I'm starting two stats topics to monitor the top players and teams of the West. This topic will compare the top players of the top teams, and the other topic will compare the teams as a whole.</p> I've never used this table feature before, and I'll get better using it in the future</p> This table compares the most productive players of the top teams of the Western Conference. These are the players that the Nuggets have to overcome if they want to win the Western Conference. The stat is points, rebounds, and assists combined per game.The list includes all players on the top teams who have at least half as many points, rebounds, and assists combined per game as the leader, Kobe Bryant.</p> <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="400" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Kobe Bryant</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>41.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Carlos Boozer</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>41.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Yao Ming</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>37.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tracy McGrady</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>37.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Allen Iverson</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>36.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Carmelo Anthony</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>35.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dirk Nowitzki</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>33.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Steve Nash</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>33.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Deron Williams</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>32.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Shawn Marion</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>30.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Josh Howard</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>30.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Manu Ginobili</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>30.3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tim Duncan</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>28.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Jason Terry</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>28.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tony Parker</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>28.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Marcus Camby</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>26.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Leandro Barbosa</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>25.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Andrei Kirilenko</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>25.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lamar Odom</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>23.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Amare Stoudemire</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>22.7</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Devin Harris</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>22.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Grant Hill</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>21.8</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Andrew Bynum</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>21.3</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> Now we can compare the teams with respect to the most productive players:</p> <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="600" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>TEAM</td> <td># OF STARS</td> <td>OUTPUT / GAME OFSTARS</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Phoenix</td> <td>5</td> <td>132.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dallas</td> <td>4</td> <td>113.8</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Denver</td> <td>3</td> <td>99.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Utah</td> <td>3</td> <td>98.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>San Antonio</td> <td>3</td> <td>86.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>LA Lakers</td> <td>3</td> <td>85.7</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Houston</td> <td>2</td> <td>74.4</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> The 3 Nugget's stars are ahead of the 3 Spur's stars by 12.6 points/rebounds/assists per game. Denver and Utah are mirror images of each other with respect to production of stars, but Utah may win more games because of a great coaching staff. Rick Adelman, more than most coaches could,will maximize Houston's wins by getting a lot more from the rest of the Rockets to go along with their 2 stars. Dallas, and especially Phoenix, are simply loaded with star producers, so they are the best teams on paper. However, in the playoffs, the great shooting that a team like Phoenix has becomes much less of an advantage than it is in the regular season, due to more intense defending and higher pressure situations. As for Dallas, it'samystery right now as to exactly how well they will do in the playoffs this year, after last year's disaster.</p> The bottom line is that Denver is competitive if the team is managed well. If the Nuggets can get performance from their non-stars that is close to the performance that the other teams, especially the Spurs, get from theirs, then the Nuggets can compete in the playoffs. There is no reason for George Karl to have an inferiority complex regarding the potential of the Nuggets to compete with San Antonio and so forth, unless he knows that he is unable to get the performance needed from the non-stars.</p> More later.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> This is just for the western conference right?</p> </div></p> Yeah, Celtics, just for the West. The Nuggets getting to the finals would be a small miracle. For the first time in many years, though, winning the West will not almost automatically mean winning the Title, because of your Celtics. I may start including the Celtics down the road in these tables, because they are very likely to win the East unless big injuries interfere. I decided to not include the Celtics for now, because I would consider it a huge victory if the Nuggets could just win the West. Denver people would be very happy with just that. We would still be very happy, even if the Nuggets were destroyed by the Celtics in the finals. Our Championship would be the West finals.</p> </p>
haha, nice man. Thats why I was wondering not seeing KG in there somewhere. lol</p> You guys have a very good team though. Hopefully you get home court advantage for the playoffs.</p>
