The Quest for the Ring

Laugh Out Loud George Karl!: The Incredible Shrinking George Karl

2012-01-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

Every year something very disturbing happens regarding the Coach of the Denver Nuggets, George Karl. His reputation, or his presence if you will, starts out as massive but then shrinks as the regular season goes along and then shrinks even more so later on as the playoffs progress. The Nuggets, using strategies and tactics that work well in the regular season, especially against poor and mediocre teams, are, sure enough, early in the regular season beating up on most of the poor teams they play and are soundly defeating many of the mediocre teams they play. The regular season strategies and tactics that Karl and the Nuggets use are even good enough to possibly steal an occasional early to mid regular season win against one of the primary contenders!

So in the early weeks of the regular season, Karl is a towering figure, someone who everyone has to bow down and worship. The announcers calling Nuggets games gush out their praise of the "can do no wrong" Karl, "one of the very best NBA coaches" (even though he has never come close to winning a Championship). Fans bow down and worship Karl both at home and during games at the Pepsi Center. So early in the regular season Karl looms large over the Pepsi Center:

MIDDLE OF THE REGULAR SEASON
By the time the middle of the regular season arrives (usually in late January but this season in mid-February due to the late start due to the lock-out) some teams have begun to figure out how to deal with the Nuggets cheap ways of winning regular season games. But many teams (some still in ignorance and some too lazy or inept to adjust) still fall into the traps that the Nuggets have set. In the middle of the regular season, many teams are still not prepared to deal with and to correctly defend the Nuggets obsessions with fast breaking and running plays right into the teeth of paint defenses.

So at mid-season, Karl is still a very large figure and is still worshipped by a big majority of fans and announcers:

LATE REGULAR SEASON
Late in the regular season (for the last 25 games of it in a normal season and for the last 20 games of it this season) a large majority of teams have learned about how the Nuggets strive for cheap regular season wins using cheap tricks that generally involve the Nuggets' exploiting relatively obscure options that exist at the margins of basketball. (Note that we can not possibly go into much detail in a Laugh Out Loud; for the details you have to read some serious QFTR Reports.)

Since by now most teams have received the memo of how the Nuggets get easy and cheap regular season wins, most teams are prepared to put up some resistance when they play the Nuggets late in the regular season. So now George Karl is not so big anymore:

It looks like he is starting to come back to Earth now! Or it's a hell of a diet!

THE PLAYOFFS ARRIVE
In the playoffs teams don't get to play any poor teams anymore because none of them make the playoffs. As for mediocre teams, often the top seed in each Conference gets to play a mediocre team. Now Denver is never the top seed because even if they have the best players, the George Karl regular season strategies and tactics, although they work very well in the regular season, are even in the best of seasons and even if he has the best players are not quite good enough to get the Nuggets into that top seed slot. Typically, the Nuggets end up with between the 3rd seed and the 7th seed and so typically, the Nuggets are playing in the first round of the playoffs a team which is somewhere between slightly above average and well above average (but not among the primary four of five contenders).

When the playoffs come every team gets much more serious and every team ramps up it's defense (especially the paint defense) and on offense every team tries harder to avoid turnovers (that result in fast break scores for the other team). All of a sudden, Karl and the Nuggets' strategies and tactics are worth only a small fraction of what they were worth in the regular season! And so all of a sudden, Karl's stature and reputation and presence have shrunk to the point where Karl is not much larger than the referees or the fans that come to the games!:

Oh dear, how is Karl supposed to get cheap wins now???

BY THE THIRD OR FOURTH GAME OF ROUND ONE, THE NUGGETS ARE FALLING BEHIND IN THE SERIES!
Another very important feature of the NBA playoffs is that they are composed of a lot of series between teams. Each series is a best of seven, meaning whichever team wins four games first wins the series. Coaches get to make adjustments not only during games but in between games. They have at least 45 hours between games with which to come up with strategies and tactics with which to counter the strategies and tactics of their opponent. So unlike in the regular season, a team playing George Karl and the Nuggets in the playoffs has plenty of time and opportunity to make changes to strategies and tactics. More specifically (but remember, we can't here go into a lot of detail) teams come up with ways to slow the game down, to reduce turnovers so as to reduce easy Nuggets fast break scores, and to reduce the Nuggets' production from obsessively driving plays into the paint.

So by the time the third or fourth game of the first round of the playoffs has arrived, George Karl has shrunk to the point where:

--The referees are bigger than he is and they will T-up his ass in a heartbeat!

--Many of the fans are about as big as George Karl is now! The worshipping is over with and now (gasp) some of the fans actually criticize Karl.

--Even Rocky, the Nuggets' mascot, is now bigger than George Karl!:

THE NUGGETS ARE ELIMINATED IN ROUND ONE OF THE PLAYOFFS
In most years, George Karl and the Nuggets are eliminated in the first round of the playoffs (regardless, by the way, of whether they had home court advantage or not). Just after the Nuggets have been eliminated, no one is in the mood to worship George Karl anymore. Although there may be dim memories of how nice the regular season was, no one is pleased with the way the Nuggets were easily handled in their one and only annual playoff series. So now the Incredible Shrinking George Karl has shrunk so extensively that it's actually fairly disturbing:

Oh dear, after the Nuggets have been defeated in Round One, Karl is so small that he is now smaller than the fans. Instead of the fans worshipping Karl, it's time perhaps for Karl to worship the fans! And the referees now tower over the shrunken Karl. And, oh my god, Rocky the mascot had better be careful not to run over George Karl; he's become awful hard to see now!

REACTIONS OF NUGGETS PLAYERS TO THE SHRINKAGE
As for the players, they tower in fear of the Giant George Karl at the beginning of the regular season. They will do whatever he says without hesitation. By late in the regular season, with Karl still big but not anywhere near the giant he once was, the superstars (who think they deserve a ring or two or three) and also the players who are not getting playing time they should be getting are possibly starting to scrap with Karl a little. They might even voice mild criticism when interviewed by a reporter.

During the playoffs, (with Karl now shrunk down to the same size as the players when game one begins, and then he becomes smaller than the players as round one progresses) criticism of Karl by players often escalates. There might possibly be friction during a game. More likely, one or more Nuggets players might break down and voice criticism of George Karl when they are interviewed by the media! (Even if the Denver Post refuses to print the criticism it can leak out since, after all, this is the Internet age and secrets are hard to keep these days.) For a short while after the Nuggets have been eliminated in the first round, the players are still more likely to be openly critical.

However, having said all that, keep in mind that only a small minority of players will ever at any time openly criticize Karl because they do not want to endanger their contract status with the Nuggets in particular and with the NBA in general. In particular and for example, they don't want to endanger getting a raise when it's time for a new contract. If a player openly criticizes a coach it can endanger getting a good future contract from ANY team, not just from the team whose coach he criticized.

The bottom line is that while you do typically finally hear a little criticism of Karl during and after the Nuggets imploding in round one (from fans and perhaps from a player or two or three) it's not really all that much, and then it blows over and is forgotten by most during the off season.

When the next regular season arrives, it's like in that movie where history repeats itself over and over again, "Groundhog Day". Karl is once again a massive, towering figure in the early days and weeks of the regular season that no one except Quest for the Ring, (QFTR) would dare criticize and that almost everyone (except QFTR) feels the need to worship.

To emphasize this amazing annual transformation, here they are side by side, the early regular season Giant George Karl and the Horribly Shrunken George Karl just after the Nuggets have been eliminated in round one of the playoffs.

Oh dear, laugh out loud.

Laugh Out Loud, George Karl! - How Low Will Karl Take the Nuggets in 2012? and The New George Karl Theme Song

2012-01-01T16:46:00.012-05:00

To make a long story short and to simplify as much as possible, the 2011-12 Denver Nuggets are Nuggets' Coach George Karl's team lock stock and barrel. If you don't already know the details about this, click on one or more of the three links to the three Reports found below, especially the first one. The Nuggets' 2011-12 regular season record is really George Karl's record. To some extent, although Karl is a very poor playoffs coach, he is a good regular season coach. But this year, that regular season record is on the line.

We will update the Nuggets' record in this graphic within this Report posting from time to time, and then at the end of the season we will probably show the actual final 2011-12 record of the Nuggets in the graphic in a brand new posting.

BACKGROUND TO THIS GRAPHIC
No, we don't care that the rose colored glasses wearing crowd will not understand or perceive that George Karl is humiliated if in fact he does not win at least 38 games in 2011-12. Nor do we care that the dumb rose colored glasses crowd will not understand that Karl will be humiliated if the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Nuggets in the four head to head games and/or if the Timberwolves finish with a better record than the Nuggets. After all, we would not be producing this site if we thought the average rose colored glasses wearing fan was generally correct about basketball things at the higher levels. In general, writers write things if and only if they have things to say that a lot of people do not understand or know about. I personally very seldom write anything that I think most people already know about.

And no, it matters not whether Karl himself is actually humiliated or not if the Nuggets get close to rock bottom because of his chasing away most of the star players and because of his other mistakes and shortcomings. What matters is whether or not he should be humiliated. And quite honestly what matters a lot is whether QFTR thinks the whole thing is amusing.

Even if the Nuggets finish with a losing record this year Karl most likely won't even be embarrassed or upset let alone humiliated. All he is ultimately is someone who preserves his career at all costs. He ultimately is not going to blame himself if he leads a team and a franchise to ruination. In fact, most high income people in the United States deny responsibility for most of their failures, because for one thing, they need to do that so that they can for sure remain high income people!

So it will be strange to some, but yes, quite honestly, if Karl is in fact supposed to be humiliated in the regular season this year, it will in fact be entertaining to us here at Quest for the Ring. And quite satisfying as well, because for one thing, for once we won't have to wait until the playoffs to see George Karl be proved wrong about things.

Admittedly the graphic above is is not the all-time most funny graphic we have ever done, and it is an especially complicated one. And we know that there will be those who don't think this is funny at all, and we are sorry for that. But this will actually be amusing for those who understand basketball at a high level. For those who don't get why this is a Laugh out Loud, all I have time to say here and now is that you need to know more about basketball, about the Denver Nuggets, and about George Karl to know why this qualifies as a Laugh Out Loud (although one tinged with sadness for the players and fans who have been harmed by Karl over the years).

Just by reading a few very recent reports, you could take about an hour and get a lot of the details about how Karl is taking the Nuggets down the road to ruination (and then you would get the graphic for sure). See especially this Report for the details of what is on the line for Karl in 2011-12. Also, for a quick but good summary of what this Laugh Out Loud is exactly about, see roughly the first third of this Report. Yet more background for this Laugh Out Loud is found in the section called "Timberwolves and Nuggets Things we Want and Need to Have Happen to Make 2012 a Good Year" found in this Report.

Yes, I do know that you can enjoy basketball without knowing a lot of details about how teams and franchises win and lose, but I am the kind of guy who does not enjoy much of anything unless I know more than just about anyone else about the thing I might enjoy.

THE LATEST AND CURRENT GEORGE KARL THEME SONG
We have not updated the George Karl Theme Song in a long time, so we will do a two-fer for this Laugh Out Loud and hopefully get at least one smile even from those who did not understand and/or agree with the graphic. The theme song should have what is known in publishing as a "greater audience reach". Specifically, some of those who don't know enough of the details to be able to get the graphic might get the song....

George Karl has driven away so many star players that the poor guy at this rate will face the same fate that Gilbert O'Sullivan sang about years ago....

Click Here for the Latest George Karl Theme Song

GEORGE KARL THEME SONG LYRICS
In a little while from now
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to
Make it clear to whoever
Wants to know what it's like

When you're shattered
Left standing in the lurch at a church
Were people saying, My God, that's tough
She stood him up
No point in us remaining
We may as well go home
As I did on my own
Alone again, naturally
To think that only yesterday

I was cheerful, bright and gay
Looking forward to who wouldn't do
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down
Reality came around
And without so much as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt
Talk about, God in His mercy

Oh, if he really does exist
Why did he desert me
In my hour of need
I truly am indeed
Alone again, naturally
It seems to me that
there are more hearts
Broken in the world
that can't be mended

Left unattended
What do we do
What do we do
Alone again, naturally
Looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears

And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul
Couldn't understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start
With a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me

No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally

The Power of the Jinx: Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, and the Minnesota Timberwolves Fail to get Credit for a Win for the Second Time in Three Games

2011-12-31T11:09:00.005-05:00

Why is it that I, your Quest for the Ring (QFTR) producer, don’t watch a lot of regular season games? It’s mainly because I have many better ways to spend the production time available for QFTR. Although when I watch a game only one third of the time is counted against production time, even so, I can’t be watching a lot of regular season games because if I do that then I will be even more short of time than I already am for producing what I want and need to produce.

If I watched two games every single night it would virtually cripple production of QFTR Reports.

QFTR operates at a high level which enables us to explain how basketball playoff games and Championships are won and lost whether or not we ever watch games. More specifically, we mostly use many dozens of Internet Sites (using the most important and valuable things on those Sites), dozens of computer programs, dozens of books, thousands of articles, and a few other odd ball things to produce Reports. We make use of records that are on the Internet of thousands and thousands of teams and games to produce Reports. And of course we make use of a high level of accumulated knowledge and intelligence about the game. In order to qualify to write reports about basketball, you do need to watch a few games, but if you want to know the truth, watching games is actually a relatively unproductive way to spend production time.

To the extent I do watch games I watch mainly playoff games. Those “high level” games are the ones QFTR is most concerned with.

But sometimes I get quirky or whatever and can not resist watching some regular season games. Traditionally when I do watch a regular season game it will be a Denver Nuggets game. But now that George Karl has pretty much decimated the Nuggets, times are finally changing, and recently I have been watching Minnesota Timberwolves games than Nuggets games. Already, I’ve now watched two Minnesota Timberwolves regular season games (and part of the third one).

RAYMOND FELTON EXTREMELY OUTSTANDING, TY LAWSON EVEN BETTER, AND GEORGE KARL IN A BITCHY MOOD AS PORTLAND BEATS DENVER
But I did see the Portland Trailblazers defeat the Nuggets in Portland on December 29, and I was happy to see Karl lose, especially since Karl was extremely pissed about it. Karl was in one of his really bitchy moods, probably at least partly because he was worried that Raymond Felton would be better than Ty Lawson in the game. Karl getting all bitchy with the officials by itself made the game worth watching, laugh out loud. But there was far more than that to enjoy in that game.

Portland starting point guard Raymond Felton, who is clearly a superstar point guard, was a Nugget last year, but he demanded to be traded when Karl made the mistakes of considering Ty Lawson to be better than he is and when Karl made Lawson the starter rather than Felton, and when Karl gave Lawson more playing time minutes than he gave Felton. Lawson may be a superstar himself, but Felton is clearly and measurably better, especially when you look at which you would rather have in a playoff game.

The interesting twist in the December 29 Nuggets – Trailblazers game was that even though Denver lost the game, Karl’s point guard Ty Lawson was off the chain and had 8 assists and a Real Player Rating in the historical superstar stratosphere. Felton was also a historical superstar for the game, but had a lower rating than Lawson since he could hardly beat Lawson’s career best type of night.

To make a long story short and to simplify, that game was mostly guards versus guards, and since Karl is especially poor at managing guards, the Trailblazers were able to win the game despite the fact that Lawson had a completely off the chain game featuring 8 steals.

Oh well, I guess a coaching hack like Karl can’t win even when he catches a break; ball don’t lie!

But back to the main subject at hand….

WITH QFTR WATCHING, THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES LOSE ANOTHER GAME THAT REALLY WAS A WIN
After on opening night having defeated one of the very best teams in the League, the Oklahoma Thunder, but not getting credit for the win due mostly to the incredible bad luck of missing almost every single three attempted, the Thunder lost their second straight home game of the young season on the last Friday of 2011 (December 30). Legally, the Miami Heat won the game over the Minnesota Timberwolves 103-101, but realistically, they didn’t really win the game.

This latest Timberwolves loss was due to bad calls made by referees, pure and simple. I don’t have the time to specifically review what the bad calls were (and like most of them this QFTR Report is already a long one). If you don’t believe me, consider that Rick Adelman became so upset with the officiating that he was called for a technical foul (and Adelman getting a technical is rare). And/or consider that Adelman was repeatedly upset with the officials during the game. If you still don’t believe me, visit a Timberwolves forum and read the game thread (or perhaps even a Heat forum for that matter). Or else download and watch the damn game yourself. If you know basketball and watch that game, you will have to agree that there were bad calls going against both teams in that game, but many more went against the Timberwolves, and since Miami won by just two points, the Timberwolves were obviously the victims of bad officiating in this game.

So at one point, Timberwolves Coach Adelman was so upset about bad calls that he got a technical foul for being upset with the officials. Adelman getting a technical foul is a very rare event.

Although overall most basketball games are won by the team that really won, one of the exceptions is games where bad officiating goes more against one team than another, costing that team a game. As a rough estimate, that happens one time in every 200 games.

For the record, in the very first week of the 2011-12 season, the Timberwolves have now defeated two of the very best teams in the NBA, the Oklahoma Thunder and the Miami Heat. Ricky Rubio has indeed arrived.

QFTR MIGHT BE THE PROBLEM
Unfortunately, the QFTR jinx has apparently reared it’s ugly head. This jinx is where if I watch a game the wrong team (which is of course the team I want and expect to win) loses the game. This jinx is yet another reason I should not be watching very many regular season games.

The jinx seems to be much stronger in the regular season than it is in the playoffs. But don’t get me wrong, it seems I do once in a while cost a team a win by watching a game in the playoffs. For example, I may be the one responsible for costing the Boston Celtics the chance to win what would have been a game seven in their 2011 playoff series versus the Miami Heat. That chance was lost when Dywayne Wade intentionally tried to injure Rajon Rondo and, unfortunately, the try to injure Rondo turned into the actual injury to Rondo. Rondo being injured ended any chance that the Celtics could beat the Heat in those 2011 playoffs.

And now I am thinking it may be yours truly who is really responsible for the Timberwolves winning two of their first three 2011-12 games against two of the very best teams, but not getting credit for either won of those wins. I have a long history of watching games that end up controversial to put it nicely and stolen by the wrong team to put it more realistically. More generally, I have a long history of bad luck that boggles the mind, although eventually I prevail in every little and every big thing.

Of course, since you remember the games that turn out wrong more easily and for a longer time than you remember the ones that turn out right, there is a tendency for the power of the jinx to be exaggerated. However, that does not mean there isn’t a jinx. The truth is brutal: the QFTR jinx is very real. I have to stop watching Timberwolves games or they will continue to every once in a while be cheated out of a win. I might have to have someone tie me up so that I won’t be able to watch any of the Nuggets-Timberwolves games.

But on the other hand, realistically, what am I going to do? I can’t resist watching a few regular season games, and I absolutely have to watch a few playoff games or else I would not be fully 100% qualified to produce QFTR. Unfortunately, the jinx is going to occasionally cost a team a win.

Let’s see what might be salvaged after the jinx and any injuries have done the damage that they are going to do….

TIMBERWOLVES AND NUGGETS THINGS WE NEED AND WANT TO HAVE HAPPEN TO MAKE 2012 A GOOD YEAR
The more wins the Timberwolves are cheated out of, the less they will achieve. Let’s review what they are capable of achieving this year, in order from the biggest to the most modest achievement, customized to a QFTR perspective:

-- (1) The Timberwolves make the 2012 playoffs, taking the last playoff spot in the West from the Denver Nuggets, who are on their way back down to the League basement, mostly due to Nuggets Coach George Karl’s persuasion (on the down low and indirectly of course which is how Karl does all of his dirty deeds) of many of their best players to quit the team (Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton to name three but there are more than this). Yes, Karl really is that destructive; that Karl eventually decimates teams and franchises is not just an urban legend, laugh out loud.

Or, if that can’t happen due to the jinx or injuries or what have you, how about this:

-- (2) The Timberwolves make the 2012 playoffs but the coaching hack Karl squirms his way into the playoffs as well (only to be quickly dumped in round one as usual).

Or, if that can’t happen due to the jinx or injuries or what have you, how about this:

-- (3) Neither the Nuggets nor the Timberwolves make the playoffs. But the Timberwolves finish with a better win-loss record than the Nuggets.

Or, if that can’t happen due to the jinx or injuries or what have you, how about this:

-- (4) The Timberwolves defeat the Denver Nuggets in head to head match-ups. The Timberwolves win all four games against the Nuggets, or at least they win three of four of them. And this causes George Karl to fall short of the 38-26 record he needs to get to to avoid being directly responsible for the Nuggets drop-off from 2011 to 2012. For details about what is on the line for Karl in 2012, see this Report.

Or, if that can’t happen due to the jinx or injuries or what have you, how about this:

-- (5) The Timberwolves defeat the Denver Nuggets in head to head match-ups. The Timberwolves win all four games against the Nuggets, or at least they win three of four of them. But somehow, George Karl still manages to finish with a record of 38-26 or better and thus avoids responsibility, at least for now, in this particular year, for the Nuggets going to hell and a hand basket due to his chasing away most of the better players on the Nuggets.

