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Tag Archives: Chris Paul
Mike Conley, Top 5?
The Memphis Grizzlies are playing as good a brand of basketball as any of the eight teams left in the NBA playoffs, with the emergence of Mike Conley being a big reason why. But when Tony Allen, following an emotional road victory in which Conley led the way (26 points, ten rebounds, and nine assists), declared that his floor general was “one of the top five point guards in the league,” it smelled a … Continue reading
Video Playbook: Clippers Crash The Glass On The Grizzlies
From just about any perspective, Game One was a disaster for the Grizzlies. In wasn’t just the 112-91 torching they suffered at the hands of the Clippers, it was the way their defense broke down in multiple ways. Two huge keys for the Grizzlies heading into this series were slowing down the Clippers’ pick-and-roll and keeping them off the offensive glass. Both areas were a huge disaster in Game One. The heart of the … Continue reading
Objectivity, In A Subjective World
This week ESPN gave us a snapshot of what’s become one of their standard summer projects, #NBARank. As an end-of-season treat they put together an early preview, giving their panel of 111 contributors (myself included) the standard task of ranking each player on a scale of 1-to-10 in terms of ‘current quality.’ This time instead of evaluating the whole league we were just asked to assess a core group, assembling a list of the … Continue reading
Weekly Stats Recap
For this week I decided to chart the importance of turning turnovers into points. In the 52 games this week, the winning team scored 18.12 points per game off of turnovers while losing teams managed just 14.02 points. That may not seem like much, but when you consider that 17.31% of the games this week either went to overtime or were decided by four or fewer points, the ability to score points off of … Continue reading
Game of the Week: San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Clippers
We are past the All-Star break, which to me is the spiritual midpoint of the season. With the trade deadline approaching, teams have to decide whether they’re in position to make a run or whether to pack it in for the rest of the season. The two teams playing in the late game Thursday are in the former category. The Spurs are the winningest team in the league, but the Clippers have had the … Continue reading
NBA All-Star Game: Houston, We Have A Game
The 2013 NBA All-Star game, hosted in Houston, where the best players from East and West to face each other in the marquee matchup of the season. Continue reading
Searching for Value in NBA Contracts
Introduction A few weeks ago, Kevin Pelton of ESPN looked at the best contracts in the NBA by multiplying a player’s WARP (wins above replacement level) by the average amount that teams pay for each WARP. I’d like to approach this same problem from a different angle: namely, how much value are teams getting out of the salaries they pay their players? Instead of looking at WARP, I’ll focus on win shares, another metric … Continue reading
CP3 Exosmosis
Exosmosis: the flow of a substance from an area of greater concentration to one of lower concentration (opposed to endosmosis). CP3 Exosmosis: the flow of an offense from an area of greater ability to one of lower ability (opposed to Ellis-osmosis). Christopher Emmanuel Paul was born on May 6, 1985 in North Carolina. He’s come a long ways from his college days at Wake Forest, and is more experienced than the rookie that would take french fries, Jay-Z’s black album, and Gabrielle Union (the current Ms. Dwayne Wade) with him if … Continue reading
Game of the Week: Los Angeles Clippers at Miami Heat
Somehow, the Miami Heat are flying under the radar. They’ve had ups and downs, but it hasn’t changed their standing as the team to beat in the East, and the favorite to repeat. But they haven’t been the best regular season team thus far. That distinction belongs to the San Antonio Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and when Chris Paul has been healthy, the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami’s opponent on Thursday. Key Players Chris … Continue reading
Weekly Stats Recap
As mentioned in the previous edition of the Weekly Stats Recap, the suggested #StatStudy for this week was orchestrated to determine the impact of elite assist men. Perry Missner (@PerryMissner), a noted doubter of the importance of great point guards, estimated that 65% of the teams with a double digit dime man would win. As it turns out (for this week at least), Perry wasn’t pessimistic enough when it comes to the correlation between … Continue reading
