All-Season Player of the Year Discussion thread

[Doctor MJ]

ESPN doesn't have great reporters, let alone analysts. And bringing SAS up in any basketball-related conversation as a means to reinforce a stance is asinine. I'm surprised he's actually not worse, conversing basketball with Skip Bayless for a living can't be good for your brain cells. An example of a respectable reporter and basketball mind is Zach Lowe, especially since the dude actually doesn't get caught up in ''he said, she said'' stories but rather focuses on how and why things unfold on the basketball court.

Sorry, but you just don't seem to be familiar with marc stein at all. He's a legitimate journalist who knows the NBA well, and rarely writes negative accusatory articles. I'm inclined to take what he says seriously here. He doesn't fall in line with your typical ESPN writer / analyst.

Agreed. Stein's never impressed me as a world-class basketball thinker, but I've never known him to be one of the guys courting controversy like mad (like SAS, Bayless, or Le Batard). Frankly it's really eye-opening the way he's popping off here.

[Doctor MJ]

I completely disagree with the Draymond Green topic.

The Warriors played like an all-time team this season. They were on the level of the Bulls. They played better than any of the Magic Lakers, Bird Celtics, Duncan Spurs, etc. How do you explain that? One way is to say that Curry played just as good if not better than Peak Bird or Magic. Does anyone here really believe that? I doubt it. That means the supporting cast for GSW had a decent edge against the Lakers or Celtics. Someone has to receive credit for that greatness. Klay Thompson is good, but no one thinks he was 86 McHale level. I think its fair to say that Thompson had similar impact to Robert Parish. Maybe slightly better. That would Draymond Green deserves significant credit for their success unless you believe that the Warriors 4-12 cast is so much better than the rest that it would explain the difference. Considering that the Celtics had Ainge, Johnson, Walton, they had a decent cast. I think the Warriors 4-12 was better, but was it good enough to explain the gap for players 1-3?

Based on that, I think Green slice of the pizza was just as big as McHale's in 86. I don't think that is a stretch because Green was by the best perimeter defender in the league this season by a decent margin. He had a very good case for DPOY. For example, here is a comparison between Green and Kawhi on defense.

www.vantagesports.com/story/VTkr8yYAACUAS-2t/defensive-player-of-the-year-draymond-green-vs.-kawhi-leonard

Just for the record:

To me it's not a question of whether Green deserves huge praise, it's just a question of whether he has a serious case over Curry or the rest of the top Top 5 contenders I suppose. It's with that question that I welcome more perspective, but I can't bring myself to really seriously consider it. I expect he'll be in my Top 10, but not Top 5.

[RebelWithACause]

My Top5 for this year:

1. Curry
2. Paul
3. Harden
4. LeBron
5. Davis

HM: Westbrook


Curry just had the best regular season by far and was also cearly the best player through the WC Finals. In the Finals he struggled some, but was still really good and had tons of impact on offense. Easy pick. All metrics, +/- , RAPM, RPM, boxscore numbers all support this notion.

Paul/Harden/LeBron all were in play for the 2 spot.

Paul amazed me in the RS, leading the best offense in the league, even with Griffin out for that long, also played all games here. In the PS another amazing performance by him, only that hammy injury made me overthink his 2nd spot.

Harden surprised me this year. Better defense, more consistent offense. Even translated to the PS, where he played great, especially against the Warriors in 3 games.

James was a lot more impressive in the PS than in the RS, for the RS I had him only fifth. He was huge down the stretch, even more so with his 2 stars being out. If he would have had a poor jumper, instead of a piss poor one, I think I would have put him at 2.

For the fith spot I was torn between Davis and Westbrook, however decided to go with Davis here. The PS convinced swayed me towards Davis, because Davis offense translated much better to the PS than I expected, even when his defense still is not as good as I think it should be.

Griffin also deserves a mention for his spectacular play in the PS.

[HeartBreakKid]

As crazy at it may sound, I'm probably going to put Griffin in over the MVP candidates. I think his impact during the RS was underrated. He was never go to be in the MVP race given his role on his team, but I think he showed in the post season that he was as good as anyone this year more or less.

I can't shake the feeling that Blake Griffin seems like a top 5 player this year.

He didn't have much momentum from fans during the RS, a lot of people even said he wasn't playing well, but I honestly thought the opposite. He was shooting a lot of jumpers, but he was making them at a very good rate - and in the end it drastically improved him as a player. He averaged 22 points and 5 assist; the lead scorer on the league with the highest rated offense. He really is an offensive juggernaut, and it's not just because of Chris Paul, he has everything you would need from a power forward. His offensive game really has close to no weaknesses. His impact is easily above his boxscore stats, and even if people did think he was coasting - so what? He showed up in the playoffs 100%, and typically you get a pass for coasting if you do your work in the post season.


This guy had an insane post season. He averaged 25.5/12.7/6 assist. This has been his best post season (and last year he was universally regarded as a top 5 player). His biggest slight on him was his rebounding, which I think is just due to him playing with DeAndre Jordan and further away from the rim, but come playoff time he nearly puts up 13 assists. He was a triple double machine, and nearly went 2-0 against Houston when Chris Paul wasn't there, with him being the anchor and running everything. To top it off, he's become a solid defender, he cannot anchor a defense, but in terms of man to man he is actually pretty good. Just about everyone who went up against Blake had a tough time with him. Tim Duncan vs the overrated DeAndre Jordan was BBQ chicken every time in Duncan's favor, when he was up against the much shorter Griffin, it wasn't an automatic basket like it was against Jordan. Not to mention this was over the course of a 14 game sample size which is quite large for a post season, and he wasn't up against swiss cheese defenses either (very competitive back to back series).

I suppose it sounds strange that 2 top 5 players can be on the same team and not make it to the 3rd round, but it pretty much happened that way last year. More competition for POY this year, but Griffin stepped his game up. This guy is now a threat from every relevant spot on the court for a power forward AND he can play point forward (he is probably the best passing forward the league has seen). Any match up he has, he adapts to it because he has so many means of hurting a team.

[Dr Spaceman]

As crazy at it may sound, I'm probably going to put Griffin in over the MVP candidates. I think his impact during the RS was underrated. He was never go to be in the MVP race given his role on his team, but I think he showed in the post season that he was as good as anyone this year more or less.

I can't shake the feeling that Blake Griffin seems like a top 5 player this year.

He didn't have much momentum from fans during the RS, a lot of people even said he wasn't playing well, but I honestly thought the opposite. He was shooting a lot of jumpers, but he was making them at a very good rate - and in the end it drastically improved him as a player. He averaged 22 points and 5 assist; the lead scorer on the league with the highest rated offense. He really is an offensive juggernaut, and it's not just because of Chris Paul, he has everything you would need from a power forward. His offensive game really has close to no weaknesses. His impact is easily above his boxscore stats, and even if people did think he was coasting - so what? He showed up in the playoffs 100%, and typically you get a pass for coasting if you do your work in the post season.


This guy had an insane post season. He averaged 25.5/12.7/6 assist. This has been his best post season (and last year he was universally regarded as a top 5 player). His biggest slight on him was his rebounding, which I think is just due to him playing with DeAndre Jordan and further away from the rim, but come playoff time he nearly puts up 13 assists. He was a triple double machine, and nearly went 2-0 against Houston when Chris Paul wasn't there, with him being the anchor and running everything. To top it off, he's become a solid defender, he cannot anchor a defense, but in terms of man to man he is actually pretty good. Just about everyone who went up against Blake had a tough time with him. Tim Duncan vs the overrated DeAndre Jordan was BBQ chicken every time in Duncan's favor, when he was up against the much shorter Griffin, it wasn't an automatic basket like it was against Jordan. Not to mention this was over the course of a 14 game sample size which is quite large for a post season, and he wasn't up against swiss cheese defenses either (very competitive back to back series).

I suppose it sounds strange that 2 top 5 players can be on the same team and not make it to the 3rd round, but it pretty much happened that way last year. More competition for POY this year, but Griffin stepped his game up. This guy is now a threat from every relevant spot on the court for a power forward AND he can play point forward (he is probably the best passing forward the league has seen). Any match up he has, he adapts to it because he has so many means of hurting a team.

I'm not saying you're wrong to put him there, but there are a few issues I keep coming back to with regards to Griffin's season:

1. Underwhelming regular season- conserving energy and injuries
2. Completely ran out of gas during the playoff run, leading to
3. Poor defensive showing against HOU on the back 9

I'm considering him at 6, but I think his case gets thin once you move past the Kawhi/Westbrook tier.

