Doctor MJ wrote:parsnips33 wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:
I tell you what:
When I see a guy hurl the ball in the general direction of the open shooter but miss by 4 feet requiring the other guy to say if from going out of boards, I appreciate the skill of those passers who get the ball right where the shooter needs it even on "easy passes".
You could say that my issue isn't the Chris Paul Assist, but the Paul George Assist - where the guy who saves the turnover still manages to hit the 3 - where the pass itself was worse than replacement level expectations, yet the passer still receives box score validation.
Definitely, and it's annoying that statistically the two looks exactly alike - 1 assist.
And that's why the best way to understand the game is still watching it as much as that may annoy some of the more stats oriented crowd.
I don't know if that actually is in dispute by many. Tons of information is loss when the actual play of the game is mapped down to a box score. Anyone who thinks the entirety of the game exists in the box score is a fool - and while granted, some highly educated fools have existed in this space (Dave Berri always comes to mind), they don't get taken all that seriously by the analytics community in my experience.
Here's what annoys me when people say "watch the game":
1. I'm trying, but I can't see the game as well as the best can.
2. As frustrated as I am with my limitations compared to those who can really see what's happening in real time on a team level, I find that most "watch the game" folks see much less than I do. It's something of a hallmark of someone who is afraid to admit they have gaps in their basketball knowledge, often because of how much of an identity they've built up in their own head of things they want to think they know that aren't so.
3. It's not an either/or thing. People who can see the game better than I can have the potential for analytics to help them more than it helps me, not less. Hence, even in the proverbial example of the NBA player who can certainly see things I cannot, he's only holding himself back if he refuses to learn about using data.
The real problem is that assists are counted instead of how many scoring oppurtunies someone creates. If stat trackers counted the second, box stats would be alot more reflective of what a player contributes on offense(even though not all created looks are equal)
including one of the biggest offensive explosions in Nba history in game 5
