Great stat piece on quality shooters in the NBA

[Axel]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...a-best-scorers

Really interesting read about shooting stats. I believe that we are entering a golden age for stats, with more coverage and stat databases cropping up, we may finally be able to settle the debates about Demar's shooting

A quick quote from the article to get your brain going:

"While it's tempting to claim that our stats are "advanced" now, think about these two basic questions:

1. Who is the best shooter in the NBA?
2. What metrics would you use to justify your answer to this question?"

[S.R.]

That article is unbelievably awesome. I really, really want to see the Raptors (especially Rudy) on those shot charts. He said he's made one for virtually every player in the league - I wonder if/when we'll be able to access that?

[slaw]

Very interesting. Great find.

EDIT: Two things. One, I really like about this is the modesty with which it is presented. He isn't claiming this is the end-all, be-all of player analysis or scoring evaluation, rather that it's a good start. Two, statistics need to pass an initial smell test. Often they will tell us things we don't necessarily know (or disprove things we think we know) but when the answers a model provides are consistently at odds with reality then the stats aren't any good. This analysis, at least, passes the initial smell test.

[Axel]

That article is unbelievably awesome. I really, really want to see the Raptors (especially Rudy) on those shot charts. He said he's made one for virtually every player in the league - I wonder if/when we'll be able to access that?

Yeah, I've been trying to find the full database, but haven't found anything yet. The writer is on twitter, so maybe Raps nation can harass him enough to write an article on Gay and Demar to see if the stats back up the eye test of inefficient.

[Axel]

I was reading the authors twitter feed (@kirkgoldsberry) and in a response to JA Adande, he mentioned that a new stat track for "missed assist" is something that they will be looking at in the future.