Chasing Perfection: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the High-Stakes Game of Creating an NBA Champion (29 page)

NOTES

Prologue

3
         
Game for the 2014–15 season
:
Ethan Sherwood Strauss, “Klay Thompson’s Six New Lethal Moves,”
ESPN.com
, January 9, 2015,
http://espn.go.com/blog/golden-state-warriors/post/_/id/199/klay-thompsons-six-new-lethal-moves
.

8
         
Data-related employees
:
Mark Cuban Companies, “Our Companies: Synergy Sports Technology,”
http://markcubancompanies.com/index.html#/synergy
; Mark Cuban Companies, “Our Companies: Catapult,”
http://markcubancompanies.com/index.html#/catapult
.

Chapter 1

10
       
Sold in that era
:
Louis Guth, “Investing in a Pro Team: Expensive But Worth It,”
New York Times,
July 6, 1980.

13
       
Contract with the Houston Rockets
:
Alexander Wolff, “Searching for a Promised Land,”
Sports Illustrated,
August 30, 1982,
http://www.si.com/vault/1982/08/30/624378/searching-for-a-promised-land
.

13
       
Into Guth’s offensive formula
:
Louis Guth, “Basketball by the Numbers: Free Agents, Computers, and the NBA,”
N/E/R/A Topics,
1984.

15
       
“It’ll be a better show”
:
Mark Perner, “The Sixers Trade for Moses Malone,”
Philly.com
, March 8, 2013,
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-08/sports/37564051_1_moses-malone-sixers-fan-lee-fentress
.

15
       
Lakers in Guth’s model
:
Louis Guth, “76ers’ Wins and Offensive Rebounds Projection (as described in N/E/R/A Topics),”
Sports Illustrated,
September 13, 1982.

16
       
Conceded “per possession”
:
Frank McGuire,
Defensive Basketball
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1959).

20
       
Success in that era
:
David Leonhardt, “Mavericks’ New Math May Be an Added Edge,”
New York Times,
April 27, 2003,
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/sports/pro-basketball-mavericks-new-math-may-be-an-added-edge.html
.

20
       
Shooters, actually worked
:
Dean Oliver, “Research Topics,” APBR_analysis, February 10, 2001,
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/APBR_analysis/conversations/messages/1
.

23
       
Approach with two centers
:
Ibid.

23
       
Any of his data
:
Ibid.

26
       
Coaching and management thinkers
:
Chris Ballard, “Measure of Success,”
Sports Illustrated,
October 24, 2005,
http://www.si.com/vault/2005/10/24/8359337/measure-of-success
.

Chapter 2

30
       
2012 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
:
Yu-han Chang, Rajiv Maheswaran, Aaron Henehan, and Samantha Danesis, “Deconstructing the Rebound with Optimal Tracking Data,” 2012 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, March 1, 2012,
http://www.sloansportsconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/108-sloan-sports-2012-maheswaran-chang_updated.pdf
.

30
       
Visually unique ways
:
Rajiv Maheswaran, “The Math Behind Basketball’s Wildest Moves,” TED, TED2015, March 17, 2015,
https://www.ted.com/talks/rajiv_maheswaran_the_math_behind_basketball_s_wildest_moves
.

32
       
What a computer tells them
:
Brett Pollakoff, “Stan van Gundy Questions Integrity of Advanced Statistical Data at MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference,” NBC Sports, March 1, 2014,
http://nba.nbcsports.com/2014/03/01/stan-van-gundy-questions-integrity-of-advanced-statistical-data-at-sloan-sports-analytics-conference/
.

36
       
Or a similar carrier
:
Seth Partnow, “Industry Q&A: Garrick Barr, CEO, of Synergy Sports Technology,”
Nylon Calculus,
February 12, 2015,
http://nyloncalculus.com/2015/02/12/industry-qa-garrick-barr-ceo-synergy-sports-technology/
.

37
       
Cross-sport technology phenomenon
:
Synergy Sports Technology, “Our Championship Team,”
http://corp.synergysportstech.com/nba-video-database
.

