San Antonio Spurs Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

SAN ANTONIO SPURS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to TIM DUNCAN who lead the Spurs in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to TONY PARKER who produced more than any other player on the Spurs in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
TIM DUNCAN

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
MANU GINOBILI
TONY PARKER

SUPER STARS
None

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
DeJuan Blair

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Antonio McDyess
George Hill
Matt Bonner

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
None

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 7

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Tony Parker

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Tim Duncan

SAN ANTONIO SPURS REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Tim Duncan 1.198
Manu Ginobili 1.068
Tony Parker 1.036
DeJuan Blair 0.825
Antonio McDyess 0.788
George Hill 0.776
Matt Bonner 0.772
Richard Jefferson 0.678
Tiago Splitter 0.655
Gary Neal 0.608

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

Tony Parker 2619.88
Manu Ginobili 2589.92
Tim Duncan 2583.06
Richard Jefferson 1666.24
George Hill 1666.22
DeJuan Blair 1430.89
Matt Bonner 1105.94
Antonio McDyess 1092.79
Gary Neal 1024.90
Tiago Splitter 483.29

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
SAN ANTONIO SPURS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Tony Parker 0.686
Manu Ginobili 0.659
Tim Duncan 0.511
George Hill 0.434
Gary Neal 0.407
Matt Bonner 0.386
DeJuan Blair 0.381
Richard Jefferson 0.333
Antonio McDyess 0.317
Tiago Splitter 0.293

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

SAN ANTONIO SPURS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Tim Duncan 0.687
Antonio McDyess 0.471
DeJuan Blair 0.444
Manu Ginobili 0.409
Matt Bonner 0.386
Tiago Splitter 0.362
Tony Parker 0.350
Richard Jefferson 0.345
George Hill 0.342
Gary Neal 0.201

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

Sacramento Kings Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

SACRAMENTO KINGS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to TYREKE EVANS who lead the Kings in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to BENO UDRIH who produced more than any other player on the Kings in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
None

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Tyreke Evans

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Beno Udrih

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Samuel Dalembert
DeMarcus Cousins
Marcus Thornton

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 5

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Beno Udrih

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Samuel Dalembert

SACRAMENTO KINGS REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Tyreke Evans 0.845
Beno Udrih 0.807
Samuel Dalembert 0.755
DeMarcus Cousins 0.732
Marcus Thornton 0.700
Francisco Garcia 0.698
Jason Thompson 0.669
Luther Head 0.651
Eugene Jeter 0.637
Carl Landry 0.627
Omri Casspi 0.549
Darnell Jackson 0.531
Donte Greene 0.512
Jermaine Taylor 0.448

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

SACRAMENTO KINGS REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

Beno Udrih 2207.52
Tyreke Evans 1780.49
DeMarcus Cousins 1690.38
Samuel Dalembert 1462.90
Jason Thompson 1170.04
Francisco Garcia 966.88
Omri Casspi 934.51
Carl Landry 880.87
Marcus Thornton 720.64
Donte Greene 576.52
Eugene Jeter 546.14
Luther Head 381.33
Darnell Jackson 258.23
Jermaine Taylor 181.70

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
SACRAMENTO KINGS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Beno Udrih 0.532
Marcus Thornton 0.531
Eugene Jeter 0.448
Tyreke Evans 0.430
Luther Head 0.395
Carl Landry 0.376
Francisco Garcia 0.373
Jermaine Taylor 0.355
Darnell Jackson 0.333
Jason Thompson 0.328
DeMarcus Cousins 0.312
Omri Casspi 0.294
Samuel Dalembert 0.288
Donte Greene 0.240

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

SACRAMENTO KINGS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Samuel Dalembert 0.467
DeMarcus Cousins 0.420
Tyreke Evans 0.415
Jason Thompson 0.341
Francisco Garcia 0.325
Beno Udrih 0.276
Donte Greene 0.271
Luther Head 0.256
Omri Casspi 0.255
Carl Landry 0.250
Darnell Jackson 0.198
Eugene Jeter 0.189
Marcus Thornton 0.169
Jermaine Taylor 0.093

