Well, a win is a win. Definitely. But in the preseason, that's secondary. What's important is how the team plays, how everyone looks, staying healthy, etc. Well, after game one, we can say... mission (mostly) accomplished.

Well, not completely. It took a bit of time. I mean, the shooting in the first quarter would've embarrassed even the villains at the end of a movie (you know what I'm talking about... 400 bad guys can't hit the good guy despite firing 100 bullets/second, while the good guy nails all of them with 1 shot). Just plain ugly. But things got better. Quick thoughts (if you read insanely fast) on the game below.

• The offense looked solid. Well, at least it did in the 2nd half. The passing was solid. The players knew the offense well, and executed it well... cuts, screens, etc. Not much more to ask for in the first preseason game of the season. And in the end, it was enough for a win.
• The boards. Well, the absence of Booze, along with the sub-par nights for the remaining bigs on the boards hurt here, as the Jazz were out-rebounded, 40-28. I wouldn't expect too many games like that during the season though.
• The SG mess. Didn't look too bad last night. Brewer was solid... the added muscle seemed to have no negative impact on his play defensively or around the rim offensively (a couple of nice jams). Unfortunately, his jumper still needs some work. He did seem a bit better in staying with Kobe though, which is nice to see. CJ got the start at the 3-spot, and went 3-6 from the field. He missed a couple of open 3's that you'd hope would fall, and also picked up 4 fouls. But in what seems to be a total change from last season, there was a play where he got the ball on the wing, pump-faked despite being semi-open, and drove in for the jam. Plays like that will get you some time... shooting the three probably won't. Mo Almond was solid as well, going 4-6 from the field and 2-4 from the line. He didn't do much else on the stat sheet... 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 steal... and that's probably going to need to change if he wants any part of the NBA this season. If you want to throw Kyle Korver into this, he went 3-10 from the field and picked up 3 assists. If the guy is able to square his shoulders before shooting, he's deadly. But if Almond plays this well, the team just found another deadly shooter to add to the mix. Watch out!
• The back-up PG rotation. Kinda what you expected from Ronnie... 2-4 shooting, 4 points, 2 assists. And quite a few hustles plays on both ends. We got used to seeing this last year... and it's a good thing. Brevin was a surprise though. All the talk at the time of the trade was that he was great with ball-handling, a solid FT shooter and a bad jump-shooter. So obviously he drains his first shot of the game (a FT line jumper), misses 2 of his 4 FTs, and has a 1:3 assist:turnover ratio. That'll probably get better with time. He brings a veteran presence to the team though, and seems like he could be a good asset provided this rotation (Price when you need points & a spark, Knight when you need a distributor) isn't mishandled.
• Koufos & Booze. Rookie Kosta Koufos came up lame with a injured hamstring, after only 1:39 of game time action. It's official... keep the kid away from Booze! Seriously though, it's disappointing. It'd be nice to see what he's able to do and if he might be able to contribute this season.
• 'Sap is awesome! Seriously... do I have to say anymore? Regular season, playoffs, summer league, preseason... this guy never stops giving it his all. Getting the start last night, he went 5-8 from the field in finishing with 13 points, and added 3 boards. He showed off a nice variety of low post moves as well, and added 2 steals defensively.
• Welcome... to the doghouse. It seemingly only 8 minutes for Kyrylo Fesenko to find the doghouse (unless there is something else going on)... as most of the 2nd half minutes went to 'Sap & Kevin Lyde. That can't be good for Fesenko, who finished with 5 boards, 2 assists & 1 point. Actually, not too bad of a stat line. Hopefully it's not the doghouse... 8 minutes in the preseason would set a mark that would even impress guys like Gordan Giricek.
• Okur's offseason. There was some mention about how Okur didn't play in the qualifying tournament or whatnot this summer for Turkey. Which has to be good news for the Jazz... especially after his game yesterday. He didn't settle for any 3-pointers, and drove to the hoop a couple of times. He looked fresh (much different from the start of the season last year), and played well. This is huge for the Jazz... especially with the limited options behind him.
• Same old J-Slow. As they say, you can't teach an old coach new tricks. We saw too much of Flop (7 minutes... more annoying was how early it came), and not enough of the 2 young bigs (Koufos, Fesenko). He played a lot of the "PG at the 2-spot" offense, putting 2 of Price/Knight/Deron out there at the same time. Whatever, if we're winning, I'll live with it. Adding Knight could make the 2nd/3rd string rotation stronger, which'll be good for the mandatory "pull Deron" that'll come with 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
• Negatives exist too. I'm by no means saying last night was perfect. The team was out-rebounded, as mentioned above. They were a miserable 2-10 from long range. They had issues defending the perimeter early (a couple of early treys for the Lakers, who eventually cooled off and finished 3-11). And they struggled defending the interior, where Pau Gasol had 6 (3-3 shooting) and Andrew Bynum had 15 (6-11 shooting). This is worrisome, even with the fact that Booze was out. I mean, even Chris Mihm got a couple of shots (2-2, 4 points) inside. Oh, and the Lakers shot 50.8% from the field. Ouch!
• Why the Jazz won. Well, first, the early horrors were partially quelled by the turnover margin, which in the end favored the Jazz, 24-13. That's always good. And then there was Deron. 11 points. 8 assists. Fatigue from the Olympics? Ha!

Get settled in... the season is approaching! Preseason game 2 is tomorrow night in the Valley of Salt against the new-look (I'd imagine) Suns.

It Ain't a Game, It's Just Practice!

I'd like to thank some of the other drafters for chiming in with their comments. I appreciate the interaction, keep it up. I must admit that I'm learning a lot as I find myself having my fair share of "Doh! I wanted him!" moments - I found myself saying it a lot especially in this round .

Let's keep the ball rolling with ROUND 5.

ROUND 5

Pick 5-1: Chris Kaman - Here's a much needed booster pick to bolster Epicte's Bynum-anchored front court. Epicte's reaping the benefits of his early Rashard pick (banking his treys cat). CP3 + Rahsard = Solid small man numbers right there! Now he can leisurely grab probably the highest scoring big man left among the Centers remaining in the pool. Kaman's not just about the points and FG% though, he showed us last season that he can chip in his fair share of blocks (2.8). Even though some people feel his numbers will drop while playing alongside Camby this year, I am actually more worried about his back holding up for a full NBA season especially after his Olympic stint, than Camby cramping his style. Good pick for Epicte's team.

Pick 5-2: Andris Biedrins - Me likey likey, this pick for 2RR. His commitment to his team's efficiency is well preserved by Andris (1.1 TOs). This young stud, yes he's only 22, quietly adds boards, blocks, FG% and steals to 2nd Round Reach's focused cats. He does have some smelly shots from the line (62%), but at a measly 2.5 attempts there's no reason for Amare (8.8 attempts) and David West (4.6 attempts) to not be able to keep 2RR's FT% intact. No complaints here, another good fit.

Pick 5-3: Manu Ginobili - When you're hot, you're hot. Jeff's Jawai-nots is so confident that he's built a solid enough foundation over the first 4 rounds that he's willing to WAIT on Manu's recovery. At 51st pick, Jeff feels Manu's giving him good value even though he may be joining this fantasy team a bit not-so-fashionably late than the rest his players. Once healthy, Manu will be pouring in those small ball stats of 3s, steals, and dishes for the Jawai-nots. We'll have to wait and see for the NBA season to actually play out before we can judge whether or not this pick is more risk than reward.

Pick 5-4: Gerald Wallace - This guy may be officially on everyone's "injury prone" list (20 DNPs just last year), but then again how long can you sit on his talent while waiting on the draft queue? He's the no-brainer number 2 guy for the Bobcats, so he'll get his touches (he seems to be looking healthy for this year). G-Wall improves REAL Batman's defensive #s while helping fill the scoring void left by his J-Kidd pick. It would probably have been either this pick or another C for REAL Batman at this point. My main concern for this pick is Gerald's 73.1% FT at 6.9 attempts a game. Can Kobe and Danny, REAL Batman's first 2 picks, make enough shots from the stripe to compensate?

Pick 5-5: Maurice Williams - When Andre Miller got picked last round, I knew Mo wouldn't fall too far behind. He's in a new team (Cavaliers) this year so his numbers may differ from last year's, although I doubt they (his numbers) will be too far off from what we are expecting. "Mr. Punt the Points Strategy", Bucko, drafted him with the expectations of his scoring dropping  while his assists going up. This is where I disagree with the projections for Mo's stats. I feel things will end up the other way around. LeBron needs scoring help, and that's what I foresee the Cavs to be asking Mo to do. I project 18-19 PPG and 5.5 APG from him while taking over PG duties in Cleveland. All in all, his 1.4 treys, 1.2 steals and good FT% still fit in Bucko's team quite nicely.

Pick 5-6: Mehmet Okur - This is one of those "Doh! I wanted him!" moments in the draft for me. Mehmet's 3-point shooting from the 4 or 5 spot is a juicy boost for any small ball oriented team. But somehow it's his good quality shooting from the 15-foot line and the Jazz's 5 game swing during H2H's playoffs that tickled Doneycat's fancy for this pick. Clearly blocks are not a priority for this team, so Mehmet fits the mold quite well.

Pick 5-7: Michael Redd - GMTR (Nels) has come up with what he calls a "mid-ball" team. He's been picking "the best guy available" since the ROUND 1 and this 5th round is no exception. He's got tons of points and a mish-mosh of other cats here and there (FT% and some steals, mainly). He puts this pick into its best perspective in his own words:

"Um... yeah, I think I just realized I am subconsciously building a mid-ball team. Good thing this is just practice for my real leagues, where hopefully I can avoid doing that... Not sure I really have any other choice at this point, though."

- GiveMeTheRock

Yup Nels, Allen Iverson said it best. I'm not the kind of prick to rub salt on open wounds or kick a man when he's down - well actually I am, but just not this once. So I'll just give GMTR credit for a lesson learned, leave it at that and move on. :)

Pick 5-8: Tyson Chandler - Not known for his shotblocking as much as his rebounding prowess, Ty is the Thunder's first center pick in the draft so far. Considering that all the Marquee named guys are taken, Tyson probably seemed like the best option. Chandler may be on a better NBA team, but I would have personally picked up Andrew Bogut in this spot. Less boards for more blocks and scoring - FT% stinks a tad worse though, but I figure Dirk and Brandon can make enough attempts from the line to curb that cat downside.

