OT - Article on Battier and statistical basketball

[evildallas]

Story link here

It's a long read, but real interesting on the Rockets, Darryl Morey, statistical analysis in basketball, and Shane Battier. Made me wonder what their statistical analysis would show on our Hawks. Which players are the most efficient and which actually hurt the team with their decisions? Also, what the defensive book is on each of our guys? Anyone doubt that it says back away from Josh and dare him to shoot the 3?

The other thing that caught my attention was that this year's Hawks really seem to exploit the corner 3 pointer, which the article says is the most efficient shot in the NBA. Marvin and Mo Evans both stroke it with some regularity. I wonder if that's an impact of Evans joining the team, a new assistant like Todd, or is there some statistical influx in the organization?

[LL Cool Scott]

That was great. I kept thinking about Al Horford and all the things he does to help us win that don't show up on box scores. Really good article.

I also love anything written that subtly demonstrate what a turd Kobe Bryant is.

[conleyorbust]

This sort of article was huge about 5 years ago when Ben Wallace was the toast of the NBA and writers got to write "See, it isn't all about points scored."

As stated in the article, the main stat they use is a suped up +/-, in which Battier has always been a contributor on both sides of the ball.

A lot of the stats they use are available in a more raw form on the web. 82games.com is a pretty cool site if you are a bit of a geek like me.

LL, if you are interested, the +/- numbers actually say that the team does better when Al isn't on the floor as opposed to when he is. As the article says, its imperfect and the Rockets stats team probably has some proprietary formula they use to equalize things, but its certainly an interesting and unexpected twist when you look at the other guys who'se +/-'s make a lot of sense (Joe makes the offense a lot better and the D a little better, Bibby makes the D a lot worse but the offense better to the point that it more than compensates, Josh is Joe's inverse and makes the offense a little better and the D a lot better, etc.).

I like Battier, smart dude. I'd imagine a guy like Tim Duncan thinks the same way as Battier who said "the numbers never lie", thats why a guy like Battier is so smart with the angles he takes, thats why a guy like Duncan is just as willing to contest a shot without jumping than he is to sky to swat a shot... as long as the other guy misses. There is definitely value to being a smart guy on the court.

That was a Lewis article, I never read moneyball but I loved the blindside and liar's poker. He can write.

[LL Cool Scott]

^ Blindside was great. I never read Moneyball because baseball is the most boring sport ever invented. I'd love to see what the Rockets do with the plus/minus numbers to make them more accurate. Surprised Al's number isn't good... There wasn't one mention in that article about how wrinkly Shane Battier's head is.

[conleyorbust]

^ Blindside was great. I never read Moneyball because baseball is the most boring sport ever invented. I'd love to see what the Rockets do with the plus/minus numbers to make them more accurate. Surprised Al's number isn't good... There wasn't one mention in that article about how wrinkly Shane Battier's head is.

Maybe one reason his number isn't good is that when Josh goes out, either Al moves to the 4 where he's less effective than Josh or Marv moves to the 4 where the combination of a Al-Marv front court has trouble with most other front courts defensively but when Al goes out, Zaza comes in and Zaza is nearly as effective a defender at just the center position but not overall. Don't know, just throwing something out there.

Shane has a wrinkly head but frankly, its not particulalry impressive compared to Al Harrington's.

[conleyorbust]

fyi, if you're interested in bball stats, listen to Simmons' podcast from today with Hollinger.