To add, there has been talk about trying to balance out the conferences or even doing away with E vs W conferences, so having a numerical basis may offer a way to even out the 2 conference, i.e. it opens an opportunity to say create 2 new conferences (The Liberty Conference and The Unity Conference - and we can then balance the levels of teams in both the conferences).
Update - after Rockets' 55th game - the RV standings are as follows (yeah I know it sucks that our win streak was stopped)..... OKC - 1391 IND - 1366 SAS - 1366 MIA - 1362 POR - 1345 HOU - 1335 LAC - 1334 GSW - 1327 PHX - 1306 DAL - 1302 MEM - 1297 TOR - 1293 WAS - 1290 MIN - 1275 ATL - 1268 DEN - 1263 CHI - 1261 BKN - 1258 CHA - 1241 DET - 1235 NOP - 1235 SAC - 1225 UTA - 1225 NYK - 1220 CLE - 1216 LAL - 1210 BOS - 1195 ORL - 1190 MIL - 1155 PHI - 1152 Thanks to our recent win-streak the Rockets have climbed to about 6th in the league at the moment. I think once the players really clicked we will be there with the big boys (in case those of you asking why LAC has dropped below us (they have been holding steady around that mark) - it's just Rockets having climbed upwards due to our recent form). We are still 1-piece shy of making it into contention, that would be how I interpret this......Go Rockets!
Update - RV ranks up till Rocket's 60th Game (for those of you also looking at the player's tracking track - my apologies - as I am pretty tied up with work at the moment so there is delay in crunching the numbers there)... OKC - 1387 MIA - 1373 SAS - 1368 IND - 1358 POR - 1346 HOU - 1341 (+6 from G55Av) LAC - 1338 GSW - 1329 DAL - 1306 MEM - 1304 PHX - 1301 TOR - 1299 WAS - 1293 MIN - 1279 CHI - 1278 BKN - 1264 ATL - 1256 CHA, DEN - 1250 DET - 1232 UTA - 1224 NOP - 1223 SAC - 1222 CLE - 1220 NYK - 1213 LAL - 1207 ORL - 1190 BOS - 1188 MIL - 1154 PHI - 1140 Nice to see rockets trending upwards, could be a good build up towards the playoffs - Go Rockets!
Update - after Rocket's 65th game the RV standings are as follows: OKC - 1382 SAS - 1375 MIA - 1373 IND - 1351 LAC - 1347 HOU - 1345 (+4 from G60Av) POR - 1342 GSW - 1333 MEM - 1312 DAL - 1305 TOR - 1305 PHX - 1299 WAS - 1294 CHI - 1285 MIN - 1279 BKN - 1275 CHA - 1258 DEN - 1247 ATL - 1245 DET - 1228 CLE - 1222 NOP - 1221 SAC - 1219 UTA - 1215 NYK - 1212 LAL - 1206 ORL - 1189 BOS - 1188 MIL - 1152 PHI - 1130 Rockets is still holding onto 6th best, let's hope we win the next one againts OKC (would really love to beat them) - Go Rockets!!!
Update up till Rocket's 70th Game - the scores are as such: SAS - 1387 OKC - 1379 MIA - 1368 LAC - 1353 HOU - 1343 (-2 from G65Av) IND - 1341 POR - 1337 GSW - 1335 MEM - 1318 TOR - 1311 DAL - 1308 PHX - 1299 WAS - 1290 CHI - 1287 BKN - 1286 MIN - 1279 CHA - 1265 DEN - 1251 ATL - 1247 CLE, DET - 1226 NOP - 1221 NYK - 1218 SAC - 1215 LAL, UTA - 1205 BOS - 1187 ORL - 1184 MIL - 1148 PHI - 1115 Although we dropped 2 Av points - the Rockets have moved up 1 spot due to the poor performance of some top tier teams (namely IND). We are really just a bit shy of contender spot (imho top 4 would be considered contenders in this schema). Go Rockets!!!
