No All-Rookie? No problem: Projecting RJ Barrett’s future

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!

The third pick in the 2019 NBA draft failed to make an All-Rookie team.

However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Knicks fan that was significantly disappointed by RJ Barrett’s rookie season. Though he didn’t exactly light up the league immediately like Ja Morant or Zion Williamson, RJ showed a little bit of everything in what was a significantly featured role for the Knicks. Operating at an incredibly high volume, he filled up the stat sheet like few other rookies in the league – and few veterans on his own team:

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To Trade or Not to Trade?

by Justin Halpern and John Smith, posted in Baseball

In today’s MLB, it feels like superstar players are being traded every year. Teams are looking to jumpstart a rebuild, and the best way to do that is often by trading their best player. However, how often does a team actually get a return value worthy of the superstar himself? In this study, we looked to identify potential superstars who could be traded in the future and what their ideal return package should look like. 

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#SportsLawSimplified: Washington’s Trademark Fumble

by Sean Fener, posted in Football, NFL Football, Sports Law

On July 13, 2020, the Washington NFL Team formally announced that, following the team’s internal review of the “appropriateness” of the team name, they will be retiring the Redskins name. It seems NEVER (team owner Dan Snyder told us to use caps) changing the name really just meant seven years.

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Tanking is Over, Long Live the Process

by RJ Garcia, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Tanking has been a pest for the NBA for over a decade, but no team embraced tanking as blatantly as the Philadelphia 76ers. 47 wins over 246 games, winning one out of every five games over three years, was rewarded with four young players with very cheap rookie contracts: Joel Embiid (4 years / $20M), Jahlil Okafor (4 years / $21M), Ben Simmons (4 years / $27M), and Markelle Fultz (4 years / $37M). 

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Optimizing the Best NBA Expansion Team

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

Assuming league recovery post-COVID-19, an expansion team (or more) in the NBA feels like more of a “when” than an “if”. Growing team valuations, marketable superstars, and worldwide interest has turned basketball into the sport of the future, and there are plenty of places that could use a squad (looking at you, Seattle).

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Making the Switch: Which Starters Should Come Out of the Bullpen?

by Derek Reifer, posted in Baseball, MLB Baseball, Youth Baseball

All MLB pitchers were starters at one point in their careers.

Growing up through Little League, college, and the Minor Leagues, anyone who is eventually good enough to pitch in the majors was likely the superstar ace of most of their previous teams. However, at the highest of levels, many pitchers have to make concessions to their new reality – the fact that they may be better served – and better serve their teams –  coming out of the bullpen as relievers.

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Visualizing the NBA’s Trend Toward Positionless Basketball

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

The NBA has transitioned into a somewhat positionless sport. As the years have gone by, more and more teams have continued to employ lineups that don’t contain centers, or utilize point forwards that guard the paint but facilitate the offense. Players have been thought of less and less as “shooting guards” or “power forwards” and more and more as “wings” or “bigs”. We wanted to visualize this massive change in play style by using data science methods to compare the play style of the current NBA to that of the NBA in the 1980s. Through unsupervised learning, we were able to see how the clustering of player data by position has changed over time, and what that says about how the play style of the league has evolved.

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Left Side, Strong Side – JD Davis & Jeff McNeil

by Derek Reifer, posted in Baseball, MLB Baseball

Jeff McNeil and JD Davis are two of the best hitters in baseball.

Hyperbole? You say maybe. I say no.

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