Shane Battier: The No-Stats All-Star -- NYT Mag
Long article by Moneyball's Michael Lewis in the NYT Magazine on Shane Battier, the Houston Rockets, baseball vs. basketball, selfishness in statistics, and advanced (proprietary) metrics in the game of basketball. Lots of good parts, too many to quote, really.
about 3 years ago
The Cheat
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One well-known statistic the Rockets’ front office pays attention to is plus-minus, which simply measures what happens to the score when any given player is on the court. In its crude form, plus-minus is hardly perfect: a player who finds himself on the same team with the world’s four best basketball players, and who plays only when they do, will have a plus-minus that looks pretty good, even if it says little about his play. Morey says that he and his staff can adjust for these potential distortions — though he is coy about how they do it — and render plus-minus a useful measure of a player’s effect on a basketball game. A good player might be a plus 3 — that is, his team averages 3 points more per game than its opponent when he is on the floor. In his best season, the superstar point guard Steve Nash was a plus 14.5. At the time of the Lakers game, Battier was a plus 10, which put him in the company of Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett, both perennial All-Stars. For his career he’s a plus 6. "Plus 6 is enormous," Morey says. "It’s the difference between 41 wins and 60 wins." He names a few other players who were a plus 6 last season: Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady.
I’m curious how they do this
AIM: SouthSideCheat
solid article
"KenWO
no point in arguing with people who are blinded from reality..."
by Where Triples Go to Die on Nov 29, 2008 6:49 PM
Just read it, great article.
"A good cigar is like a beautiful chick with a great body who also knows the American League box scores. "
Klinger
Blah, great article as usual from Smith, but as usual it's not nearly as black and white as his narrative suggests
Basketball is not discrete sport of similar instances (like baseball and to a large degree football) but 10 players interacting in enormously complex ways.
If the Rockets have a stat that shows T-Mac, Air Canada and ‘Melo are the difference between an average team and an elite one I’d have to tell them to go back to the drawing board.
I was going to post this Sunday - could not as I was out of it.
Thanks, Cheat. Great article.
the post wasn't for you. fuck off.
by larry on Feb 10, 2009 12:43 PM EST

