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

Portland Trailblazers Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE who lead the Trailblazers in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE who produced more than any other player on the Trailblazers in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE
ANDRE MILLER
GERALD WALLACE
MARCUS CAMBY

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
None

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
None

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Brandon Roy
Rudy Fernandez

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 6

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Andre Miller

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Marcus Camby

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

LaMarcus Aldridge 0.980
Andre Miller 0.977
Gerald Wallace 0.949
Marcus Camby 0.918
Brandon Roy 0.759
Rudy Fernandez 0.730
Wesley Matthews 0.697
Nicolas Batum 0.670
Patty Mills 0.557
Dante Cunningham 0.529
Joel Przybilla 0.484

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

LaMarcus Aldridge 3148.04
Andre Miller 2589.55
Wesley Matthews 1922.54
Nicolas Batum 1688.92
Marcus Camby 1413.75
Rudy Fernandez 1330.11
Brandon Roy 994.70
Gerald Wallace 779.02
Dante Cunningham 586.09
Patty Mills 436.35
Joel Przybilla 215.28

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Andre Miller 0.603
LaMarcus Aldridge 0.543
Patty Mills 0.444
Gerald Wallace 0.425
Brandon Roy 0.420
Wesley Matthews 0.416
Nicolas Batum 0.400
Rudy Fernandez 0.393
Marcus Camby 0.296
Dante Cunningham 0.224
Joel Przybilla 0.118

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Marcus Camby 0.622
Gerald Wallace 0.524
LaMarcus Aldridge 0.437
Andre Miller 0.375
Joel Przybilla 0.366
Brandon Roy 0.339
Rudy Fernandez 0.338
Dante Cunningham 0.305
Wesley Matthews 0.281
Nicolas Batum 0.269
Patty Mills 0.114

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

Phoenix Suns Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

PHOENIX SUNS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to STEVE NASH who lead the Suns in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to STEVE NASH who produced more than any other player on the Suns in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
STEVE NASH

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
MARCIN GORTAT

SUPER STARS
None

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
None

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Jared Dudley

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Mickael Pietrus
Channing Frye
Jason Richardson

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 6

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Steve Nash

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Marcin Gortat

PHOENIX SUNS REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Steve Nash 1.128
Marcin Gortat 1.007
Jared Dudley 0.765
Mickael Pietrus 0.749
Channing Frye 0.713
Jason Richardson 0.708
Grant Hill 0.690
Vince Carter 0.684
Aaron Brooks 0.663
Hakim Warrick 0.616
Goran Dragic 0.578
Hedo Turkoglu 0.559
Robin Lopez 0.549
Josh Childress 0.527

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

PHOENIX SUNS REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

Steve Nash 2817.53
Channing Frye 1810.62
Grant Hill 1663.35
Marcin Gortat 1647.19
Jared Dudley 1637.94
Vince Carter 948.35
Hakim Warrick 872.00
Jason Richardson 563.39
Robin Lopez 544.41
Mickael Pietrus 516.03
Goran Dragic 495.00
Josh Childress 471.30
Hedo Turkoglu 352.04
Aaron Brooks 313.63

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
PHOENIX SUNS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Steve Nash 0.864
Aaron Brooks 0.629
Jason Richardson 0.552
Marcin Gortat 0.438
Grant Hill 0.438
Vince Carter 0.419
Jared Dudley 0.414
Hedo Turkoglu 0.406
Hakim Warrick 0.397
Goran Dragic 0.365
Channing Frye 0.350
Robin Lopez 0.344
Josh Childress 0.310
Mickael Pietrus 0.278

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

PHOENIX SUNS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Marcin Gortat 0.569
Mickael Pietrus 0.471
Channing Frye 0.363
Jared Dudley 0.351
Vince Carter 0.265
Steve Nash 0.264
Grant Hill 0.253
Hakim Warrick 0.218
Josh Childress 0.218
Goran Dragic 0.213
Robin Lopez 0.206
Jason Richardson 0.155
Hedo Turkoglu 0.153
Aaron Brooks 0.034

