Top 10 NBA Players: Part 2

As promised, here is is the 2nd part of my top10 NBA players of last season:

5. Kevin Durant

       Led the league in scoring for the 2nd consecutive year (27.7) and despite Lebron's claims that he could win the scoring title ever year, Durant is the best scorer in the NBA today (Anthony is a close 2nd). He can shoot from virtually anywhere on the floor, hes too quick for any power forwards, and he can shoot right over most SF/SG. He shot 46% from the field, which given the difficulty of he shots he takes, is pretty impressive. He's also one of the best FT shooters in the league (88%) and gets to the line more than anyone but Howard (9 FTA per game). Plus, I think he can probably bench 185lb now at least one time and he'll no longer be blown away by strong wind gusts (though a shove from Randolph sill will still send him flying). I went back and forth between Durant and Howard, but Durant has the ultimate tie-breaker: dropping 66 in a game at Rucker this summer:

4. Dwayne Wade

                                                    Image taken from picturepush.com
   
         Even after adding Lebron and Bosh, Wade averaged 25.5 PPG (4th in the league) on a very impressive 50% from the field. Besides Tony Parker (51.6%), I don't think there's is a guard in the league who gets into the lane more easily and gets more easy scores. He's was also among the league's best in steals (1.5/game) and is one of the best rebounding guards in the game. Last season he averaged 6.4 RPG and finished 4th in rebounding rate (behind superstars Mike Miller, Landry Fields, and Q. Richardson) among  all guards. Wade also finished 3rd in Hollinger's player efficiciency rating (PER) and 6th in hoopsstats.com's efficiency rating. Plus, if the commercials are true, he leads the league in average number of times getting up from a fall (1.143 get ups for each fall, don't think anyone is breaking that record).

3. Dirk Nowitski 

                                                          Image taken from sinussister.com
   
  Over the past couple seasons, Dirk has drastically altered my opinion of him (I'm sure he'll be happy to hear!) from fantastic shooting 7 footer to fantastic shooting 7 footer who can also drive a little bit. I think he's become a much more versatile scorer over the past 4-5 seasons and it makes him much more difficult to guard. While last year his PPG were down from 25 to 23, his shooting percentage was up (51.7% versus 48.1%). While this improvement is probably mostly due to his teammates being better so he didn't have to take as many difficult shots, there is no denying he had a fantastic season. In addition to being top 10 in points, he was also top 10 n FT% (89.2%), PER,  and hoopstats efficiency rating. He also won his first title and by denying the villains of the NBA their first title, made it one of the most memorable seasons of my lifetime.


2. Derrick Rose 

                                                    Image taken from thesportsbank.net

   
     When the Bulls were debating whether to take Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley with the #1 pick of the 2008 draft, I was vocally championing for Beasley to anyone who would listen. I admit I may have been wrong on that one. Rose made huge leaps in 2010 improving in virtually every statistical category (PPG, APG, SPG, BPG, RPG). While his scoring improvement was pretty dramatic (25.0 up from 20.8), I think the most significant difference in his game was his ability to get to and convert from the line. Last season he averaged 6.9 FT/game and made 85.8% of those versus just 4.3 and 76.6% the year before.

The biggest knock on Derrick is that his efficiency ratings aren't as high as most of the players on this list. According to hoopsstats.com, he is 14th in efficiency and Hollinger PER has him at 9th. This is largely due to his relatively low FG% and his relatively poor assist-to-turnover ratios. I think these can easily be explained away by his role on the Bulls. Since the Bulls don't have a second player who can create his own shot, Derrick is often left trying to beat entire defenses on his own. This means he gets fewer easy scoring opportunities than almost any superstar in the NBA and also will have more turnovers as he needs to have the ball in his hands such a large percentage of the time. The same reasons his efficiency ratings are low are the same reasons that he is the league MVP. He is simply more important to the Bulls than any other superstar is to their team. Hopefully, the addition of a good outside shooter (Hamilton) will take some pressure off Rose and improve his efficiency as a player.

