I found a great debate article on ESPN dealing with putting together the best team of all time.

Early this morning, a debate broke out among the SportsCenter staff in the show pod. The question was, “If you had to choose 5 players to start on an all-time NBA team, who would it be?” After about 15 minutes, we decided to do a draft. Four teams, and each picked a starting 5. The Team names are based on the order of the draft (Team A had the 1st pick, but in this “snake-style draft”, team A did not select again until pick number 8). For the record, Michel Jordan did NOT go with the first pick – here’s how the 1st round went: 1) Chamberlain, 2) Jordan, 3) Magic, 4) LeBron.

Well, this is right up my alley, so I had to put my own 2 cents into the argument. I went with each player’s highest APP+ value and then found which team had the highest average. Of course, I’d love to do a 10k sim (simulate the games 10,000 times), but I don’t have a system to do that … yet! Here’s the breakdown:

Chamberlain and Duncan would create perhaps the most fearsome offensive-defensive low post punch, but Oscar Robertson as a small forward? I wonder how effective he would be off the ball. Team A would lose size with Jerry West at the shooting guard position but Chamberlain’s production seems to more than make up for everyone else’s lapses.

Obviously this team won’t be lacking in terms of scoring with Barkley, Baylor, Maravich and especially Jordan. Also, they’re anchored by the winningest baller in the history of the sport. However, I’m concerned about ESPN’s selection of Pistol Pete. Sure, he was an electrifying player in both the NBA and college as well as a deeply interesting man, but he’s one of the league’s most famously overrated guys. As a result, Team B is dragged down a bit in terms of average APP+.

This is my favorite team. How can you beat these five in their prime? Still, I’m not so sure how Hakeem at the four would work. I would probably switch Kareem with him as Kareem was more of the finesse player while Hakeem was the better defender. Julius would be a big shooting guard, but at this early a stage in his career, he’s probably quick enough to keep up with even Jordan. With Hakeem and Kareem in the low post, Julius slashing, Bird shotting and Magic dishing, this is a solid, solid team.

Though comprised of unquestionably great players, I have the msot reservations about this team playing together. Look at who is playing each position … and then realize there’s only one ball to share between them!

Anyway, the APP+ has spoken and predicts Team A to be the winner. However, I’d still love to 10k sim this because I get the feeling Team C might edge everyone out.

Is it All-Star break, yet, because so many teams could sure use the time off. Three of the Top 5 players are recuperating on the bench and for many of the other top players, they wish they had that excuse. So many big names (Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James) are seeing their performance head south.

Marc Gasol cracks into the Top 10 for the first time this week, bringing the total amount of Grizzlies in the top 15 to a staggering 2! He put up a Gasolian line of 19.3 PPG / 10.5 RPG / 3.8 APG, shooting 58% from the floor and 81% from the line. Oh, and this team that was predicted to be in the basement of the Western Conference went 2-2 and edged closer towards that 8th seed. Heal up, Melo! You don’t want to see this Grizzly man in the playoffs.

Biggest Jump: Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, Brook Lopez (6)
Biggest Fall: Tim Duncan, Dwyane Wade (6)
Hello: Marc Gasol
Goodbye: Dwight Howard
Ineligible: Kevin Love

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	Chris Paul (Injured)		G	38	↓ 28.63	↓ 19.71
2	2	Pau Gasol		F	31	↑ 26.73	↑ 18.04
3	5	Carmelo Anthony (Injured)		F	38	↑ 25.67	↑ 16.98
4	9	Brandon Roy (Injured)		G	40	↓ 25.13	↓ 16.21
5	11	Deron Williams		G	41	↑ 25.07	↑ 16.15
6	4	Gerald Wallace		F	45	↓ 24.42	↓ 15.73
7	13	Rajon Rondo		G	44	↑ 24.63	↑ 15.71
8	14	Brook Lopez		C	46	↓ 23.55	↓ 15.42
9	3	Tim Duncan		F-C	43	↓ 25.47	↓ 15.20
10	-	Marc Gasol		C	46	23.30	15.17

