[Video] Lin + Rockets Highlights vs Raptors (11.11.2013)

So true. I've seen assists highlights (put out by the NBA itself) where I'm dumbfounded at the assists given, and also when the same type of assist might be credited in one half and not the other, so there's inconsistency within same game too. Go to games where players have 10+ assists/night, a few times 2+ of the assists are really not.

 

Assists probably suffer the worst when it comes to human interpretation and perceptual error. You can't really argue whether or not someone gets the ball in the basket for points, but the spectrum between what qualifies as an "assist" and what is simply a "pass" can be as wide as the Grand Canyon, especially when you consider that most players obtain only a handful of assists per game (if that). This means you need a huge sample across basically the entire season in order to account for all the "noise". I suspect that in the vast majority of cases, you're actually better off simply counting the number of times a player makes a pass prior to a made basket. It would be far easier to account for the statistical noise and measurement error/bias in that case.

 

Great Highlights!

 

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/01/01/bernie.ask.bernie.20090101/index.html

Check out this video! This is an obvious case of a statistician padding Rondo's assists in Boston! He just happened to make exactly 20 assists?! Come on! According to the definition above I count only 17 assists! The ones at 1:07, 1:13 (ridiculous), and 1:52 should not be counted as assists! What do you guys think?

 

Sorry it's late and I forgot to paste the embedded video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8GYlDcGweRk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

wow thats bad. whole set of fakes and dribbles and they still give it to rondo LOLOL..

 

I actually counted rondo's assist here and got only 12-13 legit assists.