Category: NBA Basketball

To Play or Not To Play: the Anthony Davis Question

by RJ Garcia, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Currently in the NBA discourse, there has been some significant talk about Anthony Davis and what exactly to do about the remaining games until the New Orleans Pelicans are able to trade, or run out, his contract. Scott Kushner of the The New Orleans Advocate published a charged column today suggesting that the Pelicans need to sit Anthony Davis and take a stand in favor of the Pelicans’ fans, who would otherwise spend their money elsewhere if the New Orleans Pelicans continued to play Anthony Davis.

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The Process Is Over

by RJ Garcia, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball, Uncategorized

During Sam Hinkie’s introductory press conference as President of Basketball Operations for the Sixers in 2013, owner Josh Harris said that the previous regime had made decisions without “good process. They weren’t good decisions.” Now, in 2019, the two leadership teams’ processes since Hinkie departed, led by Brian Colangelo and Elton Brand, have culminated in today, where the Sixers are stuck with decisions that – weren’t good.

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Talking Myself – and You – Into the Kristaps Porzingis Trade

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

The impossible has happened, and it’s harder to swallow than the horn of a unicorn – Kristaps Porzingis has been traded by the New York Knicks.

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What is Anthony Davis Worth?

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

It’s official: Anthony Davis has requested a trade.

One of the consensus top-5 players in the NBA changing teams, especially with still a year and a half left on his contract, has the potential to make huge waves within the NBA. Could he team up with LeBron James on the Lakers? Could he go to the East and shift the power balance between the conferences? Anything is possible at this point, as it’s likely 29 GMs are currently awake, coffee in hand (except for Danny Ainge), constructing packages for the Pelicans’ big man.

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#NBATwitter: A Study

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Twitter is the lifeblood of the NBA.

As described by the Washington Post, it’s “a sports bar that doesn’t close, where the stars pull up a seat next to you”. According to Twitter itself, the NBA was the most tweeted-about sports league in 2018, and it’s no surprise, as the online home of the players houses more organic drama than any episode of The Bachelor. From burner accounts of superstars and GMs, to asking for trades and reacting to them, to basketball players doing what they do best – shooting their shot, fans of the NBA know there’s no way to track their favorite league quite like Twitter.

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John Wall’s Offensive Defensive Rebounding

by RJ Garcia, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

 

On November 8th, the Wizards found themselves 2-8 on the season, and it has felt like the team’s record is even worse than it is. How did they get here? Most of the fingers are pointing to both John Wall and Scott Brooks. Brooks has been accused of mishandling the lineups and failing on defensive scheme, and Wall has just not looked himself this year. Surely some will find a way to blame Dwight Howard.

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Jimmy G. Buckets – The G Stands For Gets

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Jimmy Butler III was born in Houston, Texas in September, 1989.

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Who Hurt the NBA more: DeMarcus Cousins or Tilman Fertitta?

by RJ Garcia, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

On July 2nd, the NBA world was shaken by the addition of DeMarcus Cousins to the Warriors for the taxpayer mid-level exception, $5.3 million. Fans of the league were  rattled by the idea that the player some deem to be the best center in the league is joining what is already a dynasty in Golden State. Cousins told Marc Spears of The Undefeated that no other teams had made him an offer – this statement was disputed by some members of the Pelicans’ media, but it seems that regardless of where in the middle the truth lies, there was no big offer out there for Boogie. So instead of taking the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, or some other deal that he deemed to be below his true value, Cousins decided to give up money to join the best team in the league.

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Kawow: The Kawhi Leonard Trade Saga Begins

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

It’s official. After months of drama and speculation, Kawhi Leonard reportedly wants out of San Antonio.

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Applying Machine Learning Techniques to the NBA Draft

by Jake Reifer, Jordan Clark, David Nelson, Will Lundren, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Our Task

Our task was to predict the NBA draft results of top high school basketball players based on their high school recruiting attributes and college performance. All four project members are close followers of NBA and college basketball and were eager to see what machine learning could tell us about a young prospect’s NBA future. Additionally, we feel that colleges could find an accurate machine learning model useful to help advise their players on the optimal time to enter the NBA draft.

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