allowed Smith to remain comfortably ahead of Afflalo. This only goes to prove I guess that George Karl can’t win even when things break his way.

Another important observation is that in the three years overall, J.R. Smith has been almost exactly as good as Jason Terry. But you can once again see how Jason Terry gets substantially more playing time than Smith despite the fact that Terry does not start on account of that funny strategy (which QFTR disagrees with). As for most recently, ironically, J.R. Smith was BETTER than Jason Terry this year! You know the year, the one where Terry is just about to win The Quest for the Ring as we speak! J.R. Smith was better than THAT Jason Terry in THAT year.

AS OF RIGHT THIS MOMENT
The Dallas Mavericks just buried the Miami Heat with threes in game five of the 2011 NBA Championship; they made 13 of 19 threes! And they were mostly threes made by guards, not forwards and centers! If Nuggets guards tried this (if they so much as attempted a lot of threes) on a George Karl team they would be in a whole heap of trouble. If they made those threes as the Mavs guards did they might be in less trouble, but its impossible for guards to make that many threes when 3-point shooting by guards is discouraged throughout the regular season as it is by Karl.

Jason Terry made 3 out of 5 of them. The other guard named Jason, point guard Jason Kidd, made 3 out of 5 of them. Jose Juan Barea, the much younger point guard, made 4 out of 5 threes. DeShawn Stevenson, the 2-guard who generally starts over Terry (due to that funny strategy) made 1 of 2 of them. Dallas three star guards made 10 of 15 threes and their four guards in total made 11 of 17 threes. And now the Miami Heat are practically eliminated in the 2011 Championship! Laugh out loud, George Karl; Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks have just made you look like an idiot!

To round out the historical record, historical superstar power forward Dirk Nowitzki made 1 of 1 threes in the game and reserve power forward Brian Cardinal made 1 of 1 of them. So the Mavericks forwards were not completely shut out of the long ball competition, laugh out loud.

Meanwhile, J.R. Smith, his agent, and probably a few NBA managers are trying to figure out a way to get Smith out of Denver and to a team that knows what it is doing on offense in general and with 2-guards in particular. I for one and going to be very ticked off if Smith can not escape Denver this year, all the more so considering that Carmelo Anthony successfully made his great escape a few months ago. Again, for emphasis: J.R. Smith, you need to get out of Denver as soon as possible.

And now the theme song for both this series and for the Denver Nuggets as a whole. First we have the lyrics and then the song.

RIVER OF TEARS LYRICS
Singer: Eric Clapton

It's three miles to the river
That would carry me away,
And two miles to the dusty street
That I saw you on today.

It's four miles to my lonely room
Where I will hide my face,
And about half a mile to the downtown bar
That I ran from in disgrace.

Lord, how long have I got to keep on running,
Seven hours, seven days or seven years?
All I know is, since you've been gone
I feel like I'm drowning in a river,

Drowning in a river of tears.
Drowning in a river.
Feel like I'm drowning,
Drowning in a river.

In three more days, I'll leave this town
And disappear without a trace.
A year from now, maybe settle down
Where no one knows my face.

I wish that I could hold you
One more time to ease the pain,
But my time's run out and I got to go,
Got to run away again.

Still I catch myself thinking,
One day I'll find my way back here.
You'll save me from drowning,
Drowning in a river,
Drowning in a river of tears.
Drowning in a river.
Feels like I'm drowning,
Drowning in the river.
Lord, how long must this go on?

Drowning in a river,
Drowning in a river of tears.


DENVER NUGGETS THEME SONG
ERIC CLAPTON: DROWNING IN A RIVER OF TEARS
ALBUM VERSION


DENVER NUGGETS THEME SONG
ERIC CLAPTON: DROWNING IN A RIVER OF TEARS
LIVE JAPAN CONCERT VERSION

Friday, June 10, 2011

Real Player Ratings for the 2011 NBA Championship Game Five, Dallas Mavericks 112 Miami Heat 103

2011 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP MIAMI HEAT VS DALLAS MAVERICKS GAME FIVE REAL PLAYER RATINGS
JUNE 9, 2011
DALLAS, TEXAS
DALLAS MAVERICKS 112 MIAMI HEAT 103
DALLAS LEADS BEST OF SEVEN SERIES 3-2

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 almost 100% certainty.

--If the reason is not known with at least 85% certainty, the reason "unknown" is given.

--Injuries are NEVER 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.

MIAMI HEAT KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Eddie House >>> Played only 3 minutes due to apparent coach error.

DALLAS MAVERICKS KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Caron Butler >>> Did not play due to injury.

