2021-22 Lakers Player Projections

With the opening night of the 2021-22 NBA season less than a month away, it’s time for a preview of the upcoming season. HoopsHype has already come out with their projection and has the Lakers finishing atop the Western Conference. The Lakers return just three players from last season’s squad, but when two of those

NBA’s All-Time Scoring Leaders Bar Chart Race Using R

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has sat atop the NBA’s leaderboard of career regular season scoring since taking the top spot from Wilt Chamberlain in 1984. LeBron James, who currently sits at #3, is the only active player currently in the top 10, and likely needs three more healthy seasons to surpass Kareem. Bar chart races have become

Stat-Based Player Archetypes, Part 2

As the 2020-2021 season is set to tip off, we take one final look back at 2019-2020. Building off of the different player archetypes outlined in the previous post, I now present a dashboard that makes it easy to view the statistical profile that was hinted at in that post. The snapshot below shows the

Stat-Based Player Archetypes

Can statistics be used to find player archetypes such as 3-and-D wings and stretch-forwards? What are some of the other player archetypes that teams should be aware of that can help them win? In order to answer those questions, we can start by building a statistical profile for each player. What that profile will allow

The New-Look Laker Rotation

The Lakers will return six key rotation players from their 2020 championship roster and add two new centers (Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol), and two new guards (Dennis Schroder, Wesley Matthews) to work into the rotation for 2020-2021. Assuming those ten players form the core of the Laker rotation for the upcoming season, finding enough minutes

What History tells us about the 2020 NBA Draft

The 2020 NBA Draft will take place on Wednesday, November 18, and will be hosted virtually by ESPN. There is no consensus top player, as there was last year with Zion Williamson, leaving intrigue at the top of the board. Teams have had, in one sense, longer than ever to prepare for the draft, due

Evaluating the Laker Role Players of 2019-20 (Forwards And Centers)

Last week’s post took a look at the Laker role players at the guard position and compared their production to other guards on similar contracts. This post will do the same for the Laker forwards and centers, once again using stats from Basketball-Reference. Player Salary Age G MP 3P 3P% PTS TRB BLK JaVale McGee

Evaluating the Laker Role Players of 2019-20 (Guards)

With the NBA reportedly pursuing a pre-Christmas Day start to the 2020-2021 season, there isn’t much time to evaluate what happened last season and get ready for the upcoming season. Seven of the Lakers’ key rotation players, including Anthony Davis, have player options or an expiring contract heading into the 2020-2021 season. While Davis is

What to Expect from NBA Free Agency and the NBA Draft

As the NBA offseason sets in, the next thing on the horizon is the NBA Draft on November 18, followed by the start of free agency (the start date of which is yet to be announced). These are crucial transaction windows during which teams have the opportunity to improve their rosters for the upcoming season.

The Top 10 Players of 2019-20

Each year going back to 2011, ESPN has released an annual ranking of the top players for the upcoming NBA season called NBArank. According to ESPN’s panel, these were the projected top 10 players of the 2019-20 season: Not a bad list. Giannis Antetokounmpo ended up winning MVP and 7 out of the 10 were