I figured I’d pump out this final 2010 NBA Season post before LeBron James announces his free agency decision tomorrow.

I’ve already given the NBA Sim versions of the 2010 Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player so there’s only one left: who is the Most Valuable Player of the season? Like I did with those fine previous efforts, I shall be conducting my research using APP+ (Adjusted Pece Performance above Positional Average). Without further ado, here are the top 10 candidates, from highest to lowest rated:

Top 10 MVP Candidates (Ordered by APP+)
#	Player	Team	Pos.	pPPG	pRPG	pAPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	APP+
1	LeBron James		F	32.50	7.98	9.37	0.503	0.333	0.767	28.50
	Chris Paul		G	20.18	4.58	11.52	0.493	0.409	0.847	19.89
2	Dwyane Wade		G	29.64	5.41	7.26	0.476	0.300	0.761	19.84
3	Kevin Durant		G-F	32.38	8.36	3.03	0.476	0.365	0.900	19.72
4	David Lee		F	21.91	12.46	3.87	0.545	0.000	0.812	18.80
5	Pau Gasol		F	19.73	12.17	3.61	0.536	0.000	0.790	18.44
6	Dwight Howard		C-F	19.92	14.34	1.91	0.612	0.000	0.592	18.22
7	Chris Bosh		F-C	25.75	11.65	2.55	0.518	0.364	0.797	17.78
8	Dirk Nowitzki		F	27.05	8.27	2.91	0.481	0.421	0.915	17.36
9	Deron Williams		G	19.91	4.25	11.19	0.469	0.371	0.801	16.28
10	Gerald Wallace		F	20.17	11.09	2.34	0.484	0.371	0.776	15.64
NOTE: Chris Paul only played in 45 games. This doesn’t satisfy my personal rule that players must participate in at least 60% of a season to be considered eligible for post-season awards.

This wasn’t even close. LeBron performed over 4 times as much as the average forward since 1980 (with an APP of 37.76 to 9.26) and even outperformed his closest rivals by 8.66 APP+ units (roughly the value of an average NBA player). Let that sink in: LeBron was better than his closest rival by pretty much an entire other player’s production. That is insane!

As usual, to wrap up this slightly content-lite blog, here are the All-NBA Teams based on APP+ …

All-NBA First Team
Position	Player	Team	APP+
F	LeBron James		28.50
G	Dwyane Wade		19.84
G	Kevin Durant		19.72
F	David Lee		18.80
C	Dwight Howard		19.72

All-NBA Second Team
Position	Player	Team	APP+
F	Pau Gasol		18.44
F	Chris Bosh		17.78
G	Deron Williams		16.28
G	Kobe Bryant		14.96
C	Al Horford		14.35

All-NBA Third Team
Position	Player	Team	APP+
F	Dirk Nowitzki		17.36
F	Gerald Wallace		15.64
G	Rajon Rondo		14.85
G	Steve Nash		14.69
C	Brook Lopez		14.09

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.
An average player between 1980-2010 will have a 0.00 APP+

Stats through 4/14/10

Only two more of these 2010 catch-up blogs! I promise.

Aaron Brooks took home this season’s most improved honors and, as usual, I have something to say to the contrary of the NBA’s decision. As I said last year:

The annual Most Improved Player award is probably the regular season honor I have the most problems with. Not only is the conditions for candidacy vague like the other awards, but whole other realms of problematic circumstances come into play. Some candidates appear to be young starters who take the next step and become all stars. Others are comeback kids who were hobbled for a season – either by injury or slump – and have returned to form. Still other candidates are breakout players who were probably pretty good during the previous season, but now have more minutes or a bigger role on a (possibly different) team. By the end of all this, what exactly are we measuring when we say “most improved?”

It’s easy to track individual player performance (I use APP+), but in order to not have the difference in performance from season to season be over-affected by change in minutes I divide change in performance by the ratio of change in minutes per game (what I call MIP Value). I like to have a 50-game (or 60%) cut off for all of my findings (otherwise it doesn’t feel like a completed year to me, but this is purely a personal call), therefore some players have been disqualified. Here are the Top 10 players with the highest MIP Value.

