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MVP Points
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wiLQ



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 22
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 12:35 pm    Post subject: MVP Points Reply with quote

Hello,

I may be a new user to you but this forum is definitely not new to me.
I read it since summer of 2006 and that's why I'm writing this post.
Because I'm curious about your opinion...

In December 2005 I came up with the idea of MVP Points.
It was an attempt to find what winners of that award had in common and then
create formula which could describe it using various numbers and statistics.
While doing it I had in my mind only one goal:
predict who will win MVP on actual and every future season.
At that time I thought that I've succeeded.
Thanks to Roland it was published on 82games.com:
http://www.82games.com/wilq.htm
with the follow-up and one major tweak:
http://www.82games.com/wilq3.htm

Please, give it a read and tell me what do you think about it.
Is it anive and stupid idea? Good concept with bad execution?
OK, but useless? Nice curiosity but Nash's MVP in 2006 ruined it?
I appreciate every opinion especially those critical with justification ;-)

P.S. I want to apologize for all mistakes in this and all my future posts in this forum.
My English is definitely not as fluent as it should be but I hope all my intentions and
opinions will be understandable to you...
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wiLQ
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Mark



Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 807

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recall the article and was impressed you found weights that fit with 20 years of MVP selections. But you may need at least one more criteria- I think Billups' failure to win shows that it is to some extent a popularity contest and the winner may have to come from top 5-10 most talked about players in general. Billups was probably well below top 10 on that and didnt have as strong a chance to win the regular season MVP as his performance warranted. Final MVP can overcome this. Billups and Detroit were considered an old story while Nash and Suns was a new one. Maybe you could incorporate a criteria for google references and maybe even media market size. Not sure how many points to award for this or deduct.

Last edited by Mark on Thu May 31, 2007 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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HoopStudies



Joined: 30 Dec 2004
Posts: 533
Location: Near Philadelphia, PA

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 3:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My memory is telling me that Billups was the first half MVP by consensus, but the fact that Detroit dropped a bit in the 2nd half hurt his chances. In that light, you might look into impact of 2nd half vs 1st half performance.

I'm not sure writers would like it if a statistical formula can predict their behavior Smile

Welcome to the discussion.
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wiLQ



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 22
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 6:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark wrote:
Maybe you could incorporate a criteria for google references and maybe even media market size.

According to wikipedia Michigan is by far more populated than Arizona so I don't think that media market size is a way to improve it.
Using google references as a criteria IMO won't work either because the stories don't have to be positive.
Take for example Artest in the year of brawl or even Iverson in current season.
He was very popular subject in discussions just because he wanted out of the Sixers and finally landed in Denver.
But thanks for the suggestions though. Do you have any other ideas? ;-)
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wiLQ
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wiLQ



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 22
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 6:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

HoopStudies wrote:
My memory is telling me that Billups was the first half MVP by consensus, but the fact that Detroit dropped a bit in the 2nd half hurt his chances. In that light, you might look into impact of 2nd half vs 1st half performance.

According to MVP Points in 2006, Nash was only FIFTH.
He was behind not only Billups but also LeBron, Duncan and Dirk.
So that's not only a problem with moving down Billups (which IMO is easy to solve:
he played alongside THREE all-stars. It could easily become a negative bonus for too balanced team).

HoopStudies wrote:
I'm not sure writers would like it if a statistical formula can predict their behavior :)

Well, they can always change their voting habits ;-)
"This year's MVP goes to... a player on the losing team.
We were really impressed by his efforts to keep his team in the playoff hunt" ;-)

They can also take the easy way and just start using this formula ;-)
"Something is telling me that the winner should be..." ;-))

BTW, this year's prediction based on MVP Points would be almost perfect ;-)
1) Dirk, 2) Nash, 3) Duncan, 4) LeBron, 5) TMac so only Kobe is missing from Top5.
That's why I just have to find a way to include Nash's MVP in 2006 in that formula.
And I really could use your help because I ran out of realistic ideas ;-)
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wiLQ


Last edited by wiLQ on Thu May 31, 2007 8:48 am; edited 1 time in total
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cwood



Joined: 30 May 2007
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 7:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

what about including a lagged team improvement variable? i know with nash that there still was carry over in terms of what he "meant" to his team which should be represented by the increase in wins when he came to the team. perhaps only include this one season lag when its only the player's second season with the team or another route would be to include a different variable representing team improvment for a player on the first year with his team.

I like these articles, it takes a lot of the subjectivity out of the mvp talk. what was your method? did you tweak the values until you got a perfect fit for the historical mvps or did you do some type or regression?
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Harold Almonte



Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only thing that comes to my mind is that it could have been the overrating of the Stoudemire variable. What was the big difference of Stoudamire being on, then off, and then on again?