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

Philadelphia 76'ers Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

PHILADELPHIA 76'ERS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to ANDRE IGUODALA who lead the 76'ers in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to ELTON BRAND who produced more than any other player on the 76'ers in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
ANDRE IGUODALA
ELTON BRAND
THADDEUS YOUNG
LOUIS WILLIAMS

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Marreese Speights
Jrue Holiday

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Tony Battie

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Spencer Hawes

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 8

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Louis Williams

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Tony Battie

PHILADELPHIA 76'ERS REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Andre Iguodala 0.999
Elton Brand 0.943
Thaddeus Young 0.922
Louis Williams 0.919
Marreese Speights 0.885
Jrue Holiday 0.869
Tony Battie 0.771
Spencer Hawes 0.754
Evan Turner 0.689
Jodie Meeks 0.633
Andres Nocioni 0.472

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

PHILADELPHIA 76'ERS REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

Elton Brand 2647.62
Jrue Holiday 2520.50
Andre Iguodala 2466.91
Thaddeus Young 1967.98
Louis Williams 1605.53
Jodie Meeks 1305.17
Spencer Hawes 1295.10
Evan Turner 1237.87
Marreese Speights 649.75
Andres Nocioni 439.36
Tony Battie 290.74

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
PHILADELPHIA 76'ERS OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Louis Williams 0.603
Jrue Holiday 0.522
Andre Iguodala 0.500
Thaddeus Young 0.469
Elton Brand 0.460
Marreese Speights 0.426
Jodie Meeks 0.344
Spencer Hawes 0.321
Evan Turner 0.312
Andres Nocioni 0.273
Tony Battie 0.221

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

PHILADELPHIA 76'ERS DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Tony Battie 0.550
Andre Iguodala 0.499
Elton Brand 0.483
Marreese Speights 0.459
Thaddeus Young 0.452
Spencer Hawes 0.433
Evan Turner 0.377
Jrue Holiday 0.347
Louis Williams 0.316
Jodie Meeks 0.289
Andres Nocioni 0.199

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.

Introducing an Important New Report for all NBA Teams: Apparent Coaching Errors Shown by Discrepancies Between Real Player Ratings and Playing Times / Depth Charts

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) has been pointing out Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl coaching errors for years. One type of error he often makes is to play a player at a position with a lower Real Player Rating (RPR) for more minutes than a player at that same position who has a higher RPR. He has a track record of often doing this with guards (but he generally gets the center and the forward positions correct).

Recently, Raymond Felton at point guard and J.R. Smith at shooting guard both wanted out of Denver and did in fact get out of Denver as a result of realizing that they were being cheated out of playing time. These two realized that players not as good as them, Ty Lawson and Aaron Afflalo respectively, were getting more playing time and a higher depth chart rating. So they got out of town. Felton is now with the Portland Trailblazers and J.R. Smith is playing in China.

As for Carmelo Anthony, he turned down a 65 million dollars contract and left the Nuggets earlier in 2011 as a result of realizing that the Denver Nuggets could never possibly win the Quest for the Ring with George Karl as coach and with the new general manager that they have and with the owner that the Nuggets have (who vouches for Karl and that new manager).

Aside from general incompetence, a coach might choose to make this error (and not think of it as an error) because he is showing favoritism to a player whose personality he likes (or because he is discriminating against a player whose personality he does not like).

In the spring of 2011, QFTR quietly started reporting “apparent coaching errors” in RPR Reports on individual key playoff games. The RPR system and technology was already proven enough as of 2010 to justify pointing these out then, but due to conservatism and caution we held off until 2011. But back in 2010 and prior to that, readers who really know the players and teams involved could often spot coaching errors on their own, though.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE APPARENT COACHING ERRORS?
An apparent coaching error is where you have two players who play the same position, call them A and B, where all three of the following are true:

-Player A has a Real Player Rating (RPR) at least 8% higher than Player B (5% is too demanding of coaches and 10% is not demanding enough)
-But Player B is higher on the depth chart than Player A
-And also, Player B played more minutes per game than did Player A

A large majority but not all apparent coaching errors are actual errors.

