Thursday, July 28, 2011

Heat Check: Best NBA Players, Coaches and Basketball Wives

Some people were really impressed by LaMarcus Aldridge in this loss.

The most overrated player, coach and basketball wife on HeatFreak.com's Offseason Power Rankings were LaMarcus Aldridge, George Karl and La La Vazquez.

Top 50 Active NBA Players
Alfredo Arteaga and I agree about many things on the HEATcasts but disagree about even more things off it. I had a few issues with his Offseason Power Rankings of the top 50 active NBA players, 10 best coaches, 10 worst media and top five basketball wives. My biggest issue with the top 50 players list was LaMarcus Aldridge ranked as the 17th-best player in the NBA.

Check out highlights from our Twitter debate on Aldridge or scroll through the Miami Heat Index timeline for the full conversation. The Twitter debate includes links to some rankings at basketball-reference.com for the best shooting and rebounding power forwards, but the best list that illustrates the problem with LaMarcus Aldridge is the ranking of every player from the 2011 season by Wins Produced. For more info on the Wins Produced statistic, see this explanation and the FAQ.

Aldridge ranked 51st on that list. I'm not saying Aldridge isn't a top 50 player, but even if the Wins Produced ranking was adjusted to account for injuries and "one-hit wonders" it wouldn't justify Aldridge going from the 51st most productive player in 2011 to the 17th best. I'm just sayin'...


Top 10 Coaches
Alfredo ranked George Karl as the second-best coach in the NBA. Last week, Arturo Galletti reported at the Wages of Wins Journal that Karl's rotations ranked 24th among NBA coaches in correlation of minutes per game to wins produced per 48 minutes. Even if you believe that how a coach handles playing time isn't everything, Karl would have to be the best hoops whisperer alive to climb 22 spots. Since Karl's got the worst record of any coach in USA Basketball history with NBA players on the roster, I'm going to say his hoops whispering ain't that good, either.

Galletti reported that Doug Collins' rotation had the highest correlation in the NBA last season at 84.7 percent. Tom Thibodeau ranked a distant second at 65 percent. The number one coach on Alfredo's list, Gregg Poppovich, had the third highest correlation between his rotation and wins at 61.8 percent. Even though Collins clearly put together the best rotation in the NBA last season, Alfredo left him off his top 10 list.

10 Worst Media Personalities
I didn't have any big issues with this list, but I wanted to mention some of the media members omitted that ranked highly on the Heat Shit List.
  • Gregg Doyel from CBSSports.com: The idiot that asked LeBron James about choking after Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
  • Doug Stewart from the 2 Live Stews: The creator of the #fakeheatfan hashtag and notorious LeBron hater.
  • Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports: This post sums it up.
  • Ira Winderman from South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The biggest Mario Chalmers hater alive.
  • Michelle Beadle from ESPN SportsNation: HEAT fans tell me she's a dedicated hater.

Top 5 Hottest Basketball Wives/Girlfriends
My only issue with this list was LaLa Vazquez. I think she's all smoke and mirrors. Chris Bosh has a prettier wife, in my opinion.

1 comment:

  1. I guess La La Anthony is the most famous of the NBA wives because of the reality series on the couple called “La La's Full Court Life”, otherwise I agree she’s not that pretty.
    best nba players of all time

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