An Approach to Measuring Team Over/Under Achivement in the NBA
This article discusses my approach for using PER (Player Efficiency Ratings) to identify under and over achieving teams from the 2018–2019 NBA season.
PER is the overall rating of a player’s per-minute statistical production developed by John Hollinger.
The 2018–2019 NBA season has ended this past week with Toronto crowned as the best team in the NBA and Golden State the second best team. In the following weeks winners of additional awards like MVP, Coach of the Year, Six Man Award, Most Improved Player, will be announced. Those eligible to cast votes for these individual awards will rely heavily on some sort of analytical analysis for justifying their vote.
Despite all of this individual based analysis, anyone who has participated in team sports knows that a team’s success reflects a combination of individual achievement and achievement of the individuals working as a team.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts-Aristotle
Although, I have a mathematical background (B.S. in Actuarial Science); but I do not profess to understand all of the nuances of the PER, VA (Value Added), EWA (Estimated Wins Added) determined by John Hollinger and ESPN.com. Since these statistics primarily represent individual achievement, I wondered if there might be any relationship between the…
