Link to article

 

The price of anarchy in basketball Brian Skinner (Submitted on 12 Aug 2009)

Optimizing the performance of a basketball offense may be viewed as a network problem, wherein each play represents a "pathway" through which the ball and players may move from origin (the in-bounds pass) to goal (the basket). Effective field goal percentages from the resulting shot attempts can be used to characterize the efficiency of each pathway. Inspired by recent discussions of the "price of anarchy" in traffic networks, this paper makes a formal analogy between a basketball offense and a simplified traffic network. The analysis suggests that there may be a significant difference between taking the highest-percentage shot each time down the court and playing the most efficient possible game.

Comments:	7 pages, 4 figures
Subjects:	Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)
Cite as:	arXiv:0908.1801v1 [physics.soc-ph]

Continue reading this post »

Game one of the Western Conference Finals is Wednesday in LA. So SA/NO has one day to pack up and fly to LA after what is sure to be a knock down-down, drag-out fight to the finish. Awesome.

Cras tincidunt lectus vitae turpis. Donec enim eros, auctor at; vestibulum ac, mollis a, tortor. Morbi nec velit ut nisi placerat blandit. Nam non odio a purus ultricies aliquam. Etiam ut mauris. Etiam imperdiet.

these are the chumps that got poor AJ fired? these are the chumps that we're not favored against (again)? these are the chumps that won CoY?

For 45 minutes at the New Orleans practice facility this morning, players were taking half-court shots, behind the basket shots and seemingly impossible, 30-foot wall bank shots.

Really guys? Really?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec dictum turpis nec ipsum. Etiam a metus.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ao9nFMcOHthgV1.RVrZHz4.8vLYF?slug=jy-thomas022008&prov=yho o&type=lgns

The San Antonio Spurs have reached agreement with the SuperSonics that will bring them center Kurt Thomas in exchange for guard Brent Barry, center Francisco Elson and a 2009 first-round draft pick, league sources said Wednesday.

The teams are in the process of finalizing the deal with league officials.

By acquiring Thomas, the Spurs get some needed size to help them counter Phoenix’s Shaquille O’Neal and Houston’s Yao Ming. They also are expected to drop under the luxury-tax threshold, possibly saving them about $2 million. In exchange, San Antonio will send the Sonics a portion of the savings.

While Barry has been sidelined with a calf injury, Ime Udoka has taken his place in the rotation and proven to be a dependable contributor with his defense and 3-point shooting. Elson’s inconsistency limited his role with the Spurs this season.

The Sonics, who also considered an offer from the Orlando Magic for Thomas, have now generated three first-round draft picks from Rashard Lewis’ sign-and-trade deal last summer.

looks like horry will start again tonight. i see a pattern emerging. him and finely play the first 5 or 6 mins of action in the 1st and 3rd quarters before manu and fab/bonner come in and play the crucial minutes. or least this is how its been with manu and now it appears pop is gonna do the same with fab/bonner.

i don't know, i guess i can see why it works for manu. to bring him in when the opponent is a little tired and slow is a huge advantage. but neither fab or bonner provide this contrast. in fact, maybe the opposite. i don't get it. i'll admit i didn't see the memphis game where this happened so i can't say how well it worked but we did win with bonner getting 18pts in 23mins.

im going to toronto next week on vacation. anyone from there or know of any places to catch the games? we play the bulls wednesday and raptors friday. sadly, the raptors game will be in SA. had hoped to watch my first road game.

while up there i will have my own little 'three sheets' toronto episode and maybe take pictures of snow since the last time i saw it i was in kindergarten in 85.

i can't find anything online yet, but it would seem that the bean burrito has been traded much to the chagrin of 13-yr old san antonio girls who had befriended him on myspace. :(((( he has been traded to the timberwolves for a conditional 2nd round 2008 draft pick. i don't know what a 'conditional draft-pick' is. Is that where the pick is protected if its above such a number? like if the t-wolves have above 50 then they get to keep it? ah well.

celtics waive G Allan Ray
http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press072707-waive-allan-ray.html

that's good. that would have been waaaay too confusing subbing G Ray Allen for G Allan Ray.

Also Allan Ray may have had his feeling hurt when he came to SA and heard chants of "Ray is Gay for Marsupials" or some such nonsense. And we'd be like, "no, we mean the other Allen" and then their other G ,Tony Allen, would get up from his seat and ask doefully, "me?", and then we'd have to be all like "no!, marsupial fondler over there" and we'd be pointing at Ray Allen, the marsupial lover.

As much as we're told that people truly hate the spurs and that they're bad for the league and for TV ratings, numerous team front offices and veterans seeking a ring across the league look to the spurs.

Some would would have us believe that the model for the future of the NBA is PHX and GSW who have little post-season success. But whether those same people care to admit it or not, the teams with the now and future superstars of the league (James, Oden/Durant) are now fronted by the spurs-minded. Sam Presti was just hired as GM for the sonics and i'd be surprised if PJ does not follow along as their head coach. The hated are crapping out little hated babies all over this league and my crystal ball tells me the future of the NBA is going to follow the path of post season and not regular season success. and what could be better for the league than some actual comp during the post season?

a couple of my friends are headed out to San Diego for a wedding this weekend. anyone know of any places to watch game 3 out there?

p.s. am i the only one who saw timmy do a little "im about to pop my collar" celebratory dance on the bench as the second quarter drew to a close? the camera changed as he was about to "pop the collar"... i keep telling people about it but they think im crazy. i mean, im talking about Tim Duncan here.

just a few shout outs...

thanks to necromancer timmy, schnoz, bruise, and TwF.

thanks to the suns steve nash, for an absolutely phenomenal and competetive series and game finale.

thanks to all the suns fans who posted here. my sides still hurt.

thanks to this blog and matt (aka michael alig) and aaron (aka james st. james) for being such honest sports/spurs writers.

thanks to pop for finally showing some emotion as he walked off the court.

only half the postseason over, wow. this is gonna be real good should we take it all the way!

go spurs go! 2:30pm sunday teh countdown begins.

p.s. congrats matt aaron on finally finishing college and getting to do stuff with the girl this summer. i hope it goes half as well as it has for the spurs. p.p.s holy shit! all spurs but bonner had a _positive_ +/- (bonner had a -1) and most all suns had a negative =/- ... een as great as nash played he led the suns with only a +1 ... wtf!

im guessing its a typo (its shows us as having the majority of the vote) but the seattle dancers have elminated the lovely silver dancers. :(

http://www.nba.com/features/dance_bracket_2007.html

But a slutty photo shoot will gain more votes than an in-game or professional team photo...

raynesha is such a slut.

tim will wipe that marsupial loving smirk off his face tonight. we've beat them by a progressively larger margin each time this year: first by 20, then 31, and last time 41. "no respect", as a foolish former seattle center once said.