Note that once it finally becomes obvious that the Nuggets are heading for the basement of the NBA, that’s when Karl will probably finally retire, leaving the mess and the impossible task of cleaning up after the Karl fiasco to some hapless fool who stumbles into that impossible to quickly clean up mess.

So I want one of those five things just described to happen. The lower the number of the item (and the higher up the item is on the list) the more celebration there will be at QFTR headquarters this coming spring.

NUGGETS-TIMBERWOLVES GAMES IN 2011-12
Despite there being just being 66 games in this regular season instead of the usual 82, there will be a full slate of four Nuggets-Timberwolves games this year as usual:

--Monday Feb. 20 in Denver at 9 pm; Both teams will be playing on back to back nights.

--Sunday March 25 in Minneapolis at 330 pm; Neither team will be playing on back to back nights.

--Wednesday April 11 in Denver at 9 pm; Neither team will be playing on back to back nights.

--Thursday April 26 in Minneapolis at 8 pm; the Denver Nuggets will be playing on back to back nights; the Timberwolves will be rested.

Those teams are Eastern times; watch those games if you get a chance. Maybe if just one QFTR reader watches a game based on a QFTR recommendation the jinx will be defeated by an anti-jinx.

ADELMAN GAGGED
After the game, Timberwolves Coach Rick Adelman had this to say in the brief post-game news conference that coaches usually give after games.

WHAT ADELMAN REALLY MEANT TO SAY BUT COULDN’T DUE TO VERY HEAVY FINES IMPOSED IF A COACH CRITICIZES BAD CALLS

“We were hammered by a large number of bad calls and that cost us the game. We really won that game. The officiating in the game was horrible, far worse than normal. There were about seven bad calls against us and maybe two bad calls against the Heat, for a net of five against us. If you just take back any two of those five net bad calls against us we win that game over the Miami Heat.”

If Adelman had said that, it would have been the real truth, but it would have cost him many thousands of dollars because the League would have fined his ass. Adelman is way to professional and too experienced with bad officiating to fall into the trap of criticizing officials in a stupid little news conference and then getting fined. Fortunately, the League can not fine the ass of QFTR.

OFFICIAL QFTR APOLOGY TO THE TIMBERWOLVES
So QFTR apologizes to the Timberwolves for watching Timberwolves games. Even though we are not really responsible for the jinx, it does live at our headquarters and therefore good manners require that we apologize for the bastard. To try to get rid of this jinx, we have tried Raid, other bug sprays, rat killer, mouse killer, and complete fumigation by a licensed exterminator. Hell, we even had a freaky Catholic priest come and do an exorcism at QFTR headquarters. But jinxes in general, or at least the jinx that is at HQ, appear to be immune to all of those things, because obviously since the Timberwolves have now legally lost two games that were actually wins, out of just three games watched by QFTR, who can deny the power of the Jinx?

But at the same time, who can deny the power of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, Derrick Williams, Rick Adelman, and the Minnesota Timberwolves? They just defeated the Oklahoma Thunder and the Miami Heat, two of the very best teams in the NBA.

NBA 2011-2012 Schedule in Excel - Teams Highlighted Versions - Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves

2011-12-28T05:00:00.003-05:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) recently published the 2011-12 NBA schedule on Excel in two versions: Plain and with the top teams highlighted. Those are the primary schedule versions we post every year at all costs and are located here.

This is the fourth of four extra schedule postings showing schedules with particular teams highlighted. Each of the four postings will have two separate NBA schedules, each one with the games of one team highlighted. This year, the four extra schedule postings will have these teams:

--Boston Celtics and New York Knicks

--Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors

--Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma Thunder

--Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves

Due to the limited traffic QFTR gets and due to the fact we do several dozen other types of reports, including the all important text Reports on how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, we don't have the resources to post schedules with particular teams highlighted for all thirty teams (but we did manage to squeeze out the eight above). QFTR does guarantee an absolute minimum production level, which though limited is enough to establish the Site as one of the most important basketball Sites on the World Wide Web. But if you want more QFTR production, you need to post links to QFTR whenever and wherever you can. If we get more links, we'll definitely get more traffic. If we do get more traffic, the production will increase.

Thank you for visiting QFTR, the Site that explains how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, AND the Site that gives you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Remember, to avoid losing out on future production you should definitely bookmark the page you are on right now: www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

QFTR is NOT on Twitter or Facebook or any other silly and very limited platform because we have better things to do and because we do not waste time trying to get cheap and fleeting traffic. QFTR currently appears surprisingly well in Google search results, but those results change from time to time for reasons that are generally not known to the general public. So it's possible that QFTR will become hard to find using Google Search in the future. So therefore, if you are serious about basketball, it is highly recommended that you bookmark QFTR (www.nuggets1.blogspot.com) and then use your bookmark to visit from time to time.

PLAYING DUMB: A LESSON ABOUT THE INTERNET
There is playing dumb in basketball and there is also playing dumb on the Internet. Recently, we have noticed many visitors coming from Google Search and landing on the 2010-11 schedule and leaving before noticing that we do have the 2011-12 NBA schedule posted in Excel. As mentioned above, the primary schedule posting is here.

QFTR is very surprised and happy about how well Google Search is indexing Quest for the Ring. This note here is just to remind people that if when you use the Internet all you do is use Google Search and you just do "hit and run visits" to Sites, where you leave if you don't instantly get what you want, you will often miss out on exactly what you are looking for. For example, this will happen if Google Search happens to lead you to last year's posting rather than the recent one for this year. If you are playing dumb, you will do a hit and run and miss out on exactly what you were looking for. All you had to to was look around a little on the Site that Google led you to but you didn't do that; you just did the hit and run and lost out. If you spend a two or three minutes and can't find what you were looking for, then you can move on. The moral of the story is that you are often going to be wasting your time if you don't take a little time to look around a little for what you are really looking for on the Sites that Google leads you to.

QFTR makes it extremely easy to find our recent postings / Reports. See especially the panels near the top showing the most recent 40 Reports.

More broadly, what you really should do to get things from the Internet is bookmark Sites that give you what you want and then use that bookmark system AND Google Search to find things on the Internet. The bookmark system is like your personal, customized Google Search system. To use an analogy, Google Search is a general tool and your bookmark system is a customized tool you need to get certain jobs done easily and well. Sometimes you need that specialized tool that most other people don't have to get a job done.

Bookmarks should be organized into a folder system that make it easy to find bookmarks that you need.

Bookmark QFTR now if you have not done so already.

Don't play dumb in basketball or on the Internet.

VERY QUICK USER GUIDE TO THE SCHEDULES
Each team schedule shows the whole NBA schedule with every game and every team, with all the games of a particular team highlighted in orange. This posting shows the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Dallas Mavericks games highlighted and then the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Oklahoma Thunder games highlighted.

All versions show the schedule in four primary columns:
--Primary Column 1: December 2011 and January 2012 Games
--Primary Column 2: February 2012 Games
--Primary Column 3: March 2012 Games
--Primary Column 4: April 2012 Games

Within each of the primary columns there are these three secondary columns:
--Sub Column 1: There are date headers and for every game the two teams playing using the format Road Team at Home Team are shown.

--Sub Column 2: Under the header "TIME" the game start time using Eastern Time is shown for every game. If you have not memorized the US time zones, see the conversions to the other zones at the top of some of the primary columns.

--Sub Column 3: Under the header "TV" the national television network that is covering the game is shown if there is one. Only a small percentage of games are covered by a national television network (but many of the most important games are). Most games that are not broadcast by a national network are broadcast regionally or locally. In the TV column, for games that are broadcast only regionally or locally there is always a blank space. Note that some or all ESPN games are also available on the Internet on ESPN 3.

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE DENVER NUGGETS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

NBA 2011-2012 Schedule in Excel - Teams Highlighted Versions - Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma Thunder

2011-12-28T03:00:00.009-05:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) recently published the 2011-12 NBA schedule on Excel in two versions: Plain and with the top teams highlighted. Those are the primary schedule versions we post every year at all costs and are located here.

This is the third of four extra schedule postings showing schedules with particular teams highlighted. Each of the four postings will have two separate NBA schedules, each one with the games of one team highlighted. This year, the four extra schedule postings will have these teams:

--Boston Celtics and New York Knicks

--Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors

--Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma Thunder

--Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves

Due to the limited traffic QFTR gets and due to the fact we do several dozen other types of reports, including the all important text Reports on how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, we don't have the resources to post schedules with particular teams highlighted for all thirty teams (but we did manage to squeeze out the eight above). QFTR does guarantee an absolute minimum production level, which though limited is enough to establish the Site as one of the most important basketball Sites on the World Wide Web. But if you want more QFTR production, you need to post links to QFTR whenever and wherever you can. If we get more links, we'll definitely get more traffic. If we do get more traffic, the production will increase.

Thank you for visiting QFTR, the Site that explains how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, AND the Site that gives you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Remember, to avoid losing out on future production you should definitely bookmark the page you are on right now: www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

QFTR is NOT on Twitter or Facebook or any other silly and very limited platform because we have better things to do and because we do not waste time trying to get cheap and fleeting traffic. QFTR currently appears surprisingly well in Google search results, but those results change from time to time for reasons that are generally not known to the general public. So it's possible that QFTR will become hard to find using Google Search in the future. So therefore, if you are serious about basketball, it is highly recommended that you bookmark QFTR (www.nuggets1.blogspot.com) and then use your bookmark to visit from time to time.

PLAYING DUMB: A LESSON ABOUT THE INTERNET
There is playing dumb in basketball and there is also playing dumb on the Internet. Recently, we have noticed many visitors coming from Google Search and landing on the 2010-11 schedule and leaving before noticing that we do have the 2011-12 NBA schedule posted in Excel. As mentioned above, the primary schedule posting is here.

QFTR is very surprised and happy about how well Google Search is indexing Quest for the Ring. This note here is just to remind people that if when you use the Internet all you do is use Google Search and you just do "hit and run visits" to Sites, where you leave if you don't instantly get what you want, you will often miss out on exactly what you are looking for. For example, this will happen if Google Search happens to lead you to last year's posting rather than the recent one for this year. If you are playing dumb, you will do a hit and run and miss out on exactly what you were looking for. All you had to to was look around a little on the Site that Google led you to but you didn't do that; you just did the hit and run and lost out. If you spend a two or three minutes and can't find what you were looking for, then you can move on. The moral of the story is that you are often going to be wasting your time if you don't take a little time to look around a little for what you are really looking for on the Sites that Google leads you to.

QFTR makes it extremely easy to find our recent postings / Reports. See especially the panels near the top showing the most recent 40 Reports.

More broadly, what you really should do to get things from the Internet is bookmark Sites that give you what you want and then use that bookmark system AND Google Search to find things on the Internet. The bookmark system is like your personal, customized Google Search system. To use an analogy, Google Search is a general tool and your bookmark system is a customized tool you need to get certain jobs done easily and well. Sometimes you need that specialized tool that most other people don't have to get a job done.

Bookmarks should be organized into a folder system that make it easy to find bookmarks that you need.

Bookmark QFTR now if you have not done so already.

Don't play dumb in basketball or on the Internet.

VERY QUICK USER GUIDE TO THE SCHEDULES
Each team schedule shows the whole NBA schedule with every game and every team, with all the games of a particular team highlighted in orange. This posting shows the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Dallas Mavericks games highlighted and then the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Oklahoma Thunder games highlighted.

All versions show the schedule in four primary columns:
--Primary Column 1: December 2011 and January 2012 Games
--Primary Column 2: February 2012 Games
--Primary Column 3: March 2012 Games
--Primary Column 4: April 2012 Games

Within each of the primary columns there are these three secondary columns:
--Sub Column 1: There are date headers and for every game the two teams playing using the format Road Team at Home Team are shown.

--Sub Column 2: Under the header "TIME" the game start time using Eastern Time is shown for every game. If you have not memorized the US time zones, see the conversions to the other zones at the top of some of the primary columns.

--Sub Column 3: Under the header "TV" the national television network that is covering the game is shown if there is one. Only a small percentage of games are covered by a national television network (but many of the most important games are). Most games that are not broadcast by a national network are broadcast regionally or locally. In the TV column, for games that are broadcast only regionally or locally there is always a blank space. Note that some or all ESPN games are also available on the Internet on ESPN 3.

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE DALLAS MAVERICKS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE OKLAHOMA THUNDER GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

NBA 2011-2012 Schedule in Excel - Teams Highlighted Versions - Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors

2011-12-28T01:00:00.008-05:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) recently published the 2011-12 NBA schedule on Excel in two versions: Plain and with the top teams highlighted. Those are the primary schedule versions we post every year at all costs and are located here.

This is the second of four extra schedule postings showing schedules with particular teams highlighted. Each of the four postings will have two separate NBA schedules, each one with the games of one team highlighted. This year, the four extra schedule postings will have these teams:

--Boston Celtics and New York Knicks

--Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors

--Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma Thunder

--Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves

Due to the limited traffic QFTR gets and due to the fact we do several dozen other types of reports, including the all important text Reports on how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, we don't have the resources to post schedules with particular teams highlighted for all thirty teams (but we did manage to squeeze out the eight above). QFTR does guarantee an absolute minimum production level, which though limited is enough to establish the Site as one of the most important basketball Sites on the World Wide Web. But if you want more QFTR production, you need to post links to QFTR whenever and wherever you can. If we get more links, we'll definitely get more traffic. If we do get more traffic, the production will increase.

Thank you for visiting QFTR, the Site that explains how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, AND the Site that gives you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Remember, to avoid losing out on future production you should definitely bookmark the page you are on right now: www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

QFTR is NOT on Twitter or Facebook or any other silly and very limited platform because we have better things to do and because we do not waste time trying to get cheap and fleeting traffic. QFTR currently appears surprisingly well in Google search results, but those results change from time to time for reasons that are generally not known to the general public. So it's possible that QFTR will become hard to find using Google Search in the future. So therefore, if you are serious about basketball, it is highly recommended that you bookmark QFTR (www.nuggets1.blogspot.com) and then use your bookmark to visit from time to time.

PLAYING DUMB: A LESSON ABOUT THE INTERNET
There is playing dumb in basketball and there is also playing dumb on the Internet. Recently, we have noticed many visitors coming from Google Search and landing on the 2010-11 schedule and leaving before noticing that we do have the 2011-12 NBA schedule posted in Excel. As mentioned above, the primary schedule posting is here.

QFTR is very surprised and happy about how well Google Search is indexing Quest for the Ring. This note here is just to remind people that if when you use the Internet all you do is use Google Search and you just do "hit and run visits" to Sites, where you leave if you don't instantly get what you want, you will often miss out on exactly what you are looking for. For example, this will happen if Google Search happens to lead you to last year's posting rather than the recent one for this year. If you are playing dumb, you will do a hit and run and miss out on exactly what you were looking for. All you had to to was look around a little on the Site that Google led you to but you didn't do that; you just did the hit and run and lost out. If you spend a two or three minutes and can't find what you were looking for, then you can move on. The moral of the story is that you are often going to be wasting your time if you don't take a little time to look around a little for what you are really looking for on the Sites that Google leads you to.

QFTR makes it extremely easy to find our recent postings / Reports. See especially the panels near the top showing the most recent 40 Reports.

More broadly, what you really should do to get things from the Internet is bookmark Sites that give you what you want and then use that bookmark system AND Google Search to find things on the Internet. The bookmark system is like your personal, customized Google Search system. To use an analogy, Google Search is a general tool and your bookmark system is a customized tool you need to get certain jobs done easily and well. Sometimes you need that specialized tool that most other people don't have to get a job done.

Bookmarks should be organized into a folder system that make it easy to find bookmarks that you need.

Bookmark QFTR now if you have not done so already.

Don't play dumb in basketball or on the Internet.

VERY QUICK USER GUIDE TO THE SCHEDULES
Each team schedule shows the whole NBA schedule with every game and every team, with all the games of a particular team highlighted in orange. This posting shows the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Chicago Bulls games highlighted and then the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Toronto Raptors games highlighted.

All versions show the schedule in four primary columns:
--Primary Column 1: December 2011 and January 2012 Games
--Primary Column 2: February 2012 Games
--Primary Column 3: March 2012 Games
--Primary Column 4: April 2012 Games

Within each of the primary columns there are these three secondary columns:
--Sub Column 1: There are date headers and for every game the two teams playing using the format Road Team at Home Team are shown.

--Sub Column 2: Under the header "TIME" the game start time using Eastern Time is shown for every game. If you have not memorized the US time zones, see the conversions to the other zones at the top of some of the primary columns.

--Sub Column 3: Under the header "TV" the national television network that is covering the game is shown if there is one. Only a small percentage of games are covered by a national television network (but many of the most important games are). Most games that are not broadcast by a national network are broadcast regionally or locally. In the TV column, for games that are broadcast only regionally or locally there is always a blank space. Note that some or all ESPN games are also available on the Internet on ESPN 3.

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE CHICAGO BULLS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE TORONTO RAPTORS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

The First Day is a Fiasco, but the Battle Between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets has Only Just Begun

2011-12-27T06:39:00.009-05:00

Is it The Quest for the Ring (QFTR) jinx or is it that the world in general sucks? Or it could be both. Anyway, on the opening day of the race between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets, just about the worst possible thing happens: the Wolves lose and the Nuggets win. But wait, it’s worse: the Wolves outplayed their opponent, the Oklahoma Thunder, but still lost the game due to two exceptions to the rule that the better team wins in basketball, more on that later. But wait, it’s still worse: the Nuggets not only won; they won big, by 22 points (and QFTR thinks that 20 or more points is a rout). So overall, there were at least two insults added to the two injuries.

THE RACE BETWEEN THE NUGGETS AND THE TIMBERWOLVES
But wait, what is this “race between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets” all about anyway? I’m glad you asked, or else I’m glad I asked if you didn’t ask. The race is between a team moving up (the Timberwolves) and a team moving down (the Nuggets). The question is, can the Wolves tie or beat the Nuggets this year? If so, it will make our year here at QFTR, because of the following….

In case you don’t know, since we started out as a Denver Nuggets fan site (yes, it’s really true, laugh out loud) and since we have to this day continued to be relatively obsessed with reporting on them (but don’t judge too harshly, because sometimes obsessions can be good, laugh out loud) QFTR has saturated the Earth with Reports detailing the doings of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl. And now, more than ever, the Nuggets are George Karl’s team.

In fact, the Nuggets this year are really Karl’s team, lock stock and barrel. The owners of the Nuggets legally own the Nuggets and the Nuggets do have a manager, but so much authority to run the team has been actually or at least indirectly and / or effectively given over to Karl that in the operational sense the Nuggets are much more Karl’s team than anyone else’s. Although many key decisions for 2011-12 have technically been made by the managers and owners of the Nuggets, Karl has been behind most of them. For further proof and details see this report here.

So whatever happens to the Nuggets in 2011-12, good or bad, will really be one hundred percent (or 97-99 percent, anyway) the doings of George Karl. The players on the roster, the players not on the roster, the playing times, the specific rotations, the strategies, and the tactics, George Karl is behind them all. So the Nuggets’ 2011-12 win-loss record is and will continue to be equal to George Karl’s 2011-12 win-loss record. The Nuggets of 2011-12 are George Karl 24/7, George Karl all the time as it were. True, the 2011-12 Nuggets’ win-loss record will not be an absolutely precise reflection of Karl, due to injuries, schedule factors, and random events, but it will be a close reflection anyway. When QFTR looks at the standings and sees the Denver Nuggets listed, we will see “George Karl” instead of “Denver Nuggets” in those standings on the page, laugh out loud.

QFTR has discovered, proved and reported over the years that Karl is a miserable NBA playoffs Coach. There are dozens of Reports that give you all the details on the hows and the whys for that fact. But his coaching and team management is much better if all you look at are regular seasons (while ignoring the playoffs). But this year, since Karl rather than either the managers or the owners are completely responsible, QFTR is expecting that the Nuggets will finally (we’ve waited several years for this, laugh out loud) be pretty lousy and worse than expected in the regular season. For once, we should not have to wait for the playoffs to once again confirm that George Karl is not really a great coach who should be worshiped, but merely a very lucky one who has been given (by managers and owners) way more than his share of above average players over the years.

MEASURING GEORGE KARL FOR 2011-12
First let's look at the "loose standard". The loose standard is based on the preseason expectations for the Nuggets of the general public. Those expectations are roughly that the Nuggets will finish with a record of 33-33. So the loose standard baseline is a final record of 33-33, and worse than expected will be any losing record. If you were using that standard, in order to confirm that when Karl is given total control, really bad things happen, the Nuggets would need to win fewer than 33 games, 32 games or fewer to be exact. The fewer the better, laugh out loud (and yes, laughing at the poor Nuggets too much may be becoming a bad habit of mine).

