How have the playoffs thus far altered your (or the general) approach of Moneyball?

There needs to be a metric about a player's mental toughness... and coaching.

 

Sports video games have been asking how do you measure the immeasurable for years. You can create a field for each player and put a value in it, but how do you decide until you see it for your self in real life. I think Dwight Howard might have been given a very low score for "heart" in a video game but the Dwight I saw would be deserving of a very high one.

 

the rockets lost to a team that is about as moneyball/moreyball as we are, at least in terms of shooting as many 3's as possible.

the hawks almost pulled a 1/8 upset by shooting a record number of 3's.

all the 4 point plays seem to indicate people are hoisting 3's as much as possible. everybody is taking 3's. everybody is trying to build D's that take away 3's and layups and free throws. i would say the math is in. it's just about who can build O's and D's that take advantage of that math as well as possible.

the heat and spurs took all the 3's they could find last year.

of course if you have a great post option, you should use it. it can generate shots close to the basket and help D can open up the 3's and it creates fouls that can lead to non-shooting foul free throws.

but if they don't move the 3 point line, i think attempts are just going to go up. it just makes too much sense to shoot 3's and layups and not mid-range shots. and D's will continue to try to take those 2 shots away. it will just be a battle to see who can get/prevent the shots that offenses want.

 

You nailed it. I don't agree with moving the 3 point line. I think the distribution is fine. Defenses focus more and more on taking out the 3 point shot so naturally the one dribble pull up will become more important.


Dirk and LMA's value is not just there shotmaking ability from the midrange but also how that ability leads to open 3s.

 

i don't know if i would move the 3 point line either but at some point if teams really start playing the RGV style game (kind of like the hawks in the playoffs) then they may decide to do something to essentially balance out of the math of shooting against the talents of the shooters in the league today.

exactly. in reality, aldridge was not an efficient player this year. 50.7 TS%. that's not good. but his post ups do necessitate the occasional double team (not automatic since he doesn't usually shoot as well as he did against us) and that opens up portland's team full of 3 point shooters to get open shots and really create their super efficient offense. if aldridge shot 5 footers or was a dribble drive guard it would be the same. the fact he takes mid-range shots doesn't mean that you should look for those, it just means he's one of the few capable of being tough to guard at that range and anyone who is tough to guard and has lots of teammates that can hit 3's makes an offense tough to guard.