Analytics on ref Ken Mauer: no surprise he didn't call a foul

I don't disagree. But at the end of a game? Do we really want a league where players and coaches have to draw up a final play based on the referees as well as the opposing team? Now Harden has to limit himself to a jumper instead of driving to the hoop just because Ken Mauer won't give him the whistle? That's ridiculous.

And BTW, I wouldn't be too sure about Mauer not calling that foul anymore. Not after what happened the other night. Could you imagine the sh-tstorm that'll rain down on him if this happens again with one of his crews?

 

I agree with you that "a foul's a foul" (so call it)& like the baseball strike zone, is defined in the rule book. Where we run into problems is with "that's my strike zone" & "I'm letting the players decide the game" umpires & refs that are basically disregarding the rule book. I hadn't thought about it before, but yes "analytics for refs" would be a good tool to use.

 

I don't believe it should be necessary to take the refs into consideration when deciding plays down the stretch in close games, but if its going to provide our team an advantage then the team needs to be apprised of it. We have more than enough analysts and assistant coaches for one of them to take care of it.

 

It's sad that ref analytics will need to be incorporated into a team's gameplan. But at the current state, this strategy will make a huge impact on team records.

Refs are meant to enforce the rule book. Instead, NBA officiating is a factor in the outcome of games. With all the interaction that happens during a game between players and officials, how can you NOT be bias one way or the other? The action is so in-your-face and so fast that refs can easily be develop a bias during the game if a player interacts with emotion.

Ref type-A tries to act tough and show the players and the media that no player can complain and push the rule enforcer around. So instead of calling a foul for the complaining player the next time down, this ref will NOT call the foul to make a point that he or she cannot be swayed by the complaining player. Still, incorrect calls are being made.

Ref type-B is the yes man/woman. Tries to be buddy buddy with the players. My pet peeve: when a ref says "my bad, I missed the call" and calls a make up call on the ensuing play. In this case, the other team is penalized for the refs mistake. If it weren't for a player complaining, the ref wouldn't have acknowledged the bad call and tried to correct it with a makeup call. The team that complains more will probably win

NBA refs suck. They need to be held accountable for their performance. Otherwise, the NBA should just cash in on this and sell replica NBA ref shirts like they do player jerseys. Buy a Ken Mauer shirt or a Tony Brothers at Academy. The refs impact the game as much as players far too frequently. NBA Refs are also the only sport where I know almost all of the refs' names. too much light is shone on NBA refs, might as well sell their jerseys.

 

You don't look at what ref is where when you're driving to the basket for the game winning shot

 

You can run a play that forces a ref to be looking from a particular angle that leads to your advantage though...

Players do this all the time, i've seen people look around, then reach knowing a ref cant see, might was well take advantage of it as a team.

 

I too went to YMM and became and active member. Made some solid friends. That was back when Rockets2K started making torrents of games and I hosted the tracker. So, would post games there. This was before Youtube, so no other way to share than using bittorrent. Building swarms helps speed of d/ls a lot.

For some reason, he got upset, claiming I was advertising my site? Like we made money off of that, while instead we were just looking to share and build the swarm. That was a lot of work for a hobby. So, I stopped, but ppl still posted the torrents on his site regardless. Didn't make sense once I knew his background in internet startups. You'd think he'd know the importance building swarms was to download speed. The big websites in China didn't seem to care at all.

Good luck to him. I'm not as sold on the value of ref data except for what Silver uses to pick playoff referees. He'd need to track actual non-calls, too, which would be very hard without NBA ref experience.

As for game situations, when Harden goes ISO at the end of games, he's got way too many variables to consider in split seconds to consider refs for reasons to drive or not.

thx, appreciate the link. keep your moniker. or if you change it let us know. i'm no player hata.

 

They need to publish that data for cops. I want to know when I'm getting a ticket or warning.

 

i'm not contradicting, i'm saying nba should be one of those sports, if the refs are trained properly and held accountable, where all refs are equal or pretty close. that is obviously not the case and needs to be addressed.

for example, playoffs vs non-playoffs is just stupid. a foul is a foul.

 

How about if we start with the simplest referee analytics of all: In the playoffs, a lot of the calls we rely on to win regular-season games disappear. If we're serious about preparing to win playoff games, maybe we should start to factor that in, and broaden our scoring menu accordingly.

 

The fact that refs even have tendencies like this should be troubling to the league office, but it seemingly isn't. David Stern actively protected his refs from any sort of criticism. Let's see if Silver follows the same misguided path.

 

i'm a huge fan of soccer and watch tons of latin america soccer shows and in every show on every network, whether it's post-game show or just weekly show then analyze referee calls/non-calls. usually they have a retired referee as part of the cast and he has is own segment where he grades the ref and the panel debates. the good thing is they criticize the bad/non-calls but they also acknowledge a good referee performance. and also the leagues review ref performance on a week to week basis and it's not uncommon for a ref to be relieved for one week or more.

again like in this instance it doesn't it doesn't change the outcome but the pressure is real for refs. pressure from the media and from their leagues. here there is very little pressure and the refs are protected. that has to change.

 

Could not agree with you more.

People are quick to excuse the refs by saying "sports are fast" or "refs can't be perfect."

But we can hold them to higher standards than we are. Accountability motivates people to perform.

 

Yes BUT.. if you are drawing up a final-shot play in a time-out, you dang well better be taking such things into account.

Having said that though, the odds are always more in your favor if you take control of what you can control, and leave as little in the hands of the refs as possible.

Harden has made that mid-range step-back shot a million times; that's what he should have done on that play, regardless of the fact he was 'fouled' on the drive. If he takes the shot, at least it's in HIS control.. if he drives and is fouled, the foul SHOULD be called, but it's still in the hands of the refs whether or not it actually GETS called.

 

And some how the best almost always wins. Except for the 2002 Sacramento Kings who were clearly the best team and best coached team and a crook for a ref admitted that the refs play a part in the demise of the Kings.

 

Didnt he call like 4 techs in a row in a Timberwolves Spurs game once? Back when Kurt Rambis was the Wolves coach?

 

i think this is the future. the refs are such a large part of the game, it's time to acknowledge that they have "good" games and "bad" games and there are good refs and bad refs. Compiling analytics on refs is a great way to a) let the bad ones know that they're bad and b) get rid of the refs who don't want to improve.

 

That refsanalytics.com site is a great idea but i don't see much on there. a few blog entries, most from last year. i was expecting a break down of nba referees and their tendencies...

oh welp.

 

I don't care if the refs have tendencies. Nobodies tendencies should overcome the egregiousness of that Randolph hack, though. If a ref can look at that play and think that letting the play go makes sense, then that's a problem for the league.

 

tendencies to fack shiet up