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	6	Dirk Nowitzki		F	46	↓ 23.68	↓ 14.99
12	8	Zach Randolph		F	46	↑ 23.30	↑ 14.61
13	7	Dwyane Wade		G	47	↓ 23.46	↓ 14.54
14	10	David Lee		F	47	↓ 22.63	↓ 13.94
-	-	Kevin Love (Ineligible)		F	29	22.61	13.92
15	12	LeBron James		F	49	↓ 22.40	↓ 13.71

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.25
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.39
Stats through 2/1/2010

There’s nothing like the naming of the NBA All-Stars to get me all good and pissed off. Well, nothing except for the Grammy winners each year, but still, this annual debacle is a close second. But I digress …

Anyway, as usual, here’s the NBA Sim rebutal to the less-than-stellar voter/coaches selections this year. My selections are based on APP+ which is APP above positional average APP. In case that didn’t make any sense, let’s say Chris Paul and LeBron James have the same APP. APP+ would show Chris Paul as actually having the better season since the point guard average APP is lower than a small forward’s average APP. Or, in a quick visual demonstration (with completely made-up data):

The following data use 2010 NBA stats through 1/18/2010. Thanks, as usual, Basketball-Reference.com!

Eastern Conference All-Stars
Voter/Coach Selections					Who Should Be Playing
	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Pos.	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Diff.
Start	LeBron James		17.48	F	LeBron James		17.48	0.00
	Kevin Garnett		12.32	F	David Lee		17.29	↓ 4.97
	Dwyane Wade		19.21	G	Dwyane Wade		19.21	0.00
	Allen Iverson		6.08	G	Rajon Rondo		15.33	↓ 9.25
	Dwight Howard		16.63	C	Dwight Howard		16.63	0.00
Starters Difference								↓ 14.22
Bench	Gerald Wallace		17.12	F	Gerald Wallace		17.12	0.00
	Chris Bosh		15.98	F	Chris Bosh		15.98	0.00
	Rajon Rondo		15.33	G	Joe Johnson		12.46	↑ 2.87
	Joe Johnson		12.46	G	Derrick Rose		9.87	↓ 0.85
	Al Horford		14.56	C	Brook Lopez		15.41	↓ 0.85
Wild Card	Paul Pierce		11.83	WC	Antawn Jamison		14.64	↓ 2.81
	Derrick Rose		9.87	WC	Al Horford		14.56	↓ 4.69
Reserves Difference								↑ 4.61
Total Difference								↓ 17.11

Whew … something really smells and it’s coming from the East! Let’s take a look at the starters, first. Remember, these positions were voted on by the fans and had to come from this crop of players. When making my picks (according to APP+), I went by this player pool, as well.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard are easy locks. All three are the best at their respective positions and should be starting in this game for the East. However, Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson seem to have been chosen on sentimental value as they are just not performing at All-Star level this year. You’ll notice neither one makes my list! Rajon Rondo and David Lee should be their replacements. Rondo is a fairly obvious choice but, yes, I said David Lee!

Though usually playing “center” in Mike D’Antoni’s mish-mash, fastbreaking, 3-point shooting Knicks, he’s listed as a forward on the All-Star ballot. Yes, the Knicks playing at the 6th fastest pace in the game will inflate Lee’s stats a bit, but APP accounts for this and he still is leading Chris Bosh by a nose in performance. Remember, these selections are based off of stats from right around the time All-Star voting ended because since then, Bosh has made his move and is now doing better than Lee.

Anyway, the amount of performance that the Eastern All-Stars are losing because of fan selection is about what Andre Iguodala brings to the court each night. That is an incredible amount! Thanks, casual NBA fans!

Ok, onto the reserves who are selected by the coaches. Where voters overvalue name recognition and scoring, coaches respond mainly to team wins which irks me almost as much. All-Star status is a recognition for individual acheivement and yet coaches base many of their selections on a stat dependent upon multiple people! And – when you think about it – team wins are also a stat that is attributed to coaching! Perhaps this really is a way to pat each other on the back for a job well done rather than picking out the best players. Who knows?

