… 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