The percentage of assisted field goals by a team is usually a good indicator of the way the team generates offense (e.g., through team work – vs – personal moments of inspiration). Apart from the team spirit present when field goals are assisted they also tend to be better quality (i.e., open) shots, as compared to off-the-dribble… Read More What is an assist worth?
There has been some buzz recently for the new football league that is set to start next spring, the AAF (Alliance of American Football). Jeremy Fowler from ESPN wrote a nice article this week, which among other things covered the will of the league to not include kickoffs! One of the backlash that a similar… Read More Here’s to hoping the AAF will get the no kickoff rule right: My 2 cents
You might think, wait, didn’t you just had a post that you are not going to bug us any more with your stuff? Yes, that’s true but as I said I will still be posting my (subjective) opinions (or tutorial-style posts). So I had a discussion with various colleagues lately that I bounced around some… Read More How about academic grants for sports analytics research?
During the last couple of years I have published 59 (this is the 60th) blog posts. This is about 2.5 posts every month. That’s a lot!! But I am not sure it is a good thing – mainly for the readers. How detailed and deep can you go when you spend 10-15 days on a… Read More This is why I will stop blogging (and maybe you should too)
One of the most fascinating discussions that sports fans can have is comparing teams/players from different eras. This is a really tough comparison to make and obviously one will never know the ground truth, since the teams/players debated will never play against each other! So we can turn to the numbers to give us an… Read More 90’s Bulls or Contemporary Warriors: Comparing NBA Dynasties of Different Eras
The recent Supreme Court’s ruling that the federal ban on betting is unconstitutional has created a lot of discussion on the implications of this decision. Is betting bad? Is betting good? Are people going to be exploited by the bookmakers? All of these questions are legitimate questions and concernts and certainly deserve attention. However, from… Read More Investing – yes investing – in Sports Competitions
The NFL has clearly turned to a pass-first league during the past decade or so, and for a good reason. Passing is overall more efficient! Indeed using play-by-play data from the 2014-2016 NFL seasons and the Winston-Sagarin-Cabot model for expected points, a passing play adds on average 0.25 expected points, while a rushing play adds… Read More Skill Curves in the NFL: Unlocking the Interactions between Passing & Rushing
