Post by sharksrog on Feb 17, 2013 1:41:39 GMT -5
Right now I am reading an excellent book about the NBA. I initially was attracted to it because it picked the top 25 and the 2nd 25 players in NBA history.
As I'm reading it, I have found it also has a very nice section on the history and development of the league and another, which anyone here can see I would like. That is the section on basketball analytics.
The statistical analysis section talked about things such as productivity per possession for both individual players and for teams. It talked about rating players without big stats but who still seemed to have a big impact on games. It showed how seldom even the very top players come through with the game on the line in the final seconds. It talked about how the GM of the Houston Rockets is the only GM who hasn't been associated with the NBA as a former player or coach. Rather, that guy is a math major from Northwestern University (possibly my very favorite college) and with an MBA from MIT.
Rating players by their contributions per possession (as adjusted by game pace and overall team effectiveness) reminded me of judging a hitter by his effectiveness per out made.
The thing that got my attention most was how great the impact of Shane Battier has been measured. Battier isn't a guy with great stats by any means. But his teams just seem to play a lot better when he is on the court.
Battier is a very good defender, and he is a guy who has the fundamentals of the game down pat, including just what to do and when to do it.
Judging Battier made me think of judging fielding in baseball. In each case, the basic stats may not come close to telling the whole tale.
But perhaps more than anything else, I got the thought that if basketball judgment can be improved by basketball analytics, how CAN'T that be the case in the much more simple game of baseball?
Basketball is a 10-player interaction. For the most part, baseball is batter against pitcher. Just as is the case with baseball fielding, it takes a lot to analyze a basketball game with analytics. There is just so much to measure -- much more than is covered by the traditional stats.
But almost anyone can perform fairly decent analytics in baseball. How can our understanding of the game NOT be increased by what aren't the traditional statistics, but are really pretty easy nonetheless.
And of course, when we get into the even deeper analysis of the game, we can learn even more.
As I'm reading it, I have found it also has a very nice section on the history and development of the league and another, which anyone here can see I would like. That is the section on basketball analytics.
The statistical analysis section talked about things such as productivity per possession for both individual players and for teams. It talked about rating players without big stats but who still seemed to have a big impact on games. It showed how seldom even the very top players come through with the game on the line in the final seconds. It talked about how the GM of the Houston Rockets is the only GM who hasn't been associated with the NBA as a former player or coach. Rather, that guy is a math major from Northwestern University (possibly my very favorite college) and with an MBA from MIT.
Rating players by their contributions per possession (as adjusted by game pace and overall team effectiveness) reminded me of judging a hitter by his effectiveness per out made.
The thing that got my attention most was how great the impact of Shane Battier has been measured. Battier isn't a guy with great stats by any means. But his teams just seem to play a lot better when he is on the court.
Battier is a very good defender, and he is a guy who has the fundamentals of the game down pat, including just what to do and when to do it.
Judging Battier made me think of judging fielding in baseball. In each case, the basic stats may not come close to telling the whole tale.
But perhaps more than anything else, I got the thought that if basketball judgment can be improved by basketball analytics, how CAN'T that be the case in the much more simple game of baseball?
Basketball is a 10-player interaction. For the most part, baseball is batter against pitcher. Just as is the case with baseball fielding, it takes a lot to analyze a basketball game with analytics. There is just so much to measure -- much more than is covered by the traditional stats.
But almost anyone can perform fairly decent analytics in baseball. How can our understanding of the game NOT be increased by what aren't the traditional statistics, but are really pretty easy nonetheless.
And of course, when we get into the even deeper analysis of the game, we can learn even more.