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Following up on the last analysis of Okafor for Chandler, we will today be looking at another aspect of Okaforce's (No?) contributions. Emeka's long term deal for big bucks was the primary reason he was traded away from Charlotte, and has been one the biggest concerns amongst Hornet fans since his arrival in the Big Easy.

When discussing if a player is overpaid, it's common to look into the future, especially in regard to the years remaining on a contract, but with Okafor only 27 years old and still trying to fit into a new system, it's unclear how he will fare in the next couple of years. That being said, let's take a look at how Emeka's salary and performance compare against other centers, this year specifically. I'll be using a statistic that I think I made up called Salary Value, or S-Value if you will. For now this is a very raw formula, really for use in evaluating guys who play the same position. In the future I will certainly spend some time getting into more detail.

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Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I'm rather fond of metrics like Wins Produced.  Recently, Dave Berri of the Wages of Wins produced two articles I think you all will enjoy, and so I decided I'd draw your attention to them with a full on blog post, rather than dropping them in the news section.

Professor Berri's first post addresses the sexy new NBA metric: Adjusted +/-.  As a prime exhibit as to the inherent oddities of that metric, Dave Berri details the production of the Hornets very own Darius Songaila.  To summarize, Songaila has posted pretty consistent numbers across his career according to most traditional metrics.  However, according to +/-, his impact has varied wildly, producing a significant positive impact in Washington, and a significant negative impact in New Orleans.

As a result of that post, I had a brief email exchange with Professor Berri about two other Hornets we've been focusing on the past month or so:  Our rookies.  That discussion spurred his latest post about the Hornets, addressing the rookies, a brief comparison of Collison to Paul, one of his general breakdowns of the Hornets production on the whole, and even includes a response on our own Joe Gerrity's post about Emeka Okafor.  Good Stuff.

I am a little surprised by the rookie results.  While it doesn't surprise me that over the course of the entire season Collison and Thornton have been a little below average - they did start off the season shooting poorly -  I would not have guessed that Collison would have ranked lower than Thornton.  Collison's assist and scoring numbers have been impressive, and Thornton is almost exclusively a scorer.  Traditionally, one trick ponies don't rank that high in Wins Produced.  Not the case in this situation.

Of course, that just illustrates the impact of minutes.  Buckets and his recent standard of 20 efficient points in 24 minutes is crazy, and Collison has been wracking up huge minutes to go with his huge numbers, which mitigate them somewhat.

Enjoy.

Lately there has been more than a little Emeka Okafor bashing, with some even going to far as to say that an injured Tyson Chandler is better than a healthy Okafor. It's time that we get into some real detail about Okafor's play, and how much worse he has really been than Tyson.

First let's take a look at Tyson's first year in NOLA compared to Emeka's. Seems fair since it obviously takes some time for centers to adjust to playing a pick and roll offense, especially in a point guard dominated offense. Granted Tyson was a bit younger than Okafor when he started with the Hornets, but they both had accumulated about the same amount of NBA experience prior to coming to the Hornets. Here are some basic stats.

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Yet again, the Hornets lost to the surging San Antonio Spurs, who completed a season sweep of the Hornets for the second time in the last four years. Even worse, the Hornets dropped below .500 for the fist time since January 2nd.

It's becoming increasingly clear that missing their leader is wearing on the Hornets, as even big nights from the rookies go unrewarded in the win column. As great as Collison has been, and again was tonight, the drop off between solid point guard and superstar player has been simply too much for the Hornets. On the year they dropped to 10-16 without their superstar, and 21-16 with him. I personally count the game they blew against Portland as being without him, since his injury led to Portland's comeback. You don't like my math? Tough.

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There are two bits of must-see TV in my life:  The Hornets and Survivor.  I never miss a minute of either. 

This season of Survivor has been, quite possibly, one of the most exciting seasons I've seen in a long time.  The producers brought back their top ten Villains and top ten Heroes and pitted them against each other.  The casting was remarkable, and has produced a whole new level of drama as most of them were great players in the past, and all are there to win.

When I saw the new format, I also started toying with the idea of making my own list of ten NBA Heroes and Villians.  That, however, fell by the wayside.  I don't do lists.  I do comparisons and find analogs.

So, in the tradition of pasts posts comparing Team USA to Ancient Chinese Historical Figures, American Idol Contests with Hornets Players, D&D Classes with Hornets Players, etc, I present to you my list of Survivor: Heroes vs Villians contestants with the NBA players that most resemble them.

This post will focus on the ten Villians.  The Heroes will follow in a day or two.

The Villains

Benjamin "Coach" Wade is . . . Ron Artest

Both of these guys are completely ridiculous.  Coach has named himself the "Dragonslayer", Ron Artest calls himself "Tru Warier".(Yes, that's the spelling) Coach is supremely self-confident and self-aggrandizing, despite having done nothing to back it up but talk about himself.  Ron Artest deludes himself into thinking he's an offensive player without recognizing that the "offensive" part of his game is his terrible shot selection.

Both men have also provided some of the most jaw-dropping crazy moments on television:  Artest going into the crowd in Detroit, and Coach Wade claiming that he was captured by natives in the Amazon, beaten up, and barely managed to escape after they eyed his butt and clearly wanted to "eat his ass".  Too much crazy.

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