Yardbarker: Jeff Green

12 Non-Rookies to Watch in Summer League (Western Conference edition)

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:19:00 -0500

Rookies tend to get most of the hoopla during Summer League action, but the reality is that very few of them will make an immediate fantasy impact. So here are a few non-rookies to look out for. Not all of them are worth drafting, but all have the potential to put up nice numbers if they continue to improve and the opportunity presents itself. Some non-rookies who looked great in Summer League 2007 and carried that momentum into the regular season include: Louis Williams, Francisco Garcia, Kelenna Azubuike, and Jason Maxiell (all had solid fantasy value at some point last season).

So long Seattle. It was fun while it lasted

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:27:28 -0500

It's over. What else can you say about the Sonics 41 year run in Seattle. O sure. They've still got their colors, and their logo, and the unique team name. But last time I checked, it doesn't matter if you don't have a team. The moving trucks have arrived, and overnight the Seattle Supersonics will go from Seattle's Sonics to Oklahoma City's whatevers. You know what, it doesn't matter. The details, and the stadium leases and the "Save Our Sonics" signs are now history. A lost cause to save a beloved franchise. When the Sonics played what turned out to be their final home game, April 13 against Dallas, you could feel the desperation and sense of betrayal their fans felt. 41 years. For this? I understand the whole business element of pro sports. I totally do. But there's also the emotional attachment that comes with it. It's one thing to take the Hornets out of Charlotte, or the Grizzlies out of Vancouver. Those teams had short histories in their city anyways. The Sonics didn't. They called Seattle home for 41 years. They were a fabric in the community. Now they're gone. Sure the history stays in Seattle. But the team goes to Oklahoma. You can't move a team that has won a championship Seattle argued. Apparently, things change. It doesn't matter if they've been to the NBA Finals three times. What matters is they're not hip and cool anymore. If you don't have a shiny new toy of an arena, loyalty no longer matters. Seattle renovated Key Arena 14 years ago. The NBA couldn't care less. How about Seattle's 21 playoff appearances? That's a moot point now. The Sonics played in five different arenas. But it was the sixth arena (the one they couldn't get) that ultimately cost them their team. Because it doesn't matter if your team wins six division titles or has six retired numbers that will now hang in the dark of an arena that was no longer good enough for pro hoops. It matters if you shell out the cash. The team that's had 19 different head coaches is bolting for the midwest. Faster then you can saw Mocha latte, they'll be gone. "We made it," said Clay Bennett. Yup, Clay you did it. You took basketball out of a big market and put it in a little one. You destroyed 41 years of memories, with $45 million dollars. You officially found the pitchfork to pile drive into Sonics' fans hearts. You made Seattle's next election a whole lot more interesting. Now you're off to Oklahoma City, to a college sports town with the ambitions to go pro. Well, now they have their chance. And thanks to the epic mess this became, the whole nation will be watching. That is, if they don't tune the NBA out forever, for robbing a good city of a beloved team. There's only one good thing that can come of this: An expansion team in Seattle. Because I'd much rather see the two cities fight it out on a court then in court. There's simply nothing to dispute about that. It's funny too. Because a few years ago the Sonics lucked out in the NBA lottery and got the number two pick. Fans were calling into a sports talk show that I was listening to, and saying how great it was to have bright prospects and a promising future. I bet those people didn't think that future would be in Oklahoma. So RIP Seattle SuperSonics. We lay you down gently, in hopes of a later return. OKC apparently knows nothing about such a thing.

Day 160 of 170: Sonics Drop 151 on the Nuggets.

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:07:38 -0500

Seriously. Has a team ever wanted to make the playoffs LESS than the Nuggets?

Denver loses back-to-back; we can believe again

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:09:49 -0500

If Denver can't beat the Sonics and the Kings, how are they going to get to the playoffs?

Durant and Green to Go to Summer School

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:55:29 -0500

Sonics rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green plan on skipping the Sonics summer league in favor of college class. Both will continue work towards their degrees.

Fantasy Basketball Playoffs Cram Session

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:34:56 -0500

For those savvy and/or lucky owners out there, the fantasy basketball playoffs begin tomorrow. To get you ready, FSE has thrown together a cheat sheet to help your team succeed. Emerging fantasy options are highlighted along with a slew of injury updates and expected return dates.

Pickup of the Night: March 22

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:57:51 -0500

JEFF GREEN I've actually been waiting for this rookie to get some more minutes and onto this list. Well, tonight is the night. Green had 23 points on 7-13 from the field and 7-8 from the line with 2 threes, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and even chipped in a block. Best part of all, he had only 1 turnover. With Chris Wilcox injured, he will get some starts and so look for the rookie tandem of Durant and Green to take over.

Enjoy it Now: The Denver Nuggets Set Records While Dominating the Supersonics 168-102

