i thought kobe scored 40+ in like 9 games back a few seasons ago. or maybe that was the record, but i swear he and tmac had some crazy 10 or 11 game point totals during basically the same stretch of the season, and kobe's included 40+ in 9 straight. and being the first since wilt when it comes to some scoring stat is pretty sick, whether you're a ballhog and nobody likes you or not.
sorry, should have been clearer. i meant big men. mutumbo and yao are infinately better than dampier and bradley ever were. for as much flack as juwan howard gets around here, i think hes a pretty serviceable 4, but unfortunately had the heart condition last year. i said most teams wouldnt trade their stars for other teams stars. the lakers wouldnt trade kobe for wade. the lakers probably wouldnt trade kobe for duncan. by your logic, does that mean kobe is better than duncan? most teams build around their stars, trading their stars sets each team back a good 2-3 years because of all the shuffling of role players that happens when a change occurs. as good as wade, kobe and KG are, they can barely get their teams over .500. amare is out, and microfracture knee surgery isn't something any GM would want to mess with until he knew how the player performs over a long stretch of time. as i mentioned before, you can hate dirk all you want, but he is one of the league leaders in PER, and he leads the league in crunch time scoring. the guy is clutch. you probably haven't watched a lot of Mavs games this year, because you seriously overrate the supporting cast of the Mavs if you think the mavs are great simply because they have a great supporting cast. before jason terry came to dallas, he was nothing. stackhouse/howard/terry/daniels have missed a wide variety of games this year due to injury. what's been the one constant? dirk. most of the mediot pundits this year predicted that dallas would finish 6th or 7th in their own conference. hell, scoop jackson predicted that the mavs would finish 10th. i think its a true testament to dirk's abilities to win that the mavs are one of three teams in the league with single digits losses, the others being san antonio and detroit. you may not like dirk for a lot of things, his hair, his perceived flopping (which probably was true last year, but definately not this year), whatever, but give the devil his due. what dirk has done for the mavs this year, has been nothing short of MVP worthy. not that he'll win it this year, but he should get more credit than he gets around here.
BTW, just so you know, McGrady doesn't deserve the MVP at all, he's not even in the conversation, but that has more to do with the Rockets' injuries than anything else (come on, even you have to admit that we have been decimated by injuries this season, can't blame the guy for that one, especially when he's playing injured himself and still avg 36ppg in the past 5 games or something like that). So yes, I will concede that McGrady is not an MVP candidate at all this season. IMO, I define an MVP as someone who is pushing his team to victories and a winning season, a player that makes the most difference in the team's wins column. As things stand now, it's Steve Nash by a MILE. What he's doing in Pheonix is beyond rediculous, and more impressive he doesn't take 41 shots to make his team go. I am not a blind Rockets fan, I give respect when it's due. Kobe is a magnificent individual talent in this league, and as things stand now the most prolific scorer this league has to offer (with AI a close second). However, Kobe is yet to earn a playoff seed on his own (something McGrady and AI have done); Lebron is in a similar predicament right now, but it looks like he'll be making it this season saving a season-end collapse similar to last year's (boy that was embarassing). When a team has a better record with its best player shooting less than it has with him being a ballhog, you know something is amiss. That's all I will say about Kobe. I will give AI credit this season because he's actually trying to involve his teammates and is making an admirable effort to play the PG position. My point is this: scoring the most points shouldn't win you MVP trophies, and in the case of Kobe it likely won't lead him anywhere worthwhile once he gets into the playoffs. IMO, the only worthy MVP candidates are in this order: Nash, Duncan, Billups. That's it.
Correction: He's the best and most prolific scorer in the league, not the best player (that honor goes to a guy that makes his team constantly overachieve: Steve Nash).
