APBRmetrics

If you love basketball and love to program, the Trail Blazers have a great opportunity for you: a job posting for a Basketball Applications Developer. This position entails creating internal applications for use by the coaching staff and management. A strong web-programming background is preferred. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at applicationsjob [at] trailblazers [dot] com.

Apply here: http://blazers.teamworkonline.com/teamw ... fm?i=42249

And we still have a similar job available at the celtics:

http://apbr.org/metrics/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7687

-MZ (sorry to piggyback ben - feel free to put yours in our thread too!

Ooh, free agent bidding war!

This is the NBA, I say collusion.

Youse guys know what I do, so you may PM or email me if you want to talk.
I inquired about a position that was posted here a few months back, and was told it had been filled already. A day after posting!

Mike G: If you are interested and have the skills specified in the job posting we'd love for you to apply at the link in the post.

Mike Z: No worries on the piggyback - but when the Blazer contingent comes to town for the Sloan conference I expect first class treatment! Hope to see you then.

Mike G wrote:Youse guys know what I do, so you may PM or email me if you want to talk.

Just FYI, for those reading this forum, that is not a safe statement for someone looking for a job. The stuff people post here can be good but at the same time not necessarily relevant to what the employers are looking for. I have no idea what kind of SQL or database mgmt skills Mike G has, for example, though I've seen his posts on here, and the job we're looking to fill requires good SQL knowledge. Posting here is good & is smart to expose people to some of your work -- doing so has gotten a number of people jobs with teams. But in general, if you're interested in a job with a team, apply for it (if it's posted) or try to get in touch with them! Don't just post here & wait for them to come to you. (No clue if this applies to Mike G, obviously; I'm making a broader point.)

-MZ

It would be interesting to see what detail teams pull from their databases built on multiple advanced technical languages & tools and then look for evidence of impact on team performance. And compare to what can be assembled without those programming languages & tools.

For these positions, it sounds like they are looking primarily for techies.

In the Celtics job description it says in part: "Interest in sports statistics a plus but not required". If you are mainly looking for help with technical implementation I guess you could be flexible on that. Get what you want & need of course. Hopefully they get basketball analytic awareness & aptitude and all the tech credientials they are looking for. I assume in the end, they probably do. It seems pretty clear though that the high level tech skills are required and they appear more valued than basketball analytic awareness & aptitude. I'd guess that the guys at or near the top, often probably with less tech skills, figure to handle that part of the operation mostly themselves and may see such input from the tech staff as a bonus rather than a major part of the job or the selection process. The way it apparently is.

I wouldn't say that most teams have demonstrated that they have fully tapped all of the knowledge & analysis that can be developed with simple tools and public databases though.

What are the multiple advanced technical languages & tools helping tell the Celtics about their bottom 3 performance on own turnovers & offensive rebounds and their below average performance on three other Factors and how to fix those issues?

How detailed do you need the use of multiple advanced technical languages & tools to be to perhaps uncover multi-condition offensive issues when 60 seconds on Synergy shows that Pierce or Allen shooting off pick n roll as the ballhandler are well below average plays (around 30 - 33% TS%) and yet occur about 4 times a game?

How much did information from multiple advanced technical languages & tools inform the trade of Perkins for Green and a future pick?


What have the Rockets found about Scola's season and issues and how to fix those issues beyond what public databases and simple tools can see? Why are the problems as significant as they are?


Why have the Blazers lost ground on offense from last season and in fact for 3 seasons in a row? They have one of the largest analytic staffs. I don't think the decline from last season was because of the loss of Roy. If it was the loss of Miller, what does that say about the decisionmaking behind that trade? Pubically available prior-informed RAPM had Miller at near +3 last season, a career high but he had 6 seasons over +2. Felton? under +0.5 and never above +1 in this career. This season, the non-prior informed RAPM is telling the same basic story- advantage Miller. But if don't want to consider / use RAPM and instead want to use otherinformation perhaps produced by multiple advanced technical languages & tools, go for it. In the end though, it is about results not methods.


Is the main answer from here really the use of even more advanced technical languages & tools or more thoughtful analysis of and clear action planning with what you already have access to? It doesn't have to be just one or of course but there are plenty of examples of organizations in other contexts engaged in arms races for information and perhaps missing or under-using more basic information.


All 3 teams between .500 and .600. Will any advance in the playoffs this time?

Do they have enough talent? If not, why not? Getting enough out of that talent or could they be better?