the official Dwayne Wade <<<<<< you thread

The Franchise wrote:Miami trying to add Sebastian Telfair, Marbury's little cousin from Coney Island who never quite lived up this hype



I bought this magazine too lol

I remember buying that as well. I used to love that magazine, now we have the internet.

Lebron has by far exceeded the ridiculous hype he had out of high school. Beyond impressive.

I would say he's matched the hype..  Not exceeded it by far, especially when his career is probably only 2/3rds finished.. That would be impossible IMO considering how big the hype was

Swagg wrote:Some more Insider stuff, breaking down the top 10 projected players by position based on Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) rating, whatever the hell that is..

It's a baseball statistic that some nerd thought was applicable to basketball.

The PG list is pretty bad. Kyle Lowry, really? I could've just pulled up PER rankings for last year and they woud've been more accurate and PER sucks as well:

1 Chris Paul, LAC
2 Russell Westbrook, OKC
3 Tony Parker, SA
4 Kyrie Irving, CLE
5 Stephen Curry, GS
6 John Wall, WSH 49
7 Deron Williams, BKN
8 Kemba Walker, CHA
9 Jose Calderon, DET/TOR
10 Mike Conley, MEM

edit: SG isn't much better. Lou Williams, lol.

Have no problem with Thompson not being on the list, his shot chart is abysmal aside from 3. How are you gonna be 6'8 and shoot 48% at the rim(PG's under 6 feet shoot higher).

edit: speaking of, I think this is the worst shot chart I could find :
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/982-Brandon-Jennings/season/2012-2013-REG

^Also, he shot 53% on the right side of the rim, 33% on the left. Everyone made him go right.

The video Mark Cuban and the Mavericks played for Dwight Howard in their meeting:

http://videos.videopress.com/7gUQqrhk/dhmavs_ultimate_video_project_1280x720_fmt1.ogv

Ahahaha. I'm really surprised he didn't love that, it's right up his alley of corniness.

"Howard for 3"

LeBron and Melo will be in the PF rankings:

1. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 18.3

Durant has to stop getting better, right? Last season, he soared to 22.4 WARP, and his projection for this season is merely a statistical model seeing some regression to the mean. Seasons in which a player combines a usage rate of at least 30 percent with a true shooting percentage of .600 or better are historically rare. Durant has made it a matter of routine, and ATH is forecasting another such a season. He also improved his assist rate for the second straight season, a gain ATH sees Durant mostly retaining.

Pierce
2. Paul Pierce, Brooklyn Nets
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 8.6

Pierce is entering a contract year, and at 36 years old, he may not have many more of those. He's aged remarkably well, though you can see in the projections of Durant and Pierce the gap in value between a borderline All-Star and an MVP candidate. Pierce has hit double digits in WARP in each of the past three seasons, but it remains to be seen how he'll fit into the new hierarchy in Brooklyn. ATH sees Pierce retaining his efficiency and more, with an uptick in true shooting percentage from .559 to .592. However, the system sees a 4.4 percent drop in usage rate as he'll have less to do in the stacked Nets lineup.

Leonard
3. Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 8.0

People are still irritated at ATH's projection for Tony Parker, but Spurs fans shouldn't worry because Leonard is there to pick up the slack. One of the league's rising stars, the system sees Leonard reaching All-Star level production in 2013-14 with a winning percentage creeping over the .600 mark. Most of that is efficiency and defense, with a forecasted 3-point success rate of 40.5 percent. His usage rate is projected to remain mostly stagnant, but if he edges it close to the league average, look out.

Iguodala
4. Andre Iguodala, Golden State Warriors
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 7.9

Iguodala's efficiency dropped last season, which was a surprise considering his supposed fit in George Karl's system. His turnover rate jumped by more than 3 percent, and his 3-point shooting slipped from .394 to .317. Also, perhaps because he played more 2 than 3, his defensive rating fell off a little as well. ATH sees Iguodala bouncing back this season as a Warrior, though not quite to the level of his best seasons in Philadelphia. He turns 30 in January and another a drop in rebounding and his ability to draw fouls would be evidence that Iggy is losing a shade of his elite athleticism.

