Paul said above he probably would take Bosh, but would “feel comfortable throwing Curry at him.”I guess a more conventional way of measuring the gaining and maintaining possesion side of the basketball ledger is:

(rebounds + steals – turnovers)= net possessions

Over the past five games Chris Bosh had 54 rebounds, five steals, and four turnovers. So he was a plus 55 in net possessions, for an +11 ppg

Eddy Curry over his last five games collected 30 rebounds, had 1 steal, and committed 19 turnovers for a net possessions gained of +12. Thats just a huge difference. 11 ppg versus 2.4 ppg.

I know you guys dont like the Wages of Wins, but there is an excellent chart there comparing Curry to the average center across all categories, and as this is a statistically oriented blog I am going to post it (is that the second time?)

http://www.wagesofwins.com/Curry63.html

Forget about the Wins Produced and Win Score, its still pretty illuminating if you look at the regular numbers. His possessions gained per 48 minutes for instance is 5.6, while the average center nets 10.8.

I also noticed he is actually closing in on Andre Iguodala for third place on the turnovers list, very exciting stuff, he’s just one back at the moment. If we work the ball into him in the post enough he may even catch Steve Nash (11.8 apg), who only leads him by five turnovers.

Lol, its a pretty toxic combo; worst rebounding full time center in basketball, nearly third most turnovers in the league at any position.

So in 2002, at least, the axiom that teams need to establish the run early to win did not hold true. Some teams won by running early. Other teams won without running early. It also appears that teams with high rushing totals aren?t necessarily establishing their running game from the first snap onwards ? but when a winning football team has a high rushing total, it is very likely they got many of those yards while running out the clock.

While in basketball the points in the paint might lead to more fouls, I’m not exactly sure that points in the paint are any more important than any other type. (At least in the half court set).

Also I don’t buy that Mark Jackson’s departure led to 10 more wins for the Knicks. In his last year in NY, the Knicks were #1 overall on defense. The next year, NY was still #1 on defense, but dropped from 11th on offense to 20th. Of course if the Knicks kept Jackson that year, we wouldn’t have suffered through Charles Smith.

Oh and speaking of Charles Smith, anyone see Jeffries blow that layup in transition today? It wasn’t that he was wide open, but once he evaded that last defender he just had to lay it in the hoop. I hope if the Knicks go to an important Game 5, Jeffries is no where near the court in the final seconds.

ha!

I think one issue is the difference between points in the paint and points from the perimeter. they all count the same (obviously), but you can maybe make a case that it’s somewhat analogous to rushing yards/passing yards in football. rushing yards/points in the paint tend to take more of a physical toll on the defense, as well as help to set up the outside shooting/passing game. just something I thought of the other day, I think it’s reasonably legit.

quite possibly, but there’s no way to know for sure. also Isiah didn’t know he could sign Jeffries at that point, and there was a real need at SF and no other options, it was a very thin draft. obviously we could use a pass-first PG, but we also had/have three guys ahead of him on the depth chart who aren’t going anywhere.

but, yeah, the point is that the critics who slammed the pick mostly just had no idea about Balkman. my friend who’s a Florida fan said he beat them almost singlehandedly twice last year. Bill Simmons, who I generally like, said early this year that taking Balkman over Rondo was the biggest mistake Isiah has made in his Knicks tenure. good call, dude.

Knicks are now 3-0 when Balkman plays thirty minutes, the first two were close contests, including that Utah game, so these were not garbage time minutes. He is a winner I think.

What a great game, three steals, two blocks, no turnovers. He had a winscore of 20.5/34, or .606, which is just a phenomenally efficient and productive game considering he went 1-6 from the line. Those four offensive rebounds were very nice too. I think pretty much everyone has agreed for a while now he should be getting more minutes, good to see it finally happy. I would like to see a lineup of Marbury/Francis, Q, Balkman, Lee, and Frye/Curry.

The Knicks managed to do it without Eddy Curry too, who once again went out and commited more turnovers than he collected rebounds. He had a winscore of -4/16. Whoever said they would take curry for bosh, lol…