Fouls drawn per field goal attempts for selected players

[MattG12]

So you have no skepticism towards stats... but you check the research to make sure the stats aren't misleading? Doesn't that mean you do have a skepticism towards stats. Are you sure you're not arguing just for the sake of arguing?

I like stats, I like basketball, I like to learn new things. Attack my motivation for participating in this discussion if you'd like, we have two rather different outlooks on a lot of things.

You're the one making this me vs. you... Do I not like basketball? I love basketball, I like stats too, when they are truthful, and more often than not they are. I was just letting people know that sometimes they are not. Obviously by checking stats to make sure they are correct, you also realize that sometimes they are not. So please just tell me, why do you continue to argue?

[Roy Hobbs]

Everybody calm down, and please stop taking this debate so personally.  If you can't do so, please move on.

[jdpapa3]

In basketball, I have found that there are good stats, useless stats, and stats that need improvement.

To look at team defense and how teams stack up against each other, I would consider Defensive Rating to be 20x more valuable than opponent shooting %, opponent ppg, and opp. 3 pt %, but those are the stats that the national media will generally feed you. DRtg takes into account just about anything, including pace, offensive rebounds against you and the results, and any turnovers you create. The slight flaw, like a lot of other statistics is how garbage time affects it. I bet Cleveland's backups have hurt their number as an example.

Rebounding stats have been revolutionized, with D and O Rebound %. If the other team shoots 20%, the rebounds will be more plentiful and I like DReb% because you can't get bogged down by pace or having a great defense. And I mention this just as another example of a stat that has very good value to assess a situation.

There are a ton of stats out there that have some sort of value. If a guy looks great across the board on a ton of them, you can make a good conclusion that that guy is particularly good. This is what I have seen out of KG year after year, because he has great on/off court numbers, great Net PER, solid efficiency, solid DReb%, etc. May seem obvious to most, but it can be a great way to measure guys on different teams.

Like the statistical basketball mind Dean Oliver said:

The eyes give you a better idea about the game than the stats can, but the stats see all the games.

[fairweatherfan]

Not to disrupt the debate guys, but I went ahead and created the argue about nothing thread that Matt mentioned.  Come take a look!

[GroverTheClover]

Not to disrupt the debate guys, but I went ahead and created the argue about nothing thread that Matt mentioned.  Come take a look!

::cough cough thread Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. cough cough::