Basketball Hoopla

What I Did

The focus of the book was to answer research questions and just to write a lot, I guess. It was fun and the methods I developed, though somewhat primitive in this book, have lead to a lot of the research I have done since and the scouting job I had with Bertka Views and the Lakers.

Copies of Hoopla To all the people who have requested "copies" of my book, here it is in pkzipped format. I might actually recommend WinZip to unzip it. Feel free to download the material as the postscript file or from the web pages. If you like this book and want to send me money for it, don't. Send it to a charity (Red Cross, American Cancer Society, etc.) in my name and let me know.

Among the things I talked about were the effect of the three point shot on the game, how the game has actually slowed down in the '80's (and '90's now), the effect of bench play on winning, what forms the best types of offenses, entirely new ways to evaluate player's scoring effectiveness, etc. It's interesting to read about Charles Barkley while he was in Philadelphia, predicting a trade from there before it happened. It's also interesting looking back on my opinion of Dennis Rodman around the time of his Larry Bird comments, before he established his current persona. Hakeem was spelled Akeem. Michael Jordan was criticized for shooting too much. Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Kevin Johnson, and Reggie Miller were rookies and showing signs of being pretty good. John Stockton became the great point guard he is now. Ahh, but some things never change -- The Clippers were still terrible.

Here are the contents of the book (I recommend using the Index Frame to actually go to them):

• Introductions
  1. Introduction. Who I was and what I was doing.
  2. Introduction to Methods. Some methods have been slightly modified or are rarely used anymore.
  3. An Explanation of Floor Percentage. A fundamental method introduced in this book. It has been modified from this original text a little.
• Pacific Division
  1. Los Angeles Lakers. The champs at the time.
  2. Portland TrailBlazers. What makes a great offense.
  3. Seattle SuperSonics. Lists of the best offenses and defenses of 1988.
  4. Phoenix Suns. I misjudged how good Kevin Johnson would be.
  5. Golden State Warriors. The first article I wrote for the book.
  6. Sacramento Kings. It was an election year.
  7. Los Angeles Clippers. They were soooo bad, they made me question a method.
• Midwest Division
  1. Denver Nuggets. The Plexiglass Principal investigated.
  2. Dallas Mavericks. The effect of the three point shot.
  3. Utah Jazz. They played some defense.
  4. Houston Rockets. Where have all the centers gone?
  5. San Antonio Spurs. No defense.
• Central Division
  1. Detroit Pistons. The eastern champs and a review of the Finals.
  2. Atlanta Hawks. Talent, but no D.
  3. Chicago Bulls. Jordan and not playing for money.
  4. Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cleveland Who?
  5. Milwaukee Bucks. Nine questions.
  6. Indiana Pacers. Chuck Person was overrated.
• Atlantic Division
  1. Boston Celtics. Others' comments.
  2. Washington Bullets. Why did they give away Mugsy?
  3. New York Knicks. The effect of Pitino.
  4. Philadelphia 76ers. Charles Barkley's big mouth.
  5. New Jersey Nets. The effect of which position has your leading scorer.
• Expansion Teams (Miami & Charlotte). Using floor% to predict W/L.
• Ratings
  1. Point Guard Ratings. Explanation of ratings. Magic and Stockton were #1.
  2. Off Guard Ratings. Jordan was #1, of course.
  3. Small Forward Ratings. Bird #1.
  4. Power Forward Ratings. Barkley #1.
  5. Center Ratings Olajuwon #1.
• Predictions for 1988-89. They weren't so good.
• Appendix. A listing of methods.