Most efficient lineup in the NBA?

[Duiz]

82games.com, using at least 100 minutes together on the floor, compiled all the possible lineups that meet this requirement, and shockingly, it was one from Utah that was the most dominant.

PG: Deron Williams
SG: Ronnie Brewer
SF: Andrei Kirilenko
PG: Paul Millsap
C: Carlos Boozer

Efficiency per posession:
Off - 1.28
Def - 0.92

Now you ask yourself, how the fudge is this more dominant that a Laker or Suns lineup. Well the stat used to define this is the Net Points (+/-) of the 5-man lineup, per48 minutes.

This lineup had a Net48 of +29 which is astoudingly dominant. The second highest is +24 with Fisher-Bryant-Walton-Odom-Gasol. You have to consider how greatly more dominant the team is considering that the next 4 of the Top 5 are bundled between +24 and +22.

Why do I think the lineup is dominant? Because Boozer is a defensive liability, and Okur is another one, we get raped defensively. But Millsap and Kirilenko, and Brewer... lol, help defense comes in bunches.

For your knowledge, I checked all of the Utah lineups that we had, and this one is the most efficient defensively, and also the most efficient offensively.

[carrottop12]

I've always liked this line up.

Millsap is an incredible player even if he doesn't always show it on the box score, Deron and Boozer can handle the scoring load, and AK and Brewer make up the extra defense.

It really has everything covered, the only real whole is spreading the floor and even AK and Brewer can hit a 20 footer in they aren't guarded.

Otherwise it has perimeter and low post defense, great rebounding, solid passing, good scoring, and overall high basketball IQ.

[troy]

This is why i think Utah would be better with trading Okur.
Like you said Duiz , not only is this clearly our best defensive lineup it's also t he most efficient offensive line up.

Clearly we don't need Okur especially when he is playing like in the game last night.
If Utah got a guy like Kaman or Okafor in the place of Okur , it would become the n

[hoops4life]

you can't keep boozer at full time center though.

[d-will8]

This is why i think Utah would be better with trading Okur.
Like you said Duiz , not only is this clearly our best defensive lineup it's also t he most efficient offensive line up.

Clearly we don't need Okur especially when he is playing like in the game last night.
If Utah got a guy like Kaman or Okafor in the place of Okur , it would become the n

[erudite23]

While this is nice and all....remember that we only see this lineup under certain conditions. Most notably, when the opposing team doesn't have a dominant big man on the floor. Boozer simply doesn't have the chops to hang with a TD, Amare, Gasol, Yao, or Dirk for long stretches. He isn't focused enough on that aspect of the game, and he doesn't have the length to match up consistently.

And while Millsap is a superb defender, you just can't make the guy 6'10''. He can't defend centers regularly without getting dismantled.

So while this is a nice lineup, don't get caught up in thinking it should be our lineup of choice. It almost always comes either in a very limited dose, or against teams without good bigs on the floor.

And on top of that, the perimeter shooting is supremely lacking with this group as well. Its predicated on getting to the hoop and geting easy baskets....which every one of these players excels at. But if there is a Camby, Gasol, Mutombo, Yao, Shaq, Duncan etc etc waiting at the basket, the sledding won't be so easy.

No, Okur is an important part of the team....as his play since February has shown. Its no coincedence that we struggled while he was struggling, and then dominated when he got it back together. Make no mistake about that.

[troy]

I'm not suggesting to use this lineup as a full time starting 5 , it's just a proof that Memo is not that important to this team. Even without him we are great offensively (100+ points per game during the December stretch where he was injured) , and we all know he is not a world class defender.

So if we could get a good defender (either a shot blocker like Okafor , Kaman and keep Boozer at the 4 or a mobile defender like Millsap only taller with Boozer at the 5) i'm sure this team would be tons better.

Okur's absence in december is overrated. Yes we lost 5 of 7 games without him. But you have to look at the whole picture :
- When he got injured we were already on a 4 game losing streak (!!)
- 6 of those seven games were on the road
- We actually lost only of those games when Millsap played more than 30 minutes (and we lost by only 5points on Phoenix's court). In all the other games , Millsap was in foul trouble and Sloan had to play Jarron Collins...

If at first glance this stretch shows our team needs Okur badly , when you look at it more closely it's clear that Okur's absence was not the only factor at the time.
And at the time we didn't even have Korver which made Okur's absence much more dramatic.
Believe me , if Millsap could avoid foul trouble , we would have been fine during that stretch.

If we could get Okafor or Kaman vs Okur we would be excellent.

And erudite , our best month was January , and Okur wasn't at his best yet at the time.

[erudite23]

Our best W/L month was January, but the Jazz have been playing historically on offense over the last 25 games of the season when...wait for it....Memo was playing the best all-around ball of his career! Coincidence? Not really.

Not just that, but the Jazz were not quite themselves all year long until Memo finally began to get healthy. He wasn't right early on, with his toe problem followed by his shoulder injury. I'm not just talking about December, or even the losing streak, I'm talking about the progression this team saw from "flawed and troubled" to dominant by season's end. It followed--rather closely--the progression that Memo made from injured and out of sorts to healthy and locked in. That, to me, is no coincedence.


All this is not to say that I wouldn't trade him for a defensive minded big guy who could clog up the lane and block shots. I think most or all of us would. Its just that there aren't a lot of those types of players out there.

[Seralin]

Don't trust that stat too much at least for the sample you are using. It only accounts for 127 minutes of playing together, which does not even make playing together 3 full games.

On the other side, Boston is amazing, with its starters playing for 1052 minutes, they got the highest score among their peers, +18.

[Duiz]

While this is nice and all....remember that we only see this lineup under certain conditions.

How about in every game? Remember that 5 minutes before the quarter ends, is when Okur goes out, and Millsap comes back into the lineup, and usually a minute after that is when Kirilenko goes out, and then Williams, and Boozer and Brewer stay to close out the quarter.

I am not saying Okur is not pimp, cause he is, but defensively, he isn't our best guy. Remember that true Jazz offense isn't perimeter shooting which he know is where he is getting still most of his points, and this lineup, guided by the Williams and Kirilenko passing galore, is what makes it so effective.

I think that I can say that I agree that Collins is niow outside the rotation, it helps us a whole lot more.