Top 5 Free Agents At Each Postion

[Elite]

POINT GUARD
1. Deron Williams
2. Steve Nash
3. Goran Dragic
4. Chauncey Billups
5. Jeremy Lin

SHOOTING GUARD
1. Eric Gordon
2. OJ Mayo
3. Ray Allen
4. Jason Terry
5. JR Smith

SMALL FORWARD
1. Gerald Wallace
2. Nicolas Batum
3. Michael Beasley
4. Jeff Green
5. Matt Barnes

POWER FORWARD
1. Tim Duncan
2. Kevin Garnett
3. Ersan Ilyasova
4. Kris Humphries
5. Antawn Jamison

CENTER
1. Roy Hibbert
2. Chris Kaman
3. Javale McGee
4. Marcus Camby
5. Omer Asik

List done by yours truly. I included everybody, restricted free agents, unrestricted free agents, guys with player options, guys with team options, everybody. I'm well aware that a lot of those guys probably won't reach FA/will re-sign. Most of the #5 guys could easily be replaced by someone else that I left off the list.

Thoughts? Predictions on where they end up?

 

[Pugz]

mavs sign:

jason kidd
jason terry
jeff green
antwan jamison
omer asik

 

[elcheato]

Alonzo Gee > Matt Barnes

 

[VC15]

Kidd (who really needs to retire) said he wanted to back up D-Will next year. Who knows where that will be, but they'll likely be on the same team next year.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Hopefully the Hornets can make a move for Dragic and Illysova.

 

[Elite]

Realized I forgot Ryan Anderson, would probably slot him above Hump, knocking old man Antawn off the list.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

You know the interesting thing about Batum? If you look at his numbers, he's really overrated.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

How?

 

[jonathanlambert33]

His defensive numbers are some of the worst for any SF in the league, but yet he has this reputation as some good defender. His points per possession is one of the worst on the Blazers out of the players who get consistent minutes, they compare to Jamal Crawfords numbers.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

His defensive numbers are some of the worst for any SF in the league, but yet he has this reputation as some good defender. His points per possession is one of the worst on the Blazers out of the players who get consistent minutes, they compare to Jamal Crawfords numbers.

Batum was the Blazers' best perimeter defender this past season (except Gerald Wallace who left mid-way through the season)

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Like I said, he has this reputation that he doesn't live up too. He has posted some of the worst defensive numbers for the Blazers and all SF's the past two years. Last year he was the second worst rated SF and the Blazers gave up 4.20 more points defensively while he was on the floor. He also allows more points per possession than he scores, which is a big no no. His defender shot 53% from the field this season.

I'm not saying these numbers are fact or anything, quite frankly I don't watch him enough to know. But it is interesting, these aren't numbers like plus/minus that you can just disregard and throw to the side, these are reliable.

For the record Wallace had a net +5 and Batum had a net -2. And of the guys that get the most consitent minutes, he had by far the worst net points, at -56. Next closest was Crawford at -15. Highest was Aldridge at +148.

 

[SaintFan25]

You can't base Batum off numbers. He's a great defender but his offense isn't quite there yet. As of right now, he's not aggressive enough, but the potential is there for him to be a force. Anybody who's watched him multiple times in his career knows that to be true. Our phones weren't ringing off the hook by teams trying to trade for him for no reason.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

You can't base Batum off numbers. He's a great defender but his offense isn't quite there yet. As of right now, he's not aggressive enough, but the potential is there for him to be a force. Anybody who's watched him multiple times in his career knows that to be true. Our phones weren't ringing off the hook by teams trying to trade for him for no reason.

Like I said, these numbers are reliable. They don't lie.

He's more potential than production right now.

There is probably a reason why the Blazers won't give him the money he wants. I mean you can say his offense isn't there yet, but if he's a great defender like you say he is AND he's averaging 14 points per game, his net differential and all those different numbers wouldn't be what they are.

The 5 worst defenders (min 300 plays) are JR Smith, Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson, Marco Belinelli, and Nicolas Batum. Interestingly enough, I've been reading up on it and alot of Blazer fans agree with it, they say his onball D isn't that good.

And if you really want to get technical about it in onball situations the offensive player Batum was guarding scored 42% of the time. For Jamal Crawford, they scored 38.5% of the time.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

Where are you even getting these numbers from? (Just curious)

Because when I look at basketball-reference it shows that 6 players on the Blazers had worse PP100 posessions defensively than Batum.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Where are you even getting these numbers from? (Just curious)

Because when I look at basketball-reference it shows that 6 players on the Blazers had worse PP100 posessions defensively than Batum.

SynergyScout - Though his iso defense is solid, but that just goes to show how everything else isn't good.

There were definitely people that had worse stats than Batum, but they were players that received VERY limited minutes (like 5-10% compared to guys who actually received consistent minutes). Guys like Thabeet, Flynn, Babbitt, Smith, etc.

 

[Mexi]

mavs sign:

jason kidd
jason terry
jeff green
antwan jamison
omer asik

lol i suggested Antawn to the Mavs 2 weeks ago and you flipped