tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1673530083404568652011-11-27T18:26:19.429-05:00The casual fan's rigorous approach to basketball.dsparksnoreply@blogger.comBlogger101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-53821129371834347312008-08-24T20:03:00.004-05:002008-08-25T09:08:47.292-05:00

Admittedly, it's a little late for Olympic basketball coverage, given that the competition ended sometime around 4:00 am EST on Sunday morning, but Thursday is Arbitrarian day, and so today I'm going to try to tell the story of the US Men's Olympic basketball team retrospectively, in statistics and graphics.PredecessorsThis most recent iteration of the US men's basketball team was slated to "

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-52330174634505443532008-08-24T20:03:00.001-05:002008-08-24T20:03:29.401-05:00

Two weeks ago, we explored a statistical estimator of value, BoxScores, which estimates player contributions to team success at the season level. Aside from the time-honored complaint that it doesn't account for defense, there are at least two other improvements that I might wish to make to improve the accuracy of this value estimator.First is the problem of trades, and more generally, varying

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-7545589681378173692008-08-21T07:02:00.007-05:002008-08-23T16:05:18.711-05:00

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-20861866048326237062008-08-14T15:25:00.000-05:002008-08-14T15:26:38.915-05:00

What does it mean to be a Point Guard? Typically, point guards are expected to carry the ball up the court, set up the offense, make passes, and take few shots, at least relative to other players on the court. But how much can the term "point guard" actually mean if it applies to both Jason Kidd and Baron Davis? Further, what does it mean to be a "small forward" if Dominique Wilkins, LeBron James

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-20487788512677177002008-07-31T16:11:00.021-05:002008-08-07T12:28:50.466-05:00

Last week, we looked at player productivity, as based on box score output. Today, we're going to look at value, which, as you will see, is somewhat different than productivity.The MVP is not necessarily the best player in the league, nor the most efficient. Many times, the MVP award goes to the player widely considered to be the best player on one of the better teams, but when it comes to

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-77711366132748550582008-07-30T17:08:00.004-05:002008-07-30T17:55:25.285-05:00

From http://bitworking.org/projects/sparklines/This is a test. I'm trying to render a sparkline in the middle of my words, like this: . Hopefully, it works. If not, it's no big deal.Here, I'll try to use the google charts version: . Does that one work?

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-16052688960471590002008-07-28T14:14:00.005-05:002008-07-28T14:22:13.121-05:00

Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words Words words words<br>Alternative text for browsers

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-38218009966221965602008-07-26T22:42:00.011-05:002008-08-02T17:04:12.998-05:00

Thus far, you've gotten to read me wax philosophical and discourse on the ideas of others. Today, I'm going to enter the arena, so to speak, and present some of my own work.Imagine for a moment that you're interested not only in estimating player value (as in "Most Valuable Player," not the best player, nor the most talented, nor the most clutch, etc. Value is a direct function of productivity,

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-4226745675561696042008-07-26T09:49:00.001-05:002008-07-26T09:50:33.623-05:00

In many academic articles, the author often begins by citing previous work that set the stage for what he or she is writing about. This is often called a "literature review," and it discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of past theoretical and empirical work, often with an eye toward explaining the need for their particular contribution. This post will serve as an introduction to some of

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167353008340456865.post-10903931604775664342008-07-26T03:35:00.002-05:002008-07-26T09:52:24.185-05:00

One can argue that essentially all human dialogue centers around making judgments of one type or another. Some may be absolute: "Yup, it's gon' be a hot one today," while others are of a comparative nature: "Hotter'n yest'day, reckon." The vast majority of the observations and claims we make are qualitative in nature, having to do more with a subjective assessment of the nature of a thing--this

dsparksnoreply@blogger.com0