 1. Lebron James 

            As much as I hate Lebron and the Heat (and I think it was a huge cop-out for Lebron to join Miami), LBJ is hands-down the best player in the NBA.  He led the league in PER (27.34) for the fourth season in a row and was 3rd in hoopsstats efficiency rating (slightly behind Howard and K.Love). He was 2nd in scoring (26.7) , led the league in assists for non-PGs (7),  and was the 2nd best rebounding SF with 7.5 RPG (behind Gerald Wallace). He was also top 10 in SPG (1.57)  and led the league in triple-doubles (4). He's probably the best passing forward since Larry Bird and can take over a game like nobody since Jordan. He once scored 29 of the Cav's last 30 against the Pistons in a game 5 and just last season, he scored 10 straight to send the Heat to the Conference Finals.

It's scary to think that he is already the most complete player in the NBA and he's not even a great shooter. If he reaches his potential, he will go down as one of the best 5 players of all time.


Hope this gets everyone excited for the start of the NBA season. Let's hope someone (Bulls) can stop the evil Heat again this year!

  

Top 10 NBA Players of 2010-2011

In honor of the NBA season avoiding complete cancellation and opening on Christmas day (!!!), I figured I would switch it up and make a non-poker related post. Instead, I am going to engage in one of my favorite activities: making a top10 list.  Here are my thoughts on the10 best NBA players of the 2010-2011 season:

Honorable Mention: Kevin Love

  

            Kevin Love has to be the most underrated player in the league because let’s be honest, his game is boring. It consists mainly of getting in insanely good rebounding position, grabbing offensive (and defensive) boards,  using his ridiculously thick body to prevent taller players from blocking his shots, and then finally making a layup. While he may suffer from Tim Duncan Disease (being so boring that nobody cares how great a player you are), he did lead the league in virtually every rebounding category, averaging 15.2 RPG and 4.5 offensive RPG. Granted, when you’re rebounding for the likes of Wesley Johnson and Corey Brewer, you will get plenty of rebounding opportunities, but Love was also 3^rd in the league in rebounding rate (behind Reggie Evans and Marcus Camby). The man had a ridiculous 53 consecutive double doubles last year including 31 and 31 in a game, and still somehow didn’t get voted into the all-star game.  In addition to being an animal on the boards, he’s a great passing big man, shoots 85% from the line, and can actually step back and hit the three on occasion (42% last year).

Don’t believe me about how boring his game is? Check out this so-called ‘highlight’ video from one of his best games last season:

10.          Zach Randolph

                 

               There are only two reasons why Zack Randolph is on this list over Love. First, his team had more than 16 wins and he was awesomely entertaining to watch in the post-season. Second, I am genuinely afraid he might find me and eat me if he found out he got left off a top10 list. Randolph was 2^nd in off rebounding (4.2), 3^rd in overall rebounding (12.2), and shot a very solid 76% from the FT line. Oh yeah, and he also averaged 20.4 pts a game while shooting over 50% from the field. For all the knocks of him being a selfish player, he averaged 2.2 APG (twice as many as Dwight Howard) and ‘only’ turned it over twice a game (roughly half as frequently as Howard). I’ve also never seen an NBA player be so effective without using his off-hand. I think he’s the only NBA player that could average 20 points a game if you chopped off his right arm. Check out this highlight where he scores 34 points while barely touching the ball with his right hand (Please forgive the Hubie Brown rambling). My favorite part has to be where he blatantly shoves Durant out-of-bounds to grab a board (2:18). 

9.            Chris Paul

                                              Image taken from chrispaulworkout.com

                 

              Despite my alleged point guard bias, CPIII is one of only two PGs to make this top 10 list.  Even though he has not been the same player since his knee issues (and playing on New Orleans certainly doesn’t help matters), he is one of the best pure PGs to ever play the game. While his APG and PPG were both down in 2010-2011 (9.9 APG versus 10.7 in 2009 and 16.3 PPG versus 18.7), he was still 4^th in the league in APG. Most importantly, he had the best assist-to-turnover ratio of the top 5 point guards (Rose, Rondo, Nash, Williams) averaging almost 4.5 assists for every turnover. He also led the league in steals/game, shot 87% from the FT line, and pretty much single-handedly got New Orleans into the playoffs. I can't wait to watch him throw ridiculous alley-oops to Blake all year.