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:35:20 -0500

As always, more reports and more goodies are at: http://www.nuggets1.blogspot.com Just as cats play with mice before eating them, the Nuggets played with the Seattle Supersonics and routed them 168-102 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Cats are cats and the Nuggets are the Nuggets. Unable to fully compete with let alone win a convincing victory over the top handful of teams in the West, they have taken every opportunity this year to remind everyone that lack of talent in general and scoring punch in particular is not one of the reasons why they can't get to the top. The Nuggets are saying to us, "We are right up there with the Lakers and the Spurs and the Jazz, because we can dominate teams like the Sonics at least as much as they do." But if you open the attachment to that email, the Nuggets are saying "Somebody help us, because we still don't know much of anything about beating the Lakers, the Spurs, or the Jazz, and we may not even make the damn playoffs." When we look back on the 2007-08 Nuggets, we will remember the season as the best of times, but also as the worst of times. Is help on the way in the form of a new coaching staff for 2008-09? Probably not, because the Nuggets have won most of the games they could win such as they are, with the aid of some luck by the way, and because high dollar coach contracts are like high dollar player contracts, they tend to keep the beneficiary in one place until the contract term is over or at least almost over. It's as if the Nuggets have done just enough to make sure that Karl is not forced to retire or move to another team even if they fail to make the playoffs, but no more than that. Another way to think of it is that it is like Chinese water torture if you think Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, and company should at least be able to make an appearance in the playoffs even if they get bounced out quickly. The worst torture scenario is where the Nuggets don't even get to appear in the playoffs, yet George Karl returns for another year. You were hoping there might not be a sequel, but here it comes: "Karl and the Nuggets 5: The Terror of Futility Returns," or something like that. Before anyone jumps out a tall building (leave that for the stock brokers) it is possible that Karl will cut down on his mistakes next year, for any number of possible reasons. He might be instructed to do things differently by the general manager or even by the owner of the team. He might be persuaded to do things differently by one or more assistant coaches. He might try things he hasn't tried before and pick the right things more or less by accident. He might even visit any of dozens of web sites and forums where he can get free advice on what to do. There was, for example, a nice piece on Slam recently about how the Nuggets resemble the Weekend Warriors squad that plays at the neighborhood rec center gym. It was the second Nuggets dismantling of the poor Sonics, who have enough trouble as it is trying to prevent that rich Oklahoma guy from removing their team from the Great Northwest. And Kevin Durant may be rookie of the year, as Allen Iverson was 11 years ago, but to the Nuggets in this game he was little more than a mouse. Almost everyone hates mice, but not everyone hates the Supersonics, so one major basketball writer was quoted as saying that George Karl may have been ordering the Nuggets to run up the score in games where the Nuggets can unleash their talent without being hassled by a quality defense. According to said writer, Karl might be doing so as a hedge or a cushion against being swept away and forced to retire if the Nuggets fail to make the playoffs. Wow, I never thought I would see the day when someone who was not me would come up with an interesting Karl conspiracy theory that didn't involve a brawl. Is Karl actually guilty of the hypothesized conspiracy? Probably not, but he is guilty of not providing the Nuggets with enough confidence and smarts with which they could compete with the Lakers, the Rockets, the Spurs, the Hornets, and the Jazz. To me, that is enough of a conspiracy already. For the record, here were the marks set in this demolition derby. Enjoy these now kiddies, because the next episodes of the Nuggets soap opera might be real tear jerkers: There will be a lot of drama and probably a lot of grief as the Nuggets, the Titanic of the NBA, is heading straight for icebergs in the dark Atlantic night. 1. The Nuggets set the NBA season high for points in a half with 84 points. 2. The Nuggets set the NBA season high for points in a game with 168 points. 3. The Nuggets set a franchise record for most points in a regulation game. 4. The Nuggets scored 48 points in the 1st quarter. 5. The Nuggets scored 49 fast break points. 6. The Nuggets scored 64 points in the paint. 7. The Nuggets won the game by 52 points and had a 55 point lead at one point. 8. The Nuggets made 44 assists. 9. The Nuggets made 12 steals and 10 blocks. 10.The Nuggets had 10 different players score in double digits, and Anthony Carter just missed being the 11th with 8 points. And I know it's rude to go from a high positive to a low negative, but I don't feel very guilty about it because the Nuggets themselves constantly have their fans on the roller coaster. They beat the Celtics one day and lose to the Bucks a few days later. So therefore, I will close this report with a nice summary of reasons why the Nuggets remain in danger of not making the playoffs, other than the obvious fact that the Western Conference is loaded with 9 very good teams, and only 8 playoff spots are available. A HANDY SUMMARY LIST OF REASONS WHY THE NUGGETS WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS UNLESS THEY GET LUCKY 1. J.R. Smith does not start and his minutes are no more than 2/3 of what they should be at a minimum. The Nuggets are denied the potential of the Good J.R. Smith because they are irrationally terrified of the Bad J.R. Smith. Smith's minutes per game have been limited to just 18.5 minutes per game so far and he has been benched entirely from time to time and almost benched entirely from time to time. 2. The Nuggets refuse to admit that Iverson is the best PG on the team and make the logical decision of designating him for that crucial position. As a result, when Iverson chooses to take over PG duties from Carter during a game, Carter becomes of little value, because he is not even remotely qualified as a shooting guard, and having two point guards on the floor at the same time, one of whom is a low rate scorer, makes almost no sense.. When Iverson chooses to mostly not take over the PG duties, Carter may or may not be good enough to be an effective point guard, mostly depending on who the Nuggets are playing. If the Nuggets are playing a team that Carter can not operate well against, and Iverson has decided to go all out for scoring, the Nuggets in effect become a 0 point guard offense, which spells doom. Furthermore, the backcourt of Carter and Iverson is too small and has cost the Nuggets dearly defensively. 3. The Nuggets are too obsessed with fast pace and fast breaks. Good defensive teams almost always dictate the pace and mostly or completely shut down any Nuggets intention to run a fast pace. And good and even average offensive teams sometimes respond by picking up their pace, and the Nuggets' defense is not polished enough to deal with a fast paced opponent, so the Nuggets give up way too many points in those games. For example, consider the Chicago 135 Denver 121 game. 4. The Nuggets fail to have at least one play to run whose objective is to get each and every player the type of shot that he is most likely to make and that will most benefit the team. For example, they have no play to run to make sure that Yakhouba Diawara can get an open look 3-pointer attempt from time to time. I would be happy if the Nuggets had one planned play for each player, with 3 different planned plays ready for Carmelo Anthony and for Allen Iverson. 5. The loss of Nene has been devastating, and the team should have gotten serious about declaring once and for all whether he is coming back this season or not. Leaving it in limbo has created uncertainty. Like with the stock market, it is uncertainty that kills a basketball team. Nuggets fans are being teased about Nene returning, and being teased is not a good experience. 6. Camby and especially Iverson play too many minutes and occasionally run out of gas, making them of little value late in games. 7. Camby does not attack the rim enough on offense. To put what is really the same problem a little differently, for a center, Camby looks to pass too much. Also, Camby's style of defending does not work very well against certain big men. 8. Yakhouba Diawara does not come off the bench for 10-20 minutes in games where his defending would help.. In games in which Yak has played at least 16 minutes, the Nuggets are 9-1. So naturally Yak doesn't play 16 minutes or more anymore, because this is the Nuggets, America's cart before the horse basketball team. 9. The Nuggets' 3-point shooting is a joke this year, and it's not only because J.R. Smith does not play enough. Carmelo Anthony has been pressured to do what any decent forward or center can do, rebound, while he has not been under any pressure to speak of to increase his 3-point shot attempts and makes. This is despite the fact that Anthony was the number one three point shooter for Team USA last summer. He has sporadically tried to do this on his own, but he is not committed to it like he is committed to the rebounding, which is much less valuable to the Nuggets when all is said and done than 3-point shooting is. 10. As a result of problem #9, and because the Nuggets are not a great midrange jump shooting team, and because they rarely run a planned play, the Nuggets have become too obsessed with attacking the rim and hoping to get a lot of free throws. Unless you are playing great man to man defending teams such as the Pistons or the Spurs, hoping to be bailed out by the refs enough to win games is usually not a good strategy. The refs can seem blind on some nights and on those nights you had better have another strategy ready other than trying to earn a lot of free throws. It's bad enough when a game is being called loosely, but it's even worse when defenders who know how to plant and flop against a rim attacker, result in a lot of offensive foul calls against players such as Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, and J.R. Smith. The Nuggets have often been seen in the last few weeks protesting that foul calls were not made, instead of hustling back on defense. PROJECTIONS Nuggets 1 Current odds, to the nearest 5%, of the Nuggets making the playoffs: 45% Nuggets 1 Current odds, to the nearest 5%, that the Nuggets and their suffering fans will be stuck with George Karl for next season: 75% The current odds of the Nuggets making the playoffs, according to Hollinger at ESPN's excellent team analysis system, are 63%. The Nuggets are projected to most likely be the 8th seed in the Western Conference. However, the projection has the Nuggets and the Warriors both finishing with a record of 50-32, and if these two teams do in fact finish with identical records, the Warriors will most likely be the team that makes the playoffs, not the Nuggets. This is because the tie breaker, assuming the two split their season series 2-2, will be who has the better Western Conference record, and the Warriors are 3 games ahead in the loss column on that right now. In any event, it seems right now that the Suns, the Warriors, and the Nuggets will be battling it out for the last 2 playoff spots in the West. All three of them are considered likely to make the playoffs, in statistical terms, but not all three are actually going to make it. Nuggets 1 agrees with Hollinger's system, which is saying that the Suns are favored over both the Warriors and the Nuggets to get the 7th spot, and which is saying that you can flip a coin as to who will get the 8th spot between the Warriors and the Nuggets. The Suns' victory over the Spurs on March 9 and their victory over the Warriors on March 13 gave them a major boost over the Warriors and the Nuggets. The Hollinger odds don't take into account that Nene is not going to be available in top form for the Nuggets for the stretch run. Also, there may not be enough time for Atkins to get back to full speed. It's still unknown whether Atkins can help to rescue the Nuggets from not making the playoffs, and whether Karl will give him enough minutes if he is ready. If the Hollinger system adjusted for the Atkins and the Nene situations, it would show a lower percentage chance than 63% for the Nuggets to make the playoffs. The Lakers, the Rockets, the Hornets, the Spurs, the Jazz, and the Mavericks are currently considered locks to make the playoffs. The Rockets have become total locks now, despite the loss of Yao Ming for the season, thanks to their 21-game winning streak. The Suns are in some trouble, due to their terrible trade, which was Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for Shaquille O'Neal, but they are in less trouble after their key early March wins at home over the Spurs and the Warriors. At this time, Nuggets 1 does not believe that the Suns will fail to win at least 51 games, so they will most likely finish ahead of the Nuggets despite their difficulties. PLAYOFF TEAMS PROJECTED FINAL RECORDS-HOLLINGER-ESPN Lakers 57-25 Rockets 57-25 Hornets 54-28 Jazz 54-28 Spurs 53-29 Mavericks 53-29 Suns 52-30 Nuggets 50-32 NON-PLAYOFF TEAMS PROJECTED FINAL RECORDS-HOLLINGER-ESPN Warriors 50-32 As explained above, the Warriors are actually still more likely than the Nuggets to get the 8th spot, so I would reverse #8 and #9. The Warriors are now 1 1/2 games ahead of the Nuggets for the last playoff spot. The schedules of the two teams are roughly equal difficulty from here on out. If the Nuggets make up the 1 1/2 games, so that the Warriors and the Nuggets finish with identical records, and the season series between them ends up tied 2-2, the Warriors are likely to get the playoff spot rather than the Nuggets, because it is likely that the Warriors will finish at least 1 