The NBA Stats page, which was officially opened up to the public in November (this site had been available to the media since February with the requirement of a password), has truly delivered a product that will instill pride in hard core fans and envy in other leagues.
This new stats page has absolutely everything. Anything you want to know about NBA players, teams, records, coaches, terms, etc., all of it has been compiled into one brand-spanking new site that has left nothing to be desired. Plus, it’s all user-friendly, further enhancing the in-home experience of watching a basketball game.
Sure, the NBA stats page has all the regular stuff like current standings, who’s on each team, who’s playing who on any given night, what the box score was, etc; this new page however, has beefed all of that up to new heights.
The first cool new feature comes up right in front of you when you open the page. Every night, after NBA games are over, writers are furiously typing at their computers trying to get their stories out before deadline. What this page has done is, every night after all the games have ended, it sorts through all those stories that have been posted and blogged, and it posts the most popular ones on the front page of its website, along with a line from the player being talked about in the article, video to the highlights from the game, and statistics of several other players mentioned in the article or who performed well in the game. Basically, this puts the most important information from each night in front of its fans, so now they don’t have to go searching for stories on their favorite players. Its all right there.
Next on the home page, the NBA stats page now compiles all the leaders in every category from all the games each night, and posts their stats ranked in order from one to five based on the stat, along with a graph and grid view of all their stats from the night. And they don’t just list the top players in scoring and assists. They’ve gone ahead and created measures for stats such as playmaking ability, efficiency, and clutch; making them all available to everyone who goes to the website who wants to compare the top five players in that stat from that night. You can also compare any player’s season stats with the league average by simply posting your mouse over the desired stat in the graph view.
To finish up the home page, there are also box scores compiled since 1946 (seen directly below) that anyone can look up by just putting in the date and selecting your team’s game. In addition, if you look up any box score from the last season to present, you can view video from the game, which, according to an article written by CNN Money, is posted 45 minutes after the game is concluded. They also post featured box scores from that current date in history every day under the box score search feature, along with featured shot charts from different games around the league, allowing fans to view every shot taken by any player and how efficient they were during any given game, or over a given period depending on how many shot charts they want to look at. Finally, the stats page also keeps track of current transactions, NBA awards being handed out, and the most current articles being posted by the prominent NBA analysts.
On the scores tab, you can view all scores on NBA games that happened on any given calendar day, along with the current standings from every team in each conference, displaying their wins and losses, winning percentage, and home and road records during the current year. If you change the date on the page, you can view all the scores from that date and what the standings looked like on that particular day. Also, when looking at the scores of the games, you can view a box score, a play by play, what TV station the game is on, what the score breakdown per quarter is, how much time is left, and the last game the two teams played against one another, all without clicking a button. When any game has concluded, you can now view a Gamebook pdf file that shows you the official scoring statistics from that game, so for the most hardcore fan that wants to know every single stat, look no further than this feature.
With the official leaders tab, you can view which players and which team is leading the league in points per game, rebounds per game, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, assists per game, three point field goal percentage, blocks per game, and steals per game, over any given season or just over the last ten games, allowing fans to see who’s hot and who’s not in the NBA currently. You can also view these stats based solely on the playoffs vs. the regular season.
Furthermore, you can view the all-time leaders in these stats as well, and you can click on any player listed on this page to view a detailed statistics breakdown over their career, their game logs, their shot charts, their awards won, etc; you can even compare two players to see their stats based on their careers and any particular season to see who truly is the number one player to ever play in the NBA.
In the league tab, you can view all statistics broken down by player, team, and by certain lineups, so you can see who is the best players that play with one another, which would be a big help to fantasy owners, telling them who plays best with another on the same team so they can set their lineups accordingly. You can view the stats based on general stats, clutch stats, shot breakdown stats, and opponent shot breakdown stats. You can also view this based on any season you wish.
On the teams tab, you can view any team you wish to see, and it will display their record, place in their division and conference, a complete statistical breakdown of the team from every season of their existence based on location, wins and losses, overall stats, months, days of rest, and before or after the all-star break. Any link you click on will also lead you to a more detailed breakdown of that linked stat and show you video of that team with that stat being portrayed.
