George Karl Wins in the 2013 Playoffs as Expected and Quest for the Ring (QFTR) Shuts Down
What's up with the title of this Report? George Karl won a playoff series? Huh? What the hell?
No, I am just playing with y'all.
Before any more confusion sets in, let me say right away that the headline of this Report is ironic; it is on purpose half assed backwards. I am being ironic. Actually, George Karl just LOST his one and only 2013 playoff series and QFTR is NOT shutting down, in fact, QFTR is making a massive improvement for 2013-14 (see below for the details).
But up until a few days ago you may have thought that the headline of this Report was going to reflect reality. In other words, you may have thought that QFTR (Quest for the Ring) was going to shut down in 2013 and never be heard from again due to the following reasons:
--Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl was finally in 2013 going to win a playoff series that he was supposed to win (without a lot of trouble). And when he did win that series (against Golden State) what QFTR teaches about basketball was going to be mostly proved to be wrong.
--The power company serving QFTR headquarters no longer supplies reliable electric power (since October, 2009). As a result, QFTR hard drives are being destroyed one by one and QFTR data is periodically being lost.
--The vast majority of Google Blogger blogs shut down sooner or later, within at the most eight years of when they are started. Most Google Blogger blogs simply don't stand the test of time; most of them are just short term little ventures.
--Most basketball fans are dumb asses and so there isn't really much of a market for one of the world's most sophisticated basketball sites (meaning there isn't ever going to be a lot of traffic to QFTR even if Google keeps trying to help to get traffic for the Site).
--The US economic system is imploding and the producer of QFTR has been sucked into all of the bitching on the Internet about that, leaving inadequate time for producing QFTR.
--The producer of QFTR would finally get so upset about not being able to develop and adhere to truly workable production and editorial plans that he would quit in frustration.
Well guess what? If you thought that QFTR was going to shut down for those reasons (and perhaps a handful of other smaller reasons not listed) you were dead wrong. In the real Universe that most people live in, which as you must know is a very imperfect and, assuming you have high standards, a largely failed Universe, you would have been right. In the real Universe, QFTR is "supposed to" shut down, in fact, it should have shut down years ago.
But if you thought that QFTR was going to actually, finally shut down (and it is very understandable if you did) you were dead wrong. Here are the reasons you were wrong ....
QFTR does not really exist in the real Universe. In effect, QFTR exists in an alternate Universe, where the producer of QFTR overcomes the threats and all of the actual losses that come from all of the problems that come up in the real Universe. And QFTR avoids all of the traps existing in the real Universe (or most of them, anyway).
When QFTR says that it gives readers "basketball information that they were not supposed to know" it means that quite literally and in more ways than one. QFTR is a site that according to the normal rules of the real Universe should not exist. QFTR is a site that does not exist in any of the boxes that almost all basketball sites (and more broadly almost all Internet sites) are in. Instead, QFTR is a one of a kind basketball project and Site and it is a one of a kind Internet project and Site.
THANK YOU MARK JACKSON, STEPHEN CURRY, ANDREW BOGUT, JARRETT JACK, AND THE REST OF THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS FOR ELIMINATING GEORGE KARL QUICKLY AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH QFTR TEACHINGS IN 2013
Actually, even before 2013, George Karl had already lost so many playoff series that he was supposed to win that even if Karl in 2013 had finally won a playoff series where he was favored (if the Nuggets had defeated the Golden State Warriors in other words) QFTR most likely would have continued on. But if Karl had finally won in 2013, things would have been very substantially different. If the truth were told, Karl losing to Stephen Curry, Mark Jackson and the Golden State Warriors was very big and very beneficial for the QFTR basketball project. It means that QFTR will continue on strongly and resolutely rather than kind of timidly. The Karl 2013 defeat means that QFTR will be out to kick some ass more than ever in the 2013-2014 season and beyond.
REAL PLAYER RATINGS TO BECOME ALMOST REAL TIME (FINALLY!)
In what is probably the biggest single improvement to QFTR since the project began in 2007, Real Player Ratings are going to become almost live or in other words "in real time" beginning with the 2013-14 season. Yes, finally (and I will be the first to admit that this feature "should have" been available beginning a year or two or three earlier) people will be able to visit QFTR and see the latest Real Player Ratings of all NBA players who have played 300 minutes or more during a season.
Real Player Ratings are the world's best, most sophisticated, and most efficient to use tools for judging exactly how good basketball players are toward the objectives of beating the best teams and winning playoff series.
Up until now, Real Player Ratings have been produced relatively infrequently and efficiently but not efficiently enough. Although the production of the Ratings was far more efficient than it would be if Joe down the street was trying to produce them, the efficiency was less than the highest possible level of efficiency. And in this world, if you attempt to to produce content in any way other than the absolute most efficient way possible, you are going to be wasting a lot of time that you need for many other tasks.
Until now the minimal goal has been to produce Real Player Ratings annually for every player who played at least 300 minutes during the season. The plan was to produce a once a year report for each of the thirty NBA teams.
Even though the plan was very modest and in theory easy to achieve, due to a relentless stream of problems affecting the project (some of them bizarre by the way) QFTR has not been able to achieve even that limited plan. Specifically, QFTR has not even been able to reliably produce annual team real player ratings reports.
