Archive for the 'Layups' Category

For all of our readers out there who are interested in some X's and O's, the site Jes-Basketball.com has a large library of java-animated play diagrams on file, ranging from basic offensive and defensive sets to some rather obscure plays.

AtTheHive, a New Orleans Hornets blog, took a very interesting look at the differences between the NBA's regular season and playoff numbers. Among the findings: defense becomes more of a priority, teams slow the pace down, and there's more fouling, all of which fit the conventional wisdom about how the postseason is played.

This is an old 82games article, but a good one, and I can't believe we haven't linked to it before. Based on game-charting results, it breaks down offensive efficiency by shot location, as well as by the location on the floor where the player received the basketball. It's no surprise that the best location is deep in the painted area, but the corner 3 is right up there in terms of points per shot (hello, Bruce Bowen!). Meanwhile, midrange 2s from the foul line-extended are consistently the worst shot in basketball -- it's simply not worth it to try those low-percentage shots for 2 when you could take a step back and have the shot be worth 3 points (just ask Ron Mercer).

(Hat tip: "Mountain" at the APBRmetrics board.)

Brian Burke, a football guy who runs the thought-provoking Advanced NFL Stats site, has been adding Win Probability models for basketball as well over the past few months, starting with NCAA games a few months ago. Now he's developed a pro version, and posts the live, in-game win probabilities at his new NBA site. He also explains the ins and outs of the WP model here. As someone who has dabbled in this sort of thing in the past, I highly recommend Brian's work, so go check it out.

In the latest post over at HoopsAnalyst, Harlan Schreiber lays out his picks for the 2008-09 NBA awards. But that's not really why I linked -- instead, I like the table he has under his Rookie of the Year pick, which compares the RoYs since 1979-80 to which player from that rookie class had the best career. You may not agree with all of his "best career" selections, but it's still a pretty fascinating list.

If it seems like we're linking to Sporcle all the time these days, then it just means the guys over there are finally getting their priorities straight and making a lot of basketball-related quizzes, instead of those lame quizzes about irrelevant topics like world geography and politics... (I'm kidding! I kid!)

This time around, you need to name the NBA's all-time leaders in career 3-pointers made. Here's a hint: the #1 guy is one of our favorite players here at BBR... and one of our least favorite announcers.

Another Sporcle quiz for you: Name the NCAA Men's Tournament Most Outstanding Players. Many of the names you'll recognize from the NBA, but there are some that you definitely won't.

Here is Part I of an interview Eddy Rivera of the Orlando Magic blog Third Quarter Collapse (who I previously worked with here) conducted with me last week about the league, the Magic, and statistical analysis, among other topics.

UPDATE: Here is Part II of the interview.

As expected, it was announced today that Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, and the great Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer have been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. That is quite a group, isn’t it? I suppose the only question left is, could this be the greatest Hall of Fame class ever? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

As a child of the early 90s, I'm embarrassingly well-acquainted with some of the finest early sports video games ever made -- Tecmo Super Bowl, Mike Tyson's Punchout, NHL '94... You get the idea. And perhaps the best early hoops game was the iconic NBA Jam, which introduced the concept of 720-degree dunks and literally being "on fire". So, courtesy of our friends over at Sporcle, we ask: Can you name all of the 2-man rosters from the original arcade version of Jam?