Hollinger 2008-2009 Player Projections

[jove9]

Yao comes in at #4, with a PER of 24.6.

Shockingly, the second Rocket on the list isn't McGrady. I won't spoil the surprise here, but he appears at number 24, right between Steve Nash and Brandon Roy. You'll never guess!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/rankings

[YoungMoney23]

Melo is so overrated its not funny

[HTown_TMac]

Melo is so overrated its not funny

Melo is wet ALL the time.

[Baller 24]

Haha, nice its probably because of his ridiculous PER last season. And these are based on PER I'm guessing? hence a reason why T-Mac isn't on here. His usage rating ranks in the top; while that shooting percentage remains at only 41% not good..

[hayden]

He thinks Artest is going to start for us as a PF?? Crazy talk. Or is it?

Rafer / Tmac / Battier / Artest / Yao ??

[b-ballwizard]

I've been wondering where Hollinger got the news that Artest will start at PF, as well. Not that it won't happen, but last time I checked, he wasn't an insider. And no one's heard this from any of the Rox coaching staff or management.

n a hilarious turn of events, he finished eighth in the MVP voting anyway. McGrady got two fourth-place votes and 13 fifth-place votes thanks to the sanity-altering effect of his team's 22-game winning streak late in the season.

C'mon people, let's try to do some critical thinking before filling out those ballots. The win streak was great, but McGrady actually had his worst stretch of the season then, shooting only 40.9 percent in March and a ghastly 23.4 percent on 3s. As mentioned above, he also missed a big chunk of time and didn't play terribly well the rest of the year. But in basketball's weird credit-the-team's-most-prominent-player-with-everything media culture he somehow became an MVP candidate anyway.

Finally someone else caught this. NBA fans in general need to better understand how to gauge a player's value w/o directly corresponding it with success. T-Mac gets way too much blame for his team's failures while his teammates get a pass....and as a result, he gets way too much credit for his team's success, while his teammates, of course, get a pass. Any objective eyes would've seen that T-mac was not playing anything like an MVP-calibre player during the streak. I laughed when the media started bringing his name up in MVP talks during the streak, but that's just the culture of the NBA. Hollinger, from his Rox season preview, knew that Houston actually had plenty of weapons who were playing well and contributed to our success.

[King Roosk]

I completely disagree with you and Hollinger, b-ballwizard. Mcgrady's stats may not have been of MVP caliber, but his impact was Battier-like in the respect that his impact couldn't be measured on paper. Our team had only 1 option who could consistently create for himself, and we still enjoyed success. Mcgrady's sub-par shooting percentages were probably a direct result of him being the only viable scoring option on the team. So what did he do? Find other ways to win. I'm not saying Mac should've won the MVP award, but I certainly don't think him finishing 8th in the race is a stretch.

[b-ballwizard]

McGrady's obviously good. But prior to the streak, no one was really that impressed with his play, for someone with his reputation. (Remember, coaches didn't even vote him onto the All-Star team) And as Hollinger pointed out, he didn't elevate his level of play during the streak. T-mac's teammates were vastly underappreciated during the streak.

And I'd say 8th was a stretch. Of the 17 guys who recieved votes, I counted 6 people below Tracy who I thought arguably had better seasons than McGrady last year.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/awa ... _2008.html

Btw, Mac's always had sub-par shooting percentages as a Rocket, w/ or w/o Yao. The whole team made adjustments due to Yao's absence - not just Tracy.

[moofs]

With or without Yao!
With or withouuuuut Yao!
Mac can't shoot
With or withouuuut Yao!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[kevC]

With or without Yao!
With or withouuuuut Yao!
Mac can't shoot
With or withouuuut Yao!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That just made my day.