game ahead of the Nuggets in Conference record, which would be the tie-breaker if the Warriors and the Nuggets split their 4 head to head games. The Nuggets and Warriors have each won one game in the head to head series so far. Now that the Nuggets are 1 1/2 games behind the Warriors, the two remaining Nuggets-Warriors games are more important than ever. If the Warriors win both games, the Nuggets are almost certainly out of the playoffs. If each team wins one game, the Warriors remain slightly more likely to make the playoffs than the Nuggets. If the Nuggets win both games, then the Nuggets are more likely than the Warriors to get the last spot. The Nuggets-Warriors games are on Saturday, March 29 in Denver and on Thursday, April 10 in Oakland. Neither the Warriors nor the Nuggets will be playing on back to back nights in either of those games. WARRIORS REMAINING SCHEDULE, All times, EDT Tue, Mar 18 @ Sacramento 10:00 PM Wed, Mar 19 @ LA Clippers 10:30 PM Fri, Mar 21 Houston 10:30 PM Sun, Mar 23 @ LA Lakers 9:30 PM Mon, Mar 24 LA Lakers 10:30 PM Thu, Mar 27 Portland 10:30 PM Sat, Mar 29 @ Denver 9:00 PM Sun, Mar 30 Dallas 9:00 PM Tue, Apr 1 @ San Antonio 8:30 PM Wed, Apr 2 @ Dallas 9:30 PM Fri, Apr 4 @ Memphis 8:00 PM Sun, Apr 6 @ New Orleans 7:00 PM Tue, Apr 8 Sacramento 10:30 PM Thu, Apr 10 Denver 8:00 PM Sat, Apr 12 LA Clippers 10:30 PM Mon, Apr 14 @ Phoenix 10:00 PM Wed, Apr 16 Seattle 10:30 PM NUGGETS REMAINING SCHEDULE, All times EDT Tue, Mar 18 @ Detroit 7:30 PM Wed, Mar 19 @ Philadelphia 7:00 PM Fri, Mar 21 @ New Jersey 7:30 PM Sun, Mar 23 @ Toronto 3:30 PM Mon, Mar 24 @ Memphis 8:00 PM Thu, Mar 27 Dallas 10:30 PM Sat, Mar 29 Golden State 9:00 PM Mon, Mar 31 @ Phoenix 10:00 PM Tue, Apr 1 Phoenix 9:00 PM Sat, Apr 5 Sacramento 9:00 PM Sun, Apr 6 @ Seattle 9:00 PM Tue, Apr 8 @ LA Clippers 10:30 PM Thu, Apr 10 @ Golden State 8:00 PM Sat, Apr 12 @ Utah 9:00 PM Sun, Apr 13 Houston 9:00 PM Wed, Apr 16 Memphis 9:00 PM At this point the odds for whether the Nuggets will make the playoffs are very close to 50%, creating the maximum possible drama. It is going to be a very close call. We think that the Warriors will finish with either 49 or 50 wins. The Nuggets would need to finish 10-6 to reach 50 wins. This is realistically the minimum they must do to have a decent chance of making the playoffs. 9-7 will probably not be good enough, and 8-8 will definitely not be good enough. To be almost guaranteed a playoff spot, the Nuggets must go 11-5 in their last 16 games. If you win a division you get into the playoffs regardless of how poor your record is. For the Nuggets, winning the Northwest Division is very unlikely at this point; the odds on that are at 11%. The odds that the Utah Jazz will win the Northwest are 89% right now. The Nuggets would have to beat the Jazz in their remaining game against them, and they would also have to hope that the Jazz stumble down the stretch. NUGGETS INJURY REPORT FOR PLAYERS WHO PLAYED IN THIS GAME Allen Iverson: suffered a non-displaced fracture on the end of his right ring finger vs. San Antonio on 3/7. X-rays were negative, and he remains probable for the Pistons game on March 18. Marcus Camby: suffered a right hip contusion at San Antonio on March 10, and he is probable for the Pistons game on March 18. PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE NUGGETS PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE Nene: He underwent successful surgery to remove a testicular tumor on Jan. 14. A timeline for his return is still unknown. He has now missed 32 straight games. He is out until at least April, but could easily be out for the entire rest of the season. CBS Sportsline says Nene is most likely out for the rest of the season. SUPERSONICS PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE Francisco Elson: He sprained his right knee in the second half of last Wednesday's loss to the Celtics. He left that game and did not return. Robert Swift: Out for the season as of Feb. 25; an MRI on the injured right knee revealed a torn meniscus. ALERT STATUS PROBLEMS As of March 17, 2008 The Nuggets are under a GREEN ALERT, on account of the following problems. NUGGETS INJURIES, ILLNESSES, SUSPENSIONS, AND PERSONAL LEAVES 1. Nene illness 14 points SEVERE AND UNEXPECTED CRUCIAL PLAYER SLUMPS None. BAD OR INADEQUATE COACHING 1. George Karl has completely benched one or more players who should not be benched due to his incorrect calculation of the benefits and costs of that player, his hatred of the player, and/or his having the ulterior motive of forcing the player off the team. The problem points would be the points you would have if the player were injured. No one is currently completely benched who should not be: 0 points. 2. One or more players are partially benched; their minutes are being artificially limited due to abstract and subjective factors that the Denver coaches believe are more important than performance on the court. Neither J.R. Smith nor anyone else partially benched: 0 points. 3. George Karl over relies on his starters and won't play the non-starters enough: 0-12 Points. The severity varies depending on the circumstances, mainly Karl's beliefs and moods, and whether the other team is playing well enough to take advantage of the Nuggets playing with not enough breathers, with too many fouls, and so forth. The current points reported are for the use, or should I say the misuse, of the reserves for the most recent games, with the most weight being given to the game being reported on here. The bad use of reserves score for this game is 0 points. The rotations were reasonable. 4. The Nuggets have extreme offensive inconsistency and an excessive number of turnovers because they have neither a system nor even a good partial system on offense. They over rely on fast pace and on isolation plays, especially isolation plays by Anthony and Iverson. The damage caused by this would be up to 20 points, except that Iverson's intelligence in recognizing different situations in different games, and responding appropriately, usually reduces the damage. But Iverson does not control everything of course, and the lack of any real consistency in how the offense is run leads to damaging problems that can appear at any time. But these problems are much more likely to appear just when the Nuggets can least afford them, when they are playing one of the best teams in the NBA. At one time earlier this season, Iverson and Carter were marginalizing Carmelo Anthony to some extent and Anthony, one of the top two scorers on the team, was not getting the ball enough. That problem went away when Anthony ramped up his rebounding. But the problem has shown signs of coming back again lately. If that problem appears when the Nuggets are playing an elite team, the Nuggets' chances of winning the game go down substantially. Another big problem has developed due to a combination of the unstructured offense and the Karl lineup, and it is not going to go away anytime soon. That would be the double point guard problem. The Nuggets don't know in advance who is going to be the main playmakers in the game: Iverson, Carter, Atkins, or some combination. More importantly, it is foolish to have two point guards in the game for more than a small number of minutes. If Iverson has decided to run the point, as he always does to one extent or another, he counts as a point guard whether he is labeled one by the coaching staff or not. In general, and as always in the Karl era, the Nuggets lack enough tried and tested offensive plays that they can run game after game, perfecting them as they go, and having everyone automatically on the same page for those plays. True, they have plays they commonly run on the fly, but the players obviously don't know about them in advance; they happen almost randomly. The offense is pretty much an unscripted, recreation department pick-up game style of offense. On defense a system is much less important than on offense. How good your defense is is determined much more by effort and skill than by strategy. On defense, the main strategic decision is whether you are playing zone or man to man defense. The choice varies during each game, and usually depends on a gut feeling of the coach and/or the defensive floor leader, as to which is better at a particular point in the game, and with a particular opposing lineup on the court. At least as important as whether a zone or a man to man defense is in effect is the quality of the actual defending. Lack of an adequate number of offensive plays and patterns: 0 Points. Obviously, this didn't hurt the Nuggets while they scored 168 points against the hapless Sonics. INTENSITY, HUSTLE, AND HEART 1. The Nugget's intensity, hustle and heart are lacking: 0 Points. It's not anywhere near as bad as some fans think it is. TOTAL PROBLEM POINTS: 14, which constitutes NO ALERT. NO ALERT (0-19): There are virtually no problems. Teams like the Spurs are in this category from time to time. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ALERT STATUS All teams, of course, have an alert status, and the key thing that can swing games is not so much the actual status of the two teams, but the difference in the two statuses. The difference in the alert status is a third outside factor that impacts a game, joining home court advantage and extra rest advantage, if any. We use 15 alert status points as constituting a difference. IMPACT OF OUTSIDE FACTORS, INCLUDING ALERT STATUS, ON THIS GAME The alert status system is still relatively new, but a preliminary estimate of what the game points advantage will be for each 15 points of alert status points difference has been made, and that estimate is 3-5 points. For now we will use 4 points for each 15 alert status points. The Home court advantage has also been estimated to be 3-5 points and we use 4 points for it. The extra rest advantage is very uncertain, and would differ a little from team to team, but it must be at least as much as the home court advantage. For now, until we can study it more, we will use 4 points for the extra rest advantage. In summary, we are using 4 points for each of the three outside factors. The two Supersonics who were unavailable are relatively unimportant players, so the Sonics' alert status was probably high NO alert or low GREEN alert. There was most likely a less than 15 points alert status difference between the two teams. The Nuggets were home, and neither team was playing on back to back nights. So if all outside factors are considered, the Nuggets had a 4 point advantage in this game. Since they won by 52 points, it is obvious that this would have been an historic rout no matter what the outside factors might have been. George Karl has been doing well with the rotations lately, no one is benched who should not be, and the offense has been in super drive against poor and average defensive teams. All of these things have helped to push the alert status to NO Alert. Atkins has been removed from the unusual player slump designation. The best news of the month for the Nuggets is that Atkins has, in effect, finally arrived in Denver. This might give the Nuggets just enough 3-point shooting firepower to keep up with the Warriors in the race for the final playoff spot. The Nuggets have been unable to issue any prediction about when or whether Nene is going to return to the court. There was a rumor recently that he was going to return by mid-March, but there is no sign that that will become a reality. CBS Sportsline is saying that, most likely, Nene will not return to the court at all this season, including for the playoffs. However, since all other injuries are history, and since J.R. Smith has played so well that he is neither benched nor severely shortchanged of minutes these days, the Nuggets might be able to stay in the NO alert to GREY alert range, avoiding being disadvantaged to all but the lucky and perfectly managed elite teams. The mid January losses to the Bobcats and the Hawks, and the close calls at home against the Wolves and the Hawks in January, in games that should have and probably would have been relatively easy wins had the alert status been green, grey, or even yellow, illustrate the usefulness and accuracy of the alert system. When you reach ORANGE ALERT and especially RED ALERT, you start losing a substantial number of games that you would normally win. It's that simple, and there is little anyone can do about it. RESERVE WATCH Number of Players Who Played at Least 6 Minutes: Nuggets 12 Supersonics 12 Number of Players Who Played at Least 10 Minutes: Nuggets 10 Supersonics 10 Nuggets Non-Starters Points: 74 Supersonics Non-Starters Points: 40 Nuggets Non-Starters Rebounds: 23 Supersonics Non-Starters Rebounds: 23 Nuggets Non-Starters Assists: 20 Supersonics Non-Starters Assists: 14 THE NON-STARTERS IN THIS GAME Two Sonics who played 9 minutes were garbage time only players. For the Nuggets, 1 player who played more than 10 minutes, Yakhouba Diawara, was garbage time only, and 2 players who played 9 and 6 minutes were garbage time only. So Karl's plan was to play 9 players for 10 or more minutes and no one else. Sonics Coach Carlissimo's plan was to play 10 players 10 or more minutes and no one else. So Carlissimo wanted to have an extra player over Karl, giving the Sonics an extra chance that someone would have a breakout game and help upset the Nuggets. It is very unusual for Karl to play 9 players for 10 or more minutes. Right now he is forced to, because pushing J.R. Smith below 10 minutes is out of the question the way he is playing, and there is a huge mess at PG which requires Karl to play 2 official point guards for much more than 10 minutes each. Anthony Carter took over the PG position for the bulk of the season when Chucky Atkins went out for 2 months with hernia surgery and when Karl refused to name Iverson as the official point guard. Atkins was poor in limited games before he went out. Carter has been better than expected, but apparently Karl agrees with most fans that Atkins will be eaten alive if the Nuggets make the playoffs. So Atkins, who has far more experience, including playoff experience, may be the Nuggets' only hope at the position in the playoffs and in the stretch run to make the playoffs for that matter. So Karl has to give Atkins playing