Batum
5. Nicolas Batum, Portland Trail Blazers
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 7.8

Batum's steady improvement hit a plateau in his fifth NBA season, and his 2.2 percent loss in usage rate suggests that playing alongside Damian Lillard may have actually impacted his game in a negative fashion. For Portland to get back into the playoff hunt this season, Batum needs to be a stronger No. 3 to the core duo of Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Right now, Batum is perimeter-oriented, but his 3-point success rate was just around league average last season. He's been around 40 percent a couple of times, and if he can get back to that, then perhaps he can make more plays off the dribble and get to the foul line more often.

Granger
6. Danny Granger, Indiana Pacers
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 7.4

We don't know yet if Granger's knee trouble is chronic, and ATH sees him recovering much of his pre-injury value. I'm skeptical. Even without the injuries, Granger is getting on in years as he will hit 31 near the end of the season. He's also likely to be Indiana's fourth option now with Paul George's emergence. If he can embrace that role with heretofore unseen efficiency, then he can help keep the Pacers in the title hunt.

George
7. Paul George, Indiana Pacers
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 6.8

Speaking of George, his playoff breakout isn't represented here, and subjectively, I do see that performance as a coming-of-age rather than a fluke. So while I can't get ATH to replicate the effect, I think George will soar near the top of these rankings and will supplant Granger in the former Indiana offensive hierarchy.

Kirilenko
8. Andrei Kirilenko, Brooklyn Nets
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 5.2

Between Pierce and Kirilenko, the Nets have the best combination at small forward of any team in the league, and the duo should be a good fit to play together in different lineup configurations. Like Pierce, Kirilenko is projected to give up some of his possessions, but his true shooting percentage is forecast to surpass .600 for the first time in five years. He turns 33 this season, but all of his athletic indicators remain strong.

Korver
9. Kyle Korver, Atlanta Hawks
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 5.2

The last three ranked players on the small forward list represent what the position has become for so many teams: A floor-spacing position filled by guys who shoot a high percentage from the corner. Korver is the prototype, and while he's certainly not an elite individual defender, he doesn't kill you in the team concept. The Hawks didn't get much out of Korver's fine passing skills last season, but with a new roster, maybe that facet of his game will bounce back.

Parsons
10. Chandler Parsons, Houston Rockets
Projected 2013-14 WARP: 4.8

If there was a way to subjectively tweak WARP to give Parsons extra credit for his role in recruiting Dwight Howard to Houston, he'd rank higher. As it is, I think ATH is underrating Parsons, both for what he's done and what he should be able to do playing off Howard and James Harden. The system sees a little regression in his 3-point percentage and, thus, his true shooting percentage, but I wouldn't be surprised to see those figures continue on an upwards arc.

Next five:
t-10. Matt Barnes/Jared Dudley
11. Carlos Delfino
12. Gordon Hayward
13. Luol Deng
14. Rudy Gay

I paired Barnes and Dudley because they play the same position for the same team and have the same projected WARP. Needless to say, the Clippers are in good shape at the 3, with two high-efficiency players who represent two of the better bargains in the league.

The comer in this group is Hayward, who should get more of a featured role in what promises to be a very young Jazz lineup. He was one of the standouts in the Team USA summer workouts in Las Vegas and may be ready for his close-up, so to speak. If he can sharpen his 3-point stroke to the 40-percent range, then his ability to make plays inside the arc will be enhanced. With rookie Trey Burke taking over at point guard, Hayward may also take on more of a playmaking role.

ATH sees Deng falling hard in a contract year, and he does have a lot of mileage on his body for a player who doesn't turn 29 until near the end of the season. That said, Derrick Rose's absence affected Deng's offensive efficiency in a big way, and the return of the star point guard may help Deng sidestep any loss in production. As for Gay, ATH and WARP aren't fond of high-volume, low-efficiency types, and a little shot selection would go a long way toward getting Gay into the top 10.

Also notable: Gerald Wallace, Danilo Gallinari, Jeff Green, Harrison Barnes.

Going from Wallace to a Pierce-Kirilenko combo at the 3 is about as strong of a positional upgrade a team can make during an offseason. Gallinari's return from a knee injury is uncertain and undermines his projection. With a healthy forecast, he'd rank somewhere around fifth. Green looked great toward the end of last season, but he'll have to prove himself over a full campaign to improve his baseline.

