Sports Business Classroom Audio Experience is back with a brand new “Professional Series” hosted by SBC Instructor, Howard Beck. Howard (previously with Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, and NY Times) is joined by ESPN writer Kevin Pelton. Kevin brings advanced experience in basketball analytics, including past work with the Indiana Pacers and supersonics.com.
In this episode, Howard and Kevin discuss:
- The new age of stats and analytics in basketball
- Dean Oliver’s 4 Factors of Offense and Defense
- Scoring efficiency and how to judge high-usage players
- How to measure team success past a win-loss record
- Advice for anyone looking to increase their knowledge about NBA data and analytics
Kevin Pelton joined ESPN as an NBA writer in 2013. He is a contributor to ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast and the co-host of the Fabulous Peltoncast podcast. Previously, Pelton served as an author for BasketballProspectus.com from the site’s inception in 2007 through 2012. He also served as a statistical consultant to the Indiana Pacers from 2010-12. We are excited to have Kevin join the podcast and share his knowledge on the analytical side of basketball.
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SHOW NOTES
- NBA Analytics Writer, ESPN, Basketball Prospectus, Stats Consultant Pacers, SuperSonics.com
- How have we arrived at this new age of stats and analytics in the game of basketball? What are the importance of possession stats and how do we use them? (3:30)
- Why did this idea of per-possession stats take so long to take over basketball? How did the evolution of play-by-play affect stat tracking (5:45)
- How do we best assess basic team offense and team defense from a statistical perspective? How was Steve Nash’s team able to dominate from an efficiency perspective? (7:30)
- What are some outlier teams that we misjudged in the present time but have come to appreciate? (10:45)
- Breakdown of the 4 factors of Offense and Defense from Dean Oliver. What makes a team successful at each factor? Does the basketball community embrace the 4 factors? What is the middle ground between “eye-test” and analytics? (13:30)
- What is effective field goal percentage and how to know if a player’s effective field goal percentage is good? Difference between true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage? (20:00)
- Weight of the 4 factors and the level of importance of each factor. Explanation of offensive rebounding and how it goes into rebounding rate within the 4 factors. (29:00)
- Looking into the importance of elite rebounders and boxing out. (32:50)
- What is the impact of free throws on offensive efficiency? (36:40)
- What is the best way to define scoring efficiency? (39:00)
- How to rank and judge high usage scorers while factoring in efficiency? (45:00)
- How to measure team success past a win-loss record? (47:15)
- Recommendations for people looking to learn more about NBA data and analytical processes. (52:40)
