on than Rivers.on than Rivers. | Forum

CHICAGO -- White Sox catcher Alex Avila has left the game against the New York Yankees with a right hamstring strain. Authentic Custom NCAA Jerseys .Avila was replaced by Dioner Navarro before the start of the sixth inning on Tuesday night. Avila went 1 for 2 with a double in the second.The team says Avila will be re-evaluated on Wednesday. Cheap Custom College Shirts . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. Custom UCF Knights Jerseys . 9. Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage. http://www.customjerseysncaa.com/ . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. Despite the continuing story about the return of the Lakers, the LA Clippers are still the best team in Southern California -- and the best team in the NBA outside of Northern California.The Clippers (14-2) rank second in ESPNs Basketball Power Index?and?are the only team in BPIs top five offenses and defenses, and Chris Paul is having an MVP-caliber season. Paul leads the NBA in real plus-minus?and is more than two points ahead of second-place James Harden.But there is a scandal brewing that might cost the Clippers their chance at a championship -- and its name is Austin Rivers.Rivers is, by minutes per game, the second guy off the Clippers bench, but there is little evidence that he does much of anything well enough on the court to warrant being on the roster. Rivers is a guard who ranks ninth on his own team in 3-point shooting percentage, among players averaging at least one 3-point attempt a game. (Center Marreese Speights is currently hitting 3s at a higher rate.) He does not pass the ball well (his assist rate of 13.6 percent ranks 80th in the league), he ranks eighth on the Clippers in steals per 100 possessions and is the only player on the team to log more than 100 minutes with a negative box plus-minus rating on both offense and defense.Shall we go on? OK, in real plus-minus, Rivers ranks 60th among just the point guards. RPM suggests Rivers is being outplaayed by such luminaries as Jonathan Gibson and Malcolm Delaney. Custom NCAA Jerseys Outlet. .Advanced stats are not everything, of course, and we have not measured all aspects of what a player can contribute to his team. But we have measured a lot and there is simply no evidence that Rivers has earned a prominent role on a team that wants to challenge for a championship.The response here is about the Clippers options. Maybe Rivers was the best they could get? Nope. Rivers signed a deal in July that pays him $11 million this season (fifth-highest on the team), yet the Clippers could sign Jarrett Jack today (likely for a lot less than $11 million) and improve in every statistic mentioned above. Jack has better numbers than Rivers in basically every season of his career. He passes better, shoots better, plays better defense and, given that he made $6.3 million last year, would absolutely provide better value.Signing Jack is not the Clippers only option, or likely even their best option, but he is clearly a better option than Rivers. If coach Doc Rivers does not come to grips with that basic fact regarding his sons play, the Clippers will fall short again and waste another brilliant season from Chris Paul.For more analytics content, head to ESPN.com/analytics. ' ' '