Trends, Ranks, and Outliers: Final Exam
2013-05-16No Cheating. Take the Final Exam and see (honestly) how well you know the Trends, Ranks, and Outliers of our beloved wine and gold.
1.) The Cavaliers ended the season with a block differential of:
a.) -82 (or, 1 less block per game)
b.) -167
c.) -226
d.) +30 (Stop being so negative!)
2.) The Cavaliers finished last in the NBA in accumulating what basic box score stat:
a.) Blocks
b.) Forcing Turnovers
c.) Defensive Rebounds
d.) Free Throw Attempts
3.) The Cavaliers finished 1st in the NBA in differential for what basic box score stat:
a.) Turnovers (“Take what you can! Give nothing back!”)
b.) Blocks (they see me trolling)
c.) Technical Fouls (ain’t misbehavin’)
d.) Field Goal Attempts (Keep on chuckin’)
4.) The Cavaliers’ leader(s) in technical fouls was(were):
a.) Marreese Speights and Anderson Varejao with 4 each
b.) Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, and Boobie Gibson, with 3 each
c.) Moondog with OVER 9000?!?
d.) Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, and Marreese Speights with 2 each
5.) Rank the following players by # of Double-Doubles in 2012-2013: Tristan Thompson, Blake Griffin, J.J. Hickson, and Greg Monroe
a.) 1 Griffin, 2 Thompson, 3 Hickson, 4 Monroe
b.) 1 Griffin, 2 Monroe, 3 Thompson, 4 Hickson
c.) 1 Hickson, 2 Monroe, 3 Thompson, 4 Griffin
d.) 1 Thompson, 2 Griffin, 3 Monroe, 4 Hickson
6.) How many players did the Cavaliers have with a PER over 15 and how does that compare with the 2008-2009 team that won 66 games.
a.) 3 Players, and thus 3 less than the 6 on the 09 team
b.) 4 Players, and only 1 less than the 5 on the 09 team
c.) 5 players, and as it turns out, 2 more than the 3 on the 09 team
d.) 6 Players, which gave them 2 more than the 4 on the 09 team
7.) Choose the correct order of these Cavaliers by number of tweets: C.J. Miles, Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Daniel Gibson, Tristan Thompson
a.) Gibson, Waiters, Irving, Miles, Thompson
b.) Irving, Gibson, Waiters, Thompson, Miles
c.) Miles, Irving, Gibson, Waiters, Thompson
d.) Waiters, Gibson, Thompson, Irving, Miles
8.) Dion Waiters shot 100 more free throws than he committed personal fouls. (+100) How did Tyler Zeller fare at this made up stat?
a.) +21
b.) +7
c.) 0
d.) -4
e.) -94
9.) (Of players that played more than 500 minutes) Luke Walton led the Cavaliers in a number of dichotomous statistical categories. Which ones?
a.) First in assist rate, last in Usage%
b.) First in assist/turnover ratio, last in ORtg
c.) First in steal rate, last in % of points coming from fast breaks
d.) All of these.
10.) Rank these Cavaliers by improved WS/48 from last season: Irving, Thompson, Varejao, Gee, Livingston, Miles.
a.) Thompson, Livingston, Varejao, Miles, Irving, Gee
b.) Thompson, Varejao, Irving, Livingston, Miles, Gee
c.) Varejao, Thompson, Livingston, Miles, Irving, Gee
d.) Livingston, Varejao, Thompson, Irving, Miles, Gee
11.) Rank these in order of how expensive (amount/salary) they were this season:
a.) TT shots outside 15 feet
b.) Kyrie Irving All-Star Points
c.) Anderson Varejao Double-Doubles
d.) Luke Walton Free Throws
12.) Apply the following rankings (based on +/-‘s) to the below lineups: Great = +53 in 190m, Good = +13 in 153m, Good =+7 in 99m, Awful = -62 in 421m, Putrid = -66 in 185m
a.) Irving – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Varejao
b.) Irving – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Zeller
c.) Pargo – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Varejao
d.) Irving – Gee – Miles – Thompson – Zeller
e.) Irving – Ellington – Gee – Thompson – Zeller
13.) Of opponent shooting splits, the Cavaliers placed in the top 6 at defending what?
