Today we're going to do a little exercise. Consider the following numbers:

6.6
2.1
21.6
12.2
13.6

These are how many possessions, per 48 minutes, five different players in the NBA have generated this year. Remember, each possession generated gives his team an opportunity to score. Who would you rather have on your team?

I'll tell you this - the first two players are a small forward and point guard, respectively. The last three are all centers.

(By the way, this number is very simple to calculate. Rebounds + Steals + 1/2 Blocks - Turnovers. (The 1/2 blocks calculation has been documented at the Wages of Wins. It makes sense since a blocked shot does not always result in a possession for the defending team).)

I'm not going to tell you the first two players. I'll just say they're on the same team as the third player: Marcus Camby.

On his own, all by himself, Camby has generated 21+ possessions for the Nuggets per 48 minutes this season.

The Nuggets have shot 45% for the year so far. 27% of their shots have been threes. This means the Nuggets score 21.5 points per 48 minutes as a direct result of Camby's ability to rebound, gets steals and blocks, and not turn the ball over.

Let me state that again: Camby's Net Possessions alone result in 21.5 points per 48 minutes for the Nuggets.

The fourth player on the list is Chris Wilcox. He is a PF/C for the Sonics, and is a very, very average player. Despite playing virtually the same position as Camby he generates a little more than HALF of the possessions Camby generates, per 48.

The fifth player is interesting because he will be playing in the All-Star game. He is a center. Strangely, though, he doesn't appear to be much more valuable than Wilcox in terms of possessions.

One thing worth mentioning is that this person plays significantly more minutes than Wilcox does, so his per GAME possession stats are much better than Wilcox's. This is an easy mistake to make because of the way average stats are usually quoted in sports literature. Per MINUTE numbers put all players on an even footing. (Let's call this the Mikki Moore Corollary).

As you might have guessed, this fifth player scores a lot of points. And I must admit he does it very, very efficiently. In fact he scores much more efficiently than Camby.

However, Camby's extraordinary advantage in Net Possessions makes him TWICE as productive as Amare Stoudamire when all stats are taken into consideration via Win Score.

This is why I agree with Sir Charles (which doesn't often happen). Camby not making the All-Star game is disturbing. No other way to put it.

http://www.wagesofwins.com/AllPlayersMid0708.html

Also, Joe Johnson is getting the credit Al Horford deserves.