Basketball Statistics Blog

Friday Press Clippings:
An Introduction to Advanced Basketball Statistics

From The Empty Bench
By Zachariah Blott
Download source here: ' An Introduction to Advanced Basketball Statistics ' by Zachariah Blott

"... Advanced statistics is one area that baseball is lightyears ahead of basketball. Bill James was a baseball fan who popularized sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, back in the 80’s through his tome-like Historical Abstracts.

Sabermetrics is named after SABR, the Society for American Baseball
Research. ... "

"... Similar to ORating, DRating tells us how good a team’s defense is regardless of pace. Pacers’ opponents score 101.7 PPG, whereas the Pistons’ opponents only manage 94.9.
However, because Indiana keeps things moving quickly and Detroit barely moves, guess who has a 104.5 DRating and who’s at 107.5.

If you can’t follow what I’m getting at, it’s actually harder to score against the Pacers on a given possession. ..."

"... eFG% is like shooting percentage, but it provides a bump for points scored from behind the arc. For example, Morrow’s real shooting percentage is .536, but he is such a prolific 3-pt shooter, his eFG% gets quite a boost (players who play close to the hoop, like Dwight Howard, will always have very similar FG% and eFG%).

A team’s ability to hit its shots, and its ability to prohibit opponents from hitting theirs on the other end, is the single most important factor in winning and losing games. This makes sense because hitting shots is what scoring points is all about. ..."

"... Getting to the free throw line gives a team a chance to earn points without the opposing team’s defense being a factor, and it eliminates the possibility of turning the ball over. The shooter also has to make them for it to be an effective trip, however, that’s why the formula only includes made free throws.

Teams like the Nuggets who play aggressively and love contact will gladly crash into defenders while getting to the hoop, that’s why they do so well in this area (by the way, Denver is ahead of everyone by a mile in FT/FGA). ..."

Read more articles in The Empty Bench.

To read Today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here: ' Victorias baratas y ataques fluidos ' por Julián Felipo .

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