| | |  | | Stephon Marbury's scoring is up, but his overall game is down. |
It was an exciting weekend of games in the NBA, with Latrell Sprewell returning to Golden State, Shaquille O'Neal costing his team another game at the line and Portland surviving its tough road games.
Anyway, let's cut right to the Monday version of Around The Rim, summing up the weekend. Any other comments, click here and e-mail us.
Right to the Heroes and Goats ... What's gotten into Brian Skinner? While we're at it, who isBrian Skinner? ... There are many amazing stats right now, but one of them has to be that Nick Anderson hasn't gone to the free-throw line line yet. That's hard to do. Everbody goes to the line at some point. Will Perdue's been there 16 times. Tim Young has played all of seven minutes this season and he's been there. Nine players with the last name Williams have gone. Nick hasn't. He also hasn't done much else. Vince Carter? He has. Enjoy.
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Heroes ...
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 Vince Carter
Raptors
Did it all against Lakers with career-high 34 and 13
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 Jerome Williams
Pistons
Shot 80% last week, with 15 points and 11 boards
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 Brian Skinner
Clippers
Mo who? Got 3 teams for double-doubles and 4 blocks last week
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... and Goats
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 Nick Anderson
Kings
Team's winning, but no thanks to him. His .301 from floor stinks
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 Sam Cassell
Bucks
16 points combined in two weekend losses
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 Keith Van Horn
Nets
It's not all Steph's fault; shooting 38%, with 3.7 turnovers
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Blazing a trail
The Trail Blazers very well could have been entering Tuesday's game in Cleveland with a pair of weekend losses. Friday night in Philly, the game was tied with a minute to go and the next night Charlotte should've won the game in regulation, but ended up losing in overtime.
The Blazers are good.
Frankly, even if the Blazers had lost one of those games, they would be retaining the top spot in the Power Rankings. And for those who can't find the Power Rankings today, that's because they have been moved permanently to Tuesday. Anyway, the Blazers will remain No. 1 for, oh, the next five months or so, unless something totally unexpected happens.
Brian Grant's return to the lineup did not cause other players to whine, complain or Isaiah Rider the team (definition of Rider here is do something to further screw up team chemistry). Instead, Mike Dunleavy is weaving Grant, his top rebounder, in slowly, getting him five minutes in Philly and 21 against the Hornets, in which he contributed 12 points and seven boards. Is Jermaine O'Neal happy about this? Probably not, but if he wants to win a world title, he should go along with the program.
Teams are coming after Portland every game with their best stuff, and so far, Pippen's Pack has overcome each hurdle, except the one in Utah. We like to have fun in Power Rankings, but frankly, the Trail Blazers aren't playing games. They're No. 1.
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SHAQ'S LINE FOLLIES
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Shaq went nuts last week. He dominated each game he played in the post and on defense. For the week Shaq scored more than 33 points, including a 41-point outburst against the poor Bulls, and got 5 blocks. But he also cost his team a pair of games, which, frankly, is all that matters in the end. The Bulls game was the first all season in which Shaq made half his free throws (19-for-31).
In Nuggets loss: 2-for-14
In Raptors loss: 7-for-16
Shaq's season: 58-for-147, .395 percent
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The results are in
The average NBA player for the 1999-2000 season is the oldest, most experienced, and heaviest NBA player ever, so says the NBA. The average player is taller than his counterpart in the 1998-99 season, just shy of the record height. Those were among the findings of the 20th annual NBA Player Survey, compiled by Bill Kreifeldt, former PR Director of the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers.
With an average age of 27.95 (27 years, 347 days), this season's players are the oldest on record, up from last year's average age of 27.82. The age corresponds with more experience -- 5.20 years, more than last year's average of 4.81 years and easily breaking the record of 4.82 years set in 1997-98. The average weight this season is a record 224.68 pounds, bulkier than last season's average of 222.85 pounds. The previous record of 223.67 pounds was set in 1996-97. The only category that didn't set a record this season is in height. The average NBA player this season stands at 6-7.26 inches, up from last year's 6-7.10 and reversing a trend that saw the average height decline in four of the last five seasons, but below the record of 6-7.34 set in 1993-94.