time in a last chance desperate bid to get Atkins up to speed. But since Atkins is inconsistent so far, Atkins minutes have to be limited, and so Carter has to play a lot of minutes also. The Nuggets' non-starters outscored the Supersonics non-starters 74-40. The Nuggets' starters outscored the Supersonics starters 94-76. Rebounding was tied 23 each among the non-starters. The Nuggets non-starters made 20 assists to 14 for the Sonics' non-starters. It is highly unusual for the Nuggets non-starters to match the other squad of non-starters in assisting, let alone to be well ahead. I hope to develop the reserve watch feature further in the future, because I want to try to expand what I already have in terms of a game coaching evaluation system. But the complications involved explain why there are no formal statistics anywhere on the internet on the subject of how much non-starters contribute to different teams, and also why coaches are not compared statistically the way players are. There are a lot of variables that come into the use of reserves that interfere with the objective of judging their use. Statisticians call this "statistical noise," and if you have a substantial amount of it, then what you are trying to do with your statistics becomes very difficult or next to impossible. GEORGE KARL CONFIDENCE IN HIS TEAM RATING (Scale of 0 to 10) 3: He's hiding under his seat on the sidelines PLAYER RATINGS EXPLAINED You can tell how well every player played at a glance. Of the advanced statistics I have seen on the internet, this one seems to have the best balance between offense and defense. While some are biased in favor of offensive players, such as the efficiency measure at the NBA site, many other advanced statistics are biased in favor of good defenders, and do not reflect the heavy importance of offense in basketball. Here is the formula for the ESPN rating of a player, which I think is a very good balance between offense and defense: Points + Rebounds + 1.4*Assists + Steals + 1.4*Blocks - .7*Turnovers + # of Field Goals Made +1/2*# of 3-pointers Made - .8*# of Missed Field Goals - .8*# of Missed Free Throws + .25 *# of Free Throws Made All players on each team who played at least 5 minutes are shown. The number after "game," is how well the player did in this game, whereas the number after "season" is that player's overall average for the entire season. NUGGETS-SUPERSONICS PLAYER RATINGS Ratings above 30 indicate power performers. NUGGETS PLAYER RATINGS Marcus Camby: Game 49.5 Season 32.6 Kenyon Martin: Game 44.9 Season 22.4 Carmelo Anthony: Game 39.3 Season 38.9 Allen Iverson: Game 37.2 Season 41.0 Chucky Atkins: Game 34.7 Season 9.2 J.R. Smith: Game 34.3 Season 16.4 Linas Kleiza: Game 32.1 Season 18.2 Yakhouba Diawara: Game 22.9 Season 5.2 Anthony Carter: Game 19.9 Season 20.2 Eduardo Najera: Game 9.3 Season 13.3 Taurean Green: Game 9.2 Season 2.7 Steven Hunter: Game 4.2 Season 4.1 Nene: Did Not Play-Illness SUPERSONICS PLAYER RATINGS Chris Wilcox: Game 35.1 Season 23.5 Kevin Durant: Game 29.6 Season 27.2 Earl Watson: Game 27.6 Season 21.5 Mickael Gelabale: Game 26.3 Season 6.7 Johan Petro: Game 24.5 Season 10.9 Nick Collison: Game 12.6 Season 21.9 Mouhamed Sene: Game 12.0 Season 3.3 Jeff Green: Game 11.1 Season 15.7 Mike Wilks: Game 9.8 Season 5.5 Damien Wilkins: Game 8.7 Season 14.9 Luke Ridnour: Game 8.0 Season 13.2 Donyell Marshall: Game 2.8 Season 6.4 NOTE 1: these stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes. NOTE 2: This performance measure does NOT include the quality and quantity of each player's defending, including the number of shots that the player prevented from going in the basket. The best Nuggets defenders, which are the ones who consistently make the extra effort and have the strength and defensive talent to make that effort pay off, are Camby, Martin, Nene, Najera, and Diawara. OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLAYER RATINGS: There are only 55 power performers in the NBA who average a player rating of 30 or higher, about 2 per team. A team hopes to have at least 3-4 power performers in a game. Astoundingly, 7 Nuggets were power performers in this game. The top performer on the court was Marcus Camby, who was about half again more productive than usual. There is only 1 player in the NBA who has a higher average rating than Camby scored for this game; LeBron James has an average player rating of 52.3. Martin was huge against the Grizzlies, much smaller against the Raptors, and huge again in this game. He was twice as productive as usual not counting defending. After a shaky start, Atkins has now played 3 fantastic games in a row, which is the best news of the month and maybe of the year so far for the Nuggets. Smith was more than twice as productive as usual and Kleiza was not very far from being twice as productive. Carmelo Anthony made his sky high average almost exactly and Allen Iverson was just 10% short of his monster average. Carter was average and Najera was below average. Among Nuggets who played limited minutes, and all in garbage time, Diawara was extremely productive in 13 minutes and Green was extremely productive in 6 minutes. Hunter was average. The Supersonics had only 1 player who had a power performer rating, PF Wilcox; Wilcox was almost half again more productive than usual. Because of much more playing time than usual, SF Gelabale was more than 4 times more productive than usual. C Petro was more than twice as productive as usual. PG Watson was almost 1/3 more productive than usual and probable NBA rookie of the year SG Kevin Durant was about 1/10 more productive than usual. Durant is close to being a power performer in his rookie year. The Supersonics were burdened with 4 players who were just 2/3 as productive as usual. PG Ridnour in limited minutes, PF Collison and SG Wilkins in medium minutes, and SF Green in major minutes were all only about 2/3 as good as usual, PF Marshall was only half as productive as usual in medium minutes. PG Wilks did very well and C Sene did extremely well in limited, garbage time minutes. REAL PLAYER RATINGS EXPLAINED The Real Player Rating reflects reality better than the gross player rating, since it washes out differences in playing times among the players. The straight up player rankings are obviously heavily affected by how many playing minutes the various players get. With many teams, you can rely on the coach to give his various players roughly the playing time that makes the most sense for his team. Unfortunately, some coaches bring other factors besides actual performance into their rotation decisions. Therefore, it makes good sense to introduce a new and extremely important statistic that Nuggets 1 calls the Real per Minute Player Rating. As the name implies, this is the gross ESPN player rating divided by the number of minutes. The statistic is called Real Player Rating for short. This statistic allows anyone to see whether or not players who play only a small number of minutes are doing better than their low gross rating will indicate. You can spot diamond in the rough players who are not getting all the respect and playing time due to them. At the same time, it will allow anyone to see whether players with a lot of minutes are playing worse than, as well as, or better than their gross rating shows. In summary, the Real Player Rating allows the reader, at a glance, to see exactly how well each player is doing without regard to playing time, which is subject to coaching error and subjective and less important factors such as a player's personality. The Real Player Rating provides the real truth-pure knowledge not available anywhere else. SCALE FOR THE REAL PLAYER RATINGS 1.80 More Amazing Happens, but only certain players can ever fly this high 1.60 1.80 Superstar Plus-Above Normal Even For Michael Jordan 1.40 1.60 Superstar Performance-A Michael Jordan Type Game 1.20 1.40 Star Plus-Spectacular Performance 1.05 1.20 Star Performance 0.90 1.05 Outstanding Game 0.80 0.90 Very Good Game 0.70 0.80 Good Game 0.60 0.70 Mediocre Game 0.50 0.60 Poor Game 0.40 0.50 Very Poor Game 0.25 0.40 Extremely Poor-Near Disaster Less 0.25 Total Disaster NUGGETS-SUPERSONICS REAL PLAYER RATINGS All players who played 5 minutes or more are included. Any player who played only 5-9 minutes is noted. 1. Yakhouba Diawara, Den 1.908 2. Marcus Camby, Den 1.904 3. Carmelo Anthony, Den 1.871 4. Taurean Green, Den 1.840…Green played only 5 minutes. 5. Kenyon Martin, Den 1.796 6. Chucky Atkins, Den 1.735 7. J.R. Smith, Den 1.633 8. Chris Wilcox, Sea 1.595 9. Mouhamed Sene, Sea 1.500…Sene played only 8 minutes. 10. Linas Kleiza, Den 1.396 11. Allen Iverson, Den 1.378 12. Mickael Gelabale, Sea 1.315 13. Johan Petro, Sea 1.289 14. Kevin Durant, Sea 1.096 15. Mike Wilks, Sea 1.089…Wilks played only 9 minutes. 16. Earl Watson, Sea 1.022 17. Anthony Carter, Den 0.905 18. Luke Ridnour, Sea 0.727 19. Steven Hunter, Den 0.700…Hunter played only 6 minutes. 20. Nick Collison, Sea 0.630 21. Eduardo Najera, Den 0.581 22. Jeff Green, Sea 0.555 23. Damien Wilkins, Sea 0.414 24. Donyell Marshall, Sea 0.187 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REAL PLAYER RATINGS You see what happens when neither team bothers to play much defense? The stars come out of the woodwork. There were 15 players who were stars or better; the Nuggets had 9 and the Sonics had 6. The best players on the court were Marcus Camby and Yakhouba Diawara, both of the Nuggets. There were four Nuggets who reached the amazing happens level, by far the most this year and something that you may not see again for years. Of these, Yakhouba Diawara played limited minutes and Taurean Green played very limited minutes. The two full scale amazing happens players were Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony. Kenyon Martin was right on the border between the amazing happens level and the superstar plus level. The Nuggets had two other superstar-plus players, Chucky Atkins and J.R. Smith. So the Nuggets had 7 players who were superstar-plus or at the very highest, amazing level, while the Supersonics had none. The Nuggets were so busy flying up the court for numerous fast break scores that they couldn't be bothered with much defending, so the Sonics had two superstars, Chris Wilcox and Mouhamed Sene in limited minutes. Linas Kleiza and Allen Iverson were star-plus for the Nuggets, while Mickael Gelabale and Johan Petro were star-plus for the Sonics. Two Sonics were plain old stars: Kevin Durant and former Nugget Mike Wilks in limited minutes. Watson for the Sonics and Carter for the Nuggets were outstanding. Ridnour for the Sonics and Hunter for the Nuggets were good, which I think you could say was not really good in a game like this. Collison of Seattle was just mediocre, which I think you could say was actually poor. Najera for the Nuggets not counting his made you miss defending and Green for the Sonics were poor. Wilkins was very poor for the Sonics and Marshall was a disaster. Among the 5 players who were mediocre or worse, the Sonics had 4 while the Nuggets had only 1. NUGGET'S PLUS—MINUS This tells you how the score changed while a player was on the court. All Nuggets who played at least 10 minutes are shown. Allen Iverson: +40 Marcus Camby: +39 Carmelo Anthony: +36 Kenyon Martin: +34 Anthony Carter: +34 Eduardo Najera: +15 J.R. Smith: +13 Chucky Atkins: +13 Linas Kleiza: +13 Yakhouba Diawara: +12 OBSERVATIONS ON PLUS—MINUS I would say that Camby has broken out of his slump, wouldn't you? There they are friends, the three Nuggets superstars plus Martin thanks to sports medicine, all in the range +34 to +40. Who let the dogs out? Anthony Carter went along for the ride. Smith, Kleiza, and Atkins didn't really play all that much less than did the Nuggets with a plus-minus of +34 or better, so you can conclude that these three players didn't do much defending at all in this game. Najera and Diawara did not play all that much. NUGGETS MADE WHAT? All Nuggets who played at least 5 minutes are shown. The order is from lowest to highest in real player rating. Turnovers: NBA Average: 14, Nuggets' Total 14, Team 0, Anthony 0, Atkins 2, Camby 4, Carter 2, Diawara 1, Green 0, Hunter 1, Iverson 2, Kleiza 0, Martin 0, Najera 0, Smith 2 Personal Fouls: NBA Average: 21, Nuggets' Total 19, Anthony 3, Atkins 3, Camby 1, Carter 3, Diawara 0, Green 0, Hunter 2, Iverson 0, Kleiza 1, Martin 3, Najera 1, Smith 2 Steven Hunter played 9 minutes and was 1/2 for 2 points, and he made 2 rebounds. Anthony Carter played 25 minutes and was 2/3, 1/1 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 8 points, and he made 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 rebounds. Allen Iverson played 27 minutes and was 8/14 and 8/8 from the line for 24 points, and he made 6 assists and 1 rebound. Linas Kleiza played 25 minutes and was 6/11, 1/3 on 3's, and 4/4 from the line for 17 points, and he made 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal. Eduardo Najera played 16 minutes and was 0/3, 0/1 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 1 point, and he made 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 1 steal. J.R. Smith played 21 minutes and was 7/15, 4/10 on 3's, and 1/1 from the line for 19 points, and he made 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 rebounds. Chucky Atkins played 20 minutes and was 7/10 and 5/8 on 3's for 19 points, and he made 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal. Kenyon Martin played 26 minutes and was 11/13, 1/1 on 3's, and 0/1 from the line for 23 points, and he made 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. Taurean Green played 6 minutes and was 2/2 and 1/1 on 3's for 5 points, and he made 1 assist and 1 rebound. Carmelo Anthony played 26 minutes and was 10/17, 0/1 on 3's, and 6/8 from the line for 26 points, and he made 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 block. Marcus Camby played 27 minutes and was 4/6 and 5/5 from the line for 13 points, and he made 15 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 steal. Yakhouba Diawara played 13 minutes and was 3/5 on 3's and 2/2 from the line for 11 points, and he made 5 rebounds and 3 assists. As always, more reports and more goodies are at: http://www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

