Doug Robinson: Big names no guarantee for huge success

Over the years, there has been a parade of stars who didn't make a difference in the wins column after commanding bigger salaries with a new team — Tracy McGrady, Antawn Jamison, Kwame Brown, Baron Davis, Erick Dampier, Elton Brand, Ben Wallace.

Maybe, as economics professor David Berri asserts, the NBA simply doesn't know how to evaluate players. Berri, professor of applied economics at Southern Utah University and co-author of "Stumbling on Wins" and "Wages of Wins," believes the NBA greatly overvalues and rewards the wrong players. The big money goes to scorers.

As he explained in this column a year ago, "What determines the outcome of games are possession of the ball — rebounds, turnovers, steals — and then, once you get the ball, you've got to score, and scoring should be measured by shooting accuracy, not total points."

Anthony is Exhibit A. In his nine-year career, he has averaged 24 points a game – but also 19 shots a game. He's a 45 percent shooter.

"Anthony doesn't have a huge impact on the outcome of games," says Berri, "but he's paid a lot of money. He is only a little a little above average in production of wins. Sure, he scores a lot of points; that's because he takes a lot of shots."

email: drob@desnews.com