tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105511292547959712024-03-05T09:51:58.335+05:30Hoops HypothesisSports team and player profiles and analytics.Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-13464777193139522782023-12-20T00:58:00.004+05:302024-01-04T21:35:05.448+05:30An Analysis of Car and Driver Impact on Formula 1 Success - Part 2<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the <a href="https://hoops-hypothesis.blogspot.com/2023/12/an-analysis-of-car-and-driver-impact-on.html">previous part</a> of this project, I looked at the
variables I was using, and some of the trends that I identified through a
preliminary analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Part 2 of this project is dedicated to:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> - The research
questions I formulated</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> - The statistical analyses that I used for each question</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> - The interpretation of my analysis</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> - What conclusions I was able to
draw to answer each research question</span></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Research Questions<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Based on my preliminary analysis of the variables that
I was working with, I came up with more questions that I was interested in
exploring, in addition to my original goal of figuring out whether the car or
driver was more crucial to Formula 1 success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One of the first things that piqued my interest was how
the different points systems affected overall scoring. While it was immediately
clear that the change in point scoring systems from 10 points for a win to 25
points for a win resulted in drastic changes to the point totals, my hypothesis
was that the change from system 1 to 2 resulted in reduced point totals for the
championship winners, and created a different scoring environment between the
two systems. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Research Question 1: Do the different
point systems affect the scoring environment, and if so, how do they differ
from each other?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To test my hypothesis out, I decided to run an ANOVA
test on the points scored in relation to the points systems. My null hypothesis
for the test was that there was no significant difference in the means between
points systems. If there was a significant difference in the means, this would
indicate that different point systems affected the scoring environment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of my ANOVA test are shown below:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUDmLvWmUpj7rvFEIvuvVG2TKJgYz_9zWkaD2oTjGIU7Uq9Pc7kEpgcf3AtRvlEhEni_in-kKoVLzhmtfumTJQpPoU5-YyEQquSb1oI-n5GJm4DxvkpW8oi1WO3mUcghxRVatDeWkVA78L_r1HgTbrJ-v5IQLK-Ycx9I4XjjmYvBAkcwe5nvDkWGLdRQ/s586/ANOVA%20Result.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="586" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUDmLvWmUpj7rvFEIvuvVG2TKJgYz_9zWkaD2oTjGIU7Uq9Pc7kEpgcf3AtRvlEhEni_in-kKoVLzhmtfumTJQpPoU5-YyEQquSb1oI-n5GJm4DxvkpW8oi1WO3mUcghxRVatDeWkVA78L_r1HgTbrJ-v5IQLK-Ycx9I4XjjmYvBAkcwe5nvDkWGLdRQ/s320/ANOVA%20Result.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To interpret this ANOVA result, we must observe the
p-value of the test. If the p value is less than our chosen alpha of 0.05, then
we can reject the null hypothesis. In this case, the p-value of the test is
nearly zero, which indicates that at least two of the scoring systems have
different means, and so create different scoring environments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The next step in my analysis of the different systems
was to identify which scoring systems differed greatly in their means. To do
this, I used a Tukey HSD test. The test paired each scoring system together,
and compared the difference in means of each system. The adjusted p value
showed how significant the difference in the means was. If the p value is less than
0.05, then there is a significant difference in the means of the two pairs of
scoring systems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of the Tukey HSD test are shown below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVE2cXIGkr5GvWZMnnTf0FY038oOibRyN7Y8imUlIbY5ZBa6mfDIpL-Wdm55lmLvD8RcYE3Qsv-b9JxUl3MbuK7CgvFq-msJKtSSvYWOTJpdFHtIqsa7qR84ssyF7IkoOEobExcpOSg9BkuScvD1K0W32TQM7Xli61UTsFLEF5xKUjba-hHEIoSeRSvQ/s570/Tukey%20Result.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="570" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVE2cXIGkr5GvWZMnnTf0FY038oOibRyN7Y8imUlIbY5ZBa6mfDIpL-Wdm55lmLvD8RcYE3Qsv-b9JxUl3MbuK7CgvFq-msJKtSSvYWOTJpdFHtIqsa7qR84ssyF7IkoOEobExcpOSg9BkuScvD1K0W32TQM7Xli61UTsFLEF5xKUjba-hHEIoSeRSvQ/s320/Tukey%20Result.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Based on the Tukey HSD results, the two pairs of
scoring systems that do not have a significant difference in their means are
systems 1 and 2, and systems 3 and 4. While this was an expected result based
on the difference in points awarded, it does leave open to interpretation the
trend of championship winners gradually scoring fewer points during scoring
system 2.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To answer the question, the points systems do impact
the scoring environment because of the way they award points for results.
Systems 1 and 2 are similar to each other in that they award fewer points for
results and suppress the scoring environment, while systems 3 and 4 inflate the
scoring environment in comparison to systems 1 and 2.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Research Question 2: How do pole positions
in a season contribute to wins, and is the relationship between pole positions
and wins similar to pole positions and points?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After I looked at the effect on points systems on
scoring environment, I looked at another variable that has a slightly nebulous,
but still quantifiable connection to points, pole positions achieved. While
pole positions have a relatively simple and strong connection to winning, as
starting from first place on the grid provides an advantage in the race, its
effect on points scored is not as concrete. There are many variables that
affect the total number of points scored throughout a season, and as pole positions
do not contribute any points, their effect on points is limited.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My goal for this part of the analysis was to create a
simple linear regression model with poles as the independent variable, and
first with wins as the dependent variable, and then with points as the
dependent variable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The linear model for pole positions compared to wins
is shown below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UrgCh03sGQz8A270nz_Y4HPF61cvsXjO5D2Ky3axTrXO3czPOtny_4Rs_RXPG9KbUApeD4qJEKuGKMjDVNvbC5QYbueno2zKCPzK7Y5zKDKG8MG6rtNGxXnyXfJbo8SOD1SeFwmssvQ6-oX7i3RaaZ1JoankX_mPxcfcHhFnzyANMe9xKHALfFTzzT4/s617/Wins%20-%20Poles%20Linear%20Model.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="617" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UrgCh03sGQz8A270nz_Y4HPF61cvsXjO5D2Ky3axTrXO3czPOtny_4Rs_RXPG9KbUApeD4qJEKuGKMjDVNvbC5QYbueno2zKCPzK7Y5zKDKG8MG6rtNGxXnyXfJbo8SOD1SeFwmssvQ6-oX7i3RaaZ1JoankX_mPxcfcHhFnzyANMe9xKHALfFTzzT4/s320/Wins%20-%20Poles%20Linear%20Model.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From this model, we can learn a lot about how pole
positions and wins are correlated to each other. Firstly, the intercept is the
estimated value of the response variable (wins) when the predictor variable
(poles) is zero. In this situation, this means that a driver with zero poles
throughout a season can be expected to win almost one race throughout the
course of the season. Next, the poles estimate is the estimated change in the
response variable for a one-unit increase in the predictor variable (poles). In
this case, it suggests that, on average, each additional pole is associated
with an increase of approximately 0.82437 in the number of wins. This shows
that pole positions greatly impact wins.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This assertion is also backed up by studying the p
value. The p-value associated with the coefficient for poles is very small (very
close to zero), indicating that the number of poles is significantly associated
with the number of wins.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">R-squared (0.6152) represents the proportion of the
variance in the dependent variable (wins) that is explained by the independent
variable (poles). This means that poles explain around 61.52Adjusted R-squared
(0.6119) adjusts the R-squared value based on the number of predictors in the
model.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, the model suggests that there is a
statistically significant positive relationship between the number of poles and
the number of wins.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The linear model for pole positions compared to points
is shown below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhgjrz_-12WJ-4oB1vmCrgtgBWUpmaG56lJpr2X1Abax0AgmbZLAp1bhzCz3bdXWj6aUV9mgiZGu9N-0cXTZINbkCmRxn9jwZwRRm2rVREFquN2BwTwVfFqvqH6gRekHq-usS4H4t77dwcpvTK0DmDWM8fhjE8YddHdHhoeibBQ6yut71cjyVKmF8jSs/s627/Points%20Poles%20Linear%20Model.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="627" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhgjrz_-12WJ-4oB1vmCrgtgBWUpmaG56lJpr2X1Abax0AgmbZLAp1bhzCz3bdXWj6aUV9mgiZGu9N-0cXTZINbkCmRxn9jwZwRRm2rVREFquN2BwTwVfFqvqH6gRekHq-usS4H4t77dwcpvTK0DmDWM8fhjE8YddHdHhoeibBQ6yut71cjyVKmF8jSs/s320/Points%20Poles%20Linear%20Model.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From this model, we can learn a lot about how pole
positions and points are correlated to each other. Firstly, the intercept is the
estimated value of the response variable (points) when the predictor variable
(poles) is zero. In this situation, this means that a driver with zero poles
throughout a season can be expected to score around 108 points throughout the
course of the season. Next, the poles estimate is the estimated change in the
response variable for a one-unit increase in the predictor variable (poles). In
this case, it suggests that, on average, each additional pole is associated
with an increase of approximately 16 points. This shows that pole positions
impact points scored, though not to the same degree as they impact wins.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The p-values associated with both the intercept and
the poles coefficient are very small (nearly zero), indicating that both
coefficients are statistically significant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The multiple R-squared is 0.2354, indicating that
approximately 23.54% of the variability in the dependent variable (points) is
explained by the model. Adjusted R-squared is 0.2289, which adjusts the
R-squared value based on the number of predictors in the model.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The F-statistic tests the overall significance of the
model. In this case, it's 36.32 with a very low p-value, suggesting that the
overall model is statistically significant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, the model suggests that there is a
significant linear relationship between the number of "poles" and the
"points" variable. The intercept and slope are both statistically
significant, and the model is deemed significant based on the F-statistic.
