Grading the FBB 2010 Regular Season Awards (Author - Kipke)
Posted: February 10th, 2024, 12:10 am
THE PEOPLE’S 2010 REGULAR SEASON AWARDS
I was going through the regular season awards, and I was particularly struck by a few of the FBB selections (looking at you, Amare!). And so, I decided to bring back one of my old SLOR article series in honor of the weirdness. THE PEOPLE’S REGULAR SEASON AWARDS.
We’re going to break down all of the FBB choices for each award (setting aside the all rookie teams and all defensive teams because the rookie teams can tend to become tallest midget awards—shoutout to future Denver legend and modest human Edward Davis, and the defensive teams discussion usually is just a lazy retread of the DPOY discussion or looking at the Steals leaderboard for non-bigs).
We will look at what our robot overlords considered to be THE BEST. We will look at who I, a mere human, consider to be THE BEST. Dare I say we may find some discrepancies.
In order to summarize these discrepancies, I have come up with the ABSR (Arbitrary Bullshit rating)—note that the “A” for arbitrary relates both to FBB’s arbitrary RNG shit as well as the arbitrary nature of the stat itself. META. A higher ABSR = high disagreement between FBB and the real world. A lower ABSR = lower disagreement between FBB and the real world
FBB MVP: Jabron Lames, Any/All Positions, 76ers
36.5 PPG, 10.5 APG, 10.1 RPG, 2.8 TOPG, 2.5 STOCKS .502/.890/.413
ABSR = 0.0 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S MVP: LeBron James
Okay, I know I might’ve talked a big game in that introduction about disagreeing with the FBB robots, but there really isn’t anything to trifle with in terms of the MVP. I think LeBron probably wins this unanimously if we are voting. This is his 2nd MVP, and he has won them in back-to-back seasons. Will he repeat next year? How long will the streak go? For my money, it’s Lebron’s for the next ~8 seasons barring injury. I feel like Manu is giving him some pretty stiff competition already. I suspect we’ll have to wait for either a 40 ppg PG or a stocky unicorn big man to see someone outdo LBJ for MVP. There just isn’t a hole to poke in his stat line. He’s the best scorer in the league. He’s the best rebounder for his position. He’s an elite defender at any position 1-5. He averaged a triple double this year for god’s sake…for the second year in a row! How many guys do we think will be able to do the Big-O “average a triple double” thing? Maybe Russ gets there at some point? Perhaps Joker or Luka down the road? It’s just bananas to watch. LBJ is lord.
He played just 70 games this season and was still MVP. Just other worldly stuff .
Others in consideration: Manu Ginobili. I have heard some discussions about Andy Murray that basically go: “If he’d come around 15 years sooner or 15 years later, he’d be one of the greats. Instead he’s just the guy behind Jok, Federer, and Rafa.” I fear we may end up looking back on the career of one Manu Ginobili (Man Who??) with a similar tint. He may have won the 2006 SLN MVP and gotten one title just like Murray won that one Wimbledon, but it’s easy to imagine him going on a run of 3 MVPs in a row if LBJ weren’t in the league. He did 36.4 with 8 boards and 5 assists, 2.5 stocks to 2.1 TO on .486/.866/.431. Pretty much a perfect stat line. It’s just a perfect human statline and he is competing against The King who is no mere mortal.
FBB DPOY: Kwame Brown, C, Bucks
13.4 RPG, 4.4 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG
ABSR= 7.6 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S DPOY: Chris Bosh
Wow! I’m not sure how many people would’ve pegged Kwame as DPOY+ coming into this season considering that his only end-of-year accolades to this point wee a 05 All-Defensive First Team and 06/07 All-Defensive 2nd Team appearances. That said, he does have A+ DEF and solid A rebounding rating, so it’s not exactly a shocker. Kwame is lucky this is a defense-only award—the amount that he turns it over and his poor shooting seem to detract quite a bit from his overall value, but on the defensive end of things this man stood alone in terms of protecting his paint. Whereas the story with MVP was all about the winner, in my opinion the story with DPOY is all about the competition. While Kwame had a very solid season (and crucially played 82 games), there is a group of about a half dozen bigs who were right there with him and had a puncher’s chance.
