Being named an All-American is one of the highest honors for a college basketball player. The players that are named All-Americans are considered to be the best 15 players by 4 major groups. These include the Associated Press, United States Basketball Writers Association, Sporting News, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Each of these … Continue reading Which College Basketball Players will be All-Americans?
Decisions at the end of basketball games often decide the outcome. There are many difficult choices to be made with shot selection, pace, defensive style, and more. However, basketball teams and coaches may not be maximizing their win probability based on their choices. In this article, I will look at the win probabilities of 3 … Continue reading Foul up 3 or Defend?: Analyzing late game strategy
Outside shooting is more important now than ever in the NBA. The frequency of three point attempts has been increasing since the beginning of the 2010's. The simplest measure of 3-point ability is basic 3-point percentage, but this metric does not tell the whole story. It lacks too much context. A player can make 30 … Continue reading True Shooting Ability: Separating Shooting Talent from Shot Circumstances
One of the most unfortunate things in sports are injuries. Teams and players have almost no control over this, and one wrong move can derail a team's season or a player's career. Take the Brooklyn Nets, for example. The Nets looked like they would be one of the NBA's top contenders, but an injury to … Continue reading The Cost of Injuries: Injury Adjusted Wins
The NBA commonly uses five positions to group players: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center. However, today's NBA is becoming increasingly position-less. Instead, teams care more about the specific skills and tendencies of players when making lineups. This has led to the need to create new grouping for players. One way … Continue reading Generating NBA Archetypes Using K-Means Clustering
The Eastern Conference Finals between the Celtics and Heat has been a tightly contested series, with each game being unpredictable. In Game 7, the game that would decide which team faces the Warriors in the Finals, the Heat found themselves down just 2 points with less than 30 seconds left in the game. Marcus Smart … Continue reading Did Jimmy Butler Take the Right Shot?
The NBA Playoffs have begun and there are several teams that can win the championship. As of April 21, there are 6 teams with at least a 5% chance of winning the championship according to 538.com's NBA predictions. After years of shortcomings in the playoffs and a slow start to tis year's season, I think … Continue reading Why the Celtics Will Win the NBA Finals
The Final Four for 2022 is set: Kansas, Villanova, Duke, and North Carolina will have the chance to win the NCAA tournament. Kansas and Villanova play each other first on Saturday, followed by a historic Duke-North Carolina matchup for the rights to play in the national championship, which will take place on Monday, April 4. … Continue reading Final Four Preview: Which Teams Will Win?
The 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament begins tomorrow with the Round of 64 kicking off. This tournament will span 3 weeks, eliminate 63 teams, and crown one national champion after a season of hard work. Using my college basketball model, I have found some likely upsets, underrated and overrated teams, and the most likely final … Continue reading 2022 March Madness Preview: Upsets, Cinderellas, and Final Four Predictions
One of the hardest tasks for NBA defenses are to guard All-Star type point guards. Players like Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving give defenses fits every night by being a threat to pull up, drive, or pass for the open shot. However, like all other players, these versatile playmakers can be … Continue reading How to Guard the NBA’s Best Players
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