Actually, it does. It's not a simple matter of FG%. If you're fouled on an attempt and hit the FTs, it's the same as if you nailed the shot. If you get an and-1 situation or nail 3s, the stat again goes up. In essence, how many points can you get your team with X amount of shots. I think it's the best measure of scoring effectiveness. Really separates the Antoine Walkers (career 1.07 pts/shot) of the world from the Paul Pierces and Tim Duncans (both 1.33). Pierce is much better at picking his spots and drawing fouls than his machine gunning former teammate. Essentially, below a 1.00 is a D, 1.1 is a C, 1.25 B, and 1.4+ is an A Kobe, this year, is 1.26 which is strong. (career: 1.29) Yao last year had 1.50 pts/attempt. Incredibly efficient. Chauncey Billups this year is giving the Pistons 1.53 pts/attempt. Karl Malone had a lifetime 1.41 Jordan 1.32 Dream 1.28 Wilt 1.34 Bird 1.26 Magic 1.48 Evan
I think everyone should just take Kobe for what he is, and enjoy one of best basketball players of our time, and be thankful that you got to see him play in your lifetime. If you really just sit down and watch some of the stuff he does, ball hog or not, its truly amazing. Especially doing it night in and night out.
I think everyone agrees he's a phenomenal and a unique talent, no question about it. The question has always been about the intangibles, not his abilities. I thank the basketball gods for watching a lot of unique talents in this league every night, it's truly a luxury that I enjoy (breathtaking talents like McGrady, Iverson, Wade, Yao, Kobe, Lebron, Nash, Amare, etc.) There's no question NBA fans have it good, even if your team isn't doing so good.
Bottom line is that Defense wins championships. This is something Dirk does not know anything about. That is why I would never put him above 10-15 on top players lists. Also, if Duncan and Kobe were the same age, LA would be very inclined to take Duncan. Only reason they chose Kobe over Shaq was cuz of their ages. If those 2 happened to be the same age, Kobe would get a backhand if he ever tried to b****. He is the best non-big man in the game, but he will never win another championship as long as he is the leader on the team.
Jason Terry's points, assists, and rebounds were all actually higher when he was playing in Atlanta. He has improved his shooting percentage quite a bit since coming to Dallas, but I would hardly say a guy who was averaging somewhere around 18 points and 6 assists per game was nothing.
emjohn, i believe you, but do you happen to have a link for these stats? i'd be interested in taking a look at some other players.
Yes, FG% is only a part of it. What I meant (and said earlier in the thread) was each FT attempt should count as 1/2 a FG. Then you can really see how efficient someone is. If someone is 2/2 FG, 10/10 FT line, they scored 14 points on 2 FG attempts, which is bogus. If another player is 7/7 FGs, 0/0 FTs, they scored 14 points on 7 FG attempts. Each player actually accomplished the same thing, it's just one player had 5 FG attempts converted into 10 FTs. The efficiency is identical. And 1s skewer my method slightly but not much since they figure in a relatively small % of made FGs while not including FTs completely skewers the traditional pts/FG stat.
Gotta calculate them out yourself, but it's pretty easy. Go here, find your player, select 'stats' and divide total points by FGA (or PPG by FGA per game). -edit- Actually, ESPN should list them for active players at the very bottom of the player's 'stat' page. For retired players, go here and use the player search. I don't neccessarily agree. Not saying you are wrong, just that I see this differently. I look at the scoring efficiency as a marker of whether players need a volume of shots to get their points or if they can fill up the box score without unbalancing an offense. A highly efficient scorer gets more bang for his buck by good shot selection (higher percentage shots), drawing and-ones, or nailing triples. Paul Pierce has been one of the best in the league at that for a while. You've been assuming that all FTAs came from 2-shot fouls or shots in the penalty. Besides, I may be corrected on this (tried to double-check) but I believe that FGAs are counted despite fouls so long as the ball did go to the rim (versus a pump fake and foul). Either way. You can always calculate your own variance of the formula if you'd rather, or completely disregard it. I personally find it telling. Does the guy pick his shots or just go for a free-for-all? Is he willing to bang in the paint draw fouls or not? Evan