It’s unanimous: both the coaches and I feel Chris Bosh and Gerald Wallace are the 3rd and 4th best Eastern Conference forwards (at the All-Star break). We also agree on Rajon Rondo and Joe Johnson’s inclusion, however their selection of Rajon has been pushed down because of the Iverson fiasco. Since my selections don’t suffer from the same mistake, I get to bring in another deserving guard: Gilbert Arenas with an APP+ of 11.96. Oops. Actually, it sounds like Gilbert won’t be able to attend the party in Dallas, so I’ll go with the next best guard: Derrick Rose.

While I agree Al Horford deserves to be an All-Star, he’s certainly not the second best center in the conference – that would be Brook Lopez of the lowly New Jersey Nets. Finally, the coaches feel a burning desire to let Paul Pierce show up to another of these games even though Antawn Jamison deserves it so much more.

As usual, the coaches do a much better job at picking All-Stars than voters (though that’s not saying much), as the amount of performance they’re leaving out is only 4.61 APP+ – or about what Anthony Randolph has done this year. Remeber, this production would be ADDED to the reserve group’s performance, not substituted for any reserve, so it’s still like leaving free money on the table.

Alright, let’s head to warmer (and hopefully better selected All-Stars) parts of the NBA …

Western Conference All-Stars
Voter/Coach Selections					Who Should Be Playing
	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Pos.	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Diff.
Start	Tim Duncan		18.53	F	Tim Duncan		18.53	0.00
	Carmelo Anthony		17.23	F	Dirk Nowitzki		18.51	↓ 1.28
	Steve Nash		15.82	G	Chris Paul		22.77	↓ 6.95
					Brandon Roy		16.47	↓ 0.67
	Kobe Bryant		15.80	G	Deron Williams		16.02	↑ 6.75
	Amare Stoudemire		11.01	C	Marc Gasol		14.47	↓ 3.46
Starters Difference								↓ 12.36
Bench	Dirk Nowitzki		18.51	F	Carmelo Anthony		17.23	↑ 1.28
	Kevin Durant		16.71	F	Kevin Durant		16.71	0.00
	Chris Paul		22.77	G	Steve Nash		15.82	↑ 0.65
	Brandon Roy		16.47	G	Jason Kidd*		13.11	↑ 0.65
	Pau Gasol		18.51	C	Pau Gasol		18.51	0.00
Wild Card	Deron Williams		16.02	WC	Zach Randolph		16.37	↓ 0.35
	Zach Randolph		16.37	WC	Kobe Bryant		15.80	↑ 0.57
Reserves Difference								↑ 8.68
Total Difference								↓ 3.46

I don’t know what is more surprising to me: the fact that the voters and I only agree on one player who should be starting for the Western Conference All-Stars, or the fact that the person we agree upon is 33-year old Tim Duncan! Listen, I’m fairly confident that the gentleman is the best power forward the sport has seen and I’m willing to show my math (someday), but who would guess he’s still outperforming an entire conference at his ripe old age?

Carmelo Anthony. Kobe Bryant. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, fans, I realize both guys put up a lot of points, are super recognizable, and Kobe is the leader of the defending champions, but Dirk Nowitzki and Brandon Roy are outperforming them this season. Steve Nash is still impressive even though he’s older than everyone (even Duncan) but it is a crime that Chris Paul’s dominance at the point guard position is not being rewarded by the NBA audience. And Amare? An All-Star? A CENTER? There are several players in the West who are playing better than Marc Gasol and could’ve filled out the “center” position better than Amare, but I stuck to those listed as such on the ballot and he came out tops.

The Western starters were screwed – but not as badly as the East. Still, the combined loss of performance (12.36 APP+) is roughly what Kevin Garnett is putting out for the Boston Celtics in 2010. Wouldn’t you like that amount of production in your team?

The coaches did their best to right the ship – everyone they selected made my list as well. In fact, the only person that didn’t make my cut is Amare so the sum difference being denied to this team is what he lacks in comparison to Marc Gasol (3.46 APP+). That’s about the amount of performance the worst starter on a team (Mehmet Okur, Mike Bibby) is delivering each night. As a result, I predict the West should decisively defeat the East.

