'Grats to Roland & the Mavericks

[mikez]

Roland maybe doesn't get as much press as others here, but he's the first advanced stats guy on an NBA bench, and he just became an NBA champion. Congrats!

-MZ

[jsill]

Indeed, congrats to Roland (a pioneering force in advanced basketball stats) and the rest of the Mavericks organization. It's great to see a stats guy go from starting a website on his own to traveling with a team and winning a title!

[Crow]

Congrats to the players, coaches and management and to Mark Cuban. Together they got their prize.

For many of them, after many tries. Experience and talent at every level including statistical and psychological analysis. They apparently blended the various ingredients together well.

[Statman]

I am SO happy tonight......

Congrats to Dirk, JET, Kidd, et all.

Congrats to Mark Cuban - although he had no interest in hiring me because he had him the man in Roland - although I'd work as a lowly dude (several rungs below Roland) for about peanuts

I'll be taking my boys to the celebration parade - you never know when I may get that opportunity again - I'm hoping they'll remember this moment (they are 6 & 3).

I'll crunch & post the playoff numbers tommorrow night for fun - I'm just gonna soak in the joy tonight.

[Crow]

Enjoy.

[J.E.]

Congratulations to all Mavericks

Best possible ending to the season

[EvanZ]

That was pretty great. Being a Bay Area kid, I was especially happy for J. Kidd, who was safe to say the biggest local teen sports phenom during the period when I was growing up. I'm going to feel really old when he retires, so I hope he keeps playing a few more years.

Congrats to the lanky kid from Germany, the advanced stats guy, the dot.com guy, and all the other guys on that incredible *team*.

[huevonkiller]

It is good that these advanced stat guys are getting hired, that's great for the sport. Good for Mr. Roland, I use his website all the time.

I definitely didn't want anyone in dallas to win though, not going to lie I have too much honor and pride to congratulate anyone. But he's a great statistician, and Dallas deserves some compensation for some tough breaks in the past. I hope my team can use advanced statistical analysis more competently in the future.

[bchaikin]

I hope my team can use advanced statistical analysis more competently in the future.

* sniff *

[Crow]

The new Heat with the big 3 may have disappointed some or many with their slow start, just 58 wins (equal to the initial pre-season ESPN panel prediction) and runner-up performance in the finals. But I would imagine there was a good amount of useful information and insight flowing from Bob C. and the other consultant (Einstein in LA).

I'd be curious of how much Eric S. used advanced analysis to determine lineup choices and lineup match-up choices and other stuff. I doubt we'll hear much detail about that but he has spoken to the topic of analytics before, a bit more than other coaches, so maybe we will hear more later. Or maybe we can just watch what they do differently in the future.

Even just a couple plays go the other way and the Heat might have still been alive or have already reversed the series outcome. Whatever the analysts suggest, only the coaches and players (and refs) get to make the immediate within the game decisions and actions.

[EvanZ]

I hope my team can use advanced statistical analysis more competently in the future.

* sniff *

Sorry, for your loss.

[huevonkiller]

I hope my team can use advanced statistical analysis more competently in the future.

* sniff *

Oh I did not mean to offend any advanced stat people working for Miami.

I think the Head Coach has final say on the most important matters, and that's where I think Miami faltered. If he doesn't want to follow advice that's on him.

[Bobbofitos]

Congratulations to all Mavericks

Best possible ending to the season

Very much agree, what a great finals/postseason.

[Bobbofitos]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... ht-buttons

Nice article about the use of analytics for the mavs/congratulatory towards Roland Beech

[Mike G]

When you win, everything you did is given credit as 'the right thing' to do.
I don't get how putting Barea in the starting lineup caused him to go from a .260 shooter to a .660 shooter. If you demote a 90% shooter (Stevenson) to get the 26% guy in the lineup, that's either crazy or brilliant, depending on the outcome.

The Mavs shot better, passed better, and they were deeper. They scored 50.6% of the points and were lucky it didn't go 7.