Top 10 Most Improved Players (Ordered by ΔAPP+ / ΔMPG)
			2009 NBA Season			2010 NBA Season
#	Player	Pos.	Team	APP+	MPG	Team	APP+	MPG	ΔAPP+	Δ MPG	MIP Value
	Carlos Boozer*	F-C		9.44	32.35		15.50	34.27	6.06	1.06	5.72
1	Kevin Durant	F		14.12	38.99		19.72	39.50	5.60	1.01	5.53
2	Josh Smith	F		8.98	35.09		13.95	35.44	4.97	1.01	4.92
3	Aaron Brooks	G		0.26	24.98		7.26	35.60	7.00	1.43	4.91
4	David Lee	F		13.68	38.86		18.80	37.27	5.12	1.07	4.79
	Greg Oden†	C		4.31	21.54		9.57	23.90	5.26	1.11	4.74
5	Joakim Noah	C		5.25	24.23		10.97	30.08	5.72	1.24	4.61
6	Marc Gasol	C		8.04	30.74		13.38	35.78	5.34	1.16	4.59
7	Ben Wallace	C-F		0.88	23.46		6.20	28.62	5.32	1.22	4.36
	Ryan Bowen	F		-5.84	10.43		-2.55	8.00	3.29	0.77	4.29
	Nazr Mohammed*	C		-6.09	8.74		2.20	16.97	8.29	1.94	4.27
8	Russell Westbrook	G		6.40	32.54		10.81	34.30	4.41	1.05	4.18
9	Louis Williams	G		1.87	23.69		7.04	29.88	5.17	1.26	4.10
	Nicolas Batum†	F		-1.91	18.41		3.61	24.81	5.52	1.35	4.10
	Danilo Gallinari*	F		-3.61	14.71		5.76	33.91	9.37	2.30	4.07
10	Brook Lopez	C		9.27	30.50		14.09	36.91	4.82	1.21	3.98
* – Player did not play 50 games in 2009 NBA Season † – Player did not play 50 games in 2010 NBA Season

Utah’s Carlos Boozer had the most dramatic improvement in performance this season, however one suspects this has more to do with playing in 41 more games during the 2010 season than he did the previous year. This leaves young phenom, Kevin Durant, as my pick for Most Improved. He did see a bump in minutes per game, however the difference was pretty much negligible (38.99 in 2009, 39.50 in 2010). What this suggests is that the vast majority of his improvement came not from external opportunity but internal development.

That said, Aaron Brooks wasn’t all that bad a selection. He was the third most improved player according to my methods. Last season’s winner, Danny Granger, was only the 10th most improved player so maybe voters paid a little more active attention to their NBA this year.

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.
An average player between 1980-2010 will have a 0.00 APP+

MIP Value – Most Improved Player Value
((2010 APP+) – (2009 APP+)) / ((2010 MPG) / (2009 MPG))

Stats through 4/14/10

Yeah, I’m still backed up on posts. Here’s my take on the Rookie of the Year for the 2010 NBA season.

Tyreke Evans won the ROY honors but was up against some fierce competition (at least in the press) from Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings. Here’s a quick rundown of the best rookies from this season according to APP+.

Top 10 Rookies (Ordered by APP+)
#	Player	Pos.	Team	Pace	PPG	RPG	APG	APP	posAPP	APP+
1	Tyreke Evans	G		94.0	20.1	5.3	5.8	21.38	9.47	11.91
2	Stephen Curry	G		100.4	17.5	4.5	5.9	18.64	9.47	9.16
	Reggie Williams	F		100.4	15.2	4.6	2.8	15.86	9.26	6.60
3	Brandon Jennings	G		91.7	15.5	3.4	5.7	15.34	9.47	5.87
4	Darren Collison	G		92.6	12.4	2.5	5.7	14.99	9.47	5.52
5	Taj Gibson	F		93.1	9.0	7.5	0.9	12.67	9.26	3.41
6	Jonas Jerebko	F		88.5	9.3	6.0	0.7	12.19	9.26	2.93
7	Marcus Thornton	G		92.6	14.5	2.9	1.5	12.32	9.47	2.85
8	Jonny Flynn	G		96.1	13.5	2.4	4.4	11.76	9.47	2.29
9	DeJuan Blair	F		91.7	7.8	6.4	0.8	11.15	9.26	1.89
10	Omri Casspi	F		94.0	10.3	4.5	1.2	10.48	9.26	1.22

