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dsparks

dsparks

Web Site: http://arbitrarian.wordpress.com/

Claimed Blog: The Arbitrarian

BallHype Member since June 20, 2007

The Arbitrarian: Team Depth, and Correlates Thereof
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 9/11/2008
The Arbitrarian: Team Depth, and Correlates Thereof
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Last week, we focused on team rotation size, as measured by minutes played. Today, we will look... at a very similar, but somewhat more interesting concept: team depth. Depth and rotation are not necessarily the same. Since there must be five players on the court per team at all times... (more) The Arbitrarian: Team Depth, and Correlates Thereof

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 9/11/2008posted this
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 9/4/2008
The Arbitrarian: Putting a number on team rotation size
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Team rotation sizes are typically not a contentious source of debate, but perhaps because of this, they... are often taken for granted. Here, I develop a precise, non-arbitrary method for easily estimating team rotation size, based only on minutes played. The measure shows just what you'd expect. (more) The Arbitrarian: Putting a number on team rotation size

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 9/4/2008posted this
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 8/28/2008
The Arbitrarian's Olympic Analysis
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — I present a substantial amount of descriptive and evaluative statistical evidence (and many, many graphs) as to... who performed the best in this summer's Olympic basketball competition. I also look at what made the "Redeem Team" different than its predecessors, and identify whether or not players really did change the way they play for the good of the team. (more) The Arbitrarian's Olympic Analysis

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 8/28/2008posted this
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 8/21/2008
The 500 Greatest Individual Performances in Modern NBA History
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Using a new and very accurate statistical measure of value, Marginal Victories Produced, and looking at game-by-game... data since the 1986-87 season, we can identify the greatest single game individual performances, and see which players were the most valuable over the course of their seasons and careers. Lots of cool data, and some surprises to be seen in the lists! (more) The 500 Greatest Individual Performances in Modern NBA ...

2 Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 8/21/2008posted this
BoxScores: statistical measures and graphical displays of value
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 8/7/2008
BoxScores: statistical measures and graphical displays of value
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Over at Hardwood Paroxysm, there's a post detailing the BoxScores player valuation methodology, and offering several new... graphical displays of value--most significantly, an interactive graphic with detailed stats for the 2007-08 season, and Google Maps-like timelines of both Celtics and Lakers franchise history! It's really worth checking out--there's a lot to see, and the detail is incredible. (more) BoxScores: statistical measures and graphical displays ...

1 Comment vote down dsparks dsparks posted 8/7/2008posted this
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 7/31/2008
Marginal productivity of box score statistics
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Introducing Model-Estimated Value (MEV), the newest single-number estimator of player production. Check it out--it's not quite as... arbitrary as PER, not as complicated as Plus/Minus, and seems somewhat more realistic than Wins Produced. This post has lists of each player's per-game MEV productivity in 2007-08, and the top 500 all-time careers! (more) Marginal productivity of box score statistics

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 7/31/2008posted this
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 7/24/2008
A statistical primer
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Since it's the offseason, there's no better time to get up-to-speed with some contemporary "advanced" statistical basketball... metric. This post describes several of the better-known methods, +/-, PER, and Wins Produced, offering some criticism and insight into their usefulness. (more) A statistical primer

1 Comment vote down dsparks dsparks posted 7/24/2008posted this
The Arbitrarian Manifesto
hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com - 7/17/2008
The Arbitrarian Manifesto
— hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com — Basketball theory and analysis. Pretty pictures. Every Thursday. (more) The Arbitrarian Manifesto

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 7/17/2008posted this
How bad was the Game 2 free-throw discrepancy?
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 6/10/2008
How bad was the Game 2 free-throw discrepancy?
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — Using box score data, I've attempted to estimate just how rare (egregious) was a 38 to 10... free throw attempt advantage for the home team in game two of the Boston/LA finals. It turns out, somewhat unsurprisingly, that such a difference deviates substantially from the norm... (more) How bad was the Game 2 free-throw discrepancy?

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 6/10/2008posted this
Amazing Season-Long Points Created Visualization
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 6/4/2008
Amazing Season-Long Points Created Visualization
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — As the Celtics and Lakers are prepare for their epic finals matchup, a look back at their... seasons to this point proves instructive. This graphic depicts, for each game, for both teams, each player's contribution to team success in terms of Points Created. It's another huge graphic, and reads like a timeline--there's tons of information and color--see what you can glean from the objective analysis! (more) Amazing Season-Long Points Created Visualization

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 6/4/2008posted this
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 5/30/2008
Graphical history of the SuperSonics makes you hate the move even more
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — Presenting another incredible franchise history featuring the geometric value approximation BoxScores (formerly Winshares). This time, we explore... Sonics history, from the championship team of '79, to the incredible all-star-studded teams of the '90s. Makes it seem even more sad that they're being shipped off to OKC. I'd love to know what true fans and experts think, so don't be shy with comments! (more) Graphical history of the SuperSonics makes you hate the ...