That's the loose standard, and is overly generous toward George Karl. This would be an example of how the rose colored wearing general public often falls into the trap of being too easy on coaches, managers, and owners. Because by setting the expectation at 33 wins, you are already failing to charge George Karl for losses that are really his responsibility. Because really, strictly speaking, the standard for the Nuggets for 2011-12, and the standard by which George Karl should be judged this year, is that the Nuggets match their 2010-11 record, which was 50-32. Since there are just 66 games this year instead of the usual 82, we need to use the winning percentage from last year and multiply by the 66. When you do this, you get 40 wins; so George Karl needs to finish with a record of at least 40-26 in 2011-12 to validate himself as a quality regular season coach. (And even if he succeeds at this, he will of course very likely lose out in the playoffs as usual.)

So we have two standards for evaluating George Karl this year on the table, the loose and the strict. the loose standard is that Karl needs to finish at least 33-33. The strict standard is that Karl needs to finish at least 40-26. The strict standard is much more defensible and by rights should be the one used. But QFTR will compromise a little and use a standard of 38-28 (which allows for a little bad luck). So bottom line, George Karl needs to finish at least 38-28 in 2011-12 or his reputation as a good regular season coach has just taken a really big hit.

MEANWHILE, WAY UP NORTH
Meanwhile, we have the Minnesota Timberwolves, coached by a far better playoffs coach, Rick Adelman, and featuring a new player who will most likely in the coming years be among the best three or four point guards in the NBA: Ricky Rubio. And the Timberwolves also have the second pick in the 2011 draft: Derrick Williams, SF(3) / PF(4). And they have Michael Beasley at the very same positions as Williams coming on strong this year (we hope). And they also feature historical superstar Kevin Love at center. For more details about the 2011-12 Timberwolves, look for more Reports about them in the next few months. This is the team that QFTR has adopted as our favorite formerly really bad team that is now on it’s way up.

So aside from the actual number of Nuggets wins, QFTR is also hoping that the Minnesota Timberwolves can finish at least one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets in the 2011-12 regular season.

We can not and do not officially “expect” things to happen because when you say “expect” you are really making a prediction and we don’t do official predictions due to all the wild card factors, first among them injuries. We sometimes unofficially expect things to happen and we sometimes unofficially do predictions. With respect to the Wolves versus the Nuggets this year, to be honest and clear, QFTR is not even unofficially predicting the Wolves will finish ahead of the Nuggets. But we are hoping they will. Hope is the next level down from unofficial predictions. If a hope comes true it makes you happy; it’s like when the weather is not as bad as was forecasted (or not as bad as it usually is by climate) or it’s like getting money you didn’t expect to get. A hope coming true is a really nice thing, and QFTR hopes the T-Wolves finish ahead of the Nuggets this year.

And that is an overview of what the race between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves is about.

But one final thing before we discuss what happened to the Timberwolves on opening day. The race between Denver and Minnesota may turn out to be something more than a thing which matters only at QFTR and nowhere else. There is a fairly good possibility that Denver and Minnesota will battle for the final 2012 playoff spot or two in the West Conference. Were the Minnesota Timberwolves to make the playoffs and the Denver Nuggets not make them, that would cause dancing in the streets here at QFTR headquarters. We would be very happy about that for years to come.

But for now it’s on to the first game of the season for the T-Wolves…

OPENING DAY: THE WOLVES CLEARLY OUTPLAY THE THUNDER BUT LOSE
The Timberwolves opened the 2011-12 season at home against the Oklahoma Thunder and outplayed them but still lost (damn it). In general the wrong team wins a game in basketball much less than in football, but it does happen, and this game is an excellent example.

The T-Wolves clearly had the better offense except for two unusual things (to be revealed later). On the things that matter the most in playoff series, the T-Wolves offense featuring rookie point guard Ricky Rubio was better than the Thunder offense featuring point guard Russell Westbrook and historical superstar Kevin Durant at small forward.

Let’s first check the basic offensive factors showing that the T-Wolves were better than the Thunder…

First, the T-Wolves had many fewer turnovers than the Thunder (17 versus 12, with 14 turnovers being the average number for a team in a game). The five turnover gap was outstanding. T-Wolves coach Rick Adelman has been stressing the necessity for the Wolves to keep turnovers down and they responded big time in the opener. Although the number of turnovers is often not a crucial thing in a regular season game, it can be crucial in razor close playoff games.

Second, the T-Wolves made more offensive rebounds and had more shots on goal than did the Thunder. The T-Wolves made 10 offensive rebounds and had 87 shots on goal versus just 8 offensive rebounds and just 76 shots on goal for the Thunder. The average or standard number of offensive rebounds made by teams in games is 11.

Third, the T-Wolves had a better, more efficient, more productive offense than the Thunder did as shown first by the all-important assist counts. The T-Wolves made 22 assists versus 18 for the Thunder with 21 assists being the average number for a team in a game. Although teams can sometimes get away with not so many assists in regular season games (for example, if they have shooters who were able to make a lot of shots more or less in isolation) teams generally lose playoff series unless they make more assists than their opponent.

There is a great calculation almost anyone can quickly do which reveals much more than does the number of assists…

BASIC QUALITY OF OFFENSE
A quick way to approximately but accurately evaluate the quality of an offense is to run the following quick and fairly easy calculation:

Basic Quality of Offense (B Q OFF) = 2 X # of assists made by point guards + 1 X the number of assists made by shooting guards.

For point guards, if two played you take their assists and multiply by two. If more than two point guards played, you take the two who made the most assists and then any assists made by the third point guard are counted at 1X instead of 2X. For forwards and centers, assists are ignored; in other words, you multiply assists by forwards and centers by zero. Assists by them are better than no assists at all, but it’s the assists by guards that matter for determining the quality of an offense and it’s ability to win playoff games.

This quick and relatively simple calculation that you can do in your head in less than one minute produces a number which approximately but accurately tells you how well organized and efficient the offense was.

So for example, in this game, the T-Wolves point guards were Ricky Rubio who made six assists and Luke Ridnour who made four. There was a third point guard, JJ Barea (who often in reality is more of a shooting or 2-guard). Barea made 2 assists, fewer than Rubio or Ridnour, so he is the third point guard and his assists count at 1 X.

For shooting guards, the T-Wolves do not really have a good one (JR Smith, please come to Minnesota). In this game, Wesley Johnson was the starting shooting guard and he made three assists. No other shooting guard played in the game (due to Minnesota Timberwolves Coach Rick Adelman realizing that Minnesota is very weak in the shooting guard department).

So given all of that, this is how you calculate the Basic Quality of Offense for Minnesota:

B Q OFF was 2 X (Rubio assists) plus 2 X (Ridnour assists) plus 1 X (Barea assists) plus (1 X Johnson assists).

Putting in the actual number of assists:

T-Wolves B Q OFF = (2 X 6) + (2 X 4) + (1 X 2) + (1 X 3) = 25

For Oklahoma, here were the guard assists:

Russell Westbrook, point guard, 6 assists
Eric Maynor, point guard, 2 assists
James Harden, shooting guard, 3 assists
Thabo Sefolosha, shooting guard, 0 assists
Daequan Cook, shooting guard, 0 assists

Therefore:

Thunder B Q OFF = (2 X 6) + (2 X 2) + (1 X 3) + (1 X 0) + (1 X 0) = 19

So the T-Wolves had a much better Basic Quality of Offense number, 25 versus 19 for the Thunder. This means that the T-Wolves offense was better run and much better designed for winning NBA playoff games. A six point gap in B Q OFF is often enough to insure a win, but obviously not always, because it did not insure a win for the T-Wolves in this case.

DEFENSIVELY
While the T-Wolves were clearly and substantially better offensively, defensively, the game was more mixed. The T-Wolves committed 24 personal fouls while the Thunder committed 26 of them, with 21 being the average number for a team in a game.

But the Thunder did have a few more steals and blocks than did the T-Wolves, 6 steals and 5 blocks versus 4 steals and 2 blocks, with 7.5 steals and 5 blocks being the average number of steals and blocks for teams in games. Reflected in those very weak T-Wolves steals and blocks numbers you can see right there two big problems for them: they have poor shooting guards and they probably will continue this year to have weak paint defending and also weak man to man defending in general.

Defensive rebounding was about equal.

Points in the paint surrendered is very important in the regular season and is one of the most important things of all in the playoffs. In this game the Timberwolves were far, far better defensively than the Thunder when you look at points in the paint. The normal or standard points in the paint for a team in a NBA game is about 40 (an easy to remember number). In this game the Thunder surrendered 60 points in the paint, which is about as bad as it ever gets. So the Timberwolves scored 60 points in the paint, which ordinarily is more than enough to insure winning either a regular season or a playoff game. About the only way you can lose a game where you score 60 points in the paint is where you miss almost every three you attempt, which, um, is unfortunately exactly what happened.

The Thunder scored just 36 in the paint, which is just low enough to be a little disturbing for them.

So obviously, when you look at points given up in the paint, Minnesota overwhelmingly dominated (60 versus 36) which is yet another reason why they really won (and should have actually won) this game.

SO HOW EXACTLY DID THE TIMBERWOLVES LOSE WHEN THEY SHOULD HAVE WON?
The Minnesota Timberwolves really defeated the Oklahoma Thunder in this opening night game, when you look at the things that matter most in the playoffs, when in other words you look at the game from a playoffs perspective. If your objective is to win NBA playoff games, you would be much better off playing like the Timberwolves did than like the Thunder did.

But the Timberwolves lost this particular regular season game because of two very unusual gaps. Had either one of these gaps not existed, the Timberwolves would have won instead of the Thunder.

First there was the free throw gap. The average or standard made free throw percentage is about 77% (but I usually use 80% so I can do extremely quick comparisons). Anyway, in this game, the Thunder had 31 free throws, and 80% of 31 rounded is 25. But the Thunder actually made 29 free throws, four more than the 25. The T-Wolves had 26 free throws, and 80% of 26 rounded is 21. But the Thunder made 19 free throws, two fewer than the 21 they should have made on average. So the total free throw gap in favor of the Thunder was 4 + 2 equals 6 points, which is more than the margin of victory for the Thunder. In other words, if the free throws had come out as they do on average, the Timberwolves would have won this game by 2 points.

Note that coaches have a right to be upset when free throws are not made, all the more so since they themselves often get the blame for close losses.

Incidentally, a free throw gap of six is not rare but it is uncommon. Most games have gaps of four or fewer. Had the gap been two (still in favor of the Thunder) this would have been an overtime game. Had the gap been less than two, the Timberwolves would have won.

THE HUGE GAP ON THREES IN THIS GAME
Did you know that many NBA games are decided by 3-point shooting? This game is a great example. The Thunder made 5 of 16 threes, which was a lackluster 31.3% of them. The average or standard percentage for threes is about 36%.

But always remember that just 33% of threes corresponds to 50% of twos which is a very solid shooting percentage for ordinary two-point shots. In other words, if a player or team is just making 33% of threes, contrary to the false beliefs of some less intelligent coaches, this is not really a bad thing.

But getting back to the Thunder-Timberwolves game, the Thunder made just 31.3% of their threes. They should have made at least one more of them (they should have made 6 of 16 if not more). The Timberwolves made just 3 of 22 threes, which was a horrendous, nightmare 13.6% of them. To match the NBA average for a team in a game, the Timberwolves should have made 8 threes. The Timberwolves were five made threes short, so they were 15 points short! We saw just above that the Thunder were one made three short, meaning they were 3 points short. Since 15-3 is 12, overall the Timberwolves lost 12 points on threes, and since the game margin was just 4 points, obviously the Timberwolves should have and would have easily won the game had they made their threes. In fact, if the Timberwolves had just made two more threes than they made, if they were 5 of 22 instead of the horrible, miserable 3 of 22, they would have won the game while still being well below average on threes. But they were really, really horrendous on threes and lost the game due to that.

When a team is that pathetic on threes, it can't be just due to the defending; it has to be more that the team missed some threes that should have been made.

Incidentally, this shows you that the quality of offense factors discussed earlier showing the Timberwolves offensively outplayed the Thunder by a lot do accurately show you who was supposed to win the game (when the defending was roughly equal). If a team loses a game it should have won based on basic quality of offense calculations, it will very often be because of some fluke(s) involving free throws and/or threes.

It could of course also be a gap with two-point shots but this would be less common than a gap on threes and no more common than a gap with free throws. For the record, in this game the Thunder made 30 of 62 twos, or 48.4% of them. The T-Wolves made 36 of 65 twos, or 55.4% of them. Aside from being more proof that the T-Wolves were the real winners of this game, this gap on twos in favor of the T-Wolves validates the quality of offense discussion above. Better quality of offense (including the right players making the right number of assists) leads automatically to a higher scoring percentage (on twos at least) with the 3-ball percentage being more of a wild card factor. So again, this game is a great example of how the 3-point shot wild card factor can sometimes turn a game won by a better offense into a loss.

But you can not react by rebelling against threes and telling your team to not try to make a good number of threes and by telling your team to obsessively run plays into the paint because if you do that you will no longer be playing smart basketball and you will not be able to win playoff series unless you play a very inferior team in a series.

So again, for emphasis and clarity, this particular game is a perfect example of the exception to the rule. Again, the rule is that if a team is almost as good defensively as their opponent (or defensively better than their opponent) and is clearly better offensively than their opponent (as shown for example by B Q OFF) then it will win the game. The exceptions to the rule generally and most often involve shooting discrepancies and flukes, as discussed right here in this Report.

So the Timberwolves were grossly short on threes and obviously lost the game right there. The thing about threes is, you can’t live without them (and they become more important and not less important in the playoffs) but sometimes you can’t live with them either! In this game, the Timberwolves were unable to live with threes; they lost a game they should have won due to the existence of and the need to make threes.

DON'T TAKE ANY DUMB SHORTCUTS THAT LEAD TO NOWHERE
So (Minnesota Coach) Rick Adelman, you need more threes from your squad. It’s time to have all of your three-point shooters practice shooting threes (while guarded) in practice. It’s time to bring the Ray Allen out in them. You are already doing an outstanding job of running the offense; specifically, so far this season, the passing, the spacing, the cutting, and the overall flow of the offense of the T-Wolves are outstanding and is exactly what wins regular season and especially playoff games. So don’t let your team get discouraged about missing threes in any particular game (or even in a bunch of games).

So Rick Adelman, please never do what George Karl does: don’t try to become a regular season only coach by discouraging the 3-point shot in favor of tactics and cheap tricks that squeeze out a few extra regular season wins but then leave the team unable to win playoff series. Please continue doing what you are doing, Coach Adelman; please continue to be smart, big minded, generous, and courageous. Continue to focus on the offense first because that’s where the greatest potential is for the Timberwolves this season. The defense can be optimized later in the season; for now, I would just preach defense generically.

And always remember, small minded basketball coaches who opt for cheap tricks never win basketball championships. That is also known as the “Why George Karl will never win a Championship Rule”, laugh out loud.

NBA 2011-2012 Schedule in Excel - Teams Highlighted Versions - Boston Celtics and New York Knicks

2011-12-25T17:05:00.013-05:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) recently published the 2011-12 NBA schedule on Excel in two versions: Plain and with the top teams highlighted. Those are the primary schedule versions we post every year at all costs and are located here.

This is the first of four extra schedule postings showing schedules with particular teams highlighted. Each of the four postings will have two separate NBA schedules, each one with the games of one team highlighted. This year, the four extra schedule postings will have these teams:

--Boston Celtics and New York Knicks

--Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors

--Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma Thunder

--Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves

Due to the limited traffic QFTR gets and due to the fact we do several dozen other types of reports, including the all important text Reports on how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, we don't have the resources to post schedules with particular teams highlighted for all thirty teams (but we did manage to squeeze out the eight above). QFTR does guarantee an absolute minimum production level, which though limited is enough to establish the Site as one of the most important basketball Sites on the World Wide Web. But if you want more QFTR production, you need to post links to QFTR whenever and wherever you can. If we get more links, we'll definitely get more traffic. If we do get more traffic, the production will increase.

Thank you for visiting QFTR, the Site that explains how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, AND the Site that gives you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Remember, to avoid losing out on future production you should definitely bookmark the page you are on right now: www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

QFTR is NOT on Twitter or Facebook or any other silly and very limited platform because we have better things to do and because we do not waste time trying to get cheap and fleeting traffic. QFTR currently appears surprisingly well in Google search results, but those results change from time to time for reasons that are generally not known to the general public. So it's possible that QFTR will become hard to find using Google Search in the future. So therefore, if you are serious about basketball, it is highly recommended that you bookmark QFTR (www.nuggets1.blogspot.com) and then use your bookmark to visit from time to time.

PLAYING DUMB: A LESSON ABOUT THE INTERNET
There is playing dumb in basketball and there is also playing dumb on the Internet. Recently, we have noticed many visitors coming from Google Search and landing on the 2010-11 schedule and leaving before noticing that we do have the 2011-12 NBA schedule posted in Excel. As mentioned above, the primary schedule posting is here.

QFTR is very surprised and happy about how well Google Search is indexing Quest for the Ring. This note here is just to remind people that if when you use the Internet all you do is use Google Search and you just do "hit and run visits" to Sites, where you leave if you don't instantly get what you want, you will often miss out on exactly what you are looking for. For example, this will happen if Google Search happens to lead you to last year's posting rather than the recent one for this year. If you are playing dumb, you will do a hit and run and miss out on exactly what you were looking for. All you had to to was look around a little on the Site that Google led you to but you didn't do that; you just did the hit and run and lost out. If you spend a two or three minutes and can't find what you were looking for, then you can move on. The moral of the story is that you are often going to be wasting your time if you don't take a little time to look around a little for what you are really looking for on the Sites that Google leads you to.

QFTR makes it extremely easy to find our recent postings / Reports. See especially the panels near the top showing the most recent 40 Reports.

More broadly, what you really should do to get things from the Internet is bookmark Sites that give you what you want and then use that bookmark system AND Google Search to find things on the Internet. The bookmark system is like your personal, customized Google Search system. To use an analogy, Google Search is a general tool and your bookmark system is a customized tool you need to get certain jobs done easily and well. Sometimes you need that specialized tool that most other people don't have to get a job done.

Bookmarks should be organized into a folder system that make it easy to find bookmarks that you need.

Bookmark QFTR now if you have not done so already.

Don't play dumb in basketball or on the Internet.

VERY QUICK USER GUIDE TO THE SCHEDULES
Each team schedule shows the whole NBA schedule with every game and every team, with all the games of a particular team highlighted in orange. This posting shows the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the Boston Celtics games highlighted and then the 2011-12 NBA schedule with the New York Knicks games highlighted.

All versions show the schedule in four primary columns:
--Primary Column 1: December 2011 and January 2012 Games
--Primary Column 2: February 2012 Games
--Primary Column 3: March 2012 Games
--Primary Column 4: April 2012 Games

Within each of the primary columns there are these three secondary columns:
--Sub Column 1: There are date headers and for every game the two teams playing using the format Road Team at Home Team are shown.

--Sub Column 2: Under the header "TIME" the game start time using Eastern Time is shown for every game. If you have not memorized the US time zones, see the conversions to the other zones at the top of some of the primary columns.

--Sub Column 3: Under the header "TV" the national television network that is covering the game is shown if there is one. Only a small percentage of games are covered by a national television network (but many of the most important games are). Most games that are not broadcast by a national network are broadcast regionally or locally. In the TV column, for games that are broadcast only regionally or locally there is always a blank space. Note that some or all ESPN games are also available on the Internet on ESPN 3.

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE BOSTON CELTICS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE WITH THE NEW YORK KNICKS GAMES HIGHLIGHTED

The 2011-12 Denver Nuggets Preview: They Fell Off a Cliff, are now at Best an Average Team, and the Devastation Could Easily Have Been Even Worse

2011-12-21T22:30:00.008-05:00

EDITORIAL NOTES
Originally we were planning to first produce a Report called “How to Beat the Denver Nuggets and Teams like Them Even on Their Home Court”. The Nuggets take full advantage of the high altitude in Denver and they also use some fairly cheap and easy to deal with tricks to pick up a lot of easy wins in Denver. But if you know what they do and what their tricks are, you can beat the Nuggets in Denver now that they have lost a lot of above average players.

Then we realized that before we explain how you beat them in Denver that we should first explain exactly who the 2011-12 Nuggets are and how they are degraded from 2010-11 and other recent years. And that we should explain how they fell off the cliff from last year to this year (although regular QFTR readers probably already know a lot of the reasons). Then for awhile we were planning to combine the two explanations (who they are now and how to beat them) into a series. But then, and although it was a close call, we decided that it would be a little better to put the two Reports out as two separate ones. But even though they won’t officially be a series, this Report and the one that will be appearing shortly on how you defeat the 2012 Nuggets should loosely anyway be considered a series. So you should really read both of them and not just one or the other.

So let’s proceed to break down the 2011-12 Nuggets and how and why they fell off the cliff from last year and from recent years....

FLASHBACK TO AUGUST 2010: THE NUGGETS FIRE THE EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
On August 3, 2010, General Manager Marc Warkentien was fired by the Nuggets ownership. Warkentien’s official title from when he was hired in 2006 until when he was fired in 2010 was Vice President of Basketball Operations. He did an extremely good job for the Nuggets. (If you don’t believe me, consider that he was NBA League Executive of the Year for 2008-09.) But he could not get a contract extension in 2010 because the Nuggets ownership was too cheap to pay what he deserved to get and/or because Warkentien and/or Warkentien’s decisions were disliked by George Karl.

