Comments on: Team Continuity, Part II

By: Jared Ras

Jared Ras — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:31:56 +0000

Wow, good list and great blog. I never knew how much turnover there was on that Magic team. Only 3 players were consistent between those seasons. Sure it was the first year of D. Howard, Hill, Francis, Nelson, and Turkoglu... I guess that accounts for much of it. Garity, Stevenson, and DeClercq couldn't overcome that turnover for any bit of continuity. I guess Stevenson had some consistency, but he only had half a season in Orlando in 2003-04.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:31:38 +0000

They actually retained 60.7% of possessions by players who were on the roster in 1998, which is low, but not record-breakingly low. I think the real turnover came in 2000 & 2001, when they purged everyone (remember our series on experience, they fielded one of the most inexperienced rosters ever that year). Not surprisingly, at the other end of the spectrum the 1997 Bulls have one of the highest possession continuity scores ever -- 96.9% of their possessions were used by players who had been on the team in '96. Last year's Lakers also rank pretty high, with 95.5% possession continuity.

By: Jason J

Jason J — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:06:05 +0000

;-)

I'm a little surprised the 1999 Bulls aren't on this list. They lost Jordan, Pippen, Longley, and Kerr.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:42:05 +0000

And don't worry Jason, I'm still thinking about how to implement your idea of considering low-minute guys "newcomers"... This post was scheduled ahead of time, is all.