Friday, March 07, 2008

I've Heard You Can Say Anything You Want On The Internet

So why waste time saying nothing?
6. Jose Calderon - Sure, he has low turnovers and he did an unexpectedly great job filling in for TJ Ford, but Calderon is not an MVP candidate. I actually saw seemingly legitimate sources put Calderon on the All-Star team over Paul Pierce! His adjusted +/- is +0.3. Calderon is not a difference maker.
7. PER (Player Efficiency Rating) - With all apologies to John Hollinger, this is just a garbage statistic that means very little. Current players in the top 50 include: Carl Landry, Leon Powe and Amir Johnson. Adjusted plus/minus is a much better indicator of player performance. For those truly interested in basketball stats, steer clear of PER and check out the stats on these sites: 82Games and BasketballValue.
8. Joakim Noah - I just hate you, Joakim. Please go away.
I doubt anyone (short of a Raptors message board user, who is probably a cousin of this guy) is seriously putting Calderon out there as the MVP, but complain your heart out. I'm not sure where that adjusted +/- number is coming from (-5.29 as of March 6), but JC's success sans Ford was hardly unexpected. The relatively simpler, less volatile +/- rating has Calderon second only to Bosh, and that should be proof enough that Calderon is a pretty big difference maker for the Raptors.

Describing PER as garbage after misinterpreting adjusted +/-, and using small sample sizes as straw men against the Mighty Hollinger. Free Darko isn't hiring, buddy. Ba-Zam!

I'm sick of a lot of things, but disdain for Joakim Noah just confuses me. Is it because he's not classically handsome, or won a bunch in college and isn't classically handsome? I suppose I'm not that confused anymore. At least Str8Hoops didn't compare Jo to Varejao.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

1) Check out what Henry Abbott, John Hollinger and Tim Legler have to say about Calderon. All three claim he was the biggest all-star snub, which I definitely disagree with.

2) As far as the plus/minus thing goes... it was net +/- (which is now 1.8) I was referring to rather than adjusted +/-, but either way Calderon's rating is not good. In fact, if you consider the adjusted +/- for Calderon, he looks terrible as his defensive rating is brutal.

3) Speaking of defense... the main problem with Hollinger's rating is that it deosn't consider defense at all. This is how a guy like Amare Stoudamire gets to be the thrid highest rated player or Yao Ming was his preseason prediction for best PER. If shooting percentages, assits, turnovers, minutes played and rebounds were the only factors that impacted a player's contribution to the game, PER would be a great stat. Unfortunately, they are not. Not even close.

4) As far as Joakim Noah goes... I am actually a fan of the Florida Gators and won a lot of money because of them last year, but Noah is an ass. Here are 3 examples why...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3194819
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ3y5hTHuP4
http://rushthecourt.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/joakim-noah-suit.jpg

8:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Noah! Noah! Noah!

9:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brian Windhorst: "[Noah] may respect Ben Wallace, but he also wants to prove he’s better and he’s probably sick of being compared to Anderson Varejao. So kicked both their butts for good measure."

And there's plenty of reasons not to like Noah beyond the dashing looks. He makes a spectacle of himself, well-intentioned or not...and before he became a Bull I think 'preening ass' was my way of describing him. I'm not saying they're good reaons, but I've 'hated' opposing players for less.

9:50 AM  
Blogger CoachSkiles said...

"I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it's imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold," the New York senator told reporters crowded into an infant's bedroom-sized hotel conference room in Washington.

"I believe that I've done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you'll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy," she said.


When will Boylan cross the commander-in-chief threshold?

10:01 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Boylan already has been president - He had a Emmy-award winning turn as President Logan on "24."

10:10 AM  
Blogger Hot Shit College Student said...

str8 -

Where's the MVP talk?

There's a difference between useful and garbage. PER is useful, your argument is garbage. There aren't any miracle metrics, and minutes played isn't in PER. Net plus-minus doesn't really mean a helluvalot on its own.

You're just jealous of Noah's winning personality.

12:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Be careful, people may read that and think you like Noah just because he isn't classically handsome...

3:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home