If anyone actually played like they cared in the All-Star contest, that is.

Anyway, being a fan, I voted every day that I had access to a computer (baring weekends). I remained disciplined and only voted based on APP+, though I did exclude any injured player. Here were my voting results:

* I didn’t realize Richard Hamilton was injured after his first game and accidentally voted him in twice when I should’ve probably sent those votes to Rajon Rondo.

Finally, each day, I wrote in the most deserving player who wasn’t listed on the ballot. Well, except for the first day in which I sent in my homer vote for Erick Dampier. The other (real) votes were: Zach Randolph (20 votes), Joakim Noah (15 votes) and Chris Kaman (3 votes).

What an odd week. I mean, contrary to popular belief, everyone in the NBA is human so even the best are allowed off-weeks. But to have both players vying for “best” status (in the public’s eye) not even in the Top 10? Wow, Kobe and LeBron … what gives?

I realize Kobe is banged up with a broken finger and a mini-slump for his Lakers, but I have no clue what has positioned James outside of the Top 10. Last week he went 33.5 PPG / 6.8 RPG / 9.0 APG and led the Cavaliers to 4 staright wins. Huh? He even shot 51% from the floor and 75% from the line. Even stranger is the fact that nearly everyone else in the Top 10 either took a step back or were replaced with newcomers. Color me confused on this one, guys.

Biggest Jump: Gerald Wallace, Zach Randolph (4)
Biggest Fall: LeBron James (7)
Hello: Rajon Rondo, Brook Lopez
Goodbye: Kevin Durant, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash
Ineligible: N/A

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	Chris Paul		G	35	↓ 31.12	↓ 22.19
2	-	Pau Gasol		F	27	↓ 26.60	↓ 17.90
3	3	Tim Duncan		F-C	39	↓ 28.05	↓ 17.78
4	8	Gerald Wallace		F	41	↓ 25.68	↓ 16.98
5	7	Carmelo Anthony (Injured)		F	38	↓ 25.61	↓ 16.91
6	4	Dirk Nowitzki		F	43	↓ 25.31	↓ 16.61
7	2	Dwyane Wade		G	43	↓ 25.53	↓ 16.60
8	12	Zach Randolph		F	42	↑ 25.12	↑ 16.42
9	11	Brandon Roy (Injured)		G	40	↓ 25.19	↓ 16.26
10	6	David Lee		F	43	↓ 24.85	↓ 16.15

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	13	Deron Williams		G	39	↑ 25.00	↑ 16.07
12	5	LeBron James		F	45	↓ 24.42	↓ 15.72
13	-	Rajon Rondo		G	40	24.57	15.64
14	-	Brook Lopez		C	43	↓ 23.76	↓ 15.62
15	10	Dwight Howard		C-F	44	↓ 24.41	↑ 15.16

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.51
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.63
Stats through 1/24/2010

Wow, check out that positions column. The Top 2 players in the league right now are guards and then it’s just 8 straight forwards. Sure, two of them are really centers and one can play the guard just as well as he can the forward, but it really is eye-opening that in such a guard-happy league (no hand check rule, slew of young point guards taking over the show), it’s the forwards that are still dominating.

Let’s talk about Gerald Wallace, or Crash as he’s called by teammates (because he has received several concussions from running into people headfirst). In the four games this week he put up a monster line of 21.8 PPG / 8.3 RPG / 2.0 APG on 52.7% from the floor and 81.3% from the line. Oh, yeah and they were all wins (agains Phoenix, San Antonio and Houston to boot)! Sure, Stephen Jackson has been getting a lot of praise for instantly changing the culture of Charlotte from a struggling, baby franchise to a playoff contender since his trade, and rightly so. But Wallace has been there since day 1 and has been nothing but solid, consistent and great. Good to see him finally crack the Top 10 this season.

