We live in this world where more and more things are measurable. But not everything. Here are some numbers I'd like to see:
- If an NBA player is hauled off the floor with an injury, what's the likelihood his team is trailing? It seems to me like players on teams that are well behind leave games more often than those who are well ahead, but maybe that's a trick of the mind. (Insert Vince Carter/Tracy McGrady joke here.)
- Sometimes teams run a lot of isolation plays (tracked by Synergy!) to attack a defender they see as particularly weak. There they go after J.J. Redick! Or lookout, Hedo Turkoglu! Here's my suspicion, though: I think reputation has a lot to do with who gets attacked in this way. To that end, I'd bet good money that teams go after rookies, international players, white players (yes, I just wrote that!) and short players a very high percentage of the time. Meanwhile, some of those players are perfectly good defenders -- those broad categories are an imprecise way to find the truly exploitable defenders. So, I'd like to track the defenders who are isolated the most and compare that to the players who are actually bad at defending in isolation. Are those lists similar? For instance, short guys like Jameer Nelson and Chris Paul get posted up a fair amount -- but they're strong, part of good team defenses, and not so bad at defending the post! I wonder if coaches are seeing their shortness, which is obvious, more clearly than they're seeing their defensive ability, which is very hard to track.
- If I were the NBA, mounting an advertising campaign, I'd want to know how many lead changes, buzzer beaters, and scores in the final minute happen in every major sport, including soccer. Basketball kills everybody at this stuff, and this stuff is fantastic.
Henry Abbott | email
TrueHoop, NBA- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Founder of TrueHoop blog and network
- Began writing about NBA for magazines in 1999
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