The Nets Effect: Finding the Worst Player in the NBA

There’s always debate when it comes to naming the top at something. Is Kobe the best player in the NBA? Is Peyton or Tom the best QB? Who’s the worst NBA GM Isaih, or Billy King? I think you’d be hard pressed to debate however that Jason Collins is not currently the worst player in the NBA.

I had been thinking of writing this column for about a week, but after seeing Collins foul Delonte West to setup a three point play with the Nets up 4 with 55 seconds to go it became apparent it needs to be said: Jason Collins is awful.

Consider this actual conversation with my friend (we'll call him John) after 7 games in the season.

Me: i think collins may only have a total of 1 field goal this season

John:is that an exageration or close to fact

Me: close to fact

John :that's funny

Me: he went about 4 games before he made his first

John :how is that possible though even if you dont' look for your offense being 7 feet, you have to accidently make a shot

Me: nope, not collins

John: he is a very good help defender, and sets good screens

Me:uh... yeah, something like that...

This conversation pretty much sums it up for Collins. You’d think being 7 foot he accidentally help out the offense, but nope he averages exactly 0.5 points a game. You’d think he would grab at least like 7-8 rebounds a game, haha try 2.2. So surely he must block some shots? Nope, 0.08 blocks per game.

So why does he play? Mainly because people, specifically his coach, thinks he sets good screens and plays good defense. Now I’ll give him this, despite not blocking any shots, he does provide pretty decent defense against a big man with size, say an Eddy Curry, Shaq or Dwight Howard. However if you put him against a guy like Bargnani or Stoudemire, in other words a quicker big man he’s got little to no chance. As for setting good screens though… it’s a bloody screen! That’s not a talent! If you combine the fact that he’s not all-league defensive, and his offense is epically bad, he should not play, especially not 18-20 minutes a night.

He makes Ben Wallace look like an offensive dynamo.

Admittedly like any stat John Hollingers PER (player efficiency rating) isn’t perfect, but I think it’s useful. So, consider this for a second, Jason Collins had a league low 3.02 PER last season. The runner up had a PER 2 points higher at 5.33. As bad as last season’s efficiency rating was his PER this season is NEGATIVE. That’s right, -2.66, the worst PER in the League. According to that, the Nets might actually be better on offense with no center on the floor then Collins.

If you can’t find a way to contribute at least a little bit offensively with Jason Kidd as your teammate, you know you’re garbage. With Sean Williams emerging to average 8.7 points, 4.3 boards and 2.1 blocks per game in the same 19 points a game and even Josh Boone providing mostly solid D and a per of 3 in VERY limited time, it’s time for Collins to take a seat.

Can We Get Rid of Batting Average?

Now I know the traditionalists among us (read those over the age over 45) will object, but I propose getting rid of batting average. In fantasy baseball and especially in real life. What prompts this… is it the books I’ve read on sabermetrics, or some profound breakthrough I’ve had? Nope, it’s just a stupid statement about Brad Lidge by Jayson Stark. He says in 2005 Lidge was considered the best closer in baseball and in 2007 he was a bust, but his stats aren’t all that different. He cites opponents batting average which was higher in 2005 than 2007. That’s great, but all that shows is that the stat itself it means nothing.

Here are Lidge’s stats for 2005 and 2007.

	ERA	SV	BLSV	K/9	K/BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR
2005	2.29	42	4	13.12	4.48	.223	.293	.323	.612	5
2007	3.36	19	8	11.82	2.93	.219	.312	.409	.716	9

You’ll notice the only stat that was better for Lidge in 2005 was avg. and if we can all agree average is all but meaningless it’ll be easy to tell why Lidge was considered a bust in 2007. He struck out less people, he allowed more base runners, and he allowed a greater percentage of bases on those base hits. Now would he have been considered as big of a bust if his 2006 season wasn’t so awful (to the tune of an over 5 era)? Maybe not. However it’s clear that blowing 8 saves in 27 opportunities, almost 1/3 of your saves, is not good. Neither were any of his other stats compared to his 2005 season.

Lidge is just one case study on the pitching side of how little batting average matters. I could go on about how OBP and slugging are such better measures for hitters as well, but I think we’ve all heard those arguments. So isn’t it time we all agreed to get rid of batting average. After all we’ve got computers nowadays computing the other stats doesn’t need to be done with an abacus.

The Nets Effect: RJ Breaking Out

The Nets finished off their second and third games of the season this weekend. They were crushed by the Raptors on Friday and struggled to a victory against the Sixers on Saturday to move to 2-1.

So what did we learn from the weekend?

1) The Nets are going to struggle against athletic big men. Throw Shaq, Eddy Curry or Big Z against the Nets big men and they’ll defend them as well as any other team does or better. However you throw a big man like Barnani or Bosh their way they’re going to struggle. When you throw two of them their way like the Raptors do and they’re going to struggle a lot. Collins and Magloire are not quick at all, and before Malik Allen hit a few jumpers last night I wasn’t convinced he deserved to even play in the D league. There aren’t a lot of solutions to this issue as Krstic is slowed by his recovering from his knee injuries and the Nets don’t seem to have too much faith in Sean Williams, the one guy who has the quickness to guard guys like Bargnani. Not coincidentally the only time the Nets looked decent in the second half Friday night was when Williams was on the court with the starters.

2) RJ is the VERY good. This is not breaking news here, everyone knew he was good, but this season he is stepping up his game even further. He carried the Nets to their two victories with 29 points on opening night, 22 against Philly and threw in 27 in the lose to the Raptors (he could have scored close to 40 if it wasn’t a blow out by midway in the fourth. More than the scoring is the efficiency he scores with. So far this season he is shooting 51 percent from the floor, 62.5 percent from behind the arc and is a perfect 25 for 25 from the free throw line. Using John Hollingers PER, Jefferson has a PER of 30 so far, more than doubling his predicted PER. Will he shoot this well the rest of the season? Probably not, but if he continues to take quality shots like he has the first three games, he will have a great season.

3) Vince Carter is still vastly overpaid. In stark contrast to how Jefferson has played Carter has been just as bad. He’s shooting 30 percent so far. It’s very simple for him, if he lets the offense come to him he will do well, if he forces it he won’t… he often forces it. Everyone knows he’s going to decline with age, but I can’t imagine it would happen this fast. You have to imagine he’ll pick it up, but there’s very little doubt he will not live up to his contract signed this offseason.

4) Kidd is still Kidd. After putting in another triple double last night, Jason Kidd is still doin his thing.

5) Darrell Armstrong is not an NBA point guard. He’s old, can’t shoot, is nothing special when it comes to passing and isn’t thaaaat quick. He used to be very quick, but as I mentioned he’s now old and considering his speed was his only discernable skill, he is no longer an NBA point guard. Marcus Williams can’t get back soon enough.