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.

Jason Terry, SG 1.340 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 1.294 HEAT
Dwyane Wade, SG 1.193 HEAT
Jose Juan Barea, PG 1.179 MAVERICKS
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 1.178 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 0.903 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.897 MAVERICKS
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.790 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.760 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 0.752 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG 0.619 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 0.450 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 0.267 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.234 MAVERICKS
Brian Cardinal, PF 0.184 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG 0.125 HEAT
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.015 MAVERICKS

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.

Dirk Nowitzki, PF 47.13 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 41.54 HEAT
Dwyane Wade, SG 40.57 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 40.20 MAVERICKS
Jason Kidd, PG 35.90 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 30.66 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 29.75 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 29.65 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 29.34 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 26.08 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 15.31 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 14.24 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 4.27 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 3.27 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG 1.88 HEAT
Brian Cardinal, PF 1.84 MAVERICKS
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.12 MAVERICKS

=============== 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.

Jason Terry, SG 1.051 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 1.015 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.926 HEAT
Dwyane Wade, SG 0.801 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.756 MAVERICKS
Jason Kidd, PG 0.520 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 0.510 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.465 HEAT
LeBron James, SF 0.459 HEAT
Chris Bosh, PF 0.403 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.354 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 0.169 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.169 MAVERICKS
Shawn Marion, SF 0.163 MAVERICKS
Brian Cardinal, PF 0.114 MAVERICKS
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.000 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG -0.037 HEAT

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.

LeBron James, SF 0.444 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.422 MAVERICKS
Tyson Chandler, C 0.406 MAVERICKS
Dwyane Wade, SG 0.392 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.377 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.368 HEAT
Chris Bosh, PF 0.350 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.326 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 0.289 MAVERICKS
Shawn Marion, SF 0.288 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 0.165 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG 0.162 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG 0.108 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 0.098 HEAT
Brian Cardinal, PF 0.071 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.065 MAVERICKS
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.015 MAVERICKS

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 and where there may be no time for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

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.

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.

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.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Real Player Ratings for the 2011 NBA Championship Game Four, Dallas Mavericks 86 Miami Heat 83

2011 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP MIAMI HEAT VS DALLAS MAVERICKS GAME FOUR REAL PLAYER RATINGS
JUNE 7, 2011
DALLAS, TEXAS
DALLAS MAVERICKS 86 MIAMI HEAT 83
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 almost 100% certainty.

--If the reason is not known with at least 85% certainty, the reason "unknown" is given.

--Injuries are NEVER 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.

MIAMI HEAT KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Eddie House >>> Did not play due to apparent coach error.

DALLAS MAVERICKS KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Caron Butler >>> Did not play due to injury.

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.

Dwyane Wade, SG 1.259 HEAT
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.955 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.893 MAVERICKS
Jason Terry, SG 0.744 MAVERICKS
Shawn Marion, SF 0.741 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.716 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 0.693 MAVERICKS
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.692 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 0.675 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 0.652 HEAT
LeBron James, SF 0.568 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.459 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG 0.430 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.260 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG 0.123 HEAT
Brian Cardinal, PF -0.454 MAVERICKS

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.

Dwyane Wade, SG 49.10 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 38.41 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 28.35 HEAT
Mario Chalmers, PG 27.68 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 27.00 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 26.15 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 26.03 MAVERICKS
Shawn Marion, SF 19.26 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 18.62 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 18.25 HEAT
Jose Juan Barea, PG 15.25 MAVERICKS
Jason Kidd, PG 10.16 MAVERICKS
Udonis Haslem, PF 9.64 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG 6.45 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG 1.96 HEAT
Brian Cardinal, PF -3.18 MAVERICKS

=============== 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.

Dwyane Wade, SG 0.874 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 0.537 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 0.510 MAVERICKS
Tyson Chandler, C 0.507 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.492 MAVERICKS
Jason Terry, SG 0.426 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.347 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 0.333 HEAT
Chris Bosh, PF 0.265 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG 0.177 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.176 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 0.150 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG 0.144 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.092 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG -0.154 MAVERICKS
Brian Cardinal, PF -0.465 MAVERICKS

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.

Mario Chalmers, PG 0.607 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.517 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 0.419 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.414 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 0.410 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.386 MAVERICKS
Dwyane Wade, SG 0.385 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.367 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 0.319 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 0.318 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 0.252 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.224 MAVERICKS
Shawn Marion, SF 0.204 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 0.183 MAVERICKS
Brian Cardinal, PF 0.011 MAVERICKS
Mike Bibby, PG -0.021 HEAT

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 and where there may be no time for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

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.