Why were those the reasons for the firing? Despite being one of the richest ownerships of them all, the Nuggets ownership has been from time attempting to save some money in recent years, most likely due to the poor and scary economy. Unfortunately, many of these moves have been penny wise and pound foolish. As for Karl, the ownership of the Nuggets has been so enthralled with Karl that it seems very likely that if and when Karl ever wanted a general manager to be fired that the manager would most likely be fired.

Of course, more often, and normally, it is the other way around: the coach gets fired if the manager wants him to be fired, while generally, coaches can not successfully demand that managers be fired. Make no mistake; the normal way is generally the much better way to run a team. Having the coach outrank the general manager is generally a very bad way to run a pro basketball team. The only exception would be if you knew for certain that you had one of the best basketball coaches in history, you might want to have that coach be able to overrule the manager (but not be doing so all of the time).

So to be extra clear, the reason why the NBA Executive of the Year was fired by the Nuggets was:

--Nuggets ownership wanting to save some money in a rough and scary economy.

--George Karl did not like decisions made by Warkentien or did not like Warkentien in general.

--Both of the above

Warkentien was then hired by the New York Knicks as a high level consultant in January 2011. Justice is served since the Knicks are now among the roughly eight teams who are real contenders to win The Quest for the Ring while the Nuggets are not even close.

By the way, have you ever noticed that hiring and firings in pro Sports are on average even more irrational than they are in the American economy overall? Of course, not every pro sports management and coaching hiring and firing is irrational, but a disturbingly large percentage of them are. It seems that in American pro sports team management and coaching, you don’t have job security even if you are literally one of the best managers or coaches of your type.

And also by the way, this is a good example of “information you were not supposed to know,” which is one of the newest catchy phrases we are going to use to try to raise our readership from three to four (laugh out loud, but seriously, we do have more readers than that).

And as yet another important “by the way,” always remember that one reason QFTR spends so much time perfecting and operating the Real Player Rating system is because players too are often hired or fired for irrational reasons. We want to identify as many stupid player moves as we can as time permits, and allow readers to identify more of them on their own.

GEORGE KARL UNOFFICIALLY ASSUMES GENERAL MANAGER POWERS BEGINNING IN AUGUST 2010
George Karl, who despite having a miserable playoffs record, is almost literally worshipped by the ownership, by some fans, and by many others in the Nuggets organization and beyond. When I watch a Nuggets game, I often cut the sound and just watch the game because I can’t stand all of the worshipping of George Karl that is described by the announcers and that the announcers themselves do.

Unfortunately for the Nuggets, Karl became, in the wake of the firing of the General Manager Warkentien, a sort of unofficial General Manager. He had, especially within the last year, a huge influence on player movements to and from the Nuggets. In the last year especially, Karl has been the moving force behind decisions normally made by general managers and assistants to them, and also behind decisions by players to get out of Denver.

After Warkentien was fired in August 2010, the Nuggets’ general management was shared by an official and an unofficial General Manager. The unofficial one was George Karl. The official General Manager was Masai Ujiri, who the owners were able to hire relatively cheaply because he was a younger manager who had never been a general manager before. Exact numbers are extremely difficult to find, and I have not found them, but it is believed that as of now Ujiri is one of the lowest paid general managers in the NBA.

Aside from the fact that it’s interesting information, and aside from the fact that it is an example of giving QFTR readers information they were not supposed to know, the main reason I took time to report about Warkentien is to make sure I am believed when I say that the 2011-12 Nuggets are “George Karl’s Team” lock, stock, and barrel. He doesn’t legally own the 2011-12 Nuggets, but Karl certainly owns them in the management sense and in the conversational sense of the word. Whatever happens in 2011-12 is mostly George Karl’s doing.

If for example Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves finish ahead of the Denver Nuggets in the Northwest Division, it will be mostly and arguably 100% Karl’s fault. I mean, the Wolves are vastly improved and Ricky Rubio will be outstanding out of the box, but given the chasm between Denver and Minnesota that existed as of June 2011, there is no way that Minnesota should be better than Denver in 2011-12. If they are, than Karl will have really and truly hosed up the Nuggets beyond all recognition. (In case you missed the message “between the lines,” QFTR suspects that the Minnesota Timberwolves actually will finish a little ahead of the Denver Nuggets in 2011-12., and what a joyous thing it will be, even more enjoyable than the Oklahoma Thunder dismantling the Nuggets in the 2011 playoffs as anticipated by QFTR.)

To some extent before then but especially since August 2010, with little if any interference from management or ownership, George Karl drove away players he didn’t like. People like Karl who put career above all else (including winning) seldom directly get rid of employees (or players). Instead they do it on the down low. They indirectly get rid of employees and players they don’t like by over many moons pressuring them and indirectly persuading them to leave.

To be specific, Karl didn’t like the personalities and/or the playing styles of the players who ended up quitting. And at the same time there were players who didn’t agree with Karl’s views and decisions who, to put it bluntly, quit the team. Those are technically two separate ways players leave a team, but obviously they are two sides of the same coin.

AMONG THE PLAYERS WHO QUIT THE NUGGETS: TWO SUPERSTARS AND A NEAR SUPERSTAR
In the last year, Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton, and J.R. Smith were the most notable players who quit. Felton and Smith quit mostly because they were being underrated and cheated out of playing time by Karl. Carmelo Anthony quit mostly because he correctly realized that Karl and the Nuggets were most likely never ever going to win The Quest for the Ring doing what they do. So Anthony rebooted his career by moving to the New York Knicks.

True, Anthony in his heart always wanted to play for the Knicks. For one thing, he was born and spent his early childhood in New York City. Once you are a New Yorker in your heart you are always a New Yorker to one extent or another; there is no other place like it. But Anthony even more so in his heart wants to win a Championship, and like any other rational human being could have been persuaded to stay in Denver if the Nuggets were NOT clearly a team that most likely will never win The Quest for the Ring for the next ten years rock bottom minimum. Because ten years from now Anthony’s career will be all but over. If Anthony had remained in Denver for his entire career, there is a fairly high probability that he never would have had a chance to win The Quest for the Ring. In other words, Anthony saw the handwriting on the wall (and / or he is a QFTR reader; we can dream, laugh out loud).

Unfortunately for the Nuggets, two of the former Nuggets I just mentioned are superstars and could be major components on a Championship squad. J.R. Smith may not be a superstar overall but is arguably a superstar among shooting guards, (using the easier to meet shooting guard Real Player Rating standard).

In fact, in recent years, J.R. Smith has been about as good as Jason Terry of the 2011 Quest winners Dallas Mavericks. Do you perhaps get the point before I even complete the point? Jason Terry has a high reputation, J.R. Smith has a low reputation, but in actual fact they are about the same quality in basketball terms. Yes, they do have very different playing styles and personalities, but when all is said and done they are about equal in terms of what they contribute on the hardwood.

Let’s broaden the focus and completely break down what happened to the Nuggets between 2010-11 and 2011-12…

THE NUGGETS HAVE LOST MANY SUPERSTARS IN RECENT YEARS AND, AMAZINGLY, THEY JUST LOST FOUR OF THEM IN A SINGLE YEAR
If you were to add up all of the superstars who left the Nuggets in, say, the past five years (not counting any who retired) and you could compare to other teams, you would find that the Nuggets rank at or near the top of the heap for teams losing superstars. Also, it’s very possible that the Nuggets just came close to setting or actually did set the record for “Greatest Number of Superstars on a Team that never was a True Primary Contender During any Five Year Period”. (Another idea for a brand new and interesting award from the creative minds at QFTR, laugh out loud).

True, many of the Nuggets’ superstars have been borderline ones that many do not consider to be superstars, but nevertheless, the points I am making here are accurate.

History will record that the most famous and most devastating losses in the 2006-2011 period were Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, and Marcus Camby. But there were many other less famous losses.

If you just looked at Denver over the last five years, you might make the mistake of thinking it was normal for a team to be continually losing superstars. But not only is it nor normal, it proves that the team / franchise is a failure and will not be able to be primary contenders to win The Quest for the Ring either right now or for the foreseeable future. There is something very, very wrong if you get a very large number of superstars over a few years and yet you never become a true, major contender to win the Quest for the Ring.

In the very last year, there was a truly massive exodus of superstars, well in excess of what generally ever happens around the League. All told, the Nuggets had seven superstars in 2010-11 and four of them are gone for 2011-12. It’s really remarkable wreckage when you look at it rationally and in the light of day. The TNT Television network monitored the carnage and decided that there will be very few if any Nuggets games on TNT on Thursday nights this season. Thanks, TNT, for putting viewers out of their misery, laugh out loud.

Let's briefly look at the typical number of superstars on different teams. Generally, on the worst teams, on the ones that lose most of their games, there are either zero superstars or one superstar. On the teams that have losing records but are not among the absolute worst teams, there are typically one or two superstars. On teams that win roughly as many games as they lose, there are typically between one and three superstars. On teams that win more than they lose but lose in the first round of the playoffs, there are typically between two and four superstars. On the eight teams that reach the second round of the playoffs, there are typically between three and five superstars. On the very best teams, the ones that reach the Conference finals, there are typically between three and six superstars.

There are major exceptions. For example, remarkably, the 2011 Quest winning Dallas Mavericks technically had only one superstar: Dirk Nowitzki. Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd were almost but not quite superstars. This proves that the Mavericks had to and did play very smart basketball to win the Quest over the Miami Heat, who had three superstars. The Heat had fewer superstars than average for a finals team while the Mavericks had far fewer of them. The Heat reached the 2011 Championship mostly because they had the best pro basketball player (LeBron James) and because they had two other extremely strong superstars (Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh). The Mavericks had only one strong superstar and two major stars who were close to being superstars. The Mavs reached and won the NBA finals first and foremost because they played very, very smart basketball.

But you can not directly compare the Nuggets seven superstars with the numbers of superstars that the Mavericks and the Heat had, because of the huge within the season trade that the Nuggets had. If you count only the post trade players, the Nuggets had these superstars:

Nene Hilario
Raymond Felton
Chris Andersen
Kenyon Martin
Danilo Gallinari

So they had five, still more than either the Heat or the Mavericks. But another little catch is that Kenyon Martin and Danilo Gallinari were borderline superstars, whereas Nowitzki was a major historical superstar for Dallas and whereas LeBron James was the best player in the League (and also of course a major historical superstar) and whereas Miami also had major historical superstar Dywayne Wade and strong superstar Chris Bosh.

Some readers are going to be saying: alright, I get the point about the Nuggets losing a lot of really good players, but all of those superstar numbers are exaggerated. Well, Quest for the Ring (QFTR) considers more players to be superstars than most other American basketball fans and commentators do. Many fans and writers will not consider any player who has just an average or a poor overall reputation, nor any player who has a style and/or a personality that is low key and/or that has not “caught on” with the public to be a superstar even though in terms of basketball the player is as good or better than players who are considered to be superstars. QFTR reminds you that if you get hung up with personalities and styles you will most likely never win The Quest for the Ring.

The QFTR Real Player Rating (RPR) system identifies ALL superstars, not just the ones the general public thinks are superstars. Furthermore, the RPR system makes absolutely sure all superstars are identified by using a fairly generous standard for “superstars”.

COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF ALL 2010-11 NUGGETS SUPERSTARS
Here in RPR order are the superstars the Nuggets had in 2010-11, before AND after the Carmelo Anthony trade:

Nene Hilario
Raymond Felton
Chris Andersen
Carmelo Anthony
Kenyon Martin
Danilo Gallinari
Chauncey Billups

Now let’s break down what happened with each of these….

NENE: RETURNING
Nene is a man of few words and he is a loyal and trusting sort of individual so it was no surprise when he was one of the exceptions to the rule of Nuggets superstars leaving. He was very unhappy that it took so long for the Nuggets to finally offer up a competitive contract and so he tried to leave, but he was unable to find a team that would match or beat what would end up being a generous Nuggets contract offer that came shortly before the 2011-12 season began.

Incidentally, due to Nene’s relatively low key personality and / or due to his inability to speak English well (he is from Brazil where Portuguese is the language) he is a good example of a superstar who many Americans do not consider to be a superstar. The fact that few Americans think of Nene as a superstar is most likely the main reason why he was not able to get a contract from another team as much or more generous than the one eventually given to him by the Nuggets.

RAYMOND FELTON: GONE
Raymond Felton quit the Nuggets by demanding to be traded. He believes he is a starting point guard in the NBA and he believes he is better than actual 2011-12 Nuggets starting point guard Ty Lawson. But George Karl contended incorrectly that a favorite of his, the actual 2011-12 starting Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson, is better than Felton. And, remember, whatever Karl thinks goes in Denver whether it is right or wrong. Felton was and is completely correct and, thankfully, he was traded to the Portland Trailblazers (for Andre Miller) and is now the starting point guard for them.

CHRIS ANDERSEN: RETURNING
Andersen is under contract through 2012-13. Also, not only is Andersen a Karl favorite, he is even more so a fan favorite in Denver, so all in all there was never any doubt that Andersen would be back for 2011-12 regardless of how many other players left.

CARMELO ANTHONY: GONE
As has been reported extensively in previous Reports and summarized in this one, Anthony quit the Nuggets not only because but primarily because he concluded that it was extremely unlikely and possibly impossible that the Nuggets would ever win The Quest for the Ring during his basketball career. He wanted to go somewhere where the odds of winning a Ring would be substantially greater than approximately zero.

One detail that may not ever have been mentioned in any previous Report (and even if it was mentioned deserves another mention) is that Anthony was especially frustrated when the Nuggets failed to repeat in 2009-10 the ferocious and aggressive defending (aka the “football approach” to basketball) that they used in 2008-09 to reach the West Conference finals. While Anthony was frustrated, disappointed, and confused, QFTR was mostly just confused. Although we said you could not win The Quest for the Ring just doing that alone, we did go out of our way to point out all of the advantages of that strategy. Then the next year George Karl and the Nuggets inexplicably went back to a much more loose and a much less aggressive defending system. It was quite a surprise even if you are used to Karl making incorrect and inconsistent decisions. Before 2009-10 began, we thought for sure that the Nuggets would repeat that ultra aggressive defensive style. But they failed to do so, which in my judgment was the final straw for Anthony; after the Nuggets in 2009-10 relapsed to looser defending , especially in the paint, Anthony decided that he absolutely had to get out of Denver at all costs.

KENYON MARTIN: GONE
The injury plagued and aging power forward’s contract expired at the end of 2010-11 and the Nuggets never had any intention of giving him a new contract. Given how many injuries Martin has had and given the fact that he is in fact overrated (and the two issues are related) the Nuggets were smart to not try to keep Kenyon Martin. When the lockout froze out player / management negotiations, Martin ended up playing in China for 2011-12.

DANILO GALLINARI: RETURNING
This younger small forward was acquired from the Knicks in the Carmelo Anthony trade (and was technically Anthony’s primary replacement at the three-spot). Gallinari is contracted through and including 2012-13. So barring a trade (and the Nuggets were not really in the trading mode for off season 2011) it was always certain that Gallinari would be back for 2011-12.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: GONE
Chauncey Billups is now 35 years old which puts him in the primary retirement age range for guards (35 to 38 years old). He went to New York in the multi-player trade involving Carmelo Anthony. Very recently, he was waived by the New York Knicks to provide salary relief for the Knicks’ acquisition star and possibly superstar Center Tyson Chandler. According to someone reporting in Wikipedia, “the Los Angeles Clippers placed the winning bid for (Billups) rights on December 12, 2011. Billups had previously said he would consider retirement if a team claimed him instead of allowing him to clear waivers and sign with a contender.”

So in summary, more than half of the Nuggets’ 2010-11 superstars, four out of seven of them, are gone for 2011-12, which, not including any new superstars they might have, takes them from having seven of them to having just three of them: Nene, Chris Andersen, and Danilo Gallinari. Of these, Chris Andersen is now 33 years old which means he might not be able to repeat as a superstar this year. Danilo Gallinari may not be able to repeat because he was just barely a superstar in 2010-11 and also because in general it is relatively difficult for small forwards to be superstars. The most specific reason why Gallinari might fall short of being a superstar in 2011-12 is that Ty Lawson might not get the ball enough to him often enough for him to produce enough on offense.

The odds are that one of the two between Chris Andersen and Danilo Gallinari will fall a little short of superstar status in 2011-12. So most likely, the Nuggets start out with a base of two superstars (not counting any new player they have who ends up being a superstar). Two superstars is the typical number you see on:

--Losing teams (that are not among the very worst though)

--On teams that win roughly as many games as they lose

--On teams that get quickly bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

The bottom line is that the Nuggets have suffered a huge outflow of superstars, could easily now have fewer superstars than the average NBA team, and are therefore moving from the rich side of town to a much poorer side of town as far as superstars are concerned.

WHEN SUPERSTARS QUIT IT MEANS THE TEAM / FRANCHISE HAS FAILED
At the risk of stating the obvious, no pro sports team and franchise can have a bunch of superstar (or star if you think the word superstar is an exaggeration) players quit and be able to compete for a Championship any time soon after that. In fact, whenever you see a major superstar and/or several plain superstars demanding to be traded (or just quitting because their contracts are over with and so they are free agents and can simply quit and find another team) that is the sure fire signal that the team / franchise has failed and will have to reboot over three to five years rock bottom minimum before it will again be able to be a serious contender to win The Quest for the Ring. Superstar players very seldom make a mistake when they give up on a team / franchise. They are the canaries in the coalmine as the old saying goes. Teams that are serious contenders keep all or at least almost all of their superstars for many years during which time they remain serious contenders. Whereas, failed teams / franchises lose superstars who get out of town one way or another.

So therefore one of the most important things in The Quest for the Ring is: how do you keep all or at least almost all of your superstars (other than the ones you use in strategic trades)? Although that is not as difficult as you might think, it’s not a piece of cake either. You could write a book on that subject, which obviously is way beyond the scope of this Report.

What I want to stress here is that the Denver Nuggets are, as of right now, a clearly and obviously failed pro sports team and franchise. Mark Warkentien and other managers brought a large number of superstars on to the team from 2006 through 2010 yet the Nuggets were never among the real primary contenders, except arguably in 2009 when to make a long story short the Nuggets were surprisingly successful when they used what you might call a football approach to basketball. But there was no way they could actually have won the Quest in 2009, which is shown clearly by the fact that they were routed out of their own building by the Los Angeles Lakers when they were finally eliminated in the 2009 West Conference Final.

But as of now, in fact, the Nuggets must be an excellent textbook example of a failed team and franchise. And yes, as stated and proved in previous Reports and to some extent in this Report, the blame lies with the owners and, in this case, with the coach and the unofficial general manager, George Karl.

By the way and for the record, if anyone ever tells you that it is possible to win The Quest for the Ring with no superstars at all, tell him that he doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about. Even if you play the smartest basketball you possibly can, you have to have at least one superstar, rock bottom minimum. The best you can say about such a ridiculous claim that you could win a Championship with zero superstars is that the person who thinks they know of a team that won the Quest with no superstars is not counting at least one player as a superstar who actually was a superstar, due probably to that player (or those players) having low key or unpopular personalities and/or unpopular styles. It is a virtual 100% certainty that it is mathematically and literally impossible to win the Quest with zero superstars.

ARE THERE ANY NEW SUPERSTARS ON THE NUGGETS?
Let’s go on the hunt for new Nuggets superstars…..

First, although there was massive turmoil in the Nuggets between last year and this, there is one returning player who had a major role last year and will again have a major role this year: point guard Ty Lawson. In 2010-11 Lawson was fairly close to superstar status but not there. In 2011-12, if he gets better he will probably be a borderline superstar. How well Lawson does is the most important factor that will determine whether the Nuggets make the 2012 playoffs or not. If Lawson doesn’t get better the Nuggets will probably not even make the playoffs in 2012.

Next on the hunt for new Nuggets superstars, consider that the Nuggets acquired point guard Andre Miller from the Trailblazers for Raymond Felton. Miller will most likely back up Lawson even if he is technically better than him, mainly because Karl really likes Lawson’s style and personality but also because Miller is close to retirement. Although Andre Miller is traditionally a superstar, he has reached the age where it starts to be very, very difficult to maintain superstar status: Miller is now 35 years old. It’s very difficult to say for certain, but if forced to say I’ll say that Miller will probably just barely still be a superstar in 2011-12. So that’s one new one so far.

Let’s continue the hunt for more new Nuggets superstars….