Top 10 for the NBA as a whole for points, rebounds, and assists combined:</p> <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="400" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>PLAYER</td> <td>TEAM</td> <td>PRODUCTION / GAME</td> </tr> <tr> <td>LeBron James</td> <td>CLE</td> <td>43.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Kobe Bryant</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>41.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Carlos Boozer</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>41.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Kevin Garnett</td> <td>BOS</td> <td>39.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Baron Davis</td> <td>GSW</td> <td>38.7</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dwight Howard</td> <td>ORL</td> <td>38.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Yao Ming</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>37.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tracy McGrady</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>37.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Allen Iverson</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>36.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Carmelo Anthony</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>35.9</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mynetsforlife)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Not sure if that is a very good stat...</p> </div></p> It's a basic stat that compares the combined points, rebounds, and assists per game for the top players on the top 6 teams of the West. These are the players that you know for sure are going to be major factors in theplayoff games. But then you have "everybody else," which can be a huge problem for the Nuggets if they don't play their cards right. Sorry Hornets, you're not included yet, but I'm watching you.</p> I'm going to have another topic that will compare the teams as a whole. Those team stats will likely be more important than the ones for players that will be in this topic.</p> J.R. Smith is knocking on the door to be the fourth Nuggets star. He's at 18.2, which is 2.5 short from being included.</p> </p>
Here are the the best players on the best teams in the West ranked according to "efficiency," which is the stat that combines the most components among the stats that are right at the NBA site. Efficiency is:</p> Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks - Missed Shots - Missed Free Throws - Turnovers</p> This is calculated as a per game stat.</p> <table style="width: 399px; height: 717px" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="399" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>#</td> <td>PLAYER</td> <td>TEAM</td> <td>EFFICIENCY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1</td> <td>Carlos Boozer</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>29.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2</td> <td>Yao Ming</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>28.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3</td> <td>Kobe Bryant</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>28.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>4</td> <td>Shawn Marion</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>26.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>5</td> <td>Marcus Camby</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>24.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>6</td> <td>Allen Iverson</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>24.3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>7</td> <td>Dirk Nowitzki</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>24.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td>8</td> <td>Manu Ginobili</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>23.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>9</td> <td>Steve Nash</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>23.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>10</td> <td>Tracy McGrady</td> <td>HOU</td> <td>23.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>11</td> <td>Josh Howard</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>22.7</td> </tr> <tr> <td>12</td> <td>Jason Terry</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>22.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>13</td> <td>Carmelo Anthony</td> <td>DEN</td> <td>21.9</td> </tr> <tr> <td>14</td> <td>Deron Williams</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>21.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>15</td> <td>Andrei Kirilenko</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>21.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>16</td> <td>Tim Duncan</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>21.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>17</td> <td>Andrew Bynum</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>18.7</td> </tr> <tr> <td>18</td> <td>Tony Parker</td> <td>SAS</td> <td>18.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>19</td> <td>Lamar Odom</td> <td>LAL</td> <td>17.3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>20</td> <td>Leandro Barbosa</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>17.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>21</td> <td>Ronnie Brewer</td> <td>UTA</td> <td>16.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>22</td> <td>Amare Stoudemire</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>16.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>23</td> <td>Grant Hill</td> <td>PHX</td> <td>15.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>24</td> <td>Devin Harris</td> <td>DAL</td> <td>15.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> Now we can compare the teams for star power:</p> <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="500" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>#</td> <td>TEAM</td> <td># OF STARS</td> <td>TOTAL EFFICIENCY OF STARS</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1</td> <td>Phoenix</td> <td>5</td> <td>98.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2</td> <td>Utah</td> <td>4</td> <td>88.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3</td> <td>Dallas</td> <td>4</td> <td>84.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td>4</td> <td>Denver</td> <td>3</td> <td>70.6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>5</td> <td>Los Angeles</td> <td>3</td> <td>64.4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>6</td> <td>San Antonio</td> <td>3</td> <td>62.8</td> </tr> <tr> <td>7</td> <td>Houston</td> <td>2</td> <td>51.6</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> Denver's combination of Iverson-Anthony-Camby is ahead of Duncan-Ginobili-Parker, but Utah and Dallas have 1 more star than Denver does and Phoenix has 2 more.</p> This table routine is great. I'll be using it to compare the top teams of the West as a whole in another thread later. For example, I'll calculate the total efficiency of the top 9 players on each team. That will be a very key indicator of which teams are really the best teams.</p> Oh, and I know the Hornets might have to be included in the future; I'm waiting to see if they keep playing as well as they have been, which is better than almost anyone expected.</p>
Every stat used, including efficiency, will overstate how good the Nuggets are a little, because there is no stat to measure how good aplayer is on defense aside from steals, blocks, and rebounds. It would be great to have the stat "FG% of shots taken on a defending player." Everyone knows that the Nuggets are not so great at defending shots, and that the Spurs have some of the top defenders in the NBA, such as Bruce Bowen. When I do the 9-man team efficiency comparisons, I will have to come up with a new stat, which I will call defending. Since I won't have alot of time to work on constructing that, I'll probably just rank the defenses by team using the available stats, estimate how much the best defense should be worth compared to the highest efficiency score, and then give each team a defending score proportionate to it's ranking, with the worst defense getting 0 points. That will produce the best possible comparison of the teams without spending too much time on it.</p> I'll have all that in the months ahead.</p>
