NUGGETS MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS 2007-09
Congratulations and respect are due to CARMELO ANTHONY, who led the Nuggets in quality basketball IN 2008-09.
Congratulations and respect are due to MARCUS CAMBY, who led the Nuggets in quality basketball in 2007-08.
Congratulations and respect are due to CHAUNCEY BILLUPS, who contributed more than any other player to the Nuggets in 2008-09.
Congratulations and respect are due to ALLEN IVERSON, who contributed more than any other player to the Nuggets in 2007-08.
HISTORIC MAJOR SUPER STARS 2008-09
None
HISTORIC MAJOR SUPER STARS 2007-08
None
HISTORIC SUPER STARS 2008-09
None
HISTORIC SUPER STARS 2007-08
None
SUPERSTARS 2008-09
CARMELO ANTHONY
SUPERSTARS 2007-08
MARCUS CAMBY
ALLEN IVERSON
CARMELO ANTHONY
STARS 2008-09
Nene
Chauncey Billups
Chris Andersen
J.R. Smith
Renaldo Balkman
STARS 2007-08
J.R. Smith
OUTSTANDING PLAYERS: SOLID STARTERS 2008-09
Kenyon Martin
OUTSTANDING PLAYERS: SOLID STARTERS 2007-08
Kenyon Martin
BEST BY SIDE OF COURT
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER 2008-09
Chauncey Billups
BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER 2007-08
Allen Iverson
BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER 2008-09
Chris Andersen
BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER 2007-08
Marcus Camby
OBSERVATIONS
The Nuggets had no major and no ordinary historic superstars either year. There were a total of 13 historic superstars in the NBA in 2008-09.
The Nuggets had one superstar in 2008-09 and three of them in 2007-08. There were a total of 24 superstars in the NBA in 2008-09.
On the other hand, the Nuggets had five stars in 2008-09 and only one in 2007-08. So in total, the Nuggets had six stars and higher players in 2008-09, and four of them in 2007-08. However, one of the 2008-09 stars, Renaldo Balkman, was not recognized as a star and played only 780 minutes. Moreover, Balkman hardly played at all in the playoffs.
Moving down the scale one more notch, the Nuggets had one outstanding player / solid starter in both years, and it was the same one: Kenyon Martin.
In total, the Nuggets had seven players rated solid starter or better in 2008-09 and five of them in 2007-08. Subtract Balkman from the 2008-09 crew if you agree that 780 minutes playing time for him was not enough and was not very significant.
You would never know it if you polled Nuggets fans, but Allen Iverson edged out Carmelo Anthony as the best offensive player in 2007-08.
You would also definitely not know it if you polled current, mostly deluded Nuggets fans, but Allen Iverson in 2007-08 was a much better Nuggets player than was Chauncey Billups in 2008-09. See the combined sort below, where you can see that Iverson in 2007-08 was a .973 Superstar, whereas Billups in 2008-09 was a .870 Star.
There is also an unhealthy disrespect among confused 2008-09 Nuggets fans for their 2007-08 defensive leader, Marcus Camby. In fact, as you can see below, Camby in 2007-08 was the best of all Nuggets from either year.
While I realize that sports fans latch onto myths the way barnacles latch on to the bottom of a ship, and while I realize that sports fans often do not believe in respect as a guiding principal, it is truly disturbing to what extent both the best offensive and the best defensive player of the 2007-08 Nuggets were and still are to this moment treated more or less like dirt by the 2008-09 Nuggets fans.
The Nuggets swapped out a whole lot of fans from one year to the next, but even so, the current Nuggets fan base seems to have completely gone off the reservation.
It is doubtful that a franchise whose fans heavily disrespect some of their best recent players is going to win a Championship anytime in at least the next fifteen years, probably more than that.
For one thing, such "fans" are way to easy to please. Just swap out a few stale styles and they will be happy.
