Tag Archives: On the NBA

On the NBA: Mythos vs. Measurement

Derrick Rose jumped back into the happiest part of our imagination last night, reeling off a vintage performance against LeBron and the new-look Cavs. All of the non-play and paltry statistics of his last two years faded away for an evening; he’s back, we thought, and that’s all that matters. No collection of basketball metrics can […]

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On the NBA: Moral Victories

Yes, we believe in these—some of us do, anyway. In all likelihood, your propensity to dub a loss as a victory in the “moral” department is greatly exacerbated by your emotional proximity to the team of discussion. When we put our pride in other men and they’ve handled it wrong, this distinction gives is something […]

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On the NBA: “Skills” Contests

On the eve of the 2014 NBA All-Star weekend in New Orleans, a bit of research fell onto the doormat of basketball’s blogosphere. “Databall,” an article by Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry, explains a paper which proposes to institute a revolutionary new measurement known as EPV—short for Expected Point Value. The statistic seeks to quantify the scoring […]

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