Update till Rockets 75th Game - the standings are such: SAS - 1398 OKC - 1382 MIA - 1364 LAC - 1358 HOU - 1343 (no change from G70Av) GSW - 1336 IND - 1333 POR - 1329 MEM - 1317 DAL, TOR - 1312 PHX - 1303 BKN - 1293 WAS - 1287 CHI - 1286 MIN - 1279 CHA - 1268 DEN - 1252 ATL - 1239 CLE - 1233 NOP - 1230 DET, NYK - 1220 SAC - 1214 LAL - 1204 UTA - 1197 BOS - 1186 ORL - 1180 MIL - 1146 PHI - 1106 We are still hovering just outside of contention (top 4 teams) - at the moment, it isn't looking likely that the Pacers displaced the Heats as the top team from the East (unless they are simply doing some kind of strategic resting) - the Spurs are continuing on mechanically but the West seems much more exciting when compared to the West. The Lakers are getting very close to the other "tanking" teams (the sub-1200s) - but it doesn't seem any team can beat the 76ers at this....
Update - we are close to end of the regular season, here are the figures for G80Av. I think we can roughly estimate the rankings of teams from these: SAS - 1402 OKC - 1381 LAC, MIA - 1360 HOU - 1339 GSW- 1336 POR - 1328 IND - 1324 DAL, MEM - 1318 TOR - 1315 PHX - 1307 BKN - 1296 CHI - 1291 WAS - 1288 MIN - 1280 CHA - 1268 DEN -1257 ATL - 1239 CLE - 1237 NYK - 1227 NOP - 1225 DET - 1217 SAC - 1213 LAL - 1201 UTA - 1193 ORL - 1182 BOS - 1179 MIL - 1143 PHI - 1103 Splitting these into the 2 conferences top 8 teams Eastern (1) IND (1324) vs (8) ATL (1239) - likely victor IND (2) MIA (1360) vs (7) CHA (1268) - likely victor MIA (3) TOR (1315) vs (6) WAS (1288) - likely victor TOR (4) CHI (1291) vs (5) BKN (1296) - likely victor BKN Western (1) SAS (1402) vs (8) MEM (1318) - likely victor SAS (2) OKC (1381) vs (7) DAL (1318) - likely victor OKC (3) LAC (1360) vs (6) GSW (1336) - likely victor LAC (4) HOU (1339) vs (5) POR (1328) - likely victor HOU but all these are on paper - we will see how things go in the actual PO.
Okay not sure if G82Av makes any sense since towards the end of the 1st round, most teams that have already settled their playoffs won't play at their normal levels. But for those of you interested here is the Relative Rank Values for the teams in NBA: (the other thing I was tracking - i.e. instead of starting all teams at 1271 from Game0 - I had computed their baseline scores from the previous seasons just using no. of games won - end result is that the differential in RV is only about 6 to 7 points - the RV values become closer after around 9 Games - in short in doesn't matter what value we start with, after around 9 games of tracking we are quite close to getting a good picture of the strength of the team wrt to the other teams - please note that this strength is not static it changes as the season progresses) G82Av SAS - 1402 (62-20) OKC - 1379 (59-23) LAC - 1361 (57-25) MIA - 1356 (54-28) HOU - 1338 (54-28) GSW- 1337 (51-31) POR - 1329 (54-28) IND - 1322 (56-26) MEM - 1320 (50-32) DAL - 1320 (49-33) TOR - 1315 (48-34) PHX - 1308 (48-34) BKN - 1294 (44-38) CHI - 1292 (48-34) WAS - 1290 (44-38) MIN - 1279 (40-42) CHA - 1269 (43-39) DEN - 1259 (36-46) ATL - 1239 (38-44) CLE - 1236 (33-49) NYK - 1232 (37-45) NOP - 1225 (34-48) DET - 1215 (29-53) SAC - 1214 (28-54) LAL - 1201 (27-55) UTA - 1191 (25-57) ORL - 1182 (23-59) BOS - 1177 (25-57) MIL - 1142 (15-67) PHI - 1105 (19-63) Interesting comparisons of RV to total wins - it doesn't tally at every instance - my current thinking is that the difference is likely due to the teams having played different kinds of schedules (i.e. whether they had beaten better or weaker teams in their matchups) Next year, I am likely to use these values as a baseline for next season. But overall, from the RV - I will rate the teams as such: A+ teams: SAS, OKC A- teams: LAC, MIA, HOU B+ teams: GSW, POR B- teams: IND, MEM, DAL C+ teams: TOR, PHX C-teams: BKN, CHI, WAS D teams: MIN, CHA, DEN, ATL, CLE F teams: NYK, NOP, DET, SAC, LAL, UTA, ORL, BOS, MIL, PHI I think it's a great job that the Rockets have gotten themselves to the A-class teams, we are probably still a bit short of contending but am still hoping that lady luck will smile on us and bring us all the way - Go Rockets!!!