The player who comes closest to being "Mr. Average" is Utah's Bryon Russell at 6-7, 225, with six years of experience at 28.84 years of age.
This year's survey examined the Nov. 2 opening day rosters of the NBA's 29 teams with a total of 419 players.
Other findings:
The Indiana Pacers repeat as the NBA's tallest team at 6-8.71, while Atlanta edged Seattle as the league's shortest team at 6-6.46. Seattle measured in at 6-6.47.
The Houston Rockets are the heaviest team at 236.92 pounds, but the Rockets are well under the record set by Chicago in 1996-97 at 241.07. The lightest team is the Denver Nuggets at 216.73 pounds.
The San Antonio Spurs have become the league's oldest team at 30.71 years, replacing the New York Knicks, who had led for the last two seasons but now slip to third. The Spurs are almost a year older than runner-up Portland's 29.92 average and the Spurs have a record 10 players 30 and older. San Antonio is also the most experienced team at 7.80 years per man with seven players having more than 10 years experience. Indiana, next with 7.07 years of experience, is almost three-quarters of a year behind the Spurs.
At the other extreme, the Los Angeles Clippers are the league's youngest and least experienced team. Clippers players average 25.25 years in age, almost 5.5 years behind the Spurs, and have 2.50 years of pro experience.
There are a record 94 players weighing in at 250 or more pounds, a record 140 players age 30 or older (33.4% of the league's players), a record six teen-agers, a record-tying 69 players who are 10-year veterans (16.5% of the league), one less rookie (61) than last year's record and four more 7-footers (43) than a year ago.
Individual NBA players who led the league in specific categories are as follows:
Tallest: 7-7, Gheorghe Muresan, New Jersey
Shortest: 5-3, Muggsy Bogues, Toronto (this is the 12th consecutive year that Bogues measures as the league's shortest player)
Heaviest: 330, Thomas Hamilton, Houston
Lightest: 141, Muggsy Bogues, Toronto
Oldest: 40 years and 176 days, Danny Schayes, Minnesota
Youngest: 18 years and 276 days, Jonathan Bender, Indiana (Bender was born less than five months before Schayes was drafted in the first round out of Syracuse by Utah in June 1981)
Most experienced: 18 years, Danny Schayes, Minnesota
Iverson and Marbury
Last week our One On One feature asked which player was the better all-around guard between Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. With more than 6,000 votes in, you voted for Iverson by a nearly 4-to-1 margin.
After watching these guys go up against each other Saturday night, here are some conclusions on them and their teams: First off, it's quite possible that no two players in the NBA take worse shots than these guys. Iverson has somewhat of an excuse, since he has no teammates truly capable of scoring consistently on a regular basis. In fact, you know how many Sixers other than The Answer have managed to score even 20 points in a game this year? George Lynch and Larry Hughes have done it, once each.
Marbury, however, has a top-10 scorer posting up every play and doesn't feed him the ball enough. Keith Van Horn isn't off to a great start, shooting worse than Marbury actually, and the point guard should be blamed for this. In fact, look at the shooting percentages of the other Nets: If Jason Kidd were handling the ball, Van Horn would be at .450, Jamie Feick, who makes a living down low, would be near 50 percent and even Kendall Gill would find a way to reach 40 percent.
It's likely that coach Don Casey won't be around for next Monday's Around The Rim, and it's kind of a shame. If the Nets had Jayson Williams and Kerry Kittles in the lineup and if Marbury played the way he did in Minnesota (about 20 points, a lot more assists), this team would be knocking on the playoff door.
Quote of the Night
"We could have shot free throws better and that would have been
the difference in the ballgame, but that's a given."
-- Lakers coach Phil Jackson on the Raptors loss. By the way, who do you think Phil was referring to? Other than Shaq, the Lakers shot 7-of-11 from the line. Hello, Shaq?
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ALSO SEE
NBA Rank Comments, Nov. 18
Around The Rim, Nov. 19
Around The Rim, Nov. 17
Around The Rim, Nov. 15
Around The Rim, Nov. 12
Rookie Report: Terry, Francis and more
One On One: Iverson vs. Marbury
Mad Dog's Top 5
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