Last edited by Harold Almonte on Thu May 31, 2007 10:17 am; edited 1 time in total
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kjb



Joined: 03 Jan 2005
Posts: 665
Location: Washington, DC

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have no idea whether this would have any application in predicting the MVP award, but have you considered inserting a category for race?
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Mike G



Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 1509
Location: Delphi, Indiana

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does 'race' solve the Nash anomaly, when he was also behind Dirk in this 'formula'? Maybe 'continent of origin' as well?

Pettit and Bird were good white mvp picks. Cowens, Walton, and Nash were questionable.
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kjb



Joined: 03 Jan 2005
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Location: Washington, DC

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't know if race has any applicability at all. I was just throwing it out there as something to consider. The issue of Nash's race in connection with his MVP awards has been raised -- at least on other message boards.
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Mike G



Joined: 14 Jan 2005
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

But it was a good point to raise, Kevin. Why did Nash win (particularly his first one)?

There are many ways to check white/black players on all-league teams, Hall of Fame, allstar teams, 'dream' teams, etc. There are disproportionately more 'underqualified' white members of these groups. They just tend to have lesser stats, whether by averages, PER, or whatever measure.

I read the original article and noted Nash's winning, counter to the prediction. What's good about such 'prediction formulas' based on subjective votes is that they can and do reveal the thought 'process' of a collective mindset. The voters themselves may well not know why they vote as they do. But where there's a pattern, there's a reason.

Shortness is also a plus in MVP voting. Probably in those other electables I mention, too.
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cwood



Joined: 30 May 2007
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 11:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike G wrote:
But it was a good point to raise, Kevin. Why did Nash win (particularly his first one)?

There are many ways to check white/black players on all-league teams, Hall of Fame, allstar teams, 'dream' teams, etc. There are disproportionately more 'underqualified' white members of these groups. They just tend to have lesser stats, whether by averages, PER, or whatever measure.

I read the original article and noted Nash's winning, counter to the prediction. What's good about such 'prediction formulas' based on subjective votes is that they can and do reveal the thought 'process' of a collective mindset. The voters themselves may well not know why they vote as they do. But where there's a pattern, there's a reason.

Shortness is also a plus in MVP voting. Probably in those other electables I mention, too.


I dont know the exact breakdown for any given year, but i would imagine the majority of voters (sportswriters) are white, probably some positive same race bias. one common overgeneralization is that white players are more "team" oriented so maybe that is a factor in overcoming statistical deficiencies. I think the shortness issue probably goes to the root for the underdog mentality so commonly played up in news coverage.
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wiLQ



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 22
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike G wrote:
There are many ways to check white/black players on all-league teams, Hall of Fame, allstar teams, 'dream' teams, etc. There are disproportionately more 'underqualified' white members of these groups. They just tend to have lesser stats, whether by averages, PER, or whatever measure.

IMHO there's a problem with the race as a factor: players are not only black or white.
What about those with skin color which is something in between? Is Kidd white or not?
Also it wouldn't solve Dirk vs Nash dilemma in 2006...

Mike G wrote:
Shortness is also a plus in MVP voting

... which is why this idea looks very promising.

I guess that writers are average-sized guys so it is possible that they can favor shorter players.
Also I like the David vs Goliat comparison made by cwood.
Let's check this idea in practice. Here are all "smaller guys" [with their position in voting] in the last 20 years: Tim Hardaway [4], Payton [3], Iverson [4], Kidd [5], Iverson [1], Kidd [2], Nash [1], Iverson [5], Nash [1], Billups [5], Nash [2].

Very few of them but somehow they can pop up in the Top.
So maybe if "short" player is worse than tall one, height will not be a factor.
But if there's a close call, "short" one will have a tie-breaker?
For example like it was with Nash vs Shaq in 2005, Nash vs Dirk in 2006 or Iverson vs Duncan in 2001?

How to define "short" in NBA standards? Well, Kidd vs Duncan in 2002 was a close call according to voting and MVP Points but he didn't win. He's 6-4 tall while Nash and Iverson are shorter than that...

What do you think about it?
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Mark



Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 807

PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

wiLQ, I was aware that google references would be negative and positive but I still think it would weed out guys who have too low a profile. But if you dont want to use that metric you could use previous year MVP votes or fan all-star votes or some other favorability metric. Media market size not decisive between Nash and Billups but media market size probably was a contributing factor is some previous year choices and could be in the future.
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wiLQ



Joined: 23 May 2007
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harold Almonte wrote:
The only thing that comes to my mind is that it could have been the overrating of the Stoudemire variable. What was the big difference of Stoudamire being on, then off, and then on again?

IMO Amare's absence was definitely helping Nash's case but how to measure something that didn't happened?
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