But things are about to radically change for the better. Beginning in 2013-14, instead of just producing annual Real Player Ratings for each team (with the very occasional during the season supplement), QFTR will be able to continually publish the latest Ratings for all of the players who have played at least 300 minutes (on all of the teams) not only after the season but also during the season (beginning in January when many players reach 300 minutes). The ratings will be updated once a week, rock bottom minimum, and probably more like every four or five days.
It can not be overstated what an improvement this will be. This will increase the capacity of QFTR to point out coaching errors by a factor of at least ten. And obviously, visitors will be able to easily spot coaching errors themselves.
You might think that there are equivalents to Real Player Ratings elsewhere, so you might be asking yourself: what is the big deal that Real Player Ratings are going to be live? Well actually, aside from the obvious fact that QFTR does far more with player ratings than anyone else, consider these facts:
--Actually, you can count with the fingers of just one or at most two hands the number of basketball projects and sites that even attempt to summarize how good players are with just one or a very few number of accurate and easy to use numbers. A lot of people foolishly think that you can not do this kind of thing, and they are dead wrong.
--It is very hard to actually find the summary ratings at the handful of places that do try to summarize how good players are with just one or a very small number of summary ratings. Most often at other sites, ratings of this type are buried in the depths of the Site and if and when you discover them, you have come upon them sort of by accident.
--Almost all of the very small number of places other than QFTR that produce and publish on their Internet sites summary player ratings do so as a little side project that they don't really put a lot of effort into. In other words, the other summary player ratings are not as good as QFTR Real Player Ratings because much less effort has gone into adjusting them and perfecting them, into validating them, and into making them extremely useful. There is only one known basketball player rating system that is in the same league as and thus in effect competes with the QFTR Real Player Ratings system. This is the Hollinger Player Efficiency Ratings system published at ESPN.
--The QFTR Real Player Ratings are the only ratings in existence that incorporate excellent estimates of the value of defensive plays for which basic statistics can not be and are not kept. Even the Hollinger system mostly or completely (I am not sure which) leaves out the value of defensive plays made by players including for example the value of high quality man to man defending. Another example is taking charges. So QFTR Real Player Ratings include an overlay adjustment for the value of defensive plays made by players, which is called the "Hidden Defense Adjustment".
--It's actually an understatement to say that QFTR does more with player ratings than anyone else. The very disturbing truth is that hardly anyone does much of anything at all with player ratings. For example, hardly anyone uses player ratings to point out coaching errors. Basketball producers seem to assume that all coaches must be competent and know what they are doing, whereas the reality is that a substantial number of coaches are dumb asses.
So there you have it. Now you know why the fact that Real Player Ratings are finally going "live" and almost "real time" beginning with the 2013-14 season is in the basketball world a really big thing.
PHOTOS FROM THE 2013 ELIMINATION OF GEORGE KARL GAME
CAPTIONS FOR THE PICTURES BELOW
(We could not place these captions on the pictures because the Google Blogger editor is horrible with pictures and we are unable to within this lifetime get these captions attached to the pictures. So in order to match the captions to the pictures, you have to count the pictures as you scroll down from picture 1 to picture 15.)
1. Golden State Warriors Coach Mark Jackson directs the elimination of George Karl and the Denver Nuggets on May 2, 2013 in Oakland, California
2. Warriors' Center Andrew Bogut made seven offensive rebounds, fourteen defensive rebounds, twenty-one rebounds in total, four blocks, three assists, and he was 7/10 from the field for 14 points. This was one of the best playoff games that any player had during the 2013 playoffs.
3. Warriors' Point Guard Stephen Curry drives on the Nuggets' 2-guard Andre Iguodala
4. In the elimination of George Karl game, Warriors' Power Forward Draymond Green was two of four on threes and four of eight on twos for 16 points in 24 minutes.
5. In the George Karl elimination game, Warrors' Point Guard Stephen Curry made 8 assists and he was 4 of 8 on threes and he scored 22 points in 42 minutes. By Curry standards, this was not really a very good game, laugh out loud.
6. Golden State Warriors Coach Mark Jackson directs the 2013 elimination of George Karl
7. Warriors' Point Guard Stephen Curry drives on Denver Nuggets Point Guard Ty Lawson
8. With JaVale McGee cheated out of playing time all year by Nuggets Coach George Karl and therefore not correctly prepared for playoff action, Warriors' Center Andrew Bogut was able to dominate up front
9. Warriors' Power Forward Draymond Green celebrates his sharp shooting, his ten rebounds, and what was at the time of this photo a likely but not yet certain Warriors win
10. Warriors' Power Forward Draymond Green celebrates that the Warriors play basketball according to QFTR advice which enabled them to defeat Denver
11. Warriors' Point Guard Jarrett Jack drove and finished the hell out of the ball all series and was generally remarkably big in this series
12. At the risk of stating the obvious, Warriors' Point Guard Stephen Curry was huge in the 2013 George Karl elimination series
13. During the elimination of George Karl game, Mark Jackson correctly and wisely reminded Stephen Curry that he was the best player on the court, and he even more wisely told his team to play as an efficient and slightly organized group, to in other words play "Warriors basketball", which has a remarkable similarity to "QFTR basketball".
14. Warriors defending the basket and the paint during one of the Nuggets' drives to the hoop
15. Golden State Warriors, May 2013 playoff series winners
PHOTOS FROM THE 2013 ELIMINATION OF GEORGE KARL GAME