Published: June 19, 2010
This rookie class has been a very good, deep rookie class. You've got the likes of Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Luis Scola, Al Thornton, Jeff Green, Nick Young, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Mike Conley. All of these kids are gonna be stars Some of them may take longer to bloom than others. But, for some reason, many people consider Kevin Durant to be THE Rookie of the Year, bar none.He's not. There are two players that are more deserving than theaforementioned Durant. Al Horford and Al Thornton.Before I explain why Horford and Thornton are more deserving, I'll discuss the good and bad surrounding Kevin Durant.The good: He leads all rookies in points with 19.5 points, and shoots 87.3 percent from the charity stripe. It seems as though he's finally learning what it takes to become more efficient.The bad: He shoots 40.7 percent from the field and 28.3 percent from three-point land His team stinks, they're 16-50. He's still a rail-thin kid.The case for Horford: He leads all rookies in rebounding with 9.7 boards.
He leads all rookies in double doubles with 17 and is almost averaging a double double with 9.6 points to go along with those 9.7 rebounds. And, his team is on the verge of making the playoffs for the first time 1999.The case for Thornton: He's second in points at 12 per game in just 25 minutes. He's got solid shooting numbers: 43.4 FG percentage, 34.1 three-point percentage, 72.4 FT percentage. He's gone off on a tear lately, averaging 16.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.6 rpg, and 1.2 bpg in the month of March. He's fifth in double-doubles with three.While Durant is no doubt a great rookie, and will be a star in the league, he's not the rookie of the year Al Horford or Al Thornton is, you decide Both guys are more efficient Both do more for their teams Both are more deserving of Rookie of the Year.. Fixed Dosed Combination Agents and Novel Antihypertensives Are Expected toFace Tougher Formulary RestrictionsLongitudinal Data Trends Suggest These Agents Will Face Greater Use of StepTherapy Restrictions and Less Access on Tier 2 on Commercial Health Plans,According to a New Report from HealthLeaders-InterStudy and FingertipFormularyNASHVILLE, Tenn.
and GLEN ROCK, N.J., April 28 /PRNewswire/ –HealthLeaders-InterStudy and Fingertip Formulary find that fixed dosedcombination agents and novel antihypertensives are expected to face tougherformulary restrictions. “The changing landscape of formulary controls in the hypertensionmarket means that managed care marketing and sales analytics groups must trackthis newly-important performance metric.”About Formulary Advantages in Hypertension: Past and Future Shifts in TierPlacement of Angiotensin II Receptor Antagonists, Single Pill Fixed-DoseCombinations and Novel AgentsThe new Formulary Forum report is based on a survey of 50 pharmacy directorswho control national, regional and state-level managed care organizations, aswell as historical formulary data from Fingertip Formulary. Answers weresegmented by type of plan to illustrate variances in strategy by size of plan.The easy-to-use PowerPoint format allows easy visualization of data and easyincorporation of material into presentations. About Fingertip FormularyFingertip Formulary (), the leading provider ofaccess to and insight into formulary data in the United States, offerscomprehensive formulary data covering commercial, Medicaid, Medicare and PBMplans, among others. The company offers a variety of unique data and marketingsolutions for the pharmaceutical industry, consultants and healthcareproviders that provide access to and insight into formulary data FingertipFormulary is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.About HealthLeaders-InterStudyHealthLeaders-InterStudy, a Decision Resources, Inc.
company, is theauthoritative source for managed care data, analysis and news. For moreinformation, please visit Decision Resources, Inc.Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offersbest-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of thehealthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informeddecisions. Both HealthLeaders-InterStudy and Fingertip Formulary are DecisionResources, Inc companies Please visit Decision Resources, Inc. at company, brand or product names contained in this document may betrademarks orregistered trademarks of their respective holders.SOURCEHealthLeaders-InterStudyLisa Osgood, HealthLeaders-InterStudy, +1-781-296-2606, ;Elizabeth Marshall, Decision Resources, Inc., +1-781-296-2563,. The ride atop the Northwest division hit a speed bump today as the Avalanche were defeated 4-2 by the New Jersey Devils.With Vancouver, Minnesota and Edmonton all in action tonight, there could be some tightening up in the divisional race and Colorado could find themselves bumped down to second in the NW and sixth in the West.The Devils opened the scoring late in the first as Dainus Zubrus poked him a puck that was sitting just underneath Jose Theodore.Theodore had just made a nice save on a redirection and thought he had it frozen but Zubrus spotted it and poked it home.The Avalanche drew even before the first half of the second as Paul Stastny crept in and took a great behind-the-net feed from Andrew Brunette to beat Martin Brodeur up high.
Apparently a goal like that is “uncharted territory” and “tough to call” what with the whole “you can't kick the puck in” rule.Have they honestly never witnessed a goal bounce off a player and in?No, you can't kick a puck in but it can go off any other part of your body. Unless of course it goes off your hand in a throwing motion, which is the real reason the goal was reviewed at all by the officials.But that was all she wrote for the Avalanche who didn't play a bad game at all.The Devils goaltender was just better than theirs this afternoon.Roster Changes Wyatt Smith was recalled so he could watch this game from the press box. Lets just say it wasn't the Theodore we've been expecting lately.He was tossing out some interesting rebound and had two goals sneak through under his armpit.That was an area he had issues with earlier this season and those issues came back to haunt him this game.Bout of baldnessIn case you were wondering why some Avalanche players seemed to suddenly hit a phase of premature balding, it was all for a great cause.Several Avalanche players, including John-Michael Liles, Peter Budaj and Wojtek Wolski, volunteered to have their heads shaved as part of a St Baldrick's Day event.St. Baldrick's day is a fund raising event to show support for children undergoing chemotherapy.There is a Donate Now link on the homepage of the site if you're feeling charitable.