By far the most common reason why an apparent error would NOT be an actual error would be where the higher RPR player (Player A) had major injury problems during the season causing him to be shown lower on the depth chart and / or to play fewer minutes per game than one or two other players at the position. In this case it is not an actual coaching error that Player B is higher on the chart and played more minutes per game.

But minor injury problems, which are much more common than major injury problems, generally do not change the depth chart. So if only minor injury problems are involved, the depth chart generally does not change. With minor injuries, playing times will change but often the better player will still play more minutes per game than the lessor player even if he has minor injuries whereas the lessor player is injury free. Overall, where minor injuries are involved, any apparent coaching error is usually (but not always) an actual coaching error.

For identifying the errors a "base depth chart" is needed to start with. A multi-step process is used to produce the most accurate one possible. For each team, the chart that QFTR uses is based first of all on two charts that are generally reliable and that often exactly match each other: the one at ESPN and the one at Wikipedia. QFTR compares these two charts and uses knowledge it has to resolve any discrepancies between them. Discrepancies are unusual; generally, the Wikipedia depth chart exactly matches the ESPN version.

QFTR then further verifies the depth chart by making sure that minutes per game played matches the ranking. (Players ranked higher should have played more minutes per game than players ranked lower.) Note that using minutes per game instead of total minutes corrects for many complications involving injuries and virtually all complications involving trades that were made during the season. Whenever there is a discrepancy between the chart and the minutes per game played, the minutes per game will supersede the depth chart for determining coaching errors.

A KEY ADDITION TO THE RPR REPORT SERIES
Finally the time has come to make these errors public. We are reporting apparent coaching errors in an annual Report that will be part of the overall RPR series of reports. At first we planned to include apparent RPR coaching errors in the 2011 individual Team RPR Reports (which would have required editing about 20 already completed ones) but later we decided to keep them out of those and just have a separate Report where all such errors are reported League-wide. In 2012 (assuming the entire 2011-12 season is not cancelled due to the lockout) we will revisit the issue and decide whether to include the errors in 2012 individual Team Reports or to again just show them in one single League-wide Report.

The first RPR coaching error discovered for 2010-11 was for the Orlando Magic. At power forward, Ryan Anderson was a better player than Brandon Bass, but Bass was higher than Anderson in the depth chart and Bass played for substantially more minutes than did Anderson. So Coach Stan Van Gundy apparently blundered on that. That blunder may have caused Orlando to lose to Atlanta in the first round of the 2011 playoffs.

So sometime in January, February, or March 2012 QFTR will in one Report summarize all apparent coaching errors for 2010-11.

Orlando Magic Final Real Player Ratings 2010-11

EDITORIAL NOTE: Quest for the Ring (QFTR) is coming back to life after the 2011 temporary shutdown (which lasted roughly four months; but note that we made a tiny number of posts during those months so technically it was not a total shutdown). Once again your QFTR producer has recovered all losses and put down all threats of additional losses due to major problems thrown in our path by various incompetent and criminal organizations and people (problems, by the way, that very few others have thrown their way although, on the other hand, others have problems thrown their way that we don't have, so I don't want to come off as a whiner here.) I DO want to sound like someone who insists on holding on to every win I have coming, which obviously helps to qualify me to write the Internet project which explains how to maximize basketball wins. I simply will not accept losses that are supposed to be wins.

Basketball players and coaches are subject to losing playoff games and playoff series that they should have won. For example, in the 2011 playoffs, Thunder Point Guard Russell Westbrook, Thunder Coach Scott Brooks, Bulls Point Guard Derrick Rose, and Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau all lost playoff games and series that they should have and could have won; 2011 was actually a big year for playoff losses that should have been wins in the NBA.

