Diamond Ratings for 2009

The idea behind the Diamond Ratings is explained in this post. What we're looking for are "diamonds in the rough" - players who might actually be pretty good if they were just given enough minutes per game. These are the kind of players you start looking at when you're thinking of making a trade - or if they're on your team, they're the kind of players you should think of giving more minutes.

Basically, here's how it is calculated:

a) Figure out what the Wins Score would be if the player played 33 1/3 minutes and divide that by games played,
b) Subtract their current Wins Score per games played,
c) Add the difference between their win score per 33 1/3 minutes divided by games played and the league's average win score per 33 1/3 minutes divided by games played.

A and B determines how close the player comes to a starter. C gives them credit if they're producing more than an average player.

We then exclude certain groups of players. Anyone who's playing less than 2.5 minutes per game is chopped off -- we don't have enough data on them. Anyone playing more than 21 minutes per game is chopped off -- they're earning close to starter's minutes already.

Top 10 Diamond Rating (*) Performers in 2009
(as of June 24, 2009)

1. Kristi Cirone, Sun, 28.59
2. Eshaya Murphy, Fever, 27.42
3. Khadijah Whittington, Fever, 21.88
4. Megan Frazee, Silver Stars, 21.62
5. Katie Mattera, Silver Stars, 20.12
6. Janelle Burse, Storm, 19.21
7. Kiesha Brown, Sun, 18.99
8. Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, Sparks, 18.21
9. Sidney Spencer, Liberty, 18.19
10. Courtney Paris, Monarchs, 17.86

(*) - This is an adjusted version of the Diamond Rating for the WNBA.

Rookies are in bold face type. By the way, the leader in Diamond Rating last year? Sancho Lyttle, with 18.05.