Others in consideration: Chris Bosh, Eddie Griffin, Primoz Brezec, Andrew Bogut, Paul Pierce, Andrew Kirilenko, Kenyon Martin
As the ABSR indicates, this award got pretty fish for FBB imho. A lot of it seems to boil down to Kwame playing 82 games because as we’ll see with these other studs who were in consideration, basically none of them got in all 82. Bosh has the strongest resume in my opinion—there are a decent number of guys whose stocks range between 4 and 5, but if you look at rebounding in the league right now, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of cleaning the glass—Hieronymus Bosch. The difference between Bosh’s league leading 14.7 RPG and Kwame’s 2nd-place 13.4 RPG is nearly 3x the size of the difference between Kwame and the 10th ranked rebounder!! That stat alone is astonishing. Now you’re probably thinking, “okay so Bosh cleans the boards, but he probably has fewer stocks than Kwame.” But in fact Bosh had 4.6 stocks to Kwame’s 4.4 (!). The key difference i see between Bosh and Kwame’s resume is that Bosh only played in 77 games. That’s a pretty fucking stupid reason for robots to prefer the worse stat line over the better one. Eddie Griffin has an even more exaggerated case than Bosh. He has the exact same RPG as Kwame but has 4.9 stocks to Kwame’s 4.4! However, Eddie boy passed away for much of the season and only played 55 games. After Bosh and Eddie, the rest of the candidates are much more on par with Kwame and its a ‘pick your favorite’ type thing. Brezec (13.3 RPG, 4.3 stocks) and Bogut (13.0 RPG, 4.3 stocks) have remarkably similar defensive statistical profiles to Kwame, while Pierce (9.2 RPG, 5.0 stocks) and Kirilenko (10.4 RPG, 5.4 stocks) are the league’s stock super duper stars but lacking in rebounding volume, which is a key component of this award. Kenyon Martin is probably the weakest candidate, but he was just behind everyone else mentioned across the board and very solid in all categories.
FBB 6MOY: Ron Artest, SF, Spurs
30.2 MPG, 14.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 3.5 APG, 2.9 STOCKS, 1.4 TOPG, .432/.784/.313
ABSR = 8.6 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S 6MOY: Jason Richardson
The 6MOY award is, in my humblest of opinions, the most fun award for the purposes of this article. It’s one of the reasons I wrote the article originally. This award can go in so many different directions—microwave combo guards, studly stud wings, and the largest of asses. This season, the aware went to Artest, who provided something of a smorgasbord of stats without being too off-the-charts in any single category. He scores (inefficiently), he boards, he passes, and he DEFINITELY defends. I think nobody in their right mind would say that Ron Artest isn’t a solid 6th Man. He’s damn solid. However, as the ABSR indicates, I don’t think he was the GMOY for the entire league. Before we get into some of the other top candidates from this past season, let’s look at the past few GMOY to get an idea of a baseline:
2009: Paul Pierce, SEA - 34.6 MPG, 22.5 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 2.7 APG, 4.5 STOCKS, 2.2 TOPG, .460 / .787 / .425
2008: Lamar Odom, TOR - 30.1 MPG, 15.0 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.8 TOPG, .452/.847/.424
2007: Kirstof Clack, VAN - 32.6 MPG, 15.3 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 4.1 APG, 2.1 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .461 / .889/ .447
2006 - Michael Redd, LAL - 30.5 MPG, 29.3 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.6 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG, .492 / .889 / .485
2005 - Caron Butler, VAN - 25.5 MPG, 15.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.7 TOPG, .446 / .938 / .277
2004 - Jamario Moon, DAL - 29.8 MPG, 19.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 4.4 APG, 3.8 STOCKS, 1.1 TOPG, .480 / .894 / .408
A few things stick out right away to me. For one, there are some years where super duper subs with starter numbers run away with 6MOY (Pierce in 09 and Redd in 06 are clear versions of these resumes), and 2010 was not one of those years. Another interesting item here is that for the last 3 seasons, the 6MOY has played for teams that made the finals and/or won the title!
