BallHype User Blog - dsparks

The Arbitrarian: Team Depth, and Correlates Thereof

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:02:38 +0000

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...

dsparks posted 9/11/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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The Arbitrarian: Putting a number on team rotation size

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 15:32:36 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 9/4/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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The Arbitrarian's Olympic Analysis

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:46:39 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 8/28/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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The 500 Greatest Individual Performances in Modern NBA History

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:02:05 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 8/21/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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BoxScores: statistical measures and graphical displays of value

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:09:30 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 8/7/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NBA, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers

Marginal productivity of box score statistics

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:20:44 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 7/31/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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A statistical primer

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:09:56 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 7/24/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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The Arbitrarian Manifesto

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:41:50 +0000

Basketball theory and analysis. Pretty pictures. Every Thursday.

dsparks posted 7/17/2008 from hardwoodparoxysm.blogspot.com

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How bad was the Game 2 free-throw discrepancy?

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:00:12 +0000

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...

dsparks posted 6/10/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

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Amazing Season-Long Points Created Visualization

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 14:14:34 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 6/4/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NBA, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce

Graphical history of the SuperSonics makes you hate the move even more

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:12:23 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 5/30/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

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Winshares: more incredible graphics, including team Histories!

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:59:56 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 5/20/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

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Choosing the MVP, geometrically

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:58:28 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 4/25/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NBA, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett

Basking in adulation or drowning in hate -- which fits your team best?

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:54:19 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 3/24/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NCAA Basketball

Massive quarterback comparison chart

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:17:10 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 2/25/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NFL, Wes Welker

Giant Network Diagram of NBA Players

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:09:54 +0000

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!

dsparks posted 2/22/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NBA, Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan

Chris Mullin is the next Michael Jordan

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:59:26 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 2/20/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: NBA, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade, Vince Carter, Clyde Drexler

Embeddable league leaders and yesterday’s best

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:10:12 +0000

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 ...

dsparks posted 2/12/2008 from ballhype.com

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Basic player charts for everybody! (880 free charts for your next post)

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:38:37 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 2/11/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

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The rise of the three-pointer

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:44:02 +0000

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.

dsparks posted 2/1/2008 from arbitrarian.wordpress.com

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