Pick 5-9: Andrew Bogut - Speak of the devil. Here's another center wizzing past my head. As I said earlier I like Andrew in this stage in the draft. His FT% is just plain FUGLY, thank goodness he doesn't go to the line as often as Dwight Howard! He improves on the blocks contributed by KG and YAO and keeps Sexy Time competitive in that category as even more big men get siphoned off the pool faster than a Sopranos cast member can slurp spaghetti. Nice pick.

Pick 5-10: Stephen Jackson - Capt. Jack is awesome for SA Spurscasters as he adds even MORE steals and some much needed 3s to his diverse line-up. It was either that or SAS felt sentimental and wanted to Stephen reunited with Baron at least in a fantasy team. Great fit here, nonetheless. In hindsight though, if I owned Dwight Howard, I may have tried to capitalize more on his FG% impact and just throw his FT% to the dogs. The old GSW combo of Davis + Jackson = FG% not even Superman can save. I would have done things differently, but SA Spurscasters is still showing me a thing or two on the drafting end so far, so I'm not really complaining.

Pick 5-11: Peja Stojakovic - My Pick. My attempt at the small ball gig has been rather soft in the 3-ball department so far. Peja solves that issue and keeps my FT% and steal requirement solid at the same time. I was thinking of reaching Devin Harris at this point but felt my early investments in A.I. and Deron are there for me to not need to look for PGs until much later in the draft so I decided to fortify my 3s instead. Frankly, I'm a bit worried that I'm the only eggheaded team without a center yet. I hope my holding out doesn't come back to bite me too painfully in the butt come the later rounds.

Pick 5-12: Lamar Odom - Ok 4 PFs is now bordering on OVERKILL. Apparently Alpha-T doesn't seem to think so.  Odom does chip in some other numbers, but he's hardly what I would consider a segue pick. Terrance is taking this big man thing to a whole new level! Let's breakdown his cats: points, FG%, rebounds, so-so blocks (c/o Boozer). Alpha-T's isolated too few cats at this stage in my opinion. Fine he wins boards over everyone in the draft by a mile, but I DO believe in overkill. Dominic Toretto puts it best:

"Ask any racer, any real racer. It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile; winning's winning."

- Dominic Toretto, Fast and the Furious (2001)

In the end, rebounds are worth just one point in H2H. The draft is reaching the half way mark pretty soon and Alpha-T's big man strat may need to diversify into some other categories ASAP.  So stay tuned for ROUND 6 to see what the guys are up to.

In under ten hours, Olympic underdogs Team USA will be pitted against Asia Minor basketball powerhouse Turkey. Boasting NBA starter Hedo Turkoglu amongst their formidable roster, the 12 Dev Adam* present Team USA with their first Olympic-level challenge (sorry, Canada), even with Mehment Okur sitting out.

So many questions arise: can the USA possibly contain Turkoglu? Can they last those FIBA 10-minute quarters against an elite team? What will Kobe and Lebron do in the face of Cenk Akyol and Serkan Erdoğan? Team USA expected a cake-walk last time, only to find themselves in a genuine tussle against this giant of the game. How will they fare in 2008?

Online pundits see a potential upset if Team USA takes this too lightly. But this is mere opinion. We here at The Count advocate science as a means of determining the outcome: following application of complex internal algorithms, John Hollinger's PER system, critical analysis of plays and match-ups, and consultation of The Count's trusty 'City Of Brotherly Love' sno-globe, we feel we can confidently deliver our findings

Verdict: Kobe and Lebron will play dice courtside; Deron will get a new tattoo while relaxing on the bench; J-kidd will send abusive text messages to his ex-girlfriends; and Boozer will teach Dwight about the extended hours of sunlight in the Alaskan summer. Team USA will still win by 30+ because Turkey are a bunch of Europeans.

*"Twelve Giant Men" in their native language.

Posted by: Alex

Well, it seems as if the Jazz are going to do very little this off-season. Hart will stay because he picked up his option. CJ will be around as long as he isn't given an insane contract by anyone else. Booze will be the starting PF next year... even if the Jazz lose him for nothing after the season.


The team added a rookie, and that's it. They'll potentially call up their guys from the NBDL... though there isn't space for everyone. That's 15 players... so 3 of them will either have to be "inactive" or down in the NBDL.


The question is... is that good or bad? I know many people think we should trade Booze simply so that the Jazz don't just lose him (like they lost Raja Bell a couple years back). No one seems to think the same for Okur, who can also opt out (is it because they're more certain he'll be back?).


Anyhow... the team is sitting still.
The Clippers have added Baron Davis.
They could resign Elton Brand, or he could end up in Golden State.
Corey Maggette could end up with the Spurs.
The Warriors are also shopping Al Harrington (for a PG?), and could potentially be offered Shawn Marion for Monta Ellis.
The Lakers will only get stronger with Andrew Bynum coming back.
The Hornets, like the Jazz, are young and will be improving. But there will be changes on their bench.
The Suns will be different. How much (and for better or worse?) is still to be seen.
The Blazers have a ton of talent, and if they put it together they'll be dangerous.
Minnesota could surprise... or they could still suck.
Seattle Bennett's Backstabbers still seem to be a couple of years away.
Dallas & Houston will also be in contention... and Memphis could be too if stocking up on young guards is a way to compete.


So, amidst all that happening in the West, will the same Jazz team as last year (with everyone an year older and a 19 year-old rookie added in)... a team that finished 5th in the West and was wiped out in the 2nd round due to the disappearance of a star and the philosophy that playing "physical" (aka fouling) is a great strategy (it's not)... will that team be able to realistically compete for a championship next year?


That's what KOC is going to have to answer. My thoughts are obvious and plastered throughout the blog. Thoughts on this? Am I being to concerned about other teams moves? Should the Jazz be looking to make a (semi-)big deal?

Denver Nuggets

• Sonny Weems - #39

I only saw him in the NCAA Tournament and he was pretty impressive.  But then he got owned against UNC.  Can't say much else.

Minnesota Timberwolves

• Kevin Love - #5
• Nikola Pekovic - #31

When I was watching Love in college I didn't think he'd be a good pro at all (I also had something against him since he chose UCLA over UNC).  But towards the end of the season I believed more and more in him.  I am still not quite sure how good I think he's going to be but after seeing that he's actually pretty athletic, I think he can be a starter.  He is extremely skillful and crafty in the post.  Kevin McHale probably sees a lot of him in Love and thinks he can bring out the best in him.  Love won't get as many blocks in the NBA as he did in college but he has a big body and people will have a tough time moving him.  He definitely needs to improve his conditioning but I can see him being someone you watch play and wonder "How is he productive at all?"

That's impressive.

Portland Trail Blazers

• Jerryd Bayless - #11
• Nicolas Batum - #25

Everyone's been saying this but it's true: the Blazers are continuing to have great drafts.  They are quietly assembling one of the best teams in all of the NBA and all through the draft.  Bayless was the guy they wanted and for a player who was being looked at with the #2 pick, the Blazers got great value for him at #12.  I don't think he'll be amazing or anything but on Portland he doesn't need to be.  He's more of a small, scoring guard and not a point guard at all.  But he won't need to handle the ball that much playing with Brandon Roy.  One thing that really impressed me though is how well-spoken he is.  Very random thing to be impressed about but he just seems real mature for his age so maybe he's got a shot to be real good.

There were questions about Batum's health but he's been on the international radar for a couple years and he's got some talent.  The Blazers roster is loaded right now, especially with Rudy Fernandez (who tore it up in Spain) coming over next year so Batum will be be able to play overseas for a little bit to develop and erase any doubts about his health.

Oh and remember Greg Oden?  It's like they drafted him this year.  He's going to be good.

Greg Oden will be taking his "game" to the Rose Garden next year.

Seattle SuperSonics

• Russell Westbrook - #4
• Serge Ibaka - #24
• DJ White - #29
• DeVon Hardin - #50

I don't like the Westbrook pick at all.  I didn't like him in college and I think he's way overrated.  He won't be able to play point guard and you don't pick a defensive specialist with the fourth pick.  That's like saying you'd pick Bruce Bowen in the first round if the NBA drafted over.  BUT, there is always a guy I absolutely hate in the draft that becomes a stud in the L (see Deron Williams) but I don't know.  I'm just not a fan.

I wish I knew more about Ibaka but I don't know so I can't say anything.  He did block a lot of shots at the Nike Hoop Summit.  But i watched DJ White a lot and I loved his game.  But I always expected more out of the guy.  He seemed like he should've been able to average 20 and 10 on a consistent basis but I guess injuries hampered his production a bit.  I don't think he's first-round worthy but I hope I'm wrong.

Utah Jazz

• Kosta Koufos - #23
• Ante Tomic - #44
• Tadija Dragicevic - #53

I only saw him play once against UNC and he was awful.  He scored 4 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in 27 minutes.  His numbers for the season were decent (14.4/6.7) but he seems like one of those prototypical soft Euro big men.  He shoots 3s and doesn't play that big.  I guess the Jazz brass want him to learn from Mehmet Okur and pretty much be his clone.

7:30 PM: Everybody's favorite commissioner/megalomanic David Stern walks to the stage. Pretty weak response from the crowd. Minimal booing and almost no response to a mention of the WNBA. I think Isiah and Dolan have broken the New York fans.

7:38 PM: Stern announces the Bulls' selection of Derrick Rose. Kind of anti-climatic, but surprising how quickly the consensus swung from Michael Beasley to Rose in such a short time without anything really big coming out (other than Beasley being shorter than advertised, but the decision was already made at that point).

7:40 PM: ESPN shows some highlights of Rose winning the state championship game 31-29 in OT. Yes, 31-29. I guess the lack of offense in the Big 10 goes all the way down to the high school level.

