A Look Into the NBA and Dataset Information

The NBA (National Basketball Association) is a professional basketball league in North America. With over 500 individual active players in 2023, and thousands of others looking in from the outside, the NBA is one of the largest basketball leagues in the world. The league consists of 30 teams, each fighting for the same ultimate goal: to win a championship. With a total of 82 games, the NBA allows viewers to watch an impressive array of athleticism, skill, and hustle.

As many of us know, data analytic are used everywhere, including the sports world and the NBA. But how so? Teams use analytics in a variety of ways to come to conclusions and make decisions. For example, statistics are used to examine player and team performance, which in turn can help with making decisions regarding: game strategy, player acquisitions, and scouting.

The data set that is being used in this project consists of the individual statistics for the 500+ active players who participated in the NBA 2022-2023 season. There are 30 variables in this data set which consists of general stats, total stats, and per game stats. The variable’s that are used in these visualizations are: PName, POS, Team, Age, Min, PTS, 3PM, DD2, TD3. Overall, the data used and visualizations created can be used to make different observations on the general NBA community.

Visualization 1: Stacked Bar Chart

Variables used in this visualization: - Age (Player Age), POS (Player Position), n (NBA Player Count)

Interpretation

This bar chart showcases the number of NBA Players (y-axis) by age (x-axis). In addition, the bars are stacked, and filled with the positions of those NBA players. From this visualization, most of the players in the league are 24 years old, tallying up to 60. Meanwhile, there is only 1 active 42-year old, 1 active 39-year old, and 1 active 38-year in the NBA. Overall, the trend is that teams tend to lean to younger NBA players as 53% (286/539) of total NBA players are 25 or young. It can be assumed that these players make up such a large portion in such a small range because the younger players have the most potential. The filled bars, also indicate that a majority of players in the NBA are SG’s (Shooting Guard). Overall, this chart does not show much, other than dividing and organizing the NBA population based certain player demographics.

Visualization #2: Heat Map

Variables used in this visualization: - Age (Player Age), POS (Player Position), n (Minutes Played)

Interpretation

This heat map reveals the relationship between of minutes played based on a players age and position. A couple of trends can be picked up from this graph, including that a majority of minutes played comes from players who are between 22 and 30 years of age, most dominantly for the age of 24. This is like due to it being the most frequent age in the league. With this, 24 is typically the age where players begin to seriously develop, take a leap, or enter their prime. In addition, it can be interpreted that the that SG (Shooting Guards) play the most amount of minutes, likely due to the high volume. The position that played the least amount of minutes were G (guards), likely due to the low frequency of players that fit this position. From major positions, C (Center) played the least amount of minutes, likely due to lower stamina and durability. The most minutes were played by 26-year old shooting guards at 20,940.8 minutes. The least amount of minutes played in the 2022-2023 NBA season was by the lone 43-year old, tallying a whopping 72.1 minutes.

Visualization 3: Bar Chart

Variables used in this visualization: POS (Player Position), n (Points Count)

Interpretation

This bar chart shows the total number of points scored by position in increasing to decreasing order. The position that scored the most amount of points in the 2022-2023 NBA season was the SG (Shooting Guard) position, with a total of 67,370 points. This is followed by the PG (Point Guard), SF (Small Forward), PF (Power Forward), and F (Forward) positions, with totals of 56,271 points, 50,346 points, 44,163 points, 37,655 points, and 16,170 points, respectively. The position that scored the least amount of points in the 2022-2023 NBA season was the G (Guard) position, with a measly 10.152 points. The high influx of points by shooting guards can be attributed to them having the highest volume of players in the league and typically having “scoring” roles and mentalities.

Visualization #4: Donut Chart

Variables used in this visualization: POS (Player Position), n (Double Doubles Recorded)

Interpretation

This donut chart gives a view of the amount of double doubles recorded by NBA position. In the NBA, a double double is when a player obtains double digit numbers in two statistical categories including: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. The total number of double doubles recorded in the 2022-2023 NBA season was 2,162. Centers gained were able to record the most amount of double doubles, making up 36.1% and 780 total. Power Forwards were next, making up for 22.4% of doubles doubles, tallying up to be 485. These were likely due to high rebound numbers due to the increased height of these positional players. Point Guards were next making up 395 or 18.3% of the sample. This is likely due to high assist numbers from being the primary ball handler. Small Forwards, Shooting Guards, and Forwards gathered 9.11%, 8.65%, and 4.86%, receptively, of all double doubles, which turns out to be 197, 187, and 105 total, respectively. The position that brought in the least amount of double doubles were guards, likely due to the low frequency of them. Despit this, they brought in 0.601% or 13 double doubles.

Visualization #5: Single Line Plot

Variables used in this visualization: PName (Player Name), TD3 (Triple Doubles Recorded), n (NBA Player Count)

Interpretation

Finally, this single-line graph shows the relationship between NBA players who have record a triple-double in the 2022-2023 NBA season. A triple double is a very difficult to achieve, but displays a high level of skill very impressive performance. In the NBA, a double double is when a player obtains double digit numbers in three statistical categories including: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. From this graph, we can see that 22 players recorded a single triple double, 6 players recorded two triple doubles, 2 players recorded three triple doubles, and 2 players recorded four triple doubles. The only player who was able to bring in five was James Harden, a Shooting Guard. Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Power Forward, was the only player to record 6 total triple doubles. Meanwhile, Ja Morant, a Point Guard recorded 7 triple doubles, and Luka Doncic, a Point Guard recorded 10 triple doubles. Domantas Sabonis, a Power Forward recorded 14 triple doubles and th leader with an impressive 29 triple doubles recorded was Nikola Jokic, a Center. This data supports the data from the previous visualization, as the big men had a tendency to record more triple doubles, like they did double doubles.

Conclusion

All in all, this conclusions made were derived around player position for the most part. In the first model, most NBA players were determined to have been Shooting Guards at the age of 24. This matched the visuals seen in model two, where the most minutes played were by the 26-year old shooting guards, and the least amount by the lone 42-year old. Visualization three showcased that most points were scored by shooting guards, which was attributed this to the high volume of shooting guards in the data set. As we look into more skillful stats, the model four displayed that Centers and Power Forwards recorded the most double doubles. Finally, continuing this narrative, model 5 shows that the two leaders in triple-doubles in the 2022-2023 NBA season were Nikola Jokic and Domanatas Sabonis, yet again two big men.

Overall, from this informtion, although not being the most frequent position, I came to the conclusion that Power Forwards and Centers, especially Center’s tend to record more complete and skillful statistics. Every player on the court has a different role or responsibility. Shooting Guards have a high scoring ability. Point Guards are playmakers and faciliators, hence their solid complete numbers as well. But at the end of the day the game is dominated by Big Men on both the defensive and offensive end. Although more analysis can be conducted, from this data, the position that has the most skill in NBA are Centers.