MVP Race

[Miller4Prez66 545]

Going up to block a shot and grab the ball while collecting in one motion is incredibly hard to do. It's a joke that people just look for crap to throw at a guy for saying he doesn't do that enough.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

More than once a season, which is his approx career average.

 

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

Lord Xenu is fairly confident that more than 7 of 1,216 career blocks have remained inbounds.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION********

[Sabian Jackson 0]

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

Lord Xenu is fairly confident that more than 7 of 1,216 career blocks have remained inbounds.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION********

 

Probably. It was obviously not a serious figure. Even if it wasn't obvious, I'm not really sure the exact figure is the point.

 

The point is that probably a good 60-70 or even 80% have been swatted out of bounds. And the benefit of this to our team has been completely unmeasurable.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

Probably. It was obviously not a serious figure. Even if it wasn't obvious, I'm not really sure the exact figure is the point.

 

The point is that probably a good 60-70 or even 80% have been swatted out of bounds. And the benefit of this to our team has been completely unmeasurable.

 

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

As of the middle of January, Dwight had 87 blocks.

 

Of those 87, 43 had been recovered by Magic players, which means that even if you assume that every single block that went un-recovered by the Magic did so because it went out of bounds, you'd have almost exactly 50% of Dwight's blocks staying in bounds. http://imadogg.tumblr.com/post/2825881584/best-blockers-in-the-league-who-recovers-the-block

 

The fact is that they've done studies about this before. After the '05-06 season, 82games did a study on exactly what percentage of each player's blocks went out of bounds. The leader was around 33%. The original link no longer exists, but it's copied word for word here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=119873.

 

So even if we assume that Dwight is now analogous to that number, it'd mean that roughly 70% of his blocks remain inbounds.

 

Xenu has no interest in looking up data on shot-block locations, because that would further degrade this discussion by allowing it to exist at all.

 

As for Simmons' and his ridiculous, Thetan-bound, "Russell Stat", one need only look at what the game was played like in that era to understand why he was able to control blocks so effectively: He was blocking the shots of 6'5" white small forwards shooting 2 footed set shots while being the only person in the league for half his career who played above the rim.

 

Keep an eye on Cousy's chest high dribbling. That's the best point guard in the NBA in this video, and he can barely dribble with his off-hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwmG38LVe8c&feature=related

 

There's a reason why Elgin Baylor, a guy who today would be a poor-man's Gerald Wallace without the defense, was able to dominate the era so completely.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION*******

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

One should also pay attention in that video to the lockdown defense played on Russell, played by someone Xenu believes to be Clyde Lovellette.

 

Lovellette was an all-star that season, and there he is "defending" Russell in the post by standing 2' away from him with his hands down.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION*******

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

I'm always amazed at the unwillingness of people to actually look up the information they spout, opting instead to make a guess, and use that guess to support their point as if it means something. Of course, then someone will actually look up that information and show their guess to be inaccurate, which pulls the rug out from under the point they were trying to make. Only, instead of saying "Damn, really? I thought it was less/more than that, maybe my analysis is wrong." they get pissy and claim people are just nitpicking at their points.

[Sabian Jackson 0]

I'm going on what I've seen and if that is less than I thought, then so be it. Doesn't seem that way, but I'm not unwilling to change my opinion.

 

I will say that the comparison to clean blocks is probably much higher though (in regards to the percentage that go out of bounds), and the reason its so low generally, is probably because any touch on the ball counts as a block. I guess those are easier to rack up, but don't stick out as much as when he absolutely ruins the shot. In those cases though, I think he should probably try and gain possession instead, since he does seem to block shots very easily at times. And, if you can do it, why not try and do it every time?

 

Either way, I did say it shouldn't count against him in the MVP race, so I'm not entirely sure why it became a big issue.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

I will say that the comparison to clean blocks is probably much higher though (in regards to the percentage that go out of bounds), and the reason its so low generally, is probably because any touch on the ball counts as a block.

 

 

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

Well, pathetic man-animal, that is the definition of a block, so it makes sense that the percentages would be based on that.

 

As for your question about why it became an issue, it became one because while YOU didn't use it as a point on the MVP race, someone else did, and you decided to jump in to validate his claim, if not necessarily his use of the claim.