a.) Field Goals
b.) Corner 3s
c.) The Paint
d.) Free Throws
14.) The Cavaliers were 4th in the NBA in point differential against this team:
a.) Thunder
b.) Heat
c.) Clippers
d.) Hawks
e.) Rockets
15.) What percentage of Shaun Livingston’s assisted baskets resulted from Luke Walton?
a.) 18%
b.) 28%
c.) 44%
d.) 63%
16.) The Cavalier players with the best Adjusted Plus Minus numbers this season were:
a.) Thompson, Irving, Varejao
b.) Jones, Livingston, Varejao
c.) Waiters, Ellington, Speights
d.) Irving, Ellington, Livingston
1. The Cavaliers ended the season with a block differential of: -226
Answer: c
Oh, you knew to pick the worst one right? You’ve read this column before…
2. The Cavaliers finished last in the NBA in accumulating what basic box score stat: defensive rebounds.
Answer: c
I know I wanted to answer blocks too! They were actually 2nd last in the NBA at blocking shots but finished last in total defensive rebounds. (Inbounding the ball under the other basket really hurts defensive rebounding numbers)
3. The Cavaliers finished 1st in the NBA in differential for what basic box score stat: Field Goals Attempted
Answer: d
The Cavaliers had the highest FGA – opponentFGA differential of any team in the league.
4. The Cavaliers’ leader(s) in technical fouls was(were): TT, Dion, Boobie (3 each)
Answer: b
Anyone remember the game where Boobie got ejected (2 Ts) in a span of 8 seconds for making a ‘hey I got hit on the arm’ gesture followed by a “hey man, gross neck tattoo” comment to Soulja Boy (Boi?).
5. Rank the following players by # of Double-Doubles: JJ Hickson, Greg Monroe, TT, Blake
Answer: c
Now you know. The only stat more ridiculous than the Triple-Double is the Double-Double. STOP USING IT. David Lee led the NBA by a country mile in Double-Doubles and he’s had his playoff minutes quadrupled by Draymond Green. (Update: This is a bad argument because injuries may have given those minutes to Green) And everyone hates JJ Hickson right?!
6. The average PER comparison: ’13 Cavs = 5 players with >15 PERs, ’09 Cavs = 3 players with >15 PERs
Answer: c
PER – great stat for offense, misleading stat for overall value. How can 5 players with PERs above 15 lose 40 more games than a team with only 3 players with “above average” PERs? Defense, synergy, coaching, and one of the 3 players being LeBron. I’m weaning myself off PER.
7. Choose the correct order of these Cavaliers by number of tweets: Waiters, Gibson, Thompson, Irving, Miles
Answer: d
Everyone went for BoObY’s World right? No, it’s actually Waiters with almost as many tweets as the rest of that list combined. Here’s the tweet-count: C.J. Miles: 2,501 tweets, Kyrie Irving: 2,746 tweets, Dion Waiters: 17,126 tweets, Daniel Gibson: 9,816 tweets, Tristan Thompson: 4,974 tweets.
8. How did Tyler Zeller fare at this made up stat (PFouls – FTA): -94
Answer: e
Hit the weights and the “muscle milk”, Tyler.
9. Luke Walton led the Cavaliers in a number of dichotomous statistical categories. Which ones: All of them.
Answer: d
Amazingly, Luke Walton was all of those things this season.
10. Rank these Cavaliers by improved WS/48 from last season: TT, Livingston, Andy, Miles, Irving, Gee
Answer: a
Thompson (+.060), Livingston (+.047), Varejao (+.042), Miles (+.029), Irving (0), Gee (-.027)
11. Rank these in order of how expensive (amount/salary) they were this season: Walton FTs, Andy DDs, KI all-star pts, TT mid-range js
Answer: d-c-b-a
Luke Walton Free Throws (10/$5,680,000 or $568k each), Anderson Varejao Double-Doubles (16/$8,368,182 or $523k each), Kyrie Irving All-Star Points (15/$5,375,760, or $358k each), Tristan Thompson shots attempts outside 15 feet (11/ $3,894,240 or $354k each)
12. Rank these Lineups:
Answer:
a.) Irving – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Varejao = GREAT
b.) Irving – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Zeller = AWFUL
c.) Pargo – Waiters – Gee – Thompson – Varejao = GOOD
d.) Irving – Gee – Miles – Thompson – Zeller = GOOD
e.) Irving – Ellington – Gee – Thompson – Zeller = PUTRID
Try figuring this out. Subbing Zeller for Varejao makes a Great lineup Awful (alright so far so good), but taking that Awful lineup and subbing C.J. Miles for Dion Waiters makes it Good. Huh? Also, the only difference between lineup d and lineup e is a Miles for Ellington substitution and about a net of +70 points. Good luck analytics team.