Okay, so now we have an idea of what the spectrum looks like… it runs from the 05 Caron Butlers of the world to the 2009 Paul Pierces and 2005 Michael Redds of the world. I think we can agree that Artest falls quite distinctly on the Butler end of that spectrum. Also…. It’s almost certainly not the only spectrum Metta World Peace falls on, right? I hope that joke doesn’t get me punched in the face at some point…
Now let’s look at some of the other 2010 6th men with strong resumes:
Kevin Love, PHX - 27.0 MPG, 17.4 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 STOCKS, 1.3 TOPG, .428 / .843 / .448
Jason Richardson, NYK - 27.3 MPG, 18.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.1 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG, .515 / .914 / .509
Lamar Odom, SAC - 30.6 MPG, 16.8 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.9 TOPG, .450 / .853 / .415
Andres Nocioni, VAN - 30.4 MPG, 15.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.4 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .471 / .728 /.448
Jason Terry, ORL - 24.7 MPG, 13.6 PPG, 5.8 APG, 3.5 RPG, 1.1 STOCKS, 1.8 TOPG, .479 /.955 /.427
Gerald Wallace, WAS - 28.1 MPG, 9.3 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 1.2 APG, 3.7 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .388 / .778 / .423
JR Smith, ATL - 22.5 MPG, 11.9 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.2 STOCKS, 1.4 TOPG, .469 / .792 / .447
Ersan Ilyasova, MIL - 22.0 MPG, 10.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 0.9 APG, 1.2 STOCKS, 0.9 TOPG, .442 / .822 / .472
Right away, here’s what’s jumping out at me looking at those numbers vs. Artest— how in the hell did Artest win?! I’m sure I’m missing something with DCs and the FBB rules for 6MOY, but it seems to me like Jason Richardson’s profile in particular was superior to Artests. That is all-world level shooting efficiency and at solid volume from the 2-3 positions. What do you guys think? Do any of these resumes stand out more than the others to you? It’s easily the most fun award to debate about because I am not sure there’s a right answer for seasons like this where there’s no Pierce or Redd Uber-sub.
All League Point Guard
1st Team: Jameer Nelson, POR (82g, 25.1, 11.3, 6.2, 2.9:2.6, .484/.898/.440)
2nd Team: Shaun Livingston, HOU (82g, 16.9, 12.4, 5.7, 2.8:1.8, .484/.932/.385)
3rd Team: Tony Parker, CHI (82g, 31.1, 9.0, 5.0, 2.0:1.9, .462 / .923 / .418)
ABSR: 1.4 out of 10
Here’s where things start to even out a bit and FBB hits its stride. While we have quite a few awesome point guards in the league right now, I think FBB pretty much got this one right. If I am getting nit picky, I think we all agree that Tony P is the top dog right now. He is punished in FBB’s awards algo, which rewards raw statistical output, for his lack of assists and boards relative to Jameer and Livingston, but I think that 31.1 PPG on the sexy splits is worth slightly less ass on the glass. Man, how cool is it that both of the top 2 PG both shot .484 from the field. Absolutely lethal.
Honorable mentions here were the heavily injured CP3 (47g, 25.5, 10.0, 6.3, 2.3:3.1, .475 /.932/ .398), Devin Harris (80g, 23.4, 10.3, 5.0, 3.0:1.9, .470 / .933 / .388), Jamal Crawford (65g, 30.7, 8.0, 3.9, 1.8:2.6, .489 / .915 / .453) and Gilbert Arenas (82g, 22.0, 9.7, 6.3, 3.2:2.8, .460 /.850 /.418). I think if CP3 puts in a full season he maybe edges his way into that top 3, and i think that Devin Harris is nipping right at the heels of this bunch. He’ll get there one of these years.
All League Shooting Guard
1st Team: Manu Ginobili, WAS (82g, 36.4, 7.9, 5.4, 2.5:2.1, .486 / .866 /.431)
2nd Team: Dwyane Wade, VAN (82g, 30.9, 7.7, 4.3, 4.1:2.2, .471 / .925 /.421)
3rd Team: Monta Ellis, GSW (82g, 26.5, 6.4, 4.6, 2.4:2.3, .452 / .849 /.429)
ABSR: 6.1 out of 10
The ARSB here is due to a slew of injuries to some of the other top SGs in the league which I suspect allowed Monta to snag that 3rd Team spot in the FBB algo. Kobe Bryant only played 74 games—I’m not sure if he was injured or if this was just a novelty related to the Pacers/Mavs schedules and when Kobe got traded, but in the real world Kobe’s resume ( 74g, 31.0, 6.9, 4.1, 2.5:2.6, /.466 /.911 /.383) i think pretty safely gets him in above Monta. Then you have Rashad McCants in CHI (78g, 26.3, 6.5, 2.2, 2.6:1.9, .465 /.836 /.388) who is a bit more on-par with Monta but shaped a bit differently with better defense, scoring and turnover efficiency, but with fewer raw assists. Classic dumb reason for FBB to prefer one player over another. Ditto for Lou Willl (79g, 25.6, 5.2, 3.2, 2.6:1.6, .455 /.896 /.422) who had a down year shooting the ball but I think everyone safely rates above Monta if you could’ve had one or the other’s performance from this past season.
