Around the League

Posted by HoopsAvenue on August 30, 2008 under Fantasy Basketball, Free Agency, General NBA | Be the First to Comment

With the Olympics ending and the major free agent signing period over with, it’s a boring time of year for NBA fans as we await training camp, but there were a few stories that caught my eye this week:

• Ginobili To Have Surgery – The Spurs did not want Manu to play in the Olympics.  He played.  He hurt himself.  He’s going to be out six weeks after getting surgery done.  So should Manu have sat?  I don’t think so.  If you consider he got hurt on such minimal contact, he was bound to get hurt in the pre-season or early in the regular season so the timing actually works in the Spurs favor.  Manu’s not going to miss much game action and the Spurs don’t seem to mind that Tim Duncan doesn’t wake up until March anyways so Manu should be no different.  Don’t be surprised to see the Spurs hovering around .500 for a while though.
• Monta Ellis Out 3 Months – Sorry, Warriors, fans.  Not a good summer for you.  First, Baron Davis bolts for the Clippers of all teams and now your most exciting player is out.  At least you got Corey Maggette, though.  If he can carry the load for a while and you get some guys to step up, you could still be in playoff contention when Ellis returns.
• Grizzlies Sign Hamed Haddadi – Haddadi will be the first Iranian player in the NBA.  He did well in Beijing, but some scouts don’t think he’s ready.  The competition in the Iranian league is, well, softer than a marshmallow so we’ll take a wait-and-see approach on this guy.  Just don’t expect the next Yao Ming.

Don’t hold your breath, September won’t be much more exciting.

By the way, it’s never to early to sign up for fantasy basketball.  Click here to sign up.

The 10 Most Consistent Shooters in the NBA

Posted by HoopsAvenue on July 14, 2008 under General NBA, NBA Stats | Be the First to Comment

A few weeks back we looked at the most consistent scorers in the NBA and found that Corey Maggette of the LA Clippers topped the list. But, what about the most consistent shooters? Everyone has an off night every now and then, but which players are the most reliable to hit their shots? Once again, we used the coefficient of variation (CV) statistic to determine the answer to that question. We took 3 point shots out of the picture and just looked at 2 pointers. Using a minimum of 50 games played, here’s what we found:

The 10 Most Consistent 2-Point Shooters

Surprised not to see more big guys on the list? Overall, bigs post higher shooting percentages than guards, but apparently they aren’t as consistent, although Amare Stoudemire and Kevin Garnett are the notable exceptions here. Hakim Warrick and Monta Ellis are the guys who really stand out on this list though. Warrick was highly consistent at hitting 50% of his shots despite putting up less than 10 shots per game. That’s a difficult thing to do, but it shows that Warrick was ready when his opportunities came. Ellis, though, might even be more impressive when you look at his stats as a whole. He’s only 6’3″, but is able to shoot 53% and shoots it consistently. Of course, being able to dunk like he can has to help your shooting percentage:

Most of the other guys on the list shoot high volumes so it’s a bit easier to get in rhythm and get close to your shooting percentage.

Oh, and the most inconsistent shooter? Louis Williams of the 76ers. Right behind him? Not surprisingly, Jason Kidd.