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.

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.

Real Player Ratings for the 2011 NBA Championship Game Three, Miami Heat 88 Dallas Mavericks 86

2011 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP MIAMI HEAT VS DALLAS MAVERICKS GAME THREE REAL PLAYER RATINGS
JUNE 5, 2011
DALLAS, TEXAS
MIAMI HEAT 88 DALLAS MAVERICKS 86
MIAMI LEADS BEST OF SEVEN SERIES 2-1

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 almost 100% certainty.

--If the reason is not known with at least 85% certainty, the reason "unknown" is given.

--Injuries are NEVER 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.

MIAMI HEAT KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Eddie House >>> Did not play due to apparent coach error.

DALLAS MAVERICKS KEY PLAYERS WHO DID NOT PLAY
Caron Butler >>> Did not play due to injury.

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.

Dwyane Wade, SG 1.411 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 1.402 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 0.877 HEAT
Joel Anthony, C 0.809 HEAT
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.800 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.775 MAVERICKS
Tyson Chandler, C 0.713 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.699 MAVERICKS
Jason Terry, SG 0.696 MAVERICKS
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.487 HEAT
Chris Bosh, PF 0.452 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 0.367 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 0.331 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG 0.201 HEAT
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.018 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG -0.150 MAVERICKS

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.

Dirk Nowitzki, PF 58.88 MAVERICKS
Dwyane Wade, SG 55.03 HEAT
LeBron James, SF 39.47 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 28.53 MAVERICKS
Jason Kidd, PG 27.14 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 23.20 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 22.26 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 18.60 HEAT
Chris Bosh, PF 16.73 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 15.78 MAVERICKS
Udonis Haslem, PF 14.12 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 9.79 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 3.97 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG 3.81 HEAT
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.14 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG -2.85 MAVERICKS

=============== 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.

Dwyane Wade, SG 0.947 HEAT
Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.743 MAVERICKS
LeBron James, SF 0.515 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.489 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.470 HEAT
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.432 MAVERICKS
Ian Mahinmi, C 0.357 MAVERICKS
Jason Terry, SG 0.351 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 0.281 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.261 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 0.226 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 0.198 MAVERICKS
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.157 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG -0.020 HEAT
Mike Miller, SG -0.104 HEAT
Jose Juan Barea, PG -0.382 MAVERICKS

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.

Dirk Nowitzki, PF 0.659 MAVERICKS
Joel Anthony, C 0.527 HEAT
Dwyane Wade, SG 0.464 HEAT
Tyson Chandler, C 0.453 MAVERICKS
Mike Miller, SG 0.435 HEAT
LeBron James, SF 0.362 HEAT
Jason Terry, SG 0.345 MAVERICKS
Mario Chalmers, PG 0.330 HEAT
Udonis Haslem, PF 0.330 HEAT
Jason Kidd, PG 0.286 MAVERICKS
DeShawn Stevenson, SG 0.267 MAVERICKS
Jose Juan Barea, PG 0.232 MAVERICKS
Chris Bosh, PF 0.226 HEAT
Mike Bibby, PG 0.221 HEAT
Shawn Marion, SF 0.169 MAVERICKS
Ian Mahinmi, C -0.339 MAVERICKS

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 and where there may be no time for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

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.

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.

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.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Mission and the Primary Objectives of The Quest for the Ring (Updated)

The last time Quest for the Ring (QFTR) posted the very important statement of mission and primary objectives was two years and two weeks ago. This is something that in a perfect world we would post once a year. But with the time limitations we have, posting an updated version of the mission and the primary objectives every two years is a reasonable compromise, and we are happy to have an update in the two years and two weeks!

In this updated version there is a primary mission and a primary objective based on that mission. Then there are ten primary specific objectives all of which are tied to the primary mission and the primary objective.

THE QUEST TO COMPLETELY NAIL DOWN THE POINT GUARD ISSUE
Among the ten primary specific objectives, one stands out as particularly new and interesting, number eight: To teach players (especially point guards) and coaches how to manage and operate the point guard role.

The reason I pulled that out and mentioned it up top here is that I recently realized that one of the most important things QFTR will ever do is determine and explain how great point guards should approach playoff games and series. This year, in the Conference Finals, the Oklahoma Thunder lost to the Dallas Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls lost to the Miami Heat for about the same reason: their offenses broke down for lengthy stretches because their point guards, Russell Westbrook for Oklahoma and Derrick Rose for Chicago, were too young and inexperienced to be able to correctly determine on their own how to nail down key playoff wins. Their coaches failed to completely and accurately instruct them, but in all fairness the subject is too complicated for most coaches to be able to correctly and completely instruct young point guards.