All League Smoll Farquaad
1st Team: Shrekbron James, PHI (70g lolz, 36.5, 10.1, 10.5, 2.5:2.8, .502 /.890 /.413)
2nd Team: Donkeyvin Durant, MIL (82g, 30.2, 8.4, 3.5, 3.8:2.5, .498 /.848/.393)
3rd Team: Paul Pierce, SEA (82g, 25.1, 9.2, 3.3, 5.0:2.2, .459 / .835 /.400)
ABSR: 7.1 out of 10
We’re in pretty rarified air here among small forwards in the league right now. If you’re looking at that top 3, then the pretty high ABSR, you might be thinking “gee wiz who is clearly better than this bunch?” And if you are thinking that, then go back to the 60s you bigoted cuck, nobody says gee wiz anymore. But in truth, there are a few small forwards who I think had very solid cases to be included in these all league teams over Pierce and perhaps over KD as well. Carmelo Anthony (82g, 31.2, 7.7, 3.2, 2.2:1.6 .472 /.858 /.429) looks to me like a slightly less stocky/weaker version of Durant, but with some advantages in turns of how much he turns it over per on the offensive side of the ball. I think anyone takes his resume over Paul “stocks n bonds lord” Pierce. And then we have one of the new money names on the block in MIchael Beasley, who had a spectacular sophomore campaign in Boston (82g, 29.3, 8.0, 1.8, 1.2:2.9 .452 /.826 /.407). He is included here more as an honorable mention, I think Pierce edges him out a bit with his lack of stocks/defense in general.
All League Power Forward
1st team: Dirk, SEA (82g, 30.3, 9.0, 1.4, 2.1:1.2, .512 /. 845 / .433)
2nd Team: Pau, VAN (79g, 18.8, 12.5, 2.4, 3.2:1.6, .445 /.796/.370)
3rd Team: Amare Stoudemire, IND (82g, 16.5, 9.4, 2.3, 2.1:2.0, .479 /.713 /.667)
ABSR: 9.9 out of 10
We have arrived! The impetus for the entire article. I saw Amare stoudemire on the awards page while I simultaneously hold a large spot in my heart for Eddie Griffin, who missed a massive portion of the season to injury (55g, 17.1, 13.4, 3.2, 4.9:1.4, .431/.666/.250), and is obviously not the offensive force he once was… but just look at those rebounding and stock numbers compared to Amare. Griffin has more than double the stocks! He recorded more stocks than Amare did this season in 27 fewer games. I get that the FBB algo just wont give awards to guys who miss too may games (unless they’re Lebron James, puttin pictures in frames, Robbin dimes of dames), but man this is a screamer for me. Eddie’s resume is head and shoulders above Amare. Once you get past Eddie, you’re looking more at defense-only type guys like Kenyon Martin (9.2, 11.5, 1.4, 4.2:1. .395 /751/.000) who I can understand why someone like Amare who had a nice offensive season might stand out in comparison to.
All League Center
1st team: Yao Ming, CH(in)A (82g, 22.8, 12.8, 4.1, 2.8:2.1, .487/.937/.000)
2nd team: Al Jefferson, UTA (87g lol, 21.4, 12.7, 1.4, 3.5:1.4, .488/.868/.238)
3rd team: LaMarcus Aldridge, MIL (76g, 21.2, 11.9, 2.8, 3.6:1.9, .465/.852/.380)
ABSR: 1.8 out of 10
There are some really amazing centers in the league right now. Just look at this group and consider that stat stuffing beasts like Chris Bosh (77g ,22.4, 14.7, 2.3, 4.6:1.6, .432/.832/314), Primoz Brezec (80g, 17.9, 13.3, 1.7, 4.3:0.9, .459/.680/.000) and Eddy Curry (72g, 22.8, 13.2, 2.6, 4.0, 1.8, .463/.693/.000) didn’t make the list, and that was probably the right call from FBB! I think if Steady Eddy plays all 82 games, he probably gives LMA and Al Jeff a really close run for their money in the last two spots. He boards better than both of them, but lacks their elite offensive efficiency. I think FBB made pretty fair choices there. For my money, I put Bosh in over LMA just because I’m an actual whore for rebounding, but that’s more of a personal preference thing, especially when you consider the offensive efficiency disparity between the two. All in all, I think center is probably the strongest position in the league right now. This honorable mention list could also include basically the entire DPOY honorable mentions list (and winner!) as well.
Well that’s all for this year! This ended up being way longer than I thought, but we must give these boys the respect they’re due!
