“One Red Paperclip,” 65
O’Neal, Shaquille, 20, 114, 117
O’Neil, Scott, 57, 60–61
O’Quinn, Kyle, 210
Orlando Magic
biometric data collection, 119
Channing Frye acquisition, 216
Grant Hill’s injuries, 116
Houston Rockets’ trade, 174
LeBron’s return to Cleveland, 189
Vucevic trade and performance, 209–212
youth roster, 88
outsourcing data collection, 40
P3 (Peak Performance Project) sports diagnostics, 106–113, 124–126, 227
pace of play, 17, 62–63, 143, 166
Paine, Neil, 211
“paint touches,” 100–101
Parker, Jabari, 88
Parker, Tony, 49, 51, 53, 56
Parsons, Chandler, 174–175
Partnow, Seth, 62, 210
Pascal, Blaise, 144
Paul, Chris, 33, 173, 177
Payton, Elfrid, 128, 209, 216
Pelton, Kevin, 9 (quote), 22, 24–25, 47–48
Penn, Tom, 147–149
performance
balancing with workload, 53–57
criticism of the 76ers’ tanking strategy, 59–60
data collection and analysis for, 118–124
factors affecting, 193–194
three-point shot, 68–69
See also defensive efficiency; offensive efficiency
Perkins, Kendrick, 203
personnel issues, economic analysis of, 10
Philadelphia 76ers
biometric data collection, 119
buying in to analytics, 48
Guth’s analysis of, 13–15
Korver trade, 220–222
offensive efficiency versus three-point rate, 67 (fig.), 69 (fig.)
San Antonio Spurs’ roster management, 50
tanking strategy, 57–66
team rebuilding, 26
Vucevic pick, 209
youth roster, 88
Phoenix Suns, 232
biometric data collection, 119
Bogut’s injuries, 194
Channing Frye’s development, 214–216
early video data collection, 36
Milwaukee-Detroit-Phoenix trade, 198
multiteam trade, 201–202
technology of the training program, 114
pick and roll, 32–34, 72, 169–170, 182, 209, 229–230, 232
platoon system, 77–80
player efficiency rating (PER), 21
Plumlee, Mason, 87
points per possession, 84–85
Bogut’s net rating, 196–197
Cleveland, 189
early analytics, 16–17
Golden State Warriors, 170
Houston Rockets’ 2014–2015 season, 68
NBA Conference finals, 166–167
Philadelphia 76ers’ 2014–2015
stats, 61–62
Synergy analytics, 37–38
points-created metric, 19
Pomeroy, Ken, 89
Popovich, Gregg, 8, 26, 48–57, 168, 179
Portland Trail Blazers, 70, 147–148, 213–214
practice data, 119–120, 134–135
pregame routine, Kyle Korver’s, 229–230
Presti, Sam, 26, 204
Poythress, Alex, 79
Quantified Scouting Service, 36–37
racism scandals, 179–180
Ranadive, Vivek, 129–132
Randle, Julius, 67
Randolph, Zach, 197, 213
real plus-minus (RPM), 198–199, 206
rebounding percentages
Bogut’s statistics, 195
college players, 78–80, 92–96, 211, 213
Golden State Warriors, 169
Harden’s statistics, 203–209
Philadelphia 76ers, 13–17
Second Spectrum analysis, 30–31
Synergy analytics, 37–38
rebuilding strategies, 57–66
recovery, training and, 114–116
recruitment, 14
referees, technology checking calls by, 44
regularized adjusted plus-minus (RAPM), 198–199
rest versus workload, 146–147, 207
Riley, Pat, 219
Robbins, Paul, 120–123
Roberts, Michele, 120
Robertson, Oscar, 176
Roe, Lou, 76
Rondo, Rajon, 145–146
Rose, Derrick, 2, 76, 136
Rosen, Jacob, 191
roster management, 75
Atlanta Hawks’ academic qualifications, 185–186
Cleveland’s James-Love-Irving combination, 190–191
Detroit Pistons, 146–147
high school-level play, 84–85
Houston Rockets’ trades, 173–177
Kyle Korver, 232–233
Oklahoma Thunder, 203–204