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 5/30/2008posted this
Winshares: more incredible graphics, including team Histories!
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 5/20/2008
Winshares: more incredible graphics, including team Histories!
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — A new and improved Winshares formula is applied to the 07-08 season, and two classic NBA season... from the past, with incredible graphical representations in a Google Maps interface! But also, for the first time, Winshare team histories are introduced--you have to see these! (more) Winshares: more incredible graphics, including team ...

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 5/20/2008posted this
Choosing the MVP, geometrically
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 4/25/2008
Choosing the MVP, geometrically
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — It's possible to conceptualize player value as effort x ability, which translates into team wins. This graphic... depicts a metric called Winshares, which aims to estimate player value in terms of the number of wins they've contributed to their team total--it picks Chris Paul as the MVP, followed by Kobe Bryant. Huge graphic, great colors, and a Google Maps interface! (more) Choosing the MVP, geometrically

6 Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 4/25/2008posted this
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 3/24/2008
Basking in adulation or drowning in hate -- which fits your team best?
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — Using NCAA basketball data collected by Facebook, I’ve thrown together a scatterplot of the teams which elicit... most passion (measured by number of opinions expressed), contrasted with the favorability with which each team is viewed. Some of the findings are obvious, but others (including the most favorably-viewed teas) are surprising. As always, there's an awesome graph, too. (more) Basking in adulation or drowning in hate -- which fits ...

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 3/24/2008posted this
Massive quarterback comparison chart
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 2/25/2008
Massive quarterback comparison chart
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — We're always making comparisons between quarterbacks, wouldn't it be great to see a huge map of all... different QB types and similarities, so we could identify similar pairs and groups of players? Well, now you can! See who's the most Manninesque, discover which QB who threw to Wesley Walker is similar to another QB who throws to Wes Welker. Most of all, look around and learn something! (more) Massive quarterback comparison chart

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/25/2008posted this
Giant Network Diagram of NBA Players
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 2/22/2008
Giant Network Diagram of NBA Players
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — We're always making comparisons between players of one type or another, wouldn't it be great to see... a huge map of all different player types and similarities, so we could identify similar pairs and groups of players? Well, now you can! See who's the most Jordanesque, identify the player who now fills Larry Bird's niche in the Celtics ecosystem. Most of all, look around and learn something! (more) Giant Network Diagram of NBA Players

4 Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/22/2008posted this
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 2/20/2008
Chris Mullin is the next Michael Jordan
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade, Vince Carter, Clyde Drexler, and Paul Pierce all come... close, but none of them are truly the most Jordanesque player we've seen over the last quarter century. Skeptical? You should be--but you'll be a believer after reading this. (more) Chris Mullin is the next Michael Jordan

1 Comment vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/20/2008posted this
ballhype.com - 2/12/2008
Embeddable league leaders and yesterday’s best
— ballhype.com — Here I present a freely embeddable, daily-updated tabulation of the NBA's League Leading producers, and Yesterday's Best... performers:   As the caption suggests, if there were no games played yesterday, or if the data just hasn't updated yet, the chart will present the top 10 cumulative League Leaders instead of just the top five. The rankings are determined by a Euclidean distance ... (more) Embeddable league leaders and yesterday’s best

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/12/2008posted this
Basic player charts for everybody! (880 free charts for your next post)
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 2/11/2008
Basic player charts for everybody! (880 free charts for your next post)
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — As a public service, I've put together a daily-updated Google Spreadsheet that links to 880 different NBA... player production charts. This first set consists of some more basic per-game and per-48 stats, but I am hoping that they will be interesting and/or useful for use in other folks' blog posts. (more) Basic player charts for everybody! (880 free charts for ...

Comments vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/11/2008posted this
The rise of the three-pointer
arbitrarian.wordpress.com - 2/1/2008
The rise of the three-pointer
— arbitrarian.wordpress.com — Do NBA players score more per three-point attempt, or two-point attempt? Well, they've figured it out here,... and with a very pretty graph, to boot. (more) The rise of the three-pointer

1 Comment vote down dsparks dsparks posted 2/1/2008posted this
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