Tanking Casualties and Solutions - Part 2: Memphis Grizzlies & Seattle Supersonics

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:04:10 -0500

March is upon us and in the NBA that means teams are flipping into tank mode in order to secure better odds in the draft lottery. Over the next few weeks you can expect bad teams to make key players disappear from the starting lineup while giving bench warmers bigger minutes in the pursuit of landing the #1 pick. In part 2, we take a look at the Memphis Grizzlies and Seattle Supersonics to determine what players may be shutdown before season's end and who stands to benefit.

Small Forward Rankings (For the Stretch Run - 40 Players Deep)

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:08:59 -0500

This LeBron James fellow is pretty special, eh? I just finished ranking over 215 NBA players for the home stretch. Hopefully you can use these rankings to your advantage and win your leagues. If you like the articles, please comment on my site rather than here. I've been writing about fantasy hoops all season long for 82games.com and at least 50 people have told me they're winning their leagues thanks to me. I have a lot more things in store for my site, so stay tuned...

Fantasy Rookies of Today and Tomorrow

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:23:10 -0500

Rookies are not very often key contributors in the world of fantasy basketball, but typically one or two guys every year finds a way to legitimately crack the Top 150 best fantasy players. We all remember the class from five years ago (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, etc.), but over the last two years, there has been somewhat of a drought. FIO and TalkHoops.net writer Zach Harper takes a look at this year's rookie class, and projects ahead to some incoming superstars in the making.

Fantasy Basketball: Rookies on the Rise

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:09:24 -0500

We are at the point of the season, well to be honest, where our attention begins to wane. The basketball season is long, really long. Plus, we have to start preparing for our fantasy baseball drafts, right? So to help you make the most of the time you have left to spend on your fantasy basketball teams, let's take a look at a group of players that could have a significant impact in the last month and a half of the season: the rookies. It is hard to still call these first year players rookies, as many have played the amount of games that would be an equivalent to almost two college basketball seasons.

The Massive Rout, Nuggets 138 Supersonics 96, and the Nuggets' Big Point Guard Blunder