During the 2011 temporary shutdown, a whole lot of losses needed to be recovered and a whole lot of incompetents had to be babysat. For example, have you ever changed the diaper of an IRS manager, laugh out loud?

We are roughly 200 hours behind but we have bulldozed down other Internet projects to clear the way for that deficit to be made up during the remainder of 2011 and in 2012. Regardless of how long the lockout lasts, the QFTR production deficit will be gradually eliminated in the coming year. Even if the whole 2011-12 season is cancelled (which we still do NOT think will happen, but on the other hand it can't be ruled out) we have more than enough material to keep QFTR at the top of the game. In fact, if the whole season is cancelled, it will give us time to produce some extremely important stuff in one single year that otherwise would take as much as five years to roll out. Not to mention that if the entire 2011-12 season were completely cancelled we would have time to produce some stuff that would otherwise NEVER be produced.

So once again, as with previous unavoidable shutdowns, QFTR is back, bigger and better than ever. To anyone who thought QFTR would fade away, you got it wrong. To anyone who lost anything due to our being mostly shut down for a few months, sorry for that unavoidable mishap.

In the next few days we will complete the final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings (RPR) by Team Reports. Then we'll go to the various, extremely important League-wide RPR reports. We will eventually get to that promised Report on Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle: "From Moron to Genius" (Laugh out loud, even QFTR won't make that the actual title, much as we might want to).


ORLANDO MAGIC FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to DWIGHT HOWARD who lead the Magic in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to DWIGHT HOWARD who produced more than any other player on the Magic in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
DWIGHT HOWARD

SUPER STARS
RYAN ANDERSON
VINCE CARTER
MARCIN GORTAT

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Brandon Bass
Hedo Turkoglu
Jameer Nelson

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
None

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Jason Richardson

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 8
Note: Vince Carter and Marcin Gortat were traded during the season and were not available for the playoffs.

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Jameer Nelson

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Dwight Howard

ORLANDO MAGIC REAL PLAYER RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Dwight Howard 1.096
Ryan Anderson 0.973
Vince Carter 0.902
Marcin Gortat 0.902
Brandon Bass 0.896
Hedo Turkoglu 0.885
Jameer Nelson 0.879
Jason Richardson 0.731
Mickael Pietrus 0.663
Quentin Richardson 0.645
Gilbert Arenas 0.643
J.J. Redick 0.621
Rashard Lewis 0.597
Chris Duhon 0.500
Earl Clark 0.464

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect Player 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, can possibly start 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Generally should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Should not start except in an emergency 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399

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

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. Many primary contenders to win the Championship will have no player at all playing whose Rating is below .600.

ORLANDO MAGIC REAL PLAYER PRODUCTION
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real basketball production of players
--An estimate of the value of hidden defending production is included in the total production for all players shown

Dwight Howard 3215.54
Jameer Nelson 2039.10
Brandon Bass 1774.80
Hedo Turkoglu 1689.69
Jason Richardson 1403.27
Ryan Anderson 1385.71
J.J. Redick 939.04
Gilbert Arenas 687.67
Quentin Richardson 615.51
Vince Carter 599.21
Rashard Lewis 483.67
Chris Duhon 386.88
Marcin Gortat 357.13
Mickael Pietrus 277.05
Earl Clark 181.89

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
ORLANDO MAGIC OFFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' offense

Jameer Nelson 0.559
Ryan Anderson 0.507
Vince Carter 0.477
Hedo Turkoglu 0.440
Dwight Howard 0.396
Brandon Bass 0.392
J.J. Redick 0.391
Jason Richardson 0.362
Marcin Gortat 0.318
Rashard Lewis 0.280
Gilbert Arenas 0.275
Chris Duhon 0.221
Mickael Pietrus 0.212
Quentin Richardson 0.196
Earl Clark 0.163

THE AVERAGE OFFENSIVE SUB RATING
for all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more is about .385