7:42 PM: Stern comes to the podium with the Miami Heat's pick. . .Michael Beasley. For all the talk about going with O.J. Mayo I always thought this was a no brainer. I mean they could have dropped down to the #5 pick, but I don't buy the whole Rudy Gay + #5 for #2 trade. There's no way Memphis would have done that. Does Pat Riley think Chris Wallace is an idiot? Oh wait. . .

7:45 PM: The interviews have been pretty tame so far. Beasley could have at least pulled the dead rat "joke" on Stephen A. Smith. The Stephen A. Smith guys better have something good planned for the draft because this is pretty weak so far.

7:48 PM: Minnesota is up. Time for Kevin McHale to shine. And the pick is. . . O.J. Mayo! Why do I have flashbacks to KG and Stephon Marbury. Stu Scott fills us in on O.J.'s full name. Thanks for that since we haven't seen it in every single article written about him (except on RTC). At least O.J.'s time in Hollywood got him prepared for the bright lights of Minnesota. Wait, Minnesota?

7:50 PM: If you're reading this after the draft and wondering why the writing sucks, blame it on the stupid 5 minutes between picks. There's no way Bill Simmons live blogs this stuff. It's impossible. He has to take 3-4 hours after the draft to put something together.

7:53 PM: Wow. Six picks for Seattle. Stu Scott with the quick math (6/60 = 1/10th). I'm not sure why they didn't do some kind of big package to try and get some help for Kevin Durant.

7:54 PM: Stern with the pick. . .Russell Westbrook! Our first surprise of the night. I had heard Westbrook might be top 5, but never really believed it. The guy's athletic, but I just don't see how he's considered the 4th best prospect in this draft. If you're just going on athleticism, I'd take Eric Gordon over Westbrook. As for his "great" defense, I don't remember it against Memphis and Rose. Plus I don't buy Westbrook as a NBA point guard.

7:58 PM: Commercial break. Weak start to the draft so far. At least we have the comedy of the booing of the Knicks draft pick to look forward to in 2 picks.

8:00 PM: Bilas is pushing for Memphis to take Kevin Love. Stern with the announcement. And it's Kevin Love. Nice call by Bilas even if Love basically gave it away on PTI earlier this week. I'm pretty sure the first time that anybody has ever had the Color Me Badd facial hair in Memphis.

8:03 PM: Pretty routine breakdown of Love. Good court sense/knowledge of the game, passes well, good range, and can't run the court. Can we have someone disagree with a pick? I just want to see the player's reaction (not to mention what their mom will do).

8:05 PM: Waiting for the Love family interview to finish so I can see the Knicks screw up their pick. This is the highlight of the night. . .

8:07 PM: Stern walking to the podium with the Knicks pick. . .(dramatic pause). . .Danilo Gallinari. BOOOOOOOOOOOO! Sorry. Just had to join in the fun. I don't really buy Gallinari, but hey the YouTube video looks decent and that worked out well for guys like Kwame Brown and Eddy Curry worked out great, right? (Yes, I know that was before YouTube).

8:08 PM: Fran Fraschilla offers the most important piece of news of the night (for those of us who read Deadspin or The Big Lead). "Gallo" is apparently the Italian word for "rooster". If you've read the posts on either site yesterday, you'll know what that's important.

8:12 PM:  The Clippers select Eric Gordon. I feel bad for the guy. He goes from the most dysfunctional program in the country to the worst franchise in pro sports. Love the guy's game, but he's just too inconsistent at times. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

8:15 PM: Our first horrible suit of the night. Gordon with the combination of white coat and navy blue pants. Not quite Karl Malone level, but you would figure his high school agent could have gotten him something nice.

8:18 PM: Joe Alexander to Milwaukee. At least it won't be much of a culture shock going from Morgantown to Milwaukee although Joe won't be seeing as many burning couches.

8:23 PM: MJ and Larry Brown are on the clock. It seems like Brook Lopez is the choice here. The Bobcats certainly have enough college talent on that team being veterans of the lottery process (tip of the hat to the legend Elgin Baylor).

8:24 PM: Jay Bilas and Mark Jackson agree with me.

8:25 PM: But apparently MJ and Larry do not. The Bobcats take D.J. Augustin. Looks like Raymond Felton is going to have some competition. This seems like a good pick for a trade.

8:27 PM: I still don't get it. Of course, MJ was also the mastermind behind the Kwame Brown selection so maybe I shouldn't.

8:28 PM: So it looks like Brook Lopez here to New Jersey. They can't take Jerryd Bayless since they already have Devin Harris. This will be an interesting pick since they just traded away Richard Jefferson for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons.

8:30 PM: Brook Lopez at #10 to New Jersey. Solid pick especially this far down. I'm surprised that he fell down this far. A 7-footer with a mean streak and solid fundamentals. Usually guys like this go too high and typically don't slip. Not sure what is going on.

8:33 PM: Wow. Looks like our first classic draft moment of 2008. Apparently Jeff Spicoli dressed up as a 7-foot tall guy who went to Stanford. I wish I had been there for Brook's Stanford interview. What? You mean he didn't go through the regular admissions process?

8:35 PM: Bayless at #11. I like Bayless at #11, but does Indiana need another guard? Jamaal Tinsley, T.J. Ford, and Bayless. Looks like Tinsley and his gun collection are moving out of Indiana.

8:42 PM: Sacramento takes Jason Thompson. Our first real surprise pick of the draft. I'm actually ashamed to say I have never seen this guy play. Bilas says he's pretty good so I guess I'll have to go with that.

8:46 PM: Portland at #13. . .Brandon Rush. Interesting pick. He'll probably fit in well with this team. He isn't a star, but they have enough young talent that they don't need him to be more than a solid role player. He'll probably back-up Brandon Roy for the next couple of years.

8:50 PM: Golden State is on the clock. This is the part of the draft where teams have a lot of choices. Let's see what the Warriors do.

8:51 PM: Stern with the pick: Anthony Randolph. 3rd team All-SEC member. Even the LSU blogger doesn't believe in him. Not sure what else I have to say about this pick.

8:54 PM: Dick Vitale ripping the international. Comparing Gallinari to Darko Milicic. Ouch. Not a surprise since Dickie V loves all things college (as do we, but we don't rip on the other stuff).

8:56 PM: Phoenix takes Robin Lopez at #15. I'll admit it. I'm hitting the wall here so I'm probably only going to make it through the first round. I actually like this pick. Robin isn't an offense force, but is a pretty good defender, which Phoenix is lacking.

9:03 PM: With the 16th pick, Philadelphia selects Maureese Speights. Seems like a talented player. It will be interesting to see how he works with Samuel Dalembert. Wow. Stuart Scott just compared FG% in college to FG% in the NBA as if it's the same thing. I don't even know what to say to that.

9:08 PM: Toronto selects Roy Hibbert at #17 for Indiana (part of the Jermaine O'Neal trade). This makes sense. Hibbert will "replace" O'Neal. It's too bad that Hibbert fell this far. He would have been a top 10 pick last year. He didn't get injured or play poorly, but because he never exploded like NBA scouts hoped he would he fell far enough down that it probably cost him a few million dollars.

9:12 PM: JaVale McGee at #18 to Washington. Looks like Lebron has another guy to dunk on.

9:15 PM: Pretty interesting trade. Indiana gets Jarrett Jack and Brandon Rush for Ike Diogu and Jerryd Bayless to Portland. Bayless and Roy make a really scary potential backcourt dishing the ball off to Greg Oden and company.

9:19 PM: Cleveland is on the clock. This pick is big for Danny Ferry because it might go a long way to keeping Lebron in Cleveland and out of Brooklyn. Darrell Arthur is still sitting in the Green Room. . .

9:21 PM: The Lebrons select J.J. Hickson and Darrell remains seated.

9:26 PM: Charlotte's on the clock at #20 and take Alexis Ajinca. I'll turn to Stuart Scott here, "Who is this guy?"

9:28 PM: Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the first time the economy ever was mentioned in the NBA Draft. Fran informs us that the fall in the dollar's value will affect Ajinca's decision whether to stay in Europe. (Side note: Josh McRoberts is part of the Portland-Indiana deal. He's not worth his own post.)

9:33 PM: The Nets go with Ryan Anderson at #21. Darrell is still sitting. . .

9:38 PM: Looks like Orlando goes with another guard by taking Courtney Lee. I loved Jeff Van Gundy's analysis. Basically, Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis are the only two guys he likes on the team--a team that's coached by his brother. More importantly, what does this do to everybody's favorite Zima drinker, J.J. Redick?

9:42 PM: Utah takes Kosta Koufos. It will be interesting to see how Koufos fits in with Utah's bigs (Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko, and Paul Millsap). He's a skilled big guy who was really hyped coming in, but was too inconsistent to stay in the top 10. Playing for Jerry Sloan will either toughen him up or turn him into AK-47 (and cry during the playoffs).

9:49 PM: Seattle takes Serge Ibaka. Fraschilla says he's good and he'll be here in 3-4 years. Yeah. . .

9:50 PM: Doris Burke interviewing Darrell Arthur. Pretty tame interview. No tears. Not much to say.

9:55 PM: Houston takes Nicolas Batum. Fraschilla compares him to Rudy Gay, which I guess is good. Fran also says he needs to work on his ball-handling and he's only 20 years old. Since when do people learn how to dribble after they turn 20?

9:58 PM: Ric Bucher announces that Darrell Arthur has a kidney problem, which he says explains why Arthur hasn't been selected. Sounds like a HIPAA violation somewhere along the line.

10:00 PM: George Hill from IUPUI? Well apparently he plays great defense and has 3% body fat (thanks for that Stuart).

10:08 PM: New Orleans Portland ends the madness and takes Darrell Arthur. Nice moment as the New York fans clap. Nice pickup here. He should be able to come in and spell the big guys for a few minutes here and there immediately.

10:15 PM: Memphis selects Donte Greene. Seems like he'll be playing behind Rudy Gay for a while. Well at least they got something for giving away Pau Gasol.

10:22 PM: Detroit selects D.J. White. Nice pickup at this position. Productive player who should be a solid guy off the bench for stretches.

10:31 PM: Mercifully, Boston with the last pick of the first round. J.R. Giddens. Wow. What a long ride it's been for that guy. The former big-time recruit at Kansas who transferred to New Mexico.

