April 27, 2009

Joe Schaller

espn goes Hollywood; So now we have to put up with racist scumbags like Scoop Doggy Doo who demean women and glorify drug use? It certainly is consistent with our new socialist regime. Bigotry is now cool. What's next on Sportscenter?- Janene Barfalo with Keith Olberman? Perez Hilton?

Since a sixth man comes off the bench to provide a spark, most notably a scoring spark, the number of minutes played does not concern me for this award. If they are playing starters minutes it seems odd that they would even be considered a sixth man. Manu Ginobili put in less than 1200 minutes playing time however that should not disqualify him.

The Greatest Sixth Man in NBA history; As long as Ginobili is eligible for this award the selection is a no-brainer. He is easily the best sixth man ever, excelling in every phase of the game including defense- not just good, but great. Manu also tops my list for most underrated of all time. I would want the ball in his hands in the final minute as much as Dwyane Wade and easily over Kobe- and the facts back it up.

I've always been a big Jason Terry fan- he has also been underrated for many years. This may have been his best season ever however it's not really a whole lot different from previous years as shown below. My congratulations to Jason.

Rising Stars; Sometimes a player has such a break out season coming off the bench he suddenly finds himself as a starter. Such was the case of Trevor Ariza of the Lakers who revealed glimpses of his tremendous potential in Orlando, came off the bench for much of this season and then was promoted to the starting lineup.
It will be interesting to watch the careers of Nate Robinson, Rudy Fernandez, Carl Landry and J R Smith as well.

Leandro Barbosa's spectacular season got totally lost in the Shaq hype- what a shame.

For my list of top ten sixth men I have included the previous three seasons TPR for perspective.

TPR scale: 180+ MVP, 140+ superstar, 110+ allstar, 85+ starter, 65+ bench

Sixth Men_______TPR__'08__'07__'06

1. Manu Ginobili SA_____160__172__177__155
   
2. Leandro Barbosa Pho_141__107__132__85
   
3. Eddie House Bos_____127__105__112__103
   
4. Jason Terry Dal______124__120__129__121
   
5. Nate Robinson NY____123__94___95___60
   
6. Rudy Fernandez Por__121
   
7. Andrei Kirilenko Uta__121__121__102__127
   
8. J R Smith Den_______118__124__113__76
   
9. Trevor Ariza LAL_____117__---__102__47
   
10. Carl Landry Hou_____117__144

Total Performance Ratings-- since 1996

1. Scoring
   
2. Scoring Efficiency
   
3. Ballhandling
   
4. Rebounding
   
5. Disruptive Defense
   
6. One on one Defense
   
7. Team Defense
   
8. Team Game Pace
   
9. Schedule Strength
   
10. Projected Improvement or Decline
    
11. Teams Wins Adjustment

Ratings indicate productivity per minute played. See my feature "The TPR Formula" for more information.

• Joe Schaller
  
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• schaller_6@msn.com