Recent Posts
Follow Hickory-High
Tag Archives: Pau Gasol
The Myth of Danger
Every year as the playoffs approach one thing is guaranteed. A team or two always gets marked as “the team no one should want to face.” The teams normally fall into one of two categories. First the young up and coming team that does something better than anyone else in the league. Think the Grizzlies of a few years ago, who excelled at the slowdown grind it out game because of an elite defense. … Continue reading
Searching for Value in NBA Contracts
Introduction A few weeks ago, Kevin Pelton of ESPN looked at the best contracts in the NBA by multiplying a player’s WARP (wins above replacement level) by the average amount that teams pay for each WARP. I’d like to approach this same problem from a different angle: namely, how much value are teams getting out of the salaries they pay their players? Instead of looking at WARP, I’ll focus on win shares, another metric … Continue reading
Weekly Stats Recap
For this week’s Stat Study, I decided to look at average FGA, FTA, and 3PA in an effort to forecast winners. After each of the 54 games had been played this week, I charted every matchup and jotted down which team averaged more FTA, FGA, and 3PA to see if there was a constant link between any of them to the winner. I posed the question of which statistic (FTA, FGA, or 3PA) would … Continue reading
Weekly Stats Recap
Thanks to Utah Jazz fan, Taylor Berthelson (@utahmankiyi), this week’s study was devoted to determining the importance of the first quarter to the game result. I used years of data to determine that winning teams typically performed well in the first quarter earlier this week, but it doesn’t hurt to add some 2012-2013 statistics to prove the trend true for this season. Taylor estimated that 60% of teams that win the first quarter win the … Continue reading
Weekly Stats Recap
This week I thought I’d take a look at the shot taking/making of offenses “at the rim” and behind the arc. Theoretically, offenses work hard to get a good look from one of these spots on very possession, and I was curious which had a greater impact on the game. My hypothesis was that winning teams would have the consistent edge “at the rim” while the three point shooting would be something of a … Continue reading
Game of the Week: Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers
Slim pickings this week. For some reason TNT isn’t broadcasting the Thursday games. That leaves the ESPN games on Friday. I think the Bulls-Heat game will be great, but I couldn’t resist picking the Los Angeles-Los Angeles matchup. There has been a lot of talk about how the Nets moving to Brooklyn created a great intra-city rivalry, but the Knicks and the Nets have done battle for a long time, with each side experiencing … Continue reading
More On Shot Selection
Last Thursday I put up a post unveiling a new way of evaluating shot selection. The system is called Expected Points Per Shot, and it uses the expected point value of shots from different locations to calculate an expected per shot average for each player. We know that three-pointers on average are more valuable than long two-pointers. We also know exactly how much more valuable on average; 0.280 points per shot. Using that kind … Continue reading
Game of the Week: Los Angeles Lakers at New York Knicks
Suddenly, we are a quarter of the way through the season. It’s been weird. The Knicks have looked much better than the Heat in their two meetings, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant have murdered Father Time, and Andray Blatche is a relevant player after 20 games. It’s not an insignificant sample size, but I wouldn’t be surprised if none of these trends held. Every matchup seems so meaningful this early, and for teams like … Continue reading
Fantasy Basketball with the Fantasy Nomad
There is no rest for the Fantasy Nomad or the good people over at RotoInfo. The fantasy season never ends and they work tirelessly to keep the best fantasy basketball content coming on a regular basis. This weekend, I was invited to join Michael Pichan (@FantasyNomad) on his podcast, and we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly approaching the quarter mark in the NBA season. Wondering what to do with Dwight Howard and … Continue reading
Daily Dribble – November 27th, 2012
Editing Transparently: Last Night’s Numbers is no more and we’re still searching for a daily format that works here at Hickory-High. Matt Cianfrone is trying out this new (sometimes) Daily Dribble thoughts/storify set-up. Let us know what you think, what works and what doesn’t. What would you like to see added? Now, back to Matt: Some thoughts from the two late games: Timberwolves 97 – Kings 89: The double foul is one of the stupidest things … Continue reading
