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Friday Press Clippings:
Sabermetric Basketball Statistics are too Flawed to Work

From Sabermetric Research
By Phil Birnbaum
Download source here: ' Sabermetric Basketball Statistics are too Flawed to Work ' by Phil Birnbaum

"... Now that I think I understand why Lewin and Rosenbaum got the results they did, I have come to agree with their conclusions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but logic and evidence seem to say that sabermetric basketball statistics simply do not work very well for players. ..."

"... I'm willing to be proven wrong. A lot of basketball analysts, all of whom know a lot more about basketball than I do (and many of whom are a lot smarter than I am), will disagree.

I know they'll disagree because they do, in fact, use the stats. So, there are probably arguments I haven't considered. Let me know what those are, and let me know if you think my own logic is flawed.... "

"... More importantly, it's not random, and it's not the same for all players. Some rebounders will cover much more of other players' territory than others.

So when player X had a huge rebounding total, we don't know whether he's just good at rebounds, whether he's just taking them from teammates, or whether it's some combination of the two. ..."

"... Most of the new statistics simply treat FG% as if it's solely the achievement of the player taking the shot, when, it seems, it is very significantly influenced by his teammates. ..."

"... Similarly, when Carmelo Anthony increases all his teammates' shooting percentages by 30 points, *and it's the teammates that get most of that credit* ... that's a serious problem with the stat, isn't it? ..."

"... But, just picking up a box score or looking up standard player stats online, and trying from that which players are how much better than others (the approach that "Wins Produced" and other stats take) ... well, I don't think you're ever going to be able to make that work. ..."

Read more articles in Sabermetric Research.

To read today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here: ' El Porcentaje de Rebote Total y la escasa utilidad estadísticas por partido ' by Ruyman Ferrera.

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