Greek God of Stats

The GOAT Ladder Part 8: #215-211

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 7: #220-216: Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history.

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 6: #225-221 Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I am seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history.

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 5: #230-226

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 4: #235-231

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 3: #240-236

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 2: #245-241

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be seeking the NBA GOAT in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in league history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including three key…

The GOAT Ladder Part 1: #250-246 We're counting down the top 250 players in NBA history, all the way to the GOAT. The first rung of the GOAT ladder is players #250-#246.

Who is the greatest NBA player of all time? I will be answering that very question in a series of posts featuring wide-ranging descriptions of the top 250 players in NBA history. For an explanation of what the stats I’ll be using mean, read the five-part intro starting here and continuing in Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. For each player on the ladder, from #250 to #1, I’ll be including…

GOAT Ladder: What the Ladder Looks Like

Putting It All Together

How do we put it all together to arrive at a valid answer? There are different levels, and different data sources; how should we stitch them together? What I’ve done is to view a player’s credentials through eleven “windows” side by side, with players receiving a “grade” for each window. Here are the grades on every player’s Report Card:

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GOAT Ladder: Greatness is in the Eye of the Beholder

Putting Offense and Defense Together

With D_Score and two forms of O_Score in hand, we can combine offense and defense into a “one number” statistic. I have labeled the two variants of this stat differently to help the reader easily apprehend the difference: Total_Score per Possession adds O_Score per Possession to D_Score, while Total_Score adds O_Score by Volume to D_Score. So if you see…

GOAT Ladder: Defensive Greatness

Defense – The Final Frontier The final frontier Image created by Craig Wheeler (https://www.flickr.com/photos/28221085@N03/3379998439)

It has heretofore been impossible to discuss individual defensive performance with any type of common language. Unfortunately, that leaves us with no solid means to debate the defensive merits of the majority of players in NBA history. All previous attempts…

The GOAT Ladder: Offensive Greatness

Analyzing Offensive Value in Context

Evaluating a player’s offensive output relative to his background has been one of the areas in which statistical analysis of the NBA has enjoyed the most success, with analysts since the 1980’s having endeavored to calculate the offensive value of players from various eras. To this day, the term “analytics” is synonymous with shooting efficiency in some…

The GOAT Ladder: Intro

No matter how strong the pull of the moment is on our attention, the history of the game calls to us. The urge to crown a king and place him in succession to the kings of the past is an echo of the call. Ranking the top 10 or top 20 or top 50 or top 100 players of all time is another echo. The call rings out clearest of all, however, in the eternally debated question “Who is the greatest player…

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

The NBA is a right now league. Each game can change in a moment. Every season’s trade deadline brings about substantial team restructuring, and the offseason free agency and trade market has become an event unto itself. Change happens quickly, and the team that wins the championship is often the team that becomes the best version of itself at just the right…

Protected: Matchup-Based Defense

Defense is half of the game of basketball, but it has been difficult to gather information about the defensive capabilities of all the players in the league until very recent seasons. Due to the paucity of data about defensive performance and the limitations imposed by television broadcasting contracts, it was practically impossible to truly know how good a defender each player is, night in and…

Beyond the Box Score

It is time to stop evaluating players based on statistical feats. The ubiquity of statistical data has brought with it a ready supply of historical comparisons. In today’s NBA, one can hardly turn around without running into a stat trumpeting a player as “the first player since MJ to have 18 consecutive games of 20-5-5”. Who can ignore the box score aggregators, with their perpetual lists of “top…

Can You Give Me Some Stats to Prove that Russell Westbrook Steals Rebounds?

          Properly valuing and evaluating rebounds has become something of a hot topic in recent years with Russell Westbrook averaging a triple double for three consecutive seasons despite being one of the smallest players in the history of the league to average 10 rebounds per game. Much of the discussion about his incredible feat has centered on whether or not it is the case that Westbrook’s…