Well it's been a long first round. We'll be back tomorrow with a more in-depth (and hopefully shorter) analysis.

Bien, pues ya tenemos la tan ansiada final Celtics-Lakers. Los dos equipos se han ganado con el sudor de su frente llegar a tan ansiado evento... ¿o no? Hay entre los aficionados (y ciertos periodistas) norteamericanos con quiere ver una mano negra que se encargó de que los Lakers recibieran ciertas "ayuditas" a lo largo de la temporada que aseguraran que los Lakers llegaran hasta donde han llegado. Por desgracia, hay unos cuantos momentos en la temporada de los de amarillo que no están nada claros, y que pueden ser utilizados perfectamente por los seguidores de esta "teoría conspiranoica" como razones que esgrimir en su favor. Vamos a conocerlos un poco más. Por cierto, no soy ni pro ni anti-Lakers, pero la verdad es que algunos de estos "incidentes" dan que pensar... por no decir que apestan directamente. Lo cual no quiere decir que no se hayan ganado a pulso estar donde están, claro.

Los Lakers empiezan la temporada como un equipo que, sin ser mediocre, no se cuenta precisamente entre los favoritos al título. Con Kobe Bryant y Lamar Odom como principales referentes, no parece que puedan llegar muy lejos en los playoffs de la competida Conferencia Oeste. Andrew Bynum, el joven pívot por el que apostaron el año pasado, parece rendir por encima de lo esperado, pero aun así no parecen tener equipo suficiente no ya para ganar el título, sino siquiera para disputar la final de la Conferencia Oeste. Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio... varios son los equipos que aparecen por delante de ellos en todas las quinielas. Aun así, en los tres primeros meses de la temporada los Lakers alcanzan un interesante registro de 28 victorias y 15 derrotas. Y entonces llega el bombazo: el 1 de febrero se anuncia el traspaso de Pau Gasol a Los Angeles Lakers.

¿El traspaso? El timo, más bien. Los detalles del movimiento son los siguientes: Pau se marcha a los Lakers a cambio de Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, los derechos de Marc Gasol y dos primeras rondas de draft. O lo que es lo mismo, uno de los mejores "power forwards" del Oeste a cambio del número 1 del draft más decepcionante que se recuerda (Kwame), un escolta totalmente anónimo (Crittenton) y un jugador que los Lakers habían fichado ese mismo día (McKie). Lo mejor para los Grizzlies son sin duda las dos rondas de draft y los derechos de Marc, pero aun así, el traspaso es el más absurdo de un mes de febrero repleto de traspasos tirando a absurdos. En pocas palabras, los Grizzlies, bajo la excusa de "restructurar" la franquicia, renuncian a su mejor hombre a cambio de prácticamente nada: Kwame sólo jugará 15 partidos en Memphis (promediando apenas 13,5 minutos), Crittenton lo hará un poquito mejor y McKie ni siquiera llegará a ponerse el chándal, claro. Sí, queda la excusa del "salary cap" que consiguen librándose de Pau (Kwame terminaba contrato esta temporada... ¿le veremos pronto por Europa?), pero suena a excusa muy, muy pobre.

Por su parte, los Lakers reciben el complemento perfecto que les convierte de inmediato en un rival a tener en cuenta no sólo en el Oeste, sino en toda la liga. No son de extrañar las palabras de Gregg Popovich, entrenador de los San Antonio Spurs, apenas unos días después del traspaso: "Lo que han hecho en Memphis es totalmente incomprensible. Debería haber un comité que prohibiera los traspasos que no tienen sentido. Y ojalá yo formara parte de ese comité, porque habría vetado el traspaso de Gasol". Las palabras de Pops van más allá de su ya legendaria competitividad y su política de no dar al enemigo ni agua; en realidad, son la expresión verbal de las dudas que tienen muchos entrenadores y general managers de la liga al respecto del movimiento. El traspaso apesta, sin más. Y apesta todavía más porque Jerry West, hasta hace poco GM de los Grizzlies, es por esas fechas todavía el asesor de quien ha pasado a ocupar su puesto, Chris Wallace. De hecho, sigue siéndolo a día de hoy. Y eso no le ha impedido entregar el trofeo de campeones de conferencia a los Lakers hace dos días... Recordemos que West es una leyenda viva de los Lakers, y que su salida de lso Grizzlies no fue la más amigable del mundo. ¿Nadie ve nada sospechoso en todo esto?

En cualquier caso, los Lakers, naturalmente, arrasan en los últimos meses de temporada. Pese a no contar con Bynum, lesionado, Gasol se entiende de inmediato con Kobe y Odom, y los tres llevan en volandas a los Lakers hasta los primeros puestos de la conferencia. Desde la llegada de Pau hasta el final de la temporada, los Lakers pierden sólo nueve partidos. Seguro que casi todas sus victorias se deben al trabajo ímprobo de los hombres de Phil Jackson. Sin embargo, a poco que se rebusca un poco, se encuentran más motivos para la duda. Así, a mediados de marzo los Lakers están en plena pelea con San Antonio Spurs y New Orleans Hornets por conseguir el primer lugar en el Oeste. Los de amarillo tienen dos partidos en días consecutivos contra Golden State Warriors. Esas dos victorias les vendrían de perlas para afianzarse en la primera posición en el Oeste, claro. Sin embargo, en el primer partido en el Staples Center, los Warriors dan la campanada y se llevan la victoria, después de ganar hasta de 26 puntos. El segundo partido, al día siguiente en Oakland es igual de disputado. El partido llega a la prórroga, que resulta intensísima. Pero con cuatro segundos por jugarse y los Warriors dos abajo y posesión del balón, los árbitros señalan una falta en ataque de Monta Ellis sobre Derek Fisher antes de que los locales puedan poner en juego el balón. He aquí el vídeo de dicha falta:

La acción es, como mínimo, cuestionable. Incluso el propio Fisher lo reconoce. Pero resulta una ayudita inestimable para que los Lakers saquen petróleo en su visita a Oakland y no le pierdan la cara a la primera posición de la Conferencia. Una primera posición que ocuparán al final de la temporada, un final ciertamente complicado, y en el que consiguen varias victorias ciertamente meritorias, incluida una paliza a los San Antonio Spurs en el penúltimo partido de la regular season. Los Lakers empiezan enrachados los playoffs y tienen la suerte de enfrentarse al que sin duda es el rival más débil de todos: los Denver Nuggets. Los hombres de Phil Jackson se meriendan sin problemas a los de George Karl y, tras un 4-0 cómodo, comodísimo, pasan a las semifinales de conferencia, donde les espera un hueso algo más duro de roer: los Utah Jazz de Jerry Sloan. Los Jazz resultan ser un equipo muy bien preparado, y presentan batalla a los Lakers desde el principio. Aunque tal vez no tienen tanto talento como los angelinos, entre Deron Williams y Carlos Boozer se las arreglan para complicarles las cosas a los Lakers y plantarse con 2-2 en el quinto partido en el Staples. Allí, de nuevo los Jazz venden cara, carísima su piel. Tan cara que, con algo más de un minuto por jugarse, los Lakers sólo ganan de uno, 103-102. Pero entonces es cuando aparece Pau en toda su gloriosa estatura, metiendo un tirito a media distancia que pone a los Lakers tres arriba. Los Jazz pierden la oportunidad de empatar con un triple fallado por Mehmet Okur, y los Lakers hacen lo propio con otro fallado por Sasha Vujacic... pero de nuevo aparece Gasol, que captura limpiamente el rebote y sella la victoria con una bandeja. Bueno, lo de "limpiamente" es cuestionable, porque en la pelea por ese rebote hay una para mí evidente falta en ataque sobre Okur. De nuevo las pruebas gráficas de la jugada:

Cierto, con tres arriba y tan poco tiempo por jugarse tal vez los Jazz no hubieran logrado meter un triple. Pero tal vez sí. Y entonces no habrían tenido que jugar el partido a vida o muerte que jugaron en Salt Lake City un par de días después, y en el que también pudieron empatar con un triple. Nada de eso pasó, y los Lakers pasaron a final de conferencia, donde les esperaba un hueso aún más duro de roer: los vigentes campeones, los San Antonio Spurs. Con muletas y más años que Matusalén, pero temibles pese a todo. El primer partido marcaría la eliminatoria: tras perder de veinte puntos, los Lakers (y sobre todo Kobe) realizan una remontada histórica que les permite hacerse con la primera victoria y deja moralmente tocadísimos a los Spurs. El segundo partido es una merienda de negros para los Lakers (101-71), pero en el tercero los Spurs logran una clara victoria que les permite soñar con lo imposible. Todo pasa por conseguir la segunda victoria en casa... pero los árbitros, los hados o el mismísimo David Stern, quién sabe, no parecen dispuestos a consentirlo. Tras un partido igualadísimo, los Spurs van dos abajo y tienen posesión de balón con sólo dos segundos por jugarse. De nuevo Derek Fisher se erige en protagonista de una jugada conflictiva: Brent Barry, enorme toda la noche, recibe el balon junto a la línea de tres, finta y hace volar a Fisher, que aunque intenta evitar el impacto, entra en contacto con Barry. En este caso, pongo dos vídeos, el de la jugada y el del análisis de los comentaristas de TNT, donde se puede ver mejor a cámara lenta:

En cualquier caso, los árbitros no pitan nada y Barry falla el triple posterior. Aunque los dos bandos reconocen que una acción así nunca es sancionable en playoffs, de nuevo hay factores sospechosos alrededor del escenario: uno de los árbitros de ese partido, Joey Crawford, tiene un historial problemático con Tim Duncan, al que echó por una doble técnica totalmente injustificada en un partido de playoffs de la temporada pasada. Para añadir más escarnio al tema, al día siguiente la NBA reconoce públicamente que la acción fue merecedora de falta. Pero nada de eso importa ya: los Spurs pierden el siguiente partido y son eliminados. Los Lakers tienen paso libre hasta la final.

