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

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

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