Advanced Stats in Basketball

I love the % advanced stats (tov%, reb%, ast%, etc…) – I feel like most stats most accurately describe a single players’ offensive skills – like you said, it’s near impossible to judge individual defense with a single stat but I think the best one is dMULT because it describes how better/worse the opposition performs based on what they normally do (as opposed to PER against where it would be weighted heavier against Iguodala who constantly guards the other team’s best player) – I think drtg is better used as a tool to judge how good/bad a team’s defense is rather than finding it for an individual player (your drtg can take a hit even if you play light’s out defense if another teammate on the floor keeps getting blown by and scored on)

is there an advanced stat to judge michael jordan’s tendency to wear horse-riding boots?

I think you really need to take a look at both most of the time. Look at Monta Ellis for example (and the post from the other night). His conventional stats look pretty good but when you dig deeper into the advanced stats, you see he is an average player.

I really like the percentage stats as well. They really show what they do for the team and with their possessions.

That said, how do people feel about per 36 minutes stats? This is a common comparison but I am not a fan of it. On one hand, it can show you that someone is making the most of their time on the court. I do not think it is fair to use per 36 minutes to compare a bench player to a starter though (most of the time). There has to be reasons that one player is getting more minutes and the bench player is not getting as many minutes.

I am not sure I conveyed that clearly. Am I way off base in this thinking/what are you thoughts on per 36 stats to use in comparison?

The advanced stats are correct.

I’m both a proponent and an opponent of advanced stats.

I think Advanced Stats are nowhere near what they are in baseball, mostly because it’s significantly harder to isolate cause/effect and responsibility in basketball. To that end, I don’t give them as much credence in an argument as I do when talking about baseball, and I think they leave much room to be used incorrectly.

On the other hand, if I have to pick advanced or conventional, I’ll go advanced every time. They’re clearly better than conventional stats, even if they’re not perfect (neither are averages).

I have a huge interested in advanced stats for basketball, partly because they’re more useful than regular, mostly because they’re potentially invaluable and have a lot of room to grow and be perfected.