This Just In...

[roycrikside]

According to Hollinger's PER, we've got two of the best nine players in the in' NBA. Nobody else in the league can say that. Not the Lakers, not the Cavs, not the Magic, nobody.

We get in the show, with no back-to-backs, so Duncan can rest his knees? I like going into battle with Tim and Manu. Add Tony, Hill, RJ, and that's three more guys who can score 20 in any given game. Even Bonner, yeah he's not shooting threes as well as we'd like, but if you'd notice you'd see he's second on the team behind Blair in 2pt field goal %. His drive and floater seems to be really be on lately.

, the first round is really spaced out anyway. Most games I think we'll have two days off.

[santymrc]

According to Hollinger's PER, we've got two of the best nine players in the in' NBA. Nobody else in the league can say that. Not the Lakers, not the Cavs, not the Magic, nobody.

We get in the show, with no back-to-backs, so Duncan can rest his knees? I like going into battle with Tim and Manu. Add Tony, Hill, RJ, and that's three more guys who can score 20 in any given game. Even Bonner, yeah he's not shooting threes as well as we'd like, but if you'd notice you'd see he's second on the team behind Blair in 2pt field goal %. His drive and floater seems to be really be on lately.

, the first round is really spaced out anyway. Most games I think we'll have two days off.

Do we have them in the "Regular" NBA too?
Just kidding :P

[jestersmash]

Imagine New York with lebron, ginobili, and bosh. NY would have 3 of the top 10 best players in the NBA then, including the best (lebron).

[The Cougar]

too bad hollinger is an idiot

[jestersmash]

too bad hollinger is an idiot

Why? He comes up with purely objective ways to create rankings, forecast trends, etc.

You can argue that his formulas are not optimal, and even he wouldn't argue with that, but his statistics-based statements are infinitely better than most of the subjective banter you'll see on message boards or by "experts" and whatnot.

I mean look at his PER, his formula predicts lebron as the best player in the NBA. Who's going to argue that?

Really, the only blatant aberration in his PER rankings is the fact that Kobe isn't top 5.

[roycrikside]

Why? He comes up with purely objective ways to create rankings, forecast trends, etc.

You can argue that his formulas are not optimal, and even he wouldn't argue with that, but his statistics-based statements are infinitely better than most of the subjective banter you'll see on message boards or by "experts" and whatnot.

I mean look at his PER, his formula predicts lebron as the best player in the NBA. Who's going to argue that?

Really, the only blatant aberration in his PER rankings is the fact that Kobe isn't top 5.

I think a few things work against Kobe. He doesn't rebound and pass it like LBJ, his assist to turnover ratio isn't too good (5.0/3.2), and his 3PT% is only 32.5, which isn't very good good at all. Still, the guys between 9-15 are all bunched together pretty close, so a couple of good games for one and a couple bad games for another changes it quite a bit.

[024]

hollinger always finds a way to make the jazz look better than they really are.

[FeZZy]

i dont get his stuff he had paul as 5th most effective player yet he was hurt for 3 months

[Spursfanfromafar]

Good thing, somebody noticed. It is no coincidence that the Spurs are playing super-basketball but for some blips here and there, especially since late Febraury. Manu's rise to the 9th position in PER was but obvious, considering how well he has played in that stretch.

Hollinger's PER is quite objective and accurate, except it doesn't weigh defense well enough. But considering that the PER is a comparative measure and not a standalone player measure, it does well to peg a player among his peers.

Timmy was No 2 and almost closing up with Le Bron in December-Jan. He is still doing good at No 4 which is a surprise considering some poor games the last couple of weeks.

The Spurs PER'officially therefore have the best big man in the NBA and second best Shooting Guard (in per minute terms) in the league.

[mookie2001]

Imagine New York with lebron, ginobili, and bosh. NY would have 3 of the top 10 best players in the NBA then, including the best (lebron).

?
Yeah and all they need to do is get those three players, we can dream can't we?

[exstatic]

i dont get his stuff he had paul as 5th most effective player yet he was hurt for 3 months

PER is a number for how effective you are when you are on the floor, not how injured you've been.

[Solid D]

PER is a nice stat but the fact remains that the Spurs have struggled with the Lakers, Jazz and Mavs...and they haven't even faced the Mavs with their new additions.

Very much an up-hill ride in the first round.

[kaji157]

That just mainly tells you how bad our supporting cast is that our players being top tiers only gets us the 7th seed.

[DAF86]

That just mainly tells you how bad our supporting cast is that our players being top tiers only gets us the 7th seed.

We are 4th in Hollinger's power ranking.

[ezzizle]

hollingers gay and is re ed .

[The Cougar]

We are 4th in Hollinger's power ranking.

too bad Hollinger is an idiot

[FeZZy]

PER is a number for how effective you are when you are on the floor, not how injured you've been.

How can you be effective on the "floor" when you are hurt? IT MAKES NO SENSE unless your hypothetically speaking...which would be stupid

[Sisk]

How can you be effective on the "floor" when you are hurt? IT MAKES NO SENSE unless your hypothetically speaking...which would be stupid

the stats are up to date.. not for the whole season.. it's not an MVP selection

[HarlemHeat37]

Your point doesn't make any sense, Fezzy..

As for PER, it's a good stat, it just summarizes the box score in an easier way..it's an offensive stat, it doesn't account for D other than steals+blocks, it underrates assists and it overrates players that don't play as many minutes as you would expect them to..

I believe the Spurs have the offensive firepower to outscore any team in the NBA when TP returns, the stats would agree(like PER for instance)..however, the defense is the thing I worry about with this team..

[TD 21]

PER is a nice stat but the fact remains that the Spurs have struggled with the Lakers, Jazz and Mavs...and they haven't even faced the Mavs with their new additions.

Very much an up-hill ride in the first round.

Yes, technically the Spurs have struggled with the Lakers, Jazz and Mavs, but the latter two they haven't faced in the past month and a half - two months, which has coincided with them playing their best ball of the season and Ginobili playing at a superstar level.

We know the Spurs don't match-up well with the Lakers, but the Jazz? The Spurs have dominated them in past seasons (which is somewhat relevant because the two cores are the same), the Jazz don't have a long, athletic, mobile front line and they don't have a single wing man who can create his own shot, which masks the Spurs two biggest defensive weaknesses. On paper, the Spurs are the better team and now they're beginning to play up to their potential. Unlike the Lakers and Mavs, who have confidence from beating the Spurs recently in the playoffs, do you really think the Jazz want to face the Spurs in the first round? The Spurs crushed them in the '07 conference finals, generally have in the regular season and on paper, have a better team, so how would the Jazz, knowing this, respond to being the favorites? Not only would I not be surprised if the Spurs beat the Jazz in a series, I'd actually make them the favorites.

As for the Mavs, I see that as an even series. Keep in mind, this is predicated on Parker being back and playing, say, around 75% of the player he generally is. While the Spurs don't match-up with the Mavs as well as they do the Jazz, they also don't match-up as poorly with them as they do the Lakers. As always, I like the Spurs core better than the Mavs' and they now have similar depth to them, something they haven't always had in years past. The Mavs might have the biggest discrepancy between actual and expected record, while the Spurs might have the biggest discrepancy between expected and actual record.