This morning, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted the following:

Season ending 2 soon but some hope-we are best tm ever without an all-star player

Henry Abbott then followed up with Morey, as Abbott (and I'm sure many others, including me) was unsure what Morey's criteria were. Morey responded:

[The Rockets are the] only team since ABA/NBA merger (1976) with over a .500 record without an All-Star playing over 100 minutes.

Abbott also wrote:

[Morey] went on to explain that by "All-Star" he meant anyone who had ever been an All-Star, not just a current one [...]

My first reaction to this was "Is Morey correct?" My second reaction? "Wait a second, I can easily check this." So I did...

Starting with the first season after the merger (1976-77), I looked for all teams whose total minutes contribution from All-Stars was less than or equal to 100. In determining which players should be considered All-Stars, I looked at all All-Star Game selections up to and including the season in question. (I later found that this was not the definition that Morey used, but more on that in a second.) I found 82 teams that met my criteria. However, the 2009-10 Houston Rockets were not at the top of the list when I sorted by descending wins:

+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| Year | Team | Wins | Losses | AS MP |
+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| 2004 | MEM  |   50 |     32 |     0 | 
| 1983 | KCK  |   45 |     37 |     0 | 
| 2005 | MEM  |   45 |     37 |     0 | 
| 2004 | DEN  |   43 |     39 |     0 | 
| 1994 | MIA  |   42 |     40 |     0 | 
| 1987 | IND  |   41 |     41 |     0 | 
| 2006 | CHI  |   41 |     41 |     0 | 
| 2010 | HOU  |   40 |     38 |    46 | 
| 1992 | NJN  |   40 |     42 |     0 | 
| 2008 | PHI  |   40 |     42 |     0 | 
+------+------+------+--------+-------+

Now, obviously I'm doing something different from Morey, and it's the way I'm counting All-Stars. For example, in 2003-04 the Grizzlies did not have a single player who had been an All-Star selection, but since that time Pau Gasol has been selected to three All-Star Games. Should the fact that Gasol was selected to an All-Star Game two years later really disqualify the 2004 Grizzlies? I don't think it should, but regardless, I adjusted my definition of an All-Star and included selections before, during, or after the season in question:

+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| Year | Team | Wins | Losses | AS MP |
+------+------+------+--------+-------+
| 1987 | IND  |   41 |     41 |     0 | 
| 2006 | CHI  |   41 |     41 |     0 | 
| 2010 | HOU  |   40 |     38 |    46 | 
| 2008 | PHI  |   40 |     42 |     0 | 
| 1991 | ORL  |   31 |     51 |     0 | 
| 2001 | LAC  |   31 |     51 |     0 | 
| 1997 | TOR  |   30 |     52 |     0 | 
| 2003 | CHI  |   30 |     52 |     0 | 
| 1991 | MIN  |   29 |     53 |     0 | 
| 1996 | LAC  |   29 |     53 |     0 | 
| 2009 | GSW  |   29 |     53 |     0 | 
+------+------+------+--------+-------+

This must be the definition Morey was using, but there are two points worth making:

• The Rockets still need to win two more games to clinch a winning record and the top spot on this list.
• If any one of the Rockets regular players (Kevin Martin, Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola, etc.) is selected to an All-Star Game in the future, the 2009-10 Rockets will drop off of this list.

In my opinion, it's the latter point that is most important. The way Morey has defined minutes played by an All-Star means that teams of recent vintage have an unfair advantage, as we don't know if any of these players will become All-Stars in the future. There's also the issue that, as we move forward, teams will be dropped from this list if/when their players become All-Star selections.

Let me close by making two more points:

• None of this is meant to disparage what the Rockets have done. I did not think they would be a .500 team without Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, and they have proven me (and many other analysts) wrong. I also think that Morey has done a brilliant job this season, keeping the team competitive while, at the same time, setting them up nicely for the future. But...
• Morey's statement doesn't mean a whole lot, because he's using what I consider to be a faulty definition of All-Star players, not to mention that in two or three years the Rockets may not even qualify for the list using his criteria. The 2009-10 Rockets are a good story, and they don't need anecdotes like this to prop them up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 6:50 pm and is filed under All-Star Game, Analysis, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.