Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis [Paperback]

Dean Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2004

Journey "inside the numbers" for an exceptional set of statistical tools and rules that can help explain the winning, or losing, ways of a basketball team. Basketball on Paper doesn’t diagram plays or explain how players get in shape, but instead demonstrates how to interpret player and team performance.

Dean Oliver highlights general strategies for teams when they’re winning or losing and what aspects should be the focus in either situation. He describes and quantifies the jobs of team leaders and role players, then discusses the interactions between players and how to achieve the best fit. Oliver conceptualizes the meaning of teamwork and how to quantify the value of different types of players working together. He examines historically successful NBA teams and identifies what made them so successful: individual talent, a system of putting players together, or good coaching.

Oliver then uses these statistical tools and case studies to evaluate the best players in history, such as Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, and Charles Barkley and how they contributed to their teams’ success. He does the same for some of the NBA’s "oddball" players-Manute Bol, Muggsy Bogues, and Dennis Rodman and for the WNBA’s top players.

Basketball on Paper is unique in its incorporation of business and analytical concepts within the context of basketball to measure the value of players in a cooperative setting. Whether you’re looking for strategies or new ideas to throw out while watching the ballgame at a sports bar, Dean Oliver’sBasketball on Paper will give you amazing new insights into teamwork, coaching, and success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At the risk of succumbing to hyperbole, Basketball on Paper is a revolutionary strike for statistical analysis of the game of basketball. . . . There has never been a basketball book quite like [it]."

"The must-read hoops numbers book."

"Statistics guru Dean Oliver . . . is to the NBA what Bill James is to baseball."

"Excellent writing. There are a lot of math guys who just rush from the numbers to the conclusion. . . . Dean is more that that; he's really struggling to understand the actual problem, rather than the statistical after-image of it. I learn a lot by reading him."

"Oliver's book provides an insightful framework for basketball. . . . This book is a unique and surprisingly practical addition to a coach's library."

"A revolutionary strike for statistical analysis of the game of basketball."

From the Publisher

Basketball stats and strategy for coaches and fans alike. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574886886
• ISBN-13: 978-1574886887
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Reference

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Tool August 17, 2007

By Patrick Sheehy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been using the formulas and ideas presented in Dean Oliver's book for the past three years. I was never a math fan, but my spreadsheets for calculating basketball statistics are the most complicated I have ever created and it was this book that started my obsession. The book inspired me with a fascination over a new way to look at the game and the players that bring it to life. Mr. Oliver's work was just a starting point and over the past few years I have added other formulas and other mathematical approaches to looking at the game, but I would not have gotten anywhere without this book. It is an essential tool in my toolbox for evaluating and enjoying the game of basketball.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mature Look At Pro Basketball December 23, 2003

By Greg Thomas

Format:Hardcover

Oliver's work shows a maturity that has been lacking from many basketball evaluation books--John Hollinger's "Basketball Prospectus" being another exception. Not only are players evaluated statistically but their roles on their teams are considered in context in relationship to their numbers. If you want to gain an understanding of basketball as perhaps you've never had before, and are willing to accept the ambiguous nature of numbers themselves, this is the book for you!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Statistical over simplicity July 1, 2012

By Doctor Bob

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a statistician, and someone who also loves sports, I have totally enjoyed the "new" satistical approaches to sports stats, from tversky to moneyball to learning you should never punt. Sports arguments are often a lot more fun these days (e.g., 90 percent of the ESPN analysis on NBA draft night is how well the players scored the ball in college, when that appears statistically to be only a minor indicator of professional success.

The problem I have with much of the literature aimed at the general public though, is that is over simplifies the problems, and all to often takes away the argument by assumption. John Maynard Keynes taught us that the big problem with statistics is not the methods, it's having no way to validate the numbers we put in.

So here we have an assumed method of picking the best offensive and defensive teams in history, no discussion of why most of those teams did not win a championship, no discussion of alternative methods. We get probabilities of winning streaks, but only a couple paragraphs on problems with those stats. (player injuries as the only example.). What about the fact that NBA teams almost always lose the second game of back to back road games? What about teams tanking at the end of the season to improve draft position?

I appreciated large parts of this book, but also found myself deeply frustrated with it at points. There are better books out there for people who want to get started on modern sports statistics.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Analysis / Easy to understand January 9, 2007

By David Young

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I thought it was an excellent book. The author was clearly very knowledgeable both as a basketball player and as a quantitative analyst. Probably this dual identity is also what allowed him to communicate the findings so well to non-analysts while preserving enough of the meat of the analysis for pure analysts to see where it would all lead to.

Best book on sports statistics that I've read.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars If you love stats and basketball... August 19, 2005

By hoopsfan68

Format:Hardcover

This is a great book for people who are both numbers geeks and basketball geeks. I wish that there was more of a focus on college basketball, but that's just me. The author even replied to a couple of my questions regarding some of the formulas via email. Highly recommended for a basketball fan intrigued by statistics and indexes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed how I watch college basketball May 8, 2010

By Timothy A. Lewis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

While Oliver's methods and approaches are all applied to the NBA game in this book, they nevertheless can be applied in whole to the collegiate game. After reading "Basketball on Paper" over the last year and watching the 2009-2010 college basketball season, I can truly say that this book has revolutionized how I view a basketball game -- all for the better.

Without giving away key premises, Oliver truly dives deep into the fundamentals of how a basketball game works to determine tools to evaluate how teams and players do just past the final score. Typical cliches are challenged -- some proven, some shown to be irrelevant -- as he puts a statistical and logical argument behind why the proposed approaches are superior. And I agree with his results. After focusing on them over the past year, I can truly say that this book has helped me further understand how and why a team wins just behind the final score. Diving into the box score alone can reveal hidden gems that you might not have thought about otherwise. If you're a stat nut, a basketball fanatic, or some sort of a combination of the two, this book is a definite must read.

Considering that this is one of the greatest books I've ever read, I'd say it is worthy of a five star rating.

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, well-written June 7, 2013

By JOSEPH R BOYER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

For a basketball/ stats nerd it is awesome! It is written well and helps to think about basketball in different ways. Also helps to think out of the box in an analytical career overall.

5.0 out of 5 stars performance March 30, 2013

By firemanxx

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

many of the stat refered to you can find on espn .com from john hollinger really helped in understanding point totals