Archive for the 'Layups' Category

Here are a couple of old posts by Dean Oliver, father of APBRmetrics, about controlling the pace of the game. Underdogs can maximize their chances of winning by slowing the tempo down to a halt, because the fewer possessions there are in a game, the greater the variance in both teams' offensive efficiencies (and thus the greater the chance for an upset). The 2nd article even comes with a handy calculator, though you'll have to think back to 1997 and remember that, unlike today, Bulls = good and Cavaliers = bad.

A novel idea by Basketball Prospectus' Kevin Pelton -- what if the NBA used a BCS-like system to determine its champion? Well, for starters, we'd have one great team on the outside looking in.

ESPN.com's John Hollinger breaks down the recent Phoenix-Charlotte deal as only he can. The verdict for the Suns? Great move. And for the Bobcats? Um, not so much...

Here's a nice piece by ESPN.com's John Hollinger, regarding the early 2008-09 All-Star candidates. In the East, it's actually pretty clear-cut; out West, it's a little tougher of a call.

ESPN.com's John Hollinger tries to put the Thunder's ridiculously bad start in perspective. Did you know that they're on pace to have the worst record of all time?

HoopsAnalyst's Harlan Schreiber has a lengthy post about the 3 pre-Wittman coaching changes so far this season. In it, he takes an interesting look at the (non-interim) coaches with the fewest wins for each franchise.

Basketball Pospectus' Kevin Pelton offers his take on the Randy Wittman/Kevin McHale situation in Minnesota. What does the future hold for the T-Wolves' management, both coaching-wise and in the front office?

Here's a good article by Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus about early-season trends in scoring, pace, and efficiency. Just by looking at traditional stats, you may think defense is up this year, but the truth is a little more complicated than that.

This is about a week old, but Harlan Schreiber of HoopsAnalyst wrote an interesting piece about Chris Duhon's 22-assist game on November 29. As it turns out, you just don't see too many 20+ assist games these days...