Don't argue with DD. DD is like a teabagger when it comes to players he hates or loves. There is no reasoning with him. It will only get you frustrated unless you are wearing the same colored glass. Carmelo might as well be a red commie b*stard.
Like I said PPS is yet another inferior way to measure efficiency. TS% is the only one you need to pay attention to, which is why I don't see how arguing about PPS or this efficiency measurement is relevant. Its like trying to guess the temperature of water by touching it when you already have a thermometer. The best player on any given team ALWAYS commands double teams, esp. when the other guys on his squad aren't good scorers. LMAO, by your measurement, Jamal Crawford is elite because whenever he steps on the floor and JJ is sitting, he will command a double team. AI isn't elite even in his prime, he's not even close. Him and Melo will indeed go off for 40, however they'll take like 42 shots to get that 40 and your team will lose in the end. Tmac's as shot happy as them but he makes up for it with his superior vison and playmaking skills.
I am all for using metrics like TS%, but you have to use it in context. If you don't think Iverson was one of the 5 best players in the league when he got Phily to the NBA championship because of what your metrics say your metrics are flawed. TS% is important, as is on/off court, as is PER/opposing PER--but even with all these there are gaps. If all you do is go by TS% to determine the best offensive player than one concludes Chris Anderson was a better offensive player than Melo last year. Melo is not elite in the since he isn't as good as Lebron, Durant, Wade, Howard and Kobe--those were your elite players last year and a notch above the rest or more (the year before add Paul & subtract Durant from the top 5). But Melo is in the mix with the best of the rest all things considered.
How is PPS inferior to EFG? EFG does not account for getting to the line. All it does is give you bonus points for making 3's.
All of this goes right to the heart of what I have been arguing for sometime. If given my druthers, I would take Granger over Anthony any day. As stated in another thread he is FAR more efficient player and much more well rounded. Oh, Granger also plays defense too. I am officially declaring to be in the just say "NO" to Anthony camp. Just the once DD....I'm with you....LOL! ROCKET!!!
I'm not talking about EFG. I even bolded the measurement for you in my previous post: TRUE SHOOTING PERCENTAGE ^This takes everything into account, including 3 pointers and fts. Its the only stat you need to determine how a good a scorer (i.e. how efficient) a person is. If you need to see the evolution of efficiency measurements this is a good place to start reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APBRmetrics
Of course you shouldn't look at it blindly, obviously there will be outliers in any statistical analysis. For example there will be guys like Brian Cook who gets 2 mins of PT all season long and he takes and makes a 3 pointer, does that mean he's the god of the NBA shooting at a whopping 100% FG? But in cases like Kobe, Melo, Dwade, LBJ etc. all these guys get similar amounts of PT, play similar roles and face double teams all game long. If you're gonna make a comparison then this is it. Considering Melo has a better team than guys like Granger, what's his excuse for scoring at a lower clip? Are we supposed to continue to assume that the guy is one of the best scorers in the league when the facts are looking us right in the face? I don't get the bolded parts you have. AI never won a ring, and frankly Larry Brown's genuis and the amazing D his team had might have as much a factor as AI's trip to the finals. We all know D wins rings, and Larry Brown has pretty much replicated the success he had with Philly. AI though never got off the ground after LB left, even when he got traded to Detroit or Denver. Regarding Melo, what things are we to consider apart from his good but not great efficiency that qualify him as a max player? I'll give you his rebounding (I'll admit I was wrong on this), but what else? His character is bad, he doesn't have 3 pt range and his D hovers between abysmal and above average at any point in time. The only reason put him in the elite category is his "supposedly elite" scoring ability, but as the facts have shown its pretty much overrated.
I think "best pure scorer" really means "best scorer who doesn't do anything else" to most people. They automatically disqualify a guy like Lebron or Wade because they fill the stat sheet. The same thing happens with defense. Guys get more of a reputation for being great defensive players if their offense sucks. Who was the better defensive player, Tim Duncan or Ben Wallace? I think Duncan was at least as good a defender as Wallace and he anchored the defense of a team that won four championships pretty much on its defense alone. But because all Wallace could do was play defense, he had the superior reputation defensively, and thus he outnumbers Duncan 4-0 (!) in DPOY awards.
