Hoops Hypothesis

  If you were a Formula 1 team principal, would you rather have the best driver or the best car? 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. 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 th 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 ...

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. 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. 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 h...

A little while ago, I made a post about how the San Antonio Spurs could get better using statistics. A season and change later, it’s time to re-examine the players involved in that piece and see how the Spurs are playing. As of the new year of 2022, the Spurs are 14-20, with the 5 players averaging the most minutes per game being 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. The 2019-20 Spurs line-up had a win co-efficient of 0.579. The top line-up that I looked at was t...

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. 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. At Central Michgan, McLaughlin broke out in his sophomore year, averaging 20.8 points per game and being named to the Firs...

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. 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...

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. 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 ave...

  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 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. 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...

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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. Cryptography involves coding the plain text to make it secure and decoding the coded text to retrieve the plain text. The coding and decoding processes ...

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 th player, however, is someone far less recognizable. 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, whic...