Does Point Differential Mean Dallas Mavericks Are Doomed to Early Exit?

March 4th, 2010 by Alex McVeigh Leave a reply »
In today's modern sports age, statistics are increasingly affecting how we examine players, teams, and, especially, legacies.

Baseball stats prove to be the most effective, since baseball is essentially a series of one-on-one matchups, so the results can be distilled easier. 

For basketball, it's a young science, but people like the good folks at the basketball prospectus and ESPN's John Hollinger are endlessly tinkering with formulas to try and express a player's value numerically. 

While the stats are generally interesting, there is always a line between stats and what actually happens. People like Shane Battier or Shawn Marion this year don't fill up the stat sheet, so they are much harder to assign a value to. 

One of the flaws I find with people who are geared specifically towards stats is that the numbers sometimes show things that are patently false if you are watching the game. For example, adjusted plus-minus showed earlier in the season that the Nuggets were better without Carmelo Anthony. As any fan of basketball knows, that simply isn't true, so the numbers must be adjusted. 

I always find J ...

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