The subtitle of The Wages of Wins is Taking Measure of the Many Myths in Modern Sport. In our book we detail myths ranging from the value of scoring in the NBA (it is over-valued), to the impact of labor disputes on attendance in sports (there isn’t much of one), to the ability of baseball […]
Teams often turn to the NBA draft to change their fortunes. A few days ago, Erich Doerr provided a wonderful analysis of how much talent teams will find at the end of this June. Although there does appear to be some players who can help next year, it’s important to remember one basic fact about […]
Today’s guest post is by Erich Doerr . Erich first contacted me prior to the 2006 NBA Draft with a statistical preview in hand. Each subsequent year has seen improvement in the depth and breadth of his analysis. This post continues the WoW Journal’s 2008 NBA Draft coverage. Outside of his basketball writing, Erich does […]
Brendan Nyhan – of Brendan-Nyhan.com – asked me (via e-mail) to look at the following quote from Major League Baseball commissioner, Bud Selig. “…. I think we have more parity than any [sport].” The partial quote appears in an article by Tom Verducci (The Bizarro Superman) examining the level of competitive balance in Major League […]
Here are some less than serious thoughts NBA playoff thoughts for a Monday: Imagine that both the Spurs and the Pistons knew before this current round began that after three games of the conference finals each would be down 2-1. Knowing this would these teams rather – have won the first game on the road, […]
Who is the most “underrated” player in the NBA? As I noted a few days ago, the answer to this question requires two metrics. The first metric should capture popular perception. The second should approximate reality. Of course, to make such an argument you have to argue that your reality differs from popular perception (so […]
The NBA has instituted a variety of caps on payroll. There is the famous salary cap, which limits how much each team can spend on its payroll. There is also a maximum salary, which is a cap on individual player salaries (and yes, this would be better called a salary cap). And finally there is […]
Today is all about announcements. We have news from Stacey Brook (co-author of The Wages of Wins), Andrew Feinstein (co-author of Girls&Sports and Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs , and John W. Davis and Deven Khrucell of Pistonscast. Two big Stacey Brook announcements. First, after eleven years at the University of Sioux Falls, Stacey […]
In the regular season the Celtics scored 107.4 points per 100 possessions while only allowing 96.4. The team’s efficiency differential – offensive efficiency (107.4) minus defensive efficiency (96.4)-of 10.95 was the best mark since the Chicago Bulls differential of 13.00 and 11.61 seen in 1995-96 and 1996-97 respectively. In fact, other than these two Chicago […]
The following NBA cities have never hosted an NBA championship parade: Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, East Rutherford (New Jersey), Indianapolis, Memphis, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and Toronto. In all, of the 29 cities hosting a team, 14 – or 48.3% — have never won a title. If we focus on […]
Wages of Wins Journal 
May 31, 2008 by dberri
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