APBRmetrics

basketballvalue · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 208

Hey everyone,

SSAC usually energizes everyone to put more time in on APBRMetrics, and I'm often asked for ideas people can work on. Here's an idea I've had kicking around in my head, if people are interested it's something we might want to pursue.

The basic idea is to create a database/site that tracks all the people in the NBA and how they're connected. We often hear relationships matter, and many of the relationships are well-known and can be deduced from media guides and other public info (coaches, players, scouts, front offices,....). Similar to LinkedIn, Facebook, and also political donor tracking sites (e.g. http://unfluence.primate.net/unfluence.html?StateSelect=CA&YearSelect=2004&Office=S00&Interest=0&valueMin=10000), this would track who knows who and how they know them. Including agents, college coaches, and I'm sure many others could also be valuable. It's not exactly APBRMetrics, but it could be handy in potentially undertstanding the context of hiring decisions (e.g. Monty Williams and Dell Demps were teammates in '95-'96), front office moves (a player just traded wasn't drafted by the current front office), and more.

I think it's an interesting topic, but I certainly don't have the time to take this on myself. Maybe Justin and b-r.com should do it as it could fit in nicely there. However, if people are interested in doing this collaboratively as an open-source project, maybe we should. I could help out a little in getting it started in that scenario.

Maybe it's just a discussion topic for the hallways of SSAC this week, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think.

Thanks,
Aaron
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acollard · Joined: 22 Sep 2010 Posts: 56 Location: MA

Brainstorming types of people, linkages:

Player, Coach, Agent, GM, Scout, Writer.

Obviously representing same team would be one link. Would Olympic teammates be linked? What about siblings (lopez twins) or in-laws (Mike Bibby and Eddie House)?

Players/ Coaches would be relatively easy, because databases exist. Front office/scouting/media members would be much harder to do.

Using network diagrams you could visualize this linkage. I'm not sure size variance could be used, perhaps based on years of data? Suggesting longtime players, coaches, GMs and a combination are more important.

The nodes (dots) could be color coded by position type, with dots either mixed colors or split in half (not sure if possible in R or other program). e.g. if red was player and blue was coach, purple would be player/coach.

Vertices could be color coded based on type of connection. Either a mix in color of the two types of nodes, or differently color coded based on linkage relationship. sporting (on court), professional (off court but BB related), or personal(friend or family)

Just some ideas. Again, data for non-players would be the hardest.

horsecow · Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 12 Location: Iowa City, IA

This is a fascinating idea. I'm particularly struck by how the early history of basketball's development on the east coast (mainly New York City and Philadelphia) continues to make its presence felt in basketball today. Just to take one example:

Frank McGuire, born in NYC, 1914, coached:
* Larry Brown, born in Brooklyn, 1940
* Donnie Walsh, born in NYC, 1941
* Doug Moe, born in NYC, 1938
* Bobby Cremins, born in The Bronx, 1947
* Mike Dunleavy, Sr., born in Brooklyn, 1954

That's a pretty good list of VIPs in basketball coaching/front office work, even today (more so 20 years ago). I imagine if you could map how basketball coaching developed, there would be several geographic wellsprings (Kansas, New York, Philadelphia, Indiana), then all kinds of intertwining as streams mixed and diverged (e.g., how Dean Smith played for Phog Allen [Kansas] but then coached with Frank McGuire [NYC]). Now it's all pretty mixed up, but it's still amazing how often you'll hear a New York/Philly accent coming out of a coach or commentator's mouth.

Ed **Küpfer** · Joined: 30 Dec 2004 Posts: 787 Location: Toronto

schtevie · Joined: 18 Apr 2005 Posts: 414

Oh, you already have. It will be called: Six Degrees of Ed Küpfer.

Chilltown · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 15 Location: Boston

My friend at the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective has done this already for all NBA players. We will write about this more in the coming weeks, but here is the link to the site (sneak preview I guess):

https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/pallas/results.php?ruquery=Kareem+Abdul+Jabbar&ruquery2=Kevin+Durant

basketballvalue · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 208

Chilltown · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 15 Location: Boston

No, you are exactly right. I didn't intend this as "hey look, we've done it already," but rather as "we've made a small dent."