On December 13, 2011, shooting guards Corey Brewer and Rudy Fernandez were traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Denver Nuggets for a future second round draft pick. As of that date, the Nuggets were in desperate need of shooting guards. J.R. Smith had quit the team and, as a result of the lockout, gone to China for 2011-12. And slightly above average shooting guard Aaron Afflalo and his agent were off trying to see if they could parley George Karl’s going crazy about him into a contract from a NBA team much larger than anyone including Afflalo himself ever thought he might get. So in other words, as of December 13, the Nuggets were still uncertain whether the Karl super favorite at the position, Aaron Afflalo would agree to sign a new contract with the Nuggets for the most that the Nuggets could possibly offer. No other team fell for George Karl’s exaggerated opinion of Afflalo and so no other team was willing to offer Afflalo a ridiculously generous contract. But even so, the Nuggets must have had some competition for Afflalo because they ended up offering Afflalo an extremely generous contract: $43 million over five years. (A ridiculously generous contract would have been 10 million dollars a year, for example, $50 million dollars over five years; $43 million is extremely generous but is just short of “ridiculously or insanely generous”).

Laugh out loud how Karl jacked up the cost for Afflalo. Now, thanks to Karl, Afflalo becomes one of the most overpaid players in basketball. For those who think ALL pro basketball players are overpaid, they will be able to say “I told you so” on nights when Afflalo scores 7 or 8 points in 32 minutes playing time and plays some decent defense but, nonetheless, the guards Afflalo guards score 20 points (meaning that Afflalo was minus 12-13 points head to head; and remember, he is making more than 8 million dollars a year!). But hey, George Karl loves him so who are we to judge.

Incidentally, if you are wondering who the Mavericks have at shooting guard for 2012 now that they traded Brewer and Fernandez to the Nuggets, aside from Jason Terry who traditionally plays major minutes, they now have Vince Carter from Phoenix and they also have young Dominique Jones who as of yet has not played much in the NBA.

So what about the Nuggets two new 2-guards they received from Dallas? Corey Brewer was a well below average shooting guard in both 2009-10 and in 2010-11. As of now this is not even a close call: he is not a superstar now and most likely will not be one for the foreseeable future. And unfortunately for Brewer, he will get little playing time since Aaron Afflalo will get a lot of it. This will make it difficult for Brewer to become a better shooting guard.

As for Rudy Fernandez, he was a well above average two-guard for the Portland Trailblazers but not really all that close to being a superstar. It is very unlikely (but technically possible) that he will now become a superstar for the Nuggets. Even if he does turn out to be better than Aaron Afflalo, he will most likely not get close to the playing time that Aaron Afflalo will be getting. Of course, you can bet that if Fernandez IS better than Aaron Afflalo but gets a lot less playing time then him, you will hear about it here at QFTR.

LONG SHOT HUNT: DO THE NUGGETS HAVE ANY SUPERSTAR ROOKIES OR NEAR ROOKIES?
Players who don’t play at least 300 minutes are (a) not very significant for the season and (b) are not eligible to get a Real Player Rating, which means we can’t officially say whether they are a superstar or not.

In general, rookies on a George Karl team are unlikely to get at least 300 minutes. George Karl is well known for generally being stingy to rookies and near rookies, especially forwards and centers. With guards he is stingy with rookies but arguably not so stingy with near rookies in their second years.

Whether rookie small forward Kenneth Faried (2011 Draft, Round 1, Pick 22, Nuggets) gets to play more than 300 minutes in 2011-12 is a crap shoot. Faried may possibly turn out to be this years’ Renaldo Balkman. That is, he may be that young but outstanding power forward who Karl refuses to play for some combination of stupid and incorrect reasons, resulting in the Nuggets having a poor paint defense which, in turn, will result in the Nuggets being uncompetitive in the playoffs (should they finish ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves and make the playoffs). On the other hand, if Karl likes Faried’s style and/or his personality, he probably will get more than 300 minutes.

If Faried does play at least 300 minutes, he probably won’t be a superstar simply because it is rare for rookie small forwards to be superstars. Also, the main point guard, Ty Lawson, probably won’t distribute the ball enough to Faried because Lawson will be taking the ball to the rim too much. Our best guess is that either Faried won’t play enough or that he will fall short of being a superstar in 2011-12.

Another rookie the Nuggets have is Jordan Hamilton (small forward aka “wing player”). Hamilton is probably not going to get much playing time under Danilo Gallinari. Although not a major superstar, Danilo Gallinari is a borderline one, is generally reliable, is only 23 years old and probably not peaked yet, is very well liked by George Karl, and is a fan favorite. For all of those reasons, Gallinari is going to get the bulk of playing time at the small forward position. Another problem for a small forward trying to get playing time on a George Karl team is that Karl has the bad habit of playing three guards at once (usually two points and one shooting). So all things considered, it is unlikely that Hamilton will play at least 300 minutes and get an official RPR rating. So Hamilton will lack both prior year experience and playing time this year. These are all reasons why it will be extremely difficult for Hamilton to be a superstar this year.

Moreover and generally, only a minority of eventual superstars are superstars when rookies (although most of the eventual historical and major historical superstars are superstars right from when they are rookies). Finally, remember that it is more difficult for shooting guards and small forwards to be superstars than it is for the other three positions. All things considered, it is a huge long shot that Hamilton will be a superstar in 2011-12.

Tomofey Mozgov from Russia came from the NY Knicks in the Carmelo trade and it is extremely unlikely that he will ever be a superstar center. He is overrated by Karl and by some (many?) of the rose colored glasses wearing fans of the Nuggets.

Kosta Koufas was not a superstar but was an above average player and played well for Utah in 2008-09. But in 2009-10, Koufas was not good at all for Minnesota. It is all but impossible that he will ever be a superstar center.

So now we have discussed the entire team and can sum up the superstar situation.

Last year, before the Carmelo Anthony trade, these were the superstars:

Nene Hilario
Chris Andersen
Carmelo Anthony
Kenyon Martin
Chauncey Billups.

After the Carmelo Anthony trade these were the superstars:

Nene Hilario
Raymond Felton
Chris Andersen
Kenyon Martin
Danilo Gallinari

After both the Carmelo Anthony trade and the 2011 off season here is the outlook for Nuggets superstars:

Nene Hilario will almost certainly be a superstar
Andre Miller is likely to be a superstar
Danilo Gallinari will probably be a superstar
Ty Lawson may or may not be a superstar; it is very difficult to predict.
Chris Andersen may or may not be a superstar; flip a coin on it.

So the bottom line (after the possibility of injuries is factored in) is that the Nuggets will most likely end up with between two and five superstars, with three probably being the most probable number. If they do end up with three, this would be two fewer than they had both before and after the Carmelo Anthony trade last year.

THE DEVASTATION COULD EASILY HAVE BEEN EVEN WORSE
The last phrase in the title of this Report is "and the Devastation Could Easily have been even Worse". How could it have been even worse than it was? Well, both Nene and Aaron Afflalo tried to get a generous contract from some other team before they signed with the Nuggets. Neither one of them were going to sign with Denver at all costs and either one of them or both of them would have bolted if they had snagged a big offer from another team. If another team had gone for and signed Nene, this would have been especially devastating for Denver; this would likely have resulted in the Nuggets becoming one of the worst teams in the League in 2012.

WILL GEORGE KARL BE HUMILIATED BY FINISHING BEHIND THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES?
The Denver Nuggets may or may not make the playoffs in 2012; it is most likely going to be a close call. If forced to say I would say that Denver will not make the playoffs in 2012. (Remember, QFTR does not make any official predictions and so that is just an unofficial prediction.)

Watch the race between the Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Northwest Division! The Nuggets will in fact most likely not make the playoffs if the Timberwolves get the best of them. While the Nuggets are obviously on the way down, the Timberwolves are obviously on the way up the ladder. QFTR is looking forward to finding out whether George Karl will be humiliated by the Timberwolves finishing ahead of his Nuggets in 2012.

Next up, we’ll look at exactly how the Timberwolves or anyone else can defeat the 2011-12 Denver Nuggets, even when they play with their big home court advantage in Denver.

Videos Break: 100 Ricky Rubio Videos

2011-12-15T20:53:00.006-05:00

Ricky Rubio (2009 Draft: Round 1, Pick 5, Timberwolves) is the new premier point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves and quite possibly someone who will in the coming years compete with the likes of Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo (and anyone else at Ricky Rubio’s level who might come along, but don’t hold your breath for that) for “Best Point Guard in the NBA”. Whenever you are bored with the same old same old this coming season, or just pissed that the Lakers had to trade Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks (yes, that Dallas!) for next to nothing (thus making it too easy for Dallas to get to the 2012 Championship because, for one thing, Odom should at the least offset the loss of center Tyson Chandler) consider checking out Rubio and the Timberwolves. They may not be winning many games, but it sure will be a great thing to watch.

As if Rubio alone is not enough to create a lot of good sparks flying in the air, the little 6 foot and zero inches tall point guard JJ Barea (the one who just helped Dallas win the Championship)has just signed with Minnesota. So now there will be two Spanish (latino? Whatever the correct ethnic designator might be) phenoms instead of just the one in the suddenly ultra interesting Minnesota backcourt. Alright, they don’t have a two guard to speak of, but again, we are not talking about winning a lot of games so much as we are talking about having the most promising young point guard show you how the position was meant to be played, and we are also talking about one of the most if not the most elusive guard showing you how you can be just 6 feet tall and still be one of the better guards in pro basketball. Think about it, historically speaking, how many teams have ever had a point guard tandem as interesting as Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea? Double team Rubio and Barea will rock your boat. And Kevin Love is there to get all the easy paint scores and almost every rebound available. So if you don’t catch some T-Wolves games you have just missed out on some basketball history.

The Quest for the Ring (QFTR) imports these 100 Ricky Rubio videos for your viewing enjoyment and, more importantly, because this shows you how a close to perfect point guard plays the game of basketball. Alright, true, from the pro playoffs perspective he’s not yet really close to perfect because he doesn’t have the massive amount of NBA experience that, for example, Jason Kidd has. But for someone new to the NBA who is 21 years old, he’s as close to perfect as you are going to get.

Thank God (or thank whoever is responsible for this mess if there is no God) that Rubio will be coached by Rick Adelman and not by some loser coach. What a horrible disaster it could easily be if Rubio were coached by Larry Brown, George Karl, or Erik "I don't really need a clearly defined point guard because I have LeBron James and Dywayne Wade" Spoelstra! In fact, Adelman, an older wise man who very well understands winning basketball offense in general and how the point guard should ideally function in a good basketball offense in particular, is one of the best experienced American pro basketball coaches you could think of to coach Rubio. So to Spaniards thinking that the Americans are going to screw the Rubio thing up: having Adelman as coach makes this much less likely! And George Karl will not be allowed to get anywhere near him, laugh out loud.

Now that I have big upped Adelman, he better not let me down and discriminate against the rookie from Spain for some illegitimate reason. I am going to be royally ticked off if Adelman does something very un-Adelman like. Specifically, Adelman needs to start Rubio unless the kid is getting mangled out there, which I doubt will happen. Remember, having in recent years discarded some decent point guards and been left with just lousy and old point guards, at this point, Minnesota has virtually nothing at the point besides the boy wonder. So therefore, Adelman has to during this coming season stand and deliver Rubio as a starting NBA point guard. Adelman can not hide behind a “point guard controversy” because there won’t be any. Even if Rubio doesn't start all the time, he has to get rock bottom minimum 20 minutes per game and he has to get interested in and play some defense or I am going to be very upset and I might take back all my praises AND cheat to make sure Adelman gets the worst Real Coach Rating next time, laugh out loud. (No, seriously, I won’t really cheat on Adelman’s rating even if he screws up the Rubio thing, because I will never cheat on anyone's rating, but I will be very royally ticked off and I will write about it for years to come and Adelman will never live it down!)

But again, and in all seriousness, if there is one coach you can trust to not screw up a point guard, it's Adelman. So Rubio fitting into the NBA nicely is most likely one thing that does NOT go wrong this year.

I for one will be checking out a few T-Wolves games this year.

THE FIFTY MOST RECENT RICKY RUBIO VIDEOS

iDesktop.tv

THE MOST RELEVANT FIFTY RICKY RUBIO VIDEOS

iDesktop.tv

NBA 2011-2012 Schedule in Excel in Two Versions: Plain and with Games Among the Primary Contenders Highlighted

2011-12-14T18:00:00.004-05:00

The Quest for the Ring (QFTR) presents the 2011-12 NBA Schedule in Excel. Here there are the two main versions: the Plain Version and the Highlighted Version. In future posts in the next few days QFTR (aka "The Real Zone") will present a few schedules where one specific team is highlighted.

The only difference between the two versions shown here is that the Highlighted Version has all games among the eight teams that are forecasted to be the primary contenders highlighted in orange. See below just above the highlighted version for what those teams are (or see them on the schedule itself). It is possible that one or more teams not currently among the primary contenders will become one after the season starts. If this happens, QFTR will if time permits change the highlighted schedule (by adding highlighting to the new primary contender and removing the highlighting from the team that is no longer a primary contender.)

Both versions show the schedule in four primary columns:
--Primary Column 1: December 2011 and January 2012 Games
--Primary Column 2: February 2012 Games
--Primary Column 3: March 2012 Games
--Primary Column 4: April 2012 Games

Within each of the primary columns there are these three secondary columns:
--Sub Column 1: There are date headers and for every game the two teams playing using the format Road Team at Home Team are shown.

--Sub Column 2: Under the header "TIME" the game start time using Eastern Time is shown for every game. If you have not memorized the US time zones, see the conversions to the other zones at the top of some of the primary columns.

--Sub Column 3: Under the header "TV" the national television network that is covering the game is shown if there is one. Only a small percentage of games are covered by a national television network (but many of the most important games are). Most games that are not broadcast by a national network are broadcast regionally or locally. In the TV column, for games that are broadcast only regionally or locally there is always a blank space. Note that some or all ESPN games are also available on the Internet on ESPN 3.

Thank you for visiting QFTR, the Site that explains how playoff games and Championships are won and lost, AND the Site that gives you basketball information that you were not supposed to know. Remember, to avoid losing out on future production you should definitely bookmark the page you are on right now: www.nuggets1.blogspot.com QFTR is NOT on Twitter or Facebook or any other silly and very limited platform because we have better things to do and because we do not waste time trying to get cheap and fleeting traffic. QFTR currently appears surprisingly well in Google search results, but those results change from time to time for reasons that are generally not known to the general public. So its possible that QFTR will become hard to find using Google Search in the future. So therefore, if you are serious about basketball, it is highly recommended that you bookmark QFTR (www.nuggets1.blogspot.com) and then use your bookmark to visit from time to time.

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE BY QFTR IN EXCEL VERSION ONE: PLAIN

The version just below here is the Highlighted Version and it highlights in orange all the games among these eight primary contenders:

Boston Celtics
Chicago Bulls
Dallas Mavericks
Los Angeles Lakers
Miami Heat
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
San Antonio Spurs

2011-12 NBA SCHEDULE BY QFTR IN EXCEL VERSION TWO: GAMES AMONG PRIMARY CONTENDERS HIGHLIGHTED

Washington Wizards Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-11-27T17:37:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON WIZARDS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to ANDRAY BLATCHE who lead the Wizards in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to JOHN WALL who produced more than any other player on the Wizards 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
None

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Andray Blatche
John Wall
JaVale McGee

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Rashard Lewis
Kirk Hinrich

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 5

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
John Wall

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
JaVale McGee

WASHINGTON WIZARDS 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

Andray Blatche 0.795
John Wall 0.774
JaVale McGee 0.774
Rashard Lewis 0.744
Kirk Hinrich 0.720
Gilbert Arenas 0.670
Trevor Booker 0.646
Cartier Martin 0.642
Nick Young 0.608
Al Thornton 0.596
Hilton Armstrong 0.575
Jordan Crawford 0.547
Yi Jianlian 0.499
Josh Howard 0.436
Maurice Evans 0.405
Kevin Seraphin 0.304

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.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS 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

John Wall 2017.12
Andray Blatche 1726.25
JaVale McGee 1696.34
Nick Young 1236.23
Kirk Hinrich 1059.47
Rashard Lewis 754.28
Trevor Booker 687.16
Al Thornton 637.65
Yi Jianlian 554.80
Gilbert Arenas 486.70
Jordan Crawford 474.63
Cartier Martin 348.07
Maurice Evans 288.15
Hilton Armstrong 236.84
Kevin Seraphin 193.29
Josh Howard 178.50

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
WASHINGTON WIZARDS 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

John Wall 0.498
Gilbert Arenas 0.459
Kirk Hinrich 0.457
Nick Young 0.404
Jordan Crawford 0.399
Andray Blatche 0.394
Trevor Booker 0.359
Rashard Lewis 0.354
JaVale McGee 0.323
Al Thornton 0.322
Maurice Evans 0.316
Cartier Martin 0.303
Yi Jianlian 0.205
Kevin Seraphin 0.199
Josh Howard 0.192
Hilton Armstrong 0.153

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

WASHINGTON WIZARDS 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

JaVale McGee 0.451
Hilton Armstrong 0.422
Andray Blatche 0.401
Rashard Lewis 0.390
Cartier Martin 0.339
Yi Jianlian 0.294
Trevor Booker 0.287
John Wall 0.276
Al Thornton 0.274
Kirk Hinrich 0.263
Josh Howard 0.245
Gilbert Arenas 0.211
Nick Young 0.204
Jordan Crawford 0.148
Kevin Seraphin 0.105
Maurice Evans 0.088

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.

Utah Jazz Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-11-27T14:00:00.001-05:00

UTAH JAZZ FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to DERON WILLIAMS who lead the Jazz in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to AL JEFFERSON who produced more than any other player on the Jazz in 2010-11.

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

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
DERON WILLIAMS

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Paul Millsap
Jeremy Evans
Al Jefferson

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
C.J. Miles

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Earl Watson
Andrei Kirilenko

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 7

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Deron Williams

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Kyrylo Fesenko

UTAH JAZZ 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

Deron Williams 0.966
Paul Millsap 0.869
Jeremy Evans 0.868
Al Jefferson 0.853
C.J. Miles 0.785
Earl Watson 0.741
Andrei Kirilenko 0.730
Francisco Elson 0.662
Derrick Favors 0.629
Devin Harris 0.613
Kyrylo Fesenko 0.534
Ronnie Price 0.459
Gordon Hayward 0.400
Raja Bell 0.368

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.

UTAH JAZZ 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

Al Jefferson 2507.43
Paul Millsap 2264.65
Deron Williams 1940.61
C.J. Miles 1546.43
Andrei Kirilenko 1459.78
Earl Watson 1160.79
Raja Bell 772.65
Gordon Hayward 487.51
Francisco Elson 404.06
Jeremy Evans 401.70
Ronnie Price 328.81
Devin Harris 324.70
Derrick Favors 279.24
Kyrylo Fesenko 243.67

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
UTAH JAZZ 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

Deron Williams 0.791
Devin Harris 0.523
Al Jefferson 0.518
Paul Millsap 0.514
Jeremy Evans 0.487
C.J. Miles 0.418
Andrei Kirilenko 0.407
Derrick Favors 0.369
Earl Watson 0.366
Gordon Hayward 0.293
Raja Bell 0.259
Francisco Elson 0.234
Ronnie Price 0.158
Kyrylo Fesenko 0.102

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

UTAH JAZZ 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

Kyrylo Fesenko 0.433
Francisco Elson 0.428
Jeremy Evans 0.380
Earl Watson 0.375
C.J. Miles 0.367
Paul Millsap 0.355
Al Jefferson 0.334
Andrei Kirilenko 0.323
Ronnie Price 0.301
Derrick Favors 0.260
Deron Williams 0.175
Raja Bell 0.110
Gordon Hayward 0.107
Devin Harris 0.089

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.

Toronto Raptors Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-11-27T13:02:00.001-05:00

TORONTO RAPTORS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to JOSE CALDERON who lead the Raptors in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to JOSE CALDERON who produced more than any other player on the Raptors 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
Jose Calderon
Joey Dorsey

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Amir Johnson
Julian Wright

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
None

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 4

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Jose Calderon

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Joey Dorsey

TORONTO RAPTORS 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

Jose Calderon 0.868
Joey Dorsey 0.865
Amir Johnson 0.773
Julian Wright 0.760
Jerryd Bayless 0.688
Ed Davis 0.650
James Johnson 0.635
Reggie Evans 0.622
Leandro Barbosa 0.613
Jarrett Jack 0.591
Andrea Bargnani 0.590
DeMar DeRozan 0.567
Linas Kleiza 0.509
Sonny Weems 0.412

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.

TORONTO RAPTORS 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

Jose Calderon 1824.57
DeMar DeRozan 1616.00
Amir Johnson 1432.22
Andrea Bargnani 1387.69
Ed Davis 1041.12
Jerryd Bayless 926.31
Leandro Barbosa 854.85
Julian Wright 582.51
Sonny Weems 581.79
Linas Kleiza 525.14
Reggie Evans 496.42
Joey Dorsey 451.28
James Johnson 443.58
Jarrett Jack 205.17

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
TORONTO RAPTORS 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

Jose Calderon 0.675
Jerryd Bayless 0.522
Leandro Barbosa 0.469
Amir Johnson 0.468
Andrea Bargnani 0.445
Jarrett Jack 0.414
DeMar DeRozan 0.392
Ed Davis 0.356
James Johnson 0.348
Sonny Weems 0.307
Julian Wright 0.266
Linas Kleiza 0.264
Joey Dorsey 0.247
Reggie Evans 0.215

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

TORONTO RAPTORS 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

Joey Dorsey 0.617
Julian Wright 0.495
Reggie Evans 0.407
Amir Johnson 0.305
Ed Davis 0.294
James Johnson 0.286
Linas Kleiza 0.245
Jose Calderon 0.193
Jarrett Jack 0.177
DeMar DeRozan 0.174
Jerryd Bayless 0.166
Andrea Bargnani 0.145
Leandro Barbosa 0.144
Sonny Weems 0.104

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.

