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January NBA Season Thread - A No Puddin Zone
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alejob said:But Shawn Marion is ranked number 1 in fantasy NBAAnd his team has the best record in the NBA!
Didn't H. Grant, B.J. Armstrong and Pippen go to the All Star game when Jordan retired the first time?
Well, the fans voted them in. It was a big controversey at the time, and really the first time we got the "fans shouldn't vote!" rants.
DMczaf said:I like how Konex acts like Shaq didnt just save the Heat to send the game to 2OT with that insane putback with 2 secs left.
First Kobe gets hurt, now Shaq is going to get handjobs from ESPN all night. It's ok Konex, put the knife down!
He better make that play after all the missed fts in the final minutes :lol
Bat said:Boo hoo hoo....because I making a (at least somewhat
Yeah, and his FG% is up .044 over last year and RPG up 1.5. If he was averaging 19/9/44% (like he did last year without an MVP PG) he wouldn't look nearly as good.
That's total crap. If it was just battle of statistics (as opposed to how important you are to your team's success), then Carlos Boozer (19, 9, 53%), Pau Gasol (20, 9, 52%), Elton Brand, Zach Randolph etc. would also get consideration. All-Star positions always go to players who are responsible for their team's success, not to the guys with simply the best stats.
See, 20-10 sounds impressive, until you realize that almost every team in the west has starting forward that averages that, and they are more important to their teams than Marion is to the Suns. I'll take the guy who has slightly worse stats but who actually bears the responsibility of being the number 1 or 2 option on his team over the third whell on a team that already has 2 MVP candidates.
Well, last year was the first year in a while that he wasn't the third wheel (he was the second) on a team with an all-star PG and he posted a career low FG% (one that is pretty bad for a forward averaging less than 20 points - 44%) and subpar numbers throughout. Name me another all-star in the strongest position in the league (west forward) who was the second option on a 30 win team just last year.
Couple of Points:
Shawn Marion is 5th in efficiency, which measures (tangibly) what a player does on the floor. He does more than Chris Webber, Rashard Lewis and just about every other forward in the league (except the other big 4 west forwards), despite being on a team with another big time forward. You say he's not important to the Suns despite him leading them in rebounds, steals and blocks and being 2nd in scoring. Look at the facts the Suns have the best record in the league and Shawn Marion is a huge part of it. It certainly isn't the Suns fault that their "third wheel" is better than many team's first. If he had to miss a game would it have the same impact on the Suns as it would if Duncan was out for the Spurs, or Garnett was out for the Timberwolves? No, but that is because he's on a team with other superstars and he's not quite in their league (which I never claimed he was). However despite being on a team with other superstars he is putting up huge numbers and majorly contributing, which suggests to me that he himself is a superstar.
About your comments regarding last year, that is in no way a good indicator of Marion's abilities. As a team the Suns had a lot of problems last year, of which Shawn Marion really wasn't a part of. I'm sure you knew that Amare Stoudamire missed 27 games last year. And that Stephon Marbury only played 34 games for the Suns last year. And after the trade of Hardaway and Marbury (34 games in) we only received the injury prone and uneffective McDyess and the second-tier Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley. So I think it's safe to say that blaming the Suns record on Marion is a bit harsh.
I also like how you completely contradict yourself. You say that you would rather take someone who is the number one or two option on their team, but has slightly worse stats yet you say that Pau Gasol shouldn't be considered, even though he's his team's number one option, his team has a winning record and they are half a game out of the 7th spot in the West. Then on the reverse side you cite Rashard Lewis who is second on his team in scoring (like Marion) yet doesn't lead his team in 3 other statistical categories like Marion. In fact the best he can claim is being tied for first in steals per game.
This is getting pretty long so I'm going to sum this up, All-Star games are reserved for the best players in the league. If there are indeed 5 forwards chosen in the West, I think it's pretty clear that Shawn Marion should be one of them (but if there's four it probably would be a tossup between him and Amare, and Amare would get the nod) simply because this season he has played to that level.
Edit:
I'd also like to add that I checked on that three all-star thing Since 1988 (17 all-star games) there have been teams that have been 14 teams that have sent more than two all-stars. This trend was more frequent in the late 80's and the early to mid 90's and hasn't been done in the past few years. However I also noticed that the best teams often send 2 players, and in the case of Phoenix I don't think sending three would be outlandish.
After writing all of this I have to say I have a lot more respect for what Loki does, I don't see how it's humanly possible to pump out posts of this length (or longer) on a regular basis.
I wonder what this board'll be like if Phoenix loses to Washington...ESPN shows a 48-48 tie with 1:00 left in the 2nd quarter (I know there's a whole half to go, but I seriously expected the Suns to come out strong against Washington hoping to end their 2-game skid). Steve Nash isn't playing, and it could lead to a couple more losses if he's out for an extended period of time.
All Hail C-Webb
Hailing from the Chill-Web
Cloudy said:
I've been saying this for months... it seems I have a real knack for choosing great players to root for.
Sactown said:
Sactown said:
Can anyone still claim that I don't know my shit??
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