DENVER NUGGETS
FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2008-09 Regular Season
Quality of Players: Includes all tracked actions and hidden defending
Carmelo Anthony DEN 0.901
Nene Hilario DEN 0.880
Chauncey Billups DEN 0.870
Chris Andersen DEN 0.835
J.R. Smith DEN 0.824
Renaldo Balkman DEN 0.815
Kenyon Martin DEN 0.754
Anthony Carter DEN 0.669
Linas Kleiza DEN 0.610
Dahntay Jones DEN 0.445
DENVER NUGGETS
FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2007-08 Regular Season
Quality of Players: Includes all tracked actions and hidden defending
Marcus Camby 0.999
Allen Iverson 0.973
Carmelo Anthony 0.944
J.R. Smith 0.817
Kenyon Martin 0.760
Eduardo Najera 0.735
Linas Kleiza 0.705
Anthony Carter 0.704
Chucky Atkins 0.559
Yakhouba Diawara 0.538
DENVER NUGGETS
FINAL REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2008-09 AND 2007-08 COMBINED SORT
07-08 Marcus Camby 0.999
07-08 Allen Iverson 0.973
07-08 Carmelo Anthony 0.944
08-09 Carmelo Anthony 0.901
08-09 Nene Hilario 0.880
08-09 Chauncey Billups 0.870
08-09 Chris Andersen 0.835
08-09 J.R. Smith 0.824
07-08 J.R. Smith 0.817
08-09 Renaldo Balkman 0.815
07-08 Kenyon Martin 0.760
08-09 Kenyon Martin 0.754
07-08 Eduardo Najera 0.735
07-08 Linas Kleiza 0.705
07-08 Anthony Carter 0.704
08-09 Anthony Carter 0.669
08-09 Linas Kleiza 0.610
07-08 Chucky Atkins 0.559
07-08 Yakhouba Diawara 0.538
08-09 Dahntay Jones 0.445
OBSERVATIONS
Looking at all the Nuggets who played 300 minutes or more in 2007-08 and 2008-09, we can see that the top three player years were all in 2007-08: Marcus Camby, Allen Iverson, and Carmelo Anthony. But then all of the next five were 2008-09 Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony, Nene, Chauncey Billups, Chris Andersen, and J.R. Smith.
Following these eight top positions, you have the 07-08 J.R. Smith, the 08-09 Renaldo Balkman, and then both of the Kenyon Martins.
Generally speaking, the 2007-08 Nuggets had much stronger stars than did the 2008-09 Nuggets but, on the other hand, the 2008-09 Nuggets had substantially more stars.
Is there a way to very quickly compare the two very different teams with respect to what extent they were contenders in the Quest for the Ring?
There is now.
A NEW, LIGHTNING FAST WAY TO EVALUATE WHETHER A TEAM IS A CONTENDER OR NOT
First, here is what we are talking about; here are the types of players which are necessary to try to win the Quest for the Ring, as defined by RPR:
Major Historical Superstar: 1.100 and higher
Historical Superstar: 1.000 to 1.099
Superstar: .900 to .999
Star: .800 to .899
Outstanding / Solid Starter: .750 to .799
Now we need to come up with a simple scheme to count the value of these players, which can be as follows:
Major Historical Superstar: 6, possibly 7 points
Historical Superstar: 4.5
Superstar: 3
Star: 2
Outstanding / Solid Starter: 1
Now anyone with half a brain can in less than a minute flat look at a team’s Real Player Rating report and evaluate whether it is a contender or not:
QUICK CONTENDER EVALUATION OF A TEAM (QCET)
15 points or more: Automatic Major Contender
14 points: Likely Major Contender / at minimum a Wild Card Contender
13 points: Possible Major Contender / at minimum a Wild Card Contender
12 points: Likely a Wild Card Contender, but possibly only a Long Shot Contender
11 points: Possibly a Wild Card Contender, at minimum a Long Shot Contender
10 points: Generally a Long Shot Contender
NOTES
(1) In years with more superstars than usual, more points than usual would be required. For example, in a year with an unusual number of superstars on key teams, it might take 13 or 14 points to be a Wild Card Contender instead of just 12.
(2) If time permits, fine tune your evaluation by subtracting or adding a point, or a fraction of a point, for players who are close to the boundary between two categories.
(3) A major historical superstar could in theory be worth as many as about 7.5 points. Michael Jordan comes to mind. Currently, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade are examples of players worth about 7 contender evaluation points.
TYPES OF NBA CONTENDERS
Generally, in any NBA year, there will be about three Major Contenders, about three Wild Card Contenders, and about three Long Shot Contenders. (Wild Card Contenders are in between the Major Contenders and the Long Shot Contenders.) .
SO TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THE 2007-08 NUGGETS CONTENDERS?