However, the R-squared value indicates that only about 23.54% of the
variability in points is explained by the number of poles, which indicates that
poles do not explain the variation in points scored as much as they impact
winning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To answer this research question, my hypothesis that
pole positions would impact winning more than they would impact points scored
was correct. This means that while pole positions can be used to predict a
driver’s chances of winning a single race, they are not as accurate in
predicting performance over the course of a season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Research Question 3: Which is more
instrumental to success, the car or the driver?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After finishing all my other analysis, I addressed the
main point that I was hoping to answer with this research, whether the car or
the driver is more influential to success. To look at the effect of the car on
points, I decided to use paired t-tests to first find out whether there was a
significant difference in the means of the gap in points between teammates over
the course of each season. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To approximate the effect the drivers have on
performance, I found the difference between the best driver in team 1 and team
2, and ran paired t-tests comparing the difference between the drivers to each
set of teammates to see whether there was a significant difference in the
effect that a driver had. In this case, my null hypothesis was that there was
no significant difference in the means of the gap between the two teammates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of my test comparing teammates are shown
below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDWe6fSgwDFD4OWYSWUfUVmVQbL9FC7AZkGkw0aeh2Q-gl63D7w10Pew-_hr8ZD_tomMYqSLRzKeVb0WjeOyB1BNS-fDQi0MHpeffrSud09qwV8zlEM_gcOSZcCx22u0im6E8XKa1C-J5NgIbOh80GR5iNweQTH9_P_Be7_l8jSAKhuF7kPfvjNluHDck/s852/Team%201%20vs%20Team%202%20T-Test.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="852" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDWe6fSgwDFD4OWYSWUfUVmVQbL9FC7AZkGkw0aeh2Q-gl63D7w10Pew-_hr8ZD_tomMYqSLRzKeVb0WjeOyB1BNS-fDQi0MHpeffrSud09qwV8zlEM_gcOSZcCx22u0im6E8XKa1C-J5NgIbOh80GR5iNweQTH9_P_Be7_l8jSAKhuF7kPfvjNluHDck/s320/Team%201%20vs%20Team%202%20T-Test.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The t-value is -1.2448. This value represents the
number of standard deviations the sample mean (mean difference) is from the
null hypothesis mean (0). A negative t-value suggests that, on average, team 1
has more negative points than team 2. This signifies that the gap between
teammates is wider in the championship winning team than in the runner up’s
team.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The p-value is 0.2232. This is the probability of
observing a t-value as extreme as or more extreme than the one calculated from
the sample data, assuming the null hypothesis is true. A higher p-value
suggests weaker evidence against the null hypothesis. This means that the
difference in the means is not significant enough to reject the null
hypothesis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The mean difference is -14.61667. This is the observed
average difference in points between team 1 and team 2.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, based on this analysis, there isn't
sufficient evidence to conclude that there is a significant difference in mean
gap between drivers in team 1 and team 2. This means that, if the cars are
equal, the gap between teammates is not very different. This indicates that the
car likely plays a big role in determining the number of points scored.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, there is one interesting outlier in this
analysis. The mean difference between team 1’s gap and team 2’s gap is
-14.61667. This means that the gap between teammates in team 1 is higher than
in team 2. This could be because many drivers’ championship winners are the
best of the best, and it is difficult to find a teammate that can match up well
to a championship winner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of my test comparing championship rivals
and team 1’s drivers are shown below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzm1THrQRIYYIOIldtLddMMfsFSwGvl3cNOGJT77RsOinLi-jsQ_WKWtso6FgZqbIqk4YylKf8XFhCiQWlUP5adxHoFFhzcONfomg1jdLqgDO9FByUPEH1S3hXXptH-rG3SAh_TCw7BIwTuUYQ3gA2_rrizAsogiqe1T1d8nZ942SBfdS5809J454GtEg/s913/Championship%20Difference%20vs%20Team%201%20T-test.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="913" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzm1THrQRIYYIOIldtLddMMfsFSwGvl3cNOGJT77RsOinLi-jsQ_WKWtso6FgZqbIqk4YylKf8XFhCiQWlUP5adxHoFFhzcONfomg1jdLqgDO9FByUPEH1S3hXXptH-rG3SAh_TCw7BIwTuUYQ3gA2_rrizAsogiqe1T1d8nZ942SBfdS5809J454GtEg/s320/Championship%20Difference%20vs%20Team%201%20T-test.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The t-value is 3.664. This value represents the number
of standard deviations by which the mean difference between the two paired sets
of data differs from zero. In this case, it suggests that the mean difference
is quite far from zero.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The p-value is nearly zero, which is less than the
typical significance level of 0.05. This suggests strong evidence against the
null hypothesis. In practical terms, it means that the observed difference in
means is statistically significant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The mean difference between the paired data sets is
27.95. This is the average change or difference observed in the sample.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, the results of the paired t-test suggest
that there is a statistically significant difference between the means. The
positive mean difference and the confidence interval not containing zero
indicate that, on average, the championship rivals’ difference is significantly
higher than the teammates difference.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of my test comparing championship rivals
and team 2’s drivers are shown below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXAHYLUu1WxLufKDN88K_tyOMYaBKoI-BNxzNZKQxDAFn7TAcxZ91VGi1IoJ6fgFZlEEMoWe2zwc-6hfFwhvKRysY3L5lEDS0OhOvkrtphWrnY11nflZ4ZWJSlsyAuI-kcymCo8AlhfABFlk8rUPB9SI32MMf6On3iRXZf9la-Mu81rsyhKTda2hepT4/s921/Championship%20Difference%20vs%20Team%202%20T-test.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="921" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXAHYLUu1WxLufKDN88K_tyOMYaBKoI-BNxzNZKQxDAFn7TAcxZ91VGi1IoJ6fgFZlEEMoWe2zwc-6hfFwhvKRysY3L5lEDS0OhOvkrtphWrnY11nflZ4ZWJSlsyAuI-kcymCo8AlhfABFlk8rUPB9SI32MMf6On3iRXZf9la-Mu81rsyhKTda2hepT4/s320/Championship%20Difference%20vs%20Team%202%20T-test.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The t-value is 0.98846. This value represents the
number of standard deviations by which the mean difference between the two
paired sets of data differs from zero. A t-value close to zero indicates that
the mean difference is not significantly different from zero.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The p-value is 0.3311, which is greater than the
typical significance level of 0.05. This suggests that there is not enough
evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference
between the means.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The mean difference between the paired data sets is
13.33. This is the average change or difference observed in the sample.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, the results of the second paired t-test
suggest that there is not enough evidence to conclude that there is a
statistically significant difference between the means. The p-value is greater
than 0.05, and the confidence interval includes zero, indicating that we do not
have strong evidence to reject the null hypothesis of no difference.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The results of these two t-tests are very interesting.
They are both contradictory to each to each other, with one indicating that the
driver’s ability plays a bigger role in performance, while the other test
agrees that the car’s performance is more influential in performance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My hypothesis is that this is caused because of the
larger gap between the championship winner and their teammate. Because their
performance is harder to replicate, it is essentially an outlier in terms of
driver ability, and the interaction with the best driver often being in the
best car causes the data to be skewed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In summary, this project uncovered valuable insights
into the interaction between various metrics, including pole positions, wins,
points, and even teammate performance. The project also found out about the way
car-driver interaction, especially in terms of the best driver being in the
best car, can affect rigorous statistical analyses. I think that this research
provides a strong foundation into the ways in which different aspects of
Formula 1 can impact and contribute to success in the form of points scored. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In terms of points scoring systems, the different
systems do impact the scoring environment. This is because of the difference in
points awarded between systems. Pole positions correlate more to wins than
points scored in a season. Pole positions are a good indicator of race winning
ability, but they do not correlate much to consistency over the entire season.
In terms of car-driver interaction, the results are often skewed by the fact
the best driver is usually in the best car, and further research is required to
account for this factor.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In terms of further research, I think that more
in-depth research is needed with regards to car-driver interaction, and how
that can potentially boost the contributions of both the driver and the car to
success. Additionally, I think that using more advanced metrics like the AWS
data insights could also provide a clearer picture of how the car and driver
affect success and contribute to</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> each other.</span></p><p></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-9025467887317080082023-12-20T00:41:00.004+05:302023-12-20T00:41:52.817+05:30An Analysis of Car and Driver Impact on Formula 1 Success - Part 1<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One of the most hotly debated topics in Formula 1 is
over who should receive more of the plaudits for success, the car, or the
driver. There are many views that range over the entire spectrum of opinions,
from those who believe that the best car would win even with the worst driver,
to those who think that the best driver can single-handedly drag a middling car
to greatness.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As a Formula 1 fan, I have always been very intrigued
by this question. The goal of my analysis in the paper is to provide a
quantitative look at this age-old question and set up a foundation upon which
further empirical research into this topic can be conducted. This project is adapted from a project that I worked on for a college Statistics for Data Science class that I had taken.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In this project, I looked at the last 30 years of
Formula 1 data, spanning 1994 to 2023. I looked at various statistics that I
thought would be insightful, and I eliminated metrics that were redundant and
did not offer much avenue for exploration. After I had settled on the metrics
that I thought would be most useful for analytical research, I narrowed down
the scope of the data that I was going to use. I found data for the winners of
each Drivers’ Championship from 1994 to 2023, the runner up in that season, and
their best teammate. In situations where the runner up was the teammate of the
winner of the championship for that season, I looked at the third-place
finisher and their teammate for my analysis. Because of the transient nature of
Formula 1 driving opportunities, many drivers lower down the order often get
replaced mid-season, and this could have the possibility of skewing the data.
Hence, I limited myself to top of the championship finishers, who have more
stability in team and driver selection throughout the season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Preliminary Variable Analysis<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Before I went into an in-depth analysis of the data I
had, I felt that it was important for me to first look at the individual
variables that I was using, and try to identify some trends in the data, so
that I could easily make connections between the results that I would find
through the course of analysis, and the domain specific knowledge that I
already possessed. The variables that I included in my data were:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Position:
This is the place that the driver secured in the final Formula 1 Drivers’
Championship in the season they were competing in. It follows a ranking scale,
with lower numbers being more prestigious, and 1 indicating that the driver won
the Drivers’ Championship in that season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Team:
This metric was something that I created to make the data easier to analyze and
sort through. Given that there were always only two teams per season in my
data, I assigned 1 to the team of the winner of that season’s Championship. The
runner up’s team would be assigned 2. The second drivers for both teams were
assigned either 1 or 2 based on which team they were racing for in that season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Points:
This metric is used to measure how many placing finishes a driver has over the
course of the season. Points are the metric by which the Drivers’ Championship
is analyzed, and so I made it a key part of my analysis. Due to the myriad
scoring systems in Formula 1 over the years, I also had to introduce another
variable to account for the change in system.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Wins:
This shows how many wins each driver had in that specific season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Win
Percentage: This statistic is the percentage of total wins that driver had in
that season. It is calculated by taking the number of races won, dividing by
the total races raced that year, multiplied by 100.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Poles:
This shows how many pole positions each driver had in that specific season. A
pole position indicates that a driver will start at the front of the grid for
the race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">7.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Pole
Percentage: This statistic is the percentage of total pole positions that
driver had in that season. It is calculated by taking the number of pole
positions, dividing by the total races raced that year, multiplied by 100.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">8.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Point
System: This statistic was one that I introduced to explain some of the drastic
fluctuations in points scoring. Over the past thirty years of Formula 1, there
have been a few minor changes, and one major change that caused a major impact
on points scored. This variable was introduced to correct for the sudden change
in scores over a certain period.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After finalizing the variables that I was going to
use, I plotted some graph of the variables that I was using, to identify macro
trends within the data.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e6Yeq4rX3JMJ61FyI8jtze5f2aues2DfiqWRYceyEbbZRvvToK2-mroMWoUXeCPWlAbombs8byv0d6lP8Gq73EbDq2u9scB5lJoj_zRL2XioxyIufCQ0O7MO2qLolXaIVtDexKeD-IWad6e6J2V72o63evXszhW2lp9JoKsHQyGEwKcsrQ1CFuE2Wmg/s690/Point%20Distribution%20of%20Drivers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="690" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0e6Yeq4rX3JMJ61FyI8jtze5f2aues2DfiqWRYceyEbbZRvvToK2-mroMWoUXeCPWlAbombs8byv0d6lP8Gq73EbDq2u9scB5lJoj_zRL2XioxyIufCQ0O7MO2qLolXaIVtDexKeD-IWad6e6J2V72o63evXszhW2lp9JoKsHQyGEwKcsrQ1CFuE2Wmg/s320/Point%20Distribution%20of%20Drivers.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This graph shows the points distribution for all
drivers in the population set by points scored. From this we can find a few takeaways.
Firstly, the graph has a rough outline of being a heavily left-skewed normal
distribution. Secondly, there is a big spike in the points scored by drivers
between 2009 and 2010, which is when the new points scoring rules came into
effect. The points scored have been on an upward curve ever since the
introduction of the new rules, where a win was increased from 10 points to 25
points, and every corresponding point value was also increased. Finally, the
seasons that took place during the scoring systems that awarded 10 points for a
win (Systems 1 and 2) seem to be clustered closer together than the season that
had 25 points for a win (Systems 3 and 4), indicating a higher level of
competition in scoring systems 1 and 2.</span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZz_VTGbfR7k4Xh5h8hVOZmFQvMVp9pYq25yCLVn8tf1KZ7olPJ70fablONb58P-L0SBzS3TOJCBF_ErjizxiHJDOGpHPXHEF7GGT5K4yxz6esRgKlpxs34lhWLfxAwWCd9_2XPHeJuw_FNoe9y5vfmvMMelAIJOFwDloGUp2Q6rys3vn9W4CR7jZS0mg/s690/Points%20Distribution%20of%20Championship%20Winners.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="690" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZz_VTGbfR7k4Xh5h8hVOZmFQvMVp9pYq25yCLVn8tf1KZ7olPJ70fablONb58P-L0SBzS3TOJCBF_ErjizxiHJDOGpHPXHEF7GGT5K4yxz6esRgKlpxs34lhWLfxAwWCd9_2XPHeJuw_FNoe9y5vfmvMMelAIJOFwDloGUp2Q6rys3vn9W4CR7jZS0mg/s320/Points%20Distribution%20of%20Championship%20Winners.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The next graph that I looked at was the graph of
points totals of only the Championship winners for that season. While most of
the trends that were observed in the earlier graph were also true in this
graph, there is one very interesting pattern in this graph. Under scoring system
2, which was in effect from 2003 to 2009, the points scored by Championship
winners decreased almost every season, which stands in sharp contrast to the
rest of the data. Under every other scoring system, the number of points
required to win a championship followed a general upward trend. This makes the
contrast of the 2003-2009 seasons stand out even more, as there does not seem
to be a reason as to why the points totals continuously decreased.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhLS-VVlIeZKDE-Elw39tDJmUqinxpZSELTcHb-BhNSCxGnb1XsYQ5ZJL4J7l8m7u7-5oNLhqUcQ8m30yF7kkdunZxi6eeZaAUh8w9Sk0TDp68EhrZ-a5A41cHfF92vbay3_MN8OoQTbGB1w7L81TnhquRMIpsUHCES5VhIvujcFqYuDL27x34FI2QLU/s690/Poles%20and%20Wins%20of%20the%20Championship%20Winner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="690" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhLS-VVlIeZKDE-Elw39tDJmUqinxpZSELTcHb-BhNSCxGnb1XsYQ5ZJL4J7l8m7u7-5oNLhqUcQ8m30yF7kkdunZxi6eeZaAUh8w9Sk0TDp68EhrZ-a5A41cHfF92vbay3_MN8OoQTbGB1w7L81TnhquRMIpsUHCES5VhIvujcFqYuDL27x34FI2QLU/s320/Poles%20and%20Wins%20of%20the%20Championship%20Winner.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The graph that I looked at next was the graph of pole
positions and wins secured by the championship winner season by season. I
thought that this would be an interesting area of exploration, as Formula 1
teams sometimes eschew qualifying pace to set up their car best for the race.
