A few thoughts about a Fisher

Even though many things have already been said about the news that Derek Fisher is leaving the Utah Jazz so he can be with his family, I wanted to chime in. Seeing as how I've blasted Fisher in this space for his play (although the blast was aimed at Jerry Sloan more than Fisher), it's only fair to praise him as well.

There are those who believe that athletes should not be considered role models. While I agree with this sentiment, it is an unavoidable fact that people (especially kids) look up to athletes and want to be like them. That is the way our society works, and until they decide to stop showing sports on TV, it will always be that way. As a parent, it's always good to see athletes who are clearly good people and who have the same values I'd like my family to have.

It's easy to look at the millions of dollars Fisher has already made and say it must be easy to give up $21 million when you've already got millions in the bank. But anyone who says that has probably never been offered $21 million. I obviously don't know what that is like. But I know the feeling of wanting to have enough money to make sure your kids are taken care of the best way possible. And I'm sure that $21 million would have come in handy for the expensive procedures that the Fishers' daughter will be going through.

But you can't help but respect a man who clearly identifies where his priorities are. Not that it matters to him, but Derek Fisher has gained a fan for life. I will root for him wherever he ends up, and will be praying that everything works out for him and his family. And kudos to the Jazz for letting him opt out of his contract. They could have easily insisted on getting something out of this. Restructuring Fisher's contract to expire after this year could have created an attractive asset in faciliating some sort of trade this summer. But we must also give respect to Larry H. Miller, owner of the Jazz. Some people don't agree with the way he runs his businesses, but for all his faults, Miller has a few values that he always sticks to, and family is one of them.

All the best to the Fisher family.

As for the basketball ramifications of this, it actually turns out fantastic for the Jazz. For all his leadership and other veteran qualities, Fisher wasn't producing well on the floor. This now clears up some of the logjam at two guard, and allows much more time for the young players, which Sloan refused to play as long as Fisher was available. Ronnie Brewer has showed productivity in limited time, Gordan Giricek is not a terrible option, and newly drafted Morris Almond had one of the highest approximated WP48 of any two guard in the draft. Plus, this clears cap space for the Jazz to re-sign Deron Williams. Should be interesting to see how the Jazz play this year, if they can keep things rolling from their Conference Finals appearance.

Until then, Derek, we'll be thinking about you.

Finals MVP?

The season's over, with the San Antonio Spurs once again at the top of the basketball world, having proven once again that fundamental basketball, while less aesthetically pleasing to some, is still the way to win a championship. Or having proven that you must have a dominant big man to win a championship. Or that defense wins championships. Or whatever.

The point is that the season is over, and with it go any new stats for us to study. Our last gasp before the summer is to look at Finals MVP. It went to Tony Parker this year, marking the first time that Tim Duncan has been in the Finals and not won the MVP. He probably deserved it, if only for all the crowd shots of Eva Longoria he gave us. Let's take a quick look at the top contenders on the Spurs.

Tony Parker
Game 1: PAWS 1, PAWSmin 0.026
Game 2: PAWS 6.2, PAWSmin 0.174
Game 3: PAWS -3.6, PAWSmin -0.094
Game 4: PAWS 5.9, PAWSmin 0.150
Total: PAWS 9.5, PAWSmin 0.063

Tim Duncan
Game 1: PAWS 10.8, PAWSmin 0.278
Game 2: PAWS 5.5, PAWSmin 0.153
Game 3: PAWS -3, PAWSmin -0.090
Game 4: PAWS -4.9, PAWSmin -0.122
Total: PAWS 8.4, PAWSmin 0.056

Manu Ginobili
Game 1: PAWS 3.9, PAWSmin 0.140
Game 2: PAWS 9.4, PAWSmin 0.336
Game 3: PAWS -7, PAWSmin -0.258
Game 4: PAWS 2.3, PAWSmin 0.069
Total: PAWS 8.6, PAWSmin 0.074

If you at this in terms of Position-Adjusted Win Score per minute, then the surprising winner is Manu Ginobili, who's fantastic Game 2 canceled out his horrific Game 3, and he was consistently good in the other two games to garner a PAWSmin of 0.074. Manu consistently plays about 10 minutes less than Duncan and Parker, however. So the MVP in terms of overall Win Score is Tony Parker.

Parker really played better in these four games than his season average. His PAWSmin for the entire year, regular season and postseason stands at 0.027, good but not great. But he stepped up in the Finals (or, possibly, he was helped by the fact that the Cavaliers had no one who could stay in front of him). Either way, Parker had a good series. His Game 3 was poor, but he played well in Game 1, and was fantastic in both games 2 and 4. Looks like the voters got it right, and your Finals MVP is Tony Parker. Congratulations again to him and the Spurs.

As for this blog and the Win Score Stats site, we'll be taking a posting hiatus and working on programming over the summer. If you check this site from time to time over the summer, you'll probably see the occasional post commenting on some upgrade to the stats site, and I may post some analysis if I get bored. Please have us bookmarked for next year, however. I have a lot of upgrades planned, including being able to search through past years' stats.

Now is the time to leave ideas and requests for the stats site. I still have some previous comments stashed away that I plan on doing, but you are welcome to rehash old requests, or post any new ideas you have for next year. Again, thanks for all the support. Enjoy the summer.

Domain name issues

I'm not sure how many of you are using the new address for the Win Score Stats site, "winsproduced.com", but just FYI there will be some changes happening there in the next few days and also in the coming weeks. I'm moving that address to a new internet host, so it may not be working for the next few days. However, you can still access everything at www.jasonchandler.com/basketball. After I get settled in at the new host, I'll be moving all the jasonchandler.com stuff permanently over to winsproduced.com. I'll leave a redirect in there, but at that time all links should point to winsproduced.com. I'll keep everyone updated further as things change. Thanks for all the support.

P.S. Can you guys think of anything interesting to talk about concerning this NBA finals? Because I'm stumped.