Player ratings reveal NBA's best bargains

There are any number of systems for rating NBA players, some of them pretty good.

And some of them downright silly.

But the ratings on this page, borrowed from Roland Beech's www.82games.com Web site and a composite of his ratings and those of John Hollinger, author of "The Basketball Prospectus," seem to match up most closely with what we see in the NBA.

As Beech writes on his site, "Trying to build a comprehensive player-rating scheme is no easy task." He goes on to explain that these measures, while fairly simple, can at least give a quick idea of which players are under- or overvalued.

For instance, your all-value team for last season would include Utah's Andrei Kirilenko and (then) Cavalier Carlos Boozer at forwards, Minnesota's Sam Cassell at point guard, Indiana's Reggie Miller at shooting guard and Houston's Yao Ming at center.

You could also make up a whole team of guys who are not on this list who are nevertheless highly regarded — including Philly's Allen Iverson, Sacramento's Chris Webber, Minnesota's Latrell Sprewell, Denver's Carmelo Anthony and Cleveland's LeBron James.

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Statistics reprinted by permission of www.82games.com and Roland Beech

E-mail: rich@desnews.com