Note: Reggie Williams was ineligible as he failed to play in at least 50 games (60% of the season). This is not an NBA rule, but my own criteria for award selection.

Two things pop out here. First, it really seems like Evans and Curry were heads and shoulders above the rest of their class with third place, Jennings, producing almost half as much as second place, Curry. My second observation is what a guard-heavy class this was, as well. From the chart above and the All-Rookie Teams compiled below, there’s a clear difference in positional production as you go from guard to forward (and most alarmingly) to center.

2010 All-Rookie First Team

2010 All-Rookie Second Team

Pos.

Player

Pos.

Team

APP

posAPP

APP+

Pos.

Player

Pos.

Team

APP

posAPP

APP+

G

Tyreke Evans

G

13.11

3.97

9.14

G

Brandon Jennings

G

15.34

9.47

5.87

G

Stephen Curry

G

18.63

9.47

9.16

G

Darren Collison

G

14.99

9.47

5.52

F

Taj Gibson

F

12.67

9.26

3.41

F

DeJuan Blair

F

11.15

9.26

1.89

F

Jonas Jerebko

F

12.19

9.26

2.93

F

Omri Casspi

F

10.48

9.26

1.22

C

David Andersen

C

5.94

8.59

-2.65

C

Hasheem Thabeet

C

5.72

8.59

-2.87

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.
An average player between 1980-2010 will have a 0.00 APP+

Stats through 4/14/10

Last month, Jamal Crawford of the Atlanta Hawks won the Sixth Man of the Year award. According to Wikipedia, the sixth man is the following:

“The sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in. The sixth man often plays minutes equal to or exceeding some of the starters and posts similar statistics. He is often a player who can play multiple positions, hence his utility in substituting often.”

How I’ll define the elligible players will be the following:

• Must not be in top 5 of GP on team (essentially removes the regular starting 5 players)
• Must be next highest in MP (so he really is the next person receiving playtime)
• Must not start in 50% or more of his GP (the only actual SMOY criteria)

Following is a list of the player(s) from each team that passed this test. Greyed out players fit the first two rules for elligibility, but not the third (ranked by APP+).

Team Sixth Men (Ordered by APP+)
#	Player	Pos.	Team(s)	GS%	APP	posAPP	APP+
1	Manu Ginobili	G		.293	19.47	9.47	10.00
2	Lamar Odom	F		.463	18.94	9.26	9.68
	Louis Williams	G		.594	16.51	9.47	7.04
3	Jamal Crawford	G		.000	16.06	9.47	6.59
4	Paul Millsap	F		.098	15.56	9.26	6.30
5	Andray Blatche	F		.444	15.56	9.26	6.30
6	Anderson Varejao	F		.092	15.39	9.26	6.13
7	Jason Terry	G		.156	15.57	9.47	6.10
8	Al Harrington	F		.208	15.25	9.26	5.99
9	Darren Collison	F		.487	14.99	9.47	5.52
10	Udonis Haslem	F		.000	14.33	9.26	5.07
	Jose Calderon	G		.574	14.47	9.47	5.00
	George Hill	G		.551	12.79	9.47	3.32
11	Ersan Ilyasova	F		.383	12.23	9.26	2.97
12	J.R. Smith	G		.000	12.20	9.47	2.73
13	Charlie Villanueva	F		.205	11.55	9.26	2.29
14	Brad Miller	C		.451	10.69	8.59	2.10
15	C.J. Watson	G		.231	11.48	9.47	2.01
16	Omri Casspi	F		.403	10.48	9.26	1.22
17	Terrence Williams	F		.115	10.07	9.26	0.81
	Al Thornton	F		.613	9.92	9.26	0.66
18	Jared Dudley	F		.001	9.83	9.26	0.57
19	Amir Johnson	F		.061	9.53	9.26	0.27
20	James Harden	G		.000	9.72	9.47	0.25
21	J.J. Redick	G		.110	9.49	9.47	0.02
22	Craig Smith	F		.027	9.03	9.26	-0.23
23	Ramon Sessions	G		.012	9.00	9.47	-0.47
24	Chase Budinger	F		.054	8.80	9.26	-0.46
25	Rasheed Wallace	F-C		.165	9.90	10.64	-0.74
26	Dahntay Jones	G		.342	8.62	9.47	-0.85
27	Willie Green	G		.247	8.26	9.47	-1.21
28	Juwan Howard	F-C		.370	8.04	10.64	-2.60
29	D.J. Augustin	G		.025	6.50	9.47	-2.97
30	Sam Young	F		.013	6.15	9.26	-3.11

