I was thinking about how one can use the NBA’s new SportVU system to figure out optimal positions for players on the court. One of the interesting things about the SportVU system is that it tracks player coordinates on the court. Presumably, it also keeps track of whether or not a player located at makes […]
Category: NBA Playoffs
Everyone by now knows about this paper I wrote a few months ago: http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05266 Using data science / machine learning methodologies, it basically showed that the most important factors in characterizing a team’s playoff eligibility are the opponent field goal percentage and the opponent points per game. This seems to suggest that defensive factors as […]
I’ve been fascinated by the triangle offense for a long time. I think it is a beautiful way to play basketball, and the right way to play basketball, in the half-court, a “system-based” way to play. For those of you that are interested, I highly recommend Tex Winter’s classic book on the topic. There is […]
Here is the collection of time series of relevant predictor variables captured live during Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals between The Oklahoma City Thunder and The Golden State Warriors: Another video animation: https://twitter.com/dr_ikjyotsinghk/status/737694089437716480 Many commentators are making a point to mention how many three point shots The Warriors made, suggesting that that was […]
Continuing with the live metrics employed yesterday, here is an analysis of the second half of the Warriors-Thunder Game 6. Here is a plot of the various time series of relevant statistical variables: One can see from this plot for example, the exact point in time when OKC loses control of the game. Further, here […]
Yesterday for the first time, I took the playoff game between Cleveland and Toronto as an opportunity to test out a script I wrote in R that keeps track of key statistics during a game in real time (well, every 30 seconds). Based on previous work, it is evident that championship-calibre teams are the ones […]
I’ve been ranting a lot about the so-called “value” of the three-point shot in “modern-day” basketball. I know! But, here is yet one more entry. The common consensus is that teams are shooting more three point shots as discussed in the articles below: http://www.businessinsider.com/nba-three-point-shooting-2016-3 http://www.nba.com/2014/news/features/john_schuhmann/11/07/history-of-the-three-point-shot/ http://nyloncalculus.com/2016/03/08/three-pointers-and-skill-displacement/ There are several more where these have come from. […]
A few weeks ago, I published a paper that used data science / machine learning to detect commonalities between NBA playoff teams. I have now updated and extended it to detect commonalities between NBA championship teams using artificial neural networks, which is a field of deep learning. The paper can be accessed by clicking on the […]
A new and formal paper of mine describing how one can use machine learn methodologies to help determine which NBA teams will make the playoffs is now online: arXiv link SSRN link Have a look!
It is another New York Knicks season where fans have to wait until next year to see if the Knicks will make the playoffs or not. Yesterday, there was a lot buzz around the idea that Phil Jackson may want to keep Kurt Rambis on as head coach, and as usual, there were numerous people […]
Relativity Digest 