ORLANDO MAGIC DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS
--Final 2010-11 Regular Season Ratings
--All players who have played 300 minutes or more are included
--Shows the real quality of players' defending
--The hidden defending adjustment, which is necessary for a full evaluation of defense, is included for all players rated

Dwight Howard 0.700
Marcin Gortat 0.584
Brandon Bass 0.504
Ryan Anderson 0.466
Mickael Pietrus 0.451
Quentin Richardson 0.448
Hedo Turkoglu 0.445
Vince Carter 0.425
Jason Richardson 0.369
Gilbert Arenas 0.367
Jameer Nelson 0.321
Rashard Lewis 0.317
Earl Clark 0.301
Chris Duhon 0.279
J.J. Redick 0.230

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 commentary included. The whole idea of formatted reports is to provide a very large amount of important information very efficiently. The carefully planned and long evolved and perfected formatting eliminates the need for time-consuming custom text reporting in contexts where there is really no need for it. But to fully understand a formatted Report you need to be familiar with the User Guide for it.

There are two things you can do to get the full value out of RPR Reports. First, you can read parts or all of the User Guide for them (the link to the Guide is below). Second, you can simply visit a lot and see a lot of Reports and then you will automatically become better at interpreting what you see.

In contrast to formatted reports, QFTR breaks new ground in general and reveals its latest discoveries about basketball in particular in free form (non-formatted) text reports. While formatted posts are "on the reservation", non-formatted text reports are where QFTR "goes off the reservation". Both types of reports are essential; having just one type without the other type would reduce the value of QFTR by MORE than half.

QFTR is considering some kind of labelling system for posts that will allow visitors to even more easily than ever get to content they want or need.

During the regular season beginning in late January (when we can first validly calculate the hidden defending adjustments) QFTR posts Team Real Player Ratings for major contending teams and other selected teams as time permits. Between the end of the regular season and before the Conference Finals begin (in late April and in early May) QFTR posts the final ratings for approximately the ten best teams as of the beginning of the playoffs. If there is a major upset in round one and/or round two by a team whose ratings were not yet posted, QFTR will make sure to post those asap.

These final ratings can be used in team grids that are very important parts of any playoff series preview.

Unfortunately, production time limits that are caused partly by limited traffic mean that only a small number of playoff series previews can be produced. Remember, you can help QFTR get more production time by posting links to QFTR wherever you can, and then QFTR will link back to you on request (click the contact link under the banner).

Game Real Player Ratings Reports are produced for every NBA Championship game, every NBA Conference Final game, and for selected NBA semifinal games. For the semifinals, normally, the most interesting semifinal (round two) series will be selected (out of the four of them) and Real Player Ratings for every game in that series will be posted.

After the playoffs are completely over and the off-season arrives, QFTR has enough time to produce and publish a final annual Real Player Ratings Report for all thirty NBA teams. These annual records of who was really the best and who really did what are scheduled to be posted in late June and in early July. They are posted in alphabetic order by team starting with the Atlanta Hawks and ending with the Washington Wizards. The ones for the top teams that were posted in late April-early May are repeated so there is a complete set in alpha and chronological sequence.

If you ever spend quality time at QFTR you will discover that there are other types of Real Player Rating Reports. Many of these appear in the summer. Among the most important ones that come out in the summer are the League-Wide Real Player Ratings Reports. Also, don't miss the Real Player Ratings Reports by position if you are a serious basketball person.

This section was a limited and brief overview of Real Player Ratings Reports in general. What you need if you want to understand how the Ratings are constructed and why QFTR knows they are the best possible ratings is the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. This User Guide was last revised and updated in May 2010; a new revision is "on order" and is expected to be completed in May or June of 2011. The May 2010 edition is still very useful; the only section of it that is not completely accurate is the one where the specific factors are shown; the factors have been adjusted a little to reflect the latest information and understanding QFTR has about exactly how playoff games are won. There has also been a significant improvement in the calibration and validation of Real Player Ratings components.

So for complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide.