By David
Sauriol
1 January, 2018
The Sauriol Success Matrix was introduced here to illustrate how a general categorization statistic can be useful, even if it doesn’t explicitly incorporate a lot of analytical methods. That article, however, did not give the details of how the method generates its categorization. This article is about that and, since it has details, it may not be of interest to the general reader.
Recreating
the SSM
One of the best features of the SSM is that it is reasonably simple to reproduce. All of the required statistics to recreate it are available from the 1981 season onward. The statistics required will be detailed further in the SSM rules and coding instructions below. The primary statistics needed to make all the calculations are these:
· A data base of NBA player career totals since 1981
· A data base of all NBA individual player seasons since 1981
The SSM is hierarchical classification system that encompasses 22 rules. Although not all 22 rules are presently applicable to the SSM’s output they are there to account for future add-ons. As each tier is hierarchical in nature the rules within tiers all have an “or” statement allowing the next lower rule within the tier to also be applicable for player assignment to their respective tier.
Please see the rules below beginning with the Superstar tier and ending with drafted NBA players that did not ever play an NBA minute. Additionally added are some supplementary excel coding instructions and applicable definitions.
Superstar
1) Receiving an NBA MVP Award; or
- Coding instruction: Players
that have 1 or more MVP awards
2) Making Multiple All NBA first teams
-Coding instruction: Players that
have been selected to 2 of more All NBA first teams
Star
3) Making one All NBA first team;
or
- Coding Instruction: Players
that have been selected to exactly 1 All NBA first team during their career
4) Making multiple All NBA Second or Third
Teams; or
- Coding Instruction: Players
that have been selected a cumulative total of 2 or more All NBA second or third
teams. (Ex: Player A has made 1 All NBA second team and 1 All NBA third team
has a cumulative total of 2.)
5) Making multiple all-star teams
-
Coding instruction: Players that have been selected to 2 or more all-star games
during their career.
Note: Between all NBA
2nd and 3rd teams and all-star appearances players must
have 2 appearances in at least one of those categories; for instance, 2 all NBA
2nd or 3rd teams and 1 all-star game, or 2 all-star games
and 0 all NBA 2nd or 3rd teams, etc. When this is not
achieved a player defaults to seasons played, games
started and minutes averaged to determine a classification between: Starter,
Reserve/ Spot Starter, and Reserve.
Starter
6) Starting and averaging more than 30 MPG for
their career; or
- Coding Instructions:
A)
A player
who has started more than 50% of their career games,
B)
averaged
more than 30 MPG played for their career
C)
Played a
minimum of 2 seasons
7) Starting and averaging more than 30 MPG for
multiple seasons; or
- Coding Instructions:
A)
A player
that has started more than 50% of their career games
B)
Had 2 or
more INDIVIDUAL seasons during their career averaging more than 30 MPG
C)
Has a
career MPG under 30
D)
Played a
minimum of 2 seasons
8)
Starting and having one season averaging more than 30 MPG; or
- Coding instructions:
A)
A player
that has started more than 50% of their career games
B)
Had 1
INDIVIDUAL season during their career averaging 30 MPG
C)
Has a
career MPG under 30
D)
Played a
minimum of 2 seasons
9) Starting a majority of career games
-Coding instructions:
A)
A player
that has started more than 50% of their career games
B)
Had zero
individual seasons averaging more than 30 MPG
C)
Played a
minimum of 2 seasons
Reserve/ Spot Starter
10) Starting the majority of games for at least one season; or
- Coding instructions
A)
A player
has started more than 41 games for 1 season
B)
A player
started at least 25% of their career games
C) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
11) Starting between 20 - 40 games per season
for their career; or
- Coding instructions:
A)
A player
averaged between 20.0 and 40.99 starts for their career
B) Not had a season with more than 41 starts
C) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
12) Starting between 20 – 40 games for more
than one season
- Coding instructions:
A) A player that started between 20 and 40 games for 2 or more individual seasons
B) Not had a season with more than 41 starts
C) Not averaging more than 19.99 starts per season for their career
D) Has started 25% of their career games
E) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
Reserve
13)
Starting between 20 – 40 games for one season; or
- Coding Instructions:
A) A player that has started between 20 and 40 games for 1 individual season
B) Averaged a minimum of 30 games played per season for their career
C) Not averaging more than 19.99 starts for their career games played for their career
D) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
14) Reserve role, but averaging more than 20
MPG for career; or
- Coding Instructions:
A)
Starting
less than 20 games every season of their career
B) Averaging more than 20 MPG for career
C) Averaged a minimum of 30 games played per season for their career
D) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
15) Reserve role with multiple 20 MPG seasons;
or
- Coding Instructions:
Starting less than 20 games every season of
their career
A) Averaging more than 20 MPG for 2 of more INDIVIDUAL seasons
B) Averaging less than 20 MPG for career
C) Averaged a minimum of 30 games played per season for their career
D) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
16) Reserve role having had one 20 MPG season;
or
- Coding instructions:
A)
Starting
less than 20 games every season of their career
B) Averaging more than 20 MPG for 1 INDIVIDUAL seasons
C) Averaged a minimum of 30 games played per season for their career
D) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
17) Reserve role (7.5 – 19.9 MPG) playing more
than 41 games for multiple seasons
-
Coding instructions:
A)
Starting
less than 20 games every season of their career
B) Averaging between 7.5 – 19.99 MPG and playing 41 games that season 2 or more times.
C) Averaged a minimum of 30 games played per season for their career
D) Played a minimum of 2 seasons
Fringe
18) Inconsistent playing time across multiple
seasons; or
- Coding instructions:
A)
Averaging
less than 30 games played for career; or more than 30 games but less than 7.5
MPG for career
B)
2 of more
seasons meeting the criteria of A)
19) Inconsistent playing time for 1 NBA season;
or
- Coding instructions:
A)
Less than
41 games played; or more than 41 games but less than 7.5 MPG
B)
Only 1
career NBA season
20) Playing in only one NBA season; or
- Coding instructions:
A) Only 1 career NBA season played
21) Playing in 1 career NBA game; or
- Coding Instructions
A)
1 career NBA
game played
Never Played
22) Drafted or signed by an NBA team but never
played
Definitions
Multiple:
More than one
Majority:
More than half
Starting:
Starting more than 50% of career games
Reserve
Role: Not having multiple seasons
starting more than 20 games
Inconsistent
Playing Time: Averaging less than 30 games played per season or more than 30
games but less than 7.5 MPG for career