13. Of opponent shooting splits, the Cavaliers placed in the top 6 at defending what: Opponent’s FT%
Answer: d
Yeah, the Cavs sucked at defending all shooting – except they were 6th in the NBA in opponent FT% which is excellent!
14. The Cavaliers were 4th in the NBA in point differential against this team: Heat
Answer: b
That’s right, the Cavs were the Heat’s 4th toughest opponent. Houston, unfortunately, found only 1 opponent easier to shred than the Cavs.
15. What percentage of Shaun Livingston’s assisted baskets resulted from Luke Walton: 44%
Answer: c
Livingston and Walton had quite the 2-man game going this year.
16. The Cavalier players with the best Adjusted Plus Minus numbers this season were: Kevin Jones, Shaun Livingston, and Anderson Varejao
Answer: b
Livingston and Kevin Jones rated highly on Advanced Plus/Minus Calculations
So, how’d you do?
Scoring: out of 16
16: The prestigious Cavs:TheBlog McDonald’s I’mLovingIt KiaSephia KrogerBrand cotton swab JoeTait’s Sweaters Award for Excellence in Cavalier Acumen.
15: The You can’t believe someone tweeted more than Boobie / Brian Windhorst Got Everything Right Except, You Know, the Whole LeBron Thing Award for Almost Perfection
14: The Terrell Brandon Bookended by SuperStars Award for Brilliance – may you not be forgotten in the annals of Cav:TheBlog lore
13: The Hot Rod Williams Swagger Stare Award
12: The Anderson Varejao over Chris Bosh Fancy Locks of Love and Evil Award
11: The Bobby Sura Has Never Been Used as a Draft Comp Award
10: The Tyrone Hill Cliched Blue-collar Award for Grabbing Rebounds Away from Bigger Guys
9: The Shawn Kemp Probably Has More Illegitimate Offspring than ThisAward
8: The Summer of 2005 Award for Overpaying Free Agents into Guaranteed Mediocrity
7: The Damon Jones Leg-Kick Award
6: The Kevin Hetrick/Jon Leuer Excellence in Prognostication Award
5: The Delonte West High as a Kite Award, Presented by KFC
4: The Donyell Marshall Forgot Something? Award
3: The David Wesley Layup has Been Viewed over 3 Million Times / The Internet is Cruel Award
2: The Jiri Welsch Panic Award
1: The Ted Stepien has as Many Championships as Sam Presti and Daryl Morey Combined Award
0: The Carlos Boozer/LeBron James High-Character Award
I weened myself off PER to some extent…I use it when it supports my position.
Let’s come up with something better!
On Cousins… I think I would give up this years Lottery Pick, Zeller, and a future pick (Sac’s own?) for him… All depending on two things Mike Brown and Grant Interview with him and sign off… I doubt its legel to formally interview or whatever but you get my point, if they think it is a good idea, and he will play defense, rebound, and take good post up shots, talk about his immaturity, his potential to be a taller more talented Zach Randolph is worth some bumps in the road and that he signs a Non-Max Extension, Preferably front… Read more »
I got 8/16, after missing 5 out of the first six, i came back strong to get 50% lol
#2 I guessed blocks, I just remember Tristan and Dion getting stuffed alot, and we dont have any legt shot blocker
Got the double double’s thing right (For my first correct answer) I had previously heard of JJ’s Double Doubleness, and BSimmons complained about Blakes lack of Rebounding alot this year
#11 & 12 were tough, quiz was fun
Thanks Adam! Glad you enjoyed it
I scrolled down to find the answers…and I am at work…so I was eager just to get to this portion of it. LOL Didn’t bother with guessing at all…
Chalk it up to my immature feelings of you’re not the boss of me!
Tom – I am not going to lie…I didn’t even try. I read the questions and looked for the answers. LOL
Ben! Even after I explicitly asked you not to!? :)
Ben, my next question is, were you able to find all the answers?
