Quest for the Ring Production Plan 2010

Two years ago I promised myself I would every year publish the production plan for Quest for the Ring (QFTR) even though the early plans were dead on arrival because they were unrealistic. I think visitors and users deserve to see what the Plan for a website is instead of being strung along in a state of uncertainty about what is coming in the coming months. My view is that this is one of the big flaws of the Internet: for informing viewers about what is happening sites often have only a skimpy "about page" which does not give you any specifics about what is coming or about how to use what has already been produced. Whereas QFTR maintains a full array of what we call User Guide Reports.

The 2008 and 2009 Production Plans required far more time than I have available and the components (Reports) were changing so rapidly that maybe half the components would be replaced by new, better components in six months flat. The 2008 plan was largely worthless from a 2010 perspective. The 2009 plan was better but was a monstrosity and was only at best moderately followed.

Things have changed big time for the better. The 2010 plan shown below is going to be followed to a good extent because it is most definitely realistic and it most definitely tightly fits what we are doing here, which is no longer changing quickly. Individual Reports and features are still going to be improving and sometimes expanding, but the number of brand new types of Reports will be much fewer going forward.

The primary objective of Quest for the Ring, from which everything flows, has evolved to the point where it is at the top of the food chain so to speak, which means it isn't going to be changing except maybe on the edges anymore. (The higher something is on the food chain, the less it evolves because it doesn't have to evolve to avoid going extinct anymore; thank you Charles Darwin. And that means I could eat CBS Sports or ESPN if I wanted to, laugh out loud.) This site is going to be indefinitely and probably forever about the pro basketball playoffs in general and about exactly how teams and franchises win the Quest in particular. For example, we will be later this year (at the scheduled time; see the production plan) telling you exactly how the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2010 Quest and exactly how the Celtics could have won it.

Another thing that has changed is that high efficiency and true, high grade scientific management has come to the Production Plan. Now that I am so experienced with Excel that I actually enjoy what used to frustrate the hell out of me, I can use Excel to efficiently apply scientific management to anything including the QFTR Production Plan. Specifically, in the Plan I have what will be produced shown chronologically and in terms of the production detail number of words. Everything is optimized for the best possible flow of information to the users (which include me; more and more I use QFTR as a reference as opposed to going somewhere else for something I need.)

So the new Plan is a massive improvement over the prior Plans and this Plan will definitely be followed. But even so, some Reports will be several weeks late, a few Reports will be cancelled, and sometimes a new Report will appear out of nowhere (and will be added to the Plan assuming it is not a "one hit wonder"). But these departures from the Plan will be limited so that it can be said that the Plan as written is being followed to a good extent.

I am already behind, what a surprise! If you look at the August plan, a Real Coach Ratings Report is overdue. And "NBA Salaries, Payrolls, and Cap Space Report (Annual)" is late. And the Players Who Won the Quest Report series are due right about now. So look for these soon.

There is an exellent reason why I am a little behind right now. The elves who work behind the scenes here at Quest have been very, very busy. Many of the QFTR databases have been improved and there are some brand new, very crucial databases. For example, finally there is a multiyear Real Player Rating database which right now can show just two years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The 2008-09 ratings were redone using the 2009-10 methodology, which was surprisingly easy to validly do by the way.

LeBron James was the best NBA player both years. But it turns out that Chris Paul was so good in 2008-09 that he was basically exactly as good as LeBron James that year (James won out by a tiny, tiny amount.) In 2009-10 a gap opened up between Paul and James because James got better and Paul was not as great (due to injury effects and because the Hornets overall were just not a good team anymore.) In 2009-10, Chris Paul was the third best NBA player behind James and Tim Duncan, who was much better than the year before and who moved into second place.

Anyway, with that intro I give you the 2010-11 Quest for the Ring Production Plan: