Author: Fox Doucette
Is He Any Good

Bill Walton: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

In the first article in this series looking back at historical NBA players and whether their impact matched their reputation, the central question revolved around whether only six years’ worth of NBA games in a career was enough to qualify someone for the Hall of Fame, no matter how good those six years’ worth of games actually were. And in Yao Ming‘s case, the verdict was ultimately Confirmed; he was and remains a true Hall of Famer. But Bill Walton adds another wrinkle to this question. The man’s career was so plagued by injury that he made only two All-Star …

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Is He Any Good

Adrian Dantley: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Adrian Dantley was traded by the Utah Jazz to the Detroit Pistons during the 1986 offseason for Kent Benson and Kelly Tripucka, and from there his career arc was one of going from regular Western Conference All-Star and one of the best small forwards in the league (at least by reputation) to a guy who never sniffed another All-Star Game and who would be traded in 1989 for Mark Aguirre just in time for Aguirre to integrate himself into two Detroit title teams. Now, on the surface, that looks like a precipitous decline, and in terms of counting stats, it …

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Analysis

The NBA is Back…but is the Level of Play Back?

- by Fox Doucette

After weeks of filling in the gaps in the posting schedule with some NBA history and a lot of waiting around, the “Whole New Game” relaunch of the coronavirus-delayed 2019-20 season started up last Thursday. And looking at the box scores, one of two things happened. Either the league’s offensive explosion never missed a beat…or the defensive level of play dipped to the level of an All-Star Game. There are some interesting theories kicking around the NBA Twitterverse about what’s going on—J.E. Skeets pointed out that referees are calling the games tighter because without the crowd noise to drown out …

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Is He Any Good

Detlef Schrempf: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Detlef Schrempf is the patron saint of Goofy Foreign White Guys Who Wear Number 11 in the NBA. It’s quite the list. Besides Schrempf, there’s Arvydas and Domantas Sabonis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Enes Kanter, among others. If you prefer your goofy tall white dudes to be American, you can see them wearing number 11 as well—just look at Meyers Leonard and Chris “Birdman” Andersen. But we’re not here to talk about goofy white dudes. We’re here to talk about a guy who, before he got traded to Seattle and established himself as the prototype of the slick-shooting German tall 3/stretch …

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Is He Any Good

Rasheed Wallace: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

“Ball don’t lie” is the guiding principle for every single thing I write for this site. From statistical analysis to comparing teams within and across eras to this very series you’re reading right now, the only thing that ultimately matters is what happened on the court, as measured and counted by the tools we have available to determine not just who won or lost and by how much, but how and why each player on the court contributed toward or actively hindered his team’s efforts. “Ball don’t lie”, of course, has another name around here: “Sheed’s Law”, after Rasheed Wallace. …

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Analysis

The Greatest Offensive Teams in NBA History

- by Fox Doucette

The second most-popular post in the history of this site, according to my analytics, is “The Greatest Defensive Teams in NBA History”, where I took a look at Defensive Rating relative to league average to crown teams like the Jeff Van Gundy-coached Knicks, glory-days Spurs, and the 2008 Celtics as owners of the greatest defensive seasons of all-time. More recently, the subject came up on Twitter about where the championship-winning Warriors in recent years or the Mike D’Antoni-coached Rockets rank among the greatest offensive seasons in NBA history. Sure, those guys keep shattering records year in and year out for …

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Editorial

The NBA is a Lost Cause in Video Games

- by Fox Doucette

NBA 2K used to be a gem in the video gaming space. According to Steam, 2K12 is my third most-played game of all time (behind Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4), with game after game of my MyPlayer career accounting for over a thousand hours of time spent since the game came out way back in 2011. I have found little compelling reason to buy an NBA 2K game more recently and have given up not only on the franchise but on the hope that a licensed NBA game will ever be good again. We can of course start with …

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Is He Any Good

Robert Horry: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

The ultimate counter-arguments to “count the rings” as a measure of NBA greatness exist in the forms of James Jones (“the only player besides LeBron James to appear in eight straight NBA Finals since the merger”, because Jones was LeBron’s teammate first in Miami and then in Cleveland), Steve Kerr (piggybacked off Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan to win five rings), and our subject for today, Robert Horry, Big Shot Rob Himself, a legend of the ’90s and the Dark Ages who won a combined seven rings with the Rockets, Spurs, and Lakers, or “more rings than anyone who never …

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Is He Any Good

Vinnie Johnson: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Since the NBA started tracking Games Started as a stat leaguewide in the 1981-82 season, the top 5 seasons by Win Shares of any player who played in at least 70 games while starting 10 or fewer of them represent the pinnacle of what a sixth man can do. The list, in order? Kevin McHale (10.5 WS, BOS, 1983-84), Detlef Schrempf (9.8, IND, 1991-92), Antawn Jamison (9.0, DAL, 2003-04), Schrempf again (9.0, IND, 1990-91), and Montrezl Harrell (8.7, LAC, 2018-19.) As you look further down that list, you see great bench guys; Steve Kerr is at 7th and 21st for …

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Is He Any Good

Steve Nash: Was He Any Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Steve Nash is a Hall of Famer, one of the best players never to win an NBA championship, and one of the key figures along with Amar’e Stoudamire and coach Mike D’Antoni who helped bring the NBA out of the Dark Ages in the mid-aughts. He is a four-time member of the 50/40/90 Club, an 8-time All-Star, 7-time All-NBA, 5-time NBA leader in assists, and two-time MVP. And speaking of the 50/40/90 Club, he averaged those numbers across 8 years of his prime in Phoenix plus 141 games at the beginning of his career before he went to join the …

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