41
       
Movements of soccer players
:
Eric Fisher, “STATS LLC Buys Tel Aviv-Based Optical-Tracking Company SportVU,”
Sports Business Journal,
December 2, 2008,
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2008/12/Issue-54/Sports-Media/Stats-LLC-Buys-Tel-Aviv-Based-Optical-Tracking-Company-Sportvu.aspx
.

44
       
During the 2009 NBA Finals
:
David Aldridge, “SportVU Cameras Shift Focus of What’s Possible with NBA Stats,”
NBA.com
,
November 11, 2013,
http://www.nba.com/2013/news/features/david_aldridge/11/11/morning-tip-sportvu-cameras-in-arenas-problems-with-nets-qa-with-paul-george/
.

45
       
Product called MySynergySports
:
William Bohl, “A Synergy Elegy: Goodbye, You Confounding Old Friend,”
Hardwood Paroxysm,
October 3, 2014,
http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2014/10/03/synergy-elegy-goodbye-confounding-old-friend/
.

Chapter 3

48
       
Book determined independently
:
Kevin Pelton, “The Great Analytics Rankings: NBA,” ESPN, February 23, 2015,
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12331388/the-great-analytics-rankings
.

50
       
DNP as “old”
:
Kelly Dwyer, “Tim Duncan Missed Sunday Night’s Game Because He’s ‘Old,’ Officially,” Yahoo! Sports, March 26, 2012,
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/tim-duncan-missed-sunday-night-spurs-game-because-081218158.html
.

51
       
“Best interests of the NBA”
:
NBA, “San Antonio Spurs Fined $250K by League,”
NBA.com
, Press Release, December 3, 2012,
http://www.nba.com/2012/news/11/30/spurs-fined-announcement/
.

52
       
More minutes than average
:
Ian Levy, “Gaming the NBA Season,”
The Cauldron,
November 24, 2014,
https://the-cauldron.com/gaming-the-nba-season-6ba2a7fd6ca7
.

59
       
Against the Chicago Bulls
:
Marcel Mutoni, “The Philadelphia Sixers Met with Angry Fans About Tanking,”
SLAM,
November 25, 2014,
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/philadelphia-sixers-met-angry-fans-tanking/
.

59
       
Vote were announced
:
Ken Berger, “The Sixers’ Nonstop Badness Puts Tanking in the Spotlight,”
CBSSports.com
, November 26, 2014,
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/ken-berger/24841864/the-sixers-non-stop-badness-puts-tanking-in-the-spotlight
.

60
       
Carter-Williams wrote. “Nope”
:
Pablo S. Torre, “The 76ers’ Plan to Win (Yes, Really),”
ESPN The Magazine,
February 19, 2015,
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12318808/the-philadelphia-76ers-radical-guide-winning
.

66
       
“Forcing up a bunch of threes”
:
Eric Pincus, “Byron Scott Wants Lakers to Average 10 to 15 Three-Point Shots a Game,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 8, 2014,
http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-byron-scott-lakers-three-pointers-20141007-story.html
.

69
       
Closer to the Rockets’ strategy
:
Stephen Shea and Christopher Baker,
Basketball Analytics: Objective and Efficient Strategies for Understanding How Teams Win
(Lake St. Louis, MO: Advanced Metrics LLC, 2013).

70
       
Also ranked very highly
:
Stephen Shea, “Introducing Moreyball Efficiency or Why the Warriors Are Favorites to Win It All,” Basketball
AnalyticsBook.com
, February 11, 2015,
http://www.basketballanalyticsbook.com/2015/02/11/introducing-moreyball-efficiency-or-why-the-warriors-are-favorites-to-win-it-all/
.

71
       
Italian defensive soccer strategy
:
Jason Concepcion, “Embrace the Dark Side: How the Rockets Became the New Bad Boys,”
Grantland,
November 19, 2014,
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/houstonaccio-moreyball-rockets-efficiency-fun/
.

Chapter 4

76
       
Couple of decades ago
:
Mike DeCoursey, “John Calipari: The Salesman,”
Sporting News,
September 2, 2015,
http://www.sportingnews.com/calipari/salesman
.

