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"Muthuball": How To Build an NBA Championship Team

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the 13th-position-is-called-the-judas dept.

First time accepted submitter Quillem writes "Muthu Alagappan, a 5'9" biomechanical engineering undergraduate at Stanford, made a presentation at this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference which might well do to basketball what Moneyball did to baseball. His contribution revolves around a topographical analysis of NBA games which contends that there are really 13 positions in basketball — not just five. Besides a rather patronising — but informative — read in Gentlemen's Quarterly, there are earlier stories over at Wired and NYT blogs. Muthu's talk and slides are also available."

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Patronising? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is the GQ article "patronising" - because the opening summary says, "A Stanford undergrad's new super-nerd study"? That's the only thing I see that could be remotely considered patronizing. And frankly, this *is* a "super-nerd" study - how is a statistical analysis of NBA players NOT super nerdy?

    Can we change the Slashdot motto to "butthurt editorializing for nerds," instead of "news for nerds?" The "news" part implies a factual focus, and the summaries are increasingly flamebait of the first order.

  2. Re:Sorry, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I could personally care less about professional sports.

    How much less could you care, or do you mean you could not care less?

  3. Re:Top minds in America... by Klinky · · Score: 4, Informative

    Moneyball the movie was based off Moneyball the book. The concepts in Moneyball are real & have been implemented by most of Major League Baseball.

  4. Re:The comments so far are disappointing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    What do you mean the team was not that successful?

    2000 91 70 .565 1st in AL West Lost ALDS to New York Yankees, 2–3.
    2001 102 60 .630 2nd in AL West Lost ALDS to New York Yankees, 2–3.
    2002 103 59 .636 1st in AL West Lost ALDS to Minnesota Twins, 2–3.
    2003 96 66 .593 1st in AL West Lost ALDS to Boston Red Sox, 2–3.
    2004 91 71 .562 2nd in AL West
    2005 88 74 .543 2nd in AL West
    2006 93 69 .574 1st in AL West Won ALDS vs. Minnesota Twins, 3–0. Lost ALCS vs. Detroit Tigers, 0–4.

    Those were some very successful years. hey were toe to toe with the Yankees, which is was (and is) best teams money could buy?