APBRmetrics

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Crow



Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 824


PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:44 pm Post subject: Recent change in player types? Reply with quote
While searching for position average citations I came back across Ed K.'s chart showing change in his defined player cluster types over nearly 3 decades.

http://sonicscentral.com/apbrmetrics/vi ... ?f=2&t=140

The chart end in 2005 with rebounders and shooters as the most common types and drivers as the 2nd rarest type.

Back before the early 80s, distributor was the most common and shooters the rarest. I assume the definition of who was a shooter was a global one (as with all the types) and few of the early players lived up to that standard?


I wondered how much the distribution has changed since 2005. Surely drivers have risen? What types have fallen? Rebounder and perimeter-D? How much further have Posts fallen?

Are the trends continuing the trends seen in the few years before 2005 or stabilizing in the last year or two? Any reverses?


Has anybody else done any recent cluster analysis? If so, I'd be interested to hear about it.

I can't match to Ed's clusters for a 2005 to 2011 cluster distribution comparison but I came back to poke around a bit anyways using easy to grab stats.

A high rate of 3 pointers per shot attempt is associated with shooters. In 2004-5 142 players who played 500+ minutes and had 100+ 3 pt attempts. In 2010-11 it was 167.A modest increase.

A high rate of FTAs per minute is associated with drivers. In 2004-5 147 players played 500+ minutes and had more than 3.5 FTAs per 36 minutes. In 2010-11 it was only 139. a small decline.

In 2004-5 90 players with enough minutes had 7+ OR% and 16+% DR%. In 2010-11 it was 93. Basically unchanged.

I am a bit surprised by the middle result. Trying a 5+ FTAs per 36 minutes standard instead I see the number achieving the higher standard went from 27 in 04-5 to 50 in 10-11. So there is a notable change over time at the higher concentration. But the number of players taking big advantage of the free throw line is still pretty small. But contrary to a surface impression the number of players 6-4 or under achieving this higher FTA per minute standard went from only 5 to just 10. The percent 6-9 or taller actually went from about 40% to over 55%.

Inside shots isn't as easy to check back to 2004-5 but the number of players getting 5+ shots at the rim shots per 40 minutes went from about 140 in 2006-7 to about 150 in 2010-11. The number over 7+ shots at the rim shots per 40 minutes though stayed a bit over 35. No dramatic change here.