It sucks that Rockets got knocked out of Round 1 (yeah, we can argue that some of that is due to the inept refereeing and other stuff, we however can't deny the fact that we weren't that great in our own plays). Overall, although I am a bit dissapointed, but I won't complain overmuch seeing this is really the first time this team is playing together - I think we can certainly do much better next season. So after Round 1 of playoffs, my calculated RV for the teams are as follows: East MIA - 1358 -> R2 IND - 1320 -> R2 TOR - 1314 BKN - 1295 -> R2 CHI - 1291 WAS - 1291 -> R2 CHA - 1267 ATL - 1242 West SAS - 1400 -> R2 OKC - 1378 -> R2 LAC - 1361 -> R2 GSW - 1337 HOU - 1337 POR - 1330 -> R2 DAL - 1322 MEM - 1320 At the moment, I can't quite see POR being able to beat SAS, while OKC and LAC may get to 7 games just for us to find who's better. On the East, I doubt BKN would be able to extinguish the Heat, and the Pacers looks likely to contain the Wizards. At the moment, its looking like an SAS - MIA showdown.
It would be interesting to see how the calculation plays itself out JUST for the 2 teams playing against each other. Nets swept the Heat in the regular season - so the matchup kind of works for them! Obviously playoffs are a different matter altogether, but you'd have to think the self-belief of the Nets will mean something?
There is always a chance that BKN KO MIA - RV aren't really predictive values but a value calculated after the fact (a numerical summary of a team's performance so far). So the values we are seeing now is that. We all know how things can change, a bad call by the referee, someone getting hurt, players making mistakes etc. The challenge of playing against teams like SAS and MIA is that these 2 teams has a tendency to gather momentum the more they play in the playoffs. SAS may start slow (having been taken to 7 by DAL) but I predict that they should be able to see off POR in 6. MIA started with fire going 4-0 against CHA, so not sure if they may be peaking too soon, but I see them doing it in 5 against BKN I think IND should be able to see off WAS in 6 as well. I think IND has a chance of displacing MIA in the ECF (and really I hope they do, at the moment though it seems MIA is at a higher level of performance (which may change after R2). The only matchup - I am not too clear about is OKC vs LAC, OKC on paper should be the better performing team. I will go with OKC to win in 6 (not that I like either of the teams) - not sure if there would be any other distractions on the LAC team that may affect their performance. so for WCF it looks like SAS vs OKC - between them I still think SAS is a much more consistent team in terms of performance (I will review this after R2 as well). I don't think we would be seeing so many 7-gamers in R2 - but I could be wrong.
Okay after the 2nd round of Playoffs, we are down to 4 teams - and it's the first 2 seeds of east and west conferences as per expected. Here are the RV calculated for the teams involved in R2: East MIA - 1359 (+1) IND - 1321 (+1) BKN - 1295 WAS - 1290 (-1) West SAS - 1401 (+1) OKC - 1379 (+1) LAC - 1360 (-1) POR - 1328 (-2) At the moment, it still appears to be an SAS vs MIA finals. But those of you interested in probabilities, SAS vs OKC stands at 50.4% vs 49.6% whilst MIA vs IND stands at 50.7%vs49.3% - so in reality these 2 series are likely to be closely contested.
We have reached the finals the RV for the 4 remaining teams are calculated as: MIA - 1359 (no change) SAS - 1402 (+1) OKC- 1379 (no change) IND - 1320 (-1) It looks like SAS should be able to beat MIA this time round. My calculated odds are :50.8:49.2. Let's see how that goes - maybe LeBron has another hidden gear somewhere, but I think SAS has what it takes to clinch the chip this year.
Congratulations to Spurs for winning this (at least Houston has the record of having swept the champions in the regular season). Anyways - the final RV scores for the teams are as follows: SAS - 1403 OKC - 1379 LAC - 1360 MIA - 1358 GSW - 1337 HOU - 1337 POR - 1328 DAL - 1322 IND - 1320 TOR - 1314 PHX - 1308 BKN - 1295 CHI - 1291 WAS - 1290 MIN - 1279 CHA - 1267 DEN - 1259 ATL - 1242 CLE - 1236 NYK - 1232 NOP - 1225 DET - 1215 SAC - 1214 LAL - 1201 UTA - 1191 ORL - 1182 BOS - 1177 MIL -1142 PHI - 1105 I will be using these as baselines to check if next season teams have improved themselves or suffered a drop in performance.... in the mean time I will be back to grinding out the RV for the players......