I was going through the regular season awards, and I was particularly struck by a few of the FBB selections (looking at you, Amare!). And so, I decided to bring back one of my old SLOR article series in honor of the weirdness. THE PEOPLE’S REGULAR SEASON AWARDS.
We’re going to break down all of the FBB choices for each award (setting aside the all rookie teams and all defensive teams because the rookie teams can tend to become tallest midget awards—shoutout to future Denver legend and modest human Edward Davis, and the defensive teams discussion usually is just a lazy retread of the DPOY discussion or looking at the Steals leaderboard for non-bigs).
We will look at what our robot overlords considered to be THE BEST. We will look at who I, a mere human, consider to be THE BEST. Dare I say we may find some discrepancies.
In order to summarize these discrepancies, I have come up with the ABSR (Arbitrary Bullshit rating)—note that the “A” for arbitrary relates both to FBB’s arbitrary RNG shit as well as the arbitrary nature of the stat itself. META. A higher ABSR = high disagreement between FBB and the real world. A lower ABSR = lower disagreement between FBB and the real world
FBB MVP: Jabron Lames, Any/All Positions, 76ers
36.5 PPG, 10.5 APG, 10.1 RPG, 2.8 TOPG, 2.5 STOCKS .502/.890/.413
ABSR = 0.0 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S MVP: LeBron James
Okay, I know I might’ve talked a big game in that introduction about disagreeing with the FBB robots, but there really isn’t anything to trifle with in terms of the MVP. I think LeBron probably wins this unanimously if we are voting. This is his 2nd MVP, and he has won them in back-to-back seasons. Will he repeat next year? How long will the streak go? For my money, it’s Lebron’s for the next ~8 seasons barring injury. I feel like Manu is giving him some pretty stiff competition already. I suspect we’ll have to wait for either a 40 ppg PG or a stocky unicorn big man to see someone outdo LBJ for MVP. There just isn’t a hole to poke in his stat line. He’s the best scorer in the league. He’s the best rebounder for his position. He’s an elite defender at any position 1-5. He averaged a triple double this year for god’s sake…for the second year in a row! How many guys do we think will be able to do the Big-O “average a triple double” thing? Maybe Russ gets there at some point? Perhaps Joker or Luka down the road? It’s just bananas to watch. LBJ is lord.
He played just 70 games this season and was still MVP. Just other worldly stuff .
Others in consideration: Manu Ginobili. I have heard some discussions about Andy Murray that basically go: “If he’d come around 15 years sooner or 15 years later, he’d be one of the greats. Instead he’s just the guy behind Jok, Federer, and Rafa.” I fear we may end up looking back on the career of one Manu Ginobili (Man Who??) with a similar tint. He may have won the 2006 SLN MVP and gotten one title just like Murray won that one Wimbledon, but it’s easy to imagine him going on a run of 3 MVPs in a row if LBJ weren’t in the league. He did 36.4 with 8 boards and 5 assists, 2.5 stocks to 2.1 TO on .486/.866/.431. Pretty much a perfect stat line. It’s just a perfect human statline and he is competing against The King who is no mere mortal.
FBB DPOY: Kwame Brown, C, Bucks
13.4 RPG, 4.4 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG
ABSR= 7.6 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S DPOY: Chris Bosh
Wow! I’m not sure how many people would’ve pegged Kwame as DPOY+ coming into this season considering that his only end-of-year accolades to this point wee a 05 All-Defensive First Team and 06/07 All-Defensive 2nd Team appearances. That said, he does have A+ DEF and solid A rebounding rating, so it’s not exactly a shocker. Kwame is lucky this is a defense-only award—the amount that he turns it over and his poor shooting seem to detract quite a bit from his overall value, but on the defensive end of things this man stood alone in terms of protecting his paint. Whereas the story with MVP was all about the winner, in my opinion the story with DPOY is all about the competition. While Kwame had a very solid season (and crucially played 82 games), there is a group of about a half dozen bigs who were right there with him and had a puncher’s chance.
