APBRmetrics

Ilardi · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 265 Location: Lawrence, KS

Hi All,

It's possible that someone has raised the question on this forum in the past, but since I can't find a record of it, I'll go ahead and ask:

How many years/seasons back is it possible to construct the sort of detailed game-by-game database that we find on basketballvalue.com? In other words, for those (like myself) who might have an interest in calculating adjusted plus-minus on seasons prior to 2002-2003, what options - if any - are out there?

haralabob · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 25

The nba has provided pbp data to its teams dating back to (i believe) the 94 season but none of it is in the public domain.

schtevie · Joined: 18 Apr 2005 Posts: 411

To have APM (or whatever other) estimates of a whole past generation of players would be simply awesome. Jordan at his peak. Rodman. Malone. Stockton. Mutombo.

Does the NBA have formal restrictions on access, or has no independent party ever asked?

DLew · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 224

Steve,

As I understand it, the info necessary to calculate APM exists for maybe 2 or 3 seasons further back than '03, but not back to the mid '90s. And this data is not as clean as the more recent data. Not 100% certain though.

jsill · Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 73

It looks like you may be able to get part of the 2001-2002 season-starting in mid-February or so- off of ESPN. There's no link on the ESPN NBA team pages to the 2001-2002 season, but if you make an educated guess about what the 2001-2002 url would be, that gets you to the full season of results. The links to the individual games have links to the play-by-play starting in mid-February.

Not much, but better than nothing, I suppose.

Ilardi · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 265 Location: Lawrence, KS

Thanks to all: that's very helpful info. Not what I was hoping to hear, of course, but I'm not at all surprised.

ryan. · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 26

Surely somebody amongst the community - if not the community as a whole - can make a formal request at the appropriate point of interest that will warrant a response. But how interested the NBA is in promoting advanced stats will be the main factor in how far any inquiry can get us.

Given that Dean Oliver had the initiative of recording PbP data himself as early as 1987 (outlined in BoP), the NBA (at the very least specific teams) would have had to have recorded a certain percentage of games & plays that we could use to estimate.

The NBA was somewhat primitive in stat tracking, but by this time they'd taken leaps & bounds.

Also, Barr founded Synergy in 1998 IIRC (under another name). No idea as to their data tracking at that time - but they're also a top end service very protective of their data.

TCarter · Joined: 17 Aug 2010 Posts: 3 Location: Oklahoma City

I'm curious to know if it would be of value to have a group to go back, watch old game footage and compile play-by-play data as far back as 1980 perhaps? Would this be something people would even consider paying for?

bchaikin · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 687 Location: cleveland, ohio

I'm curious to know if it would be of value to have a group to go back, watch old game footage and compile play-by-play data as far back as 1980 perhaps?

can't imagine the league would do this, but perhaps a game company might, looking to re-create that era...

or we could just do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714haGstoHk

Ilardi · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 265 Location: Lawrence, KS

BobboFitos · Joined: 21 Feb 2009 Posts: 199 Location: Cambridge, MA

Ilardi · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 265 Location: Lawrence, KS

Ah, ok - that sounds more plausible.

ryan. · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 26

Apologies, I should've been more clear. Bob is right.