San Antonio Spurs Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-11-24T23:47:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-24T20:36:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-24T11:32:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-22T17:41:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-22T11:03:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-21T10:35:00.009-05:00

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

2011-11-20T20:44:00.012-05:00

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.

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) Investigates: Did Dwyane Wade Intentionally Injure Rajon Rondo in the 2011 Playoffs?

2011-10-07T17:25:00.006-04:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) was looking forward to a Boston Celtics versus Chicago Bulls East Final in 2011 but that was derailed when Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo’s elbow was fairly badly injured with a dislocated left elbow as a result of him being recklessly knocked down to the hardwood by Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat in quarter three of game three of the Boston-Miami East semifinal series. And that ended any chance of a Boston-Chicago series. After that it was going to be Miami-Chicago. And then Chicago blew that series making the 2011 playoffs even more disturbing than they already were.

As for Rondo, shockingly (but if you know Rondo not surprisingly at all) he played out much of the rest of the series despite the fairly bad injury. Of course, Rondo lost use of his left arm and had it wrapped in a sleeve and hanging lifeless by his side, but play on he did. Everyone knew the Celtics didn’t have a chance in hell to win the series without Rondo and since Rondo refused to wave the white flag after being injured no one was going to stop the Leagues’ first or second best point guard with the massive heart from continuing to play even after the injury. But as you would expect he was subsequently less than half as effective as he would have been had the incident not happened.

In this Report we investigate whether Wade intentionally tried to injure Rondo and as a result very possibly cost the Celtics the series (allowing Wade’s Heat team to win a series it would have lost otherwise).

To say the least, these two players are not your everyday run of the mill players. We’ll start by showing you the sky high Real Player Ratings of the two players we are talking about.

2010-2011 REAL PLAYER RATINGS OF THE PLAYERS INVOLVED
Dwyane Wade >>>
He is officially a shooting guard but used to be a point guard in college and so in the NBA he is also known unofficially as a combo guard (shooting guard / point guard).

--Overall 1.072 (Historical superstar)
--Offense .652
--Defense .420

Rajon Rondo >>>
He has been for several years one of the very best point guards in the League (probably the second best behind Chris Paul to be exact)

--Overall 1.080 (Historical superstar)
--Offense .619
--Defense .460

Note how razor tight the Ratings for these two ended up; they finished with almost the exact same overall Rating.

It’s no secret that QFTR thinks that Rajon Rondo is the ultimate, near perfect point guard, but as always QFTR will be fair and will look at everything involved in this incident fairly and objectively. And for the record, QFTR would like to see BOTH Dwyane Wade AND Rajon Rondo, both of whom have won the Quest for the Ring once already, win it at least one more time before they retire from basketball.

Now let’s find out about motivations Dwyane Wade had (or at least might have had) to try to get rid of Rondo. He had at least four big to huge reasons to seek to injure Rondo. To be fair to Wade, remember as you read these that just because someone has reasons to play dirty or commit a crime, it doesn’t automatically follow that the person actually did play dirty or commit a crime. So these are reasons Wade MIGHT have used to justify trying to get rid of Rondo. I am not right at this moment and nor should you be right here and now reaching a verdict until all of the evidence has been heard and seen.

GET RID OF RONDO POSSIBLE MOTIVATION ONE: BOSTON ALMOST CERTAINLY CAN NOT WIN THE SERIES WITHOUT RONDO
First, to state the obvious, Rondo was one of the three historical superstars on the Boston Celtics (along with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce). Anytime an historical superstar is eliminated from a playoff series due to injury (and assuming no other injuries on either team) there is a strong probability that that players’ team no longer has any chance of winning the series. In Rondo’s case this was especially obviously the case (that Boston would not have a chance without him) because it was obvious that Boston Coach Doc Rivers and the Celtics were very heavily relying on Rondo’s absolute cream of the crop point guard play to run the offense. Whereas Miami was badly organized offensively in general and at point guard in particular, Boston was the opposite.

Losing Rondo would be devastating to Boston. Without Rondo, Boston’s offense would be rendered somewhere between much less competitive at best and completely ruined at worse. The midpoint of that range would be the most likely result of Rondo being eliminated and that midpoint could be described as “far less competitive” or by the single word “crippled”. So to be clear, if Rondo were knocked out of the series, the Celtics’ offense would be far less competitive than it was supposed to be and so therefore Boston would now very likely lose the series.

Rondo’s backup was undersized, defensive liability Nate Robinson who Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers did not trust at all to run the badly in need of a good, real, point guard Celtics offense. Whereas, if Rondo were not injured, Boston could easily have come back and won the series despite having fallen behind two games to none after playing the first two games in Miami. It would not have been the first time Boston had come back in a series in recent years. In fact, the Celtics have had a bad habit of falling behind in playoff series by one or by two games only to win them later on.

Incidentally, The Celtics also in recent years have had a bad habit of losing regular season games to mediocre and bad teams and therefore losing home court advantage in playoff series. They could have had home court advantage against Miami in 2011 but they blew it by losing several regular season games that they obviously should have won.

GET RID OF RONDO POSSIBLE MOTIVATION TWO: WITH RONDO GONE, WADE’S PERSONAL JOB WOULD BECOME FAR EASIER
The second huge motivation Wade had to try to knock Rondo out the series was more personal and direct. As you can see from the Real Player Ratings above, both of these players are outstanding guard defenders. But note that Rondo is an even better defender than is Wade. Rondo is one of the very best guard defenders in the NBA. As you might expect, Rondo was often guarding Wade in this series. Wade expertly mixes drives with jumpers and about the only thing that can possibly force him to have a not so great game is one of the best guard defenders in the League. Regardless of what you finally believe about this incident, you have to admit that Wade must have been worried that Rondo would eventually force him to have at least one sub par game and that (b) even just one of those might cost Miami the series.

So a very possible second motivation for Wade to have tried to intentionally injure Rajon Rondo was that if Rondo were out of the series, it would be far, far easier for Wade to dominate offensively and to personally and directly make sure that Miami would win the series. Boston had no other guard defender remotely as good as Rondo. Rondo’s backup Nate Robinson is almost worthless as a defender compared with Rondo. With Rondo out, Wade knew that he could practically (and perhaps literally) win a game or two by himself.

GET RID OF RONDO POSSIBLE MOTIVATION THREE: WADE KNEW THAT WITH RONDO AROUND THE CELTICS WOULD WIN AT LEAST THREE GAMES IN THE SERIES
Even though at the time that Wade took down Rondo Miami was leading two games to none, due to winning games one and two in Miami, Boston was up 60-50 in game three in Boston, with seven minutes to go in the third quarter. If a team has scored only 50 points half way through the third quarter, that team has been locked down offensively (or at least almost locked down). Boston was clearly on their way to a home win based first and foremost on their stifling home court defense but based secondly on Rondo’s absolute top of the line point guard play. Then they would most likely win game four at home to even the series two games a piece, setting up a grueling six or seven game series where Miami would most likely have to win BOTH game five and game seven in Miami in order to beat Boston. Why? Because Boston would very likely have won all three of their home games (games three, four, and six of the series) using the stifling defense and Rondo heroics to do so.

If you have any doubts about this, consider how the regular season games went:

Tuesday, Oct 26: Boston beats Miami in Boston 88-80
Thursday, Nov 11: Boston beats Miami in Miami 112-107
Sunday, Feb. 13: Boston beats Miami in Boston 85-82
Sunday, Apr. 10: Miami beats Boston in Miami 100-77

In each of the two regular season games in Boston, Miami’s offense was shut down completely (relatively speaking; it is impossible to literally completely shut down a basketball offense). When a defense limits the other team to less than 85 points you can say that the other team has been shut down or locked down. There is a big difference between, say, 84 points and 92 points and smart, experienced players such as Wade know all about it: allowing 92 points is decent defense but allowing 84 points is very impressive, lock down defense where the game is completely won with defense (except in the rare case where both teams are holding each other under 85 points).

Obviously Dwyane Wade was fully aware that the Heat had been locked down (or shut down) by the Celtics in both of the regular season games. And the Heat were at the time that Wade went after Rondo being locked down once again. The bottom line point is, the Heat were being locked down by the Celtics’ defense every single time they were playing in Boston, with no exceptions. Miami’s offense simply could not function competitively in Boston! So obviously Wade might be motivated to try to unlock the Miami offense by trying to get rid of Rondo.

If the Heat were doomed to lose three games in Boston, they would be in substantial jeopardy of losing the series. If Boston won all three home games, they could win the series by winning game five in Miami OR by winning game seven in Miami.

GET RID OF RONDO POSSIBLE MOTIVATION FOUR: WADE HAD TO AT LEAST REACH THE NBA FINALS OR HE WOULD LOSE SOME REPUTATION (AND LOSE A HUGE ONCE IN A LIFETIME) OPPORTUNITY
The third motivation Wade had to try to knock Rondo out of the series was that if Rondo and the Boston Celtics had defeated Wade and the Miami Heat in the East semifinals, then it would be true that the Heat never even reached the East final (let alone the NBA final) despite having three major superstars on their team: Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh. (Note that Bosh was a superstar with a Rating of .962 in 2010-11; he was not quite an historical superstar with a rating over 1.000. But on the other hand, Bosh could easily be an historical superstar were LeBron James not on the team getting some rebounds and scores that Bosh would otherwise have made.)

THE EVIDENCE
To convict someone of a crime you show evidence and you show motivation. We have shown way more than enough motivation for Wade to have intentionally tried to get rid of Rondo. Now we have to show you the evidence. That evidence is embarrassingly easy to get our hands on; it’s sitting at YouTube!

As you can see, Wade clearly made some kind of a “hardwood tackle” on Rondo. The announcer instantly stated: “And then Wade pulls down Rondo!” He twisted Rondo down toward the floor creating an awkward fall trajectory for Rondo. At a bare minimum this was a flagrant foul.

THE KEY QUESTION
There is a key question to look at to try to figure out whether Wade was committing a dirty flagrant foul; whether he was rolling the dice and hoping that Rondo would be injured and mostly or completely knocked out of the series.

Did Wade think Rondo had any chance to get the ball before it went out of bounds? If he did then you might make the case that Wade was just getting rough to make sure that Rondo was prevented from chasing after the loose ball. If Rondo did get the ball before it went out of bounds then Miami would lose possession to Boston and more importantly it would have most likely have been a steal / fast break / easy score for Rondo and the Celtics. If instead the ball goes out of bounds than Miami gets the ball back and Rondo gets neither a steal nor a score.

When you look at the video you can easily see that there is no way anyone including Rondo could possibly have run down and stopped the ball from going out of bounds. The ball went out of bounds quickly because it moved at a sharp angle toward the sideline. Had the ball not been at any angle to the sideline but instead have been heading straight back to the baseline at the opposite end of the court (in which case it could have been chased down) Wade might have been justified in getting rough while boxing out Rondo.

Now you have to understand that a superstar guard in the NBA can instinctively tell at least roughly what the trajectory and the speed of a loose ball is in general and also what the angle to the sideline is (which determines whether there is a chance someone can stop it from going out). A basketball is easy to see with peripheral vision and superstar guards are obviously experts in perceiving where loose basketballs are heading. I don’t see how it’s possible that Wade did not know that the ball was going out of bounds regardless of whether Rondo was able to go after it or not.

Also, even if Wade mistakenly thought that there was a chance that Rondo could have prevented the ball from going out of bounds (and could have completed a steal) instead of committing a rough or flagrant foul Wade could have pivoted around and gone after the ball himself. Had he done that, at the least Wade would have reached the ball at the same time Rondo did, and could have at the least tied the ball up for a jump ball. The bottom line is that Wade was not justified and this is true whether what he did was just a rough foul or was an attempt to injure Rondo and eliminate him from the series.

THE VERDICT
It’s obvious that Wade is fiercely competitive and was going all out in 2011 to try to win The Quest for the Ring for the second time in his career. Wade is ultra competitive; he may be the most fiercely competitive guard in the League. I actually felt a little sorry for the guy when he was the only superstar on Miami (before LeBron James and Chris Bosh arrived). In those days Wade would play lights out, leaving everything out on the court but Miami would lose because, well, they just didn’t have enough star power.

True, superstars need to be very competitive. But if they take it too far (and get carried away and become insanely competitive) then they can end up playing dirty and violating the rules. In sports you are a loser if you violate the rules whether you have technically won or not. In life you are a loser if you commit crimes whether you have a lot of money or not.

QFTR concludes that Dwyane Wade got carried away and went after Rondo in a way that created the possibility that Rondo would be injured and knocked out of the series. At a minimum it should have been a major flagrant foul (and not just a measly ordinary foul which is what it actually was called as; what a joke that was). More realistically, it was a dirty, unsportsmanlike play because by throwing Rondo down so that Rondo went down with no balance Wade had to know at least unconsciously that Rondo could be injured. Again, superstar guards in the NBA understand the difference between awkward, unbalanced crashes to the floor and balanced ones. Superstar point guards are not idiots or morons and they know about different kinds of falls and how some kinds of falls create far higher chances of injuries than other kinds.

Anyone can be motivated by good or by bad (or in more complicated situations, sometimes by both at once). In this case, Wade was making a super human effort in the series and he got carried away. And he had all kinds of motivations to want Rondo out of the series. When he got carried away, Wade ended up motivated by bad factors. And so we strongly think that Wade did in fact go after Rondo in a way where at least unconsciously and very possibly consciously he was trying to injure Rondo and knock him out of the series.

I hope you don’t need me to state the obvious, but just in case, it’s bad (and against the rules in every single sport) to intentionally try to injure someone so that the competition will be over and the winner by default will be the one who violated the rules and violated sportsmanship in general. If it were in the rules of basketball that it was alright to try to injure someone then (a) I wouldn’t be doing basketball and (b) I would be covering the collapsing of the labor market, the economy, and the stock market (not that little old me would be able to stop any of those things from collapsing).

It is clearly possible that superstar basketball players might try to intentionally injure another superstar player. This is an incident where that happened.

In a perfect world Wade would have been thrown out the series and Boston might have been able to win the series even with Rondo hobbled. Of course, Boston might have lost the series even if Wade had been thrown out the series, because without Rondo at full strength, the Celtics were absolutely shrunk to midget status offensively. Rondo was (and presumably still is) that good.

What actually happened was that although Rondo returned to game three (lifeless, dangling left arm and all) and although Boston doggedly won game three, the Celtics lost the next game, game four, in overtime at home. Now they were behind three games to one. It was then easy for Miami to beat Boston with Rondo still badly banged up in game five in Miami. So thanks to Wade's successful attempt to get Rondo banged up, a series that had "Boston wins in six" or at least "Boston wins in seven" all over it instead ended up to be a depressing Miami four games to one thing.

EDITORIAL NOTES
First, don’t jump to any false conclusions about how QFTR has once again failed to deliver a promised Report. The promised super important Report about 2011 Quest winning Dallas Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle is still coming. This Report was a less complicated subject I have wanted to cover for many months. Producing this gets me “back in the flow,” or in other words warned up to produce the bigger and more complicated Report on Carlisle.

Technically and editorially speaking, this was a “now for something new and unusual” type of posting. Assuming that more incidents of this type happen in the future, we hope to have time to cover them just as we did this one. We’ll probably headline all the postings of this type “Intentional Injury or Not?” types of Reports. In this type of Report, we will carefully investigate whether a top NBA player, one good enough to help earn Championships on his own, tried to intentionally injure another top NBA player standing in his way.

As with all new kinds of Reports, there is the risk that we will never have the time to produce a lot more of them. But if there is a major incident where the outcome of a playoff series was very likely changed, we will move heaven and earth to try to make the time, I guarantee you that. Regardless of how many of these we produce in the future, this particular Report will undoubtedly be an all-time classic of its type.

The Return of QFTR: What's Cooking at one of the World's Most Sophisticated and Important Basketball Sites

2011-10-03T11:49:00.010-04:00

Quest for the Ring (QFTR) the Site that explains in detail how high level basketball games are won and lost) is gradually coming back to life during October 2011 after a shutdown that lasted about 2 1/2 months. October will be a partial return and things will probably be kind of sluggish in October. But by sometime in the first half of November 2011 QFTR will be back to producing at standard speed. By sometime in the second half of November or at the very latest by the first of January 2012 QFTR will be in overdrive (producing at about 25% higher than standard speed). Overdrive will continue until the entire production deficit is wiped out. We strongly suspect that we will be able to wipe out the deficit by the end of 2012. So in other words 2012 is scheduled to be a very, very productive year here at QFTR, both because we are more productive than ever and because production time will be 25% higher than before.

Unlike previous temporary shutdowns, this time the exact reasons for the shutdown were posted; see them in this Report. As with previous temporary shutdowns, the reasons for the shutdown were (a) completely beyond our control (meaning we are not in any way responsible!) and were (b) due to the failure of others to produce a competent, reliable service or product and were (c) due to losses and threats and mayhem created in the wake of the failures. To put it simply and using an analogy, there were big or huge messes created that we had to clean up.

HIGH LEVEL TEXT REPORTS
QFTR is introducing a new designator for the type of Report that (a) is at the very core of the reason for being of the Site, that (b) is ultimately the most important type of Report that we do (but keep in mind that there are other types of Reports that themselves are more important and useful than anything you see on most other basketball sites) and that (c) we wish we had far, far more time to produce. This type of Report is non-formatted and basically consists of text discussion supplemented by evidence. The evidence is often mathematical / statistical in nature.

As you are probably already aware, what we are doing with this project is determining and explaining exactly how basketball games (especially high level ones) are won and lost. So the type of Report referred to here is one that directly discusses the latest information we have about that core mission.

The new designator will be “High Level Text Report” or HLTR for short. In the future, if time ever permits we might go back into the archives and label the existing HLTRs as such. Google blogger has a built in labeling system that has never been used by QFTR and we are gradually building up motivation to spend a lot of time to retroactively use it.

However, anyone who is smart enough to read an HLTR is also smart enough to find them on his or her own right now. Lists of titles can be used to spot HLTRs and we have several lists of titles systems in place. Or, smart people can use the Google custom search; there are about four search boxes scattered throughout the QFTR home page. Although I can’t guarantee anything regarding Google Search and although in the early years Google completely ignored QFTR, in the last 18 months or so Google has been indexing many QFTR reports into the Google search engine, meaning I presume that the results you get from a custom search are much better now than they used to be.

If it were me looking for stuff I would use BOTH lists of titles AND Google custom search to find what I was looking for at QFTR. For example, after looking through some title lists I might type “point guard” into a custom search box and go from there. On another occasion, I might type “reserves” to see what QFTR has reported about non-starters. On another occasion, I might type “good coaching”. On another occasion, I might type “bad coaching”. And so on and so forth.

Again, HLTRs are NON-formatted (or free-flowing if you prefer). Formatted Reports are very carefully designed, hard wired presentations of information, generally statistical in nature. Real Player Ratings, Real Team Ratings, and Real Coach Ratings are the most important and most common types of formatted Reports. Formatted Reports efficiently and effectively feature a very large amount of information in a small amount of space.

Before we get back to regularly scheduled Reports there will be a High Level Text Report (HLTR) on Rick Carlisle.

SORRY HATERS, BUT QFTR WAS NOT CALLED INTO QUESTION WHEN CARLISLE WON THE 2011 QUEST
One annoying thing about both high level projects in general and about your writer/producer’s production experiences in particular is that things happen on a regular basis that at first glance seem to call into question the whole validity of the project. For many years, I have been thinking of myself as having the “worst luck of anyone”. And also, as being “the victim of my own success”.

For example, we had the 2009 “George Karl miracle” where seemingly by dumb luck Karl and the Nuggets stumbled onto a half way decent strategy and won two playoff series even though we had predicted that he would not win any playoff series that year (back before we realized that no one can possibly reliably predict the future in that way).

What just happened last year is another perfect example. In late 2010 we produced (at very high time cost by the way) and posted a much improved Coach Rating System, backed up by more hard information than ever. With great fanfare, it was reported that there was another current NBA head coach besides George Karl who has a track record as a terrible playoffs coach. And it was Rick Carlisle! Yes, that Rick Carlisle, the one who months later swept one of the all time best basketball coaches Phil Jackson and went on to win the 2011 NBA Championship! And QFTR reported about seven months prior to that that Carlisle was just about the worst playoffs coach in the NBA!

So doesn’t that mean that QFTR is worthless and should be shut down? No, only in the dreams of the haters does that make QFTR worthless.