Others in consideration: Chris Bosh, Eddie Griffin, Primoz Brezec, Andrew Bogut, Paul Pierce, Andrew Kirilenko, Kenyon Martin
As the ABSR indicates, this award got pretty fish for FBB imho. A lot of it seems to boil down to Kwame playing 82 games because as we’ll see with these other studs who were in consideration, basically none of them got in all 82. Bosh has the strongest resume in my opinion—there are a decent number of guys whose stocks range between 4 and 5, but if you look at rebounding in the league right now, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of cleaning the glass—Hieronymus Bosch. The difference between Bosh’s league leading 14.7 RPG and Kwame’s 2nd-place 13.4 RPG is nearly 3x the size of the difference between Kwame and the 10th ranked rebounder!! That stat alone is astonishing. Now you’re probably thinking, “okay so Bosh cleans the boards, but he probably has fewer stocks than Kwame.” But in fact Bosh had 4.6 stocks to Kwame’s 4.4 (!). The key difference i see between Bosh and Kwame’s resume is that Bosh only played in 77 games. That’s a pretty fucking stupid reason for robots to prefer the worse stat line over the better one. Eddie Griffin has an even more exaggerated case than Bosh. He has the exact same RPG as Kwame but has 4.9 stocks to Kwame’s 4.4! However, Eddie boy passed away for much of the season and only played 55 games. After Bosh and Eddie, the rest of the candidates are much more on par with Kwame and its a ‘pick your favorite’ type thing. Brezec (13.3 RPG, 4.3 stocks) and Bogut (13.0 RPG, 4.3 stocks) have remarkably similar defensive statistical profiles to Kwame, while Pierce (9.2 RPG, 5.0 stocks) and Kirilenko (10.4 RPG, 5.4 stocks) are the league’s stock super duper stars but lacking in rebounding volume, which is a key component of this award. Kenyon Martin is probably the weakest candidate, but he was just behind everyone else mentioned across the board and very solid in all categories.
FBB 6MOY: Ron Artest, SF, Spurs
30.2 MPG, 14.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 3.5 APG, 2.9 STOCKS, 1.4 TOPG, .432/.784/.313
ABSR = 8.6 out of 10
THE PEOPLE’S 6MOY: Jason Richardson
The 6MOY award is, in my humblest of opinions, the most fun award for the purposes of this article. It’s one of the reasons I wrote the article originally. This award can go in so many different directions—microwave combo guards, studly stud wings, and the largest of asses. This season, the aware went to Artest, who provided something of a smorgasbord of stats without being too off-the-charts in any single category. He scores (inefficiently), he boards, he passes, and he DEFINITELY defends. I think nobody in their right mind would say that Ron Artest isn’t a solid 6th Man. He’s damn solid. However, as the ABSR indicates, I don’t think he was the GMOY for the entire league. Before we get into some of the other top candidates from this past season, let’s look at the past few GMOY to get an idea of a baseline:
2009: Paul Pierce, SEA - 34.6 MPG, 22.5 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 2.7 APG, 4.5 STOCKS, 2.2 TOPG, .460 / .787 / .425
2008: Lamar Odom, TOR - 30.1 MPG, 15.0 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.8 TOPG, .452/.847/.424
2007: Kirstof Clack, VAN - 32.6 MPG, 15.3 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 4.1 APG, 2.1 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .461 / .889/ .447
2006 - Michael Redd, LAL - 30.5 MPG, 29.3 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.6 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG, .492 / .889 / .485
2005 - Caron Butler, VAN - 25.5 MPG, 15.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.7 TOPG, .446 / .938 / .277
2004 - Jamario Moon, DAL - 29.8 MPG, 19.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 4.4 APG, 3.8 STOCKS, 1.1 TOPG, .480 / .894 / .408
A few things stick out right away to me. For one, there are some years where super duper subs with starter numbers run away with 6MOY (Pierce in 09 and Redd in 06 are clear versions of these resumes), and 2010 was not one of those years. Another interesting item here is that for the last 3 seasons, the 6MOY has played for teams that made the finals and/or won the title!
