Browsing All Posts published on »January, 2011«

NBA Now Rankings as of 1/29/2011

January 30, 2011 by

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Predictions are a tricky business. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to be wrong. But the public loves them and so writers and analysts constantly put themselves out there to feed the beast. As with everything, there are some interesting tricks of the trade. Cool website of the day informationisbeautiful puts […]

The Curious Case of Kobe Bryant

January 29, 2011 by

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“En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.” -Miguel de Cervantes – El Ingenioso Hidalgo de Don Quijote de la Mancha I am going to hate myself in the morning […]

A Guest Post for Science!

January 28, 2011 by

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I’m going to try science. Words to live by. But trying science isn’t  for the faint of heart and the thick skinned.Science is cool and dangerous. Science is Epic but epics traditionally end badly for the participants. Truly trying science means asking the tough question and being willing to put yourself out there. It means […]

Quick Fanservice: Scoring vs Shot Creation in the Clutch and Overall Clutch Rankings

January 26, 2011 by

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Reader Judd wrote in the comments to the last post: “Really interesting. One thought – I’m curious about the overwhelming distribution of ball handlers at the top (with the exception of high-percentage scoring big men, who we’d expect to be the ones we want taking the “clutch” shots). It seems like Paul, Nash, etc. (even […]

Clutchiness

January 26, 2011 by

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“Time is a valuable thing, Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings Watch it count down to the end of the day The clock ticks life away” -Linkin Park  In the end In strange reversal of fortune from the last few months, I’ve got a plethora of posts (rankings, the 2011 draft, the talent […]

Doing it in the Clutch

January 24, 2011 by

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“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” – Thomas Payne The Crisis 82games.com has a neat little feature where they […]

A Visual look back at the Season so far

January 23, 2011 by

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I been working on a project or two this weekend. As readers this means you will be getting some cool work in the future. It also means I’m a little short on time right now. Unfortunately, this means you’ll have to settle for some cool infographs today.   Fortunately, I’ve been playing around with some […]

The 100 Best Games

January 22, 2011 by

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One cool thing about having a blog is that I get to project my vision of reality as fact. Now this isn’t always the case and In fact I take great pains to be objective a lot of the time. But sometimes I like to let the old id loose and write opinion pieces. Given […]

Trading for Fun and Profit

January 20, 2011 by

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Rocky: Champ, look this fight’s over. I gotta stop it. Apollo: No, no. Rocky: Look, you can’t do no more out there! Apollo: I’m here to fight. Rocky: He’s killing ya. I gotta stop this thing. Apollo: I’m here to fight, promise me you’re not gonna stop this fight. -Seriously, you have to ask? The […]

A final Table on Melo

January 19, 2011 by

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I know, you’re probably saying yet another Melo Post. Last one until the trade I promise. So there where a few more posts (at Truehoop and The Value of Carmelo Anthony: Measuring the Melo Effect at Basketball Prospectus). The ESPN piece is fluff (sorry Henry but stats bad, eyes good is not a valid argument), […]

NBA Now Rankings as of 1/16/2011 (and a possible Leap)

January 18, 2011 by

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Ah, my new favorite post of the week. It’s short,fast, informative and I get to post cool tables and graphs. Throw in a beach, my wife,  a ballgame, no cellphones  and a mojito and it’s the perfect vacation. I know it’s a sequel but sometimes sequels rock. Insert the typical disclaimer about it being a […]

Fanservice: Followup notes on Melo, Rookies

January 17, 2011 by

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“I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” -Albert Einstein talking about God I’ve been online for only a few hours this weekend. The reason for this is that I was throwing a party at my house on Sunday. I spent my weekend doing prep work. I scrubbed floors, I cleaned […]

A simple response to Mr. Silver

January 16, 2011 by

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Nate Silver is one of my personal heroes. He’s a statistical rockstar. The work he’s done in baseball and in politics is truly amazing and an inspiration. I’ve been reading his stuff for years. I really can’t believe I’m about to take the piss at Nate Silver. But politely disagreeing with a fellow stats person […]

A quick case of Fanservice (and a not so quick case)

January 14, 2011 by

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Today I’m taking requests. First of is Chicago Tim, who asks me to post a run chart of Wins Produced (for newcomers, go here for the Basics.)for all of Derrick Rose’s games for the season. We aim to please: I wrote a lengthy piece on Rose before the season. I concluded: “The reckoning is at […]

A quick post on Kobe

January 13, 2011 by

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I’ve been playing with run charts for every game and I’d just thought I’d get one up as a test. Here goes: That ladies (hello mother, hello wife 🙂 ) and gentlemen is Kobe Bryant’s every game for the current season. Now there’s been some noise about his variability this season and I figured it’ll […]

A Nightly Pattern of Behavior (slight table correction)

January 13, 2011 by

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“God is in the details.”-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Yesterday, I gave you something completely different. Today I give you more of the same. The important bit is that we’re going to talk details and as the quote says that’s where God is. Interestingly enough so is the devil. That was the lead yesterday. We […]

A series of Good Nights

January 12, 2011 by

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And now for something completely different. I wasn’t sure what to post today and so I decided to take a topic and give a different spin. So I’m going to talk MVP (as promised) but it’s going to be different because rather than looking at the whole season, I’m going to go off and look […]

NBA Now Rankings as of 1/10/2011

January 10, 2011 by

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I loved the last one I did of these. It was short, sweet and to the point. We’ll imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Self-imitation though might be a bit questionable (at least in polite society). But what the hell, we’re on the internet. As I’ve said before it’s a long season and things […]

A Modest Proposal

January 8, 2011 by

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“I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal..”-Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal I decided to go off topic for a day on this post. I’m going to talk about another of my passions today. I’m going to talk college football. More specifically, as I sit here watching NFL […]

Offensive All Stars

January 7, 2011 by

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“Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd.”-I Ching Sometimes I feel like my work is never done. I do one thing and rather than an ending it just leads to a new beginning.  I come up with something that […]

Epic

January 6, 2011 by

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Once in a while I stumble upon something truly epic. This week, I’ve been lucky to see more than one example of people dropping the knowledge in a most delightful way. So in honor of my 100 thousandth view (and before I go off to do the dishes), I’m dropping some links. First off, thanks […]

Creating your own shot

January 5, 2011 by

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  “If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.”-    Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. I have the most fun when my brain takes me somewhere completely unexpected.   That […]

Spreading the wealth

January 4, 2011 by

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“Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”” – Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review In honor of the […]

Around the WOW: Should old debates be forgot

January 2, 2011 by

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“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?” -Robert Burns   I know, I know, I haven’t been posting often during the holidays. Let me make it up to you by bringing back and old favorite. Around the WOW makes a comeback with the […]