Sports Economist Rejects Harris' Claims of Talented Roster

[Stopshere2]

-= original quote snipped =-


There was a great study on gambling on Balinese cockfights (no, I'm not actually kidding). Players wagered more on birds from their village, regardless of whether the bird was likely to win the fight even if it was more likely to impoverish them. Hands up, any season ticketholders?

Having been to Balinese cockfights on a couple of occasions, I can say with certainty that at least the villager never gets to bet on the losing chook a second time. Unlike the Bucks.

[ReddManBogieMan]

Let's see here

Charlie V. doesn't start this year
Bobby doesn't start
Yi is a rookie
Dez doesn't fill up stat sheets
Redd's scoring is down ( adjusting style )
Bell had his head up his @ss the first two months

Thus the bucks are not talented and Larry Harris is a LIAR!

Mo, Bogut, Yi, Redd, and CV are not talented, no way. They suck. Totally horrible.

Great article.

[ReddManBogieMan]

Bogut hated Stotts, because Terry made him a afterthought.
In Stotts mind if you are a big man you set picks and grab rebounds nothing else. I think Larry K. has had a major role in Bogut's development thus far. He even has managed to make Redd and Mo better passers and slightly improved effort on D. Next all we have to do is win games, total transformation of a team philosophy doesn't happen over night, but it is becoming more and more real this season. Gotta take a small step back before you can take some steps forward

[Chapter29]

I think this team does have talent, but it is a team sport.

Individual successes are certainly impacted by the teams overall makeup and how the sum of its parts factors out. Including the coaching of course.

Much like a running back who is extremely talented with a terrible offensive line. Wont put up good stats, but talented he remains.

[Epicurus]

Bogut hated Stotts, because Terry made him a afterthought.
In Stotts mind if you are a big man you set picks and grab rebounds nothing else. I think Larry K. has had a major role in Bogut's development thus far. He even has managed to make Redd and Mo better passers and slightly improved effort on D. Next all we have to do is win games, total transformation of a team philosophy doesn't happen over night, but it is becoming more and more real this season. Gotta take a small step back before you can take some steps forward

I guess then Stotts'mind changed from when he was at Atlanta and most possession included low block feeds to Shareef. Or maybe, one playe was ready for the feeds and another wasn't YET.

LK was Bogut's position coach under Stotts, Then he didn't seem to play much of a role in Bogut's improvement, nor ever recommended to Stotts greater use of Bogut. Finally, using the metric of Dr.Berri,over the first half of the season, Bogut's contributions to wins was not greater than in the previous season (albeit he's contributed differently, but not greater).

What is real and what is imagined (or wishful) is always an interesting question when dealing with fan reactions to performance. It would be great to see in what sector of the brain fans are using when viewing and discussing sports. My guess is it is not the higher rational portion, but the emotional reptillian section. That's ok, as that is the same section that over 85% use in dealing with politics.

[Epicurus]

I think this team does have talent, but it is a team sport.

Individual successes are certainly impacted by the teams overall makeup and how the sum of its parts factors out. Including the coaching of course.

Much like a running back who is extremely talented with a terrible offensive line. Wont put up good stats, but talented he remains.

I don't fully buy here the football analogy. Basketball at the NBA level is a positional matchup sport, where "team play" comes in to either enhance the favorable matchup (often get the hell out of the way) or minimize the unfavorable one (double teams and the like). Thus I believe the far greater consistency yearly of performance of basketball players, as opposed to those of other sports. That is, individual performance (talent, effort, health, teammates, coaching--as the producers of performance, probably in that order) is more significant than in other team sports.

[unklchuk]

I now think Terry Stotts got blamed for flaws in the team given him. But I still don't regret his departure. He struck me and strikes me as a slighty-constipated engineer - and I think the job needs a leader or at least a showman.

Given the fan's remove from the real situation, our judging a coach is always going to be an "inexact science." I'm OK with that and the coaches better be too.

Go reptile!

[Chapter29]

I don't fully buy here the football analogy. Basketball at the NBA level is a positional matchup sport, where "team play" comes in to either enhance the favorable matchup (often get the hell out of the way) or minimize the unfavorable one (double teams and the like). Thus I believe the far greater consistency yearly of performance of basketball players, as opposed to those of other sports. That is, individual performance (talent, effort, health, teammates, coaching--as the producers of performance, probably in that order) is more significant than in other team sports.

It may be more significant, but it is not insignificant.

Team, coaching and chemistry matter as well.

Lets see for example what Shaq does with a real team around him.

[Epicurus]

Yes, like seeing what Dunleavy has done with a real coach and not that bum Nelson (color dripping sarcasm here).