recruitment from junior colleges, 98–99
Sacramento’s rebuilding strategy, 133–134
San Antonio Spurs, 48–57
2015 NBA Finals, 237–238
Rucker, Alex, 138–140
sabermetrics, 11
Sacramento Kings
biometric data collection, 119
D’Alessandro hiring, 131–132
draft strategy, 127–128
mismanagement problems, 132–134
Philadelphia 76ers’ tanking strategy, 64–65
Rajon Rondo acquisition, 146
Rudy Gay trade, 128–129
Sagarin, Jeff, 19–20, 23
salaries
Atlanta Hawks trades, 180
Channing Frye’s development, 214–216
James Harden, 203–204
optimizing payrolls through draft selection, 63–65
role of analytics in calculating, 128–130
Rudy Gay, 128–129
salary caps, 129, 146, 173–174, 190, 201–202
San Antonio Spurs, 8
biometric data collection, 119
Budenholzer’s move to Atlanta, 179
buying in to analytics, 48
Golden State Warriors’ new strategy, 168
roster management, 26
Sacramento’s on-court strategy against, 128
Saric, Dario, 58, 64
Scalabrine, Brian, 168
Scaletta, Kelly, 177
Schroder, Dennis, 180, 185
Schuhmann, John, 44–45
Scott, Antwan, 92
Scott, Byron, 66
Scott, Mike, 185
scouting
computer-generated data, 36–37
Phoenix Suns database, 36
racism in, 179–180
Seattle SuperSonics, 135. See also Oklahoma City Thunder
Second Spectrum, 29–36, 38–39
Sefolosha, Thabo, 185–186, 203
Shea, Stephen, 47 (quote), 69
shooting skills and strategies
breaking down and rebuilding a player, 223–228
Duke University, 96
family basketball culture, 219–221
Houston’s three-point shot strategy, 66–74
Korver’s heel-loading maneuver, 4–6, 233
Moreyball Efficiency rating, 70 (fig.)
offensive efficiency versus three-point rate, 67 (fig.), 69 (fig.)
Philadelphia 76ers’ rebuilding seasons, 61–63
Rudy Gay, 129
Westbrook evaluation, 136–137
See also three-point shot strategy
Shumpert, Iman, 190–191, 235
Silver, Adam, 59–60
Skolnick, Ethan, 189
sleep, 114–115, 123
Sloan, Jerry, 146, 221–222
Sloan Sports Analytics Conferences, 26, 30, 32, 65, 134, 159
Smith, Dean, 16–17
Smith, Josh, 146, 176
Smith, JR, 190
Smith, Tubby, 76
soccer, 9–10, 34, 41–42, 106
Society for A
merican Baseball Research (SABR), 11
Sparks, David, 143–144
Spears, Marc, 195
Speights, Marreese, 197
Splitter, Tiago, 50
Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers and Other Decision Makers (Alamar), 135
sports diagnostics: P3, 106–113, 124–126. See also analytics
SportVU, 39, 41–44, 89–90, 93–97, 119, 121–123
STATS, LLC, 41–43
Stauskas, Nik, 64–65, 128
Sterling, Donald, 179
Stern, David, 51, 173
Stevens, Brad, 141–146, 217 (quote), 229–230
Stoudemire, Amar’e, 215
Strauss, Ethan Sherwood, 3
stress on players, 237–238
Su, Jeff, 30
Synergy Sports Technology, 32, 35–41, 45, 72
tanking strategy, 57–66
Tatum, Jayson, 82
Teague, Jeff, 180, 183–184
technology
Fusionetics training technology programs, 113–118
injury prevention and enhanced performance, 118–124
sports diagnostics, 105–113
See also analytics
TENDEX, 18
tennis, 217
Terry, Jason, 172, 178
Thibodeau, Tom, 147, 218, 225–226
third-party data services, 43
Thomas, Isaiah, 128, 134
Thompson, Klay, 2–4, 87, 164–165, 167–170, 196, 231
Thorpe, Otis, 148
three-point shot strategy, 66–74, 217
Atlanta’s no-star system, 182
Houston Rockets, 172
Kyle Korver, 221, 230–233
Lakers’ normalcy, 73
Moreyball Efficiency rating, 69–71, 70 (fig.)