QFTR CAN NOT BE AND IS NOT IN THE OFFICIAL PREDICTIONS BUSINESS
QFTR is mostly out of the prediction business, not because we don’t stand by our ratings but because the ratings can not officially or automatically predict the future. Players, coaches, managers, and owners sometimes change their ways, sometimes for the worse but more often for the better. Every single rating report we put out tells you how the player, coach, team, manager, or owner did for the time period covered, up to the present. At one time we thought it might be possible, but QFTR no longer pretends to know what is going to happen in the future.

Although basketball is more complicated than most people think it is, it is not so complicated that players, coaches, teams, managers, or owners can not change their ways and suddenly start to win games that they used to lose. Keep in mind that the core objective of QFTR is to tell people exactly how games and playoff series are won and lost. So the whole idea is to get the players, the coaches, the teams, the managers, and the owners who are doing the wrong thing(s) to change their ways and start doing the right thing(s). So for example if a player with a low Real Player Rating or a coach with a low Real Coach Rating changes what he is doing and becomes a much better player or a much better coach than that is exactly what QFTR wants to happen. If players and coaches were rarely going to change QFTR would be much less valuable, but players and coaches can and do change.

We can not and do not pretend to know which players and coaches are going to be smart enough to optimize their games or their coaching in the future. For one thing, we don’t really have any idea how smart these players and coaches are. For example, there have been numerous debates at QFTR headquarters about how smart or dumb Carmelo Anthony is, laugh out loud. And about how smart or dumb LeBron James is, and so on and so forth.

We pretty much know what the CURRENT basketball IQs of Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James etc. are (which by the way puts us way ahead of most other basketball sites) but we can’t predict how those IQs will be changing in the future because for one thing, whether a basketball IQ will go up or not in the future depends on how smart in general someone is and we just don’t have enough solid information on that. I mean, we might think that LeBron James is kind of dumb overall, but we don’t know exactly how dumb he is, and because as mentioned previously basketball is complicated but not extremely complicated, even a relatively dumb but very experienced basketball player might be able to play smarter in the future (because experience playing and winning and losing the game can teach someone the realities and the "secrets" of the game). And the same applies to coaches.

For another thing, we don’t really have any idea whether if those players and coaches and managers and owners did read QFTR whether these people would believe the information or not. (We provide more than enough evidence for everything we claim but chances are you would not believe how many doubting Thomas’s and haters there are out there). Finally, even if a player or coach or manager or owner reads QFTR and believes it, that still doesn’t guarantee they are going to change their ways. They might stick with doing things the wrong way because they think they can’t successfully change, or because they are worried that if they do change they will end up with less playing time, and/or a lower salary, and/or or a greater chance of being traded or fired.

The point is, making predictions about how players or coaches or teams or managers or owners are going to change for the better or worse in the future is a mostly hopeless venture. Back in the early days of QFTR, it was nice to dream that you could predict some of this, but the reality is that you can not very successfully predict any changes in these people and teams.

So official, valid predictions are extremely difficult and so QFTR is just about completely and totally out of the official predictions business. The User Guides to the various QFTR Ratings Reports remind users that players, coaches, teams, managers, and owners can and do change so that the Reports are historical summaries and are not intended to be used for future predictions.

UNOFFICIAL PREDICTIONS
Of course, having said that, the Reports often do accurately and actually predict the future; for example, players with very high Real Player Ratings continue to be very good players in the years that follow. And QFTR can not resist the temptation to unofficially predict the future from time to time. But over the years we have gradually reduced the number of unofficial predictions that me make. We generally only predict the future when we know for sure that a player, coach, team, manager, or owner is so dumb or so stuck in a rut that he, she, or it will not be making any changes for the better (or worse) for the foreseeable future.

RICK CARLISLE
Therefore, when Rick Carlisle won the 2011 Quest for the Ring there was no hand wringing and there were no discussions at QFTR about “what went wrong” or about how QFTR should be shut down. Nothing went wrong because (a) the Real Coach Rating Report in question was the situation as it existed at the time and was not intended to precisely or automatically or officially predict the future and (b) Rick Carlisle could and actually did have a very different team in 2011 than he did in the years when he lost playoff games that he should have won and (c) Rick Carlisle could and actually did change his coaching from when he was losing games he was supposed to win to 2011.

As previously mentioned, before we get back to regularly scheduled Reports we will treat ourselves and our readers to a particularly important High Level Text Report (HLTR) on Rick Carlisle. We are determining and will be reporting exactly how Rick Carlisle’s 2011 Dallas Mavericks team was different from his 2002 Detroit Pistons team when Carlisle lost a series to the Boston Celtics 4-1 that he should have won by about 4-3. And we are determining and will be reporting exactly how Rick Carlisle changed his coaching from the one year and team to the other.
So we are actually quite happy that the Real Coach Rating Report from late 2010 reported Carlisle as almost as bad as George Karl and then nevertheless Carlisle won the 2011 Quest. This allows us to efficiently and effectively make progress on the core mission: to explain exactly how high level basketball games and playoff series are won and lost. So don’t miss the Report on Rick Carlisle that will be posted in early October.

RICK CARLISLE VERSUS GEORGE KARL
The Real Coach Ratings Report from late 2010 identified Rick Carlisle and George Karl as the worst playoffs coaches in the League: two peas in a pod statistically. But had we been asked at the time for an official statement, we would have stated that we are virtually 100% certain that George Karl can not possibly win the Quest but that we can’t know with that kind of certainty whether Carlisle will ever win the Quest or not. There is a very simple reason for this. At that time (and to a lesser extent right now) we knew George Karl in much more detail than we knew Rick Carlisle. So we would have said (and indirectly did say in the User Guide) that it is quite unlikely but not at all impossible that Carlisle will someday win the Quest.

So in general we can not and do not make official predictions. The one current exception is that, yes, we unofficially AND officially predict that George Karl can not ever and will not ever win The Quest for the Ring. At the moment, Karl is the only player, coach, manager or owner for which we will issue that statement. In the future, expect that it will be as rare as it is now. It’s not only that we know exactly what Karl does wrong. It’s also that we know Karl well enough to know that he REJECTS the strategies and tactics that allow players and teams and teams to win The Quest for the Ring. And we know that Karl is very stubborn about his beliefs in this area. Unless Karl radically changes (which is close to impossible) he will continue to follow bad and inferior strategies and tactics and will continue to refuse to follow good strategies and tactics for as long as he works in basketball. Right now we can’t say anything like that about any other coach.

By the way and for the record, at this point, QFTR has already in five years been so useful and successful overall that there is probably nothing that could happen (short of the end of the world or at least the end of the US) which would warrant even a discussion about shutting QFTR down. Not so long ago, specifically when the Denver Nuggets were chock loaded with offensive talent (before most of them left town for one reason or another) QFTR was theoretically in some jeopardy, but at this point, even if George Karl did win The Quest for the Ring we would most likely NOT shut down QFTR.

THE RETURN OF QFTR: REPORTS ON THE WAY
When the shutdown struck we were roughly two thirds of the way through posting the final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings by team. We will soon be posting the remaining teams (the ones alphabetically following Oklahoma Thunder). Besides those team Ratings Reports, we will be posting, during October and into November as necessary:

--How Dallas Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle Went From Worst to First

--Real Player Ratings for NBA Players League Wide, Final 2010-11 Ratings

--Total Real Production of NBA Players League Wide, Final 2010-11 Ratings

--NBA Players Rated and Ranked by the Real Quality of Their Offense, 2010-11 Season, League Wide

--NBA Players Rated and Ranked by the Real Quality of Their Defense, 2010-11 Season, League Wide

--NBA Point Guards Final Real Player Ratings and Real Player Production, 2010-11

--NBA Point Guards Final Offensive and Defensive Sub Ratings, 2010-11

--NBA Shooting Guards Final Real Player Ratings and Real Player Production, 2010-11

--NBA Shooting Guards Final Offensive and Defensive Sub Ratings, 2010-11

--NBA Small Forwards Final Real Player Ratings and Real Player Production, 2010-11

--NBA Small Forwards Final Offensive and Defensive Sub Ratings, 2010-11

--NBA Power Forwards Final Real Player Ratings and Real Player Production, 2010-11

--NBA Power Forwards Final Offensive and Defensive Sub Ratings, 2010-11

--NBA Centers Final Real Player Ratings and Real Player Production, 2010-11

--NBA Centers Final Offensive and Defensive Sub Ratings, 2010-11

ENTIRE PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SLASHED AND BURNED!
I am happy to report that whatever needed to be cut in other Quest Internet projects (up to and including entire projects) has been cut to pave the way for the full preservation of this project. I’ll be damned if the failures of electric power, computer systems and services, or even the collapse of parts of society are going to leave me with no Internet production at all. I take a lot from the Internet and one way or another I am going to give something valuable back.

So welcome back y’all to Quest for the Ring (QFTR): “The World’s Most Sophisticated Basketball Site”.

POST SCRIPT
I am so happy that so many Nuggets players have escaped the George Karl trap. But J.R. Smith took it a little too far for my tastes by escaping the whole freaking country. He went to China. What bugs me is that since China likes to hide things and since I don't know Chinese I tend to doubt I am going to be able to track exactly how Smith is doing over there. (But if anyone among those who can't understand Chinese can dig that up it will be me). But I was looking forward to tracking J.R. Smith on a NBA team other than the Denver Nuggets and now I get denied that anticipated delight. So I am a little pissed, but just a little because at least he escaped George Karl, laugh out loud.

Specifically What Caused the Temporary Shutdown of QFTR

2011-09-18T14:06:00.003-04:00

In the last year your Quest for the Ring (QFTR) writer/producer has been absolutely hammered with damage and losses caused by failures of organizations it depends on. As always it could have been even worse, but the last 12 months have been really, really nasty bad. Unlike with previous temporary shutdowns, this time I am going to be more specific about the causes. I owe that to the three regular readers (laugh out loud, and seriously, I think I actually have more than that many).

The biggest culprits this time have been the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the electric utility company which services QFTR headquarters.

THE IRS FIASCO
The IRS has been grossly incompetent in dealing with fraudulent tax returns filed electronically by criminals using stolen names, social security numbers and birth dates. Remarkably, the IRS has been seen to be treating completely fraudulent tax returns, ones for which there is no backup documentation and which are backed up by nothing in the real world, as legitimate, valid returns, for more than a year after their filing. In other words, even when there is no documentation or real world facts to back up anything at all on the fraudulent return filed by the criminal, the IRS has persisted in treating that return as legitimate and valid for more than a year.

So the IRS (and thus the US government) has been ripped off by the criminals, who have combined cyber crime, identity theft, and old fashioned fraudulent document filing to rip off the hapless and easily duped IRS. More specifically, the IRS has been duped into sending "refunds" to criminals based on completely false returns that are not backed up by anything (for example, not backed up by 1099 forms).

Then the IRS to some extent has tried to hound the identity theft victims (including your QFTR writer/producer) to pay them back for their mistakes. But if the victim pays, not only is he paying for something he or she doesn’t owe for, but worse, fraud investigators and prosecutors might use that as evidence that the victim is actually the criminal (because he or she is acknowledging ownership of the return by paying on it). So in that scenario he or she might possibly be falsely prosecuted for the crimes.

So if you are ever the victim if identity theft in general and of tax return identity theft in particular, my strong advice (and I am an accounting and economics professional by the way) is that you do not make any payments related to the fraud(s). More broadly, you should never do anything that might be construed as you acknowledging that you have something to do with the fraudulent filing(s). To say anything more about what to do in the event if identity theft would be well beyond the scope of even this comment and it would be even more grossly off the topic of basketball than we already are.

As of right now the ball is completely in the IRS' court. What we are investigating at the moment is whether the IRS will stoop to the level of demanding that a victim of identity theft will be demanded to pay for two different tax returns for the same year, one of them completely fraudulent and filed by a criminal. That is, the victim has at this point filed a real, legitimate, correct tax return and has paid his taxes in full. Even after the real, legitimate return has been filed and paid for, will the IRS persist in demanding to be compensated for money that the criminal ripped off from the IRS due to the gross incompetence of the IRS? The jury is still out as to whether they will stoop that low or not.

As a result of all of this IRS incompetence, more than 100 hours of work was needed for investigation, research, and reporting on the incidents, the incompetence of the IRS, and the resulting threats of additional mayhem. These hours had to be stolen in the short term from other projects. They were mostly stolen from QFTR because the other projects were already mostly shut down due to having to babysit other organizations and due to the overall and general lack of sufficient time for all of the projects.

THE ELECTRICITY FIASCO
In general the US electric system is breaking down due to it becoming too old to be reliable and due therefore to inadequate maintenance, updating, and improvements. Electric utility companies (like so many other large corporations) are sitting on huge amounts of money rather than investing in maintenance and upgrades needed to maintain the quality service standards of the past. As a result and in general, in many parts of the country, power outages that have nothing to do with storm damage are becoming more and more frequent.

So the other thing that forced the 2011 shut down of QFTR was the electricity fiasco. The electric company servicing QFTR headquarters has failed to provide reliable electrical service. There were dozens and dozens of power outages that had nothing to do with bad weather.

In general the US electrical system is old and fairly badly maintained, but even so, it is incredible how many power outages there actually have been at QFTR HQ from October 2009 through August 2011. To be exact, in these 22 months there were 32 power outages with at most five of these caused by bad weather. So there have been about 27 power outages in 22 months caused by lack of maintenance and lack of investment in new equipment. This is a rate of almost 15 power outages per year NOT caused by bad weather.

The number of outages was far in excess of anything I thought could happen. As a result, numerous power outages ended up causing a large scale data loss. Fortunately, heroic efforts prevented the loss of most of the most important data of all. It was a big disaster instead of a catastrophe. With a catastrophe, you are not talking about a temporary shut down but rather a long term shutdown (more than a year) and possibly a permanent shutdown.

Since I could not tolerate the actual data loss without an extraordinary response, QFTR had to be temporarily shut down (for about three months) so that full attention could be paid to the restoration of the lost data.

HOW EXACTLY DID THE POWER OUTAGES CAUSE THE LOSS OF THE DATA?
Hard drives (both internal and external) are subject to ruination when they are subjected to repeated power outages. But interestingly, some hard drives are much more resilient against power outages than others. Some hard drives keep on working more or less normally after 30, 40, even 50 power outages. Other hard drives will after several dozen outages develop so many "bad sectors" that the operating system will no longer be able to read the data, which means you have lost access to your data (which means you have lost the data even though it is technically still there).

YOU DIDN’T BACK UP YOUR DATA?
The majority of the data was backed up and not subject to loss. As for what was not backed up, I wasn't born yesterday, so I will be the first to admit that if I had had a strict, rigorous, and very expensive (in terms of time needed) backup system I could have dodged most or all of the data loss. I plead guilty to having had a relatively lazy data backup system. To oversimplify a little, I was procrastinating regarding backing up newer data. I was caught "holding the bag".

But the backup system I had was plenty good enough to deal with anything short of dozens and dozens of power outages and sudden, catastrophic hard drive failure. The latter is pretty rare (although I confess I don't know exactly how rare sudden, catastrophic hard drive failure is.) Before a hard drive fails completely mechanically, it will usually give off at least a few signs of distress, giving you time to get any newer data you don't yet have backed up backed up.

So bottom line, I was nailed by about the only thing that I could have been nailed by: numerous failures of the electric company to keep the power running 24/7. Historically, in most populated places in the US, the only time the power ever failed was during storms. Now, more and more the power is failing on beautiful sunny days. I paid the price for that failure of the US electric companies to invest enough to keep the power running 24/7 (except for storms).

So there you have it, a completely specific account of who and what forced QFTR to suspend for a few months in 2011.

THE UPS: WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
UPS usually refers to package delivery in those brown trucks, but it can also refer to an electronics product called uninterruptible power supply. These things feature a battery which keeps the power running to your computer equipment when the electric power fails. I use one of these now and will always be using one in the future. I should have had a UPS installed a long time ago; it probably would have prevented the data loss.

But again, for at least the 55 years 1950-2005 electric power was almost perfectly reliable in most of the US. How was I supposed to know that the age of reliable electric power in the US was and is coming to a close? Now I know and I am proceeding under the assumption of unreliable power.

Also, you generally can NOT buy a $125 to $175 UPS (which is what you need to spend) at Wal-Mart Stores. This means by definition that they are not popular products. This in turn means that most people are like I was until recently: completely in the dark about just what kind of threat the increasing failure of the US electric system is. Trust me, if you run any kind of “IT operations,” you probably need a UPS.

THE COMEBACK
Data recovery and data reconstruction have gone along very efficiently, more efficiently than expected. More than 2/3 of the lost data has already been reconstructed!

The temporary shutdown of QFTR may possibly have been dumb from the narrow short term perspective, but it was very smart thing to do medium and long term. The medium and long terms matter a lot more than the short term. Had the data recovery and the development of the data loss prevention system been strung out over many more months than it will be (so that the shutdown could be made very short) the total amount of time needed for it would have been far more. Concentrating fully on data recovery in the three months after the loss allowed for very high efficiency in reconstructing that lost data.

Having said that, as a result of the IRS, the electrical failures (and a few smaller factors that are not being mentioned here) QFTR is as of now way, way behind in its quota. I'll give you the exact number: QFTR is 181 hours behind right now. That's really bad but it's not as bad as it may look. As long as other projects are slashed and burned, and they are being slashed and burned, that 181 hours will be made up by about the end of 2012 if not sooner.

And yes, there is a production quota for QFTR. I realize that many people think quotas are stupid or that they don't work or whatever, but in fact they do work and in fact they work especially well when you have to deal with disasters. (But George Karl's monthly win quotas don't work so well, laugh out loud). Specifically, I know right now exactly how far behind I am for producing QFTR content. How the hell would I know this if I didn’t have a quota?

If I didn't have the quota system then most likely QFTR would have been permanently cheated.

As a result of knowing just how far behind I am, I can come up with a comeback plan that makes the best sense. I can gauge what other projects need to be cut back, suspended, or permanently eliminated.

OTHER PROJECTS GET SLASHED AND BURNED TO CLEAR THE WAY FOR QFTR
And understand this, I am 100% committed to keeping QFTR at the top of the Internet production heap, meaning that other Internet projects are being cut back, suspended indefinitely, and permanently terminated so that the path is clear for QFTR to get the resources it needs for a complete recovery. In other words, I will and I am slashing everything I have to slash and burn so as to make absolutely certain that I will be able to close the QFTR quota deficit in months rather than years. I don't have an exact recovery schedule as of yet, but I fully expect that I will be able to have QFTR completely recovered by about the end of 2012.

What that means is that during late 2011 and in 2012, QFTR production will be in overdrive; it will appear to be a project even bigger than it actually is. In turn, this means that I will have time to do things in 2012 that normally I would not have. In turn, this means that yours truly will be reporting on the lockout more extensively than I would have had the shutdown not happened. I mean, I would have been forced to report on it in any event, but the way the production parameters will play out will mean that I will be reporting on it more extensively than I would have.

SO WHEN IS THE SHUTDOWN GOING TO FREAKING END ALREADY???
And when is the freaking NBA lockout going to end already? I'm not sure about the lockout, and even more scandalously, I'm not sure at this moment exactly when the QFTR shutdown is going to freaking end. The data loss has been largely reversed, but now a new, far more expensive (in terms of time) data loss prevention system needs to be fully installed and implemented. At this moment the new data protection system itself is mostly completed. If it were just that, QFTR would be back today. But the implementation of the system (which comes with a really huge time price tag) is not close to being done yet.

So right now there is a raging debate about whether the data loss prevention system needs to be 100% completed and mostly implemented before QFTR comes back online, or whether things will work out alright if QFTR comes back into active production while the data loss prevention system work is done. A decision on that is expected by the end of September. Depending on exactly what is decided, QFTR will come back to full life sometime between September 24 and November 1, 2011. It's more likely that it will be earlier in that time frame than later.

To make sure there is no misunderstanding: it doesn’t matter what happens with the NBA lockout. Even in the worse case scenario, where the entire freaking season is cancelled (but trust me, that almost certainly is not going to happen) QFTR will come back to more than full production. Even if there is no season at all QFTR will still have more stuff it would like to do than it has time for. Regardless of what exactly is going down with the NBA, QFTR always has a long list of projects we want to do, the majority of which we don't have any time for.

As with previous shutdowns, when QFTR returns it will be bigger and better than ever before.

PS: FOOTBALL IS HERE
I can't resist watching some football today even though they still have their asinine pass catch rule in effect (that a catch is a catch only if the style of the catch is alright) Wrong. A catch is a catch even if a little bobbling of the ball is needed to complete the catch. Ugly catches are still catches. The receiver should not have to be close to perfect. If he has substantial control and possession than it is a catch. Style points should not count.

