This is finals week at California State University–Bakersfield, the location of my day job (and I guess night since I taught classes at night this quarter). I mention this because although I have many issues I wish to comment on at The Wages of Wins Journal, my real job often takes me away from posting at this forum.
I did manage to take a break from writing exams and grading today to post a comment on the NBA Finals. Before I get back to my real work, let me list a few issues I hope to comment on this week in between teaching, writing and giving exams, helping students, and grading all those papers and exams.
- The comments posted here have typically been good (with a few exceptions, of course), but I wish to respond specifically to two of these. Jeff Pan asks about the 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers. He wants to know who led this team in wins if it wasn’t Allen Iverson. Matt27 also asks about Iverson, wondering if his poor shooting actually had a positive impact on his teammate’s productivity. Malcolm Gladwell focused much of his review in the New Yorker on the Allen Iverson story told in our book. My plan is to comment again on Iverson and hopefully answer the questions posed by Jeff and Matt.
- Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect has again commented on our work. Yesterday he posted “Good Players on Bad Teams” where he argues that Garnett might have a deficiency in his game that lowers his value. Yglesias does not appear to agree with everything we argue in The Wages of Wins. What is great about his comments, though, is that a) he has obviously read the book and b) his comments indicate he has obviously thought about what was said in the book. This week I will take a serious look at his comments and post a response.
- Beyond these, here are a few more comments I wish to make this week:
- The NBA Finals – specifically who are the most productive players on the Heat and Mavericks and what does it mean to be a genius in the NBA?
- Should Philadephia trade Allen Iverson? (maybe not) Yes, that would be another Iverson post.
- Should Detroit re-sign Ben Wallace? (hmmm…maybe not again)
- How important are “role players” in the NBA?
I can’t guarantee I will get to all of this during the week, but I will try. One might argue that I could have dealt with one of these topics already if I wasn’t so busy telling everyone what I was going to say. That is very true. Still, I don’t have time to do all of these today and I wanted everyone to know what was coming. Also, I though people should know why it took me so long to get this stuff posted. With all that said, back to writing exams.
– DJ
Wages of Wins Journal 
Julian
June 9, 2006
I would love to hear your take on the Knicks roster, perhaps shedding some light on why they were so awful last season. Is Stephon Marbury overrated? Does Eddy Curry’s rep for poor defense and rebounding show up in his win rating? How about Channing Frye’s “sensational” rookie year–does he deliver? Are there any unsung heroes on the team in terms of wins delivered?
Peter Mucha
June 10, 2006
Saw your Times piece, and shared its ideas with philly.com readers. One clarification requested: What was Allen Iverson’s win number? The Times piece just said AI’s plus Carmello Anthony’s totalled 13 …
dberri
June 10, 2006
Julian,
I need to write a comment on the New York Knicks. Basically the Knicks, who keep collecting scoreres, are a wonderful illustration of what we talk about in the book.
Peter,
Iverson produced 8.2 wins this past season. He was actually an above average performer, just not a superstar. Anthony produced 4.8 wins, so he was about average. I also promised to write more on Iverson. Keeping up with this blog is getting to be a full time job.