Basketball is all about scoring more than your opponent, and the best way to do this is by getting better shots than your opponent. An crucial part to offensive efficiency is shot selection. Taking the right shots will improve the chance of making more baskets and winning games. The best shots can vary by team, … Continue reading Shot Selection: A Surprising Playoff Advantage (or Disadvantage)
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?
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 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 76ers lost to the Miami Heat in 6 games in the Conference Semi-Finals, marking the fifth consecutive year that their playoff journey ends before the conference finals. While their core players of Joel Embiid and James Harden seem promising, smaller issues keep hurting their team. This year seemed like one of the 76ers' best … Continue reading What Went Wrong for the 76ers
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?
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
Player defense has been one of the hardest elements to quantify in basketball since the rise of analytics. The box score stats for player defense are limited to steals, blocks, and defensive rebounds, with no context for the number of shots defended and how many turnovers a player actually forced. However, recent tracking statistics have … Continue reading Tracking Defensive Plus Minus: Ranking the NBA’s Best Defenders
The NFL Playoffs begin on Saturday after a wild final week of the season. Using a variety of stats, the players at each position can be ranked, allowing us to look for mismatches and big matchups. Offense Quarterbacks To rank the quarterbacks in the NFL, I used a combination of four advanced stats. Three of … Continue reading Ranking the Players in the NFL Playoffs
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