With the team’s tab you can also view the team’s roster, a breakdown of every lineup the team has used over a season and how their stats compared, the stats of all their players with links to video of that player, a detailed history of every game that team has played since its beginning, and a detailed shot chart of every season. If you are a hardcore fan of one particular team and want to learn everything about your team since it became a franchise, go to this tab on the NBA stats page and just read. You will learn more than you ever thought possible.
Inside the players tab, you can find every player, both active and retired, sorted by last name, with quick links up top that allow you to search for any player you are looking for, click any letter to find the last name of the player you are looking for, and compare any two players on any team. Also, when you click on any player, it gives you video of them from the entire season, their complete statistics, their biography, any tweets about them, and their NBA profile.
The shot charts tab displays featured shot charts from around the NBA for different players that have had particularly interesting nights in a certain game with a certain stat, such as when Joe Johnson scored 29 points in the 3rd quarter a few games ago. If you click on any shot chart, it will display the whole game for you along with a link to the box score from the game.
One of the newest features that is unique to the NBA stats page is player tracking. Player tracking is “the latest example of how technology and statistics are changing the way we understand the game of basketball. Using six cameras installed in the catwalks of every NBA arena, SportVU software tracks the movements of every player on the court and the basketball 25 times per second. The data collected provides a plethora of innovative statistics based around speed, distance, player separation, and ball possession.
Some examples of player tracking include: how fast a player moves, how far he traveled during a game, how many touches of the ball he had, how many passes he threw, how many rebounding chances he had and much more, according to the NBA Stats page. This new feature shows fans the stats of their player from different aspects of the game. If you ever wanted to compare a players shooting percentage from pull-up dribbles vs. catch and shoot situations, with this feature, now you can. Player tracking is a whole new way fans can view the game and measure the ability of their players.
The video tab gives you links to videos from any game based on the box score, team leaders, shot charts, play by play etc, allowing you to have access to the best plays and video from your team at the click of one link. The history tab gives you the complete list of every NBA franchise, both active and defunct, with all of their statistics since their beginning, compiled on one stats spreadsheet, with video links attached.
To conclude this long list of NBA stats features, they have a link to an NBA stats blog, an archive of NBA articles, and a glossary to help even the simplest of NBA fans understand each and every stat posted on this page.
Like I stated at the very beginning, this new NBA Stats page has gone to the next level and beyond, putting every single thing they possibly could at the tip of the user’s fingertips and organized in a way that even someone who doesn’t know how to use computers could use it. If there is any NBA stat or feature that was not included on this website, I dare someone to tell me what it is, because the NBA has really outdone themselves.
Part of the reason the NBA has created such an extensive statistics page is because this is what the fans want. Fans of the NBA love to be able to look online and easily find some video of their favorite player dunking, or compare Lebron James and Kobe Bryant to see who is actually the better current basketball player. This revamped stats page I believe is fully for the fans. They have organized everything into one, user-friendly site that will definitely get millions upon millions of hits every single day.
It is also worth noting that another reason why the NBA created this page is for fantasy basketball. Fantasy basketball currently ranks third among fantasy games played online, and one of the reasons is because fans find it increasingly harder to win at fantasy basketball due to a lack of statistics easily available to help them gain their competitive edge. Well with this new page, that worry can be completely erased.
This page was made with the most hardcore NBA fans in mind. All those fans that stare at the TV gazing at all the stats and listening the NBA analysts wishing they could know as much as they did; this page was made for them. Fans who just love statistics and want to know everything about their team and about the NBA, this page was made for them. If you are one of those fans that do not know as much about the NBA as you would like to and want to beat those crazy super NBA fans at your school, well this page was made for you. If you have someone who does not understand a single thing about the NBA, have him or her spend on hour on this page, and I guarantee that he or she will be significantly more knowledgeable.
I hope all league sites take notice of what the NBA has done to enhance its stats page, and that they then follow suit, but for now, hats off to the NBA, and to all you super hardcore NBA fans out there,. Happy New Years from NBA.com.