I was very surprised to find Manu heading this list – I really thought Crawford (at .000 GS%, he’s the best performing never-starter) or Odom (he seemed to be way more solid this year than his “inconsistent” reputation would imply) was going to be tops, but Ginobili really is the second coming of John Havlicek. Start him, bring him off the bench – it doesn’t matter: the guy is going to play well.

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.
An average player between 1980-2010 will have a 0.00 APP+

Well, since NBA Sim has been down and out for a month, I’ve got quite a backlog of items to get through. First, I’d like to touch upon the Defensive Player of the Year award. As everyone who is even a casual NBA fan knows, Dwight Howard was awarded his second consecutive DPOY trophy.

As I mentioned last season, box score performance is not the only thing that goes into a person’s decision vote for the Defensive Player of the Year. I outlined two examples of this in both Hakeem Olajuwon in 1990 and David Robinson in 1991 losing the award to the stellar but less-spectacular Dennis Rodman. This practice can be both a good (leadership, defensive performance not recorded in box score) and bad (reputation, politics) thing as it takes other, non-box score factors into consideration. However, I’m going to stick with my Adjusted Pace Defense (APD) mechanism that’s based purely on box score performance, pace and position played.

Top 10 Players (Ordered by APD)
#	Player	Pos.	Team(s)	DRB	BLK	STL	PF	Pace	APD	posAPD	APD+
1	Dwight Howard	C-F		9.7	2.8	0.9	3.5	92.0	13.11	3.97	9.14
2	Marcus Camby	C-F		8.4	2.0	1.3	2.2	92.6 / 87.7	12.06	3.97	8.09
3	Gerald Wallace	F		8.1	1.1	1.5	2.6	90.4	10.96	3.11	7.85
4	Josh Smith	F-G		6.0	2.1	1.6	3.0	90.1	9.71	2.84	6.87
5	David Lee	F		8.9	0.5	1.0	3.2	94.0	9.86	3.11	6.75
6	Pau Gasol	F		7.6	1.7	0.6	2.3	92.8	9.63	3.11	6.52
7	LeBron James	F		6.4	1.0	1.6	1.6	91.4	9.53	3.11	6.42
8	Troy Murphy	F		8.4	0.5	1.0	2.4	97.1	9.33	3.11	6.22
9	Andrew Bogut	C		7.1	2.5	0.6	3.2	91.7	9.73	3.55	6.18
10	Kevin Durant	G-F		6.3	1.0	1.4	2.1	93.1	8.70	2.57	6.13

Once again, if I had a vote in the DPOY award, I would concur with the real life results and support Dwight Howard. Not only is he the most imposing physical presence in the game, he anchored an elite defense (4th in opponent PPG, 3rd in DRtg) and also led the league in both rebounds per game and blocks per game. So, really, no matter how one votes for this award, he kind of had it in the bag this year (again).

As always, I like to redo the NBA’s “name”-heavy end-of-the-year lists. Here are my All-Defensive Teams for the 2010 NBA Season. Scoff at some of these choices if you wish (especially the ones who made it here mostly on defensive rebounding like David Lee) but, statistically, these guys are the elite, possession-enders in the league.

