Peace I've been defending JVG really hard among friends, but this season really pissed me off, and I am also a little bit tired to defend him. But hey, I still do
You missed my support for this in the PER numbers. Then how do you explain the same PER numbers between the seasons? If the injuries were infact the culprit then how come we don't see a decrease in player efficiency between the seasons?
Last year there were 4 players below the average, this year there are 7 players below the average. Also, the 2 players above the average have played less games this year. Your own numbers point to the injuries being the cause of our losses.
I've been wondering lately if we'd be a more sought after team from a free agent standpoint, if we averaged more possessions in a game. The more uptempo we could be, the more scoring oportunities we'd have for the other guys, and their stats would look better. As is, free agents would see their stats go down with too few shot attempts to take from Yao and Tmac. It we could consistently run a few breaks, Yao could rest behind the play, and the other guys could score-that's one aspect, anyway.
Just so that it's clear there's an artifact due to the filter I applied based on evaluating players that played more than 15+ minutes a game that changes the total number of players. This resulted in 9 for last year, 10 for this year. But no matter, let's breakdown what you just said. 4 below last year, 7 below this year. Code: 04-05 05-06 1 Tracy McGrady 22.85 1 Tracy McGrady 22.3 2 Yao Ming 23.11 2 Yao Ming 26 3 Stromile Swift 14.9 3 David Wesley 11.78 4 David Wesley 10.4 4 Juwan Howard 12.92 5 Juwan Howard 12.1 5 Jon Barry 13.34 6 Jon Barry 8.7 6 Mike James 16.65 7 Rafer Alston 13.2 7 Dikembe Mutombo 16.39 8 Dikembe Mutombo 12.5 8 Charlie Ward 8.66 9 Luther Head 10.2 9 Bob Sura 14.41 10 Keith Bogans (HOU) 11.5 Look at the difference between the above and below avg. The main changes were (1) loss of Mike James, (2) Mutombo playing less minutes. That's the main difference in the PER numbers between the seasons. The players that were on the roster remained the same. There was virtually no change injury or no injury between seasons. Barry is the exception and that's because of his reduction in production due to injury. 2ndly the players that replaced others from last year virtually all were below avg PER. If you look at their historicals (Bogans, & Rafer) they have always been below avg (save for Rafer's last year). 3rdly, why the heck do we have a bunch of players that have below avg PER's on the team??? Looking at other teams in the NBA (look at my thread on comparing role players) we are terribly imbalanced when it comes to PER ratings.