 

Given that the claim is what a certain Teegeeackian known to the Galactic Federation would likely describe as: "Bat**** *****ing crazy", people were shocked at the disconnect between your stated perception and anything resembling the real world, and man-animals tend to react to being confronted by crazy.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION*******

[BMP 424]

And, if you can do it, why not try and do it every time?

 

 

. . . .Ray Allen, throughout his entire career, has been pretty damn good shooting threes and has had nights where he didn't miss a single 3pter.

 

 

Doesn't mean he's capable of shooting 100% from 3pt range every single night, even if he tried really hard. . .

 

 

 

 

also,

 

 

 

18-4 despite their "MVP" shooting WELL below 40% from the field

 

wanna know what really stands out? Most of those games, the Bulls held their opponent to 40% shooting or less

[Sabian Jackson 0]

. . . .Ray Allen, throughout his entire career, has been pretty damn good shooting threes and has had nights where he didn't miss a single 3pter.

 

 

Doesn't mean he's capable of shooting 100% from 3pt range every single night, even if he tried really hard. . .

 

 

 

 

also,

 

 

 

18-4 despite their "MVP" shooting WELL below 40% from the field

 

wanna know what really stands out? Most of those games, the Bulls held their opponent to 40% shooting or less

 

 

I'll be honest, I don't see how this is an argument against me saying "if you can do it, why not try and do it every time".

 

Essentially what you're arguing is that Ray Allen doesn't try and shoot 100% from 3 every night....

 

I never said he can do it every time and he should be ashamed of himself if he doesn't do it every night, I just said that it should be the target every time he goes for a block. And why not?

[Sabian Jackson 0]

Thought I'd post the final MVP standings on nba.com

 

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/features/04/08/race-to-the-mvp-final-rankings/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

 

Enjoy.

 

(For those that can't be bothered to look,

 

1: Derrick Rose

2: Dwight Howard

3: Kobe Bryant

4: Lebron James

5: Kevin Durant

6: Dirk Nowitzki

7: Dwayne Wade

8: Manu Ginobili

9: Rusell Westbrook

10: Pau Gasol

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

I never said he can do it every time and he should be ashamed of himself if he doesn't do it every night, I just said that it should be the target every time he goes for a block. And why not?

 

*******BEGIN TRANSMISSION*******

 

Foolish man-animal, you have endeavored to redefine this dicussion multiple times, and you still fail to understand why each attempt is met with a sad sigh, even amongst the other sub-creatures posting in this thread.

 

You endeavor to enforce your argument by redefining the debate to mean "Dwight most certainly CAN do this, so why doesn't he?"

 

The answer to that question is the same as the answer to the question: "Why doesn't Dwight dunk the ball on every shot, since dunking is the highest percentage shot?" or even "Why doesn't Dwight make 100% of his free throws?": Because he can't.

 

You believe that because you see Dwight making big time blocks and making it look easy that it actually is easy. This is a simply ridiculous assumption. Even if we ignore that these are world-class athletes whose shots he's having to block, simply understanding how difficult it is to block a shot, any shot, and either a) catch the ball in the air or B) have any control over where the ball is deflected is absolutely necessary understanding one should have, and having that understanding makes this argument seem ludicrous, and that's before you consider the truism that if Dwight catches the ball in mid-air, most of the time it'll be called a goal-tend whether it was one or not.

 

But for a player to have control over a deflection off a shot they have no control over and can't concretely predict the velocity or direction of, and then for you to criticize, even in a round-about fashion, why they can't/won't/don't do it every time? That's like asking a baseball player why they don't hit 100% of the pitches thrown to them into the gap in left-center field.

 

As an experiment, foolish sub-creature, go out to any basketball court with 9 other players who are in or around your skill level, or better yet, slightly below your skill level and also below your height by a few inches.

 

Now try to block their shots, but while you try to time a jump so that you can not run into a person who is moving in an determined route, and you're having to ensure that no part of your moving body touches his moving body, and while you're trying to quickly estimate timing, distance and velocity issues necessary to block a moving basketball shot at an unpredictable angle and velocity, also try to keep track of where your teammates are moving and at what speeds.

 

Did you get all that? And were able to analyze it all in the 1-2 seconds, at most, you had between when you started to rotate and when you're blocking the shot?

 

Well then congratulations, Rain Man.

 

*******END TRANSMISSION*******