There are establishment writers who claim that NBA Championships are almost always won by whichever team has the best centers and power forwards. They are seriously underestimating the role of veteran point guards in winning Championships.

I saw a short article by one of those establishment writers very recently that irritated the hell out of me. This writer stated that LeBron James smothered Derrick Rose while defending him in the Miami-Chicago East final this year and that Chicago lost all hope of winning because of that. Well, maybe LeBron did "smother" Derric Rose, but that hardly meant Chicago had no hope of winning. So what if LeBron "smothered" Derrick? Derrick Rose should have had a plan B (and a plan C and a plan D for that matter) for what he would do if Miami resorted to putting LeBron James on him. If James is on Rose then there is going to be a Chicago 2-guard, a small forward, or a power forward that enjoys a huge advantage. Rose should have abandoned all hope of scoring a lot himself and should have been ready to get the ball to that teammate badly guarded (and to all his other teammates for that matter). It’s really just tunnel vision to say that LeBron James won it for Miami by smothering Derrick Rose defensively. No, what really happened was that Derrick Rose was not smart or experienced enough to know what to do when Miami made the move of putting LeBron James on Rose. There were options available to Chicago and to Rose that if taken could have led to Chicago winning the series rather than Miami. But Rose and Chicago were not smart enough to take those options.

As you might expect, at one level we are talking about what the breakdown should be between the point guard shooting and the point guard making plays. That’s complicated enough as it is, and more complicated than you probably think, but there are other aspects, and the overall subject is much more extensive and complicated than most people are going to think it is.

QFTR has written extensively before about how point guards should play (and about which types and which specific ones are the best) but we still have not by any means completely covered this subject. So for the rest of 2011 and for most or all of 2012 look for QFTR to concentrate on the point guard issue. Under development and nearing roll-out are new custom designed point guard ratings (as well as broader “offensive quality” ratings.)

We want to reach the point where we can completely and accurately instruct young point guards how to win NBA playoff games regardless of what moves the opposing team makes, particularly of course when the young point guards’ team is actually better than the opposing one. The best of the veteran point guards more or less know instinctively what to do but young point guards generally do not. So unless the young point guard can learn some sophisticated strategy, he is generally going to have to wait a few years before he learns this stuff the hard way and is then eligible to win the Quest.

So the reason why it seems that a lot of Championships are won by the team with the better centers and power forwards is that younger point guards (right up to historical superstar level) don’t have enough experience to be able to instinctively know the smartest way to play in and win key playoff games when the opposing team is using “every trick in the book” to win themselves. If young point guards such as Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook were to learn how to play to beat the tricks thrown at them they could definitely win playoff series whenever their team was overall better than the opponent. QFTR is going to work like hell in the months ahead to nail down the extensive point guard issue more than we ever have up until now.

But for now let’s get to the matter at hand, an updated version of the mission and objectives of The Quest for the Ring.

Before we state the primary mission and the primary objectives it’s interesting and important to see the context in which they developed. The following is a very brief and partial history of Quest for the Ring (QFTR). It is not intended to be anything close to a full history. For that see the User Guide article on the history of QFTR.

A BRIEF AND PARTIAL HISTORY OF QFTR
QFTR was born as of about January 1, 2007 as a Denver Nuggets fan site. The roots of QFTR were in 2006 and production actually started on a forum rather than on a QFTR controlled Site. The deep roots go back years prior to 2006 in the sense that the primary writer had a huge interest in basketball going back some years prior to 2006.

On the other hand, QFTR as an independent Internet entity located at http://www.nuggets1.blogspot.com did not really begin until in the spring of 2007. As a compromise between using either an unrealistically too early or an unrealistically too late date, we think of January 1 2007 as the effective beginning of the QFTR Project.

In 2007, Editorial Plan #1 was basically that reports were done for each Denver Nuggets game. In the first year or so, most articles were centered on particular games, although even back then some of the topics covered while the games were being reviewed were ones that transcend any individual game.

In those very early days, we didn't yet realize that understanding how basketball games are won is even more important to us than it is to most other fans and writers. Today that is obvious that we are more obsessed about winning than seemingly all other writers out there, and more interested in getting to the bottom of exactly how NBA playoff games are won and lost.

In 2007 and into 2008, the game-based reports started out short and became longer and longer. More and more statistical performance measures were added into the mix. The statistical measures and the text reports were all rolled into one, and these reports eventually (in 2008) exceeded 10,000 words in length. These reports are most likely the longest reports based on NBA games ever produced in history!

