Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:LST, I'd be happy to continue the 2+1. I just need to see some feedback on it to keep my interest in it up. It seems that it gets read, but not necessarily responded to. The whole reason behind it was to try and foster some good discussion.

Fair enough. I'll be sure to respond to the next one (if it's one of the next two games...after that I'm gone for three weeks with spotty internet access). The 2+1 should provide lively discussion about the aspects of the game you bring up.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I'm not sure who's more obsessed over it, you or I. You seem to know much more than I do about his performance since joining the Kings. I'll make you a deal, you stop mentioning him in your arguments and I'll do the same.

Let's be real. Plus minus in basketball is not a very good measure of individual performance. It's a much better indicator of team performance, of course. If JJ and Ricky switched roles, do you think that would have a dramatic impact on their +/- figures? What I think gets tiresome is your use, and many times mis-use of statistics as they apply to the game of basketball.

Cool, First off, I mentioned Williams as someone who was a part of our bench brigade prior to his trade and acknowledged Luc's poor impact in the same sentence - along with pretty much every other bench player. You have selectively cherry-picked performances by Williams a couple of times now to make a point. You are the one mis-using stats, not me!

I believe the use of advanced stats is now commonplace among most teams and front offices. They help explain why a team succeeds or fails. You can boil things down to a very narrow set of key strengths or weaknesses. They help inform the regular fan and provide more insight than the eye can see in any given game where hundreds of plays take place. Even the NBA.com site as integrated them into their stats page. Jim Petersen uses them regularly in his color commentary for the Wolves.

So you might find the use of stats tiresome, but that's where the NBA has been going now for a few years. And it does a lot to uncover the truth behind a player or teams' success.