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:03:46 -0500

As always, more goodies are at: http://www.nuggets1.blogspot.com The Nuggets, having dropped back into a course toward the 9th seed in the West following 3 straight losses, took out their frustrations on the tired, kind of banged up, and definitely rebuilding Seattle Supersonics. The final score of this laugher was the Nuggets 138 and the Sonics 96. But the fans, who are generous and intelligent Great Northwest types, never booed their rebuilding Sonics, and you can bet if there is any way to stop the Oklahoma guy from moving their team, the Great Northwest folks will find it and keep their Sonics where they are. The historic blowout gave the Nuggets the highest point total of any team in any game so far this year. Also, the Nuggets set a new franchise shooting accuracy record. The Nuggets made 59/88 shots, or 67.0%, eclipsing the previous franchise record of 66.7% against New Jersey early in the 1978 season. Denver also bettered the 66.2 percent shooting of the Lakers earlier this season, the previous best in the league. The highest scoring game before Wednesday night came when the Suns scored 137. Guess which team had the 137 points scored against it? It was the Nuggets, of course. Being a fan of the Nuggets means you are going to take a ride on the biggest roller coaster in the NBA. Anthony did not get the ball anywhere near as much as he usually does, but Anthony's number one skill, scoring, was not needed very much in a game against a tired and banged up rebuilding team with a very poor defense. And Anthony has an informal tradition of taking it easy in obvious routs, and also of encouraging his teammates to have the kind of big offensive games that they seldom have. This is what he used to do at Syracuse University. Anthony has always been misunderstood by those who did not see him play in Syracuse as having a tendency to be selfish, or being too obsessed about scoring. Seattle Coach P.J. Carlissimo summed up the game this way: "We didn't defend at all." The Nuggets know a team that is not defending when they see one. They can immediately spot one since they themselves occasionally decide to play a game where "they don't defend at all." The Sonics were missing two fairly important players, PG Earl Watson and PG Luke Ridnour, who did nothing in the 1st half due to a hamstring strain and did not return for the 2nd half. The Sonics have only 2 point guards on their team right now, and since 2-2=0, the Sonics didn't have any point guards with which to play this game. Meanwhile, the Nuggets are overloaded with point guards, even though many fans are convinced the PG position is going to be the death of the Nuggets in the playoffs, assuming they beat out either the Warriors or the no-Yao Rockets for the 8th and final playoff slot in the West. The reason for the confusion is that, while many fans are locked into the traditional, establishment view that Allen Iverson has never been so he can never be the designated starting point guard, the truth is that Iverson is playing both of the guard positions this season, and the designated point guard, Anthony Carter, simply fades into the background and becomes almost useless whenever Iverson takes charge of much or most of the ball distribution duties. Despite the fact that there are a large number of Nuggets fans who would rather face the headless horseman than A.I. officially at the point, Iverson has actually been the effective point guard in numerous games already this year. Even George Karl, who of course as usual is on the side opposing my view, has in fact started A.I. at the point several times this season, especially back in November after Atkins was injured and before Carter started playing for the Nuggets. Karl is not opposed to Iverson playing PG; he's just opposed to admitting that Iverson plays a lot of PG, because then he would have to explain why the heck the Nuggets often have two point guards on the court at the same time. Karl is good at getting into technical team management mistakes as he runs the Nuggets, and he is also good at keeping them hidden and escaping having to explain them. In other words, he is good at living in falsehoods. In games in which Iverson has made 10 or more assists, the Nuggets are 11-1. The only loss was to the Jazz in overtime on Feb. 6, despite 10 assists by Iverson. In games in which Anthony Carter has made 10 or more assists, the Nuggets are 6-1. Iverson is ahead of Carter in the number of double digit dimes games 12-7. In games in which Iverson had made 8 or more assists, the Nuggets are 19-7. In games in which Carter had made 8 or more assists, the Nuggets are 12-3. Iverson is ahead of Carter in games of 8 or more assists, 22-15. But the Nuggets have won 80% of games in which Carter has made 8 or more assists, and only 73% of games in which Iverson has made 8 or more assists, which is the reverse of what I expected to find. But Iverson's winning percentage with 8 or more assists is certainly not grossly lower than Carter's. But here is where it gets really interesting, fasten your seatbelts, please. There have been 14 games in which Carter has made more assists than Iverson, and there have been 41 games in which Iverson has made more assists than Carter. 12 of those 41 games were before Carter was brought on to the Nuggets. So while both Carter and Iverson have been on the team, Iverson has made more assists than Carter 29 times and Carter has made more assists than Iverson 14 times. Overall so far this season, Iverson is averaging 7.3 assists per game and Carter is averaging 6.1 assists per game. With February drawing to a close, there have now been 3 full months in which both Carter and Iverson have been on the team. Of those months, there has only been one month when Carter averaged more assists per game than Iverson, which was January. In December, it was 7.1 assists per game for Iverson and 5.1 assists per game for Carter. In January, it was 7.6 assists per game for Carter and 6.5 assists per game for Iverson. And now in February, it has been 8.8 assists per game for Iverson to 5.6 assists per game for Carter. During February, a wide gap has opened up between Iverson and Carter, and this is why I was forced to go the extent I have to explain the situation and the big mistake I have discovered that has been made by Karl and by a substantial number of fans. I used to think that the whether Iverson should start at the point debate was just one of those typical sports arguments, but then I realized I had stumbled on to a big blunder that has emerged from this situation. Now let's take a look at the winning and losing: 14 Games in which Carter made more assists than Iverson: Nuggets are 8-6 or 57%; 29 Games in which Iverson has made more assists than Carter: 16-13 or 55%. Once again, I have been prevented from making a really slam dunk argument, which I would have been able to do had the Iverson winning percentage been greater than the Carter percentage. However, I have at least shown once again that it is irrational to think that Iverson can not win as many games for the Nuggets when he is the main point guard as Carter can. And just as importantly, I have exposed for the entire world to see that the Nuggets are living the George Karl lie regarding their point guard situation, because Iverson has been more of a point guard than Carter has been for two of the three months when both were starting, with the gap in February opening up wide in favor of Iverson. When you live a lie, you usually suffer damages. For the Nuggets, during February, the damage has been that Carter has become dangerously useless on the court, at least while playing alongside Iverson, as Iverson has wisely decided to concentrate on distributing more than at almost any time in his career. Carter's recent slump is no accident; it was a direct result of his point guard duties being partly taken over by Iverson. So a wide gap has opened up in February, where Iverson has averaged 8.8 assists per game and Carter has averaged 5.6 assists per game. The bad news, as I already mentioned, is that Carter has become of little value out there when Iverson is also out there. The good news is only a potential, but it could be huge if the potential became reality. We can only hope that the reason Iverson is looking for more assists than ever is that he remembers the number one reason why the Nuggets lost 4 straight games to the Spurs in the playoffs last year, which was that Iverson was dribbling and shooting too much and distributing too little. In fairness to both Iverson and Karl regarding the Spurs disaster, it should be noted that the Carter role last year was being played by Steve Blake, who was a much more experienced NBA point guard than Carter is this year, so the chance that Iverson would take over actual point guard duties from Blake was never as likely as the chance that Iverson would take over actual point guard duties from Carter this year. If Iverson does continue to take over a large part of the passing for scores, the Nuggets could theoretically be setting themselves up for a first round shocker, where they would take the series to 7 games. Before we leave this extremely important subject, let's take a close look at last year: 2007-08 Nuggets: Iverson 7.3 assists per game; Carter 6.1 assists per game. 2006-07 Nuggets: Iverson 7.2 assists per game; Blake 6.6 assists per game. Here we see that Iverson had almost the exact same number of assists last year as this year, while last year's designated starting point guard made half an assist more per game than this year's designated point guard. Now let's take a look at the Spurs series: IVERSON AND BLAKE ASSISTS IN THE NUGGETS/SPURS PLAYOFF SERIES Game 1 Iverson 5 Blake 3; Nuggets 95 Spurs 89 Game 2 Iverson 5 Blake 7; Spurs 97 Nuggets 88 Game 3 Iverson 4 Blake 7; Spurs 96 Nuggets 91 Game 4 Iverson 7 Blake 4; Spurs 96 Nuggets 89 Game 5 Iverson 8 Blake 2; Spurs 93 Nuggets 78 Here we see that Iverson made more assists than did Blake in the one and only game that the Nuggets won. Overall, the Nuggets were 1-2 in games in which Iverson made more assists than Blake, and they were 0-2 in games in which Blake made more assists than Iverson. But game 5 was a rout in San Antonio after the Nuggets' spirit was broken, and after a key player, J.R. Smith, was benched. Quite frankly, the Nuggets most likely knew in advance that they were almost certainly going to lose that game. And there was no way that the Spurs were going to lose that game at home and have to return to Denver for a game 6. So if you don't count that hopeless game, in games in which Iverson made more assists than Blake, the Nuggets were 1-1, and they were 0-2 in games in which Blake made more assists than Iverson. Therefore, there is some evidence from the Nuggets-Spurs series in support of my theory that Iverson playing point guard and being responsible for getting the most assists of all Nuggets is better for the Nuggets then if Iverson is not playing point guard and is not responsible in that way. I wish there had also been regular season evidence to go with this limited evidence. You can bet that I will be continuing to watch this closely in the final weeks of this season, looking for more evidence. I am sure the truth is that the Nuggets are better off to the extent that Iverson does take over the actual point guard duties from Carter, unless Karl stubbornly continues to refuse to reduce Carter's playing time, in which case it is probably a wash. I have proved that Iverson is at least as good as Carter with respect to basic point guard duties. Since