Nikola Vucevic, 211–212
offensive efficiency and, 69 (fig.)
2015 NBA Finals, 239–240
Toney, Andrew, 14
Toronto Raptors
biometric data collection, 119
Carroll’s move to, 184
“ghost defenders” visual model, 138
Houston Rockets’ trade, 174
Rudy Gay trade, 128–130
Torre, Pablo, 60, 62–63, 65
Torres, Alex, 168
Towns, Karl-Anthony, 75
trades. See draft and trades
training
analytics and technological advantages, 7–9
breaking down and rebuilding a player, 4–6, 222–224
Fusionetics training technology programs, 113–118
Korver’s mental and emotional training, 228–229
P3 sports diagnostics, 106–113, 124–126
perfecting players through, 217–219
Phoenix Suns’ technological program, 114–118
Twitter, 7, 23, 68, 100, 124, 166, 187, 205–206
2015 NBA Finals, 119, 235–237, 239–240
Ujiri, Masai, 127, 130
Ulis, Tyler, 79
U’Ren, Nick, 239
USA Basketball, 82–88
Utah Jazz, 106, 112, 142, 221–222, 225
Van Gundy, Stan, 32, 146–147
Varejao, Anderson, 190
Vaughn, Jacque, 211–212, 216
video analytics
availability of data, 45
Barr’s entry into, 36–37
Boston Celtics’ analytic approach, 144–145
breaking down and rebuilding a player, 223–226
early camera technologies, 41–44
high school-level play, 81
P3 sports diagnostics, 107–110
player development, 7
Virginia Tech, 98–99, 101–104
Vivlamore, Chris, 219–220
Vucevic, Nikola, 208–213, 216
Wade, Dwyane, 2, 51, 72, 189
Waiters, Dion, 190
Wall, John, 2, 77, 233
Washington Wizards, 74, 88, 201, 233
West, Jerry, 176
Westbrook, Russell, 71, 135–138, 177, 202–205
Western Conference. See specific teams
whiteboard stats, 100–101
Wiggins, Andrew, 187
Wilcox, Wes, 180
Williams, Buzz, 98–104
Windhorst, Brian, 190
Winn, Luke, 89
wins above replacement player (WARP) calculation, 22, 199
wins against replacement (WAR) calculation, 12
Winston, Wayne, 19–20, 23
WINVAL, 19–20
Wojciechowski, Steve, 90, 95–97
Wojnarowski, Adrian, 204
Wolff, Alexander, 13
World Championships, 83–87
World Cup (FIBA), 1–4, 205–206
Wright, Brendan, 232
Wright, Eli, 103
Wroten, Tony, 88
Yahoo! groups, 20, 23
Young, Michael, 237–238
Young, Nick, 67
Zephyr Technology Corporation, 119
Zillgitt, Jeff, 226
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Prologue: Perfected Players
Chapter 1: A Brief History of Modern Basketball Analytics
Chapter 2: The Basketball Technology Revolution
Chapter 3: Analytics Believers and Doubters
Chapter 4: The Hunt for Future Perfected Players
Chapter 5: Faster, Stronger, More Explosive
Chapter 6: The Tricky Art and Science of Turning Data into Wins
Chapter 7: How the NBA’s Best Teams Were Built
Chapter 8: No Single Path to Mining Talent
Chapter 9: The World’s Most Perfected Player
Epilogue: The Warriors Come Out to Play
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Chasing Perfection: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the High-Stakes Game of Creating an NBA Champion Page 28
