by Stop Mike Lupica on August 8 at 11:37AM
Tom Ziller, of SacTown Royalty did a post for Ballhype that essential was analysis of the NBA last season, but with the teams graphed so you can get a better feel for how they stand relative to one another.
Ziller's post has four graphs. Let's have some fun with them:
First up is "The Map of Goodness & Badness", which sounds oddly like something from J.R.R. Tolkien book. It places teams on the x-axis on the basis of defensive efficiency, and the y-axis on the basis of offensive efficiency. The key points that stood out to us: Phoenix is surprising average at defense. We've always perceived them as below average defensively, but it's hard to argue they are worse than the half of the league that is below them on the graph in terms of defense - teams like Memphis, Washington, Seattle, the Knicks, Portland, Atlanta, Minnesota, Charlotte, Boston... you get the idea. Almost all (except for the Wizards, Lakers, and to a slight degree, the Warriors and Jazz) not playoff teams. In fact, the Pacers and Clippers were the only team that made the top half of defense that didn't make the playoffs.
Very close teams are the 76ers and the Hornets, which bodes well for their futures. If they can keep playing strong team defense, odds are they will see the playoffs again soon.
The other graph we found pretty interesting was The Map of Rifleman & Roughnecks. Basically the x-axis measures the amount of fouls a team draws (it's a little more complicated than that, but that's roughly the gist of it). The y-axis measures team three point shooting, in quantity, not quality.
The Knicks were one of the top-foul drawing teams last season; in fact, we're not sure when the Wizards, Kings, Grizzlies, or Jazz passed them. We would like to see this graph, but for the playoffs. That's when a team like the Spurs (here in the bottom half of fouls drawn) picks up the fouls.
Also interesting to note that the biggest rifleman (3-point shooters) were the Warriors, Suns and... Rockets? Yeah, that was our argument last year on the Rockets, actually... they could get 25 points each from Yao and T-Mac, and the rest of the team could score because they hit so many threes. In fact, Battier, Alston, Luther Head - all the role players on the Rockets team were chuckers. It's one more reason why the addition of Luis Scola is underrated - Scola can and will score a bit down low, and draw some fouls. Steve Francis might, too, though we hate him and still regard his signing with the Rockets as subtraction by addition.
In the end, though, this graph doesn't really tell us much about what it takes to succeed in the NBA. Playoff teams can be found on both extremes - the Suns, Warriors, Rockets are in the Rifleman corner, where as the Jazz and Magic are in the other. Complicating matters is that the Wizards and Mavs are in another quadrant altogether, and in the fourth quadrant are the Bulls and Pistons. A nice graph, but it serves the purpose of breaking teams into groups based on style rather than trying to graph a key component of team success.
It's good data, though, so give it a look when you get a chance, and here's hoping we see similar efforts.
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Ziller's post has four graphs. Let's have some fun with them:
First up is "The Map of Goodness & Badness", which sounds oddly like something from J.R.R. Tolkien book. It places teams on the x-axis on the basis of defensive efficiency, and the y-axis on the basis of offensive efficiency. The key points that stood out to us: Phoenix is surprising average at defense. We've always perceived them as below average defensively, but it's hard to argue they are worse than the half of the league that is below them on the graph in terms of defense - teams like Memphis, Washington, Seattle, the Knicks, Portland, Atlanta, Minnesota, Charlotte, Boston... you get the idea. Almost all (except for the Wizards, Lakers, and to a slight degree, the Warriors and Jazz) not playoff teams. In fact, the Pacers and Clippers were the only team that made the top half of defense that didn't make the playoffs.
Very close teams are the 76ers and the Hornets, which bodes well for their futures. If they can keep playing strong team defense, odds are they will see the playoffs again soon.
The other graph we found pretty interesting was The Map of Rifleman & Roughnecks. Basically the x-axis measures the amount of fouls a team draws (it's a little more complicated than that, but that's roughly the gist of it). The y-axis measures team three point shooting, in quantity, not quality.
The Knicks were one of the top-foul drawing teams last season; in fact, we're not sure when the Wizards, Kings, Grizzlies, or Jazz passed them. We would like to see this graph, but for the playoffs. That's when a team like the Spurs (here in the bottom half of fouls drawn) picks up the fouls.
Also interesting to note that the biggest rifleman (3-point shooters) were the Warriors, Suns and... Rockets? Yeah, that was our argument last year on the Rockets, actually... they could get 25 points each from Yao and T-Mac, and the rest of the team could score because they hit so many threes. In fact, Battier, Alston, Luther Head - all the role players on the Rockets team were chuckers. It's one more reason why the addition of Luis Scola is underrated - Scola can and will score a bit down low, and draw some fouls. Steve Francis might, too, though we hate him and still regard his signing with the Rockets as subtraction by addition.
In the end, though, this graph doesn't really tell us much about what it takes to succeed in the NBA. Playoff teams can be found on both extremes - the Suns, Warriors, Rockets are in the Rifleman corner, where as the Jazz and Magic are in the other. Complicating matters is that the Wizards and Mavs are in another quadrant altogether, and in the fourth quadrant are the Bulls and Pistons. A nice graph, but it serves the purpose of breaking teams into groups based on style rather than trying to graph a key component of team success.
It's good data, though, so give it a look when you get a chance, and here's hoping we see similar efforts.
Leave a comment
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"subtraction by addition"
LOL good one. It perfectly fits with Steve Francis, really