Biggest Jump: Gerald Wallace, Dwight Howard (4)
Biggest Fall: Chris Bosh (9)
Hello: Zach Randolph
Goodbye: Kobe Bryant
Ineligible: Pau Gasol

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	Chris Paul		G	32	↑ 31.77	↑ 22.84
2	3	Dwyane Wade		G	39	↑ 28.11	↑ 19.18
3	4	Tim Duncan		F-C	37	↑ 28.89	↑ 18.62
4	6	Dirk Nowitzki		F	40	↑ 27.16	↑ 18.46
-	-	Pau Gasol (Ineligible)		F	24	↓ 27.14	↑ 18.44
5	2	LeBron James		F	42	↓ 26.16	↓ 17.46
6	7	David Lee		F	41	↓ 26.00	↓ 17.30
7	9	Carmelo Anthony		F	35	↓ 25.83	↓ 17.13
8	12	Gerald Wallace		F	38	↑ 25.72	↑ 17.02
9	8	Kevin Durant		G-F	41	↓ 26.45	↓ 16.71
10	14	Dwight Howard		C-F	41	↑ 25.93	↑ 16.68

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	15	Brandon Roy		G	39	↑ 25.37	↑ 16.44
12	-	Zach Randolph		F	40	24.97	16.27
13	13	Deron Williams		G	37	↓ 24.97	↓ 16.04
14	5	Chris Bosh		F-C	41	↓ 26.25	↓ 15.98
15	10	Steve Nash		G	42	↓ 24.67	↓ 15.74

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.57
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.69
Stats through 1/18/2010

It appears that, despite my subconcious compariosn, NBA players aren’t actually superheroes as some of the mighty fell quite a bit this week. Kobe Bryant has been experiencing a lot of trouble with his broken finger (wha? the guy is playing with a broken finger on his SHOOTING HAND?) and Dwight Howard still hasn’t totally found his mojo, yet. Meanwhile, a certain speedster has.

The Miami Heat went 2-2 last week but it wasn’t Flash’s fault. Or was it? Wade put up quite the gaudy little line of 32.3 PPG / 6.0 RPG / 5.5 APG but only had an average shooting week (47% from the floor and 77% from the line). With such a ho-hum shooting percentage, that means Flash had to be a bit of a volume shooter – taking a lot of shots to reach those lofty scoring numbers.

Biggest Jump: Dwyane Wade (5)
Biggest Fall: Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard (5)
Hello: Brandon Roy
Goodbye: N/A
Ineligible: Kevin Martin, Pau Gasol

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	Chris Paul		G	27	↓ 31.49	↑ 22.55
2	2	LeBron James		F	39	↓ 28.27	↓ 19.57
-	-	Kevin Martin (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	5	↓ 27.56	↓ 18.62
-	5	Pau Gasol (Injured) (Ineligible)		F	22	↓ 27.25	↑ 18.54
3	8	Dwyane Wade		G	35	↑ 27.37	↑ 18.43
4	7	Tim Duncan		F-C	33	↑ 28.69	↑ 18.40
5	3	Chris Bosh		F-C	38	↓ 28.39	↓ 18.10
6	6	Dirk Nowitzki		F	36	↓ 26.63	↓ 17.93
7	11	David Lee		F	36	↑ 26.43	↑ 17.73
8	12	Kevin Durant		G-F	36	↑ 27.24	↑ 17.50
9	10	Carmelo Anthony		F	32	↑ 25.87	↑ 17.17
10	13	Steve Nash		G	37	↑ 26.03	↑ 17.09

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	4	Kobe Bryant		G-F	37	↓ 26.69	↓ 16.95
12	14	Gerald Wallace		F	34	↑ 25.36	↑ 16.66
13	15	Deron Williams		G	33	↑ 25.57	↑ 16.63
14	9	Dwight Howard		C-F	37	↓ 25.58	↓ 16.33
15	-	Brandon Roy		G	38	25.21	16.27

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.69
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.81
Stats through 1/10/2010

… and out of nowhere Chris Paul wrests the crown from King James! Wow, I thought LeBron was going to have an entire year at that number one spot but he actually dropped quite a bit last week in production. Oh, and that Chris Paul guy is pretty good, too.

