Boston Celtics Mailing List

["Alden Brosseau" <aldenb@vom.com>]

Did you see Friday's full-page piece in the Wall Street Journal on "bang
for the buck" in the NBA?  David Wesley ranked 3rd (behind Nique & Walt
Wms., both at the minimum salary of $0.2475M) with a "Max-a-Million" score
of 73.3:  based on 25.7 Max Points thru Jan. 27 divided by a salary of
$0.350M.  Worth a look also for its listings of the other best buys, the
worst buys, & the players with the top Max Point (MP) ratings. 

They calculate MP using the following formula:
	Pts + Rebs + Assists - TO + (2 x Steals) + (2 x Blocks) - (.5 x FG
Misses).

I prefer my Effectiveness Quotient (EQ), calculated using the following
formula:
	Pts + Assists + Possn Gain + (2 x Possn Reversal) - FG Misses - (.5 x FT
Misses) - PF.
		-->  Possession Gain = Rebs + (.5 x  Blocks)
		-->  Possession Reversal = Steals - TO

You can use the stats on the Celtics Web page to compute these factors.
Here are my calculations of EQ/Game, EQ/Min., MP/Game, & MP/Min. for games
thru Feb. 6:

		EQ/Game         EQ/Min.		MP/Game	MP/Min.
Fox		17.0		.51		24.9		.74			
Wesley		16.7		.40		26.9		.65
Walker		13.3		.41		22.8		.71
Radja		12.7		.36		23.4		.67
Barros		10.5		.36		15.9		.54
Brown		10.0		.36		15.2		.55
Day		  9.7		.38		16.5		.65
Williams	  9.5		.30		17.0		.53	
Minor		  8.1		.34		12.8		.54
Conlon		  3.8		.23		  8.3		.50
Ellison		  3.1		.15		10.2  		.49
Brickowski	  1.4		.09  		  6.4		.43
Szabo		  1.1		.23		  2.8		.58
Hamer		-11.1		-2.47		 -0.6  		-.14	
Celtics		86.2		.35		149		.61
Opponents	97.6		.40		165		.68

Of course, ratings can't measure hustle, defensive intensity, & other
intangibles, but they do tend to point at Fox, Wesley, & Walker as keepers.
 (Radja - despite his ratings - is too old, too injury-prone, & unsuited
for the high-energy game we've seen recently.)  And, based on recent
trends, we can expect ratings for both Walker & Williams to rise in the
last half of the season.

Alden