Basketball Statistics Blog

Sunday's Reflexions on Basketball Statistics:
The Pace Factor and the Defensive Efficiency:
Which team controls the game's pace ?

Which team controls the pace of the game ? For instance, if Team A (90.6 poss/g) and Team B (96.7 poss/g) played, which team would control the pace ? As might be expected it would be somewhere in the middle (93.7 poss/g) or could one team give direction to the pace involving only main features ? By the way, which team has had the advantage of controlling the pace... the drudgery team or the up-tempo team? Can a team to use pace as a strategic advantage ?

What is the importance of determining which team controls pace: Does it matter ?
Somebody can prove that a team actually gain an advantage by controlling pace ?
What says the work of the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis to determine whether it's true to determine that a team's ability to control pace could be important ?

About this topic of who controls tempo, it seems to me that the real question is: for whom is it more important to limit fast break points ? All teams obviously want to reduce them, but for whom is it most important ?

This discussion always leads to the question whether "controlling the tempo" is anything different from being able to successfully run one's sets and being able to keep the other team from being able to successfully run their sets. There, I think, two sides of the question:

1) Can teams gain a significant edge by forcing a given tempo. Can you can build a team to play well at a certain pace (fast/slow), and then force your opponents to play at that pace?

2) Are there teams that do particularly good jobs at controlling the tempo based on in game situation? It's obviously better to play slow when you are ahead and fast when you are behind (all other things being equal). Do certain teams do this significantly better than others?

Photograph: Mike Fratello ~ The Czar

Is really the 'pace' the best factor to evaluate the cheerful compliance of a team to run ? I think it better bespeaks which teams, ascribable to endowment or strategy, force turnovers, rebound defensively well, and drop out a good opponent shooting percentage.

Possessions per game is a estimate for pace not processed or subjected to analysis.
Unsatisfactory offensive rebounding teams will look quicker than they in actual fact are, as will good defensive rebounding teams: due to the fact that offensive rebounds for one or the other team result in longer possessions, which entails a smaller number of possessions per 40 or 48 minutes.
A high FG% by one or the other team also changes downward offensive rebounds and therefore exaggerates possessions per minute.

Now, are there statistics efficaciously measuring team defense/offense and the pace factor: is right to state that high pace teams normally have bad defenses ?

Briefly to continue the question at the eBA Clinics: looking at the eBA Basketball Euroleague Games Archives. we established the quickest 28 teams throughout 10 years history and only 5 were under average on defensive efficiency compared to league at that time. So, speaking about top teams, fast pace doesn't at all times go with lacking defensive efficiency.

Selected excerpts from the discussions at the eBA Annual Analysis System Clinic Chat about this topic "Basketball Pace Factor".

This topic is resumed in the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System
at the eBA Encyclopedia > The Articles

You must be logged in to read or post a comment. Register

tags:  basketball  ~ basketball statistics ~  basketball analysis  ~  basketball pace factor
visit:  eBA Portal  ~  eBA Forums  ~  eBA Encyclopedia  ~  eBA Clinics