¿Son suficientes estos motivos para pensar en una conspiración pro-Lakers en la NBA? ¿O son simples avatares del juego, y como tales hay que tomarlos? ¿Tienen demasiado tiempo libre los forofos anti-Lakers? ¿O realmente hay alguien que necesitaba que los Lakers llegaran a la final (si es posible, ante los Celtics) para recuperar audiencias, popularidad o posiblidades de venta de muñecos y camisetas? Las respuestas a todas estas preguntas ya casi no importan (o tal vez sí), pero hay otras que uno no puede evitar preguntarse: ¿Será suficiente con esto? ¿O los Celtics también deben prepararse para sufrir en sus carnes algún desmán arbitral? ¿Está haciendo Jerry West oposiciones para convertirse en dueño de los Lakers? ¿Serán rebautizados los Memphis Grizzlies como Los Angeles Lakers B? Personalmente creo que por mucho que estas acciones sean dudosas, los Lakers no hubieran llegado hasta aquí si no lo hubieran merecido. Pero me ha parecido interesante hacer este repaso, primero porque no dejan de ser una serie de casualidades muy curiosas... y segundo, porque no hay partido hasta el jueves, y algo había que comentar. ¿Vosotros qué creéis? ¿Sois como Mulder, y queréis creer que la verdad está ahí fuera, o pensáis que no hay nada de nada?

... be like Greg Popovich?


I mean... just look at the title of the article. "Popovich has had starring role in Spurs' successes."
As for J-Slo... what Jazz successes? They've been close, but a push here and games in San Antonio there have kept the Jazz title-less. Popovich has titles. Plenty of them.

Somewhere in New York David Stern is likely cursing to himself. A few years ago, the NBA’s commissioner was asked for his dream championship matchup, and he answered without pause: “Lakers versus Lakers.” With the Lakers and Boston Celtics both enjoying a renaissance this season, Stern is two series victories away from seeing his two most famed franchises return to the league’s biggest stage, and yet Popovich and the Spurs are again standing in the way.

No one would think that about the Jazz. J-Slo's defensive ideas don't mesh with his defense-less bigs, resulting in the "hack everyone" defense that does the Jazz in year after year. That, or he tries to get by with No Knees defending Kobe, which is about as effective as only having 4 players on defense. Yet there is no change... not in the (overpaid?) superstars, not in the type of players coming in, and definitely not in the coach.

Popovich has long valued his team over his standing in the league. If Tim Duncan doesn’t like the dress code, then Popovich has a problem with it. If the NBA’s czar of discipline, Stu Jackson, warns Bruce Bowen about his feet without first notifying Spurs officials, then Popovich will criticize the league. If the Spurs have too short of a turnaround between playoff series then Popovich won’t hesitate to blow off the mandated media session and eat the fine so his players don’t have to come to the gym on their day off.

None of this seems like J-Slo... does it? I don't catch anything in this that reminds me even partially of J-Slo.


With Malice has a great piece up on J-Slo, starting with a conclusion I've often reached... the Jazz won't win a championship under J-Slo. I really hope I'm wrong, but I've seen nothing to make me think differently. As he puts it (emphasis mine)...

It’s time. Not that Jerry Sloan’s a bad coach, nor that he’s ‘failed’ at Utah.
Pointedly, he hasn’t.
But the Utah Jazz have taken all they can from him, and still not even competed for a title. The West’s only getting stronger. And the notion of ‘tough defense’ is something that does win championships, but it must be coupled with discipline.

That's hitting the nail on the head. I'm not saying he's a bad coach. He's not. Nowhere close. And I'm really grateful for everything he's done with/for the Jazz. But at some point, you have to realize that it's not working. I mean, you can keep saying "next year," but eventually you have to realize that next year is just like this year... in the end, a disappointment. No matter how well you do, the goal is to win a NBA championship. No matter how far above expectations you go, the goal all the way through the season should be to win it all. And yet again, the Jazz have fallen short.


I really want to see the Jazz win it all. Soon, and often. I just don't think (based on what I've seen) that J-Slo is the guy to coach the team there. I really hope I'm wrong. I just don't know how long you want to wait to see whether he's the guy before you look elsewhere. I mean, the Stockton, Malone & Hornacek era came and went. I really hope the Deron, Booze & Okur era doesn't go to waste as well.

This post is a lengthy discussion of the theory and methodology behind the Winshares player value metric. If you are already familiar enough with Winshares, or are impatient, read the "In brief" section just below, and then you might want to skip ahead to the payoff graphics at the very end of this post. As always, comments and criticisms are encouraged!

In brief

Winshares are a statistic developed to estimate a player's value in terms of wins. Combining individual statistics with team performance, Winshares allocate credit for team wins according to each team member's contributions to team total production. As of the end of the 2007-08 regular season, Winshares are calculated as follows:

winshr = (val / team val) * team wins

val = pts - fgx*0.5603802 - ftx*0.9345311 + as*0.7697530 + or*0.8709732 + dr*0.7111727 + st*0.9190908 + bk*0.9495596 - to*0.8473544 - pf*0.7729732

Motivation

Why create yet another statistic that attempts to reduce all of player value to one number? Especially when there are so many other good and widely accepted measures already in use? Because the theory is sound, the operationalization is elegant, and the results appear valid.

Why use boxscore stats, ignoring plus/minus and everything that modern science now knows about possessions and efficiency, especially since defense is so poorly captured and other statistics, like assists, are arbitrary? Because boxscore stats go back to the beginning of professional basketball. Plus/minus is extremely data-intensive to calculate, and we have no way of getting that kind of data for most historical games. I'm ignoring possessions, and not emphasizing defense, because it is my belief that comparing one player's boxscore stats to those of his team gives a reasonable estimate of player contributions--sometimes overestimating, other times underestimating, but on average, getting it approximately right. Mostly, though, calculating Winshares is possible as long as the same stats are tracked for all players on a team, and we know how many times the team won--meaning it can be applied very generally.

Why even try to use statistics to measure player value? You can't capture that with a number! There is much to be said on both sides of this issue. I am of the opinion that statistics ought to be considered within a larger context of other data, qualitative and quantitative. However, I do feel strongly that numbers have a lot to tell us--they allow us the hope of greater objectivity, and therefore possibly less subjective, more accurate assessments. When applied identically to all players, Winshares will adjudicate "fairly," paying no attention to max contracts, shoe endorsements, nicknames, or "intangibles." Intangibles are tricky--they may indeed be part of player value, but they are also, by definition immeasurable, and may therefore expand to fill the role required of them? Was your favorite player not voted league MVP? Certainly they failed to consider his intangibles, which would have easily put him over the top...

Why are Winshares measured in that specific way? Don't you know that linear weights are no good, or that assists are worth much more than you give them credit for? Read on...

Theory

Imagine a cooperative grocery store, owned by those who work there. At the end of one year, the store's revenues exceed its expenditures by a large margin, and the workers are to be paid out of this surplus. One concept of fairness might dictate that a worker who worked p% of the total man-hours for that year ought to receive p% of the surplus. Arguably, he contributed p% of whatever effort determined whether or not the store would succeed, and should be rewarded accordingly. A worker working a large number of hours could be said to have contributed more to the store's success or failure than another who only worked one shift a month--if the store profits by a large margin, that employee should receive a larger share of the windfall, just as if the store loses money, that employee should be held culpable for a larger share of the deficit.

Now imagine another similar store competing in the same market. Its surplus at the end of the year is twice that of the first store. Is it possible to compare the value, in terms of surplus, of employees from the two different stores? I would argue that it is possible: if pay is allocated in the same manner in both stores, with worker i in store j receiving payment in proportion to his labor contribution, the worker who receives the highest paycheck is the most valuable. That is, if pay is equal to worker man-hours over store total man-hours times store surplus, we can compare employees across any two firms in the same market.

But wait--what if some employees are more efficient workers than others? What if Alice can generate three times the revenue that Bob can generate in the same number of hours? Doesn't our payment formula then overpay Bob and under-reward Alice, and doesn't this complicate yet again the comparison across firms? Yes it does, and so we might try to find better measures of worker contributions to the surplus. Perhaps we could keep statistics on the number of cans shelved, or the number of transactions tendered, or the number of smiles flashed--if we could figure out even just the relative value of each of these things (that is, not necessarily how they each translate into surplus, but whether one smile is worth two cans shelved, etc.), then we are back on track. It doesn't matter whether or not we can measure exactly how much revenue is brought in by each additional shelve stocked (although this would be interesting and useful), but if we know that it's worth more (by some scalar factor) to clean the bathroom than it is to check receipts at the door, we can still estimate each workers contribution to the total amount of valuable work being done at the store.

This analogy carries over very well to sports, and specifically here, to basketball. A player who plays fully 1/5th of total team minutes played (that is 48 minutes per game for 82 games) ought to be credited with approximately 1/5th of his team's success or failure--both of which can be measured in terms of wins. Using minutes to assess contributions runs into the same problem as in the stores above--they say nothing about efficiency--and as such, it is useful to find other statistics that more accurately estimate contributions to team success. The statistics employed in Winshares are boxscore stats, such as points, rebounds, assists, missed shots, etc. These are imperfect measures, but to the extent their relative value can be assessed, they may be useful in estimating each player's contribution.

Calculation

Unfortunately, this relative evaluation is very difficult. It is often claimed by more "sophisticated" observers of the game that most fans fail to look past point-per-game numbers, giving infinitely more weight to scoring than to any other contributions. Yet, it is exceedingly difficult to identify just what the appropriate weights might be. Multiple regression analysis yields somewhat unsatisfactory results when applied in a straightforward manner--typically finding, for example, that offensive rebounds are actually detrimental to team success. Other work, including that done by Berri and Hollinger, is much more thorough, but leaves something to be desired (a topic which has been covered better elsewhere than can be possibly done by this author in this exposition).

As for Winshares, it would be disingenuous to claim that the ideal and true set of values has been found, but it is my belief that the reasoning is sound, and the results pass the "laugh test," that is, given a subjective assessment of the sport, the relative importance of each boxscore statistic seems to be, at the very least, in the right order.

