We return with the NBA to play a game!
Hosts
- Special Guest Greg Steele(@GreekGodOfStats)
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
You can watch us live at twitch.tv/nerdnumbers; we usually go Wednesday at 9:30 pm EST. Follow us on Twitter, and we'll keep you posted!
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You can download the show direct here.
Video Show
Welcome to our pilot episode of Analytics Pickup, a show where we make and pick from a list around a nerd themed analytics topic. Today's topic: Forgotten but Effective NBA Strategies! For our pilot episode, we had a special guest: Greg Steele of the Greek God of Stats (greekgodofstats.com). Listen to the episode for a full breakdown. We had a few sound issues and were still figuring out the rules, but that said, we loved this so much, we'll definitely have to play again!
Alright, spoilers if you scroll down. Our starting five and bench general strategies were:
- Ignoring "Ball Skills +" for scouting and drafting. Examples - the Spurs and Grizzlies of the 2000s.
- Off Ball Spacing. Use space to open up at midrange for either open shots or drive to the hoop. Example - Showtime Lakers.
- "Manu Ginobili Bench General" - Make sure your sixth man is a rounded starter quality player. Examples Manu Ginobili, Lamar Odom, John Havlicek.
- Trade Down in the draft. Examples, a recent one the Celtics with Fultz to Tatum. "Worst" example? Joe Barry Carroll turned into Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. Oof!
- Hybrid Twin Towers - Multiple passing bigs. Classic example - the 1980s Celtics.
- 6. Jeremy Lin Call Ups - Look for underrated missed draft picks, either due to non-prestigious school or non-scoring skills for call ups. Classic example Jeremy Lin. Ben Wallace too!
We had four ideas that were "cut", you'll have to tune in to listen for those. Any ideas we missed? Any ideas for next time? Put them in the comments below!