[MO12msu]

As crazy at it may sound, I'm probably going to put Griffin in over the MVP candidates. I think his impact during the RS was underrated. He was never go to be in the MVP race given his role on his team, but I think he showed in the post season that he was as good as anyone this year more or less.

I don't really see the argument for Griffin. Sure he has done has that impressive resume that you mentioned, but when we compare it to the other candidates' resumes it doesn't really hold up.

Not a chance am I putting him in front of Paul, Curry, or Harden, 3 guys who played almost every game for their teams and(to me) had a clearly stronger impact when on the court throughout both the regular season and playoffs.

The same reasons hold true for Lebron, besides the fact that Lebron missed a part of the regular season, but that's not something that Griffin has over Lebron. And Lebron was better in the playoffs as well.

Then it comes down to Anthony Davis or Blake Griffin for me, and Davis is just a flat out better player. Griffin is the better player with the ball in his hands, but that's where his advantages over Davis end. I thought Griffin was ok at best defensively during the playoffs and while he was an alright post defender, nowadays your 4 has to be able to go out and cover some ground on pick and pops and stretch 4s, and Griffin was BAD at that. Diaw, Josh Smith, etc, all took advantage of Griffin's atrocious closeouts. Sure you can say he was exhausted defensively from carrying the offense, but guess what, Davis had to carry an even larger load on offense in even more minutes. And that's with a worse supporting cast against the best defense in the league.

And saying "so what" to the notion of coasting just makes no sense to me. Harden, Paul, Curry, and Davis did not coast and all seemed to still play better than Griffin during the regular and postseason. Maybe if Blake doesn't "coast" during the regular season, the Clippers win a game or 2 more and avoid the Spurs in the first round. They smack the Mavs in the first round, then possibly have some time to rest before the 2nd round and probable match with the Spurs/Rockets in wcsf. I don't know, it doesn't seem like Griffin coasting should just be ignored when others did not hurt their team by making that decision.

[Dr Spaceman]

I'm going to end up putting LeBron at #2 I believe. I actually was quite impressed with his defense through the second half of the season and most of the playoffs- fell apart at the end of the Finals but that was fatigue. 2015 LeBron was barely a half step below 2012-13 peak form in my opinion, all told. His offense overall looks like a step below his 2014 self due to the lack of a jumper, but more and more I'm wondering how big a deal that is. For one thing, his post game looks visibly improved in my eyes, and another, his lack of a J didn't actually prevent him from getting whatever the hell he wanted on offense. If he didn't lose Love and Kyrie this might have been a bigger issue, but as it stands I feel pretty dumb sitting here and saying "Well LeBron has this flaw and I'm docking him for it despite the fact it didn't actually harm his play at all". In a global goodness sense he was probably better in 2014 offensively, but as an overall player I do side with 15 due to the defense.

As to the coasting problem, which is a big thing to talk about here, I do buy Doc's earlier argument that a 30 year old LeBron chasing GOAT has different priorities from any other player in the league, and thus if he sublimates his regular season in order to deliver the best possible postseason performance I don't know if I can really knock him for that. I can be swayed as we get more information about the James/Blatt relationship, but as it stands it feels like LeBron made a bet that if he could just stay healthy and rested in the RS, that he could be the "best player in the world" come playoff time, and he was clearly correct.

[therealbig3]

But that flaw DID harm his play, quite clearly actually. A lot of his missed outside shots were not the result of fatigue or swarming GS defense...a lot of them were open, and he just couldn't make them.

His defense wasn't that much better that it makes up for such a big offensive flaw (and yes, that's a serious offensive flaw for a star player).

I'm going with LeBron at #2, but I see this season as a clear step down from his 2012-2014 run, as well as his 09 and 10 seasons.

[HeartBreakKid]

I dont think Griffin really was coasting though...he was just doing his job as a robin. His team had a fantastic record and had a top tier offense. The fact that he was able to elevate his play in the post season shouldn't be a con against him.

The biggest thing I can penalize Blake for is that he missed quite a few games, though CP3 and Curry are pretty much the only players to not miss a lot of games.

[MO12msu]

I dont think Griffin really was coasting though...he was just doing his job as a robin. His team had a fantastic record and had a top tier offense. The fact that he was able to elevate his play in the post season shouldn't be a con against him.