2010 All-Defensive First Team

2010 All-Defensive Second Team

Pos.

Player

Pos.

Team(s)

APD

posAPD

APD+

Pos.

Player

Pos.

Team(s)

APD

posAPD

APD+

C

Dwight Howard

C-F

13.11

3.97

9.14

C

Marcus Camby

C-F

12.06

3.97

8.09

F

Gerald Wallace

F

10.96

3.11

7.85

F

David Lee

F

9.86

3.11

6.75

F

Josh Smith

F-G

9.70

2.84

6.87

F

Pau Gasol

F

9.63

3.11

6.52

G

Kevin Durant

G-F

8.70

2.57

6.13

G

Jason Kidd

G

7.41

2.03

5.38

G

Andre Iguodala

G-F

8.15

2.57

5.58

G

Dwyane Wade

G

6.42

2.03

4.39

APD – Adjusted Pace Defense
A (work-in-progress) weighted formula for combining everything a player does on the defensive side of a basketball court into one number. This number is then adjusted based upon the players’ team pace and compared against the average at their position played to provide a balanced way to compare players’ performances.

APD+ – Adjusted Pace Defense above Average Adjusted Pace Defense at Position(s) Played
Nothing more than a player’s APD value above the average APD value for his position.

Stats through 4/14/10

Sorry about the disappearence of Week 20 (and the shortening of Week 19, for that matter)! I’ve suddenly got sucked up into some crazy day-job nuttiness – it’s seriously the crunch time from hell. I will survive, however, and so will NBA-Sim, so take a deep breath.

The Big Three (and, no, I don’t mean those fossils in Boston) are finally making their presence known around the league. Ok, sure, Chris Paul and LeBron are the elite in this sport, but Wade is finally coming on strong at the end of the season. Will it be enough to knock out Mr. Underrated, David Lee?

For the past week-and-a-half, Wade has been stellar, with a line of 27.6 PPG / 5.0 RPG / 6.0 APG while shooting 45% from the floor and 73% from the line (ok so he’s been stellar but not all that efficient). He’s also managed to lead his lowly Heat to a 3-2 record in that span including a critical victory against the Bobcats who are biting at his 6th seed heels.

Biggest Jump: Dwyane Wade, Gerald Wallace (2)
Biggest Fall: Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony (1)
Hello: Carlos Boozer
Goodbye: Steve Nash
Ineligible: Chris Paul

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James		F	69	↑ 37.95	↑ 28.70
-	2	Chris Paul (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	38	↑ 32.11	↑ 22.64
2	2	David Lee		F	69	↑ 28.36	↑ 19.11
3	5	Dwyane Wade		G	66	↑ 28.48	↑ 19.01
4	3	Kevin Durant		G-F	68	↑ 28.55	↑ 18.57
5	4	Chris Bosh		F-C	61	↑ 28.66	↓ 18.02
6	6	Dwight Howard		C-F	70	↑ 27.69	↑ 17.94
7	8	Pau Gasol		F	53	↑ 26.67	↑ 17.42
8	7	Dirk Nowitzki		F	68	↑ 26.54	↑ 17.29
9	11	Gerald Wallace		F	64	↑ 25.75	↑ 16.50
10	9	Zach Randolph		F	69	↑ 25.42	↑ 16.17

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	10	Deron Williams		G	64	↑ 25.39	↑ 15.92
12	12	Tim Duncan		F-C	65	↑ 26.27	↑ 15.63
13	14	Kobe Bryant		G-F	65	↑ 25.58	↑ 15.60
14	13	Carmelo Anthony		F	57	↑ 24.85	↑ 15.60
15	-	Carlos Boozer		F-C	57	26.11	15.47

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: 9.79
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: 0.40
Stats through 3/21/2010

Remember when Zach Randolph was the new incarnation of Shareef Abdur-Rahim – the best player on bad teams? Well, the impossible has occurred: one of the bottom 3 franchises in the league merged with the “best-on-a-bad” Randolph and formed … a surprisingly decent 2010 Memphis Grizzlies squad. What the?