This graph also showed something very interesting. While for the most part, the
pole positions secured and the race wins of the championship winner followed
roughly the same path, there were only three seasons in the data where the
championship winner had the same number of pole positions and wins in a season.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiHNRTE0Ek4iyC6CN8bVaeC8cSChpJ_U9svx4QZGwf2zBRllbju8z6-j4mMgd8QIeAeSpDigmmEejwajDRzRZzEMPkv3Kq7N39JbbtRwrbAL_h_mq1Bpl5WSScIIo83sSrvbWgFcU2fmoXdm2avVhOZcSRqAMGNdzEEBXsAFIei8pYadisVMXZtdCgVkU/s690/Pole%20Percentage%20and%20Win%20Percentage%20of%20the%20Championship%20Winner.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="690" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiHNRTE0Ek4iyC6CN8bVaeC8cSChpJ_U9svx4QZGwf2zBRllbju8z6-j4mMgd8QIeAeSpDigmmEejwajDRzRZzEMPkv3Kq7N39JbbtRwrbAL_h_mq1Bpl5WSScIIo83sSrvbWgFcU2fmoXdm2avVhOZcSRqAMGNdzEEBXsAFIei8pYadisVMXZtdCgVkU/s320/Pole%20Percentage%20and%20Win%20Percentage%20of%20the%20Championship%20Winner.png" width="320" /></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This graph is similar to the graph of pole positions
and wins above, except that it shows the pole position and win data in
percentage form. One thing that I noticed from this graph was that there were
quite a few seasons where the championship winner had neither 50 percent of
total pole positions nor wins. This happened more often in the earlier seasons
covered by the data, which is likely because cars were not as reliable as they
are in the more recent Formula 1 seasons.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTva_j2UziyjJdU9x95uzD_Xl9HHzaOW6CmA0rya1f2n38cTs3pN1Ecc82NLveY4yTcG97scxxQHbM1XmoXg92cDkZ20PLi2XIDwJB30yAu3wCrra5M-a0UUcPTz18PimsF8nnMAOBW107ic2MPxWcSfgkhPz4mDUFbXs46S-gpNwCkKivA0rtqys5Lws/s690/Lowest%20Position%20of%20Each%20Team's%20Second%20Driver.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="690" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTva_j2UziyjJdU9x95uzD_Xl9HHzaOW6CmA0rya1f2n38cTs3pN1Ecc82NLveY4yTcG97scxxQHbM1XmoXg92cDkZ20PLi2XIDwJB30yAu3wCrra5M-a0UUcPTz18PimsF8nnMAOBW107ic2MPxWcSfgkhPz4mDUFbXs46S-gpNwCkKivA0rtqys5Lws/s320/Lowest%20Position%20of%20Each%20Team's%20Second%20Driver.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>The last variable
analysis that I looked at was the year over year positioning of the winner’s
and the runner up’s teammates in the Championship. For the most part, it seemed
that the winner’s teammate usually outperformed the runner up’s teammate. For both
drivers’ highest possible positions, the winner’s teammate finished second in
the championship 9 times, as compared to the runner up’s teammate finished
third in the championship 6 times.</span></span><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In part 2 of this project, I will establish 3 research questions, and through various statistical analysis, I will establish their veracity.</span></span></div></div>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-1379964096531957522023-10-27T06:37:00.000+05:302023-10-27T06:37:20.183+05:30The Car Driver Quandary<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you were a Formula 1 team principal, would you
rather have the best driver or the best car?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For those of you who are regular readers of the
blog, firstly, thank you for your support. It means a lot to me. Secondly, this
might seem like a weird hook, considering my previous articles have all been
about basketball. While that is true, I am actually a big fan of multiple
sports, including football (soccer to American readers), baseball, Formula 1,
and yes, basketball. Instead of creating a different blog for each sport, I
figured it would be better to write about multiple different sports on the same
blog.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The dilemma of car or driver popped into my head
while I was watching the US Grand Prix this past weekend. While Max Verstappen
was comfortably on his way to another victory, the 50<sup>th</sup> of his
career, there were many interesting battles throughout the rest of the field.
This got me thinking about the age-old question of whether having the best
driver or the best car brings more success. Watching Verstappen and Red Bull
lap the field (sometimes literally) over the past couple of years, the answer
seems obvious. It would be ideal to have both the best driver and the best car.
That, however, would be too easy, and wouldn’t make for a particularly
entertaining discussion. So, using statistics, I am going to try and answer
this question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My goal for this analysis is to provide a numerical
method to determine whether a car or a driver has more impact towards winning.
For the number of points a driver contributes, I will compare the Championship
winner and their teammate that season. I am going to compare the first place
and second place finishers in the Drivers’ Championship between 1950 and 2023
based on points scored over the course of the season. This will provide a
reference for the number of points that the car contributes. In case teammates
finish first and second in the championship, I will compare the first and third
place finishers for that season. Comparing the number of points the driver and
car contribute towards the final tally should provide an idea of which is more
important, and by how much.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This analysis is a starting point to determine the
impact of the car and the driver in Formula 1, and after I find these
results, I hope to expand upon my analysis and improve it further, so that I
can provide a more accurate outlook for car and driver performance. In the
meantime, comment on what you think is more important to winning and the
reasoning behind your choice.</span><span style="font-family: Arial Narrow, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-39524897317333558362022-07-24T22:03:00.006+05:302022-07-25T11:50:41.098+05:30The Fastest Gun in The West: ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich<p><span face=""Arial Narrow", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDE8dNgC5-sHNlXobEKcSDFng5LoPmFl_8ZT6WxTMi7oQCZ3PDMg3BkKV8SKzgw1k34q_OUZm8H9Glb8cql1BKmL0AxJ8jZNwICS3oNqB_CmL0K5gs8pKLUm-U7tucrhnEFjEmRyDt4O1WhW47wJMjiGgEEGAxoPYCQuBR9hi6pPihVfV9ho_ASKwr" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1698" data-original-width="1056" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDE8dNgC5-sHNlXobEKcSDFng5LoPmFl_8ZT6WxTMi7oQCZ3PDMg3BkKV8SKzgw1k34q_OUZm8H9Glb8cql1BKmL0AxJ8jZNwICS3oNqB_CmL0K5gs8pKLUm-U7tucrhnEFjEmRyDt4O1WhW47wJMjiGgEEGAxoPYCQuBR9hi6pPihVfV9ho_ASKwr" width="149" /></a></div><p></p><p><span face=""Arial Narrow", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Pete Maravich once said, “I don’t want to play 10
years (in the NBA) and then die of a heart attack when I’m 40.” Ironically,
Maravich would play for 10 years in the NBA, and would die of heart failure at
the age of 40.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Maravich was a talented high school basketball
player, and his identifying nickname, ‘Pistol’, originated in high school. This
name came from his unorthodox shooting form. Maravich would shoot the ball from
his side, from a position similar to where a gun was held.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Maravich would burnish his already growing legend
with a storied college career. With a total of 3,667 points and an average of
44.2 points per game over his time at LSU, Maravich holds the records for both
career points totals and career point per game average. Notable, Maravich only
played 83 games over his collegiate career, which is the lowest number of games
played in the top 25 of scoring leaders. Additionally, Maravich did not play in
the varsity team in his freshman year, as the rules prohibited him from doing
so, and he did not benefit from the addition of a three-point line.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Maravich was drafted 3<sup>rd</sup> overall in the
1970 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, and hit the ground running, averaging over
20 points per game in his rookie season and making the All-Rookie First Team. Over
the next few seasons, Maravich would go from strength to strength, culminating
in two straight All-Star appearances in the 1972-73 and the 1973-74 seasons, along
with an All-NBA Second Team appearance in the 1972-73 season.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Despite his strong performances for the Hawks, Pete
Maravich would get traded to the expansion New Orleans Jazz for multiple
players and draft picks. Maravich was seen as the ideal player to create a buzz
around the new team, due to his electric play style. In New Orleans, Maravich
would reach his peak as an individual, while also enduring moribund team
performances. Maravich would make 2 All-NBA First Teams, in 1975-76 and in
1976-77 and would make another All-NBA Second Team in 1977-78. He also made the
All-Star team 3 straight times in this span. Maravich would reach another level
in the 1976-77 season, leading the league with 31.1 points per game.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">During this period of time, Maravich began to
struggle with reoccurring knee injuries, and he would slowly go downhill over
the next few years. The New Orleans Jazz would move to Utah in time to start the
1979-80 season, although Maravich was a shell of himself at this point. He
would eventually get waived by the Jazz and play the remainder of the season
with the Boston Celtics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The 1979-80 season was also the first year of the
three-point line in the NBA, making it the first year Maravich’s renowned long-range
abilities could be put to the test. Despite his dwindling playing time,
Maravich shot 10-15 (66.67%) from 3 over the course of the season. Maravich
would retire at the conclusion of the 1979-80 season.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Maravich’s No.7 jersey would be retired by the Utah
Jazz and the New Orleans Jazz, and his No.44 was retired by Atlanta Hawks. He
would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987, making him one of the youngest
players to be enshrined in the Hall. Maravich would pass away at the young
age of 40, just a year later in 1988.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pete Maravich was a player
before his time, a high scoring, slick passing guard who would prove a
trailblazer for modern stars. Maravich’s game was often misunderstood during
his day, but his highlights remain appointment viewing for any fan of the game.</span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-24817501506801222022022-01-02T12:48:00.007+05:302022-01-11T22:54:47.162+05:30Statistics To Help the Spurs – A Retrospective<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2S76zJXA2HjXSeCvBM28JhOya8g-bi7JbvPI4maobR7nQEDs70A72aY9KE13oLXXC6VIfRPLhjVjMSAx8-evKRdOaEWDUEJrXhM8P0iNL2MKz0h2L6dahMtKKUSMFRWLDxLTGQuXYhKlgDR7ZXptBFlRpPHnIcPT1XDrQR7W11jDAnA7n5hxYLJpN=s367" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="367" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2S76zJXA2HjXSeCvBM28JhOya8g-bi7JbvPI4maobR7nQEDs70A72aY9KE13oLXXC6VIfRPLhjVjMSAx8-evKRdOaEWDUEJrXhM8P0iNL2MKz0h2L6dahMtKKUSMFRWLDxLTGQuXYhKlgDR7ZXptBFlRpPHnIcPT1XDrQR7W11jDAnA7n5hxYLJpN=w287-h262" width="287" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A little while ago, <a href="https://hoops-hypothesis.blogspot.com/2020/06/statistics-to-help-spurs.html">I made a post about how the San Antonio Spurs could get better using statistics.</a> A season and change later, it’s
time to re-examine the players involved in that piece and see how the Spurs are
playing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">As of the new year of 2022, the Spurs are 14-20, with
the 5 players averaging the most minutes per game being</span></span><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Dejounte Murray, Keldon
Johnson, Derrick White, Jakob Poeltl, and Doug McDermott. Murray is the only
player who was in the starting 5 from last season. White, Johnson, Poeltl were
all on the roster and have moved into bigger roles, while McDermott is a free
agent signing in his first season with the Spurs. The previous starting 5 was Murray, Bryn Forbes, DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Trey Lyles. 3 of those players (DeRozan, Aldridge, and Lyles) have moved on. Forbes, after winning an NBA
championship with the Bucks, returned to the Spurs this season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The 2019-20 Spurs line-up had a win co-efficient of 0.579.