Paul led his New Orleans Hornets to a 2-1 week (don’t look now, but the Hornets are actually winning!) by putting up a pretty typical (and therefore outstanding) line of 20.7 PPG / 6.0 RPG / 9.3 APG while shooting a rather pedestrian 48% from the floor and a rather fine 82% from the line.

And, wow, do I have egg on my face. Just one week after challenging Kobe Bryant to finally seizing the Los Angeles Lakers reins (teammate Pau Gasol was better than him all last season and this), Kobe goes ahead and completely leaps frog ahead of his hirsute Spaniard. Congrats. You asshole!

Biggest Jump: Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant (3)
Biggest Fall: Deron Williams (4)
Hello: Pau Gasol
Goodbye: Carlos Boozer
Ineligible: Kevin Martin

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	2	Chris Paul		G	23	↓ 31.74	↑ 22.79
2	1	LeBron James		F	36	↓ 30.59	↓ 21.89
-	-	Kevin Martin (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	5	↓ 27.62	↓ 18.67
3	6	Chris Bosh		F-C	35	↑ 28.76	↑ 18.47
4	7	Kobe Bryant		G-F	33	↑ 28.19	↑ 18.45
5	-	Pau Gasol (Injured)		F	22	↓ 28.19	↓ 18.41
6	3	Dirk Nowitzki		F	33	↓ 26.92	↓ 18.22
7	4	Tim Duncan		F-C	30	↓ 28.45	↓ 18.16
8	5	Dwyane Wade		G	31	↓ 26.72	↓ 17.78
9	8	Dwight Howard		C-F	33	↓ 26.44	↓ 17.19
10	9	Carmelo Anthony		F	32	↓ 25.84	↓ 17.14

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	13	David Lee		F	34	↑ 25.82	↑ 17.12
12	14	Kevin Durant		G-F	33	↑ 26.72	↑ 16.98
13	10	Steve Nash		G	34	↓ 25.90	↓ 16.95
14	12	Gerald Wallace		F	31	↑ 25.22	↑ 16.52
15	11	Deron Williams		G	31	↓ 25.33	↓ 16.38

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.71
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.83
Stats through 1/3/2010

Hey, everyone. Welcome back from a week off due to Christmas (and laziness). The Top 10 in week 9 is beginning to take a familiar form where the big guns are starting to solidify their positions. Usual suspects like Steve Nash, Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan all made progress up the charts but no one made a jump like … who else? Kobe Bryant.

Bryant led his Lakers 5-2 during the past two weeks while putting up a phenomenal line (34.7 PPG / 7.3 RPG / 4.7 APG) while shooting 48% from the floor and a sizzling 87% from the free throw line (incredible when you’re shooting there 8.5 times a night). Ever since his return from injury, Pau Gasol has stayed atop the Top 10 list but will Kobe finally overtake his teammate? (Hint: He didn’t last year)

Biggest Jump: Kobe Bryant (5)
Biggest Fall: Kevin Durant (8)
Hello: None!
Goodbye: None!
Ineligible: Pau Gasol, Kevin Martin

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James		F	32	↓ 34.30	↓ 25.60
2	2	Chris Paul		G	20	↓ 31.38	↓ 22.44
-	-	Pau Gasol (Ineligible)		F	18	↓ 28.23	↓ 19.53
3	3	Dirk Nowitzki		F	30	↓ 27.87	↓ 19.17
-	-	Kevin Martin (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	5	↑ 27.68	↑ 18.74
4	7	Tim Duncan		F-C	26	↑ 28.91	↑ 18.62
5	5	Dwyane Wade		G	28	↑ 27.45	↑ 18.51
6	4	Chris Bosh		F-C	32	↓ 28.29	↓ 18.00
7	12	Kobe Bryant		G-F	29	↑ 27.64	↑ 17.90
8	11	Dwight Howard		C-F	30	↑ 26.88	↑ 17.63
9	10	Carmelo Anthony		F	31	↑ 26.15	↑ 17.45
10	13	Steve Nash		G	31	↑ 26.20	↑ 17.26