I don’t claim to understand it, either, so I’ll just hit the facts. 20.8 PPG / 10.6 RPG / 0.2 APG, shooting 49.3% from the floor and 85.7% from the free throw line. Ok, so he’s a black hole, but Z-Bo (where does the “Bo” in that nickname come from, anyway?) is still a 20-10 beast and lead his Grizzlies to 4-1 in the 5 games he’s played this month.

Biggest Jump: Zach Randolph, Deron Williams (3)
Biggest Fall: Tim Duncan (2)
Hello: Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash
Goodbye: Rajon Rondo, Carlos Boozer
Ineligible: Chris Paul

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James (Injured)		F	63	↓ 34.70	↓ 25.49
-	2	Chris Paul (Injured) (Ineligible)		G	38	↑ 29.80	↓ 20.36
2	5	David Lee		F	64	↓ 26.34	↓ 17.13
3	4	Kevin Durant		G-F	63	↓ 26.66	↓ 16.70
4	3	Chris Bosh		F-C	56	↓ 27.06	↓ 16.43
5	6	Dwyane Wade		G	61	↓ 25.71	↓ 16.27
6	7	Dwight Howard		C-F	65	↓ 25.78	↓ 16.04
7	8	Dirk Nowitzki		F	65	↓ 24.35	↓ 15.14
8	9	Pau Gasol		F	48	↓ 24.16	↓ 14.95
9	12	Zach Randolph		F	64	↓ 23.70	↓ 14.49
10	13	Deron Williams		G	58	↓ 23.81	↓ 14.37

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	11	Gerald Wallace		F	61	↓ 23.33	↓ 14.12
12	10	Tim Duncan		F-C	59	↓ 24.73	↓ 14.10
13	-	Carmelo Anthony		F	51	23.27	14.06
14	-	Kobe Bryant		G-F	60	23.95	13.99
15	-	Steve Nash		G	64	23.34	13.90

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: 9.02
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: 0.00
Stats through 3/11/2010

Who do you like? Dwyane Wade? Dwight Howard? Tim Duncan? Carmelo Anthony? KOBE BRYANT?

Guess what, David Lee is having a better 2010 season than any of those also-rans!

Ok, so the Knicks aren’t going to be mistaken for a championship contending – or even playoff bound – team anytime soon, but the stats don’t lie: Lee is performing at a higher level than these marquee players this year. I’ve still yet to tie performance to wins (unlike Berri’s Win Shares, for example) and I’m not even sure if it’s a direct correlation, anyway.This is a team sport, afterall, so a ball hog may end up hurting his team even if he’s very good.

Still, here was the line from Lee’s week: 21.5 PPG / 12.8 RPG / 3.5 APG while shooting 55% from the floor and and 73% from the free throw line. Surely nothing to sneeze at! Yes, the Knicks went 1-3 last week, but, again, there’s still no direct correlation between performance and wins here at NBA Sim.

Yet.

Biggest Jump: Dirk Nowitzki (2)
Biggest Fall: Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan (1)
Hello: Rajon Rondo, Carlos Boozer
Goodbye: Carmelo Anthony, Al Horford
Ineligible: N/A

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James		F	60	↑ 37.86	↑ 28.62
2	2	Chris Paul (Injured)		G	38	↑ 32.22	↓ 22.75
3	3	Chris Bosh (Injured)		F-C	53	↑ 29.86	↑ 19.22
4	4	Kevin Durant		G-F	58	↑ 28.76	↓ 18.78
5	5	David Lee		F	58	↑ 27.86	↑ 18.62
6	6	Dwyane Wade		G	56	↓ 27.78	↓ 18.31
7	7	Dwight Howard		C-F	60	↑ 27.90	↑ 18.15
8	10	Dirk Nowitzki		F	59	↑ 26.64	↓ 17.39
9	8	Pau Gasol		F	43	↓ 26.47	↓ 17.23
10	9	Tim Duncan		F-C	54	↑ 27.74	↑ 17.10