Barnes' replacement-level forecast is an improvement on a rookie year that showed promise, but still doesn't reflect how well he played in the postseason. Those postseason breakouts can be misleading, though, and Barnes now has to adjust to coming off the bench.

dmize wrote:

Swagg wrote:Some more Insider stuff, breaking down the top 10 projected players by position based on Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) rating, whatever the hell that is..

It's a baseball statistic that some nerd thought was applicable to basketball.

The PG list is pretty bad. Kyle Lowry, really? I could've just pulled up PER rankings for last year and they woud've been more accurate and PER sucks as well:

1 Chris Paul, LAC
2 Russell Westbrook, OKC
3 Tony Parker, SA
4 Kyrie Irving, CLE
5 Stephen Curry, GS
6 John Wall, WSH 49
7 Deron Williams, BKN
8 Kemba Walker, CHA
9 Jose Calderon, DET/TOR
10 Mike Conley, MEM

edit: SG isn't much better. Lou Williams, lol.

Have no problem with Thompson not being on the list, his shot chart is abysmal aside from 3. How are you gonna be 6'8 and shoot 48% at the rim(PG's under 6 feet shoot higher).

edit: speaking of, I think this is the worst shot chart I could find :
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/982-Brandon-Jennings/season/2012-2013-REG

^Also, he shot 53% on the right side of the rim, 33% on the left. Everyone made him go right.

I agree with out about Thompson's game but come on man, you can be having Danny Green in the top 10 over him. Danny Green shoots 3's and defenders...Thompson does those very same things but he can also create his own shot, something Green hasnt got a hope in hell of doing.

LOL at the Howard thing btw...I cant believe these teams actually does these things. I mean, Howard really falls for these things? Best center in history? He cant even believe that lol

Kyle Korver Seriously

BTW, I read today that last season Kevin Durant had the best true shooting % of any player who took more than 18 shots a game, all time. Thats mighty impressive.

The Franchise wrote:

dmize wrote:

Swagg wrote:Some more Insider stuff, breaking down the top 10 projected players by position based on Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) rating, whatever the hell that is..

It's a baseball statistic that some nerd thought was applicable to basketball.

The PG list is pretty bad. Kyle Lowry, really? I could've just pulled up PER rankings for last year and they woud've been more accurate and PER sucks as well:

1 Chris Paul, LAC
2 Russell Westbrook, OKC
3 Tony Parker, SA
4 Kyrie Irving, CLE
5 Stephen Curry, GS
6 John Wall, WSH 49
7 Deron Williams, BKN
8 Kemba Walker, CHA
9 Jose Calderon, DET/TOR
10 Mike Conley, MEM

edit: SG isn't much better. Lou Williams, lol.

Have no problem with Thompson not being on the list, his shot chart is abysmal aside from 3. How are you gonna be 6'8 and shoot 48% at the rim(PG's under 6 feet shoot higher).

edit: speaking of, I think this is the worst shot chart I could find :
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/982-Brandon-Jennings/season/2012-2013-REG

^Also, he shot 53% on the right side of the rim, 33% on the left. Everyone made him go right.

I agree with out about Thompson's game but come on man, you can be having Danny Green in the top 10 over him. Danny Green shoots 3's and defenders...Thompson does those very same things but he can also create his own shot, something Green hasnt got a hope in hell of doing.

LOL at the Howard thing btw...I cant believe these teams actually does these things. I mean, Howard really falls for these things? Best center in history? He cant even believe that lol

Danny Green is not top 10 either(they're giving too much credit to efficiency but forgetting about usage.), but I think would take him over Thompson for his defense. If Thompson was Greens height I don't think he would be any better at creating. But the problem with trying to compare them offensively(and the WAR stat in general), is Thompson took 600 more shots, but was less efficient than Green from virtually everywhere. Which they penalize even though Thompson has a better game offensively.

More on the usage/efficiency part:

WAR works in baseball because everyone you are comparing's usage is essentially on the same level. And if you are in the lineup you are getting just as much of a chance as the star player. There's also the assumption of what exactly a "replacement level player" is, whereas in baseball it can be more clearly defined. I don't know why these guys try to apply every sabermetric to basketball.

Thompson is 6'7 and Green is 6'6 no?

I think he can create his own shot because he has the ability to come off screens and if he is tightly guarded, he can put it on the floor once or twice and taking a shot off the bounce. Green cant do that.

Thompson plays good defence too imo, and the gap in the offensive skill set gives him a decent edge to me. I think that Thompson is much more important on offence than Green, they rely on him to put up points. The Spurs really dont rely on Green like that, which leads into the difference in the usage.

