Who knows if the NBA lockout will finally be over after this weekend, but at least we can say that Who Gets Cut? will be done. There were no surprises in round 10 as previous voting held up as Paul Millsap was cut.
They eye is definitely on the future with these votes. Players that have been cut before the remaining pair of Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors have proven themselves while one season of promise has been enough to vault them into the top two.
Before we dote on those two, let's look at Paul Millsap's first full season as a starter. As his minutes went from 27 to almost 35, he improved in nearly every statistical category when you look at his PER 36 minutes and his true shooting % (twos, threes, and free-throws). Most notably was his jump from 70% on his free-throws to 75%. His had a career-high in attempts, but per 36 minutes it dropped a bit. The biggest reason for this, as well as his drop in rebound %, was that he developed his outside shot to the three-point line. He doubled his attempts per game in the 16-23 foot range. That of course pulls him away from the basket and lends itself to less fouls. Also, one of the big knocks on Millsap about why he couldn't play 36 minutes was that he would foul out; he ended up posting a career-low there as well.
Every time you think this guy has reached his ceiling, he just continues to get better. Being undersized has always been a knock on him as well, but he makes it work and continues to put up big numbers. Here's a list of the top forwards by PER with at least 1,000 minutes played. Oh, and he's only getting paid $6.7 million this year and $7.2 million the next. Not bad for a top-10 PF.
So who's it gonna be for #2?
03. Paul Millsap
04. Al Jefferson
05. Devin Harris
06. Enes Kanter
07. Alec Burks
08. Jeremy Evans
09. C.J. Miles
10. Mehmet Okur
11. Raja Bell