The biggest thing I can penalize Blake for is that he missed quite a few games, though CP3 and Curry are pretty much the only players to not miss a lot of games.

I actually agree that Blake probably wasn't coasting. Maybe a few less drives to preserve his body, but not really coasting. I just brought that up because you said you didn't care if he was coasting.

My man point was that while he elevated his play in the playoffs, the other candidates exhibited a higher level of play during the regular season and a similar or higher level of play during the playoffs.

[Doctor MJ]

Voting Panel (thus far):

1. Doctor MJ
2. fuzzy_dunlop
3. fpliii
4. PaulieWai
5. Clyde Frazier
6. RSCD3
7. Dr. Spaceman
8. trex_8063
9. Quotatious
10. MO12msu
11. bondom34
12. HeartBreakKid
13. Chuck Texas
14. JordansBulls
15. therealbig3
16. MisterHibachi
17. GSP
18. Dr. Positivity
19. RebelWithACause
20. CBA

Added more people, check if your name is on the list.

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, I'm going to add rough-draft voters for me both here and in the Other Award thread. Still want a chance to discuss it more:

Player of the Year:
1. Steph Curry - this one's just plain easy. The team worked like a dream, and while it's a great ensemble, I don't know if I've ever seen a scorer freak out a defense more than that Curry did to his opponents.

2. LeBron James - I'm still really debating whether LeBron deserves to leap up from the 4th spot where I had him at the end of the regular season. I'm on record having major concerns about how he played. Fact is though that the Cavs can claim to be the best team for the second half of the year, and even with injuries fought the champs as well as anyone else in the playoffs. LeBron is the engine making that happen.

3. James Harden - the king of Lift this year. In the regular season, no one did more with less.

4. Chris Paul - I fully understand those who have Paul higher here. It's a weird situation. If the Clippers close out that Game 6 against Houston with ease, he definitely surpasses Harden on my list. Harden isn't the reason that didn't happen and so he doesn't deserve to be rewarded for it. Similarly Paul played well, he doesn't deserve to be punished. The fact remains though that all of our objective measures say that Harden had a bigger lift in the regular season, and then for all intents and purposes his team upset Paul's team in the playoffs having a better record with Paul on the floor than without him. It's not a reason to drop Paul, but searching for a reason to raise Paul, I just don't see it.

5. Anthony Davis - an absolute giant awakening. A case can be made he's already the best player in the world. But while it's clear at this point that he's having superstar impact, he's not proven in terms of leading truly epic teams. While I don't doubt Davis will get there, the fact is that right now he's doing his thing on a team that isn't going to scale the way it's currently playing.

Honorable Mention in alphabetical order:

Marc Gasol - got a little overhyped this year as a legit MVP threat, but he remains the foundation of a strong team on both sides of the ball

Draymond Green - no question in my mind at all he deserves to be here. Playoffs made it utterly laughable that Klay Thompson is considered by most the 2nd star of the Warriors.

kWh Leonard - there's now no doubt that Leonard is a superstar talent that the Spurs can continue to build around

John Wall - there are several guys around the same tier as Wall, but to me he has the season with the fewest blemishes of the bunch

Russell Westbrook - as I've indicated, I've got major issues with Westbrook's play this year, to the point where I question whether he deserves a spot here. Realistically though there wasn't really a doubt in my mind that with a healthy season he'd be a strong candidate for a Top 10 spot, and it's awfully hard to literally penalize Westbrook for what he does in a no win scenario so long as he's working his ass off. And that he surely was.

[bondom34]

I realize this is belaboring a point, and I know it doesn't change opinions, but I see no way you can honestly rank a guy like Green (or even really Leonard) ahead of Westbrook (or even Wall). Neither guy is a player who is a true first option capable of building around, in particular Green who's essentially success by circumstance. This is the example to me where the NPI numbers are overruling role on a team and if you put Green on almost any other team he's not top 30 let alone 10. Leonard I'd say is fringe top 10, but still can't be a focal point on offense the way most of these others can. I know nobody really sees it this way but I don't get why at this point in time we seem to just have a rank by RAPM as the idea for POY. Role and situation is a huge factor in this, and its honestly taken the fun of this project out of it a lot for me as it seems that's where this award is starting to turn. I do this as a way to learn to watch everyone out there and see who excels at the game, not who's the best fit in their role. Heck, you could start putting bench guys in if we're not considering role. As well, I'm still lost on the issues with Westbrook thing (though I think that's an opinion that's limited to not many), but that's been rehashed so much I'm exhausted because I can't even understand that debate as its turned in to a no win situation. Sorry, and my vote is in either way so I realy should just butt out of the thread, but its gotten strange to me this season. Alright, best to all in voting, its been a great season.

