September 2020
Beginner to intermediate
528 pages
12h 33m
English
Content preview from Analytics Stories
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
CHAPTER 60Did Analytics Help the Mavericks Win the 2011 NBA Title?
During the 2000–2001 through the 2010–2011 seasons, Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks averaged 56 wins per season, second only to the San Antonio Spurs' 58 wins. During most of those years, my friend Jeff Sagarin (creator of the widely respected USA Today sports ratings posted at Sagarin.com) and I were privileged to provide analytic support to the Mavericks. As Mark graciously points out (see video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_packages&hsimp=yhs-pty_packages&hspart=pty&p=mark+cuban+jeopardy+wayne+winston+video#id=1&vid=b8a9ca147a084c09bf35f35bff383da9&action=click), Jeff and I were the first data scientists to aid an NBA team. Of course, the players and the coaches deserve the lion's share of the credit for the Mavericks' great decade and 2011 NBA title, but in this chapter, I hope to pull back the curtain and show you how our analytic work played a small role in the Mavs’ decade-long success. I'd also like to note that when Jeff and I provided similar services for the Knicks’ great GM, Glen Grunwald, the Knicks won 54 games, their most wins since 1997.
How Can You Evaluate a Basketball Player?
NBA box scores give you plenty of data on players, but not much data on a player's defensive ability. Our view was that basketball players should be evaluated based on how the score of the game moves when the player is on or off the court. As an example, legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach noted that guard ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.