Why Are The Nets 0-12: Looking At The Four Factors
Nov 20, 2009 Advance Statistics, Analysis
We have looked at the Nets start every which way and while, for the most part, injuries to blame, I wanted to look at what was actually happening on the court. A good way to do that is to look at the four factors. Before we start though, lets talk a little bit about what the four factors are.
In his book, Basketball On Paper, Dean Oliver introduces the theory of the four factors. We’ll let him tell you about it:
What Basketball on Paper also adds is that these ratings can be broken down into four elements of the game: shooting, turnovers, rebounding, and getting to the foul line. It is those four elements, or “Four Factors,” that really start allowing a strategic understanding of the game.
He then goes on to explain that these factors aren’t just for one side of the basketball. When looking at the four factors, you want to look at both the offensive and defensive numbers:
So those are the Four Factors, but don’t forget that it is four each for both the offense and defense. A team’s offense must shoot well, but its defense must also shut down an opponent’s shooting. A team’s offense must follow its own misses with offensive boards, but it also needs to keep its opponents off the glass by getting defensive boards.
So now that we have an idea of what the four factors include, lets look at them individually in terms of the Nets season so far (All data from here on out come from Hoopdata.com):