Posted by Neil Paine on April 7, 2010
Listening to Bill Simmons talk to Chad Millman on the B.S. Report, they mentioned how a good play was to bet for a young team (like this year's Thunder) to come out and lay an egg in their first playoff game because they feel pressure and don't know how to handle it yet. They pointed […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on March 19, 2010
Game 1 1954-55 Syracuse Nationals MIN FGM FGA 3PM 3PA FTM FTA OREB REB AST BLK STL TO PF TP Red Rocha* 40 5 11 1 1 0 0 3 7 2 3 0 3 2 11 Paul Seymour* 33 4 9 1 3 4 4 0 3 11 0 1 0 2 13 George […]
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Posted by Neil Paine on March 8, 2010
On Saturday, I had the distinct honor and privilege of attending the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, where a virtual "who's who" of basketball analysts were on hand to listen to panelists that ranged from Daryl Morey, Mark Cuban, and Kevin Pritchard to John Hollinger, Dean Oliver, and even Bill Simmons. It was […]
Posted in General, Statgeekery | 14 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 25, 2010
Many NBA fans like to measure players by team accomplishments like wins and championships, perhaps because that is every team's ultimate goal before each season, and to a certain extent all players on teams that didn't win the championship have failed. With this in mind, I decided to compile a list of the greatest winners […]
Posted in Data Dump, History, SRS, Statgeekery | 7 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 19, 2010
Talking about arguably the 4 biggest stars of the NBA's 25-and-under set today, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwight Howard, had me thinking about this crop of young stars and how they relate to their counterparts in the past... Is this current group the best ever? And if not, who is? Well, here's […]
Posted in Analysis, History, Win Shares | 9 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 17, 2010
Yesterday, reader Eric S. asked: "I'm curious if you could tell me which players have had the biggest spike in free throw percentage. Specifically, I'm looking at players with at least 10 years in the league who suddenly have a dramatic bump in FT%. The reason I ask is Baron Davis -- a notoriously poor […]
Posted in BBR Mailbag | 3 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 9, 2010
Yesterday, I laid out a scenario which could be an unforeseen consequence of a new CBA which limited contract lengths and imposed a hard cap -- namely, that if a player with all-time-great type ability (let's call him "Jim LeBaron") was sufficiently motivated to chase rings at the expense of everything else, the incentive to […]
Posted in Insane ideas, Statgeekery | 18 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 8, 2010
Labor issues abound as we head into the week of the NBA's biggest party, with the Commissioner reportedly presenting to the union a proposed CBA that would drastically reduce the players' share of basketball-related income, kill the Larry Bird exception, and severely limit long-term contracts & guaranteed salaries -- including existing deals! Understandably, NBAPA reps […]
Posted in Insane ideas, Statgeekery | 2 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on February 3, 2010
I was listening to Bill Simmons' podcast the other day, and he was talking Lakers with J.A. Adande (a columnist I happen to like, btw). They were discussing the significance of Kobe Bryant being on the precipice of overtaking Jerry West as L.A.'s all-time #1 scorer (KB would go on to break the mark Monday […]
Posted in Analysis | 22 Comments »
Posted by Neil Paine on December 18, 2009
Per the methodology outlined here, I now present your Inner-Circle Hall of Famers from the 1950s and 1960s... But first, remember the rules: the player had to play 10 years combined in the NBA or ABA (with 1 exception, which I'll explain below) and had to rank as one of the 4 best players of […]
Posted in Hall of Fame, History, Statgeekery | 30 Comments »
