Basketball Statistics Blog

Friday Press Clippings:
The Perfect Futility of Basketball Analytics

From New York Times.com
By Rob Mahoney
Download source here: ' The Perfect Futility of Basketball Analytics ' by Rob Mahoney

"... Those in the world of basketball analytics are tasked with the impossible: to convert a complex game of interrelated and inextricable factors into simple measures of player and team performance.

There’s no question that the efforts to develop those measures have intensified in the last few years, but despite every advance toward the coveted “one-number metric” –- a single rating that can accurately describe a player’s impact on the floor or a team’s relative standing -– basketball’s answer to sabermetrics comes with limitations and caveats.

No stat in basketball is perfect, regardless of the complexity of its formulation. ..."

"... The defining contribution of advanced stats in the N.B.A. won’t be some magical number that makes bar stool debates irrelevant.

That goal is a noble one, but wasn’t described as “impossible” in the paragraph above for rhetorical emphasis alone; in all likelihood, it can’t be done.

Basketball has too many convoluted variables for any quantitative analyst to devise an end-all value measure. ..."

"... The status quo is never good enough, and the way we think about and examine the game can always be improved upon.

That’s always been the case, but only by accepting the limitations of the current analysis are we able to push forward. ..."

"... Each of those measures should be treated as if it has the potential to be the mythical one-number metric.

Not because that goal is reachable or possible in any way, but because the level of criticism and creativity that often follows will take the collective understanding of the game further. ..."

"... Those who fail to see the big picture will focus on the mark that the asymptotic curve of basketball analytics will never reach, while ignoring all other growth in the process.

The measures themselves are imperfect, but they’re perfect in promoting further research.

None of the advanced stats we have today are ideal, but they bring us closer to the pinnacle of our comprehension of the N.B.A. ..."

"... Discussing the recent quantitative advances in basketball as the “analytics movement” or the “advanced stats movement” is inaccurate.

Movements have points of conclusion, either because they meet their goals or due to complete dissolution, but what the analytics world has introduced into the game is capable of enduring forever.

The one-number metric is a red herring. Intellectual curiosity and the insatiable appetite for better statistics are the real products of the basketball analytic culture. ..."

Read more articles in New York Times.com.

To read today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish,
click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here:
' Una Revisión de los Sistemas de Valoración de Jugadores de Baloncesto ' by Jose A. Martínez.

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Friday Video Clippings:
Let's Pollute 2011

Best Short Film, Animated Nomine: Let's Pollute 2011

In the spirit of 50's & 60's educational films, 'Let's Pollute' is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.

To watch today's 'Video Clippings' in Spanish,
click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here:
' ¿Hacemos un corto? ' by Sergio Sánchez .

'Press and Video Clippings'
is a Series of Notes edited the 2nd. & 4th. Friday of Every Month

To Read ALL the Clippings in this Series, click here: Categories > Contents Online

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tags:  basketball ~ statistics ~ basketball analysis ~ Oktapodi ~ advanced stats ~ perfect futility of basketball analytics ~ Rob Mahoney
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