During the course of the second year, 2008, we gradually decided that Plan #1 was too narrow, that being mostly a rose colored glasses wearing fan of a team was not going to be a productive enough way to spend time long term. So we graduated from that in the summer and fall of 2008.

For about ten months in late 2008 and early 2009, we had an editorial plan, "Plan #2," that was an expanded and modified version of the basic fan site concept. The number of teams covered in detail was doubled to two. We phased out extensive game recapping in favor of more wide ranging team-based reports and in favor of reports even more focused on how games are won than they already were. We started to focus more on how playoff games are won as opposed to mere regular season games.

Plan #2 was considered "state of the art," but nevertheless it turned out it didn't last very long! Plan 2 turned out to be just an interim because it was realized that even more departure from the original concept in Plan 1 was needed. So in May 2009, a huge editorial change was made.

At that time it was realized that resource limitations made it foolish to spend a lot of time on regular season games, especially since QFTR had become focused like a laser on winning the whole thing: the NBA Championship. So we decided to plan to pour a far higher percentage of our production effort into NBA playoff games (including the Championship) and a far lower percentage on regular season games than all other basketball sites do.

FORMATTING AND PERFORMANCE REPORTING
Formatted reports make heavy use of custom designed performance measures that use knowledge about basketball winning, valid statistical theory and data from reliable sources from across the Internet. Formatted reports have a pre-set format and there is little or no 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 formatted / statistical Reports including Real Player Rating ones. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them. Second, you can simply visit QFTR often 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.

As the editorial plan for reports has changed from time to time, the quantity and the quality of the statistical reports have been growing almost month by month. The primary pre-formatted performance measurement reports can and generally do stand well alone (they are no longer attached to text reports). But other, more freelance performance reporting is interwoven into the text articles.

THE ANNUAL PRODUCTION PLAN
As of 2011 there are dozens of types of Reports that QFTR can and does produce. What they are and the schedule for them is shown in the QFTR Annual Production Plan which is on Excel and is continuously updated. A couple of the more recent versions were posted on the User Guide Site and on QFTR itself. The 2010 Production Plan was posted here. The 2011 Production Plan has never been posted and either soon will be or else it will be skipped.

The 2012 and subsequent Production Plans are scheduled to be posted each December on both the QFTR Site and on the User Guide Site.

The Production Plan gives titles of Reports and classifies them by type but does not attempt to explain in any detail what different types of Reports contain. For details about what is in various Reports see the latest version of the "What QFTR Produces" article on the User Guide Site (and potentially on QFTR itself). The version of this in effect right now is here, but be aware that this version is outdated and will be updated soon

Note that the Production Plan is never completely fulfilled but each year it is more completely fulfilled than the year before. In percentage terms as of 2011 the Production Plan is more than half fulfilled which is not as bad as it sounds given how big the Plan is and given that the percentage used to be down around 25% a few years ago. No one has the resources to produce everything he or she would like to including us. We are always pledging to produce things in the future that are put off indefinitely and we often miss target dates for all types of Reports.

Now let's get to the primary purpose of this User Guide....

THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE QUEST FOR THE RING
First and foremost, the mission of this site is to investigate, to determine, to verify results, and then to reveal at the QFTR Site exactly how professional basketball playoff games are won and lost. The specific League covered is the NBA of the USA.

The primary mission exists in pursuit of the primary objective. The primary objective could alternatively be called the ultimate objective because reaching it is a lot more complicated than it may sound and so technically we may never completely (100%) reach the objective.

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE THE QUEST FOR THE RING
The primary objective is stated one way for players, coaches, managers and owners and is stated a little differently with respect to QFTR users and basketball fans.

For players, coaches, managers and owners, the primary objective is to explain to them what they have to DO and even more fundamentally what they have to BE if they want to become NBA playoff game and Championship winners. When you are a loser, basketball is nowhere near as fun and rewarding as it is when you are a winner. And when you lose you make a lot less money. So in other words our mission is really to make teams, players, coaches, managers and owners winners both in basketball terms and financially.

With respect to QFTR users (who are NOT also a player, a coach, a manager, or an owner) and with respect to everyday basketball fans, the primary objective is to make those users and fans smarter than everyone else out there. Since the primary objective of every basketball game and series is to win, fans who know exactly how games are won and lost will be ahead of most other fans in how much they know that is important. The more you read QFTR the more separation you get between how much you known and how much the average fan knows. QFTR is definitely NOT intended for the typical fan who wears rose-colored glasses for a particular team. QFTR heavily criticizes every team it ever discusses because no team and no person associated with any team is perfect or close to it.

