Basketball Analytics: Spatial Tracking

Equipped with new spatial tracking data collected by SportVU and others, Basketball Analytics investigates game strategy, player evaluation, player types, and prospect potential. Author Stephen Shea, Ph.D. introduces new measures of a player’s scoring and playmaking efficiency, quantifies the spacing in an offense and the stretch of a defense, and demonstrates several ways in which the NBA game has changed over the years. He also reveals the full methodology behind popular topics from the blog, BasketballAnalyticsBook.com, such as the College Prospect Rating System and the periodic tables of NBA elements. The author presents a modern viewpoint on basketball analytics’ most fundamental principles and demonstrates the power of the industry’s latest statistical breakthroughs. Basketball Analytics is a must-read for any sports analytics enthusiast.

Stephen Shea is an associate professor of mathematics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and a B.A. in mathematics from The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His mathematical expertise and publication record is in the areas of probability, statistics, dynamical systems, and combinatorics. For years, he has been applying his abilities in these areas to study professional and amateur sports. At Saint Anselm College, he runs a course on sports analytics. His sport writing has been featured in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, Psych Journal, the Expert Series at WinthropIntelligence.com, and the Stat Geek Idol Competition for TeamRankings.com. In 2013, Stephen coauthored the book, Basketball Analytics: Objective and Efficient Strategies for Understanding How Teams Win, and co-created the accompanying blog BasketballAnalyticsBook.com. He is a regular participant in the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. He lives with his wife and three children in Hooksett, New Hampshire.