The top line-up that I looked at was the starting 5 of Murray, DeRozan, Will
Barton, Aaron Gordon, and LaMarcus Aldridge, with a win co-efficient of 0.802. As
previously stated, DeRozan and Aldridge are on other teams (the Chicago Bulls
and the Brooklyn Nets, respectively). Gordon and Barton both play for the
Denver Nuggets, after a 2021 trade sent Gordon from Orlando to Denver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Using
the current stats of the players for the 2021-22 season, we can determine the
win co-efficient of both the Spurs’ current line-up and their theoretical
counterparts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXZ8WE-B2PgleKyj-5VDm8V1sMsX_V5-47H97dBjsPjICZXFsDm-HBg-pDiqYdCjkc2KYvN1kMMjIHPv6lUbgrWbRnv-nHekcL8FQNkCkx0Ih1fWD3GKDESXohsqGAZQT_p8pQnP5hcDGHqgEAhwcSP4MAPnmwh1kGWz9hGsaHl4-4pxguEx9JDDY6=s660" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="62" data-original-width="660" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXZ8WE-B2PgleKyj-5VDm8V1sMsX_V5-47H97dBjsPjICZXFsDm-HBg-pDiqYdCjkc2KYvN1kMMjIHPv6lUbgrWbRnv-nHekcL8FQNkCkx0Ih1fWD3GKDESXohsqGAZQT_p8pQnP5hcDGHqgEAhwcSP4MAPnmwh1kGWz9hGsaHl4-4pxguEx9JDDY6=w627-h58" width="627" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The proposed line-up has a win co-efficient of 0.728,
down from the previous win co-efficient 0.802. This can likely be explained by
LaMarcus Aldridge taking a reduced role in Brooklyn. The Spurs current line-up
has a win co-efficient of 0.596, up from the previous iteration’s 0.579.but
still a ways away from being a consistent playoff team and championship
contender.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The Spurs also have a group
of promising young prospects who could potentially make them championship
contenders in the future, with players like Devin Vassell, Josh Primo, and
Lonnie Walker IV set to break into the starting line-up and serve as the
difference makers that could change the Spurs’ future in the years to come.</span></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-34408801440936319912021-12-13T22:42:00.000+05:302021-12-13T22:42:23.670+05:30Sweet Shot<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPbedEQEOG8Q3CyteAKT2VhAv02Efe_uteaC4-YGs2-Qdc_VGBoEzQMvwjYUQbakeVZRLQGqSvDlk1ocwMfqERBaxCqw3iTX3N465KHelCFdTNjkP1ajlz8sTFdZMYHNimMjJjKvBT0hF-a-o7Y8gamoErMEE6RKNrrFL4lhfkXoNLLIHX8HKK0Z08=s406" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPbedEQEOG8Q3CyteAKT2VhAv02Efe_uteaC4-YGs2-Qdc_VGBoEzQMvwjYUQbakeVZRLQGqSvDlk1ocwMfqERBaxCqw3iTX3N465KHelCFdTNjkP1ajlz8sTFdZMYHNimMjJjKvBT0hF-a-o7Y8gamoErMEE6RKNrrFL4lhfkXoNLLIHX8HKK0Z08=s320" width="207" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Most basketball fans are aware about the vast
majority of NBA players, even if only in passing. The global reach of the NBA
ensures that fans from all around the world are aware of players and their
exploits. However, a lot of college basketball players who do not make it to
the NBA are not given their due. This occurs because of the regional nature of
college basketball, and this leads to some college legends not getting their
fair share of plaudits.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">One such player is Melvin McLaughlin. Nicknamed ‘Sugar’
for his sweet shooting skills, McLaughlin was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan
and spent his high school years scoring at will for the Creston High School
Polar Bears, averaging over 33 points per game in his junior and senior
seasons. After a decorated high school career, McLaughlin attended Central
Michigan University, where he would go on to form his legend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">At Central Michgan, McLaughlin broke out in his
sophomore year, averaging 20.8 points per game and being named to the First-team
All-MAC (Mid-American Conference). In the 1981-82 season, his sophomore year, McLaughlin
went one better, leading the MAC in scoring and winning the MAC player of the year.
In his senior season, McLaughlin once again increased his scoring average and
led the MAC in scoring for the second straight year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">McLaughlin ended his highly decorated college career
leading Central Michigan in points per game (20.3), a record which still stands
today, and steals (196), which has since been broken. His number 14 jersey has also been retired by Central Michigan Athletics. Despite being drafted by
the Cleveland Cavaliers in the sixth round with the 119<sup>th</sup> pick of the
1983 NBA Draft, McLaughlin never played in the NBA, playing a year with the
Detroit Spirits on the Continental Basketball Association.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Melvin McLaughlin is a Central Michigan sports
legend, and his exploits on and off the court are immortalized in the book </span><i><span style="background: white; color: #202122; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Shot-Basketball-Legacy-McLaughlin/dp/B09MJDJVQN/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639412568&sr=8-1">Sweet
Shot: The Basketball Life and Legacy of Melvin "Sugar" McLaughlin</a>
</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202122; line-height: 107%;">by Rev. Vernon Wendt
Jr.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-87536081516641261832021-11-04T22:58:00.001+05:302021-11-04T22:58:19.099+05:30The Legend of Alex English<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSHjkS7tsChlpVKjIJaAUTMWP4tk7oobr1B5Fd2BzAlcxmeSclAvaPOX9hor6_d0dx1sgGIsH-r_GsBxOw0KV6ANadg8nDBLattP7qSqqHTw9z4uIsOEmIgTrcki1rFkt5OqN-iBrUoU1jWQ6A2gXCAoy-xPhAmOqpAUOUKWz3KSW9zORGTsV7XTbV=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1007" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSHjkS7tsChlpVKjIJaAUTMWP4tk7oobr1B5Fd2BzAlcxmeSclAvaPOX9hor6_d0dx1sgGIsH-r_GsBxOw0KV6ANadg8nDBLattP7qSqqHTw9z4uIsOEmIgTrcki1rFkt5OqN-iBrUoU1jWQ6A2gXCAoy-xPhAmOqpAUOUKWz3KSW9zORGTsV7XTbV=s320" width="269" /></a></span></div></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the 1980s, the NBA shot into the national
spotlight, buoyed by the rivalry of Magic Johnson’s LA Lakers and Larry Bird’s
Boston Celtics. These rosters were chock full of multiple time NBA All-Stars,
with the Lakers boasting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the Celtics having Kevin
McHale and Robert Parrish. The NBA also boasted luminaries such as Moses
Malone, Julius Erving, Sidney Moncrief, and later in the decade, Michael Jordan
and Hakeem Olajuwon. However, the player who scored the most points throughout
the 1980s is not one of the many listed above, but Alex English, a player who
has become a footnote in discussions about 80s basketball.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">English was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the
1976 NBA Draft, and after two uneventful seasons with them, he signed with the
Indiana Pacers in the 1978-79 NBA season. This served as a breakout season for
English, who averaged 16 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in 33.3 minutes per
game, all career highs at the time. In the 1979-80 season, English’s statistics
took a dip, and he was traded to the Denver Nuggets midway through the season.
The change of scenery immediately helped turn English’s play around, and in 24
games with Indiana, he broke his previous high-water marks with 21.3 points per
game and 9.4 rebounds per game. This half season would mark the beginning of
English’s rise to becoming a scoring champion in 1983, and scoring over 20
points a game until the 1988-89 season. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">English’s first two and a half season coincided with
that of another Nuggets’ legend and subject of this blog, David Thompson. In
1981-82, the Nuggets made the playoffs with English making his first All-Star
team and making the All-NBA Second team for the first team. The 1982-83 season
was the Nuggets’ first with Thompson as the star player, and he promptly won
the scoring title that year, the only one of his long career. His teammate,
Kiki Vandeweghe, finished second in the scoring race. The Nuggets weren’t able
to win the Western Conference despite having the leading offense in the NBA,
and Vandeweghe was traded after the 1983-84 season.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Despite the loss of their second leading scorer, the
Nuggets made the Western Conference Finals the very next season, losing to the
Los Angeles Lakers in 5 games. In the 1985-86 season, English scored a career
high 29.8 points per game, and although this was not enough for him to claim
the scoring title over Dominique Wilkins, he did make his 3<sup>rd</sup>
All-NBA Second team that year, after previously making it in 1982 and 1983.
English would continue to make All-Star teams through the 1988-89 season, but
the Nuggets could never reach the NBA Finals, always falling short before the
final hurdle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In 1989-90 season, English’s scoring dropped
precipitously, from 26.5 points per game the year prior to only 17.9 points per
game. The end of the season marked a period of big change for the Nuggets, as
they parted ways with both English and long-time coach Doug Moe. English would
go on to play one more mediocre season for the Dallas Mavericks before leaving
the NBA in 1991. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">He racked up many
accolades, including being the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in 8
consecutive NBA seasons and holding the Nuggets’ point, assists, games and minutes
record at the time of his departure. His number 2 jersey was retired by the
Nuggets, and he made the NBA Hall of Fame. Alex English was a scorer of the
highest quality, who mostly operated away from the limelight. His legacy is
that of a consistently great scorer, who was an icon of his era.</span></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-41277363287039457962021-08-25T22:41:00.005+05:302021-08-26T22:15:44.858+05:30What Could Have Been: The Story of David Thompson<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBvg3VjLmGTl0VOxexVlhDj8jV5972nqEe_kBtS44afry9e4Faeuw2H8iprkA2T8tlAiZDuwwdJdjcA0-H1HfmsRwekZujdA-BQLUUjsQti2WAvixd1WbPG5ujO5Gz4Z8CI_ekDUwSiI/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="765" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBvg3VjLmGTl0VOxexVlhDj8jV5972nqEe_kBtS44afry9e4Faeuw2H8iprkA2T8tlAiZDuwwdJdjcA0-H1HfmsRwekZujdA-BQLUUjsQti2WAvixd1WbPG5ujO5Gz4Z8CI_ekDUwSiI/" width="228" /></a></div></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Before Michael Jordan was crowned ‘His Airness’,
there was a player who electrified the NBA with his own high-flying, above the
rim style of play. Thompson’s legend first started in college at North Carolina
State, when in his freshman season, he led the Wolfpack to a 27-0 unbeaten
record. In the 1973-74 season, Thompson led the NC State Wolfpack to victory in
the NCAA Tournament, winning the Most Outstanding Player during the tournament.
He is also credited as the progenitor of the alley-oop pass along with teammate
Monte Towne. Thompson averaged around 27 points and 8 rebounds over his college
career on 55% shooting, earning his place as one of the greatest ACC conference
players of all time.</span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In both the NBA’s and ABA’s 1975 Draft, Thompson was
selected with the first overall pick, and he ended up signing with the Denver
Nuggets of the ABA. In his rookie season, he made the ABA All-Star game, was a
part of the All-ABA Second team, and won the Rookie of the Year award, all
while averaging 26 points, 6 rebounds and almost 4 assists a game. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After Thompson’s rookie season, the ABA merged with
the NBA, and Thompson’s Nuggets were one of the 4 ABA teams who became a part
of the NBA. He continued his All-Star form in the NBA, making it 3 consecutive
times between 1977 and 1979. Thompson also made the All-NBA first team in 1977
and 1978, and won the All-Star game MVP in 1979. In the 1979-80 season,
Thompson was primed to make his 4<sup>th</sup> consecutive All-Star team, but a
season-ending foot injury scuttled his plans, and forced him to miss the
remaining 38 games that season. 1980-81 saw a return to form, with Thompson
averaging 25.5 points a game. Despite not making the All-Star team that year,
Thompson seemed to be back to his old, electrifying self. However, he dipped in
the 1981-82 season, scoring only 14.9 points per game, which convinced the
Nuggets to trade him to the Seattle Supersonics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Thompson’s first season in Seattle was tumultuous,
making the All-Star for the first time since 1979 while averaging only 16
points and undergoing rehabilitation for a substance abuse problem after the
season. His 1983-84 season was troubled, managing to play only 19 games and
missing most of the season while attending drug rehabilitation. Thompson’s
career would end on a dour note, with a knee injury suffered in a fight during
the 1984 off season ultimately ending his career.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Thompson's woes were not finished after retirement.
After a failed try-out with the Indiana Pacers in 1985, he was arrested for
public intoxication, and was rumored to be spending in excess of 1000 dollars
a day on cocaine and myriad other drugs. His life finally changed for the
better, when he resolved to reorganize his life after being arrested and sentenced
to jail in 1987.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Thompson’s story was that of a promising young
player ruined by injuries and addiction, a star that burnt bright, but faded
all too quickly. Despite not ever reaching his potential, Thompson still made
an indelible mark on basketball, inspiring the next wave of above the rim
finishers, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins among them. For his
achievements, Thompson would make the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996, and have
his story immortalized forever.</span><span face="Arial Narrow, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-74059346311898610432021-08-08T22:07:00.002+05:302021-08-15T22:41:29.320+05:30Argentina's Golden Generation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cMe_AAFGJDx6s9HOGBVmP8cYxC764jFXxr3W-mZhFGTamDguDCUDetkTZnmwOsyALYRFEicAosYMY1fdnpeWjS9BGVqIw-wUihBS0DEg9gFimiDN0aJeRdB30iqkCQCj-M8WCWwpGLw/s594/2004+Olympics+Basketball+Medal+Ceremony.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="594" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cMe_AAFGJDx6s9HOGBVmP8cYxC764jFXxr3W-mZhFGTamDguDCUDetkTZnmwOsyALYRFEicAosYMY1fdnpeWjS9BGVqIw-wUihBS0DEg9gFimiDN0aJeRdB30iqkCQCj-M8WCWwpGLw/w430-h277/2004+Olympics+Basketball+Medal+Ceremony.jpg" width="430" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">In the 2004 Olympics, the US Men’s Nation Basketball
team, led by players like Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan, and featuring a young
Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. The US team was also coached by Larry Brown, who
won the NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in the 2003-04 season. This
team was one of the favorites to win the gold medal. Despite the presence of
some of the most prominent American stars, the US did not win the gold. In
fact, they didn’t even make the final. They lost to the eventual winners,
Argentina, in the semi-finals, 89-81. This Argentina team was one of the best
in their history, filled with NBA players all throughout the roster, and led by
Manu </span><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Ginóbili, a two-time NBA All-Star. The Argentinean team had more NBA
players than just Ginóbili, including Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto, Andres
Nocioni, and Carlos Delfino. </span><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Despite both teams making the knockout rounds, they did not
perform well in the group stages. Both Argentina and the US won only 3 out of
their 5 group games, finishing third and fourth in their groups respectively.