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	11	Gerald Wallace		F	55	↑ 26.29	↑ 17.05
12	13	Zach Randolph		F	59	↑ 25.62	↑ 16.38
13	14	Deron Williams		G	53	↑ 25.29	↑ 15.82
14	-	Rajon Rondo		G	56	25.27	15.80
15	-	Carlos Boozer		F-C	56	26.32	15.68

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: 0.32
Stats through 2/28/2010

I’m still sticking with the manual calculations to determine this list so these posts are taking me a lot longer. However, I’m confident of their results so here’s the truth for this week:

Not a lot of movement this week with Dwight Howards 2-spot hop being the most notable. Superman led his Orlando Magic to a 2-1 week putting up a crazy line: 28.0 PPG / 16.3 RPG / 2.0 APG, shooting 58% from the floor and 72% from the line (this coming from a career 57% free throw shooter)! Perhaps the most impressive stat is the win again Eastern Conference rivals, Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

Biggest Jump: Dwight Howard (2)
Biggest Fall: Dwyane Wade (1)
Hello: Al Horford
Goodbye: Steve Nash
Ineligible: N/A

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	1	LeBron James		F	57	↑ 37.54	↑ 28.30
2	2	Chris Paul (Injured)		G	38	↓ 32.18	↓ 22.71
3	3	Chris Bosh		F-C	53	↑ 29.82	↑ 19.18
4	4	Kevin Durant		G-F	54	↓ 28.62	↓ 18.64
5	6	David Lee		F	54	↑ 27.78	↑ 18.54
6	5	Dwyane Wade (Injured)		G	55	↓ 27.96	↓ 18.49
7	9	Dwight Howard		C-F	57	↑ 27.86	↑ 18.11
8	7	Pau Gasol		F	39	↓ 26.70	↓ 17.46
9	8	Tim Duncan		F-C	51	↓ 27.65	↓ 17.01
10	10	Dirk Nowitzki		F	55	↓ 26.00	↓ 16.76

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	11	Gerald Wallace		F	52	↓ 25.91	↓ 16.67
12	13	Carmelo Anthony		F	43	25.20	↑ 15.96
13	14	Zach Randolph		F	55	↓ 24.98	↓ 15.74
14	15	Deron Williams		G	50	↓ 25.04	↓ 15.57
15	-	Al Horford		C	54	24.10	15.53

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: 8.72
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: -0.65
Stats through 2/21/2010

I’m going to keep this short: for some reason, my automatic process that I set up to do all of my Top 10 calculations got gummed up and started pumping out odd results. So, I’ve rebooted and did this one by hand to make sure it was correct. And, what do you know? LeBron jumps back to the top spot … yeah, that sounds about right.

Biggest Jump: N/A
Biggest Fall: N/A
Hello: N/A
Goodbye: N/A
Ineligible: N/A

NBA Top 10 (by APP+)
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
1	-	LeBron James		F	54	37.25	28.00
2	-	Chris Paul (Injured)		G	38	32.32	22.85
3	-	Chris Bosh		F-C	52	29.59	18.95
4	-	Kevin Durant		G-F	51	28.77	18.80
5	-	Dwyane Wade (Injured)		G	53	28.20	18.73
6	-	David Lee		F	51	27.47	18.22
7	-	Pau Gasol		F	37	27.07	17.82
8	-	Tim Duncan		F-C	48	27.91	17.27
9	-	Dwight Howard		C-F	54	26.90	17.15
10	-	Dirk Nowitzki		F	51	26.02	16.77

Just Outside
Rank	Prev	Player	Team(s)	Pos.	GP	APP	APP+
11	-	Gerald Wallace		F	49	26.00	16.75
12	-	Steve Nash		G	53	25.46	15.99
13	-	Carmelo Anthony		F	40	25.20	15.95
14	-	Zach Randolph		F	51	25.14	15.89
15	-	Deron Williams		G	46	25.25	15.78

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: 9.32
APP+ for an average NBA player for the 2010 season: 0.00
Stats through 2/14/2010