2021-2022 NBA Project
This project utilizes Excel and Tableau to analyze the 2021-2022 NBA season.
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NBA Analysis for 2021-20222
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Sometimes in life we have to stretch ourselves a little bit. Personally, I would need to be stretched about a foot (at least) to be an effective basketball player! But all jokes aside, as a person with limited background knowledge in basketball, this analysis was a stretch beyond my comfort zone. And that's part of what made it enjoyable! I got to learn a bit more about basketball as I sought meaningful analysis from the data.
Using an online dataset, I was able to determine the following about the 21-22 NBA Player Statistics:
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Players who score more also have more personal fouls, by 65% actually
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The 3point % for various positions varies widely by team: from 0 - 50%
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Points and assists are also positively correlated, with rebounds also being tracked
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Overall points for teams vary from 8500 to 9500, with no clear pattern of teams that have between one to five high scoring players
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While point guards do have more assists than shooting guards, they are nearly equal
First, the Data!
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The 605 row data set for this project is publicly available for anyone to utilize at NBA 2021 2022 Dataset.
Of the thirty columns, some of the most important are the: player, position, team, 3-point field goal percentage, assists, personal fouls and points.
The Analysis
My first curiosity was to see if there was a relationship between the number of points a player scored and the number of personal fouls he accrued. As I expected, the two factors are positively correlated. This scatterplot demonstrates that 65% of fouls can be attributed to points scored.
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Next, I turned my attention to creating a visualization to illustrate each team's 3pt percentage, based on the following positions: center, power forward, point guard, small forward and shooting guard. This heatmap demonstrates, at a glance, which position (by team) is most likely to succeed in earning a 3 point field goal.
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Another relationship that interested me was that between total points, assists and rebounds. As shown in the following scatterplot, points and assists have a positive correlation. The size of the player's circle is determined by his total rebounds.
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What about total points by team and who earns the most points on each team? For the 2021/2022 NBA season, the lowest scoring team earned 8500 and the highest had an extra 1000 points. Variance among the teams' high scorers runs between one to five individuals.
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Out of curiosity, I wanted to know if point guards were making significantly more assists than other positions since my understanding is that they are typically shorter players who put their team's scoring efforts ahead of their own. As it turns out, they did make the the most assists in the 2021-2022 season, but shooting guards were just slightly behind them.
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Recap
We live in an age of sports fans and easy access to data for virtually any sport of interest. Taking a closer look at the 2021-2022 NBA season provided some insights.
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Players who score more also commit more personal fouls—by 65%, in fact
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Each position's 3point percentage varies greatly by team: from 0 - 50%
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Along with rebounds being tracked, points and assists also have a favorable correlation.
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Teams' total points range from 8500 to 9500, and there is no clear trend in terms of teams with one to five individuals that consistently score well
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Although point guards outdo shooting guards in assists, the difference is not as significant as you would perhaps expect
This data visualization is available to view and explore in more detail: NBA 21 22 Project.
Action!
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I thank you for reading and welcome your feedback! Please consider following me or connecting on LinkedIn at Carly Jocson. And keep me in mind for any remote positions as a data analyst!