These results were more troubling for the US, who were historically the most
dominant team in the Olympics, winning gold at the last three Olympics, the
first three that allowed professional players to participate. The Americans
scraped through to the knockouts, and in their quarter-final match, defeated
Spain 104-92, looking on track to win their 4<sup>th</sup> gold medal in as
many Olympics, while Argentina barely defeated Greece 69-64. </span><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">In the semi-final game, the US were heavy
favorites, but the Argentineans pulled off a shock victory, led by 29 points
from Manu Ginóbili. Argentina also beat the US with teamwork, with Juan Ignacio
Sanchez leading the team in assists with 7, while Lamar Odom and Iverson led the
US with only 3 assists each. In the final, Argentina would handily beat Italy
84-69, while the US dispatched Lithuania 104-96 in the bronze medal game.</span><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Argentina winning the gold medal was not a paradigm
shift in the hierarchy of basketball, but an aberration in the US’ continued
dominance of the sport. While the Argentinean golden generation would go on to
win a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2012
London Olympics, they would never again reach the apex that they had reached in
2004. The US would regroup in 2008 with the famous ‘Redeem Team’, and would win
the gold in the next four successive Olympics. The Argentina squad of 2004 have
all retired, but their accomplishments will forever be etched in the history
books, as the only non-American team to win an Olympic gold since the advent of
professional players in the Olympics.</span></span><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-61790414468571707952021-06-27T18:13:00.002+05:302021-07-06T22:30:13.131+05:30The Houdini of the Hardwood<p><span face=""Arial Narrow", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchEUwLuTa_ToPGGgYKFpmTEPh-CKBnXot-_f5oVf5A9TCEOngIa18KRRo6D8rMZqGeGrN2yGDM_VMJ4h0Y6xQ3ZKofaqvt01KLax4V1fHSCLzf2j_71wfHFesY2-HeWZ1bfJKW2kot_Q/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="620" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchEUwLuTa_ToPGGgYKFpmTEPh-CKBnXot-_f5oVf5A9TCEOngIa18KRRo6D8rMZqGeGrN2yGDM_VMJ4h0Y6xQ3ZKofaqvt01KLax4V1fHSCLzf2j_71wfHFesY2-HeWZ1bfJKW2kot_Q/" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the annals of the greatest point guards, Bob
Cousy stands alone. The first great floor general, he set the standard for next
generation of point guards with his unparalleled ball distribution and fast
paced style of play.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A Celtics legend, Cousy was originally drafted by
the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (currently the Atlanta Hawks). Cousy, who had
attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, did not
want to move to the Tri-Cities area, and refused to play for the Blackhawks. He
was then signed by the Chicago Stags, and when they folded, he was assigned to
the Boston Celtics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Cousy’s fast and flamboyant style of play was
initially derided by many scouts and NBA personnel. Red Auerbach, the legendary
Celtics coach, and Celtics owner Walter A. Brown were two of the many people
who did not think Cousy would succeed in the NBA. Cousy would soon prove all
those doubters wrong. In his first season, Cousy was selected for the first of
13 NBA All Star teams he would make in his career, and led Boston to the
playoffs, where they would lose to the New York Knicks. In his next season,
Cousy grew even further, making his first All-NBA First team selection, only to
fall short in the playoffs, again losing to the Knicks. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The next four seasons continued the pattern of
individual success with team frustration. Cousy lead the league in assists all
four seasons, and made the All-Star four times, the All-NBA first team four
times in that span. Cousy would consistently impress, and his electric style of
play captivated observers. However, team success still eluded the Celtics, and
despite adding new pieces, they still failed to make their mark in the
playoffs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This all changed when the Celtics drafted Bill
Russell with the 2<sup>nd</sup> pick of the 1956 NBA draft. Russell and Tommy
Heinsohn, who was drafted in the same year, were the catalysts that helped
Cousy and the Celtics break through the playoff barrier. Cousy reached a new
level in the 1956-57 NBA season, averaging 20.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and a
league leading 7.5 assists on his way to winning the NBA MVP. Cousy and the
Celtics won the NBA finals over the Atlanta Hawks in 7 games. Cousy would again
lead the league in assists the next season, as the Celtics again made the
finals, but a Bill Russell injury resulted in a loss to the Hawks. In the next
two seasons, Cousy led the league in assists both times, and the Celtic
experienced more success, winning the title in both years. In the 1960-61
season, Cousy again made the All-Star and All-NBA first team, but he failed to
win the assists crown after eight seasons. Cousy’s next two seasons saw a
statistical decline, as he failed to win the assists crown and made the All-NBA
second team in both seasons. After the 1962-63 season, Cousy retired, after a
long and fruitful career, winning a litany of awards and cementing his stature
as one of the greatest point guards of all time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In addition to his on-court exploits, Cousy was one
of the pioneers of the players’ revolution. In 1954, Cousy organized the
National Basketball Players’ Association (NBPA) the first trade union in any of
the four major North American sports leagues. Cousy even served as its first
president, and consolidated the position of players in the NBA. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Bob Cousy is one of the greatest point guards of all
time, a trailblazing force both on and off the court, whose name with forever
be etched in the pantheon of the NBA legends.</span><span face="Arial Narrow, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-9652377110812240702020-12-17T21:04:00.014+05:302021-01-30T20:13:06.681+05:30Guess Who? (A lesson in Cryptography)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtAM5HqXAfKF3oLLCxF7ZRD3igk2eBLJV48pNxa0lH7h5QO1TzXmrchbaIbFMoEI_Tv1iZ55dS3TBxtSoKBxEcIHfqN38Ns24KWtF0ZdevF-FFeJT118GaQzC-TSkeYvKrXozGFnIYjY/s2048/Cryptography+Image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtAM5HqXAfKF3oLLCxF7ZRD3igk2eBLJV48pNxa0lH7h5QO1TzXmrchbaIbFMoEI_Tv1iZ55dS3TBxtSoKBxEcIHfqN38Ns24KWtF0ZdevF-FFeJT118GaQzC-TSkeYvKrXozGFnIYjY/s320/Cryptography+Image.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the last few years, there has been a growing
shift towards the analytics side of basketball. Formerly unknown analytics
maestros like Daryl Morey are now becoming more recognized, and their
principles are being used to build teams that can contend for championships.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">A core tenet of sports analytics is stripping away
the bias that is inherently present in humans, allowing for an evaluation of
players at face value. Though the sports analytics movement has gained traction
in NBA circles, many fans still haven’t embraced it, which precludes them from
understanding certain trades and signings made by their favorite teams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">One way to eliminate bias without the benefit of supercomputers and reams of data is through using cryptography to encrypt players’
names. This ensures that players are evaluated only based on their stats. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">Cryptography</span></b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">
involves coding the plain text to make it secure and decoding the coded text to
retrieve the plain text. The coding and decoding processes are accomplished using keys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">There are primarily two types of encryption: Symmetric key and Asymmetric key encryption. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">Symmetric key encryption</span></b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">
involves the use of the same key for both encryption and decryption. Symmetric
key encryption can be broken if others know the key, which makes it vulnerable.
One example of Symmetric key encryption is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">Asymmetric key encryption</span></b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">
involves the use of two keys, a public key to encrypt the plain text and a private
key to decrypt the coded text. Asymmetric key encryption is harder to break
than symmetric key encryption, but it also takes more time and computing power,
due to the magnitude of the numbers involved. One example of Asymmetric key
encryption is the RSA cryptosystem.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBV0_KHNLlkUfM5ur1z431fkVjq8DUfVKU_dVqhwCPCS7B8IvNqlbtjMEBoGCSi5lf_ifkD_G1gdOmj9HhiWMWJnK-n9S0I7_fhiw9wIosT3iHCNiBiP1RNg-2GpAPqTBG7u1Lb-U4mwk/s610/Symmetric+Vs+Asymmetric+Table.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="138" data-original-width="610" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBV0_KHNLlkUfM5ur1z431fkVjq8DUfVKU_dVqhwCPCS7B8IvNqlbtjMEBoGCSi5lf_ifkD_G1gdOmj9HhiWMWJnK-n9S0I7_fhiw9wIosT3iHCNiBiP1RNg-2GpAPqTBG7u1Lb-U4mwk/w591-h133/Symmetric+Vs+Asymmetric+Table.png" width="591" /></a></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VqTygtB2XvqyYEbTWQWp2GZMpC150OLxUElMXbKd3w8vXMYXkgmQHzCR4u7Xf_m5BXcZTKiIAp15jSK4EQ4RCLJa969uieWs6g6CWRcGCKwb8uyPsI7wwg7uwrMy1c_l1ltsN3lrxk4/s646/Table+For+Spurs+Statistics.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">The RSA cryptosystem</span></b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">
was invented by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in 1977. The name
RSA comes from the first letter of the authors’ last names. The keys to
encrypt and decrypt are generated by multiplying two large prime numbers. Though
the formulae to generate the public and private keys are common knowledge, the
difficulty in deriving the public and private keys lies in the time and
computing power required to factorize the product of two large prime numbers.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In the RSA system, every participant uses two keys, public and private, to encrypt and decrypt plain text. As the names suggest, a private key is known only to the person while the public key of a person is known to all participants. The person encrypting the text uses the recipient’s public key to encrypt the plain text. The recipient uses their private key to decrypt the encrypted text. As the recipient’s private key is known only to the recipient, no one other than the recipient can decrypt the message easily.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">Using
the RSA module</span></b><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"> in a simple Python program, I generated
public and private keys. I then encrypted a plain text, like the name Kawhi
Leonard, resulting in the following bytes. The public key used to encrypt the
plain text is this:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf923JR_J0PBgaxtWRf2jSmGK3YWSvtIjwiPKXPNjfjbZhfND6dMEHQrRvuuHVln-qPs08LylWOQ_qmv5OWviJK0vEnxKF62Wbz7CtYuE7luk9L4M6b2_Q2JPmeOJhMcqXnMUT60nlVBU/s792/Private+Key.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="46" data-original-width="792" height="67" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf923JR_J0PBgaxtWRf2jSmGK3YWSvtIjwiPKXPNjfjbZhfND6dMEHQrRvuuHVln-qPs08LylWOQ_qmv5OWviJK0vEnxKF62Wbz7CtYuE7luk9L4M6b2_Q2JPmeOJhMcqXnMUT60nlVBU/w1146-h67/Private+Key.png" width="1146" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial; line-height: 107%;">The
plain text, Kawhi Leonard, when encrypted with the public key, looks something
like this:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmoE6I62h7inWuPECUgu1ysaGpH09jWa3pJcDmY82wceZxgp6aw7hmpW7iqakNnadsX-7EyHZxCh93dw_ShW9EkYBjTnymhqukdyXhGxmX4OjcDB0ZBIuoBP-MTY2ivdDTawdEnabFv8/s790/Encrypted+Text.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="48" data-original-width="790" height="68" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmoE6I62h7inWuPECUgu1ysaGpH09jWa3pJcDmY82wceZxgp6aw7hmpW7iqakNnadsX-7EyHZxCh93dw_ShW9EkYBjTnymhqukdyXhGxmX4OjcDB0ZBIuoBP-MTY2ivdDTawdEnabFv8/w1141-h68/Encrypted+Text.png" width="1141" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-family: arial; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To decrypt
the bytes to get the plain text, I use the private key. Of course, I am not
publishing the private key here as it is supposed to be private.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://hoops-hypothesis.blogspot.com/2020/06/statistics-to-help-spurs.html" target="_blank">In a previous article</a>, I wrote about how the San
Antonio Spurs, using a linear regression model, can aim for another NBA championship.