Edit: And sorry that wasn't directed at anyone, b/c I know Doc's line of thought and he's a well thought out person who I greatly respect (and he also did say that his list was alphabetic so I don't know how those guys are ranked), it was just a general final rant for me on the subject before the offseason hits.

[Doctor MJ]

I realize this is belaboring a point, and I know it doesn't change opinions, but I see no way you can honestly rank a guy like Green (or even really Leonard) ahead of Westbrook (or even Wall). Neither guy is a player who is a true first option capable of building around, in particular Green who's essentially success by circumstance. This is the example to me where the NPI numbers are overruling role on a team and if you put Green on almost any other team he's not top 30 let alone 10. Leonard I'd say is fringe top 10, but still can't be a focal point on offense the way most of these others can. I know nobody really sees it this way but I don't get why at this point in time we seem to just have a rank by RAPM as the idea for POY. Role and situation is a huge factor in this, and its honestly taken the fun of this project out of it a lot for me as it seems that's where this award is starting to turn. I do this as a way to learn to watch everyone out there and see who excels at the game, not who's the best fit in their role. Heck, you could start putting bench guys in if we're not considering role. As well, I'm still lost on the issues with Westbrook thing (though I think that's an opinion that's limited to not many), but that's been rehashed so much I'm exhausted because I can't even understand that debate as its turned in to a no win situation. Sorry, and my vote is in either way so I realy should just butt out of the thread, but its gotten strange to me this season. Alright, best to all in voting, its been a great season.

Edit: And sorry that wasn't directed at anyone, b/c I know Doc's line of thought and he's a well thought out person who I greatly respect (and he also did say that his list was alphabetic so I don't know how those guys are ranked), it was just a general final rant for me on the subject before the offseason hits.

I know you said it wasn't direct at me, but still, obviously I have thoughts on the subject. The big thing for me is that it seems to all come back to offense for you. You say These aren't guys you could build around...but obviously you build around them for your defense far more than you'd ever do so with Westbrook or Wall.

So then we're in a place where Westbrook especially is clearly the top offensive player of the bunch, and Green/Leonard are clearly superior defensive players...what makes it so clear cut that the offensive player should be rated ahead of the defensive player?

If you don't want to belabor the point further I get that, and it's fine, but truly this is the thing that weirds me out. I get being skeptical of Green's offense up to a point, but where comes the skepticism of him on defense, or of defenders in general? And if the answer is simply you think that stars can do more for offense than defense, okay, but how far do you know to take that? Clearly not ever offensive star can be better at offense than every defensive star...right?

[bondom34]

I realize this is belaboring a point, and I know it doesn't change opinions, but I see no way you can honestly rank a guy like Green (or even really Leonard) ahead of Westbrook (or even Wall). Neither guy is a player who is a true first option capable of building around, in particular Green who's essentially success by circumstance. This is the example to me where the NPI numbers are overruling role on a team and if you put Green on almost any other team he's not top 30 let alone 10. Leonard I'd say is fringe top 10, but still can't be a focal point on offense the way most of these others can. I know nobody really sees it this way but I don't get why at this point in time we seem to just have a rank by RAPM as the idea for POY. Role and situation is a huge factor in this, and its honestly taken the fun of this project out of it a lot for me as it seems that's where this award is starting to turn. I do this as a way to learn to watch everyone out there and see who excels at the game, not who's the best fit in their role. Heck, you could start putting bench guys in if we're not considering role. As well, I'm still lost on the issues with Westbrook thing (though I think that's an opinion that's limited to not many), but that's been rehashed so much I'm exhausted because I can't even understand that debate as its turned in to a no win situation. Sorry, and my vote is in either way so I realy should just butt out of the thread, but its gotten strange to me this season. Alright, best to all in voting, its been a great season.

Edit: And sorry that wasn't directed at anyone, b/c I know Doc's line of thought and he's a well thought out person who I greatly respect (and he also did say that his list was alphabetic so I don't know how those guys are ranked), it was just a general final rant for me on the subject before the offseason hits.

