Celtics the league's touchiest team?

[fairweatherfan]

Interesting post on TrueHoop regarding touch between teammates and team success: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/13761/study-good-players-arent-afraid-to-touch-teammates

Basically, the researchers coded instances of touch between teammates in last season's games and looked at how it related to team efficiency, ast/turnover ratio, win % and a variety of other attributes.  Touch was directly related to increased performance, even when statistically eliminating factors like past performance and payroll.

The league's touchiest teams?  The NBA's own yin and yang, our C's and the Lakers.  Sacramento and Charlotte were the worst. KG was the player with the highest number of touches, followed by Bosh and Boozer (what's with all the PFs?). 

It's funny, there was a talk on this paper at a conference I went to last month, and I missed it in favor of something closer to my area.  But I can definitely see the connection between the ubuntu concept and increased touch on the court.

[mgent]

I think the lack of Posey's man hugs really hurt us last year.

[Prof. Clutch]

Interesting to say the least.

[drza44]

Yeah, this reads to me as an interesting way to try to quantify UBUNTU. I think they’re essentially using touches as a way to measure togetherness, and it’s really not surprising that KG would lead the league in any stat that tries to measure that.

[PosImpos]

Well, touches = brotherhood.  The more brotherly a team is, the more likely it is they will function as a team.  A team that plays more like a team will have more success.

[fairweatherfan]

I think the lack of Posey's man hugs really hurt us last year.

Heh, I was actually thinking that - see Danny, Posey IS worth the MLE!  The data from this study was from the early portion of last season, though, so no Posey in our score.

[mgent]

I think the lack of Posey's man hugs really hurt us last year.

Heh, I was actually thinking that - see Danny, Posey IS worth the MLE!  The data from this study was from the early portion of last season, though, so no Posey in our score.

I just meant that we won in 08 and not in 09.

The difference?  Less man hugs.

[ManUp]

Garnett? Touchy? Who would of thunk it? Definitely not Powe.

[Greenbean]

I think the lack of Posey's man hugs really hurt us last year.

Heh, I was actually thinking that - see Danny, Posey IS worth the MLE!  The data from this study was from the early portion of last season, though, so no Posey in our score.

Interesting that the data was from when we had a historic stretch of games. I wonder what the touch stats were after Christmas last year...

[angryguy77]

Garnett? Touchy? Who would of thunk it? Definitely not Powe.

That would be the greats "caption this" pic in the history of mankind.

[twinbree]

Very interesting article. TP for sharing.
I bet the Lakers are up there only because of Sasha who has to be the most annoying teammate in the league.

[Andy Jick]

This has success written all over it...

[ManUp]

Garnett? Touchy? Who would of thunk it? Definitely not Powe.

That would be the greats "caption this" pic in the history of mankind.

It could get nasty.