Archive for May, 2009

Here's an interesting article... You've heard of the pythagenport floating exponent in baseball, right? Zach Fein of FeinSports.com has come up with something similar for the NBA. The standard 14 that we use is very good, but you can get slightly better results from this formula:

Exp = sqrt(Poss.) / log(Poss.) x 0.75 - 2.8

Where "Poss." is possessions, as defined by our glossary. The overall increase in accuracy is small, but I think it's still a very worthwhile pursuit to find better exponents for the pythagorean method.

Oh, and can we call this the "Pythagenfein" formula from now on?

Finally, the Sporcle quiz we've all been waiting for... Can you name the players inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame?

Using the technique I introduced a few weeks ago, here's what Statistical +/- sees in the cards for the Conference Finals:

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Here's the Wayman Tisdale segment with Jim Huber that EJ was talking about on Inside the NBA last night:

"Wayman Tisdale's Courage"

Dan Levy of On The DL interviewed TNT's Ernie Johnson (one of BBR's favorite TV personalities) this week, and the always-entertaining EJ talked about working his dream job, his faith, and how he has such good chemistry with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

It's been nothing if not a rough week for the basketball community. First, Chuck Daly passed away, and today comes the tragic news that Wayman Tisdale has lost his 2-year battle with cancer.

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I love the breakdowns Gian Casimiro provides at Seven Seconds or Mess, and in the latest webisode, he takes a look at how the Celtics D has handled Dwight Howard so far this series. A lot of buzz has been about how few shots Dwight's been seeing, to the point that Howard himself even complained about his touches after Game 5. But 7SoM explains why Howard isn't an easy guy to get quality looks for:

7SoM Celtics vs Magic Dominant Dwight?

When the league announced the All-NBA Teams this week, there were relatively few surprises. For those who haven't seen them already, the selections looked like this:

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Another very funny Nike spot starring Kobe and LeBron as muppet roomies:

Nike presents: "Rings"

Congrats are in order to Danny Granger this week for winning the NBA's Most Improved Player Award for the 2008-09 season. Now, this award is often decried by statheads for its insistence on identifying players who haven't really improved at all but have just seen more playing time, but Granger actually did make a leap in production from 2008 to 2009. Not the biggest leap, mind you, but a leap nonetheless. Here's what SPM says about the biggest year-to-year differences from '08 to '09 (minimum 500 MP in both seasons):

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