Know Thy Self - A Look at Anthony Tolliver

Continuing the Know Thy Self series, where we meet the roster of the 2012-2013 Atlanta Hawks, we take a look at recent signee Anthony Tolliver, who spend the last two years playing for the Timberwolves.

Anthony Lamar Tolliver

Twitter: ATolliver44

Nickname: A-Train

Born: 6/1/1985 in Springfield, MO

Springfield is the 3rd largest city in Missouri, but gets little notice for that distinction. It's nickname is the Queen City of the Ozarks and it is also known as the Birthplace of Route 66. In 2007, Forbes Magazine made a list of America's Wildest Weather Cities declaring Springfield the city with the most varied weather in the United States. In business, Bass Pro Shops and O'Reilly Auto Parts are headquartered in Springfield. Visiting dignitaries to Springfield receive an "Ozark Hillbilly Medallion" and are proclaimed an honorary "Hillbilly of the Ozarks." There are some decent choices for famous people from the Springfield area like Kathleen Turner and John Goodman, but I wish to call out long time host of the Price is Right, Bob Barker. Remember to spay or neuter your pets. Springfield provides a treasure trove of famous musical choices like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and King's X, but I'm going back a little further with the Jordanaires which formed as a gospel group in 1948. They're best known for providing backing vocals for Elvis Presley from 1956 to 1972. As far as most famous athletes, it might depend on your age. If you're young it would probably be Ryan Howard of the Phillies. If you're a little older it might be golfer Payne Stewart. If you're either old or have a deep sense of history you'd probably agree with me that Hall of Fame St. Louis Cardinal, Stan Musial is literally "The Man".

College: Creighton

A member of the Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton is probably best basketball school in Nebraska (sorry Cornhuskers). To support that claim we've got two Blue Jays in camp and the last Cornhusker we had was Tyronn Lue. Unless Mikki Moore makes a team this year Nebraska is probably not represented in the NBA. Several famous basketball players and coaches came from Creighton like Bill Fitch and Paul Silas, but I consider the most famous athlete from Creighton to be Bob Gibson, the Hall of Fame pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Personal Notes: Anthony made the Dean's List every year at Creighton. Wasn't actually a teammate of fellow Blue Jay Kyle Korver, Anthony started the season after Kyle graduated. He went to Kickapoo High School which also counts Brad Pitt among it's notable alumni. Kickapoo was the name of a Native American tribe centered in the Springfield, Missouri area. Anthony has 6 sisters. Anthony Tolliver worked his way into the league as he played in the D League, Germany, and Turkey before sticking in the NBA.

ESPN Top 500 rank: 289 just behind Donte Greene (287) and Jamario Moon (288) but just ahead of Craig Smith (290) and James Posey (291).

Wingspan: 86.5"

basketball-reference.com sponsorship price: $40 - think of this as a Q-rating for basketball. Better known players have hiring rates because in theory their stat page will get visited more often.

Horoscope: As a Gemini I found this free sports horoscope for the year: Certain professional concern arrives in the long term, this year. Indeed, here that solution arrives thanks to outside assistances, proposals, etc…. You begin the year with a beautiful note of jupiterian optimism, which brings a promising relational chance to you. You will collect the fruits in November of them, for the hour, this is the moment to launch useful preparations. It is up to you to keep a minimum of opening and especially of flexibility.

Chinese Zodiac: Born in the year of the ox. People born in this year are probably honest, industrious, patient, and cautious, and do things steadily. They are talent leader with strong will and faith, strong devotion to work and staying power. They are obstinate and poor at communication. Leaders in their career may not discover their abilities.

Outlook for this year: Ox people have average luck in this dragon year. Do not be afraid of the blocks on the way to success. Whenever they encounter a strong competitor in career, they should know flexible ways to overcome the difficulty. Success is not only based on hard working.

Workplace Compatibility:
Work best with monkeys and horses (none on the roster) and other oxen (Johan Petro, Anthony Morrow and Josh Smith).
Not so good with roosters (Kyle Korver and DeShawn Stevenson), snakes (James Anderson), and goats (John Jenkins).

Stats: This block is a combination of data from basketball-reference.com and 82games.com to give an idea of the playing style and effectiveness of a player.

Quick Analysis: The stats show that last year was a very bad year for a low usage jump shooter. It was way off his career best from the year before and even quite a bit off his career averages. Anthony Tolliver is a complimentary dirty work player. Low usage meaning he doesn't force his offense, but if used with the right lineups he can shoot a high percentage. When I delved deeper to understand the fall off from his career year to the worst year of his career statistically I found that he didn't play with as many conventional lineups last year. In 2010-2011, he played a lot with Pekovic at C and either Beasley or Webster as the other F. In 2011-2012, he played primarily with Love at C (out of position) or Anthony Randolph at C and either Derrick Williams or Beasley as the other F. My conclusion is spacing and compatibility did him in. Tolliver needs opportunistic 3 point shots to be effective, in 2011 his lineups didn't provide that. If Tolliver makes the roster I think he should bounce back some. If he starts at the 3, he'll be in a lineup that should create open looks for him either off PG penetration or Josh Smith passing out of double teams. If he comes off the bench, he's likely to be in units with a inside center (Zaza) and enough other shooters to have the defense's attention. Simply put I think this roster is more talented and an easier fit for Tolliver. The rankings are out of 478 players listed on basket-reference.com for last season with no qualifying minimums to provide some context for the numbers.

Hopefully, you feel you know a little more about Anthony Tolliver than before. Let me know what you think in your comments. Do you think he makes the roster? Do you think he starts?