Hey Folks,

So I have been doing a lot of compiling stats lately and importing them into really useful and enjoyable to use Google Motion Charts.  As I understand it via Ben at Blazersedge you folks, Ben and Eddy included are a bit of stat heads like us up here in rain country, and thought I would pass along this chart.  It encompasses players that have compiled 15+ Poss/gm between 2004-2010, as you'll see the list of variables is pretty large. However the Default state for the chart I am linking to shows how Orlando players stack up from a value stand point. The size of the player bubble represents the salary a player earned during that year, the color of the bubble represents their number of years of service.  The 2 Axis are PER rating, and Poss/gm.

Hope you all enjoy. Here is a bit of a tutorial image that I created to help you understand how to use these graphs.

Click through for Chart

Invisible Ninja

Hey Folks,

So I have been doing a lot of compiling stats lately and importing them into really useful and enjoyable to use Google Motion Charts.  As I understand it via Ben at Blazersedge you folks, Ziller included are a bit of stat heads like us up here in rain country, and thought I would pass along this chart.  It encompasses players that have compiled 15+ Poss/gm between 2004-2010, as you'll see the list of variables is pretty large. However the Default state for the chart I am linking to shows how Sac players stack up from a value stand point. The size of the player bubble represents the salary a player earned during that year, the color of the bubble represents their number of years of service.  The 2 Axis are PER rating, and Poss/gm.

Hope you all enjoy. Here is a bit of a tutorial image that I created to help you understand how to use these graphs.

Edit: Now includes Age, Draft Position, Years Service

Click through for Chart

Invisible Ninja

So I am at it again, this time with some direction. I have created another Motion Chart this time for individual players from the 2004-2010 seasons the default scale is Poss/G vs PPP  I have it set to track Brandon Roy, Kobe, Lebron and Kevin Durant. Below is a tutorial of sorts on how to utilize this tool.

You can really measure any # of players against each other, or if you chose to not track any in particular you will see motion of all players over 15 poss/g since the 04/05 season.  Hope you enjoy. If you have feedback please leave it in the comments.

UPDATE 2/2  Now also includes Salary Data, as well as years of service.  Default chart state shows slacking in action.

Thanks to Storyteller for the assist.

Click through for Chart

Added additional variables including PER, Win Shares, ETC...........

Planning a full glossary and more comprehensive walk through.

Click Image to see full tutorial image.

So as you know I am kind of a data head. I've been working on a spreadsheet for a few days that I have finally finished I thought that a lot of you might enjoy messing around with the Motion Chart a little. It is posted on my "Blog" for lack of a better term. Anyways you can sort the chart by any 2 metrics that you like, PPP/Wins,  Poss/Pace Etc... it runs from the 04/05 season through 08/09 so hope you enjoy.

Click through for Chart

Decided to evaluate scoring efficiency by quarter. I know some of you don't love PPP as a measure but I do so tough. Credit goes to HoopData for turning me on to this chart style. As you can see the usual suspects Brandon and LaMarcus have a relatively high efficiency across the board, Batum is off the charts, however this can be attributed to the small sample size which is reflective in his number of possessions.

So, the chart wont load here, so you'll have to click through to my Blog to play with it.

http://covertlyaquireddata.blogspot.com/2010/02/scoring-efficiency-by-quarter.html

Decided to go to the Synergy Reports today to determine the Midway MVP. Obviously Lebron and Kobe have to be the lopsided favorites to win the award. Who is most deserving? The stats may surprise you.

Below is a chart that breaks down the top statistical contenders. And of course our local favorite.

Leaders are bolded

  So what does all of this mean?

Obviously PPP is an average of the number of points scored per possession

Poss/G the average # of possessions a player gets per game

FG% self explanatory

%SF is the percentage of the time the player is fouled in the act of shooting

%Score is the percentage of the players possessions that end in at least 1 point being scored

PP(P+A) is slightly more abstract. It measures Points per possession plus assists

PPA is simply points per assist.

In my humble opinion this is/should be a two man fight for the MVP award. Just not the two I initially posed.

