The Two Statistics To Improving Your Basketball Team

“Analytics” is a big buzzword in the basketball world lately, but what does it really mean.

At the very simplest form, analytics is the use of statistics to determine the style that should be used on the basketball floor and the effectiveness of that style. I am going to convince you that the two statistics that are most important are turnovers and rebounding.

With so many new statistics out there, turnovers and rebounding margin seem very simplistic. But both of those stats lead to a more accurate determination of who will win then all of the other more advanced stats like PER, offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, and field goal percentage.

I would argue that turnovers are the most important statistic due to two factors. First, the opportunity cost of each turnover is at least one shot at the basket. If the team averages a very realistic 1-point per possession then each turnover is worth one point on the offensive side of the floor. 12 turnovers means that the team scored 12 points less than they would have if they were able to shoot on every possession. The other factor of turnovers is that about half of all turnovers allow the other team to get into their transition offense where all teams shoot at a higher percentage. The combination of lost shot attempts and increase in shooting percentage for the opposition makes turnovers one of the most important stats in the game. The Wisconsin men’s basketball team lost in the championship this year and made back-to-back final fours last year, it is no coincidence that they lead the nation in least amount of turnovers per game.

The next most important stat is rebounding margin. Rebounding margin is the total amount of rebounds your team has minus the total amount of rebounds the opposition has. The team that secures more rebounds will have the better chance to win. It is as simple as this. Every rebound means an offensive possession for your team. A defensive rebound signifies a successful defensive stop where the other team was not able to score. An offensive rebound means another chance to score without the opposition having that same ability. In addition, an offensive rebound leads to easier opportunities to score. The team that has more rebounds has more chances to score, which helps the offensive output and allows the opposition fewer opportunities to score which aids the defensive output.

As a coach, more of your practice time should be spent on limiting turnovers and increasing rebound margin. Practicing passing the ball and getting into triple threat position will help decrease turnovers. Teams should practice this just as much as they practice running plays. Also, turnovers can help you design your offense. Post-ups generate the highest amount of shot attempts and the lowest amount of turnovers so that is a very effective style of play. Pick and rolls generate the highest amount of turnovers so that style is not effective unless you are coaching the highest level of basketball.

In order to increase your teams rebounding margin, more practice time should be spent on boxing out. Boxing out is when the defensive player gets into an athletic position and puts their lower body into the offensive man’s body. This forces the offensive man to either concede the rebound or get an over the back violation as they try to jump over the man to get a rebound. The Manhattan drill is a very effective drill to help your team’s rebounding. The Manhattan drill consists of three on three and one team tries to box out the other team. A shot is purposely missed and the one team immediately tries to box out the other team. If the ball hits the ground then the team that is boxing out wins. This drill helps rebounding immensely because it teaches players to box out instead of watching the ball and trying to out jump everyone.

Analytics and statistics are changing the game of basketball. More emphasis on corner threes are being implemented and less attempts of midrange jumpers are occurring over all levels of basketball.

However, rebounding and turnovers are still the keys to the basketball. Statistics can be very useful when used to plot the improvements in those areas. Forget offensive and defensive efficiency, you have to have possession of the ball first in order to succeed and that is why the simplest statistics are the most important.

Related Pages & Helpful Resources

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