8.            Amare Stoudemire

                                              Image taken from shortshortsweakprose.com

                Amare had a huge first half of 2010 and he was a lot of people’s early favorite for MVP. I think he had a great season and definitely proved he could succeed without Nash setting him up for dunk after dunk. He was tied for fifth in the league in scoring (25.3), shot over 50% from the field, and rejuvenated the Knicks franchise. That being said, stats can’t really capture how bad he is at defense or how many more points the Knicks because Amare is staring off into space instead of playing help-side D. I'll never forgive him for not playing any defense on those Suns teams. I’m not a huge fan of the +/- stat for basketball, but I think its telling that Amare couldn’t even crack the top 5 of the Knicks in terms of +/-

7.            Kobe Bryant

               

                                                        Image taken from wikepidea.org

               Kobe is obviously on the way down, but he still had a strong 2010-2011 campaign tying Amare for 5^th in the league in scoring (25.3).  While his points, rebounds and assists were all slightly down in 2010-2011, this seems to have been mostly a function of him playing 5 less minutes per game. He shot around the same FG% (45%) that he has his whole career and was still one of the most dangerous scorers in the game. Though I’ve never liked Kobe (mostly because people unfairly compare him to MJ and it’s not even close), he has 5 rings for a reason. Let's just hope he never gets that 6^th  ring or the Jordan comparisons will never end.

6.            Dwight Howard

                                                       Image taken from soletron.com

                This is probably lower than many people would rank Dwight and according to pretty much any player efficiency stat, he should be higher. ESPN ranks him 2^nd behind only LBJ and hoopstats.com ranks him 1^st in efficiency and for good reason. He averaged 14.2 RPG, 4.0 Off RPG, averaged 2.3 blocks per game, and shot almost 60% from the field. He did all that while averaging 22.9 PPG (good for 11^th in the league) and playing awesome help defense. He’s very likely the most dominant defensive force in NBA history. But I still can’t put a player in the top5 when they are a liability on the FT line (59.6%) and can’t really create their own shot. His first few years in the league I was concerned he'd break the backboard every time he took a shot. His offensive prowess did improve significantly last year though (added his best impersonation of Tim Duncan with the bank shot and something of a rolling across the lane hook shot) so he could still end up being a very good offensive player.

Stay tuned for the top 5, which I will hopefully be posting by X-mas! Let me know which players you agree/disagree with.

All stats taken from espn.com, hoopstats.com, and nba.com.  Videos uploaded from you-tube.

Putting Poker on Your Resume

There has always been a lot of debate within the poker community on whether or not a professional poker player should include this on his resume when he (or she) is trying to move on to something else.  This is especially relevant in the wake of Black Friday since many players are looking for alternative career paths.  Since I recently was offered and accepted a trading position (while including poker on my resume), I thought I would share my opinions on the issue.  Shockingly, I have seen a lot of people (often very smart and well-respected members of the poker community) advocating that you shouldn’t include poker on your resume.  Frankly, I think this is horrible advice (generally speaking) and a pretty irrational decision.

Before I make some fairly bold statements, let me qualify this argument by stating that my argument is intended for players who have actually been successful professional poker players. To me, that means you made $50k+ a year while playing poker as your primary source of income.  I think it goes without saying that you going to the casino twice a month and making a couple thousand dollars a year while living in your parents’ basement does not make you a professional poker player.  It might make you a relatively good recreational player, but it certainly doesn’t qualify you as a professional. And you probably shouldn’t highlight poker in the past employment portion of your resume.

