Simply put, I love basketball and I am a big fan of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA (National Basketball Association).
Given my love for NBA, I stumbled upon this dataset. I knew the game of basketball had evolved over the years but I never
did formal analysis with the data. This dataset had data collected over the last 60 years and it gave me an opportunity to extract
useful information out of the data. Let us go through a story which helps us understand the evolution of the NBA through some charts.
What is the impact of blocking?
In basketball, a block or blocked shot occurs when a player legally deflects a field goal attempt from an opponent player to prevent a score.
Blocking is the basic form of defending in basketball. Looking at the line chart, we can clearly see that blocking has improved over the years.
People are more focused on blocking now which makes it difficult for offensive players to score baskets. This chart is a starting point in our analysis to
prove that defensive game has evolved over the years.
How has blocking influenced the strategies of offensive players?
Based on the previous chart, we came to know that blocking has increased over the years. When the defense evolves, it is inevitable that the offense evolves as well.
If we look at the area chart, we can see that the 2 pointers scored per season hasn't changed much and it is more or less similar to how it was previously.
But, the 3 pointers scored per season has been gradually increasing over the years. Let us explain 2 pointers and 3 pointers first.
If a player makes a field goal from within the three-point line, the player scores two points.
If the player makes a field goal from beyond the three-point line,
the player scores three points.
Since blocking is predominantly done inside the three-point line, the offensive players have begun attempting and scoring more 3-pointers.
This again justifies that the NBA is becoming more defensive which led to more 3-pointers being scored.
Is defense just the work of a defender in a team?
The last chart explains defense of an offensive player. Rebounds are another crucial element of defense in basketball. In basketball, a rebound,
colloquially referred to as a board, is a statistic awarded to a player who retrieves the ball after a missed field goal or free throw.
Rebounds are also given to a player who tips in a missed shot on his team's offensive end. The idea of the bar chart is to calculate how much
rebounds can an offensive player make. The bar chart shows a trend which explains rebounds are increasing over the years. It depicts the fact that offensive players
are now contributing to defense a lot. Defense is not just the work of defenders anymore. Everyone has to defend together as a team.
This chart again proves a fact that defense has indeed evolved over the years and teams are rebuilding strategies to win games using defense as their weapon.
Line chart has been used to answer Question 1 because line charts are really expressive when it comes to tracking time series data over longer period of time.
Stacked area chart has been used to answer Question 2. Area charts are best used when we communicate the overall trend as opposed to individual values.
Also stacked area charts are best used to visualize part-to-whole relationships, helping us understand how each categories has contributed to the overall total.
Bar chart has been used to answer Question 3. Bar charts showing variations in data over time and it can be used to express trends in time series data.
The darker the color, the better the rebounds. The lighter the color, the lesser the rebounds. Over the years, we can see that color is slowly becoming darker.
Based on our analysis and visualization, we can conclude that, the NBA has become more defensive over the years and even
offensive players are contributing to defense nowadays. In short - Offense wins you games, defense wins you championships.