Okay, so now we have an idea of what the spectrum looks like… it runs from the 05 Caron Butlers of the world to the 2009 Paul Pierces and 2005 Michael Redds of the world. I think we can agree that Artest falls quite distinctly on the Butler end of that spectrum. Also…. It’s almost certainly not the only spectrum Metta World Peace falls on, right? I hope that joke doesn’t get me punched in the face at some point…
Now let’s look at some of the other 2010 6th men with strong resumes:
Kevin Love, PHX - 27.0 MPG, 17.4 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 STOCKS, 1.3 TOPG, .428 / .843 / .448
Jason Richardson, NYK - 27.3 MPG, 18.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.1 STOCKS, 1.6 TOPG, .515 / .914 / .509
Lamar Odom, SAC - 30.6 MPG, 16.8 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.7 STOCKS, 1.9 TOPG, .450 / .853 / .415
Andres Nocioni, VAN - 30.4 MPG, 15.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.4 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .471 / .728 /.448
Jason Terry, ORL - 24.7 MPG, 13.6 PPG, 5.8 APG, 3.5 RPG, 1.1 STOCKS, 1.8 TOPG, .479 /.955 /.427
Gerald Wallace, WAS - 28.1 MPG, 9.3 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 1.2 APG, 3.7 STOCKS, 1.0 TOPG, .388 / .778 / .423
JR Smith, ATL - 22.5 MPG, 11.9 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.2 STOCKS, 1.4 TOPG, .469 / .792 / .447
Ersan Ilyasova, MIL - 22.0 MPG, 10.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 0.9 APG, 1.2 STOCKS, 0.9 TOPG, .442 / .822 / .472
Right away, here’s what’s jumping out at me looking at those numbers vs. Artest— how in the hell did Artest win?! I’m sure I’m missing something with DCs and the FBB rules for 6MOY, but it seems to me like Jason Richardson’s profile in particular was superior to Artests. That is all-world level shooting efficiency and at solid volume from the 2-3 positions. What do you guys think? Do any of these resumes stand out more than the others to you? It’s easily the most fun award to debate about because I am not sure there’s a right answer for seasons like this where there’s no Pierce or Redd Uber-sub.
All League Point Guard
1st Team: Jameer Nelson, POR (82g, 25.1, 11.3, 6.2, 2.9:2.6, .484/.898/.440)
2nd Team: Shaun Livingston, HOU (82g, 16.9, 12.4, 5.7, 2.8:1.8, .484/.932/.385)
3rd Team: Tony Parker, CHI (82g, 31.1, 9.0, 5.0, 2.0:1.9, .462 / .923 / .418)
ABSR: 1.4 out of 10
Here’s where things start to even out a bit and FBB hits its stride. While we have quite a few awesome point guards in the league right now, I think FBB pretty much got this one right. If I am getting nit picky, I think we all agree that Tony P is the top dog right now. He is punished in FBB’s awards algo, which rewards raw statistical output, for his lack of assists and boards relative to Jameer and Livingston, but I think that 31.1 PPG on the sexy splits is worth slightly less ass on the glass. Man, how cool is it that both of the top 2 PG both shot .484 from the field. Absolutely lethal.
Honorable mentions here were the heavily injured CP3 (47g, 25.5, 10.0, 6.3, 2.3:3.1, .475 /.932/ .398), Devin Harris (80g, 23.4, 10.3, 5.0, 3.0:1.9, .470 / .933 / .388), Jamal Crawford (65g, 30.7, 8.0, 3.9, 1.8:2.6, .489 / .915 / .453) and Gilbert Arenas (82g, 22.0, 9.7, 6.3, 3.2:2.8, .460 /.850 /.418). I think if CP3 puts in a full season he maybe edges his way into that top 3, and i think that Devin Harris is nipping right at the heels of this bunch. He’ll get there one of these years.
All League Shooting Guard
1st Team: Manu Ginobili, WAS (82g, 36.4, 7.9, 5.4, 2.5:2.1, .486 / .866 /.431)
2nd Team: Dwyane Wade, VAN (82g, 30.9, 7.7, 4.3, 4.1:2.2, .471 / .925 /.421)
3rd Team: Monta Ellis, GSW (82g, 26.5, 6.4, 4.6, 2.4:2.3, .452 / .849 /.429)
ABSR: 6.1 out of 10
The ARSB here is due to a slew of injuries to some of the other top SGs in the league which I suspect allowed Monta to snag that 3rd Team spot in the FBB algo. Kobe Bryant only played 74 games—I’m not sure if he was injured or if this was just a novelty related to the Pacers/Mavs schedules and when Kobe got traded, but in the real world Kobe’s resume ( 74g, 31.0, 6.9, 4.1, 2.5:2.6, /.466 /.911 /.383) i think pretty safely gets him in above Monta. Then you have Rashad McCants in CHI (78g, 26.3, 6.5, 2.2, 2.6:1.9, .465 /.836 /.388) who is a bit more on-par with Monta but shaped a bit differently with better defense, scoring and turnover efficiency, but with fewer raw assists. Classic dumb reason for FBB to prefer one player over another. Ditto for Lou Willl (79g, 25.6, 5.2, 3.2, 2.6:1.6, .455 /.896 /.422) who had a down year shooting the ball but I think everyone safely rates above Monta if you could’ve had one or the other’s performance from this past season.