For those wearing rose-colored glasses, either you will have to stop wearing them or you will not be able to fully understand, appreciate and enjoy QFTR.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Specific objectives are too numerous to list in full, but here are the ten specific objectives that come to mind as the most important specific objectives:

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE ONE
To determine and report on how basketball games are won, specifically and in general, which is information that can be worth millions or at least thousands of dollars to NBA and other players, coaches, and managers. You can and we do fine tune our understanding of how and why games are won from breaking down each and every game that we report on.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE TWO
To determine and report on what various NBA teams are doing right and wrong and why. The NBA teams are broken down and ranked via the Real Team Ratings. Teams that are closely covered, which include all four of the Conference Final teams each year and some of the other playoff teams, are sliced and diced to the point where every substantial mistake or problem becomes public knowledge. Teams go under the microscope so that we can see in enough detail what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE THREE
To determine and report on how well the NBA players are doing, or more to the point how valuable they are with respect to winning NBA playoff games. This is reported sometimes in words but primarily by using Real Player Ratings.

Critics of statistics seemingly never understand what the most important purpose of statistics really is. (The ones who do understand apparently never mention the most important purpose for fear it would make their anti-statistics position look silly). The most important purpose of all for statistics is not to replace text reporting but to convey large quantities of important information efficiently that could be reported in text but only if far more time and space was used. Critics who say that statistics are inferior to text have literally missed the point: statistics first and foremost are very efficient ways to present information that were it in text would take a huge amount of text and too much time to produce. You could report every statistic in text format but it would be extremely inefficient if you did so.

Real Player Ratings at QFTR is an especially efficient way to convey information about players because they give you one number summaries of:

--How valuable a player is overall (for winning playoff games).
--How much a player has produced (the good minus the bad).
--How good (valuable) a player is on offense.
--How good (valuable) a player is on defense.

It is more than ten times more efficient to report on players using Real Player Ratings than using text reporting. In other words, per hour of investment in using Real Player Ratings, we can produce more than ten times as much information about players than we could by producing text reports about those players.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE FOUR
To determine and report on how well or badly NBA coaches are doing in the regular season and especially in the playoffs.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE FIVE
To determine and report on how well or badly NBA managers are doing managing their roster and in other relevant respects.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE SIX
To determine and report on how well or badly NBA owners are doing with respect to operating their team (at the executive level).

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE SEVEN
To determine and report on why certain organizations such as the Lakers, the Celtics and the Spurs, are so often to be found at or near the top of the standings, in the Conference Finals and in the NBA Championship, whereas other organizations, such as the Nuggets, frequently drop down to become major losing teams, and seldom if ever reach the Conference finals or the Championship. In explaining why and proving the reasons, what we are really doing is giving advice to managers and coaches on how to keep their teams on the long term winning track. This information (assuming of course that it is correct) is worth millions of dollars, and could in theory be worth tens of millions of dollars.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE EIGHT
To teach players (especially point guards) and coaches about how to manage and operate the point guard role. By 2011 the following have become obvious:

(a) The point guard role is the most complicated and tricky thing in basketball.

(b) Only a small minority of the smartest coaches and point guards are smart enough to manage the point guard role (or position if you prefer) in a really good way that makes winning playoff games a lot easier.

(c) Virtually all basketball writers underestimate the importance of point guard and the real reason is that whether or not they know it they do not have the ability (or in a few cases they don’t have the desire) to explain how point guards should play in order to win NBA playoff games.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE NINE
To fill in critical basketball Internet information gaps. For example there was no place on the Internet to find out exactly how many Championship rings players have won (unless you restrict that to just roughly a dozen very famous players) so QFTR produces annual Reports that tell you how many rings have been won by EVERY player who has won one or more of them since 1980.

MAJOR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE TEN
To focus on “basketball economics” in a handful of annual reports. For one thing, this fills another critical basketball information gap existing on the Internet. So another unique thing about QFTR is that we extensively cover financial and economics issues for the NBA and more generally for basketball and for sports. The primary QFTR writer has degrees in economics and accounting and is more than qualified to accurately cover financial and economics aspects.

Note that we cover the financial and economics aspects in such a way that helps the overall objective of explaining how playoff games and Championships are won and lost. We do NOT cover them ONLY to fill the Internet void.

What is the common denominator of all of these ten specific objectives? That is obvious: its how and why players, coaches, managers, owners, and franchises who win in pro basketball do so. And to make fans who read QFTR the smartest fans out there and to make them qualified to become good players, coaches, managers and owners should they want to be one of those in the future.