The table in this article listed combinations of the Spurs starting five and
their predicted win-coefficients. Encrypting the players’ names will give us this
table:</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="691" height="513" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmLurG_EbsVhRKo15nmAIOBF8x1n_uTjBbSR6elUhuIiUElaa_0KZCFfiI7pLfgB0l8WCAoh561zdyTvGX1ie-XS4iMFNRyXzcb-ULTCdwpatm4OhA49zYfHrZvtYhOyEMxAE-Us6aH34/w624-h513/Encryption+of+Rows.png" width="624" /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;">For reference, this is the table with the players’ names:</span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="62" data-original-width="646" height="47" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VqTygtB2XvqyYEbTWQWp2GZMpC150OLxUElMXbKd3w8vXMYXkgmQHzCR4u7Xf_m5BXcZTKiIAp15jSK4EQ4RCLJa969uieWs6g6CWRcGCKwb8uyPsI7wwg7uwrMy1c_l1ltsN3lrxk4/w490-h47/Table+For+Spurs+Statistics.png" width="490" /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">If the encrypted text is too large to fit in a page
or sometimes even store efficiently, we can use Base64 encoding to create coded
text that is smaller than encrypted text. This is space friendly, but it is easy
to reverse, and does not provide much in the way of security. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">For example, encoding the text Kawhi Leonard via
Base64 results in the encoded text:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRdGsSHMdti_nfx-jvAMeKN1TRr9qbp6adxIJ3Ei_dl2Za3eQQkIODBMcCj8TBtY5YKnB3HkIOgMTuLF1sJaQdypnGaUb2YLE6xd-vcUKFCTLEnUXhiUOgXmwOnYtn20ddmWCyGEqLBw/s231/Base64+Encoding.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="21" data-original-width="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRdGsSHMdti_nfx-jvAMeKN1TRr9qbp6adxIJ3Ei_dl2Za3eQQkIODBMcCj8TBtY5YKnB3HkIOgMTuLF1sJaQdypnGaUb2YLE6xd-vcUKFCTLEnUXhiUOgXmwOnYtn20ddmWCyGEqLBw/s0/Base64+Encoding.png" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Using a Base64 decoder, we can get the plain text
from the encoded text.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Thus, using cryptography, we can strip out the bias
that is inherent in humans, allowing for a more objective evaluation of
players’ talents, and maybe even learn a thing or two about coding, a very
interesting subject in its own right!</span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-13403311395790029672020-08-09T19:20:00.004+05:302020-12-17T21:07:21.829+05:30The Dream Team’s 12th Man: Christian Laettner<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVskXKgD9sQ8sT6BEZJhNMjELxFPAKaoG5IlhyphenhyphenNeKu_4x_w1l561EIYeG0bFL6iWXJd-_hEICaly7294PGqRR4ROwpN0HsMcE-VFEVxcTgP5BVmdUvBvpVFIQH3B9367IgeRhnkR2s1g/s641/christian-laettner-team-usa.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="641" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVskXKgD9sQ8sT6BEZJhNMjELxFPAKaoG5IlhyphenhyphenNeKu_4x_w1l561EIYeG0bFL6iWXJd-_hEICaly7294PGqRR4ROwpN0HsMcE-VFEVxcTgP5BVmdUvBvpVFIQH3B9367IgeRhnkR2s1g/w640-h493/christian-laettner-team-usa.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Everybody has heard of the Dream Team, the NBA’s brightest
luminaries who were the first professional players to play in the Olympics, 11
of whom are Hall of Famers. The 12<sup>th</sup> player, however, is someone far
less recognizable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1992 was the first year that professional NBA players were
allowed to participate. In addition to the 11 NBA players, the US basketball
committee decided to include one college player as an homage to the previous
amateur system. College basketball’s best and brightest were considered for the
last spot on the team, a list which included Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo
Mourning. However, Christian Laettner was chosen over the two due to his
Naismith College Player of the Year Award and his two national championships
with the Duke Blue Devils. Laettner’s college career was one of the most
decorated ever. He was also one of the most hated college players, due to his
physical nature, sometimes perceived as a bullying style and his clutch
performances in big games, which broke fans’ hearts and crushed players’
dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">After graduating, Laettner was drafted by the Minnesota
Timberwolves with the 3<sup>rd</sup> pick in the 1992 draft, which boasted of
two Hall of Famers who were picked directly before him, Shaquille O’Neal and
Alonzo Mourning. There were high expectations for Laettner, after his decorated
college career and the status of being the 3<sup>rd</sup> pick. However, he
failed to live up to the hype.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Laettner was by no means a bust. He played for 13 years in the
NBA and even made an All-Star appearance with the Atlanta Hawks. He had 5
seasons with over 15 points per game and 5 with over 7 rebounds per game.
Laettner’s rookie season in Minnesota and his All-Star season were remarkably
similar, averaging 18 points and 7 rebounds per game and playing over 80 games
in both seasons.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZ5ydxdEtnKYVfL8AntPjyByaUdnvUJANbLK0jkqLLSIChijdIdCngoOGpNd51JZ0gDl3eUt2eoyZWh34bDRZGrBXd1Ff1uUdYUky_tm_eS0LRRdB9HBOUm6CUbh4H9wS1ebdzKOjxac/s1023/Christian+Laettner+Rookie.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="43" data-original-width="1023" height="34" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOZ5ydxdEtnKYVfL8AntPjyByaUdnvUJANbLK0jkqLLSIChijdIdCngoOGpNd51JZ0gDl3eUt2eoyZWh34bDRZGrBXd1Ff1uUdYUky_tm_eS0LRRdB9HBOUm6CUbh4H9wS1ebdzKOjxac/w800-h34/Christian+Laettner+Rookie.png" width="800" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi841hZIp7RLlVIozPIYnU08FVwao5USA_81iuF7IRfOZn8XKS75rsKrggVP4-c3N60ZDhFFE-RPBbGztizm6u0MaF-MrhZCL7V76Arp7aIFEKFYWPDrCk4c7q5JjTzvoN9tRWi2haGhWA/s1024/Christian+Laettner+All-Star.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="26" data-original-width="1024" height="20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi841hZIp7RLlVIozPIYnU08FVwao5USA_81iuF7IRfOZn8XKS75rsKrggVP4-c3N60ZDhFFE-RPBbGztizm6u0MaF-MrhZCL7V76Arp7aIFEKFYWPDrCk4c7q5JjTzvoN9tRWi2haGhWA/w800-h20/Christian+Laettner+All-Star.png" width="800" /></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;">After a successful, if uneventful, career spanning six teams,
Laettner retired in 2005, last playing for the Miami Heat.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;">Christian Laettner’s career was neither so good that he became
a Hall of Famer, nor so bad that he became known as a bust. His story was that
of a player who was burdened with unreasonable hype and failed to live up to
expectations, but was still a valuable player, who eventually became a footnote
in NBA history. </span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-20486180483610723142020-07-16T14:38:00.001+05:302020-12-17T21:10:12.599+05:30The Worst Trade In NBA History<br /><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The year was 2012. 3-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year
Dwight Howard was disgruntled in Orlando, and Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy
had been fired at the conclusion of the 2011-12 season, possibly at Howard’s
insistence. Many suitors were interested in Howard, including the super team
chasing Brooklyn Nets, his preferred destination. Also in the race were the Los
Angeles Lakers, who recently traded for Steve Nash, with designs on their own
super team. This confluence of events would lead to one of the most ill-fated
trades in NBA history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The Lakers had won the NBA Championship in 2009 and 2010 led
by Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. However, they were left in the dust after the
Miami Heat landed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to pair with Dwyane Wade, and the
Oklahoma City Thunder made the Finals in 2012, buoyed by the young trio of
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. LA was determined to land
some more star players, so they went out and made a big splash. They agreed to
a sign and trade deal with the Phoenix Suns, which landed them two-time MVP
Steve Nash. Despite being 38 years old at the time, Nash had still averaged
12.5 points and 10.7 assists per game for the Suns in 2011-12, and he was
viewed as a player who could lift the <a href="https://www.espn.in/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8130840/steve-nash-headed-los-angeles-lakers-sign-trade-deal">Lakers back into title contention</a></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.espn.in/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8130840/steve-nash-headed-los-angeles-lakers-sign-trade-deal">.</a> Despite having already traded for Nash, the
Lakers had their eye on the biggest trade target that season, Dwight Howard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Howard
had demanded a trade from Orlando after the 2011-12 season, and the Magic were
looking to offload him before he could leave in free agency. In August of 2012,
the Lakers, Magic, Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a four-team
trade, one of the largest in NBA history.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yQwMMWUHqJbM7AAD_GWSzoNwmT9kah7Vr6oeZ-dL09-VIgcs3utbl9idTCW-y_63JqtsmaQkm_Myl1AN1zr6rWxyRr4ZOmOR_RunR3Tc5O09j0NjnsPcby5gqFpx4yGWPfF8L0GtrC0/s891/Dwight+Howard+LA+Trade.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="891" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yQwMMWUHqJbM7AAD_GWSzoNwmT9kah7Vr6oeZ-dL09-VIgcs3utbl9idTCW-y_63JqtsmaQkm_Myl1AN1zr6rWxyRr4ZOmOR_RunR3Tc5O09j0NjnsPcby5gqFpx4yGWPfF8L0GtrC0/w625-h299/Dwight+Howard+LA+Trade.png" width="625" /><br /></span></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">LA received Dwight Howard, Earl Clark and Chris Duhon. Clark
played one season (59 games) with LA, and recorded 7 points and 5.5 rebounds
per game. He recorded career highs in minutes, points, rebounds, assists,
steals and blocks. Chris Duhon played with LA for one unremarkable year, before
being waived in June 2013. Howard would stay in LA for one controversy filled
year before departing to the Houston Rockets in 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Denver Nuggets received Andre Iguodala, who had just made
the All-Star game in 2012. He stayed with Denver for one season and after a
first-round loss to the Golden State Warriors, joined them in the summer of
2013.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Philadelphia 76ers received Andrew Bynum and Jason
Richardson. Orlando actually declined a Bynum trade, because they were
concerned about his recurring knee injuries, in an extraordinary moment of
foresight. Bynum would never play for the 76ers, and his career would never be
the same again. Jason Richardson would play for Philadelphia from 2012 to 2015,
appearing in 52 games, before retiring in 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Magic, who gave up the best player in the deal, received
the most compensation. Arron Afflalo played in Orlando for 2 years, recording a
career high 18.2 points per game in 2013-14 before going back to Denver. Al
Harrington played for 10 games with Orlando before being waived. Maurice
Harkless, who was a first round pick in 2012, played for the Magic for 3
relatively successful seasons before moving on to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Josh McRoberts played for one season and Christian Eyenga was cut immediately.
Nikola Vucevic was the best player for the Magic. He has become a consistent 18
point and 10 rebound game, and he made his first All-Star game in 2019. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Purely from the players’ careers for their teams, this trade
is more uneventful than bad. However, it was how the trade affected the futures
of the teams involved that really consigned the trade to ‘lose-lose’ status.
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets, who played minor roles in this
trade, were not directly affected by it. However, the main participants in this
trade, LA and Orlando, were both consigned to downward spirals for the next few
years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Orlando Magic, who made the NBA Finals in 2009, would
never again make it far in the playoffs. Despite receiving an All-Star and a
plethora of draft picks, the Magic would again reach the heights they did under
Howard. They would become stuck in NBA purgatory, too good to get a high draft
pick and too bad to make a run in the playoffs. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">For the Lakers, the fall from grace was even more public and
drawn out. After adding Howard to their core line up, they had 5 All-Stars
(Howard, Nash, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace). As such,
expectations were sky high for the Lakers. However, things did not get off to
the best start. Howard had back surgery in the offseason as wasn’t slated to
play until December, but rushed back in October, which had a negative impact on
his game. Nash and Gasol also suffered injuries which kept them out for
extended periods. After firing coach Mike Brown early in the season, the Lakers
hired the decorated Mike D’Antoni. However, injuries and a failure to adapt to
D’Antoni spread system resulted in prolonged losing. Despite every member of
their starting being injured at one point or another during the season, the
Lakers were still in playoff contention until Bryant tore his Achilles tendon
with two games left. The Lakers would then sneak into the playoffs as the 7<sup>th</sup>
seed on the last day of the season. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">After a first-round exit at the hands of the San Antonio
Spurs, Howard left in free agency, and feuded with Bryant over injuries and the
state of the team. The Lakers would miss the playoffs for six seasons between
2013 and 2019, when LeBron James and Anthony Davis teamed up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This trade also had many repercussions on the players’
careers. Howard became a pariah and a ‘locker room cancer’ after his falling
out with Stan Van Gundy in Orlando and Bryant in LA. Bryant’s Achilles tear
robbed of his athleticism, making him a completely different player once he
returned. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">All of the ruin and damage that this trade caused will endure
long past these players’ careers, and will ensure that it lives on in infamy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /></div>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-4290141093904077892020-06-26T19:26:00.005+05:302020-12-17T21:11:19.636+05:30The Trade Machine<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>I recently posted an </span><a href="https://hoops-hypothesis.blogspot.com/2020/06/statistics-to-help-spurs.html" target="_blank">article</a><span> about statistically identifying good trade and free agency acquisitions for the
San Antonio Spurs. With this article, I am going to suggest how the Spurs are
going to acquire the aforementioned players. For those who haven’t read the
previous article yet, the eight players we will be trying to trade for are
Aaron Gordon, Will Barton, Malik Monk, E’Twaun Moore, Otto Porter Jr., Dario
Saric, Mo Bamba and Montrezl Harrell. Depending on their contracts, we might
try to sign them in free agency. So, without further ado, let’s look at our
first trade.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Aaron Gordon and Khem Birch for DeMar DeRozan
and a 2021 2<sup>nd</sup> round pick<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This trade is one of the few that benefit both teams. The
Orlando Magic have struggled to generate offense, ranking bottom 10 in the
league over the last two seasons, and DeRozan, a 25 point per game scorer, would
certainly help with that. His defensive limitations will be overshadowed by the
rest of Orlando’s main 5, which ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating in the
last two seasons. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Aaron Gordon plays best in the power forward position, but the
emergence of Johnathan Isaac has forced him to spend time at small forward. Moving
to San Antonio would allow him to play his more natural position, which could
help him reach his full potential. Gordon has displayed potential with his
three-point shot, shooting 35% on 4.4 attempts in 2018-19, and shooting coach
Chip Engelland could help him polish his form. Khem Birch could become a nice
back up big man for San Antonio in case Jakob Poeltl leaves in free agency. The
Spurs could also receive Mo Bamba instead of Birch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">For this trade to happen, DeMar DeRozan has to accept his
player option, or the Spurs need to work out a sign and trade deal with
Orlando.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.</span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">(Sign and trade)</span></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"> <b>Bryn
Forbes and a 2021 1<sup>st</sup> round pick for Mo Bamba and a 2021 2<sup>nd</sup>
round pick</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This is not a very good trade from the Spurs’ point of view,
but it still deserves consideration if they think that Mo Bamba can become a
fringe All-Star. Forbes is entering free agency this year, and will probably
get a contract in the range of 5-8 million a year. He could provide a nice
spark of the bench for Orlando as a 3-point specialist. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">For San Antonio, if Bamba can develop his shot and contest
without fouling, he could become the interior presence in a Spurs defence that
could one day become the best in the league, with players like Dejounte Murray,
Derrick White and Keldon Johnson.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">However, this trade is unlikely to happen because of the high
price of a first round pick and the possibility that Forbes gets a better
contract from another team.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.</span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Signing Montrezl Harrell in free agency</span></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This move is one that hinges on DeMar DeRozan declining his
player option and entering free agency. If DeRozan picks up his player option,
LaMarcus Aldridge will likely be traded to make room for Harrell’s contract.
