Ben Taylor

Seth Partnow postshow (Ep #84)

Seth and I get into tiering/ranking the top players heading into 2022, as well as some incredibly hot, impossible to overstate takes (and debates) on 90s and 00s stars. 

Playoff plus-minus Part II

In part II of the series we look at some salient examples of single-year plus-minus versus multi-year or box score data. There's also a huge database in this post of all AuPM and regressed data since 1997. https://backpicks.com/2021/07/08/playoff-plus-minus-part-ii-beyond-the-box-score-multi-year-data/

Playoff Plus-Minus, Part I

Running a series on playoff plus-minus single-season AuPM. Here's part I (available to everyone). More coming soon for Insiders. 

https://backpicks.com/2021/07/06/playoff-plus-minus-data-part-i-the-value-and-the-noise/

Patreon pod: Round 2 reactions

Musings on the Bucks-Nets and the Clippers-Jazz. 

Live Q&A Audio May 29, 2021

Really fun Q&A on where we hit on the Warriors, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, the offensive explosion in the league, supercharging a small perimeter defender, the effect of players playing offense and defense in a sport, the greatest shooters ever and more. 

Patreon pod: The RealGM Top 100 players list

Every few years the realGM Player Comparison board produces a list of the 100 greatest players in NBA history. They just finished the latest version (unofficially the 7th version of the list), so Doctor MJ (Matt Johnson) and I discuss the history and trends of the list, as well as reactions to the latest versions. 

Here's the history of the list we reference: 2021-05-26 17:56:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Kevin Garnett and the Gish Gallop

New post on Backpicks: https://backpicks.com/2021/04/20/kevin-garnett-and-the-slow-gish-gallop/

Drop comments below...

Live Q&A Audio (APR. 17, 2021)

What does it really mean if someone makes 1.7 extra free throws per game on the same number of attempts? And what player would benefit the most from being transported to today's game? Or by removing the idea of a scouting report? This and more on this month's Q&A...

Patreon voting results for Greatest Peaks

Hey everyone -- here's a post going into greater detail on the voting results: https://backpicks.com/2021/04/09/greatest-peaks-patreon-top-10-voting-results/

We can also use this post (and thread) for comments/discussion on the top-10...

Michael Jordan defense | raw footage

This is the raw footage I collected for Michael Jordan's defense as part of his Greatest Peaks profile. 

Last day to submit top-10 peak ballot

Thanks to everyone for submitting ballots! I'll release the results of the voting later this week, and you'll see it incorporated in the series finale. That episode will air on YouTube at the end of March or first week of April (there's a Zion video coming before then). 

If you are in the $4/month tier or higher and haven't submitted a ballot, tomorrow (March 23) is the last day to do so. Instructions are below:

1. Open this link: 2021-03-22 16:04:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Rank your top-10 peaks!

With all the video profiles in the Greatest Peaks series completed, I hope you'll submit your top-10 multi-year peaks (after 1977). Here's how to submit a ballot:

1. Open this link: https://www.questionpro.com/t/ARUTlZlexh

2. Drag and drop your top players until you have your top-10 in order

3. YES, you can include players who weren't featured in the series

Live Q&A Audio (MAR. 6, 2021)

Great turnout and really fun live Q&A this weekend. Thanks to everyone who participated or sent in questions...a ton of Greatest Peaks questions in this one.

Live Q & A Tomorrow Mar. 6 @ 6pm est / 3pm pst

The next Live Q&A for Deluxe ($7) subscribers in the Discord will take place tomorrow on March 6. (Saturday at 6pm EST / 3pm PST.)

If you can't make it, send me a question via Patreon messages (or send one to @RobbieBeats inside the Discord) and we'll answer it during the recording or next time. Looking forward to talking to you all there and hopefully meeting new members!

Steps to join the Discord are below.

Below are the steps to join the server:

1. Go to your pr...

Greatest Peaks Ep. 14 | Kevin Durant 2016-18

The years on this one turned out to be the trickiest of the series. I don't think 2014 Durant is really a level below these years, but I didn't want to get into the issue of splitting up the seasons after his injury in 2015. (If you look closely, you'll still notice 2014 clips.) 2016-18 is fairly consistent to me, with some additional polish on his rim protection, passing and midrange game by 2018 in exchange for some gradual loss in burst. 

As for the final profile, I'll release C...

Submit questions for VP of NBA Analytics & Strategy

Hey everyone -- This Friday I'm interview Evan Wasch, who is the VP of Analytics and Strategy for the NBA. This will take place at the IDEA analytics conference in the 12:45 Eastern / 9:45 pacific time slot. 

