Stat of the Day (maybe my favorite ever)

[roycrikside]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holli.../international

Top 3! This must be the first time this has ever happened. Probably explains a little bit why the Spurs are so unpopular with Americans, tbh.

[roycrikside]

For those without insider, it's the list of Hollinger's PER leaders, counting only three international players.

Manu is first (23.05, 10th overall), Tim is second (22.20, 16th overall) and Tony is third (21.82, 19th overall).

Usually you'd have somebody like Dirk, Gasol or Nash ahead of a couple or all three of them. Right now Dirk is fourth and Gortat(!) is fifth.

[timvp]

Nice find

Tiago Splitter 11th. Once Matt Bonner gets his Canadian citizenship, he'll be 36th ... between Beno Udrih and Ian Mahinimi.

[ElNono]

Is that the ranking of team leaders?

[jestersmash]

Interesting find. I don't usually look at the international section.

By position, Ginobili is the rank 2 SG, Parker is the rank 4 PG, and Duncan is the rank 5 center (Tiago is the rank 8 center). Pretty remarkable.

[JRHernandez88]

Kyrie Irving isnt from the U.S.?

[roycrikside]

Kyrie Irving isnt from the U.S.?

He was born in Australia. He declined an offer from the Aussies to play for their national team though. He's hoping to hook up with Coach K for 2016. I think it's a bit of a stretch he'll be one of the best 2-3 PGs in the league by then, but you never know.

[Solid D]

Other categorical noteables:

Kawhi Leonard is 4th among all NBA Rookies at 16.72 PER

Manu 10th among all players in the NBA's top ten PER, Tim is 16th, TP is 21st.

TP 4th among all PGs behind Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.

Manu 2nd among all SGs behind D-Wade.

Kawhi 11th among all SFs.

Tim is 5th and Tiago 9th among all Cs.

[Seventyniner]

He was born in Australia. He declined an offer from the Aussies to play for their national team though. He's hoping to hook up with Coach K for 2016. I think it's a bit of a stretch he'll be one of the best 2-3 PGs in the league by then, but you never know.

He only needs to be one of the 2-3 best PGs willing to play in the Olympics, potentially for free. That could make a big difference.

[EVAY]

Other categorical noteables:

Kawhi Leonard is 4th among all NBA Rookies at 16.72 PER

Manu 10th among all players in the NBA's top ten PER, Tim is 16th, TP is 21st.

TP 4th among all PGs behind Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.

Manu 2nd among all SGs behind D-Wade.

Kawhi 11th among all SFs.

Tim is 5th and Tiago 9th among all Cs.

Are we the only team with 4 of our five starters among the top 11? (counting Leonard as a starter, which is only occasionally, but still...) Tim, Manu and Tony are all among the top ten in their respective positions. The only position we are missing there is, oddly enough, PF, because Hollinger ranks Tim as a C, not a PF (which certainly makes sense this season).