Quietly, B-Roy may be having the greatest season in Blazers history, PER-wise at least. You always hear from Cavs fans about how LeBron is having the greatest season ever due to his historical PER. Well the same can be said about Roy when you look back in the Blazer history books. He is currently putting up a PER of 25.13, which is 6th highest in the league behind LeBron, Paul, Wade, Howard, and Kobe, putting him in some truly elite company. Compare Roy's season this year to some great Blazers of the past. Clyde Drexler's highest PER was in 87-88 of 24.1. Bill Walton's highest was in 77-78 (when he won MVP) of 24.8. Roy is putting up some great all around numbers on efficient shooting %'s despite playing on the slowest paced team in the league. Roy definitely deserves to be in the MVP race and mentioned as one of the leagues best all-around talents. The difference he makes to this team goes beyond the numbers with his impressive leadership and calming effect. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this level of play for the rest of the season. Generally PER goes down over the course of the season, but of late Roy's has been rising. That's all I wanted to point out. Go Blazers!
25 PER and above generally denotes superstar play. I'll be very impressed if he keeps up that pace, but I think it's possible that he can. Imagine if he played on a higher-pace team...at his efficiency, given more possessions, his raw numbers would be even gaudier.
Every one of those guys ahead of him will be voted a starter in the All-Star Game, and just as many guys behind him. Bryant and Paul would be the guards anyway, but the votes don't even make Roy competitive.
I wonder why Roy is so low on the All-Star ballot. Do we really get that little coverage? Are we that irrelevant on the east coast? Are the teams in Texas (particularly Houston) that much more popular because of the Asian vote? There's not a doubt in my mind that Roy will make the team this year, I just wish that fans across the globe could appreciate him as much as we do. He's a rare talent.
Chinese vote doesn't help. I'd say this year he's getting more and more national attention but he's still not quite a household name yet. He's had some big performances in nationally televised games and he's been in more tv ads, so I'd say his time may be coming. Portland becoming a playoff contender would help as well.
Roy is having an amazing season. Despite my avatar, this is unexpected by me. I didn't think he was THIS good. I do want to note that comparing him with PER to Bill Walton is not really fair. PER does not account for defense, and Walton was 1st Team All Defense. That is half the game where Walton was a huge advantage for the team. On that side of the floor, I would say Roy is average at best. Blend the two, and Walton's two big seasons for the Blazers were at a much higher level than Roy's is so far.
I agree. Walton's MVP season versus Roy, per 36 minute averages: 1977-78 Walton: 20.5 pp36, 14.3 rp36, 5.4 ap36, 1.1 sp36, 2.7 bp36, .522 FG% 2008-09 Roy: 22.3 pp36, 4.4 rp36, 5.1 ap36, 1.0 sp36, 0.4 bp36, .475 FG% I've seen the statistical breakdown for PER, but I don't know how it could be designed to rate Roy better than Walton, just based on this comparison.
Roy's season will not get recognized for what it is (at least by national media) unless they make the playoffs.
Given the crazy differences in team pace between 1977 and 2009, I'd want to see the averages pro-rated to a "standard" 100 possessions. Does PER do that?
It's just a west coast thing! Plain and simple. Whenever I'm out on the east coast, you just don't get to see the highlights or games. It's just too late.