In 2007-08, the Nuggets had three superstars, giving them nine contender points right there. The Nuggets that year also had one star and one solid starter. So their total score was 12 points, which as you can see is evaluated this way: “Likely a Wild Card Contender, but possibly only a Long Shot Contender".
What actually happened was that the 2007-08 Nuggets were at best a Long Shot Contender, and not really even that. Obviously, the 2007-08 Nuggets were major underachievers.
Hypothetically, if J.R. Smith had been a superstar instead of just a star in 2007-08, and if Kenyon Martin had been a star instead of just a solid starter, then the Nuggets would have been, or at least very close to have been a major contender. Had Smith and Martin been those things, and had either Najera or Kleiza or Carter been a solid starter, than the Nuggets would have had 15 evaluation points (three more than they actually had) which would most likely have made them major contenders.
Now do you see why I kept going ballistic about things such as J.R. Smith being intimidated or partially benched by George Karl and by Najera being left out of the offensive flow all of the time? Laugh out loud at how many times.
For comparison purposes, the 2008-09 Lakers are scored at about 15.5 points.
SO TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THE 2008-09 NUGGETS CONTENDERS?
In 2008-09, the Nuggets barely had one superstar, Carmelo Anthony. Given the fact that history has proven time and time again that superstars count for much more than do stars in the Quest, you would probably need six stars to go along with one superstar in order to be a true major contender, whereas the Nuggets had five, one of which, Renaldo Balkman, was not regarded or treated as such.
If you do count Renaldo Balkman as a star, than the 2008-09 Nuggets can be quick evaluated as having had 14 points which, as you can see, is evaluated this way: “Likely Major Contender / at minimum a Wild Card Contender”.
But the Nuggets didn’t really have all of 14 points, because (1) Renaldo Balkman was not recognized as a star (ask George Karl why, I have no idea why myself) so the two points from his status should be cut to one. And (2) Carmelo Anthony was almost exactly on the border between star and superstar, so that his contribution to the team contender evaluation should be cut by half a point.
Taking these two adjustments to account, the Nuggets of 2008-09 were really more like a 12.5 team than a 14 points team. So actually, the 2009 Nuggets were not a major contender, but they were a Wild Card Contender.
Mostly major contenders will appear in Conference Finals, but every year you might expect one of those final four teams to be a Wild Card Contender. In 2009, it was the Nuggets who appeared in a Conference Final as a Wild Card Contender.
In effect, the “Nuggets' wild card” was drawn from the deck, and so the Nuggets miraculously appeared in the West Final, due largely to all the misfortunes that were suffered by other key West Conference teams. Those misfortunes are too numerous to mention and are beyond the scope of this report, but just for starters you had Historical Superstar Yao Ming of the Rockets and high end Superstar Manu Ginobili of the Spurs out due to injuries.
Hypothetically, the Nuggets might have been a 15 points team instead of a 12.5:
--If Carmelo Anthony had been at least a full scale superstar (add half a point)
--If Kenyon Martin were a true star instead of just someone who everyone assumes is a star (add one point)
--If Renaldo Balkman had gotten the playing time he deserved (over for example Dahntay Jones (add one point)
These three improvements would have produced a Nuggets evaluation of 15 points, and then the Nuggets would actually have been dangerous to the Lakers instead of just in mythology (and the alternate Universe, laugh out loud.)
SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.100 and more
Historic Super Star 1.000 1.099
Super Star 0.900 0.999
A Star Player / A Well Above Normal Starter 0.800 0.899
Outstanding Player: A Solid Starter 0.750 0.799
Major Role Player / Good Enough to Start 0.700 0.749
Good Role Player / Often a Good 6th Man 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player 0.520 0.579
Poor Player 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player and less 0.399
NOTE REGARDING LOW REGULAR SEASON RATINGS
Players rated below about .550 sometimes get playing time based largely on factors outside of RPR, but valued by coaches and other players, such as:
--Great energy, effort, and hustle
--Toughness, such as diving after loose balls and taking charges
--Leadership and/or knowledge, especially in the case of veterans
--Perceived potential for future improvement in terms of real basketball production, especially in the case of young players
--See User Guide for more
This concludes Part One of the side by side comparison of the 2007-08 and the 2008-09 Nuggets. In Part Two, the Real Player Production will blow away some more myths, as will the two sub ratings: the Offensive Sub Rating and the Defensive Sub Rating.
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