Sporting News: Blazers a better "team" than Heat

Good point. The Spurs too, with Duncan, Parker, and Manu.

 

The Bulls had two top 10-players.

Not saying you're wrong, just pointing out a counter-example.

 

Yes but there is another common denominator there that needs to be looked at when considering this. That is the dominant front line player that actually plays in the paint. Bosh is a face up guy, who never plays with his back to the basket. He also isn't super big on rebounding. Duncan, Gasol, and KG are the opposite. They live in the paint and love to play D, and all of them have the back to the basket game.

That is why it is so important that Aldridge has developed his game for Portland. Not many teams have a guy who can create a post presence like that. It is old school and hard to deal with. It also creates spacing nightmares for the opponents if the guards are hitting from the perimieter.

 

But Pippen started his career and spent most of it as second banana to the #1 player in the league. In that regard, his situation is unique.

 

Imagine if they had signed David Lee instead of Bosh...

 

LMA owns > D.Lee/C.Bosh

Lebron James calls Lamarcus Aldridge "the biggest snub in all star history"

http://www.examiner.com/portland-tr...us-aldridge-the-biggest-snub-all-star-history

And that was before the game!!

 

Well yeah... but LMA wasn't available to the Heat last summer

 

I wonder how that crow tastes to the people trying to put K.Love on the same Level as LMA

 

I posted this over the summer, after the Decision and the formation of the 3-superstar team:

Miami’s Potential Achilles Heel: Getting Alphas to Share Story-edit

The assembly of Miami’s “superteam” brought together three of the best players in the league. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade had the two highest PERs in the league last year, and Chris Bosh was fourth. A team with the two best wings and the best big man (according to PER) should never lose, right?

The mirror image of these high PERs is high “usage rates” (USG%) an advanced statistic that measures the percent of a team’s possessions “used” by a player while on the court. Wade and James were one-two in USG%, and Bosh was tenth. Each was the top dog on their respective teams, and DWade and LeBron were the league’s top alphas.

Statistically, DWade had a USG% of 34.9%, LeBron had a USG% of 33.5%, and Bosh had a USG% of 28.7%. Among the sixteen playoff teams, only Melo, Kobe, and Durant, in addition to Dwade and LeBron, had USG% in excess of 30%. Perhaps not coincidentally, these are the players that are considered to be MVP candidates. Outside of these MVP-candidate superstars, the alphas of playoff teams typically range from 29% to 25%. The median for a team’s alpha is 28%.

The “beta” or second dog has a median of 24%, with seven teams exceeding 25% and the rest at 23-24%.

The “gamma” or third dog has a median of 22%, with seven teams exceeding 23% and the rest below 23%.

Based on last year’s USG%, DWade is Miami’s alpha, LeBron their beta, and Bosh their gamma. If this dog pack were to share the ball at playoff team median levels, DWade USG% would have to drop from 35% to 28%. He’d have to decrease his “alpha-ness” by 20%. LeBron would have to accept “beta-ness” and reduce his USG% from 33% to 24%, or decrease his “alpha-ness” by 28%. Bosh would have accept a drop from alpha dog to gamma dog, and reduce his USG% from 29% to 22%, a drop in “alpha-ness” of 23%. So three of the top four PER players in the league would have to decrease their “alpha-ness” by at least 20%.

The playoff team with the highest concentration of total USG% for its alpha, beta, and gamma players as a combination was Denver, which totaled 84%. Miami’s alpha dog pack totaled 96%. So if Miami were to equal the most concentrated playoff team, as a group they would have to reduce USG% by 12%. Under this scenario, DWade would drop to 30.5%, LeBron to 29.3%, and Bosh to 25.1%.

Generally, PER is roughly proportional to USG%: high PER players have high USG%. So Miami is asking these three top alphas in the league to effectively reduce their PERs by 12% to as much as 28%. LeBron’s PER could range from 22.4 (Manu Ginobli) to 27.4 (DWade). DWade’s PER could range from 22.4 (Manu Ginobli) to 24.6 (Tim Duncan). Bosh’s PER would be about 22.0 (David Lee). These are generally great but not superstar numbers.

If contending for an MVP requires a USG% above 32% – Dwade, LeBron, Melo, Kobe, and Durant were above this level last year – both LeBron and DWade would fall short, even in the best scenario, in which they were about 30% each.

It will interesting to see how the alpha egos accept dropping out of the top spots in the league. What if LeBron drops to third or even twelth in the “PER race?” How would DWade deal with dropping to seventh or twelfth in the league? How about Bosh dropping to fourteenth in PER, and dropping statistically to the eighth best big man in the league? What if none of them put up MVP numbers (>32% USG%)?

It will be interesting to see how these alphas meld on the court. If they are as dominant as expected, I imagine that the PER sacrifice will not be a problem. But if dominance expectations are not met, alpha ego flare ups might make great blog fodder!

 

I'll still trade them Marcus Camby for Bosh. Bosh would make an okay wingman for Aldridge and Camby gives Cleveland the inside defensive presence they need.

Stop playing Solitaire and get on it right now, Cho (trade deadlines are just excuses).

 

I agree. We basically become the big rotation Toronto could have had if they were not so stupid as to draft Bargnani.

Add a couple of prospects (Babbit, EW) and a draft pick and call it a day.

 

You wrote that yourself? Very good research.

 

Wowwwwwwww. Excellent post that took a ton of work, time, research. I wish I could give you two reps!

 

Looks like LMA ripped a squeaker.

 

You can give me the extra one. I don't work hard, but I love the Blazers. Does that count?

 

Absolutely E... REPPED!!!

 

That's a woman?

 

Thanks, Spud.

Hey, check your in-box.