To identify the weights used, we may begin with a simple but strong assumption: the most valuable "good things" are those that opponents are most resistant to allowing, and thus are relatively rare, while the most detrimental "bad things" are those that a player is most trying to avoid, and thus are similarly relatively rare. With this in mind, I present counting sums for each of 8? boxscore counting stats from 1979-80 through 2007-08 (which I call the Modern era, characterized by the introduction of the three point shot to NBA play):

* field goals missed and free throws missed

Dividing each of these totals by the sum of the totals (17,008,507), we arrive at the following frequencies:

Normalizing these frequencies to that of points, we get:

Then, subtract each of the above from 1, so we are placing more weight on the rarer occurances, and set the points coefficient to 1, because the ultimate aim of all defense is to prevent scoring, and the ultimate aim of all offense is to score:

Assign positivity and negativity according to whether each is helpful or deleterious to team success, and we arrive at a set of scalars for estimating valuable contributions (often abbreviated val):

val = pts - fgx*0.5603802 - ftx*0.9345311 + as*0.7697530 + or*0.8709732 + dr*0.7111727 + st*0.9190908 + bk*0.9495596 - to*0.8473544 - pf*0.7729732

Any player's val less than zero is then set to zero, but val is rarely a large negative number. Compared to the difficulty of valuable contribution assessment, the final steps in Winshare calculation are extremely simple: merely find each player's percent contribution to his team's total sum of valuable contributions from all players, and multiply this by team wins:

winshr = (val / team val) * team wins

We are left with an estimate of individual player value that combines individual contributions and team success, and allocates the most credit to those players who did the most to win the most. There is just one adjustment made to allow comparisons across all NBA seasons: for seasons prior to the official distinction between offensive and defensive rebounds, the formula is adjusted to incorporate total rebounds in their stead.

Discussion

The first thing to note is that as we apply the formula increasingly further back in time, we might become somewhat less certain of its absolute accuracy as the boxscore statistics on which it is based drop from the official record. Thus, for the very earliest years of the BAA, we might not be as confident in our estimate as for most years since, but the results are still very compelling, and seem to hold up to scrutiny despite the relative dearth of data. One of the merits of Winshares as a measure is that it is relatively flexible across a variety of situations, relying as it does on player percent contributions, which can almost always be measured in some manner.

Another caveat is to bear in mind that Winshares is a season-cumulative statistic, and so the ceiling varies by the number of games played in a season. Winshares for the strike-shortened season of 1998-99 are much lower than other contemporary seasons, due to the fact that all teams won fewer games than they normally would have. Adjustments can easily be made, however, by finding per-game or per-minute Winshare rates, and making comparisons at that level. This helps, too, in determining the impact of an injured player, given that he has played fewer games. However, the initial impetus for constructing Winshares was to estimate player value in terms of wins, and this is best done on a season-cumulative scale.

One thing done relatively poorly by Winshares in its current iteration is measurement of the value of players traded during the season. To do this completely accurately, it would be useful to isolate only the games the player appeared in for each of his several teams, looking at individual statistics and team wins within those sub-season units. However, this sort of analysis requires data not generally available in convenient form, and truly, the logical extension of this idea is fairly well captured by the plus/minus statistic. As it stands, Winshares still does a relatively good job (subjectively assessed) in measuring traded players' value, but it is something worth noting.

Winshares in application

Often understanding is best achieved through application, and so I present

The Top 1,000 Winshare Seasons

covering the NBA, ABA, and BAA from 1946-2008. Keep in mind the above caveats about data availability, especially for seasons prior to 1951-52. In a similar vein, here is a list of

The Top 100 Winshare Careers

again, this is cumulative across the entirety of each player's career, and so players with longevity are advantaged. I have included games played in this listing, to allow the reader to make his or her own adjustments.

Finally, every player, every team played for, 2007-08 season.

Geometric representation

One of the more useful ways to conceptualize Winshares is as player percent valuable contributions * team success. This has a particularly interesting expression in geometric terms, where Winshares can be thought of as the area of the rectangle created by multiplying valpct by team wins. The following series of visualizations depicts Winshares as a geometric comparison of player value. The color scheme is based on playing style--more detail on this classification may be found here.

2007-08 NBA: Chris Paul edges out Kobe Bryant as most valuable player according to Winshares, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce turn in stellar seasons for the Celtics, and LeBron James carries a huge load for his team, and is rewarded in terms of Winshares, if not in post-season success.

1986-87 NBA: A season featuring more all-time greats than perhaps any other (as noted here), we see Larry Bird and Magic Johnson at the height of their rivalry, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon coming into their own, and too many other star players to even mention.

1971-72 NBA & ABA (combined): Classic Lakers and Celtics teams, a young Dr. J, Kareem's greatest year, an almost-as-great year from Artis Gilmore, and countless other NBA past greats.

Sacramento Kings Franchise History: This storied franchise didn't quite make the playoffs in a very competitive 2007-08 Western Conference, but its history is littered with greats such as Oscar Robertson and Chris Webber.

Mientras, en Cleveland, los Cavs y LeBron James daban una nueva lección a los Celtics, propinándoles una dolorosa derrota fuera por 74-69. Un equipo que aspira a llevarse el anillo no puede quedarse en 69 puntos ante los Cavs, pero así fue: Kevin Garnett y Paul Pierce sumaron 41 puntos entre los dos, y no hubo nada más en los Celtics: Rajon Rondo, salvador en el quinto partido, se quedó en dos puntos, y Ray Allen siguió demostrando que está muy lejos de su mejor momento de forma. En los Cavs, los 32 puntos de James fueron casi suficientes para asegurar la victoria. En esta ocasión no le tembló la muñeca en el último cuarto, y los dos equipos deberán pelear por la clasificación para la final del Este a cara de perro mañana por la noche. Será un partido interesante, sin duda. Y he dicho interesante, no bonito, porque vaya castaña de serie nos están regalando los dos bandos...

Y eso, que en ACB el único que pringó en casa fue el Real Madrid. Barcelona, TAU y Joventut solventaron con más o menos tranquilidad sus compromisos en casa. Hoy, en Málaga, el Real Madrid se juega el todo por el todo en la temporada. Más les vale espabilar...

Not much more to ask for, considering that the Jazz came home down 2-0. Two home wins, sending the series back to LA tied (so much for a sweep, eh Lakers fans?), and guaranteeing at least a Game 6 at the ESA. Knowing that the Jazz have to get at least one game in LA if they hope to move on, I really hope that it's Game 5 and not a potential Game 7.


The officiating, which has been so bad in the playoffs, was generally good during the game... the decision to toss Ronny Turiaf might've been a bit much, but other than that... In the end, after a disappointing Lakers' comeback late (down 12 with 3 minutes to go, tie it up and force OT), the Jazz took over in the OT. They were really helped by Kobe... who was playing injured but seemed to still lose confidence in his teammates late.



Booze had a horrible 1st half, and that's being generous. He was 1-7 for 2 points. His 2 points came on a fast-break, where he was the trailer that benefited from Deron's amazing passing ability. Other than that, he was clanking jumpers left and right. Deron picked up the slack though, getting 19 first-half points. Also big early was Ronnie Brewer, who got 2 alley-oops from Deron to get the crowd going, and then had a nice outlet pass off a board leading to a Deron fast-break dunk.


Speaking of fast-break dunks, you know who didn't get one? Luke Walton, that's who! Amazing play by Ronnie Price to get back and block the shot. Walton had an easy fast-break lane to the hoop (he was well ahead of everybody), but he slowed down and let Ronnie get back. Ronnie really has some hops, by the way.


And speaking of Ronnie, he doesn't seem to think Turiaf should've been tossed either. I'll admit, I didn't see the play, but I guess the refs will use the "after the whistle" argument. Whatever. In a series where the officiating has been as reliable as Carlos Boozer, you take what you can get. Price hit the ground hard, but bounced right back up.


The bench was huge for the Jazz... outscoring their Laker counterparts, 39-16. No Knees played well offensively. KoKo missed quite a few shots, but still hit the double digits (and was solid from the line late in OT). 'Sap showed determination to get to the hoop... something that Booze didn't. And Price was solid in his very few minutes. For the Lakers... Walton & Vujacic did some scoring. Turiaf, Mbenga & Farmar... not so much.


Deron finished with 29 and 14. Booze bounced back in the 2nd half, finishing with 14 on 5-15 shooting (aka, 4-8 in the 2nd half & OT). He also had 12 boards. Okur finished with 18 and 11, and had 2 huge jumpers in OT to put the Jazz ahead for good. AK finished with 15, including a huge 3-point play late in the OT (after a huge rebound by Okur to let the Jazz run the clock a bit more). It was a huge play by AK too... took the pass from Deron, and went from right-to-left under the hoop to get the jam and foul while making sure the shot couldn't be blocked. Brewer finished with 8 points in 23 minutes... getting very little time (if any) late.


For the Lakers... Kobe finished with 33 points. But it took him 33 shots, of which he made 13. This includes a 1-10 night from long range, and 6-10 from the FT line. He was struggling with the bad back... late in the game he was unable to get the explosion that we're used to see him getting. That led to a couple of blocks for AK (he finished with 5). And in OT, it was Kobe shooting (and missing) early and often. Gasol finished with 23 on 11-16 shooting, but his most aggressive move of the night came in OT... and ended with a missed reverse jam. Odom had 26 & 13, but had the late foul on AK. He is the reason there was OT though... draining a huge 3 late, and then getting a put-back with less than 5 seconds left to knot the game up at 108. Vladimir Radmanovi went 1-6 (0-3 from long range) for 2 points. Fisher finished with 15 points, including 4 3-pointers late. He got into early foul trouble again (Deron needs to attack Fish early in Game 5... the back-ups can't stick with him as well as Fish can), but still hurt the Jazz late with the huge shots.


I'll admit... I didn't watch the whole game. I caught the first quarter, and then the Lakers comeback late in the 4th, and then the OT session. So I missed the Price flashes. And most of Boozer's horrible 1st half. And a lot more. But, from what I saw... Kobe was hurt. Booze struggled. Memo was solid late (the jumpers in OT, the huge rebound late in OT). Odom stepped up big late. KoKo was perfect from the line when it most counted.