The Franchise wrote:Thompson is 6'7 and Green is 6'6 no?

I think he can create his own shot because he has the ability to come off screens and if he is tightly guarded, he can put it on the floor once or twice and taking a shot off the bounce. Green cant do that.

Thompson plays good defence too imo, and the gap in the offensive skill set gives him a decent edge to me. I think that Thompson is much more important on offence than Green, they rely on him to put up points. The Spurs really dont rely on Green like that, which leads into the difference in the usage.

He's got at least a couple inches on him, 6'5 vs 6'7.

And the bolded is what I was getting at with usage%.

A couple numbers though

% of FG's assisted in 12-13
Green: .859%
Thompson: .833%

not a whole lot of difference there.

I'd like to find an updated shot % on unassisted FG's number, but I can't so: http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/plus/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=thompkl01&event_code=fga&year_id=2013&is_playoffs=N&team_id=&opp_id=&quarter=&time_remain_quarter=&margin=

All of his shots in every game. Just starting from the end of the regular season and working back.

April: 13-62 on unassisted 2 pt FGs: 21% 0-20 on unassisted 3pt FGs. Total 13-82 16%
March: 10-89 2 pt FGs: 11% 3-62 3pt FGs Total 13-151 9%

Don't have the time to do the whole season but I don't imagine it gets much better. It's nice to create your own shot but 11 and 21%?

Not surprised by the assisted FG tbh, I mean nearly all of what Thompson does is coming off screen. If you do that, take 2 dribbles in for a pull up thats still an assist...but it is still him creating his own shot because many guys, like Green cant do that.

And yeah, Thompson can clearly improve. But in the playoff's he really started to ball I felt. In that series with the Spurs, he was one of the best players on the court.

I get what your saying but if you put Green on the Warriors, no way he is putting up as many points as Klay, 15-16 a game.

The Franchise wrote:Not surprised by the assisted FG tbh, I mean nearly all of what Thompson does is coming off screen. If you do that, take 2 dribbles in for a pull up thats still an assist...but it is still him creating his own shot because many guys, like Green cant do that.

And yeah, Thompson can clearly improve. But in the playoff's he really started to ball I felt. In that series with the Spurs, he was one of the best players on the court.

I get what your saying but if you put Green on the Warriors, no way he is putting up as many points as Klay, 15-16 a game.

Yeah but it's hard to look back and find which of those would be created shots. Non assisted you know it was created by the player.

There's no doubt he's better offensively than Green, but I still think he's mainly a spot up shooter.

Have the ESPN PF WAR rankings been released?

heres a preview  

1. Ryan Anderson
2. Markieff Morris
3. Charlie Villanueva
4. Antawn Jamison
5. Jan Vesley

Nope not ready yet.. We all know who will be #1 though

It should be Lebron, Melo, Love, Dirk, KG, Aldridge, Z-Bo, Griffin, West and I guess Pau. Maybe that order, would need to think on it.

Duncan plays 50% of his minutes at C (way more in the playoffs). Pau is really a C too but never plays there...which is why I didnt include Al Horford in this, a PF who never plays there.

Blazers sign Mo Williams for only 2/5.6m

They went from no bench to having a pretty solid 2nd unit:
Mo Williams
CJ McCollum
Dorell Wright
Thomas Robinson
Meyers Leonard

Does anyone here know how to cancel NBA TV Live?

Surprised Mo aint got to a contender for that kind of money.

Would've been great for Memphis. Who still don't have perimeter shooting besides Miller/Conley

I remember this his rookie year, 55 points in 3 quarters . The 3rd quarter especially is one of the best scoring quarters I've ever seen I think; up there with Melo's 33 or Kobe's 30.

edit: Carmelo's 33

# of Nationally televised games:

33 - Bulls & Knicks
30 -OKC
29 - Lakers & Clippers
27 - Heat

5 teams with more games? Best player in the league, two time defending Champions.. LeBlasphemous!

Lakers have more than Miami ffs

The Lakers are going to be on TV 29 times? What the hell...

Atrocious that

Lol JR Smith. Apparently it won't last long Mike Woodson told him to change it before the season starts

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Good article discussing Point Guards: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/5-on-5-PG-130808/debating-nba-point-guards