The Sport of Basketball and Why Statistics Are Not Always the Answer

Most of my personal blog posts had been about my fascination with baseball statistics, but sometimes I do not want all of my judgments about a player to based purely on statistics. I really enjoy watching sports and making critiques about the performances as opposed to just studying numbers. For that reason, basketball is my favorite sport to watch and play. It is the perfect combination of a team sport with advanced metrics. No matter how well one player performs in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he is part of a 5-man group out on the court.

For example, when I wrote my preview for the Boston Celtics’ 2012-13 season (You Can Read It Here: http://statsadam.blogspot.com/2012/10/boston-celtics-2012-13-mini-preview.html), I did not use any statistics to give my overview. There are many factors that I consider when projecting the team’s success for the upcoming year. However, statistical analyses are not part of the season preview because they are too specific. I think of most basketball statistics as more of a game-to-game and week-to-week entity rather than a season-to-season one because no one can predict injuries or know exactly what the coaches plan on doing with different lineups and bench players.

When it comes to these nitty-gritty statistics, I can bring a lot of them together to make a seemingly appropriate conclusion on how I think the team will do, albeit a length one. With the Celtics only playing two preseason games thus far, this envisioned statistical package would also be premature because I would not have enough information. On the other hand, I plan on compiling some intriguing counting numbers for an upcoming article, which highlights the upcoming milestones that some of the Celtics players are approaching. For instance, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry are close to moving up in some of the all-time scoring lists, such as points scored, free throws made and three-pointers made respectively. I am looking forward to putting that piece together and even more excited for the beginning of the NBA season on October 30.