Iverson scores at practically double the rate that Carter scores, and since he would still score a lot more than Carter does if he were the designated point guard, and since Iverson's turnovers would be only very slightly more than now if he was the designated point guard, because he would be handling the ball hardly any more than he already does, to me it is a now a no-brainer that Iverson should be the starting point guard. Iverson, I am starting to hope based on the February games, is smart enough to know that (1) He can't do what he did last year in the Spurs series and expect to win and that (2) No matter what Karl and a substantial number of fans think, he can and should take over many of the point guard duties from Carter who ironically, almost everyone, including those afraid of Iverson at the point, believes will be close to a disaster in the playoffs. In a word, it seems to me that Iverson has started to coach himself. PROJECTIONS The current odds of the Nuggets making the playoffs, according to Hollinger at ESPN's excellent team analysis system, are 65%. The Nuggets are projected to be the 8th seed in the Western Conference. The Hollinger odds don't take into account that, most likely, neither Nene nor Atkins are going to be available to and in top form for the Nuggets for the stretch run, so the real odds that the Nuggets will make the playoffs are probably around 50-55% now. The Lakers, the Hornets, the Spurs, the Mavericks, the Jazz, the Suns, and the Rockets are currently considered virtual locks to make the playoffs. The Warriors are projected to have a good winning record, but miss the postseason. The odds that the Warriors will make the playoffs are currently 51%, substantially less than the Nuggets' 65%. Meanwhile, the Rockets have just lost their best player, and one of the best players in the NBA, Yao Ming, for the rest of the season. Therefore, they may drop far below their current projection, since the projections do not take injuries into account. Therefore, it is quite possible that the Rockets will finish with the 9th seed, in which case both the Nuggets and the Warriors will make the playoffs. For the Nuggets, winning the Northwest Division is very unlikely at this point; the odds on that are at 17%, The Nuggets would most likely have to beat the Jazz in both of their remaining games against them, both of which are in Salt Lake City, in order to have a shot at winning the Northwest. PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE NUGGETS PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE Chucky Atkins: He was diagnosed with a right groin/abdominal strain (sports hernia) on Jan. 9 and underwent successful surgery on Jan. 11. He is expected to be sidelined a minimum of eight weeks. Atkins is out until at least March 10. With any luck, he will be back in the Nuggets lineup by late March. Nene: underwent successful surgery to remove a testicular tumor on Jan. 14. A timeline for his return is still unknown. He is out until at least the first week of March, but could easily be out for the entire rest of the season. Eduardo Najera: did not travel with the team to Seattle on 2/27 (personal reasons) SUPERSONICS PLAYERS WHO WERE NOT AVAILABLE Earl Watson: Sat out this game due to an unknown illness. He may miss the Sonics game vs. Miami on February 29. He is considered day to day. Robert Swift: An MRI on the injured right knee revealed a torn meniscus. He is out for the season. Luke Ridnour: Did not play in the second half of this game after he experienced some tightness in his right hamstring. He is considered day to day. ALERT STATUS PROBLEMS As of February 28, 2008 The Nuggets are under a YELLOW ALERT, on account of the following problems. INJURIES, ILLNESSES, SUSPENSIONS, AND LEAVES 1. Chucky Atkins injury 18 points 2. Nene illness 14 points 3. Eduardo Najera 12 points SEVERE AND UNEXPECTED PLAYER PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS There are none at this time: 0 points. BAD OR INADEQUATE COACHING 1. George Karl has completely benched one or more players who should not be benched due to his incorrect calculation of the benefits and costs of that player, his hatred of the player, and/or his having the ulterior motive of forcing the player off the team. The problem points would be the points you would have if the player were injured. No one is currently completely benched who should not be: 0 points. 2. One or more players are partially benched; their minutes are being artificially limited due to abstract and subjective factors that the Denver coaches believe are more important than performance on the court. J.R. Smith was partially benched: 0 points. 3. George Karl over relies on his starters and won't play the non-starters enough: 0-12 Points. The severity varies depending on the circumstances, mainly Karl's beliefs and moods, and whether the other team is playing well enough to take advantage of the Nuggets playing with not enough breathers, with too many fouls, and so forth. The current points reported are for the use, or should I say the misuse, of the reserves for the most recent games, with the most weight being given to the game being reported on here. The bad use of reserves score for this game is 2 points. 4. The Nuggets have extreme inconsistency and a truly excessive number of turnovers because they have neither a system nor even a partial system on offense. The damage caused by this would be up to 20 points, except that Iverson reduces the damage. In broad terms, the team has failed to decide whether it wants Melo alone, Iverson alone, Melo and Iverson together, or neither of them to be firstly responsible for scoring enough points to keep the Nuggets in games. If it were neither, I call the name of that strategy the "share the wealth" strategy. More specifically, the Nuggets lack enough tried and tested offensive plays that they can run game after game, perfecting them as they go, and having everyone automatically on the same page for those plays. On defense a system is much less important than on offense. On defense, the main strategic decision is whether you are playing zone or man to man defense. The choice varies during each game, and usually depends on a gut feeling of the coach and/or the defensive floor leader, as to which is better at a particular point in the game, and with a particular opposing lineup on the court. More important than whether a zone or man to man defense is in effect is the quality of the actual defending. Lack of an adequate number of offensive plays and patterns: 7 Points INTENSITY, HUSTLE, AND HEART 1. The Nugget's intensity, hustle and heart are lacking: 0 Points. It's not anywhere near as bad as some fans think it is. TOTAL PROBLEM POINTS: 53, which constitutes YELLOW ALERT. YELLOW ALERT (40-54): Minor damage is occurring to the season. The entire season is under medium threat. Beating quality teams is much more difficult and will be pretty rare. About 1/2 of all wins against good teams will now be losses. Beating mid-level teams is a little more difficult. About 1/4 of games that would be wins against mid-level teams will now be losses. Beating low level teams is still relatively easy, but no longer almost a sure bet. A good team has become in between a good team and a mid-level team when it is under this alert. The damage description assumes that Nuggets opponents are in a GREY ALERT or better status. When the Nuggets play teams that are in yellow alert or worse, the damage they suffer from being in a significant alert status will be substantially reduced. In other words, opponents who are themselves in significant alert situations will obviously be more beatable, even when the Nuggets are in a significant alert situation. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ALERT STATUS A rough estimate of the Sonics' alert status is that they were in high GREY or low YELLOW alert status while, as you can see, the NUGGETS were in high YELLOW alert. So the Sonics had approximately a one level advantage as far as the alert status is concerned. Obviously, that advantage was not all that much help. In a game against a tired team with little defense available, the Nuggets' offensive deficiencies were meaningless. J.R. Smith got to play as many minutes as he should be playing in ordinary games, thanks to garbage time, where he was sort of the leader of the pack of rarely seen Nuggets players. Both Atkins and Nene are definitely going to be out for many more days and either one of them or both of them could easily be out for the entire rest of the season. And George Karl is definitely not going to pull a few offensive set plays out of a hat any time soon. Therefore, the Nuggets are doomed to be in ORANGE ALERT or YELLOW ALERT for most or all of the rest of the season, which endangers their chances of making the playoffs. The mid January losses to the Bobcats and the Hawks, and the close calls at home against the Wolves and the Hawks in January, in games that should have and probably would have been relatively easy wins had the alert status been green, grey, or even yellow, illustrate the usefulness and accuracy of the alert system. When you reach ORANGE ALERT and especially RED ALERT, you start losing a substantial number of games that you would normally win. It's that simple, and there is little anyone can do about it. RESERVE WATCH Number of Players Who Played at Least 6 Minutes: Nuggets 10 Supersonics 12 Number of Players Who Played at Least 10 Minutes: Nuggets 7 Supersonics 8 Nuggets Non-Starters Points: 44 Supersonics Non-Starters Points: 39 Nuggets Non-Starters Rebounds: 13 Supersonics Non-Starters Rebounds: 22 Nuggets Non-Starters Assists: 8 Supersonics Non-Starters Assists: 8 OBSERVATIONS ON HOW THE RESERVES WERE USED AND PLAYED Coach P.J. Carlissimo played all but one player he had available between the regular game and the garbage time. Coach George Karl of the Nuggets played every single Nugget who was available; there are only 10 Nuggets available these days. Amazingly, the Supersonics non-starters were very close to the Nuggets in points, 39-44, and they were much better in rebounding, 22-13. Each group of non-starters made 8 assists. The reserve watch feature is under development, and it will be gradually expanded. The complications involved explain why there are no formal statistics anywhere on the internet on the subject of how much non-starters contribute to different teams, and also why coaches are not compared statistically the way players are. There are a lot of variables that come into the use of reserves that interfere with the objective of judging their use. Statisticians call this "statistical noise," and if you have a substantial amount of it, then what you are trying to do with your statistics becomes very difficult or next to impossible. GEORGE KARL CONFIDENCE IN HIS TEAM RATING (Scale of 0 to 10) 3: He's hiding under his seat on the sidelines PLAYER RATINGS EXPLAINED You can tell how well every player played at a glance. Of the advanced statistics I have seen on the internet, this one seems to have the best balance between offense and defense. While some are biased in favor of offensive players, such as the efficiency measure at the NBA site, many other advanced statistics are biased in favor of good defenders, and do not reflect the heavy importance of offense in basketball. Here is the formula for the ESPN rating of a player, which I think is a very good balance between offense and defense: Points + Rebounds + 1.4*Assists + Steals + 1.4*Blocks - .7*Turnovers + # of Field Goals Made +1/2*# of 3-pointers Made - .8*# of Missed Field Goals - .8*# of Missed