A Beginners Guide to Analytics
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world, yet many fans, some players and even coaches don’t know as much as they could about the details of the game.
In the just concluded NBA Eastern Conference Playoff series, ESPN Analytics gave the Miami Heat a 3% chance of beating the Boston Celtics. Those numbers changed when Miami got off to a 3-0 lead, and last night the Heat won, in Boston, in Game 7!
Those numbers ARE NOT Analytics. They are odds, produced mainly for the benefit of the betting public.
Statistics is the collection and interpretation of data, while analytics deals with finding patterns from the data.
Hoopsalytics Analytics is all basketball driven. Our platform provides coaches and players with analytics that are applicable and useable to their team and game. Basketball analytics provide insight into the game that goes beyond the box score and is where you can find insight into the advantage of tracking metrics.
As we all know, the 3pt shot has changed the game. Since a made-3 is worth 1.5x as much as a made-2, that fact changed the way we look at offensive efficiency. For example, if a player was 3-6 from 2-pt range and 3-6 from 3-pt range, for a cumulative 6-12, his shooting percentage is 50%, but his effective field goal shooting would be higher because of the 3pt make. If you are shooting the three and go 1 for 1, that = 150% EFG. 1 for 2 = an 0.75 EFG %.
Below see why some players are highly valued, even though the standard box scores may not show big numbers, and learn what is the relationship between stats and analytics.
Offensive and Defensive Efficiency: On offense, think of it this way: is your “best” player (the one who scores the most points, perhaps) being efficient on offense, or is he just taking the most shots? Is your “best” player on defense (the one with the most steals, perhaps) a plus on defense, or for every steal is he getting burned backdoor for an easy layup? Plus/Minus stats and Net Points Per Possession are two of the analytical ways to see stats as true indicators of performance.
What ways to you use Analytics to improve your team? Let us know in the comments, or take a deeper dive into Hoopsalytics and see for yourself how D1 through high school teams, as well as International clubs, benefit from our video, stats and analytics platform.