If you have any questions that are related to how the league uses data for strategy, submit them below and hopefully I'll be able to get to them.

Greatest Peaks Ep. 13 | LeBron James 2012-13

LeBron time. While I'm not sure how big of a difference there was between his actual impact in 2009 and 2013, there were differences in play style, and so the chosen peak here is the height of his Miami version. 

Reminder: If you have access to this post, you are invited to vote in the Patreon Top-10 peaks at the end of this series. Voting will take place after the final player profile and will be revealed as part of the final episode of this series.

($7 subs...

Update on LeBron video & voting

Hey everyone -- Unfortunately I had some computer issues last week that has impacted the release dates of these final few videos. 

• I'm hoping to have LeBron out tomorrow (Wednesday) for Top Tier subscribers, and the final two profiles will be released whenever they are available. 
• Next week is still looking like a Tuesday or Wednesday early release for Episode 14, but Episode 15 has been impacted the most by this since it was already going to be tight.  2021-02-23 15:58:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Comments on Patreon

Hey everyone -- I'm excited to see some lively discussion on the latest videos here. (Duncan and Garnett will do that.) As you've noticed, Patreon doesn't have a great interface for handling conversations like these or even longer comments. 

So if you have a long comment, please write it in a separate word document it first with paragraphs. You can then copy and paste it in and the spacing will be preserved...this way the rest of us can read it more easily.

T...

Greatest Peaks Ep. 12 | Tim Duncan 2002-2003

Next up is Duncan -- 2004 had enough nagging injuries/mobility decline that it was hard to compete with the prior seasons. I actually think 2001 was pretty close, although there's a jump in his passing beginning in 2002, and he did just generally look more in control on offense in those MVP seasons. 

Reminder: If you have access to this post, you are invited to vote in the Patreon Top-10 peaks at the end of this series. Voting will take place after the final player...

Greatest Peaks Ep. 11 | Kevin Garnett 2003-04

We are back! A pretty clear year selection for KG: 2002 didn't have the physical strength and scoring polish on offense, especially in the post, and 2005 didn't have the same defensive motor/intensity that '04 did. 

Reminder: If you have access to this post, you are invited to vote in the Patreon Top-10 peaks at the end of this series. Voting will take place after the final player profile and will be revealed as part of the final episode of this series.

($7 s...

2020 CORP Valuations

The CORP sheet has been updated with 2020 valuations, and a few new additions. https://backpicks.com/metrics/historical/corp-valuations/

I've been using ranges more when evaluating players, so you'll see those have been added for some 2020 players. 

NB: The numbers for players in the Greatest Peaks have not been updated since production of the series began. ...

Greatest Peaks resuming Tuesday, February 9

Move the Patreon-releases to Tuesday for now. I'm in the process of working on the final 2 profiles -- if I finish those early we'll move back to Monday. 

Also, I meant to ask last week: Would you be interested in a rough cut from one of the players? For instance, just the raw footage of Michael Jordan's defense that was used to build that section of his video? 

Let me know!

-Ben

LaMelo Ball Patreon cut

An early look at this week's (slightly longer) LaMelo ball video. 

Live Q&A Audio (Jan. 23, 2021)

Really fun Q&A with some questions on the Greatest Peaks series, all-time lineups, the great pairing possible and other topics like elite "non-traditional" athletic traits and evaluating defense.

2021 Backpicks Box Score is live for Deluxe tier

15 games or so into the season, Nikola Jokic's crazy offensive start has him way out in front: https://backpicks.com/metrics/2021-players/

Leaders through last night's games: 

Jokic +8.8

LeBron +6.6

Kawhi +6.4

Durant +6.2

Irving +5.9

Live Q&A Tomorrow Jan. 23 @ 6pm est/3pm pst

The next Live Q&A for Deluxe ($7) subscribers in the Discord will take place tomorrow on January 23. (Saturday at 6pm EST / 3pm PST.)

If you can't make it, send me a question via Patreon messages and we'll answer it during the recording or next time. Looking forward to talking to you all there and hopefully meeting new members!

Steps to join the Discord are below.

Below are the steps to join the server:

1. Go to your profile settings by clicking on your account ava...

Greatest Peaks Ep. 10 | Kobe Bryant 2006-08

Announcement: There will be a break in the series after this episode, with the remainder of the series resuming in February.

Early look at episode 10 and Kobe Bryant. I think some minor athleticism loss makes it harder to keep 2009 at the same level as the preceding seasons (although it's close). 2006 lacks the same decision-making (and defensive assertion) as the following seasons, but his athleticism and scoring punch make up for it. 

Reminder 2021-01-18 16:50:00 +0000 UTC View Post