77
       
Manage the whole process
:
Ben Roberts, “Kentucky’s Director of Analytics: Who Is He, Why He’s Here and How He Is Helping the Cats,”
Kentucky.com
, December 23, 2014,
http://www.kentucky.com/welcome_page/?shf=/2014/12/23/3608832_kentuckys-director-of-analytics.html
.

80
       
Lexington were over
:
John Calipari, “We May Never Platoon Again, But Players Will Always Come First,”
CoachCal.com
,
May 5, 2015,
http://www.coachcal.com/34612/2015/05/we-may-never-platoon-again-but-players-will-always-come-first/
.

96
       
Low-post scorer Jahlil Okafor
:
Barry Jacobs, “How Data Help Refine Duke Approach on Court,”
Charlotte Observer,
December 14, 2014,
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/college/mens-basketball/article9245507.html
.

96
       
Attempted off the dribble
:
Wylie Wong, “March Madness 2015: Duke University Leads College Basketball’s Data Revolution,”
EdTech,
March 18, 2015,
http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2015/03/march-madness-2015-duke-university-leads-college-basketball-s-data-revolution
.

Chapter 5

106
     
“I’ve never seen anybody do”
:
Mark McKown, quoted on “Dr. Marcus Elliott,” P3,
http://www.p3.md/team/marcus-elliott/
.

112
     
A large number of NBA teams
:
Chris Ballard, “Want to Avoid Injury? NBA Teams Are Looking to Marcus Elliott for Answers,”
Sports Illustrated,
December 23, 2014,
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/12/23/marcus-elliott-p3-nba-injury-injury-analysis-data
.

114
     
Recover from injuries
:
Michael Schwartz, “The Secret Behind the Phoenix Suns’ Elite Training Staff,”
Valley of the Suns,
April 5, 2012,
http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/04/05/secret-behind-phoenix-suns-elite-training-staff/
.

117
     
Prolonging his career
:
Ian Thomsen, “Weekly Countdown,”
Sports Illustrated,
March 28, 2008,
http://www.si.com/more-sports/2008/03/28/weekly-countdown
.

119
     
Catapult devices during the 2014–15 season
:
Ken Berger, “Warriors’ Wearable Weapon? Devices to Monitor Players While on Court,”
CBSSports.com
, June 3, 2015,
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/ken-berger/25203846/warriors-wearable-weapon-devices-to-monitor-players-while-on-the-court
.

Chapter 6

128
     
Among Kings officials
:
Video: “Draft 3.0: The Sacramento Kings’ Radical Plan to Crowdsource the NBA Draft,”
Grantland,
June 24, 2014,
http://grantland.com/features/sacramento-kings-2014-nba-draft-crowdsourcing/
.

135
     
Two seasons of college ball
:
Ben Alamar,
Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers and Other Decision Makers
(New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2013).

138
     
Moving around the court
:
Zach Lowe, “Lights, Cameras, Revolution,”
Grantland,
March 19, 2013,
http://grantland.com/features/the-toronto-raptors-sportvu-cameras-nba-analytical-revolution/
.

143
     
“Communicator to me with it”
:
Baxter Holmes, “Drew Cannon, 23, Bringing Analytics to Celtics,”
Boston Globe,
July 9, 2013,
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/07/08/celtics-hire-year-old-analytics-guru-drew-cannon/Iv9Ua8NB5gQTVbRh0I8uSN/story.html
.

155
     
Were never particularly impressive
:
Michael Lewis, “The No-Stats All-Star,”
New York Times,
February 13, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?_r=0
.

156
     
“Member at a Paris Hilton party”
:
Jason Friedman, “Rocket Science: Daryl Morey Brings Hard-Core Statistical Analysis to the NBA,”
Houston Press,
October 31, 2007,
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/rocket-science-daryl-morey-brings-hard-core-statistical-analysis-to-the-nba-6540549
.

Chapter 7

166
     
Warriors’ chances of claiming it
:
Daryl Morey,
@dmorey
, Twitter, February 5, 2015,
https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/563562941442576385
.