Harrell will likely earn somewhere in the range of 18-20 million a year, but as
the Spurs are unlikely to be major players in the 2021 offseason, they can
afford to give Harrell a contract of this size. Harrell would help boost their
bench scoring, and would give San Antonio a great scorer on the court at all
times, allowing the starters to rest without the fear of blown leads. While he
does have defensive limitations, he could be paired with a shot blocker like
Jakob Poeltl to ensure that he can be hidden on less threatening opponents.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Spurs have many avenues to improve the team this free
agency period, and these scenarios are just a few that can help the Spurs keep
their record playoff streak alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><br />Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-86218031071930872722020-06-25T20:00:00.009+05:302020-12-17T21:11:53.961+05:30Statistics to Help the Spurs<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Every sports fan, diehard or casual, has watched Moneyball,
the movie about the use of statistics in baseball. While sports has become
more receptive to the use of statistics to identify players, many fans still do
not like to use or misuse statistics to back up their opinions. As an avid NBA
fan, I too love to concoct fictitious trades to help make my team better. Through
the use of statistics, I am going to try to make well informed decisions
regarding player acquisitions for the San Antonio Spurs, my favourite NBA team.
To tackle this problem, I used a linear regression model.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">To create the model, I first collected box score data for the
Spurs’ 2019-20 season. This data was then used to create a model that will give
a composite score, which predicts a team’s record. According to the model, a
score closer to 1 indicates a better record, while a score closer to 0
indicates a worse record. Using Basketball Reference, I identified 8 players
who the Spurs could feasibly acquire and who would improve their record. Then,
I extrapolated all of the thirteen players’ stats to 48-minute stats, this is
useful because it focuses on if the main 5 played all 48 minutes of a game,
which delivers a better estimate of the team’s quality. As it is almost
impossible to completely change a team’s roster within one season, I limited
the number of new additions to either 1 or 2 players.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The 13 players involved in this are the San Antonio Spurs main
5 (Dejounte Murray, Bryn Forbes, DeMar DeRozan, Trey Lyles and LaMarcus
Aldridge) and 8 other players who I thought could join the Spurs. The players
are Malik Monk,</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">E’Twaun Moore, Otto
Porter Jr., Will Barton, Aaron Gordon, Dario Saric, Mo Bamba, and Montrezl
Harrell. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">When the model was run, the top team
consisted of Murray, DeRozan, Aldridge, Gordon, and Barton. The aforementioned
team achieved a score of 0.802, while the Spurs current main 5 achieved a score
of 0.579. DeRozan and Murray were present in all of the top 10 results, and
Aldridge was in 7 out of the 10. Will Barton was in five of the top 10 results,
and Aaron Gordon was in 7 of the top 10. Mo Bamba was in 4 of the top 10,
though this can be attributed to his amazing blocks numbers in limited playing
time. Most of the best results substituted Bryn Forbes and Trey Lyles for Gordon
or Barton. These are the 10 best lineups, with their Win Co-Efficient</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoxBnLbqEa0nv9v-nH0j6rTyoYO2ZscjpQRUr3wqCj5u35bNGH_ciSqZ53_sBc1ONybjCcmJOHjxW_cKujuj4ZkfCjHS_pZokYJYWRvy3klUBnDqwyLOKRyWuZTbkhcd-fa-t8AV3Z6kk/s623/10+Most+Productive+Lineups.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="623" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoxBnLbqEa0nv9v-nH0j6rTyoYO2ZscjpQRUr3wqCj5u35bNGH_ciSqZ53_sBc1ONybjCcmJOHjxW_cKujuj4ZkfCjHS_pZokYJYWRvy3klUBnDqwyLOKRyWuZTbkhcd-fa-t8AV3Z6kk/w625-h243/10+Most+Productive+Lineups.png" width="625" /></span></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB49Uc5b-cpPARLhxM9PDXBH4G3NYlhxMVP4DlMtIAEpUVHQRMP_X9FBwxgRzH3GzDZy19TTwt4cOYFokNspfynrIj9-MnxvFAvS_rt0daIgW0hTcq0maDGXuUEPtesL9CAbeZ_L_c5W8/s628/10+Least+Productive+Lineups.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="628" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB49Uc5b-cpPARLhxM9PDXBH4G3NYlhxMVP4DlMtIAEpUVHQRMP_X9FBwxgRzH3GzDZy19TTwt4cOYFokNspfynrIj9-MnxvFAvS_rt0daIgW0hTcq0maDGXuUEPtesL9CAbeZ_L_c5W8/w625-h241/10+Least+Productive+Lineups.png" width="625" /></span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, the 10 least productive
lineups according to the model all featured Bryn Forbes, LaMarcus Aldridge and
Trey Lyles. These lineups mostly failed due to a lack of passing, and all the
lineups had two Lou Williams-type ‘Professional Scorers’ (Bryn Forbes and Malik
Monk/E’Twaun Moore) and three big men. Otto Porter Jr., who makes two
appearances in the 10 least productive lineups, also possesses sub-par passing
ability. In fact, none of these lineups had more than 18.5 assists. They are
listed below along with their Win Co-Efficient. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A quick study shows that
the Spurs should likely let Bryn Forbes play in his natural sixth man role,
where he can be best utilized as a gunner and 3-point specialist, and trade for
Aaron Gordon or Will Barton. This will allow the Spurs to strengthen positions
of need without gutting the rest of their roster. The data shows that the
Spurs, while unlikely to win a championship in the near future, can contend for
a spot in the Western Conference playoffs with a few savvy trades, and can keep
their record 22-year playoff streak alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In an <a href="https://hoops-hypothesis.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-trade-machine.html">upcoming article</a>, I
will also be detailing the trades that the Spurs could make to acquire the
players I identified as reasonable targets.</span></p>Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-46775972359361031352020-05-31T13:46:00.007+05:302020-12-17T21:19:10.487+05:30Nellie Ball
<p><span lang="" style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Since the turn of the
decade, the NBA has evolved at the speed of light. The advent of high volume 3-point
shooters, small ball and the point forward phenomenon are just a few of these.
Basketball is being played at its fastest pace since the 1960s, with the “pace
and space” era leading to points galore. The architects of this movement
include Steph Curry and Mike D’Antoni, who have become synonymous with the
evolution. However, there is one man who does not get enough credit for his role as
perhaps the originator of most of these tactics. His name is Don Nelson.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1F00AmGk7SfHcg83sJgSz-NMcAbEmTE35mMwCwLsyfkL1ue17OwgyFqU_dBJs9L0YU39UA4kB5SPDHhUKndkZMl_PEkWqwX1PtowFldcx8sR0qf-t2rlr93HUF1u-SpqnEGexICMV40/s353/250px-Don_Nelson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1F00AmGk7SfHcg83sJgSz-NMcAbEmTE35mMwCwLsyfkL1ue17OwgyFqU_dBJs9L0YU39UA4kB5SPDHhUKndkZMl_PEkWqwX1PtowFldcx8sR0qf-t2rlr93HUF1u-SpqnEGexICMV40/s320/250px-Don_Nelson.jpg" /></span></a><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Don Nelson is one the
greatest coaches in NBA history. Coaching four different teams in 34 years,
Nelson has the record for most wins, with 1,335. However, his lasting impact is
in his style of basketball, which helped usher in a lot of the basketball
tactics and playstyles we know today.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Don Nelson got his start
in coaching as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1976. After 18 games,
head coach Larry Costello resigned, and Nelson was promoted to head coach.
Within four years, Nelson helped make Milwaukee a perennial championship
contender. During this time, he pioneered the use of the point forward. He used
players like the 6’5” Paul Pressey and the 6’7” Marques Johnson in the point forward
role. Nelson would also place his center far away from the basket, pulling the
opposing team’s center away and making it easier for his team to score inside.
The Bucks won 50 games for seven consecutive seasons between 1980 and
1987.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In 1988, Nelson joined the
Golden State Warriors. There, he instituted a run and gun style of basketball, which
would later give the Warriors the nickname “Run TMC”. This Warriors line-up
consisted of three guards and two forwards, one of the first instances of small
ball, run and gun line-ups being used successfully. In the 1991-92 season,
Nelson won his third Coach of the Year award, after winning two with Milwaukee
in 1983 and 1985. In 1995, Nelson left the Warriors and joined the New York
Knicks, coaching there for one ill-fated season.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In New York, Nelson’s fast
paced, offensive style heavily contrasted the Knicks’ defensive roots, and
Nelson was fired in March. He would be named the head coach of the Dallas
Mavericks in 1997, where he would cement his reputation as a Hall of Fame
coach.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In 1998, Nelson, now the
head coach and general manager, organized trades which became Steve Nash and
Dirk Nowitzki. This led to the Mavericks becoming championship contenders in
the Western conference. During this time, Nelson helped Dirk Nowitzki become
one of the best power forwards of all time, revolutionizing the game. However, Nelson’s
Mavericks would never reach the finals, let alone win the championship. They
would reach the NBA finals in 2006, a year after Nelson left, losing to the
Miami Heat in a highly controversial series.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In 2006, Nelson returned
to the Warriors for his last stint in coaching. In his first season back, the
Warriors made the playoffs as an 8<sup>th</sup> seed in the Western Conference,
where they were due to face Nelson’s old team, the one seed Mavericks and MVP
Dirk Nowitzki. What followed was one of the greatest upsets in NBA history. The
run and gun Warriors completely neutralized Nowitzki’s effect on defense, and
players like Al Harrington guarded Nowitzki effectively on offense, leading the
Warriors to a shocking upset over the Mavericks. These 2007 Warriors are
immortalized in history as the “We Believe” Warriors. After being eliminated by
the Utah Jazz, the Warriors would never again reach the same heights under
Nelson, and after two mediocre years, he would retire the winningest coach in
NBA history.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Despite his lack of
championships and playoff success, Don Nelson is the precursor to most modern
basketball trends and due to his many innovations, is undoubtedly
the Godfather of modern basketball.</span></p>
Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-4636485403602062842020-05-24T13:32:00.004+05:302020-12-17T21:21:11.260+05:30Metta World Peace: The Story Of Ron Artest
<p><span lang="" style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Ron Artest, also known as
Metta World Peace, might not be an NBA legend, but he is certainly one of the
more well-known NBA players of the 2000s, both for his on court accomplishments
and his rather eccentric personality. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eX7nqO3kWDVwz3UPTBSE9qi33SOxfbwOA9g7CgzxBVcr5aDovWgB0GS3rdjyltz6kvkjpOsapgeDKC0jvWNuAgyuWOVuZWyj_dP9L4UFpsgCOpEBsv5pXirBrORAdZbDrhYZnkEPRio/s260/Screenshot+%25284%2529.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="260" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eX7nqO3kWDVwz3UPTBSE9qi33SOxfbwOA9g7CgzxBVcr5aDovWgB0GS3rdjyltz6kvkjpOsapgeDKC0jvWNuAgyuWOVuZWyj_dP9L4UFpsgCOpEBsv5pXirBrORAdZbDrhYZnkEPRio/w208-h153/Screenshot+%25284%2529.png" width="208" /></span></a><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span lang="" style="color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span lang="" style="line-height: 107%;">Artest was born and raised
in New York, and went to his hometown St. John’s University, where he played from
1997-1999. After declaring for the 1999 Draft, the Chicago Bulls selected him
with the 16<sup>th</sup> overall pick in the draft. Artest’s hometown New York
Knicks passed on him to select </span><span><span lang="" style="color: #202122; line-height: 107%;">Frédéric Weis, a
French center. Weis would never play in the NBA and is remembered for being on
the wrong end of Vince Carter’s ‘Dunk of Death’ at the 2000 Olympics.<span> </span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span><span lang="" style="color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">From 1999 to 2002, Artest would play
for the Chicago Bulls. He was thrust into a starting role in Chicago and made
the All-Rookie 2<sup>nd</sup> team in his first year. During the 2001-02
season, Artest was traded to the Indiana Pacers for a package headlined by
Jalen Rose. In Indiana, Artest would reach his peak, winning the Defensive
Player of the Year award in 2004, also making the All-Star team, All-NBA Third
team and making the All-Defensive First team the same year. In 2004-05, the
Pacers were considered front runners for the Eastern Conference title, along
with the Detroit Pistons. Along with Artest, the Pacers had Jermaine O’Neal,
Stephen Jackson and Reggie Miller, who would retire at the end of the season.
