http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/kelly_dwyer/10/27/player.rankings/index.html Yao is in at #9 and Tracy is in at # 19. --------- 9 - Yao Ming Despite missing 25 games last season due to injury, Yao firmly established himself as the NBA's best pivotman. Though the Rockets continually found inspired ways of keeping the ball from him, he still averaged 22.3 points and 10.2 rebounds in just 34 minutes a game. ---------- 19 - Tracy McGrady The eyes of the league are squarely focused on this 10-year veteran, who has yet to win a playoff series and has been battling back issues for the last five years. T-Mac, who missed 35 games last year, averaged 24.4 points but shot a career-low (40.6 percent) from the floor. ---------
Typo on the Garnett description (rebounds should be steals), if you're reading this Kelly. Pretty good list overall. Of course, I think McGrady is way underrated, but perhaps the list is taking into account injury risk. As I can't imagine that Marion is more valuable than Steve Nash (would the Suns suffer more if Nash sat out for an extended period, or if Marion sat out?), I just can't rank him ahead of the "MVP". And he was too much of a non-factor in the post-season for him to be seriously considered as a top-10 player.
Tracy will be back in the top 5-10 by the end of the year. I am sure of it, the man's due to have a monster season IMO.
Can anyone believe Dirk is ahead of the likes of: Marion, Garnett, Kobe, and Mostly LEBRON? That list I basically like except that, that made me upset, I believe Dirk is no better than Elton Brand but gets alot of credit which is undeserved, He is good but reason why his team wins is because Jason Terry is CLUTCH. Dirk does not make shots when it counts.
Totally agree on the last part, I think Terry is really underrated, and Dirk has his shrivel moments. But scoring 33 points in the first three quarters helps a team win, too.
Yeah, it doesn't matter that Dirk dissappears late in important game because he plays that stellar defense nonstop, oh wait......
the injury risk can be placed on any player. t-mac is way way too low for someone who has been consistently better than a number of people in front of him. he's curently healthy so he should be treated like it.
For such rankings to have any kind of practical value, it should be a projection of how good the players will be in the coming season. And it certainly makes sense to take into account chance of injury. Not sure if that's what CNNSI was doing there. McGrady is a higher injury risk than pretty much any other player on that list, and that will lower his expected value.
If anything Kelly is bold, putting Yao in front of TD. I don't know about that one. LeBron and Kobe should be on top, ahead of Wade and definitely in front of Dirk. No way I put Marion in front of Nash but maybe this is Nash's long awaited slowdown year. I would take Gilbert Arenas over Marion because Marion has already played the best he can while Arenas could actually improve.
From the article: It sounds as if this will be something updated throughout the year so this first one is mostly about what was done last year.
What does last season have to with this season? That's like saying I had a car accident last year. So my chances of getting in a car accident this year are higher than yours. It's actually the opposite. If you believe in statistical theories and assume that every player has an equal chance of being involved in an injury situation, then Tracy has a very low probability of getting injured this year. That's why the Pistons won. They got lucky 4 years in a row where none of their starters got injured. Chances are one of them will get injured this year and they won't be as competitive.
I agree with it all except Elton Brand being better than dirk. As much as it hurts for me to say it he is a great player and is extremely tough to guard with his size. But i definitely agree that he is not clutch and that (along with his D )is my main knock on him too all of my dirk-lovers
#19?! If I ever meet this "Kelly Dwyer" guy, I'll show him a #19. ...I'm not even sure what that means.
T-Mac is definitely under-rated this year because of the injury concerns. And that includes both the media and the fans. Just to give you an idea, in one of my fantasy leagues, some guy had kindly offered Mike James to take T-Mac off my hands,