Kobe airballed a 3-pointer late in OT... flashing back to the Kobe of his rookie season. In OT, it seemed like Kobe either lost all confidence in his teammates, or simply decided to try and take over. Which is a bit harder when you're injured. Anyhow, he struggled... a couple missed jumpers, a couple shots blocked, before the airball. He did get 3 FTs on a stupid foul by AK late, but yeah. Too little, too late... the Lakers stunk it up early in OT, costing them any shot they had to win the game. The Jazz got a couple of huge jumpers from Okur, and then got the AK "and-1" and FTs to seal the deal. Of course, while people will blame Kobe now for taking everything in OT while injured, you realize he's the superstar on the team, right? And with Gasol's missed jam and the rest of the team just standing around... plus, if he had kept passing and the team had still lost, he would've been blamed for not shooting enough.


The Lakers were 14-25 from the FT line. That's 56%... aka horrendous. The Jazz were above 82%, and shot at 53% from the field (to the Lakers 47%). The Lakers shot 26 three pointers, and missed most of the them (17)... no thanks to Radmanovic (0-3) & Bryant (1-10). The Jazz were 6-17 from long range (KoKo 2-6, Deron 3-4, Okur 1-4). Each team had 41 rebounds; the Lakers had 12 offensive and the Jazz had 7. The Jazz had 12 more assists and 4 more blocks.


Game 5 is Wednesday in LA, Game 6 is Friday in Salt Lake. If necessary, Game 7 will be Monday in LA.

Ronnie Brewer, shooting guard for Utah, did a very good on the Lakers star, as well as others like Kirilenko. If you can have a bad game scoring 33 points Bryant had it. He shot an abysmal 13-33 from the field, including 1-10 from three land, as well as 6-10 from the line. Lamar Odom scored 26 points behind Bryant and grabbed 13 rebounds. He and guard Derek Fisher, not Kobe, led the Lakers back in the 4th quarter, scoring 10 points apiece, coming back from a 12 point deficit with 4 minutes left. Fisher's 10 points in the period were on three consecutive possessions for the Lakers, 3 threes and a technical free throw. That run by the Lakers guard got them within four. They got within one on a three point play by Bryant and tied the game on three by Lamar Odom with 54 seconds left in regulation. Carlos Boozer hit two free throws with 33 seconds remaining before Odom tied the game with a put-back off a Bryant miss to force OT.

It was all Jazz in the overtime period as they held Los Angeles scoreless for the first 2 1/2 minutes of the period. As a team they made only 2 field goals in the extra session, by Odom and Bryant. Of course the Jazz only made three, but were more aggressive, making all 9 free throws. Bryant, battling a sore back throughout the game, shot 1-7 in the period. With his MVP skill level, 16 points on 6-19 in the final 29 minutes won't cut it, and obviously didn't with the loss. Pau Gasol added 23 points and 10 rebounds as the Lakers shot remarkably well, 46-97 (47%), in spite of Bryant's horrid shooting.

Carlos Boozer continued to struggle offensively but still scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, shooting just 5-15 from the floor. The Jazz did their damage throughout from the line, outscoring the Lakers by 23, 37-14 from the charity stripe. They were also benefited by the ejection of the Lakers spark plug power forward Rony Turiaf in the second quarter after clubbing Utah guard Ronnie Price on a drive to the hoop. His loss forced the Lakers into a shorthanded position, having to go deep into their bench for little used center DJ Mbenga. Price's drive and three stitches revitalized the Jazz who had allowed the Lakers back into the game in the second period. Even though the game was tied at halftime, the Jazz had controlled the tempo going into the third. They kept up their game plan, outscoring the Lakers by four, on 11-17 shooting heading into the 4th. Boozer and Okur stepped it up in that period, together scoring 13 points.

Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom combined to score 28 of the teams' 33 points in the 4th but the comeback wasn't eventually enough as the Jazz made it a series going back to L.A.

Como era de esperar, el cambio de escenario en la serie Lakers-Jazz ha provocado un cambio radical en el desarrollo de la misma. Con la llegada al Energy Solutions Arena, los Jazz mejoraron ostensiblemente su juego y endurecieron su defensa, contando con el inevitable caserismo arbitral para frenar en más de una ocasión a los Lakers con acciones al límite de la legalidad. Pero por encima de todo, el factor determinante de la victoria anoche de los Jazz fue un nombre propio, precisamente el único que aún no había estado a la altura de las circunstancias de esta serie: Carlos Boozer, el oso de Alaska. En un tremendo, tremendísimo partido, Boozer fue amo y señor del partido bajo los aros y además encestó dos canastones consecutivos en el último cuarto que dieron aire a los Jazz cuando los Lakers más apretaban, permitiéndoles vencer al que hasta anoche era el único equipo invicto en estos playoffs.

Pero en los tres cuartos anteriores, los Jazz habían demostrado que si juegan como equipo, pueden ser un rival a tener en cuenta para los Lakers. Tras una salida fulgurante de los de Phil Jackson (3-11), el equipo de Salt Lake City se fue aposentando en la cancha, gracias a las aportaciones de Mehmet Okur (letal ayer desde la línea de tres) y a la buena dirección de juego de ese crack que es Deron Williams. En los Lakers, Kobe Bryant andaba desaparecido (aunque ya aparecería más tarde, y cómo) y Pau Gasol sufría la durísima defensa del pívot turco de los Jazz. Pau tuvo una noche muy gris, terminó con sólo 12 puntos y 6 rebotes y lo que es peor, tuvo 5 pérdidas, 4 de ellas en ese primer cuarto. Es ahora cuando el Nen de Sant Boi tiene que demostrar que no se arruga ante este tipo de defensas si quiere quitarse de encima su fama de blando. Ayer, por lo menos, no lo hizo.

La buena primera parte de los Jazz, no obstante, no les hizo llegar al descanso con una renta especialmente sustanciosa: el 43-52 parecía fácilmente salvable para los angelinos, sobre todo en cuanto apareciera Bryant. Y la Mamba Negra surgió como el MVP que es después del descanso. Hasta entonces Matt Harpring (buenas aportaciones las suyas anoche, en los dos lados de la cancha) y Andrei Kirilenko se habían turnado para defenderle con bastante acierto, pero en el tercer cuarto Kobe explotó, metió 12 puntos y fue un torbellino al que nadie pudo frenar. Aun así, en defensa los Lakers estaban flojitos, flojitos, y Deron Williams, tocado en una mano tras una mala caída, encontraba una y otra vez a sus compañeros, en especial a Boozer, para lograr canastas fáciles. Aun así, los Lakers empezaron a limar diferencias poco a poco, de manera que entraron en el último cuarto con opciones de ganar. Y a punto estuvieron de dar un susto a los Jazz y dejar la eliminatoria prácticamente sentenciada. Pero Bryant recibió poca ayuda de sus compañeros, y sólo el experimentado Derek Fisher aportó cosas en ese último periodo. Luego llegaron esos dos canastones de Boozer que desatascaban el ataque del equipo de casa. Pese a todo eso, los Lakers siguieron peleando hasta el final, y tal vez habrían tenido alguna opción de no haber cometido un par de pérdidas tontas (en especial una de Luke Walton que despertó las iras de Bryant) en los últimos minutos. Los Lakers perdieron muchísimos balones (nada menos que 19) y tiraron fatal desde la línea de tres (5/23). Boozer terminó con 27 puntos y 20 rebotes, Williams con 18 y 12 asistencias y Okur con 22 puntos, 7 rebotes y 4/7 en triples. En los Lakers, los 34 puntos de Bryant no sirvieron para nada, pues ningún Lakers superó los 13 puntos, cifra que sumaron tanto Fisher como Gasol.

El cuarto partido de la serie es mañana por la noche, de nuevo en Salt Lake City. Se espera más de lo mismo: estopa defensiva con caserismo arbitral, juego vivo y agresivo por parte de Williams y los Jazz y mucha, mucha presión en las gradas. Para ganar, los Lakers deberán contar con alguien más (sí, me refiero a Gasol) que ayude a Bryant, o la cosa terminará como anoche. Y los Jazz deberán hacer lo mismo que ayer, intentando reducir el número de tiros libres que conceden. Ayer, sin alcanzar las cifras obscenas de los dos primeros partidos, los Lakers tiraron nada menos que 37 veces desde la línea. 17 de ellos llegaron de parte de Kobe, y si tenemos en cuenta que el MVP tiene un acierto superior al 90% en estos playoffs, eso son conceder muchos puntos...

After a quick 11-3 run to start the game for LA, the Jazz woke up and took advantage of the turnover stricken Lakers to grab a 9 point halftime lead. Utah was very efficient on the offensive end as well as defensively, collecting 15 assists on 21 first half field goals. They took a double digit lead early in the second because of a plethora of contributions by the Jazz role players, outscoring the Lakers by nine after being tied after one. Utah was aggressive all night long, going to the hoop as much as possible, especially in that second period. The score stayed the same throughout the third, with the Lakers only outscoring the Jazz by two in the third.

Kobe Bryant posted his usual line: 34 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists; but he was very un-MVP like in the closing minutes of the game. He took wild shots and turned the ball over leading to the demise of his team. It wasn't all his fault, the Jazz were excellent in this game. Every time the Lakers scored, it seemed like the Jazz answered in any way possible. If they didn't make a field goal on the next possession, the took the ball to the hoop and drew fouls. A prime example was late in the 4th. The Lakers went on a quick 6-0 run, changing a 9 point game to three midway through the period. The Jazz were then revitalized, scoring 6 straight points of their own, all by Boozer to regain the nine point lead.

Boozer had it on automatic all night long, evident in his 12-21 shooting, taking advantage of a somewhat poor Lakers interior defense (Gasol isn't a great defender), scoring the majority of his points in the paint or fall-away 13 footers from the baseline. Mehmet Okur torched the Lakers from the outside, showcasing his game, like Boozer, with ease. He scored a very efficient and effective 22 points on 8-14 shooting, including 4-7 on threes.