Free Throws + .25 *# of Free Throws Made All players on each team who played at least 5 minutes are shown. The number after "game," is how well the player did in this game, whereas the number after "season" is that player's overall average for the entire season. NUGGETS-SUPERSONICS PLAYER RATINGS NUGGETS PLAYER RATINGS Allen Iverson: Game 51.4 Season 41.1 Marcus Camby: Game 43.5 Season 33.2 Kenyon Martin: Game 41.2 Season 22.8 Anthony Carter: Game 40.6 Season 20.9 Carmelo Anthony: Game 28.8 Season 39.0 Linas Kleiza: Game 25.2 Season 19.1 J.R. Smith: Game 23.1 Season 15.7 Yakhouba Diawara: Game 14.4 Season 5.3 Taurean Green: Game 9.1 Season 3.8 Steven Hunter: Game 8.8 Season 4.7 Chucky Atkins: Did Not Play-Injury Nene: Did Not Play-Illness Eduardo Najera: Did Not Play-Personal Leave SUPERSONICS PLAYER RATINGS Johan Petro: Game 28.9 Season 10.3 Mickael Gelabale: Game 26.4 Season 7.1 Kevin Durant: Game 20.5 Season 26.6 Jeff Green: Game 15.6 Season 15.3 Damien Wilkins: Game 14.4 Season 15.4 Chris Wilcox: Game 12.3 Season 22.4 Nick Collison: Game 11.9 Season 21.7 Donyell Marshall: Game 8.6 Season 6.8 Francisco Elson: Game 4.2 Season 7.2 Luke Ridnour: Game 3.6 Season 12.7 Adrian Griffin: Game 1.2 Season 4.7 Ira Newble: Game 0.6 Season 7.9 NOTE: these stats do not correct for the big differences in playing times. Players with small minutes would get a higher rating if they had more minutes. OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLAYER RATINGS: Every single Nugget except one stepped up in this monumental rout. Ironically, only Anthony was below his seasonal average.. Martin was a monster on both offense and defense in this game. Neither Iverson nor Camby had any mercy for the Sonics either, as both of them were about 1/4 more productive than they usually are. Anthony Carter took full advantage of the opportunity to come out of his slump and have a huge game. It was his 1st above normal game since the Celtics game. He was well below normal in the 3 games in between. Carter tends to do poorly when the Nuggets are going to lose, and he tends to do well when the Nuggets are going to win a game. Kleiza and Smith were both well above normal, Smith more so than Kleiza. Every one of the garbage time players, Diawara, Green, and Hunter, were playing as if their life depended on it. And their basketball life certainly depended on it, since they are playing for George Karl after all, who is one of the stingiest coaches in the NBA regarding playing time for reserves. The startling thing about the Sonics is that the highest seasonal average player they had on the court in this game was G-F Kevin Durant, whose average is well under 30, at 26.6. AI and Melo are half again as much as that, and Camby is much higher as well. The Nuggets have paid a huge price to assemble this team with it's 3 mega stars, and it is a shame that fans are sweating whether they will make the playoffs or not. C Johan Petro and SF Mickael Gelabale came out of nowhere to lead the Sonics. Petro was almost 3 times and Gelabale was almost 4 times as productive as usual. Durant played relatively poorly, while SF Green and G-F Wilkins were dead center on their seasonal norms. F-C Wilcox and F-C Collison were major disappointments for Seattle, which left their front court devastated. . REAL PLAYER RATINGS EXPLAINED The Real Player Rating reflects reality better than the gross player rating, since it washes out differences in playing times among the players. The straight up player rankings are obviously heavily affected by how many playing minutes the various players get. With many teams, you can rely on the coach to give his various players roughly the playing time that makes the most sense for his team. Unfortunately, some coaches bring other factors besides actual performance into their rotation decisions. Therefore, it makes good sense to introduce a new and extremely important statistic that Nuggets 1 calls the Real per Minute Player Rating. As the name implies, this is the gross ESPN player rating divided by the number of minutes. The statistic is called Real Player Rating for short. This statistic allows anyone to see whether or not players who play only a small number of minutes are doing better than their low gross rating will indicate. You can spot diamond in the rough players who are not getting all the respect and playing time due to them. At the same time, it will allow anyone to see whether players with a lot of minutes are playing worse than, as well as, or better than their gross rating shows. In summary, the Real Player Rating allows the reader, at a glance, to see exactly how well each player is doing without regard to playing time, which is subject to coaching error and subjective and less important factors such as a player's personality. The Real Player Rating provides the real truth-pure knowledge not available anywhere else. SCALE FOR THE REAL PLAYER RATINGS 1.80 More Amazing Happens, but only certain players can ever fly this high 1.60 1.80 Superstar Plus-Above Normal Even For Michael Jordan 1.40 1.60 Superstar Performance-A Michael Jordan Type Game 1.20 1.40 Star Plus-Spectacular Performance 1.05 1.20 Star Performance 0.90 1.05 Outstanding Game 0.80 0.90 Very Good Game 0.70 0.80 Good Game 0.60 0.70 Mediocre Game 0.50 0.60 Poor Game 0.40 0.50 Very Poor Game 0.25 0.40 Extremely Poor-Near Disaster Less 0.25 Total Disaster NUGGETS-SUPERSONICS REAL PLAYER RATINGS All players who played 5 minutes or more are included. Any player who played only 5-9 minutes is noted. 1. Yakhouba Diawara, Den 1.600…Diawara played only 9 minutes. 2. Taurean Green, Den 1.517…Green played only 6 minutes. 3. Allen Iverson, Den 1.469 4. Steven Hunter, Den 1.467…Hunter played only 6 minutes. 5. Kenyon Martin, Den 1.329 6. Marcus Camby, Den 1.176 7. Anthony Carter, Den 1.068 8. Linas Kleiza, Den 1.050 9. J.R. Smith, Den 1.004 10. Carmelo Anthony, Den 0.960 11. Donyell Marshall, Sea 0.956…Marshall played only 9 minutes. 12. Mickael Gelabale, Sea 0.943 13. Johan Petro, Sea 0.903 14. Nick Collison, Sea 0.700 15. Francisco Elson, Sea 0.700…Elson played only 6 minutes. 16. Damien Wilkins, Sea 0.686 17. Kevin Durant, Sea 0.603 18. Jeff Green, Sea 0.473 19. Chris Wilcox, Sea 0.373 20. Luke Ridnour, Sea 0.212 21. Adrian Griffin, Sea 0.200…Griffin played only 6 minutes 22. Ira Newble, Sea 0.100…Newble played only 6 minutes. OBSERVATIONS ON THE REAL PLAYER RATINGS Can you be a star or a superstar in garbage time? Of course, I am always on the lookout for superstar performances, even in garbage time. All 3 of the Nuggets' garbage time only players were huge, but their minutes were very limited. Diawara was a superstar plus, while Green and Hunter were superstars. Iverson was a superstar in the regular part of the game. Martin was a star-plus, and Camby, Carter, and Kleiza were all stars. In a game so extremely lopsided that you might not see one like it anywhere in the NBA for years to come, all 8 of the stars and up players were Nuggets. There were 5 outstanding players, C Petro, SF Gelabale, and SF Marshall in limited minutes for the Sonics, and Smith and Anthony for the Nuggets. So the Nuggets had 10 of the 13 players who were outstanding or better. This was total, perfect domination for the Nuggets over the Sonics, because the best Sonics' player, which was SF Marshall, or else SF Gelabale if you don't count the small minute players, was not as good as the worst Nugget, which was Carmelo Anthony. In other words, every single Nugget was better than every single Sonic. This is something that you will very seldom, if ever, see again in your lifetime. G-F Durant and G-F Wilkins were only mediocre. SF Green was very poor and F-C Wilcox was extremely poor. PG Ridnour was a total disaster because he had a major hamstring problem. NUGGET'S PLUS—MINUS This tells you how the score changed while a player was on the court. All Nuggets who played at least 10 minutes are shown. J.R. Smith: +33 Anthony Carter: +32 Allen Iverson: +29 Marcus Camby: +27 Linas Kleiza: +26 Kenyon Martin: +25 Carmelo Anthony: +18 OBSERVATIONS ON PLUS—MINUS The Nuggets won by 42 points, so you are almost never going to see numbers this big on the plus-minus. Only Anthony had a little mercy on the Sonics. NUGGETS MADE WHAT? All Nuggets who played at least 5 minutes are shown. The order is from lowest to highest in real player rating. Turnovers: Total 17, Team 0, Anthony 5, Camby 1, Carter 1, Diawara 0, Green 0, Hunter 0, Iverson 6, Kleiza 1, Martin 1, Smith 2 Personal Fouls: Total 16, Anthony 3, Camby 4, Carter 0, Diawara 1, Green 1, Hunter 0, Iverson 2, Kleiza 1, Martin 3, Smith 1 Carmelo Anthony played 30 minutes and was 7/13, 0/1 on 3's, and 2/2 from the line for 16 points, and he made 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. J.R. Smith played 23 minutes and was 6/9 and 3/5 on 3's for 15 points, and he made 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Linas Kleiza played 24 minutes and was 6/12, 2/4 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 15 points, and he made 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Anthony Carter played 38 minutes and was 4/4, 1/1 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 12 points, and he made 12 assists, 4 steals, and 4 rebounds. Marcus Camby played 37 minutes and was 6/9 for 12 points, and he made 14 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Kenyon Martin played 31 minutes and was 11/14 and 1/2 from the line for 23 points, and he made 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal. Steven Hunter played 6 minutes and was 2/3 and 0/1 from the line for 4 points, and he made 3 rebounds and 1 block. Allen Iverson played 35 minutes and was 13/18, 3/5 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 31 points, and he made 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal. Taurean Green played 6 minutes and was 1/2 and 2/2 from the line for 4 points, and he made 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Yakhouba Diawara played 9 minutes and was 3/4 and 0/1 on 3's for 6 points, and he made 3 assists and 2 rebounds. As always, more goodies are at: http://www.nuggets1.blogspot.com

Fantasy Basketball: Rookies Who Will Make a Difference in March

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:35:04 -0500

If you are in a close battle in your fantasy basketball league, the month of March is absolutely crucial. The NBA trade deadline has passed and injuries abound. As teams are eliminated from playoff contention, more and more will start playing their young players to see what they have. Since my team has been decimated by boo-boos, I've been forced to consider a lot of the rookies out there who are certain to get long looks over the final month. As part of my self-appointed positions of, in no particular order, Wise Fantasy Basketball Seer and Executive Director of Panic-Stricken Freakouts, I present a reasoned yet paranoid analysis of rookies who could make a difference in March.

The Fantasy Basketball Stock Watch

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:43:31 -0500

The end is near . . . that is the end of the Fantasy Basketball season. Now is the time to make some final adjustments to your roster for the stretch run. Hopefully, you are still in contention and have not turned your attention to Fantasy Baseball quite yet. Remember, there is still a month and a half left on the basketball schedule. That is plenty of time to make a move in your Fantasy Basketball standings Due to deadline deals, injuries, potential contract buy-outs, and other goings-on, there are a number of players whose fantasy stock is changing. Here is a look at some.