The View From Wisconsin

In my attempts at being a well-rounded sports fan, I've played around with an older stat formula for basketball called "Most Effectve Player". It essentially takes all of the good things a player can do in a game (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots), subtracts all of the "bad" things a player does (fouls, turnovers, missed field goals and free throws), multiply by 100 and divide by minutes played.

This year, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks ran away with the MEP totals, with a 68.33 season average. Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves was second with 67.88.

The MEP "All Star" Team:

• Center: Yao Ming, Houston, 66.54
• Power Forward: Nowitzki, Dallas, 68.33
• Small Forward: LeBron James, Cleveland, 57.24
• Point Guard: Duwayne Wade, Miami, 65.34
• Shooting Guard: Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers, 61.29

The "Best of the Rest":

• Kevin Garnett, Minnesota, 67.88
• Tim Duncan, San Antonio, 67.06
• Carlos Boozer, Utah, 66.24
• Pao Gasol, Memphis, 64.12
• Amare Stoudamire, Phoenix, 60.47
• Marcus Camby, Denver, 60.34
• Jason Kidd, New Jersey, 55.70

The "Least-Effective Players" (minimum 10 GP):

• Center: Andreas Glyniadakis, Seattle, -15.00
• Power Forward: Jerome James, New York, 5.88
• Small Forward: C.J. Miles, Utah, 0.81
• Point Guard: Vassilis Spanoulis, Houston, 8.86
• Shooting Guard: Cedric Bozeman, Atlanta, -4.02