IN CONCLUSION
The internet is where secrets are revealed, and here we have and will continue to reveal how and why the winners win in basketball.

You may be surprised about what the real factors are. Basketball, like life, is much more complicated than it seems. For example, you are a fool if you think that the truly best players, coaches, or managers always win. Having great players, coaches, and/or managers is necessary but not sufficient. And there is a lot more involved than "how good" the players are or "how hard" the players play.

Also, you are a fool if you think the styles or personalities of players are among the important factors. Many managers and coaches make this mistake while the ones who win more than their share of playoff games do NOT make this mistake.

In order to win the Quest for the Ring, you don't have to be perfect and you don't have to be better than everyone else in everything, but you do have to do certain things very well, with some of those things being unknown to most of the general public and to many players, coaches, and managers.

Aside from doing “certain things” very well, teams also need a player or two or three or four of them to be extremely good at something, to be about the best in basketball. You’re going too far if you think that basketball is ONLY about the team and that whether individual players are the best at something is not really important.

Always remember too, the Quest for the Ring is out to make the unknown known for those who hang with us.

In final summary, at QFTR you will find out the true, verified, real factors that determine pro basketball winning and losing. We will relentlessly study and report on games, teams, players, coaches, managers, and owners. We will continually produce valid and custom performance measures and continually verify them. With each year we get closer to the ultimate objective, which is to discover and report on ALL of the factors that determine exactly how and why NBA playoff games and the NBA Championship are won and lost.

Google can and does drop sites from search results all the time, so don't forget to bookmark the QFTR home page. Or write it on your wall!

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?


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RICKY RUBIO, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES POINT GUARD

RICKY RUBIO, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES POINT GUARD

>>>I WANT TO STICK WITH THE WAY OTHER SITES PRESENT POSTS
Due to the number of, uniqueness of, and importance of the many other home page features we have, only one Report loads at a time, currently the one just above. To see the next Report (which would be the one that came out just before the one above) on this home page, click "Older Posts" that is at the very bottom of the Report showing above, just above the section header "Your Ball: Take Your Best Shot".

>>ALTERNATIVE HOME PAGES
There are three home pages, all of which have all of the Reports but which have completely different features appearing on the sidebar and below the one Report that is shown at a time. These pages have been designed so that they fully load in about 10 seconds (no more super long load times we used to be known for.)

HOME PAGE A: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE B: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE C: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES

>>REPORT READERS: Complete freedom to rapidly choose and read what you need or want to read. The latest 40 Reports are found near the top of all three of the primary home pages (linked to just above) while Reports #41-#100 are found in three separate readers placed at various points down the page on all three primary home pages.

>>EXPRESS VERSION: Every Single Report but no Features: a Fast Loading Page: Click Here



>>FAST BREAK VERSION: The Latest 100 Reports via Report Readers Only; no Features, a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>QUEST ARCHIVE HOME PAGES--REPORT ARCHIVES AND A SMALL NUMBER OF CLASSIC FEATURES THAT WON'T FIT ON OTHER HOME PAGES
QUEST 4: REPORTS 101-200
QUEST 5: REPORTS 201-300
QUEST 6: REPORTS 301-400
QUEST 7: REPORTS 401-500
QUEST 8: REPORTS 501-600
QUEST 9: REPORTS 601-700
QUEST 10: REPORTS 701-800

>>FEATURES ONLY HOME PAGES: NO REPORTS, JUST FEATURES THAT WE CAN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
QUEST OVERTIME
QUEST CLASSIC

>>COMPLETE TITLE INDEX: : A Complete Report Title Index, with Express Version Links to all Reports

>>LATEST 25 Reports: Direct links to the latest 25 Reports (with no truncated titles as you find with the poorly designed Google archive). This is located near the very bottom of this page.

>>GOOGLE ARCHIVE you will find this, with Reports shown by week not very far below.

>>I'M NEW AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO: Welcome to the Real Zone. Simply browse the page and see for yourself what is here. You will not be disappointed.

>>OR YOU CAN DO A CUSTOM GOOGLE SEARCH OF THE 20 BOOKS AND COUNTING CONTAINED ON THIS SITE>>>>>

SEARCH QFTR, THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 MILLION WORDS

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT HOW LONG QUEST FOR THE RING HAS BEEN KEEPING IT REAL >>>

The above shows you in two different ways the exact amount of time since The Quest for the Ring began to completely explain how the Quest is won, while having as much fun as possible at the expense of basketball pretenders and player haters. The first panel shows how long it has been in each of seven units. The second panel shows how long it has been in the more usual "remainder" way.

