When it comes to quantifying what a player's contribution is to a team, baseball is king. With its discrete events, it is relatively speaking, pretty easy to determine, statistically, who is contributing the most to a team's victory. Football, not so much. Basketball is somewhere in between and I think a lot of fun to discuss. Where the rigidity of baseball (pitcher throws ball to batter) and football (ball is snapped to QB and five of eleven players on offense never touch the ball when it is live) dictates offensive flow, any player on offense can contribute at any time, depending on the circumstances.

There are a lot of numbers that I like to look at, but one of my favorite is ORtg and DRtg. ORtg is an estimation of the number of points a player (or a team) generates per 100 possessions.  Let's look at a couple of players from this season. I have added a "Difference" column, which is simply the difference betwen the ORtg and the DRtg.

This should show you a couple of things. One, this is not the only tool that you should have in your toolbox. Is Joakim Noah better than LeBron James?, Well, no, he has almost no offensive game and what he does on offense is basically put back offensive rebounds and make 0 ft. bunnies. But, if you look at his usage rate that's reflected there. He is, however, extremely valuable and one of my favorite players in the league. Did I mention that he was on the board when the Wolves selected Corey Brewer? #wronggator How about Tyson Chandler? He's a damned good player. Not an offensive player in that he can't go out and create shots for himself, but he's a darned good piece. He's also the type of player for which ORtg isn't exactly the best indicator of his value. I think Amare and Chandler aren't a good fit together at least on the offensive end, and Carmelo, heh (for his career, he's 107/107).

I think this stat (at least the ORtg part) works best for high usage players. If you look at the Big Three from Miami, well, putting those three high usage studs out there for 38 minutes a night is going to net you a lot of wins. BTW, it's the Big One and the two buddies. LeBron is just so much better than everyone else in the league this year, it's not funny. If you throw out Chandler, LeBron, Noah, and Harden (who's the missing piece in Minneapolis, for sure), you can see that if you are somewhere in the ten to fifteen point range, you are something special. As for Kobe Bean, well, he's a below average defender and a somewhat above average offensive player with a usage rate of over 37%. If you are at 105 ORtg with that kind of usage, that's pretty good. Then again, LeBron is at 118 with a 32.8% usage rate. My prediction is that in 10 years, we will look back and say, it's hard to believe that there were so many LeBron doubters.

Okay, so, let's look at our favorite squad.

Love is an enormous beast. He's not some low usage defensive specialist, he's averaging almost 26 points a game. Pekovic is not exactly low usage, either. Chandler has a 12.5% rate, Noah has a 15.7% rate (both well below the 20% average). Pekovic's rate is 22.1% -- above average, although not in the stratosphere. By comparison, Love is at 27.3%, which is pretty healthy -- about KG's usage rate in his prime with the Wolves. But, anyway, Pek's differential is very healthy, at 12 he's right there with Bosh, Bynum, Durant, and Wade. I'm not saying he's actually the player that those guys are, but what I am saying is that his play lately has been outstanding.

Looking down the list, the Wolves have very few players that are even average (+/- > 0). Ridnour and Rubio are a strength -- interestingly, Ridnour is more of a contributor on offense -- Rubio's shooting is subpar and the turnovers are too high, but for a rookie, Rubio is terrific. (Kyrie Irving is 111/108.) Williams isn't terrible at -3 for a rookie, but that's a little disappointing for the number 2 pick (Wes Johnson last year 101/112). Wes Johnson is a total bust. Milicic is a lost cause. Beasley is an unrepentant gunner. Interestingly enough, he's not terrible on the defensive end, more like mediocre, but offensively, he's awful.

This team is blessed with two great players up front, a talented young point guard with a lot of room for improvement. They are completely devoid of talent on the wings, though. (Don't trade for Gasol, please!)

Okay, enough of my rambling.