Michael Lewis takes on basketball

by clark on Feb 15, 2009 9:31 AM CST Comment 27 comments

Here.

I know nothing about the Mavericks. I know nothing about the Mavericks.

2 recs | Comment 27 comments

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Um.

You think Mark freaking Cuban is old school? He’s been running statistics since the days of big Nellie. He set up a statistical model to track referees and their call tendencies.

Cuban is decidedly not old school. Now whether the stats he uses are worthwhile…who knows.

by jthig32 on Feb 15, 2009 9:38 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

i think donnie is old school

and i think cuban might not track the right stats. but you may be right.

by clark on Feb 15, 2009 9:41 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

You need to click this

because you’re pretty much wrong

"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan

by Dirk Diggler on Feb 15, 2009 10:03 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

thanks for the link

by clark on Feb 15, 2009 12:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

heh

i like the edit you did. nice article though, thanks for the link as well. I like Lewis — I haven’t read anything from him that hasn’t been very very good.

"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan

by Dirk Diggler on Feb 15, 2009 12:45 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

also

i encourage you to read the article and not get caught up in my light weight analysis of the Mavericks front office. I only wrote that to hit the word limit.

by clark on Feb 15, 2009 9:43 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

That was a very good article.

I want to see the Rockets play so I can study Battier.

"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."

by Josey Wales on Feb 15, 2009 9:52 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Oh,

I did. Thanks for linking it, I enjoyed it. I’m a fan of Daryl Morey and his advanced views on evaluating talent.

by jthig32 on Feb 15, 2009 7:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

was that Cuban was actually one of the firsts, if not very first, to use +/- in basketball. I think he is also responsible for most of the statistics the NBA currently uses for referees. Never struck me as old school.

by rothe on Feb 15, 2009 10:10 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

My recollection is that Shawn Bradley

the poster child of all white stiffs was off the charts (in a good way) in +/- and was a very efficient player.

"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."

by Josey Wales on Feb 15, 2009 10:19 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Bradley

I think a good deal of the criticism thrown his way was due to the fact he was a top five pick, and everyone figured that “well, he’s 7’6”, he should be able to dominate."

I know Shaq abused the heck out of him, but I always thought Bradley had his uses as a rebounder and shot-blocker.

"I dont care to debate with a troll." - Sharky

by RCCook on Feb 15, 2009 11:01 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

"I call him Lego," Morey says. "When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category."

great quote

Last season when the Rockets played the San Antonio Spurs Battier was assigned to guard their most dangerous scorer, Manu Ginóbili. Ginóbili comes off the bench, however, and his minutes are not in sync with the minutes of a starter like Battier. Battier privately went to Coach Rick Adelman and told him to bench him and bring him in when Ginóbili entered the game. "No one in the N.B.A. does that," Morey says. "No one says put me on the bench so I can guard their best scorer all the time."

wow

"Steve Jackson," Battier says, "is statistically better going to his right, but he loves to go to his left — and goes to his left almost twice as often."

what a suprise – steven jackson isnt a “smart” basketball player…im SHOCKED

"If he has 40 points on 40 shots, I can live with that," Battier says. "My job is not to keep him from scoring points but to make him as inefficient as possible."

The minute he figured out where he was headed, he called a sensational high-school power forward in Peekskill, N.Y., named Elton Brand — and talked him into joining him at Duke. (Brand now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.) "I thought he’d be the first black president," Wetzel says. "He was Barack Obama before Barack Obama."

Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.

by knockoutking on Feb 15, 2009 10:39 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Wow

You take a great find in the article and then totally kill the fanpost with your analysis. You say to ignore your lightweight anaysis, I say you go back and edit the shit out your post and add a little thought and factual info, or leave the Mavs out of your post all together seeing as how you’ve been under a rock the last decade when it comes to your Mavericks knowledge.

"If you have a problem with me, you're probably a doucher."

by red shoe ranger on Feb 15, 2009 10:54 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Jesus

Why dont you just finish the job and burn his house down as well

by SaltyGoesYard on Feb 15, 2009 12:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Mavs Rumors

Any new trade rumors surrounding the Mavs? Any chance on Shaq?

by Monkey Brain on Feb 15, 2009 1:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

For the latest Mavs info, check out Wes’s fine blog at Mavs Moneyball.

You just don't know when to keep your mouth shut, do you Saxy boy?

by oc on Feb 15, 2009 1:40 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Mavs problem

is that the only way to get a big name player would be to trade Josh Howard or Jason Terry with Stackhouse. I don’t think they have much, if any, interest in trading either of those two.

I suppose they could package Dampier and Stackhouse to get the salaries up, but I’m not sure what that gets you. They also aren’t going to trade Damp unless it’s for a center. So Stack and Damp for Shaq? — not going to happen.

www.mavsmoneyball.com

by Wes Cox on Feb 15, 2009 2:19 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Kidd?

There is a rumor about Kidd for Shaq trade…. Then Suns will buy Kidd out and then re-sign with the Mavs……

by Monkey Brain on Feb 15, 2009 3:00 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not sure where that came from,

but it sounds like message board talk to me. Kidd couldn’t resign with the Mavs for 30 days. Maybe with Terry healthy Dallas could survive with he and Barea for a month but with just Barea? No way. Even if that did go down, Dallas couldn’t make the deal without having something else in place to get another PG — making everything even more complicated.

Not to mention every owner in the NBA would be calling shenanigans if that happened.

www.mavsmoneyball.com

by Wes Cox on Feb 15, 2009 6:16 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Why would they want to hang onto Terry?

Are they low on perimeter shooting attempts, or is it a cap thing?

I'm Matt mutha-effing Bush, bitches, and mutha-eff East County.

...at the time, I wasn’t being truthful with myself. How could I be truthful with Katie Couric or CBS?

by Brian Thomas on Feb 15, 2009 10:44 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

cause he's been

our 2nd best player this year and is about the only reliable score on our team outside of dirk

go here to view my blog: dirtfromd.blogspot.com

by studcrackers on Feb 16, 2009 2:10 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Terry

Thing is, he hits a lot of those perimeter attempts. He’s a very good player.

by brettgardner on Feb 16, 2009 10:46 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

you show promise

as a copy editor, nice work…

…and thanks for the article.

Anyone read The Blind Side. A decent read regarding the rise in prominence of the OL in football, particularly the left guard. Moneyball was better written, imo. The Blind Side felt like an article that had to be really stretched to render itself a book…

"If you have a problem with me, you're probably a doucher."

by red shoe ranger on Feb 15, 2009 8:35 PM CST reply actions 0 recs