1.5 percent does not make Granger FAR more efficient. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...r/statistics?position=sf&sort=trueShootingPct And if you really thing Granger is better defensively, you really either have your Granger love or Melo hate glasses on. Just check out the positional the PER rankings for the 08-09 season. Guess who has the third lowest opponent PER and has the second best PER differential. You should stick to the DD approach and attack his character because your statistical analysis arguments blow.
I guess not, considering Bryant dealt with major injuries last season, including his finger which may never really heal again. FYI last season was Kobe's 2nd lowest career TS%, and even then its just 0.003% lower than Melo's last year. Also this is just in the regular season. 31 year old, clearly banged up Kobe posted a higher TS% than in-his-prime and healthy Melo in the playoffs.
Defense is quite hard to analyze correctly, and PER is not really a good indicator of good D (Shane Battier continually posts horrible PER, so that would affect his PER differential). I suspect the high pace and the crap team defense of the Pacers in general more to a low PER differential than Granger's actual defensive prowess. Defense is more about willingness to man up and focus, and unlike Melo Granger isn't lacking in any of those qualities. Does your analysis also take into account salaries? In case you forgot, Melo makes twice as much as Granger does.Yeah, let's get the guy who makes twice as much but shoots 1.5% less.
Melo's 3P% last season: 0.316% Trevor Ariza: 0.334% Ron Artest: o.355% Melo has no 3 pt shot. That didn't prevent him from chucking though, he still shot 2.7 attempts a game (a career high, I might add).
You know, I've heard a lot of people be extremely critical of a possible Melo deal...and that's fine, but let's assess the situation for what it is: Yao probably has 2 more seasons left, which means that they dont have many seasons left to develop talent and wait things out. The rockets have a number of desired assets who, individually hover in the slightly above average to very good on any given night, but collectively have yet to provide us a season of serious contention for the championship (though I'll admit the lakers ousting two seasons ago is debatable). We have a logjam at certain positions, and as a result we have talented personnel who dont always see a ton of playing time on the court. There are also a number of questions about some of our more desired assets, and the Rockets may not want to wait until some of those questions get answered; AB's ability to play within the flow of a Yao-centric offense is one question, Budingers defense and Hill'st adjustment to playing increased minutes being two others. It's better to trade a player with an inflated worth than waiting until that player becomes a known commodity. So the circumstances are ripe for a deal, especially if the right player can be acquired as a result. The real question is how confident the Rockets management are in the current roster and its ability to get to the championship as-is. If the Nuggets are shopping Melo around right now and trade him before the deadline, rest assured there wont be anyone at his talent level available around the deadline; this is an important note for those hoping for a k-mart trade-esque deal going down around the trade deadline. We were fortunate last year and the right situation presented itself. There's no guarantee that it'll happen again. I personally wouldnt mind Melo. He's no T-Mac 2005 (T-Mac was elite back then, no question), but he wont have to be. All he's got to do is play solid D because his offense is there, and I'm confident he'd be an upgrade at either the SG or SF position as it currently stands.
Read and analyze before you stick your foot in your mouth. Look at Grangers minutes played and usage rates before you make your next comment. Granger plays less minutes per game (2 minutes) and his usage rate is a FULL 5% or 16.7 basis points lower than Anthony's. That means he scores the same or more with less time and fewer possessions. That is why Granger is FAR more efficient. True shooting percentage is only a part of the equation........ ROCKET!!!
Which would account for 4-5 points Grander scores less a game. If anything, with less minutes and usage rates, Granger should have even higher efficiency, but in this case his efficiency is the same as Carmelo. Notice how Landry was less efficient when he got more minutes with Sacramento. There are two other reasons, why Carmelo is better for us. He actually plays defense, and more importantly he's available. Granger is not available. I don't know why everybody talks about Granger. He's less available than Lebron James or Wade was.
You're crazy if you think Melo is a better defensive player than Granger. Nobody thinks that. There is nothing to support it. Granger is one of the best defensive small forwards in the NBA. Melo regularly takes plays off, lacks lateral agility, and doesn't seem interested in playing hard on the defensive end.