Lebron is obviously the hands down favorite to win the award, but you simply cant discount the production of Chris Bosh. Right now the weakness of his team is hurting his chances, but... if he is moved at the deadline, especially to a contender, the 2nd half MVP race could get interesting.

Unfortunately Roy would have to set the world on fire in the 2nd half to have a chance, but clearly based on the first half numbers, he deserves to be in the conversation.

As all of you have no doubt done as well, I found myself hanging on every word yesterday and today in regards to the blowup between Andre Miller and Nate. What I found myself thinking time and time again is "Yeah Andre make him realize that you are being underutilized". As some of you may know I have been the "Invisible Ninja" providing Ben with reports from Synergy to help better get insight into what is going on with this team. I decided to spend some time today looking at the info from a perspective of 4th qtr breakdown vs qtr 1-3 breakdown. Below is a spreadsheet of some of the Data I uncovered. 

As you can  plainly see Andre may have a point about getting more minutes Qtr 1-3 as his productivity dwarfs that of Steve Blake. However when it comes to 4th quarter efficiency, Miller does not have ground to stand on. He simply should not be on the court during crunch time. His 4th quarter FG% is nearly 13% worse than Bayless, his scoring % is nearly 10% worse than Blake and his PPP is .2 PPP worse than any of the other primary guards. Simply put Nate is correct in leaving Miller off the court in the final quarter unless he earns it.

UPDATE:  another piece of info that I ran across that supports Miller's late game bench routine. While Nate places such a large emphasis on taking care of the Basketball, the following are the 4th quarter TO rates for the above mentioned players.

Roy 7%

Blake 11.9%

Bayless 9.3%

Miller 15.6%

Other stats that suprised me: Andre Miller's primary offensive role in the 4th quarter is in the P&R at 28% of his O, problem is that his efficiency is sorely lacking, he puts up a dismal .47 PPP on 27.3% shooting.

The Blazers as a whole however are very strong in the 4th, in fact they are #2 in efficiency at 1.00 PPP out of their Half court set. They also are 2nd most efficient in the spot up game at 1.17 PPP.

All this data leads me to sit back... breathe and realize that Nate, KP et al. Know what the heck they are doing.

There has been a lot of chatter lately about LaMarcus' use in the 4th quarter and crunch time in general. I decided to break down the first 4 minutes of games vs the last 4 minutes of games. The Results were only shocking based on how wide the discrepancy in usage really is.

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Remember when Nate was being lauded by national media as being fantastic out of timeouts and in crunch time and in set plays?  If not I'll direct you here Article from the WSJ.  Well In the 2008-2009 Nate took the dead ball efficiency to even higher levels.  In the 2008-2009 Season the Blazers were # 6 in the NBA in FG% out of timeouts with a 44.8% FG percentage and an aFG% of 49.2   Also they were #3 in the NBA in efficiency in inbound plays from the endline at 45.2% and an aFG% of 49.7%.

So where do we currently stand?  As Ben has been pointing out, the team just doesn't seem to be effective in their offensive schemes. Dead ball situations are certainly not immune to this phenomenon. Thus far in the 2009-2010 season the Blazers are #29 in the NBA out of timeouts at 37.7% and an aFG of 40.0%    The end line has not been quite as dramatic a decline going from #3 to #12 at a current fg% of 38.8 and an aFG% of 40.8.

2008   #6  After Timeout  44.8%        #3 Out of Bounds End Line  45.2%

2009   #29 After Timeout 37.7%        #12 Out of Bounds End Line 38.8%

Let the dialog commence.

So I have been spending some time today poring over statistics trying to get a handle on what comes next for the Blazers. In doing so I was curious as to how Brandon Roy has evolved. What is he doing  better this season, what is he doing worse. With our roster decimated by injuries it is becoming increasingly clear that we will need Brandon to play the most effective ball of his career if we are going to be successful and meet the expectations that this fanbase has placed on this squad. Undoubtedly you have by now read Ben's statistical analysis on the team thus far, and his analysis was/is on point. Here is my look at Roy's progress from 08-09 to now.

If you are not interested in the minutia of a stats break down, don't bother reading on.

Continue reading this post »