Music Videos Break: Two Hundred Michael Jackson Music Videos

2011-08-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

MICHAEL JACKSON MEMORIAL LATEST VIDEOS PLAYER

iDesktop.tv

MICHAEL JACKSON MEMORIAL MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER

iDesktop.tv

MICHAEL JACKSON LATEST VIDEOS PLAYER

iDesktop.tv

MICHAEL JACKSON MOST POPULAR VIDEOS PLAYER

iDesktop.tv

Another One of Those Temporary Shut Downs; We Will be Back Soon

2011-07-26T23:20:00.002-04:00

Sometimes a FILD event causes a suspension of Quest for the Ring (QFTR). A FILD event is when one rotten thing leads to another and the end result is a big mess that yours truly has to clean up quickly. A FILD event consists of:

--A series of failures (of others and/or of myself, mostly others) leading to...

--A situation or context of incompetence where what you expected you were accomplishing (or in other words what capability you thought you had) turns out to be much or far less than you thought. This often leads to...

---Losses; you lose something or things that you were counting on. This could be money, computer data, anything you were counting on. Suddenly you don't have things due to the failures and the incompetence. This sometimes leads to...

--A disaster situation. A disaster is where the losses are large scale and/or the losses can not be tolerated.

In summary a FILD is:

Failures >>> Incompetence >>> Losses >>> Disaster

Humans seem to have a great deal of difficulty avoiding FILDs. And sometimes they overreact or react in the wrong way to them.

It's the large scale / intolerable losses that cause the disruption to normal operations. I don't know about you but I get really really ticked with losses (which is one of the reasons I am very well qualified to write the Site that tells you exactly how pro basketball games are won and lost, laugh out loud).

I am a very possessive son of a gun. So in the wake of losses I insist on getting a project underway to recover the losses relatively quickly, which can easily be a project so big that temporary shutdown of normal operations is necessary. When the going gets tough the tough get going, you know.

So here in late July 2011 QFTR had to be suspended due to a nasty FILD event. The good news is that today it started to become apparent that the shutdown will be shorter than the 1 1/2 months that was originally forecast. The thinking before today was that the suspension would last until about Labor Day in early September. Now the thinking is that QFTR will be back up and running around August 15, maybe even a week earlier. If we can get back underway by mid August then the shutdown will end up having been less than one month. So this will be a damaging shutdown but not as bad as originally forecast, and not as bad as FILD shutdowns in prior years.

There is never a good time for a suspension but QFTR suspensions always seem to occur at the worst possible times (which is probably an illusion to some extent, and there is never a good time of course). Mid summer is supposed to be when the League-wide Real Player Ratings are posted in various formats, which are arguably the most important posts of the year. This year those super key posts will be delayed from late July to about late August.

IN THE LONG RUN THIS MEANS NOTHING
In the long run suspensions mean nothing because QFTR is produced according to a time budget and the deficit that piles up from a suspension is gradually worked down in the ensuing months. By about the end of 2011 or early in 2012 latest, we will catch up with the production quota and everything will be as if this suspension never happened. Even so, I am sorry I had to suspend QFTR for a few weeks.

As always, QFTR will survive all trials and tribulations. See y'all soon and happy summer to everyone.

Oklahoma Thunder Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-11T06:00:00.008-04:00

OKLAHOMA THUNDER FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to RUSSELL WESTBROOK who lead the Thunder in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to KEVIN DURANT who produced more than any other player on the Thunder in 2010-11.

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

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
RUSSELL WESTBROOK

SUPER STARS
KEVIN DURANT
SERGE IBAKA

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Nazr Mohammed
James Harden

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Eric Maynor
Nick Collison

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Daequan Cook
Kendrick Perkins

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 9

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Russell Westbrook

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Kendrick Perkins

OKLAHOMA THUNDER 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

Russell Westbrook 1.059
Kevin Durant 0.997
Serge Ibaka 0.907
Nazr Mohammed 0.893
James Harden 0.836
Eric Maynor 0.800
Nick Collison 0.764
Daequan Cook 0.739
Kendrick Perkins 0.721
Jeff Green 0.595
Thabo Sefolosha 0.581
Nenad Krstic 0.528

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.

OKLAHOMA THUNDER 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

Kevin Durant 3029.08
Russell Westbrook 3016.13
Serge Ibaka 2009.95
James Harden 1830.17
Thabo Sefolosha 1191.07
Nick Collison 1164.86
Jeff Green 1080.37
Eric Maynor 960.40
Nenad Krstic 537.11
Daequan Cook 441.69
Nazr Mohammed 383.16
Kendrick Perkins 309.20

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
OKLAHOMA THUNDER 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

Russell Westbrook 0.745
Kevin Durant 0.609
Eric Maynor 0.460
James Harden 0.453
Nazr Mohammed 0.395
Serge Ibaka 0.378
Daequan Cook 0.371
Jeff Green 0.350
Nenad Krstic 0.337
Nick Collison 0.300
Thabo Sefolosha 0.240
Kendrick Perkins 0.138

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

OKLAHOMA THUNDER 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

Kendrick Perkins 0.583
Serge Ibaka 0.529
Nazr Mohammed 0.498
Nick Collison 0.465
Kevin Durant 0.388
James Harden 0.383
Daequan Cook 0.368
Thabo Sefolosha 0.341
Eric Maynor 0.340
Russell Westbrook 0.314
Jeff Green 0.245
Nenad Krstic 0.190

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.

New York Knicks Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-10T06:00:00.001-04:00

NEW YORK KNICKS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to CARMELO ANTHONY who lead the Knicks in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to AMARE STOUDEMIRE who produced more than any other player on the Knicks in 2010-11.

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

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
CARMELO ANTHONY
AMARE STOUDEMIRE

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Toney Douglas
Raymond Felton

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Chauncey Billups
Anthony Carter
Ronny Turiaf
Bill Walker

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Wilson Chandler

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 9

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Carmelo Anthony

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Bill Walker

NEW YORK KNICKS 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

Carmelo Anthony 0.926
Amare Stoudemire 0.908
Toney Douglas 0.863
Raymond Felton 0.851
Chauncey Billups 0.816
Anthony Carter 0.800
Ronny Turiaf 0.793
Bill Walker 0.788
Wilson Chandler 0.744
Landry Fields 0.680
Danilo Gallinari 0.642
Shawne Williams 0.633
Roger Mason 0.551
Timofey Mozgov 0.521
Jared Jeffries 0.478

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.

NEW YORK KNICKS 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

Amare Stoudemire 2606.28
Raymond Felton 1765.59
Landry Fields 1728.27
Toney Douglas 1700.38
Wilson Chandler 1309.03
Danilo Gallinari 1072.22
Carmelo Anthony 904.89
Ronny Turiaf 904.63
Shawne Williams 837.41
Bill Walker 617.49
Chauncey Billups 541.72
Anthony Carter 247.86
Timofey Mozgov 238.74
Jared Jeffries 221.14
Roger Mason 175.74

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
NEW YORK KNICKS 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

Carmelo Anthony 0.675
Chauncey Billups 0.672
Raymond Felton 0.638
Amare Stoudemire 0.579
Toney Douglas 0.512
Danilo Gallinari 0.445
Wilson Chandler 0.436
Anthony Carter 0.348
Landry Fields 0.348
Ronny Turiaf 0.344
Shawne Williams 0.324
Bill Walker 0.310
Roger Mason 0.230
Timofey Mozgov 0.215
Jared Jeffries 0.157

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

NEW YORK KNICKS 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

Bill Walker 0.478
Anthony Carter 0.451
Ronny Turiaf 0.449
Toney Douglas 0.351
Landry Fields 0.332
Amare Stoudemire 0.329
Roger Mason 0.321
Jared Jeffries 0.321
Shawne Williams 0.309
Wilson Chandler 0.308
Timofey Mozgov 0.306
Carmelo Anthony 0.251
Raymond Felton 0.213
Danilo Gallinari 0.197
Chauncey Billups 0.144

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.

New Orleans Hornets Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-09T06:00:00.003-04:00

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to CHRIS PAUL who lead the Hornets in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to CHRIS PAUL who produced more than any other player on the Hornets in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
CHRIS PAUL

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
DAVID WEST

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Marcus Thornton

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Emeka Okafor

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Jarrett Jack

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 5

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Chris Paul

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 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

Chris Paul 1.210
David West 0.959
Marcus Thornton 0.870
Emeka Okafor 0.803
Jarrett Jack 0.756
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 0.697
Jason Smith 0.662
Carl Landry 0.634
Trevor Ariza 0.625
Aaron Gray 0.603
Quincy Pondexter 0.600
Willie Green 0.598
Marco Belinelli 0.565

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.

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 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

Chris Paul 3485.51
David West 2350.16
Emeka Okafor 1837.55
Trevor Ariza 1625.13
Marco Belinelli 1105.28
Jarrett Jack 1040.06
Willie Green 1001.43
Jason Smith 729.47
Marcus Thornton 647.99
Quincy Pondexter 440.68
Carl Landry 381.60
Aaron Gray 320.13
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 230.07

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 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

Chris Paul 0.790
David West 0.522
Jarrett Jack 0.452
Carl Landry 0.401
Marcus Thornton 0.360
Marco Belinelli 0.350
Willie Green 0.306
Emeka Okafor 0.278
Jason Smith 0.269
Trevor Ariza 0.243
Aaron Gray 0.240
Quincy Pondexter 0.224
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 0.152

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

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS 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

Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 0.545
Emeka Okafor 0.525
Marcus Thornton 0.509
David West 0.437
Chris Paul 0.421
Jason Smith 0.393
Trevor Ariza 0.382
Quincy Pondexter 0.376
Aaron Gray 0.363
Jarrett Jack 0.304
Willie Green 0.293
Carl Landry 0.233
Marco Belinelli 0.215

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.

New Jersey Nets Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-08T06:00:00.016-04:00

NEW JERSEY NETS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to DEVIN HARRIS who lead the Nets in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to BROOK LOPEZ who produced more than any other player on the Nets 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
Devin Harris
Deron Williams
Kris Humphries

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Jordan Farmar

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Ben Uzoh
Brook Lopez

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 6

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Deron Williams

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Damion James

NEW JERSEY NETS 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

Devin Harris 0.842
Deron Williams 0.839
Kris Humphries 0.833
Jordan Farmar 0.770
Ben Uzoh 0.756
Brook Lopez 0.740
Derrick Favors 0.675
Damion James 0.672
Johan Petro 0.666
Anthony Morrow 0.557
Sasha Vujacic 0.537
Quinton Ross 0.457
Travis Outlaw 0.447
Stephen Graham 0.217

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.

NEW JERSEY NETS 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

Brook Lopez 2136.71
Kris Humphries 1717.00
Devin Harris 1451.82
Jordan Farmar 1383.62
Travis Outlaw 1052.87
Anthony Morrow 1034.57
Sasha Vujacic 855.44
Derrick Favors 736.66
Johan Petro 595.14
Deron Williams 382.69
Ben Uzoh 330.21
Damion James 270.64
Stephen Graham 207.73
Quinton Ross 161.23

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
NEW JERSEY NETS 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

Deron Williams 0.697
Devin Harris 0.628
Jordan Farmar 0.521
Brook Lopez 0.485
Ben Uzoh 0.441
Sasha Vujacic 0.385
Kris Humphries 0.380
Anthony Morrow 0.377
Derrick Favors 0.285
Johan Petro 0.249
Travis Outlaw 0.220
Damion James 0.171
Stephen Graham 0.141
Quinton Ross 0.109

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

NEW JERSEY NETS 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

Damion James 0.500
Kris Humphries 0.453
Johan Petro 0.417
Derrick Favors 0.390
Quinton Ross 0.348
Ben Uzoh 0.315
Brook Lopez 0.255
Jordan Farmar 0.249
Travis Outlaw 0.227
Devin Harris 0.215
Anthony Morrow 0.180
Sasha Vujacic 0.151
Deron Williams 0.142
Stephen Graham 0.076

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.

Minnesota Timberwolves Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to KEVIN LOVE who lead the Timberwolves in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to KEVIN LOVE who produced more than any other player on the Timberwolves in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
KEVIN LOVE

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
None

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
None

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Luke Ridnour

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Anthony Tolliver
Anthony Randolph

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 4

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Kevin Love

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Kevin Love

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 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

Kevin Love 1.103
Luke Ridnour 0.767
Anthony Tolliver 0.751
Anthony Randolph 0.700
Michael Beasley 0.681
Darko Milicic 0.617
Sebastian Telfair 0.563
Wesley Johnson 0.523
Corey Brewer 0.518
Nikola Pekovic 0.482
Jonny Flynn 0.465
Lazar Hayward 0.459
Martell Webster 0.458
Wayne Ellington 0.441
Kosta Koufos 0.416

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.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 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

Kevin Love 2881.02
Luke Ridnour 1656.93
Michael Beasley 1608.53
Wesley Johnson 1081.38
Darko Milicic 1040.16
Anthony Tolliver 1023.11
Corey Brewer 705.70
Wayne Ellington 521.16
Martell Webster 500.92
Jonny Flynn 457.51
Nikola Pekovic 427.18
Sebastian Telfair 399.94
Anthony Randolph 324.15
Lazar Hayward 192.15
Kosta Koufos 139.74

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 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

Kevin Love 0.644
Luke Ridnour 0.537
Michael Beasley 0.424
Anthony Randolph 0.411
Anthony Tolliver 0.381
Sebastian Telfair 0.377
Martell Webster 0.340
Lazar Hayward 0.317
Wesley Johnson 0.291
Nikola Pekovic 0.283
Jonny Flynn 0.280
Wayne Ellington 0.277
Darko Milicic 0.239
Corey Brewer 0.213
Kosta Koufos 0.183

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

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 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

Kevin Love 0.459
Darko Milicic 0.378
Anthony Tolliver 0.370
Corey Brewer 0.305
Anthony Randolph 0.289
Michael Beasley 0.257
Kosta Koufos 0.233
Wesley Johnson 0.232
Luke Ridnour 0.230
Nikola Pekovic 0.199
Sebastian Telfair 0.185
Jonny Flynn 0.185
Wayne Ellington 0.165
Lazar Hayward 0.141
Martell Webster 0.118

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.

Milwaukee Bucks Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

MILWAUKEE BUCKS FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to EARL BOYKINS who lead the Bucks in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to ANDREW BOGUT who produced more than any other player on the Bucks in 2010-11.

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

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
None

SUPER STARS
EARL BOYKINS
ANDREW BOGUT

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Drew Gooden
Brandon Jennings

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
Ersan Ilyasova
John Salmons
Carlos Delfino

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Luc Mbah a Moute

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 8

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Earl Boykins

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Andrew Bogut

MILWAUKEE BUCKS 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

Earl Boykins 0.967
Andrew Bogut 0.928
Drew Gooden 0.863
Brandon Jennings 0.844
Ersan Ilyasova 0.806
John Salmons 0.790
Carlos Delfino 0.770
Luc Mbah a Moute 0.722
Keyon Dooling 0.691
Corey Maggette 0.648
Chris Douglas-Roberts 0.647
Larry Sanders 0.602
Jon Brockman 0.597

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.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS 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

Andrew Bogut 2131.60
John Salmons 2018.59
Brandon Jennings 1829.85
Luc Mbah a Moute 1511.58
Carlos Delfino 1225.00
Keyon Dooling 1214.62
Ersan Ilyasova 1213.39
Corey Maggette 907.34
Earl Boykins 833.98
Drew Gooden 742.22
Chris Douglas-Roberts 571.81
Larry Sanders 525.36
Jon Brockman 404.27

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
MILWAUKEE BUCKS 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

Earl Boykins 0.568
Brandon Jennings 0.458
Corey Maggette 0.408
Drew Gooden 0.399
Keyon Dooling 0.396
John Salmons 0.366
Ersan Ilyasova 0.358
Carlos Delfino 0.329
Andrew Bogut 0.298
Chris Douglas-Roberts 0.295
Jon Brockman 0.253
Luc Mbah a Moute 0.250
Larry Sanders 0.177

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

MILWAUKEE BUCKS 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

Andrew Bogut 0.630
Luc Mbah a Moute 0.473
Drew Gooden 0.464
Ersan Ilyasova 0.449
Carlos Delfino 0.441
Larry Sanders 0.425
John Salmons 0.424
Earl Boykins 0.400
Brandon Jennings 0.385
Chris Douglas-Roberts 0.352
Jon Brockman 0.344
Keyon Dooling 0.295
Corey Maggette 0.240

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.

Miami Heat Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-04T18:00:00.003-04:00

MIAMI HEAT FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to LEBRON JAMES who lead the Heat in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to LEBRON JAMES who produced more than any other player on the Heat in 2010-11.

KEY PLAYERS (above the NBA average)
MAJOR HISTORIC SUPER STARS
LEBRON JAMES

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
DWYANE WADE

SUPER STARS
CHRIS BOSH

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
None

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
None

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Eddie House
Udonis Haslem
Mario Chalmers

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS AVAILABLE AS OF NOW FOR THE PLAYOFFS: 6

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
LeBron James

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
LeBron James

MIAMI HEAT 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

LeBron James 1.255
Dwyane Wade 1.073
Chris Bosh 0.961
Eddie House 0.722
Udonis Haslem 0.713
Mario Chalmers 0.713
Zydrunas Ilgauskas 0.691
Erick Dampier 0.654
James Jones 0.640
Juwan Howard 0.558
Carlos Arroyo 0.542
Joel Anthony 0.532
Mike Miller 0.483
Mike Bibby 0.434

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.

MIAMI HEAT 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

LeBron James 3843.82
Dwyane Wade 3029.63
Chris Bosh 2685.57
Mario Chalmers 1125.47
James Jones 991.31
Zydrunas Ilgauskas 791.12
Joel Anthony 778.33
Eddie House 705.75
Carlos Arroyo 539.41
Erick Dampier 533.20
Mike Miller 404.86
Juwan Howard 330.44
Mike Bibby 252.36
Udonis Haslem 246.10

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
MIAMI HEAT 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

LeBron James 0.747
Dwyane Wade 0.652
Chris Bosh 0.471
Eddie House 0.355
Carlos Arroyo 0.334
Mario Chalmers 0.320
Zydrunas Ilgauskas 0.315
James Jones 0.309
Udonis Haslem 0.297
Mike Bibby 0.291
Mike Miller 0.258
Juwan Howard 0.222
Erick Dampier 0.161
Joel Anthony 0.140

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

MIAMI HEAT 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

LeBron James 0.508
Erick Dampier 0.493
Chris Bosh 0.490
Dwyane Wade 0.420
Udonis Haslem 0.417
Mario Chalmers 0.393
Joel Anthony 0.392
Zydrunas Ilgauskas 0.375
Eddie House 0.366
Juwan Howard 0.336
James Jones 0.331
Mike Miller 0.225
Carlos Arroyo 0.208
Mike Bibby 0.142

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.

Memphis Grizzlies Final 2010-11 Real Player Ratings

2011-07-04T06:00:00.004-04:00

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2010-11 Season
Congratulations and respect are due to ZACH RANDOLPH who lead the Grizzlies in quality basketball in 2010-11.

Congratulations and respect are due to ZACH RANDOLPH who produced more than any other player on the Grizzlies in 2010-11.

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

HISTORIC SUPER STARS
ZACH RANDOLPH

SUPER STARS
TONY ALLEN
MARC GASOL
RUDY GAY
MIKE CONLEY

STARS--WELL ABOVE NORMAL STARTERS
Darrell Arthur

VERY GOOD PLAYERS--SOLID STARTERS
None

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS--GOOD ENOUGH TO START
Shane Battier

TOTAL NUMBER OF ABOVE AVERAGE PLAYERS: 7

BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER
Zach Randolph

BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER
Tony Allen

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 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

Zach Randolph 1.091
Tony Allen 0.927
Marc Gasol 0.912
Rudy Gay 0.905
Mike Conley 0.902
Darrell Arthur 0.866
Shane Battier 0.740
Sam Young 0.699
O.J. Mayo 0.615
Greivis Vasquez 0.612
Xavier Henry 0.330
Hasheem Thabeet 0.164

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.

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 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

Zach Randolph 2973.10
Mike Conley 2589.40
Marc Gasol 2359.23
Rudy Gay 1947.87
Darrell Arthur 1392.94
Tony Allen 1385.65
O.J. Mayo 1149.93
Sam Young 1102.61
Greivis Vasquez 526.24
Shane Battier 412.12
Xavier Henry 174.11
Hasheem Thabeet 60.61

=============== OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SUB RATINGS ===============
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 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

Zach Randolph 0.578
Mike Conley 0.512
Rudy Gay 0.436
Tony Allen 0.407
Marc Gasol 0.399
Darrell Arthur 0.392
Greivis Vasquez 0.379
O.J. Mayo 0.345
Sam Young 0.303
Shane Battier 0.284
Xavier Henry 0.181
Hasheem Thabeet 0.041

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

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 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 Allen 0.521
Zach Randolph 0.514
Marc Gasol 0.514
Darrell Arthur 0.474
Rudy Gay 0.469
Shane Battier 0.456
Sam Young 0.396
Mike Conley 0.389
O.J. Mayo 0.270
Greivis Vasquez 0.233
Xavier Henry 0.150
Hasheem Thabeet 0.123

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.