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What are some common misconceptions about sports statistics?

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Posted - January 8, 2020

Responses


  • 10629
    That people actually care about them.
      January 8, 2020 10:03 AM MST
    4

  • 44600
    Nobody can top that. AP Randy.
      January 8, 2020 10:09 AM MST
    2

  • 10026
    I agree.  :) :)
    Close the question!! 
      January 8, 2020 4:10 PM MST
    1

  • 53502
    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 


      January 8, 2020 7:04 PM MST
    1

  • 19937
    You stole my response. :)
      January 8, 2020 2:26 PM MST
    3

  • 10026
    I hate it when that happens!  You're thinking it at the same time.  The other person simply types faster or beats you by an hair!
    I'm sorry SpunkySenior.
    In my mind, you both get credit for the, topper-of-the-top answer to this question!
    :) :)
      January 8, 2020 4:13 PM MST
    1

  • 10629
    It wasn't speed... I posted it at 9am but SS didn't reply until 1 pm.  It was more like great minds think alike.
      January 8, 2020 4:37 PM MST
    2

  • 10026
    I totally agree!  I just didn't want to state the obvious. Big Winks and Smiles.
    You both are very smart and witty.
      January 8, 2020 4:40 PM MST
    2

  • 19937
    Thank you.  You're in the same group, dontcha know!
      January 9, 2020 5:25 AM MST
    1

  • 19937
    That's true.  Great minds DO think alike.  :)  
      January 9, 2020 5:25 AM MST
    2

  • 1152
    One important thing some very smart very motivated people in the sports statistics field have learned over the past few decades is that many sports statistics are actually poor predictors of which players are productive.

    For example, in basketball there is the statistic of field goal percentage (field goals made/field goals attempted). Anything over 50% is considered very good. Yet, it turns out FG% tells you almost nothing about how good a shooter the player is.

    Dwight Howard, currently on the Los Angeles Lakers, has a 74.3% FG% this season. Yet, that's because DH only takes shots where he is cramming the ball through the basket from a range of 6 inches. He is actually a very poor shooter and, if he is fouled, his free throw success rate is so poor that it's a detriment to his team.

    Compare that to Steph Curry in his unanimous-MVP season (2015-2016). Curry's FG% that year was 50.4%, only 2/3rds as good as Dwight Howard's. Yet, because Curry can make shots from so many more places (especially 3-point shots) and makes 90% of his free throws, so his offensive value is MUCH greater than that of Dwight Howard.

    The poor predictive power of many traditional sports statistics has led to the development of more sophisticated measures which better capture a player's (or a team's) actual performance.
      January 8, 2020 3:05 PM MST
    2

  • 10026
    Good point.
    People will be people.  It's hard to say how someone is going to play on any given day.

      January 8, 2020 4:15 PM MST
    0

  • 64
    Like all stats and data they become meaningless unless you know the bigger picture.
      January 8, 2020 3:17 PM MST
    2

  • 10026
    That they are always accurate.  
      January 8, 2020 4:15 PM MST
    1

  • 46117
    I don't know. What I know about sports could fill the head of a pin.
      January 8, 2020 7:14 PM MST
    2