MoneyBuckets

With the success of SABRmetrics over the years, folks in other sports have tried to duplicate the objectivity of the statistical analysis performed on baseball. (For example, try Baseball Prospectus) Unfortunately, no other team sport lends itself to quite that degree of rigor: too many things are happening simultaneously to isolate specific events. (Incidentally, this probably explains the problem of tracking defensive stats in baseball, and in seperating pitching and defense.)

Not that people aren't trying. One of the leading stat-heads in The League has been the Benefactor. The Cuban-TNT kerfluffle basically boiled down to Mark asking Kenny and Charles "what are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes" when it came down to the Mavs defending the Suns pick-and-roll. Well, turns out that Cuban didn't make his billions by being a dummy. Here is some evidence suggesting that switching the Pick-and-roll might be best against the Suns. Interesting stuff, but with all the usual caveats: small sample size, missing variables, etc. Worth reading though.