Adam – Cousins is going to be a touchy subject because of his excessive talent and his penchant for being a major headcase. I don’t know what it would take to get him…but there are going to be fans of both fanbases who will complain hard about the value the teams agree on. And it will likely be a loud group of people who will not be happy…potentially with both fanbases at the same time. I am a fan of his and think that he needs a new environment to thrive. I think that he would thrive here in Cleveland… Read more »
Please address what I said. The fact is double-double guys appear to be All-Star caliber 85% of the time. That means JJ is not in that 85%.
I also find it comical that you use +/- in your stat line example. Talk about not valuable…anyway, the point of the double-double chart is that is is a CUMULATIVE stat. Your example was one game. Apples not oranges, please.
KJ – let’s dive in. First of all, qualify “double-double guys”? I’ll arbitrarily go with guys ahead of Tristan Thompson this season. So 7 out of those 16 guys made the All-Star team. That’s not quite 85%. Carlos Boozer accumulated twice as many “double-doubles” as Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol, and Roy Hibbert. So, given the choice of career trajectory, would you like TT to become 2013 Carlos Boozer? I’ll take half of the double-double’s and triple the effectiveness/value-added. Obviously, valuable NBA players tend to accumulate basic stats like points and rebounds to reflect that they are valuable. I’m not sure… Read more »
Umm, go look at this list: http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/double-doubles/sort/doubleDouble/seasontype/2
Basically 80 plus percentage of the top 20 guys in this list are (or have been) All-Stars or are borderline All-Stars.
Seriously, I think sometimes you guys try to think so far outside the box that you just come up with some silly things. This would be one of them. Double-double guys are valuable. Period.
KJ – guys that are incredibly valuable often accumulate double-double’s. For the inverse to hold, JJ Hickson has to be incredibly valuable – which makes Chris Grant incredibly stupid – and none of us want that. My beef with “double-doubles” and “triple-doubles” is how arbitrary it is. Which stat line is better: Player A: 3-18 from the field, 4-8 from the line, 10 points, 10 rebounds, 0 assists, 6 turnovers, 6 fouls, +/-: -18 Player B: 9-12 from the field, 5-6 from the line, 25 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 0 turnovers, 2 fouls, +/-: +24 So yeah, let’s come… Read more »
So be honest, how did you guys do? Which questions did you know, which surprised you? I can tell you the ones that would have tripped me up had I not done the research: I would have gotten #2 wrong, selecting Blocks over D Rebounds (Cavs were 29th in Blocks, 30th in D Rebounds) I would have gotten #5, the double-double’s one wrong – because why should any ranking of big-men have JJ Hickson first? I would have gotten #6 wrong – probably choosing b I would have gotten #8 wrong – because that is just ridiculous. I might have… Read more »
Not worth it, he’s only under contract for another year. Why be forced to overspend to keep him, when that year we can spend to bring in someone who is a proven commodity.
Throw in Zeller + fodder + picks.
Would Grant and Co. take the gamble on Cousins? Would Sacramento look to blow everything up and tank for Wiggins? If so, who would be need to trade (not touching our own #1 this year, Kyrie, Dion, or Tristan) to get a deal done with Sacto? They want to blow it up, tank, and acquire future picks. Cousins is troubled, but if this front office has faith in Brown that he can be the right coach for Cousins, he’s plain and simple an elite talent. What about sending cap filler + #19 pick + Memphis #1 + Sacto future #1… Read more »
Can the cavs trade for DeMarcus Cousins please?
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9175870/nba-sacramento-king-trade-mercurial-demarcus-cousins
The Kevin Hetrick/Jon Leuer Excellence in Prognostication Award. Perfect.
Oops, only read the top portion of your post. It’s early.. my apologies.
Rich – David Lee was injured in the first or second game of round 1 and was out for the remainder of the playoffs. I assume that is why Green has quadrupled his minutes.
David Lee led the NBA by a country mile in Double-Doubles and he’s had his playoff minutes quadrupled by Draymond Green.
———-
Double-Doubles might not be a great stat, but c’mon dude. His minutes haven’t been quadrupled because he isn’t a good player and double-doubles are therefore overrated. He’s had them quadrupled because he got hurt in the second game of the playoffs.
Rich – true, he did injure his hip flexor a while back. I saw him in the SAS games and figured he was cleared to play. Maybe he was on some kind of playoff diet of limited minutes?
The point I’m making is – double double’s are not a great indicator of how valuable someone is.