Basketball Analytics and the Sloan Sports Conference

[durden_tyler]

i think i first learned this while watching NBA TV's The Beat where they had one segment about such (i believe Houston GM Daryl Morey was one of the guests) then Bill Simmons mentioned it in his latest mailbag...

Browsing through their site: http://sloansportsconference.com/2010/ i got this

The goal of the Sports Analytics Conference is to provide a forum to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. The conference brings together sports industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) with students interested in the changing dynamics of the sports industry. The conference is a unique educational opportunity and provides exclusive opportunities for learning, interacting, and networking.

MIT Sloan is dedicated to fostering growth in the sports arena and the annual Sports Analytics Conference enriches opportunities for learning and understanding the sports business world.

Can anyone post any more info about this one? What basketball-related topics were discussed?

[durden_tyler]

Some excerpts from Simmons mailbag:

Q: There was a waiting list to attend Dorkapalooza this year? These guys create dozens of fancy formulas to break down sports and can't master the simplicity of supply and demand?
-- Eddie, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Conferences like Dorkapalooza (Also known as MIT Sloan Sports Conference) and the NBA's Tech Summit are indispensable for this reason: How many times do you have a chance to hear dozens of smart/successful/thoughtful people give their take on anything? For the second straight year, I left with my brain percolating like a coffee machine. I hate labeling this as a "statistical revolution" because it implies upheaval to some degree -- not necessarily true -- and also because it makes it seem like purely a numbers thing. I believe it goes deeper than that.

For instance, Cuban outspends everyone else, tries to accumulate as much information as possible and constantly looks for new ways to gain an edge, whether it's with adjusted plus-minus data, referee data, psychology or whatever. Morey figures out ways to find undervalued players and tries to accumulate assets. Kraft believes you can't pay a player more than they're worth; once they exceed that value, you let them go and find someone else. (That's why the Patriots value draft picks so much; they are constantly trying to replenish talent before it gets too expensive.) And Polian believes in building through the draft but then spending enough to keep that homegrown nucleus together. Four separate approaches; all of them work. Although they lean on numbers to varying degrees, it became clear that all of them at least respected the numbers. Why? Because it would be foolish for a business to ignore any conceivable strategy that might help it improve.

That's where the statistical movement sits in 2010. The previous decade was about sabermetricians winning the respect of the mainstream sports media (a work in progress, but it's mostly happened) and the teams themselves (definitely happened). You can't argue with the results, especially in the NBA, in which only eight teams could be currently classified as number-heavy … and all of them are winning. Five are contending for a title (Denver, Cleveland, Dallas, San Antonio and Boston, although Boston's hopes are fading into Rasheed Wallace's belly button right now); two overachieved despite comically bad luck with injuries (Houston and Portland); and the eighth is gunning to become the first team to win 50 games with a top-four under-24-years-old (the Zombies). Eight for eight? That has to mean something.