Unintended Consequences: February 2008 Archives

Hat tip to David Berri on this one.

I'm pretty sure Pop is proud of his defense when he holds opponents to 30% from the 3point line, and you want to put a guy out there who averages 30%?

Really!?

And this is better than the best point guard in the game HOW?

Avery should know that, very much unlike Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Kidd is actually aware of the fact that he isn't one of the team's better shooters.  Jerry is the very worst kind of bad player:  the kind who thinks he's a really good player.

And I have to give some extra credit for confirming the 4th principle of economics to Mark Cuban.  It appears that he was really upset about giving up Jerry Stackhouse, so when he had the opportunity to re-do the deal using Keith Van Horn, he decided to keep Jerry.  At the risk of repeating myself:  Jerry Stackhouse is NOT good.  Again, look beyond the scoring totals.  And getting rid of Stack was at least half of what made this such a great trade!

Seriously, this isn't rocket science.  Every single one of you that plays in regular pick-up games knows this.  You know the guy.  He's the alpha dog of the gym.  Takes all the shots.  Hogs the ball a lot.  Always wants the ball to go through him.  Thinks he's the best player in the gym.  At least half the gym thinks he is, too.

But you know in your heart that if you took 12 shots per pick-up game, you'd get 5 of your team's 11 too.  Hell, if YOU took 12 shots a game, you'd get 8 of your team's 11.  In fact, whenever you get that many shots, you do usually get 8 points.  Trouble is, you don't get the ball that much.  And you aren't as good at "creating your shot" as that guy.  Someday I am going to write a whole blog post on how bullshit the whole "creating your own shot" myth is (hint:  how often does the creator create a good shot?  Really?  There are tons of guys in the NBA who can create their own shot, but only about a half dozen of them regularly create good ones.).  So you only shoot 4 shots a game.  And everybody respects this guy as one of the best players.  But seriously, if you're ever captain, who do you pick:  the 6'7" muscled guy who grabs all the boards and plays really good D, or this guy who's really good at creating his own shot?  And which team wins more often?