I know you said it wasn't direct at me, but still, obviously I have thoughts on the subject. The big thing for me is that it seems to all come back to offense for you. You say These aren't guys you could build around...but obviously you build around them for your defense far more than you'd ever do so with Westbrook or Wall.

So then we're in a place where Westbrook especially is clearly the top offensive player of the bunch, and Green/Leonard are clearly superior defensive players...what makes it so clear cut that the offensive player should be rated ahead of the defensive player?

If you don't want to belabor the point further I get that, and it's fine, but truly this is the thing that weirds me out. I get being skeptical of Green's offense up to a point, but where comes the skepticism of him on defense, or of defenders in general? And if the answer is simply you think that stars can do more for offense than defense, okay, but how far do you know to take that? Clearly not ever offensive star can be better at offense than every defensive star...right?

Its not that at all, its a very simple question/point to me, and that's if you take 2 players with entirely different roles. One is a team's focal point, the other is a 2nd/3rd guy on a team. Green is fantastic at what he does, but he's a super role player, that's it. I have no issues w/ that, but to say that he's deserving of a top 5ish spot is way high. Let me put it a way for simplicity (and I'm not saying one should do this but it simplifies). If you had the ability to look at every available statistic available and watch these teams play EXCEPT one, you could easily say Green wasn't even near this list. There's essentially one number saying he belongs, and its the NPI data. I have no issues w/ O vs. D, I have issues w/ workload and what is asked of different players, Green's role is that of a role player.

Edit: Or another way, what if you take each guy off his team or reduce his role greatly? With Dray, you get......well basically last year's Warriors, still agreat team. With Westbrook, you get a 3-10 team with about a negative 15 net rating.

[colts18]

The Draymond green argument is probably the same argument people had about Scottie Pippen from 91-93.

[bondom34]

Except Pipp was better across the board other than rebounding in every one of those seasons.

[Jaivl]

Except Pipp was better across the board other than rebounding in every one of those seasons.

And defense.

[Dr Spaceman]

I have no issues w/ O vs. D, I have issues w/ workload and what is asked of different players, Green's role is that of a role player.

Edit: Or another way, what if you take each guy off his team or reduce his role greatly? With Dray, you get......well basically last year's Warriors, still agreat team. With Westbrook, you get a 3-10 team with about a negative 15 net rating.

I'm sorry Bondom, but using "workload" as an argument against Draymond borders on completely disingenuous. Honestly I don't know how someone could even come to that conclusion unless you were literally only watching the guy with the ball the whole time. Draymond is more active and involved than basically any player in the NBA on both ends, with his screen setting, passing, shooting, and oh yeah being the best defensive player in the NBA on a team that works primarily due to his ability to cover every inch of the floor.

The only way this is tenable is if you personally just put way less value on defensive work than offensive work. In such case I would ask you why you believe this (and actually please lay out the logical steps that led you there, because it will help everyone in this discussion), and also note that this is exactly the perspective that Doc put forth in his response to you and you rejected that... and then went on with the exact same thing.

[bondom34]

I have no issues w/ O vs. D, I have issues w/ workload and what is asked of different players, Green's role is that of a role player.

Edit: Or another way, what if you take each guy off his team or reduce his role greatly? With Dray, you get......well basically last year's Warriors, still agreat team. With Westbrook, you get a 3-10 team with about a negative 15 net rating.

I'm sorry Bondom, but using "workload" as an argument against Draymond borders on completely disingenuous. Honestly I don't know how someone could even come to that conclusion unless you were literally only watching the guy with the ball the whole time. Draymond is more active and involved than basically any player in the NBA on both ends, with his screen setting, passing, shooting, and oh yeah being the best defensive player in the NBA on a team that works primarily due to his ability to cover every inch of the floor.

The only way this is tenable is if you personally just put way less value on defensive work than offensive work. In such case I would ask you why you believe this (and actually please lay out the logical steps that led you there, because it will help everyone in this discussion), and also note that this is exactly the perspective that Doc put forth in his response to you and you rejected that... and then went on with the exact same thing.

The second point still stands, and my mistake for not wording well but I can't think or a way to put it. Remove each guy from a team, and what results? That's what I mean by "workload".

Is replaceability better?