Doctor MJ wrote:Very interesting stuff.
Shaq is indeed amazing. Honestly the more I look at his +/- data, the more I'm able to let go of the fact that I consider him about the stupidest, pettiest person on the planet.
I've been thinking about '97-98 lately. Absolutely dominant in his regular season run, but that only makes me ask even louder: What the heck happened against the Jazz? An odd thing to ask given that it's not that I wasn't a fan back then, but if someone who had more educated eyes - or just a better memory could chime in, that'd be awesome.
Re: Robinson. I'm going to have a tough time effectively siding with him over Duncan based on raw +/- data. The differential in playing time is a pretty big deal. Still think Robinson's great though.
Doesn't it actually you more mad that Shaq was lazy. We have all this data on Shaq's greatness. He was better than 2nd 3peat MJ, yet we feel like Shaq left a lot on the table. People really underrate Shaq's "lesser" years. For example, here are his RAPM numbers from 01-06 (real RAPM, not the crap with box score influence).
01: 6.5 RAPM, #2 in the league
02: 7.1, #1
03: 5.1, #3
04: 6.9, #1
05: 4.7, #3
06: 4.2, #5
Top 3 every year from 01-05. he was #1 in 2004 ahead of Duncan and KG who were at their peak. This doesn't even include his first 8 seasons. We have data for 4 of those seasons and Shaq's plus/minus numbers are comparable to his 01-06 numbers. Shaq could be underrated which is crazy to think about.
They lost to the Jazz because of Shaq's support, not Shaq. The Lakers minus Shaq shot 33.2 FG% (25.7 3P%).