After a 6-2 start, a matchup with the defending champion Pistons loomed. </span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span><span lang="" style="color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">This matchup would all but decide the
fate of the Pacers and is now known as the infamous ‘Malice at the Palace’. In
Detroit’s Palace of Auburn Hills, the Pacers were leading 97-82 when Ben
Wallace was fouled hard by Artest while attempting a lay-up. This devolved into
a minor skirmish and the situation was quickly defused. Artest went to lay down
on the scorer’s table when a fan threw a cup of beer at him. This enraged
Artest, who went to fight the fan in the stands, with fellow Pacers and Pistons
players either going to stop the brawl or partaking in some fighting
themselves. When the fight was finally stopped, the game could not be resumed,
and all the players had to be escorted out of the stadium, while they were
being pelted with soda, popcorn and even a folding chair. When all was said and
done, Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season, and requested a
trade at the end of the season.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gQIIOWPNYM0" width="320" youtube-src-id="gQIIOWPNYM0"></iframe></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The Sacramento Kings would
trade for Artest, and after two and a half seasons with them, he would be
traded to the Houston Rockets in 2008. In the 2009 off season, Artest would
sign a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he would win a
championship in 2010. After four seasons with the Lakers, he would be waived
and would sign with the New York Knicks. After being waived by the Knicks in
2014, he would briefly play in China and Italy before re-joining the Lakers in
2015, with whom he would retire in 2017. Artest would also play in Ice Cube’s
BIG3 League.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Artest is a complicated player
and a layered person, and he will always be remembered, both for his on-court
accomplishments and his off-court eccentricities. </span></p>
Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-73502273283161847392020-05-10T19:07:00.005+05:302020-12-17T21:22:07.514+05:30The Evolution Of Moreyball
<p><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Most casual NBA fans know the term ‘Moreyball’ from watching
the Houston Rockets. It gets it name from the Rockets’ GM, Daryl Morey, who helped turn
Houston from also-rans into consistent championship contenders. But most people
don’t know the origins of Moreyball and how it evolved into its
current form. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">Moreyball has its roots in analytics, consistent with Morey’s
status as a co-founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. The
essence of the style is to take analytics-friendly shots (3 pointers and shots
at the rim) while reducing the amount of non-analytical friendly shots (the
long two or mid-range shot). This is mainly achieved by surrounding a big man
with four shooters, ensuring that both 3-pointers as well as shots at the rim are
taken. One of the first iterations of Moreyball was showcased by the 2009
Orlando Magic, who surrounded star center Dwight Howard with four shooters.
This novel idea helped the Magic reach the 2009 NBA Finals, where they would go
on to lose to Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. The Magic team provided the
foundations of the style that would go on to change the NBA forever.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">After becoming the GM of the Rockets in 2007, Morey sought to
implement his style and make Houston a perennial championship contender. He
took his first steps toward this goal in October 2012, when the Rockets traded
Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and two first-round picks to the Oklahoma City
Thunder for James Harden. In 2013, the Rockets signed Howard to pair with
Harden. Despite both Howard and Harden making multiple All NBA teams between
2013 and 2016, they never advanced further than the Western Conference Finals.
The experiment was deemed a failure due to Howard’s clashes with Harden, and he
would leave Houston for Atlanta in 2016. In the same season, the Rockets hired
Mike D’Antoni, famous for his 7 Seconds or Less offense with the Phoenix Suns.
D’Antoni started to play Harden as a point guard, which unlocked his unique
skillset and turned Harden into an MVP winner and consistent 30 point per game
scorer. Under D’Antoni, Moreyball achieved its nirvana, with his spaced-out
offensive style helping the Rockets set scoring records and become a perennial
contender.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">During his tenure as GM, Morey also acquired a reputation for
star-hunting, which caused the signing of Dwight Howard. In 2017, the Rockets
traded for Chris Paul, which led to a reimagining of the Rockets’ style. The
addition of Paul led to the Rockets playing a more isolation-heavy style of basketball,
leading the league in isolation possessions since the 2017-18 season. The
Rockets also offered the Minnesota Timberwolves 4 first-round picks in a trade
for disgruntled star Jimmy Butler, which ultimately fell through. Despite their
failure to add Butler and create a big three, the Rockets had a successful regular
season, finishing 4<sup>th</sup> in the Western Conference with a record of
53-29. Unfortunately, Chris Paul got injured in the 2019 Western Conference
Semifinals, which resulted in their elimination at the hands of the Golden
State Warriors. This, along with reports of tension between Paul and Harden,
culminated in Paul being traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Russell
Westbrook. Paul and Westbrook's differing styles forced the Rockets to adapt their system to integrate Westbrook. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">After early struggles in the 2019-20 NBA season, the Rockets
traded Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks in a four-team trade, in which they
received Robert Covington. The trade became the genesis of the most innovative
version of Moreyball. This version featured 6’ 5” PJ Tucker at center and the
recently acquired Robert Covington at power forward, along with Westbrook,
Harden and Danuel House at small forward. With nobody above 6’ 7”, the Rockets
were written off by many people due to the lack of a center. However, this
lineup unlocked Westbrook’s full potential. Surrounded by four capable
shooters, Westbrook did what he does best, unleashing his explosiveness and his
thunderous dunks on the way to averaging 33.1 points since January 1<sup>st</sup>. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">While this eccentric lineup has yet to be proven viable in the playoffs, if the
Rockets do win the championship, expect them to change the NBA once again.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-17971395063124781852020-05-02T17:32:00.005+05:302020-12-17T21:22:56.007+05:30Man Of Steal<div style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">There have only been 4 players who have ever recorded a
quadruple double (Double digits in 4 categories). Hall Of Famers David Robinson, Nate
Thurmond, Hakeem Olajuwon (twice) all recorded quadruple doubles in points, rebounds, assists and blocks. The 4th member of that esteemed list is Alvin Robertson. Unlike the other three, Robertson was a guard, and recorded his quadruple double in points, rebounds, assists and steals. He did not make the Basketball Hall Of Fame and his achievements have been forgotten by most NBA fans.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Alvin Robertson was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the
7<sup>th</sup> pick in 1984 and would go on to play 10 seasons in the NBA, 5
with the Spurs, 3 with the Milwaukee Bucks, and 1 each with the Detroit Pistons
and the Toronto Raptors. In only his 2<sup>nd</sup> season in the league, he
recorded 301 steals (3.7 per game), a record that still stands to this day. He
would lead the league in steals two more times in his career and retired with
an average of 2.7 steals per game, an NBA record. Excluding his rookie season,
Robertson never finished outside the top 5 in steals per game, showcasing his ability to consistently record steals.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">However, Robertson wasn’t just a one-trick pony. He averaged
14 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5 assists per game for his career, making 4
All-Star games. He also made 6 All-Defensive teams, 1 All-NBA team and won the
Defensive Player Of the Year Award and the Most Improved Player in 1986.<br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">On the 18<sup>th</sup> of February 1986, Alvin Robertson
played himself into the history books. He recorded 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10
steals and 10 assists, becoming the only guard to record a quadruple double,
ensuring that his name will always have a place in NBA lore.</span></span></p>
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Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310551129254795971.post-20384763581586612482020-04-25T23:10:00.003+05:302020-12-17T21:23:16.502+05:30Gone Too Soon: The Story Of Dražen Petrović<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0eiSpW0hzy4-zAJp57rEfDa3ji5XUU1M0Ae1H_KWWj_3m72MTRA_f-5ZFg_xxJIjJHsUeEPpN0XvPF8Gnc6LqN9g-6udl5Mci4p5uILaDoB8pEI3Ui2iVnF0uFLHYd2SDsNoLwDuMTqc/s300/Lipofsky-JDra%25C5%25BEen_Petrovi%25C4%2587.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0eiSpW0hzy4-zAJp57rEfDa3ji5XUU1M0Ae1H_KWWj_3m72MTRA_f-5ZFg_xxJIjJHsUeEPpN0XvPF8Gnc6LqN9g-6udl5Mci4p5uILaDoB8pEI3Ui2iVnF0uFLHYd2SDsNoLwDuMTqc/s0/Lipofsky-JDra%25C5%25BEen_Petrovi%25C4%2587.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">In the 1989-90 season, the Portland Trail Blazers bought out Dražen
Petrović’s contract with Real Madrid and convinced him to join the NBA. This
would mark the start of a trailblazing career that was tragically cut short.</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Dražen Petrović was born in</span><span style="color: black; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Šibenik, Croatia on the 22<sup>nd</sup>
of October, 1964. At the age of 15, he was already in the first team of his
hometown club, and by the age of 18, </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Petrović had blossomed into a
star for </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Šibenik. After serving in the
military for a year, he moved to Cibona in 1984, where he would play till 1988.
At Cibona, </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Petrović shined. He once scored 112 points in a Yugoslavian
League game (</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">40/60
FG, 10/20 3Pts, 22/22 FT), which is possibly the most efficient performance in
any European league ever. He averaged 37.7 points in the Yugoslavian first
division and 33.8 points in European competitions in his 4 years at Cibona,
cementing his status as a European star. In 1988, at the age of 23, he moved to
Real Madrid, where he stayed for one season before joining the Portland Trail
Blazers. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"> After
winning innumerable honors in Europe, </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Petrović made the jump to the
NBA. However, his NBA career was fraught with obstacles. The Trail Blazers did
not see Petrović as a primary ball handler, instead wanting to use him as a
3-point specialist. However, Petrović was not used to playing off the ball.
Additionally, the Blazers already had many serviceable guards, with star Clyde
Drexler and veterans Terry Porter and Danny Young. The addition of Danny Ainge
in the 1990-91 season dropped Petrović’s playing time from 12 minutes to 7 minutes per
game. In January of 1991, he would be traded to the New Jersey Nets, where he
would soon blossom into a 20-point scorer. In both his full seasons in New
Jersey, he averaged over 20 points per game on 50/40/80 shooting splits, making
the All-NBA Third Team in the 1993 season, despite not making the All-Star
team. Petrović shot 43.7% from 3 for his career, and despite the low volume
(career high of 3.4 attempts per game), he was one of the most feared 3-point
shooters in the league.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> In June 1993, Petrović was travelling to Croatia with his
girlfriend after playing a Eurobasket qualification tournament. On the 7<sup>th</sup>
of June, he was involved in a car accident on the Autobahn (the German
freeway). A sleeping Petrović was killed, and his girlfriend and another
passenger in the back seat were left with grave injuries.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> After the news of his death, the basketball community was
devastated. A moment of silence was observed before the start of Game 1 of
the 1993 NBA Finals. Cibona, the team with whom he became a European star,
renamed their stadium in his honor. The New Jersey Nets retired his number 3
jersey, and multiple trophies were named after him.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Petrović is enshrined in both the basketball Hall Of Fame and
the FIBA Hall Of Fame. He is also one of the original European stars who made
the jump to the NBA and is one of the reasons why many European players now
play in the NBA. The career of Dražen Petrović is a flame that burnt bright,
but was extinguished far too soon.</span></span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Vidyaratnam Ganapathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141735738464862408noreply@blogger.com9