All League Smoll Farquaad
1st Team: Shrekbron James, PHI (70g lolz, 36.5, 10.1, 10.5, 2.5:2.8, .502 /.890 /.413)
2nd Team: Donkeyvin Durant, MIL (82g, 30.2, 8.4, 3.5, 3.8:2.5, .498 /.848/.393)
3rd Team: Paul Pierce, SEA (82g, 25.1, 9.2, 3.3, 5.0:2.2, .459 / .835 /.400)
ABSR: 7.1 out of 10
We’re in pretty rarified air here among small forwards in the league right now. If you’re looking at that top 3, then the pretty high ABSR, you might be thinking “gee wiz who is clearly better than this bunch?” And if you are thinking that, then go back to the 60s you bigoted cuck, nobody says gee wiz anymore. But in truth, there are a few small forwards who I think had very solid cases to be included in these all league teams over Pierce and perhaps over KD as well. Carmelo Anthony (82g, 31.2, 7.7, 3.2, 2.2:1.6 .472 /.858 /.429) looks to me like a slightly less stocky/weaker version of Durant, but with some advantages in turns of how much he turns it over per on the offensive side of the ball. I think anyone takes his resume over Paul “stocks n bonds lord” Pierce. And then we have one of the new money names on the block in MIchael Beasley, who had a spectacular sophomore campaign in Boston (82g, 29.3, 8.0, 1.8, 1.2:2.9 .452 /.826 /.407). He is included here more as an honorable mention, I think Pierce edges him out a bit with his lack of stocks/defense in general.
All League Power Forward
1st team: Dirk, SEA (82g, 30.3, 9.0, 1.4, 2.1:1.2, .512 /. 845 / .433)
2nd Team: Pau, VAN (79g, 18.8, 12.5, 2.4, 3.2:1.6, .445 /.796/.370)
3rd Team: Amare Stoudemire, IND (82g, 16.5, 9.4, 2.3, 2.1:2.0, .479 /.713 /.667)
ABSR: 9.9 out of 10
We have arrived! The impetus for the entire article. I saw Amare stoudemire on the awards page while I simultaneously hold a large spot in my heart for Eddie Griffin, who missed a massive portion of the season to injury (55g, 17.1, 13.4, 3.2, 4.9:1.4, .431/.666/.250), and is obviously not the offensive force he once was… but just look at those rebounding and stock numbers compared to Amare. Griffin has more than double the stocks! He recorded more stocks than Amare did this season in 27 fewer games. I get that the FBB algo just wont give awards to guys who miss too may games (unless they’re Lebron James, puttin pictures in frames, Robbin dimes of dames), but man this is a screamer for me. Eddie’s resume is head and shoulders above Amare. Once you get past Eddie, you’re looking more at defense-only type guys like Kenyon Martin (9.2, 11.5, 1.4, 4.2:1. .395 /751/.000) who I can understand why someone like Amare who had a nice offensive season might stand out in comparison to.
All League Center
1st team: Yao Ming, CH(in)A (82g, 22.8, 12.8, 4.1, 2.8:2.1, .487/.937/.000)
2nd team: Al Jefferson, UTA (87g lol, 21.4, 12.7, 1.4, 3.5:1.4, .488/.868/.238)
3rd team: LaMarcus Aldridge, MIL (76g, 21.2, 11.9, 2.8, 3.6:1.9, .465/.852/.380)
ABSR: 1.8 out of 10
There are some really amazing centers in the league right now. Just look at this group and consider that stat stuffing beasts like Chris Bosh (77g ,22.4, 14.7, 2.3, 4.6:1.6, .432/.832/314), Primoz Brezec (80g, 17.9, 13.3, 1.7, 4.3:0.9, .459/.680/.000) and Eddy Curry (72g, 22.8, 13.2, 2.6, 4.0, 1.8, .463/.693/.000) didn’t make the list, and that was probably the right call from FBB! I think if Steady Eddy plays all 82 games, he probably gives LMA and Al Jeff a really close run for their money in the last two spots. He boards better than both of them, but lacks their elite offensive efficiency. I think FBB made pretty fair choices there. For my money, I put Bosh in over LMA just because I’m an actual whore for rebounding, but that’s more of a personal preference thing, especially when you consider the offensive efficiency disparity between the two. All in all, I think center is probably the strongest position in the league right now. This honorable mention list could also include basically the entire DPOY honorable mentions list (and winner!) as well.
Well that’s all for this year! This ended up being way longer than I thought, but we must give these boys the respect they’re due!