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	9	Deron Williams		G	28	↓ 25.82	↓ 16.88
12	15	Gerald Wallace		F	27	↑ 25.06	↑ 16.36
13	14	David Lee		F	30	↑ 24.95	↑ 16.25
14	6	Kevin Durant		G-F	29	↓ 25.84	↓ 16.10
15	8	Carlos Boozer		F-C	30	↓ 26.05	↓ 15.76

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.74
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.86
Stats through 12/28/2009

Basketball-reference.com lists personal fouls at both the individual and team level, however they don’t track offensive fouls. This isn’t a big deal until I came across trying to split my bread and butter statistic, APP, into offensive and defensive parts. I couldn’t, in good faith, just plop down all of a player’s personal fouls into one category or the other and I certainly couldn’t add it twice to both equations.

Luckily, another great basketball stats site, 82Games.com came to the rescue. There, they actually have kept data on how many total offensive fouls were called on players as well as teams. What I did was to sum up all of the personal fouls recorded to each team for all the full seasons of data on 82Games.com (2003-2009), sum up all of the offensive personal fouls recorded in that period of time, and find the percentage. Here are the results (in my nice, shiny table formatting!)

Thus, going forward, I will count 9.04% of an individual’s Personal Fouls against his Offensive APP and the remaining 90.96% count against his Defensive APP.

The Jazz are going to have their hands full this offseason (and perhaps sooner). Right now, Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, are playing much like their 90’s counterparts, Stockton and Malone. Boozer put up 17.5 PPG / 10.3 RPG / 4.5 APG while Williams dropped 21.8 PPG / 4.3 RPG / 11.3 APG (both shooting near 50% from the field). No wonder the Jazz went 3-1 last week. Unfortunately, the likely situation is that Booz will become a free agent and leave Salt Lake City at the end of the season. Until then, let’s just enjoy the mini-time travel back to the 90’s shall we?

I went into this post thinking that two teammates ending up in the Top 10 (based on APP+) would be a rare occurrence but I’ve discovered it’s actually a fairly common thing. The last time it was achieved was in 2005 with the Heat’s Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal. For the record, Stockton and Malone last did it together in 1997.

Biggest Jump: Deron Williams (3)
Biggest Fall: Tim Duncan (4)
Hello: Gerald Wallace
Goodbye:
Ineligible: Pau Gasol, Kevin Martin

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James		F	24	↑ 35.01	↓ 26.30
2	-	Chris Paul		G	14	↓ 31.83	↓ 22.89
3	2	Dirk Nowitzki		F	24	↓ 29.44	↓ 20.73
-	-	Pau Gasol (Ineligible)		F	11	↑ 29.17	↑ 20.46
-	-	Kevin Martin (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	5	↓ 27.50	↓ 18.56
4	5	Chris Bosh		F-C	26	↓ 28.59	↓ 18.30
5	4	Dwyane Wade		G	22	↓ 27.17	↓ 18.23
6	8	Kevin Durant		G-F	22	↑ 27.49	↑ 17.74
7	3	Tim Duncan		F-C	19	↓ 27.98	↓ 17.69
8	6	Carlos Boozer		F-C	23	↓ 27.98	↓ 17.69
9	11	Deron Williams		G	21	↑ 26.37	↑ 17.43
10	7	Carmelo Anthony		F	24	↓ 26.10	↓ 17.39

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	10	Dwight Howard		C-F	23	↑ 26.05	↑ 16.80
12	9	Kobe Bryant		G-F	22	↓ 26.33	↓ 16.58
13	12	Steve Nash		G	24	↑ 25.24	↑ 16.30
14	14	David Lee		F	23	↑ 23.81	↑ 15.10
15	-	Gerald Wallace		F	22	23.57	14.86

APP – Adjusted Pace Performance
A weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performance.
APP+ – APP Above Positional Average APP
Player’s weighted performance minus the performance of an average player at his same position.

Players are considered ineligible if they fail to play in 60% of their team’s games.

APP for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 9.85
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: ↓ 0.96
Stats through 12/13/2009