QUEST FOR THE RING SOMETIMES GOES INTO HIATUS
Regardless of any temporary unavoidable absences, the Quest is in this project to explain in detail for the very long term--indefinitely, for many, many, many years ahead. At this writing we have the equivalent of 15 basketball books under our belt and we plan on doing dozens more. Count on us being right where basketball is at, which is here, actually.

GOOGLE ARCHIVE



QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE: YOU CAN QUICKLY LOCATE AND GET THE SITE INFORMATION YOU NEED OR WANT RIGHT HERE






WELCOME TO THE QUEST--THINGS ARE VERY DIFFERENT HERE

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING, ALSO KNOWN AS THE REAL ZONE
This is one of the most serious basketball sites on the internet, focusing on how and why playoff games and NBA Championships are won and lost. We also love to take comedy and music breaks, but not every day.

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING (QFTR). YOU HAVE LEFT THE HYPE ZONE AND HAVE ARRIVED IN THE REAL ZONE. Please check any rose colored glasses at the door. The Hype Zone that you most likely just came from is where you can find out about the personalities and the styles and how popular they are and what they are up to lately. The QFTR Real Zone is where we DO NOT think personalities and styles and how popular or unpopular they are things to waste time on just for ratings or traffic.

Instead of hype, here we post as much truth about how NBA playoff games and Championships are won as we can 365 days a year and at at any hour of the day or night. Please have a productive visit, and a nice trip back to the Hype Zone when your visit is over.


UNIQUE SITE DESIGN
The Quest is organized in a completely different way from what you are used to on the Internet. We have combined the best features of the blog and the conventional web site formats, the latter being the norm for large organizations. However, since we do not like the idea of using flash to "wow" visitors, we do not use flash except within video and other discrete components. So we are state of the art in terms of expanding the power of visitors to get exactly what they want very quickly, but we do not have the latest flash gadgetry just to "keep up with the Joneses".

More broadly, you will find that Quest for the Ring never seeks to keep up with the Joneses, simply because the Joneses never had the nerve and the intelligence to do what we do.

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

2009: A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION COMES TO QUEST
The QFTR Home Page consists of numerous types of content, organized carefully into clearly labelled sections. Features can be any educational and / or entertaining basketball content you can think of, including everything from music players to videos to photos to breaking NBA news readers to top teams performance breakdown pages.

Quest for the Ring has a world class link system for easy access to many of the Worlds' most important basketball resources. (We don't give a damn that all the outbound links might hurt our placement in search results, because we are not going to cheat visitors just to get more "fly by night" visitors.) But the Quest visitor does not HAVE to hunt for links to have an intelligent and entertaining experience because QFTR is a massive resource in and of itself.

THERE MUST BE FIFTY WAYS TO READ REPORTS [AS PAUL SIMON SANG YEARS AGO, LOL]
Well, maybe not fifty, but there are close to ten ways to find out about, select, and read Quest Reports! The standard, traditional blog presentation is available as one of the many ways to choose, access, and read reports. On the Home Page, only one report loads in the traditional format in order to keep this page as quick loading as possible. See the "Total Freedom of Navigation" section not far below the main Report you have loaded for complete details about how to find, choose, and read reports.

THE QUEST USER GUIDE VERSUS THE MERE ABOUT PAGE
Other sites very often have undeveloped and limited in scope "about pages" which is usually all they have for what we call a "User Guide". The QFTR User Guide is a little blog in itself with several dozen articles explaining aspects of the Site and how you can benefit from them. This approach is a vast improvement, quantitatively and qualitatively, over a mere "about page" While many other sites don't help their visitors to make the best use of the content, we do. Also, the User Guide is chock loaded with invitations to visitors to participate in all kinds of ways, including for example advertising for free, link exchange, and getting a team site supported by Quest. You can access User Guide articles either by visiting the User Guide dedicated page or by locating the list of User Guide articles right on the primary QFTR Home Page.

SEARCH QFTR, THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT 20 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 20 BOOKS / 2.0 MILLION WORDS

RECOMMENDED SCHOOL--CLICK FOR DETAILS


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

QUEST FOR THE RING VIDEOS #2--Specially chosen video juke boxes and individual videos

QUEST FOR THE RING PRIMARY HOME PAGE B--A few key video players are here

LATEST NBA.COM NBA VIDEOS
LATEST YAHOO SPORTS NBA / BASKETBALL VIDEOS
LATEST CBS SPORTSLINE NBA VIDEOS

MOST RECENT LEAGUE WIDE REAL PLAYER RATINGS

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON


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

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

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

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

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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