Sports 4 Dorks

I have 30 teams to pay attention, ten or 11 rotation players
on each roster to lord over, and I’m bound to miss some things. Some of you no
doubt would have me missing more than "some" things.

So I was pretty chuffed to take in an email from one of the
brains behind Bullets Forever, one Mike Prada, regarding the
sustained excellence of Brendan Haywood.

You heard me.

Haywood got off to a hot start to begin 2007-08, it was
dutifully noted by most, and he’s been more or less forgotten since then. I
actually haven’t looked much at his stats since early December, and it took
this recent email and a trip to
Knickerblogger.net to find out that Haywood has actually sustained his
play.

Sure, this was obvious to the eye when scouting Wizards
games, but I didn’t know that he’d still be rocking the 19ish PER, still be lording over the boards (as best he
can, Washington is still routinely out-rebounded), still creating (and making)
good shots, and still cutting down on the turnovers.

Bullets Forever thinks that he might be the difference
between a Wizards team on the verge of falling apart, and the current model
that appears playoff-bound even without its best player. And that the former
"Brenda" (never comfortable with those sort of jokes, so that’s the last you’ll
see of them from me) is the second-best center in the East.

"Looking at that list, Haywood isn’t scoring like some of the other centers in
the conference, and his rebounding numbers rank in the middle of the pack, but
he’s more efficient than anyone save for Dwight Howard.  His true shooting
percentage, PER, and Roland Rating
all rank second among Eastern Conference centers, and that’s not even including
his free throw percentage, which has risen over 12 percentage points this year,
thanks to the work of new shooting coach Dave Hopla.  

Unlike some of the guys on this list (Dalembert, Bogut),
Haywood plays to his true strengths, never venturing too far outside the paint,
and never taking ill-advised jumpers early in the shot clock.  It explains
why his counting numbers are not as high when his efficiency numbers are
spectacular."

There’s much, much
more at the link; including a link to some stats at 82games.com that show
just how much Etan Thomas gives up defensively while at center. It’s an
eye-opener, and a great read, and that’s about as good as you can ask for from
the blogosphere.