Free Ballin’

I avoid reading deeply into advanced basketball metrics the way little kids avoid booster shots or broccoli: I’m told they’re good for me, but they hurt, and taste lousy.  Also, since much of the readily accessible stuff that passes for advanced metrics (like John Hollinger’s PER) is complete and utter bullsh*t, and the stuff being [...]

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Michael Lewis (yes, of Moneyball fame) wrote a piece today in the Times.  I like that Lewis is interested in analytical ways of understanding sports, and that he talks to smart people and publishes what they say.  It just annoys me when he writes as though the answers to his questions are known, and clear, [...]

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The story of the dearth of shooting in the American pro game is well worn, by this point, and dated.  All season I’ve been tracking the outstanding shooting numbers of bunch of players, but didn’t really take a look at the larger picture until just now, and it confirmed my sense that the NBA can [...]

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When John Hollinger joined ESPN, I was delighted to have an analytically minded basketball writer.  Ironically, as time goes on, I appreciate his scouting more and more and find his analytical abilities wanting.  I previously touched on the gaping flaws in his PER, and he just keeps disappointing me, writing:
“2. Welcome to the box score, [...]

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John Hollinger is wrong and it irks me. He and Bill Simmons are my favorite basketball writers and probably the only two analysts I regularly read whose opinions I respect.  So when Hollinger makes absurdly obviously wrong statements (which he does more than he ought to) I find it very annoying.
I don’t feel like going [...]

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This post by Ian Ayres on the NY Times Freakonomics blog, about offensive rebounds, seems ill-considered.
He notes that the Celtics had an extraordinary offensive rebounding edge over the Lakers in the Finals and wondered “whether Lakers’ low number of offensive rebounds was just a matter of bad luck.” This comment assumes that getting offensive [...]

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