First, I honestly think it is pretty irrational for professionals to not include poker on their resumes.  For many professionals, poker has been their primary, and in most cases only, source of income (and many have made a very good living playing) for multiple years. I know this was the case for me.  The decision I was faced with (and that most players are faced with) was not  “well, should I include my poker on my resume or do I include the cure for cancer that I single-handedly developed”. It was between poker and nothing. It was between including a game that I worked very hard to be successful at and in the process, demonstrated all sorts of very desirable qualities, or literally putting nothing at all meaningful on my resume.  This is the case for most of the professional players I know. How is that a debate? How can having a resume gap that often spans five or more years be better than including poker? 

                                         Image taken from :http://www.survivingtherecession.net

As poker players, we should know better than almost anyone that sometimes the best decision is the lesser of two evils. Sometimes the best decision is a play with an expected value of zero. While having poker as the only work experience on your resume is less than ideal, it is better than the alternative.  Obviously, I think playing poker professionally is a legitimate job and should be valued as work experience. The game requires an immense amount of skill and I think many of these skills are translatable to other career paths. Unfortunately, society as a whole disagrees. There is still a stigma associated with poker that it’s just luck and that the people who play it are degenerate gamblers recklessly risking their life savings. Sadly, it’s true that most of the closed-minded people that will be hiring for companies will see poker on a resume, laugh it off, and rip the resume up in about two minutes. They might even call someone in to the room to joke about it together.  

But what’s the alternative? Having a resume that fills up ½ a page and consists mainly of summer internships and high school jobs with multiple years since your last work experience? If you submit that resume, the HR person is just as likely to disregard your resume without giving it a second thought.  Maybe they won’t laugh or make jokes about it, but you will still have absolutely no chance of getting the job. At best, your resume will be viewed as mediocre and particularly in today’s job market, mediocrity doesn’t get you job interviews. For any kind of competitive position, there are going to be way stronger resumes than one with a big resume gap, and you’ll have no chance at securing an interview.  There will literally be a 0% chance of getting your foot in the door.

It’s certainly true that including poker on your resume will be very polarizing. The vast majority of the time, they will see poker and automatically eliminate you as a potential candidate.  However, if you write about your poker experience in an intelligent and professional way and highlight the skills that you made a successful poker player*, some of the more open-minded people will like your resume.  It may not happen frequently, but maybe 10% of the time the person reading your resume will love poker, or at least know enough about it to be open-minded, and consider interviewing you. It will separate you from the myriad of resumes the company is filtering out and give you a chance to get an interview.  At the very least it will be something unique and interesting that they might want to hear more about.  And to the right eyes, it may even be something really impressive.   

*I’ve included the poker section of my resume below as a general reference for players thinking of including poker on their resumes. Obviously, don’t copy mine word for word, but I thought it might give some ideas for other players.  There are obviously certain industries (most noticeably, trading) that are much more open to people with a poker background, but I definitely think people should be including it in pretty much any industry they are looking to get into. Obviously, you should tailor your resume to that particular industry. I think given the great variety of skills needed to be successful as an online poker player (especially in today’s environment), there are skills that are translatable to a wide variety of fields.

Besides the logical argument for including poker in your resume that I made above (which I think should be pretty persuasive), there is the simple fact that I take pride in having been a professional poker player. It was probably the most difficult thing I have ever accomplished and I have no desire to hide it when applying for jobs.  I think the goal should be to change other people’s perception of poker, not to cover it up like we did something wrong.  

Experience_______________________________________________________________________________

Professional Poker Player                                                                                               June 2009- Current

·        Profited over $X with rate of $Y/hr over two years of playing professionally utilizing logical deduction, game theory analysis, combinatorial mathematics, strategic decision making, and statistical analysis

·         Exercised discipline and excellent risk management by successfully navigating the volatility associated with mid and high stakes No Limit Holdem

·         Assessed complex situations objectively and made time-sensitive, high-pressure, strategic decisions while 12-15 tabling without allowing emotions to affect these decisions

·         Gathered and processed vast amounts of information, used this information to create a profitable strategy, and implemented this winning strategy over a 2.5 million hand sample

·         Identified betting patterns of specific opponents and used this information to exploit their tendencies and gain edges in expected value

·         Achieved Supernova Elite Status on Pokerstars in 2010 for frequent play, one of only 342 players in the world