When the Jazz are in sync their game is amazing to watch. Jerry Sloan has always had great teams, especially with the likes of greats John Stockton and the Mailman runnings the show in the nineties. Well, Boozer and Williams are the second coming. Williams is, like Stockton was, very savvy, he doesn't turn the ball over a lot therefore making smart plays with the ball. The chemistry between Williams and Boozer mirrors that of Stockton and Malone in their prime, a prime example of this is the play of the pick-and-roll. The second coming worked it magically throughout this must win game, as they had done all season long (leading to an All-NBA second team and third team selection for Williams and Boozer, respectively. Especially during their run at home this season during which they dominated opponents, sporting a 37-4 record.

Feeding off the fans is what teams do, as boy do the Jazz do that (an abysmal 17-24 on the road). They have a great core group of unknown players. Acquiring Kyle Korver midway through the season turned around their season as a whole with his shooting ability. His presence spread out the floor for the Jazz, giving them as Suns-of-old look (before they traded Shawn Marion) make them a playoff team to reckon with. Utah also has some bruisers inside such as Paul Millsap. He doesn't score a lot, but does all of the little things, plays good defense and rebounds like crazy. Pretty much he is an undersized fridge (6-8 260). Though he didn't do much in this game, his 14 minutes proved vital, providing depth for the Jazz and gave Boozer and Okur rests when needed. Another unheralded play (except in fantasy basketball leagues) is Andrei Kirilenko. Though, like Millsap, he doesn't score much, he does everything else needed to help his team win. He, like the rest of the Jazz, plays very good defense, using his lanky 6-7 frame to his advantage. Like his other teammates, except Williams, he struggled in the first two games of the series (fouling out in both games, as well as game 3). He, like his teammates, in this game, picked it up. I guess home is wear the heart is. Let's see if the Jazz can do the unthinkable and take a couple of road games and win the series.

Closet Jazz fan???

I'm really trying to avoid bringing the refs into this. I promise. But the game today was just plain and total crap.


I mean, I could go into many (good?) things...

• Booze finally showed up. He got himself 20 & 20, and even shot above 50% from the field. He had a couple of huge shots late, before a Jazz time-out. After that, the Jazz didn't go back to him until there were like 3 seconds left in the game.
• Deron had 18 & 12. He had a couple of big shots late. He took a hard fall in the 2nd, and was icing his wrist whenever on the bench after that.
• Okur was 4-7 from long range, and finished with 22 & 7. And he had a big shot late as well.
  

• AK had 12 and played great defense on Kobe before fouling out. He also had a nice put-back at one point in the game.
• No Knees got 12 as well, but was an absolute horror on D. And he had a horrible end to the 1st quarter. In other words, he still sucks. Why would you ever put him on Kobe? That's like suicide. Except worse.
• Brewer had 6, KoKo had 5 & 'Sap had 2. CJ got another DNP because J-Slo would rather see No Knees constantly foul Kobe.
• Kobe had 34 points, exploding in the 2nd half. He shot 17 FTs. And he was 0-6 from long range, including a couple of shots that seemed oddly familiar to T-Mac's shots from the 4th quarter in the first round.
• Four other Lakers hit double-digits, and 2 more got 8 apiece. No one else scored for the team.
• There didn't seem to be any booing of Fisher... either the person (good) or the Laker (bad... how can you cheer for an opponent when he drains a trey in a close game?). Of course, there were probably some idiots in the stands, but I didn't catch anything much.
• Did Phil Jackson even think before dressing up before the game? I mean... what was going through his head? Look at how well his suit matches with the color of the crowd... of the opposing team! Hilarious.
• The Jazz shot 50% from the field and 37.5% from long range to overcome the FT discrepancy that the refs gave them. And it was needed, given that the refs kept the Lakers in even though the Jazz shot better, had more boards, more assists and fewer turnovers. Ah... the advantage of having the refs on your side.

But the game can be better summed up by a picture. I am bad with (aka, I've never used) photoshop, so before you see the pic, you need to do something. Remember... the person in the picture isn't Charles Barkley, it's Kobe Bryant. Simple enough, right? Remember that though, otherwise the picture doesn't work.


I mean, what's the point of stating the good (arguably)? All that does is take away from the obvious bad... something that has really made the NBA a pain to watch. Even then though... it was nice to see Boozer play well. It was good to see the Jazz play nice D on Kobe... forcing him to get all his points with the help of the 3 blind zebras. Nice to see that Flop didn't get 11 minutes this time around. And more.


The refs were just bad. I mean, horrible. Especially late, where pretty much everything but the totally obvious went the Lakers way. There was the hook by Kobe (pic here... scroll down to the only pic in the comments) that wasn't called... even though Dick Bavetta was looking right at it. They had no troubles calling a tech on J-Slo when he complained though. And that's just one of the many bad calls/missed calls. Plenty of bad calls... most favoring the Lakers. Oh, and all the people that say the Jazz get "all the calls at home"... the Jazz had 28 fouls, the Lakers 23; the Jazz had 28 FTs, the Lakers 37. And the Jazz weren't exactly fouling to try and get the ball back at the end of the game. And it's not like the Jazz settled for jumpers every possession either. They drove in plenty, but got no calls. The Lakers got calls everywhere. It's total crap. In fact (from after game 2)... read this. (Hat tip to SLC Dunk) And the inconsistencies between the teams and in games has been horribly frustrating.


Remember... it's Kobe in the picture, not Barkley. Kobe, not Barkley.

(Image comes from The Sports Hernia, via Google Image search)

Ha ha... get the title? Get it? No "D" in Denver. Ha ha... I'm so clever! Okay, I'll stop now.


Can you say impressive? The Jazz were hitting on all cylinders tonight, jumping up by 31 before finally "settling" for a 132-105 win on their home-court. It's one thing to win in such fashion when you're playing a team that is about ready to give up on the season, or when you're playing a team that just can't hit a shot for the life of them in the game (it happens). It's completely different when you explode for 77 points in a half, when you drain 11 of 15 long-bombs, when you shoot over 60%, when you have 7 guys in double-digits and 4 players with double-doubles... and even more impressive when you do it against a team with 2 All-Star's, against a team that's still in the playoff chase. And when you do it against (hated?) division rivals... it's all the more sweeter. Yes, a win is a win. But when you can leave a message like this on the back end of a back-to-back, road-home set, it feels all the more better. Especially with a 4 game road-swing coming up.



First, for the sadly pathetic Nuggets. AI (28, 4 assists) and Hit-N-Run (24, 6 boards) were there (as they always are), but they really got no help. By the time bench-players JR Smith (16 points on 7-12 shooting, 1-4 from deep) and Linas Kleiza (14 points, 5-9 shooting) decided to step up a little in the 4th quarter, the game was already over, with AI on the bench and Hit-N-Run ready to join him. Chucky Atkins added 9 points off of the bench. Marcus Camby had 6 points and 9 boards, and Kenyon Martin added 2 points before leaving after 10 minutes with a "mild concussion" (how the hell can a concussion be mild?). The 5th starter, Anthony Carter was scoreless. Yakhouba Diawara had 2 points off of the bench, and Eduardo Najera had 4 points and 5 fouls. The team shot 47.5% from the field (not really a bad mark), but just 23.8% from deep (5-21). They did nail 24 of their 33 FTs. They only had 30 boards (5 offensive), and only 17 assists. Those numbers look even worse when compared to the Jazz...


Deron stepped up huge for the Jazz. Despite being relatively cold (5-13) from the field, he finished with 14 points and 16 assists. That's right... one less assist than the entire Nuggets team! Oh, he also had a long (30-foot?) bomb in the 4th with the shot clock winding down that was just amazing in the fact that he swished it from so far out. Brewer had 8 points in... you guessed it, 24 minutes. CJ had 13 points, going 5-10 from the field (2-3 from deep). Booze joined Deron in the double-double group, tossing up 23 points and 11 boards. 'Sap had 16 and 10 off of the bench. Korver had 12 points, including 2 long-bombs. No Knees had 10 points. Price added 7, and even Flop added 2. Only Jason Hart was unable to get a point in the game. He did pick up an assist late. And then you have tonights MVP... Mehmet Okur. He was 9-11 from the field, including an amazing 6-7 from deep (the Nuggets absolutely refused to guard him out on the perimeter). Those 6 three-pointers are a career high for him. He finished with 27 points, 11 boards and 3 steals. For those of you counting... Okur, Booze & 'Sap managed to out-rebound the Nuggets by 1! The team shot a blistering 60.2% from the field (50-83), and drained 11 of their 15 long balls (73.3%). They also got 70% of their FTs (21-30) to fall. The finished with 43 boards (9 offensive... 6 by Okur, Booze & 'Sap) and 36 assists. All in all... an amazing performance.


I don't get it. Both teams played tough games last night... Utah in Phoenix, Denver at home against San Antonio. I mean, obviously the Nuggets were hurt by the fact that the Jazz were shooting at a blistering pace (of course, allowing a ton of dunks/lay-ups does that, and so does leaving an on-fire Okur open beyond the arc play-after-play). Speaking of which... does the blame go on the Nuggets for not understanding that that Okur was hitting them, so you might want to stay on him? And that leaving the Jazz players open for dunk after dunk isn't a good thing either? Or does it go on George Karl for not game-planning better... at least against Okur? Anyhow, I digress.


The lack of help for AI & Hit-N-Run really seems to be hurting them... 2 guys can only do so much on their own. It's too late to change things this season (other than tinkering with the line-ups and all), but you'd think that they're going to be working hard to address that in the off-season. Adding a PG seems like a huge must, even if you have to give up the "potential" that is stored in the body of Linas Kleiza or who-ever else. Don't you?


Also, what was with the sudden influx of fouls in the 4th quarter? It was like the NBA called the refs in between quarters and told them to make sure that the game didn't get too far out of hand (score-wise). And if it did, they were to keep blowing their whistles as much as possible. Which they did. To annoying extents (for example... the Nuggets were in the penalty in the 4th quarter... with 2 and a half minutes gone by!). Including a couple of phantom fouls on No Knees that just made no sense. And, totally unrelated to the refs, kudos to the Jazz bench for yet another amazing performance. I'm still not sold on some of the pieces... Flop, Hart, No Knees against fast-paced teams (he's a huge boon if you're matched up against half-court offense teams)... but it's nice knowing that the bench can pick up the slack if need be (unless you're trying to replicate the performance that you coul