Mystery in Milwaukee

The Bucks need to be more patient if they hope to become a contender

When Brandon Jennings picked the Bucks to beat the Heat in 6 games in the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs, everyone thought he was out of his mind. Jennings' delusion is representative of the franchise's overconfidence in its ability to compete with top level teams. That mindset was on display when the Bucks traded for J.J. Redick at the trade deadline.

Prior to the trade, a number of contenders were rumored to have interest in acquiring Redick. It made sense for teams like the Spurs, Clippers and Pacers to trade a draft pick or a prospect for a dynamite 3PT threat and a solid perimeter defender to improve their chances at making a deep run in the playoffs. The Bucks had an extremely small chance at making it to the finals at the time of the trade deadline, however, they were the team that ultimately traded young prospects (Tobias Harris and Doron Lamb) to acquire Redick.

Jockeying For A Better Future



Dangerous conditions and scant pay continue to plague jockeys, the workers of the horse racing industry.

It is a profession in seemingly unending decline.  Its union has been ineffective, to the point of corruption.  No, this piece is not discussing longshoreman or locomotive workers, but America's jockeys.  The frontline of the nation's horse racing industry faces problems not seen in any other major sport in the United States.  Jockeys struggle to deal with low pay, a myriad of injury and health concerns, and a decreased demand for their services, even in an industry that remains unabashedly extravagant.

Jockeys understand that their jobs entail significant risk.  Their line of work involves racing half-ton animals at a speed of 40mph.  They choose jockeying for the excitement, the glamour, and their love of horses.  Like in other sports, the competition is fierce, and only the best make it to top.  Careers are necessarily short as injuries mount and performance suffers for aging jockeys. 

So how much do these brave athletes make for their dangerous work?

The Winning Formula: Balance

It may be the trendiest topic in the NBA: balance. Do you need it? Do you want it? What really is it? Every NBA GM, analyst or fan may have a different opinion. Should a team be built around one (or more) superstar(s) or should it be evenly assembled with complimentary parts? Not only has it become popular for superstar players to pair up (Heat) or teams go all-out to obtain a superstar (Rockets), it has become commonly accepted that this is the best way to build a successful team. However, when well-balanced teams such as this year’s Nuggets showed us inequality might be overrated, I began wondering which is the better way to build a team. The truth is, there really is no right answer; there have been successful teams built with both symmetric and skewed distributions. However, by analyzing certain performance statistics, Win Shares and salary data from the past 11 NBA seasons, I tried to determine which approach was more reliable.

Read more after the jump

The Winning Formula: Age and Experience

Though the analytics first broke into the sports world in baseball thanks to Bill James, sabremetrics, and Brad Pitt (Billy Beane), basketball is now riding the wave as well, and arguably even higher. Like the MLB (and most other major sports), NBA front offices now have a statistical and analytical focus. Teams and coaches are viewing players through different, more diagnostic, lenses. Writers such as Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton are doing what Jonah Hill (Peter Brand) did for sabremetrics, translating the complexities front office and coaches are analyzing on a daily basis into layman’s terms. Being an avid NBA fan and typical nerd, I have grown to admire the analytic work done by the basketball community, so much so I decided to give it a try myself…

As a Statistical Science major here at Cornell, I am conducting an independent study, with ILR Organizational Behavior Professor Emily Zitek, looking at the effects of NBA team composition and performance on its overall success. Essentially, what is “The Winning Formula”? In a series of blog posts within the next few weeks, I will discuss many factors that contribute to a team’s success, such as experience, age, Pythagorean Wins, Win Shares, standard deviation of performance statistics and Dean Oliver’s Four Factors. Prerequisite knowledge is not needed, nor is a degree in statistics, only a curiosity as to why your favorite NBA teams perform the way they do. Though I will not make any groundbreaking conclusions, I hope to paint clearer picture as to why certain teams are successful and others are not.

Event Recap: Steve Seiferheld ('98)

On April 9^th 2013, the ILR Sports Business Society was fortunate enough to host alumni Steve Seiferheld '98, Senior Vice President of Turnkey Intelligence. Turnkey Intelligence is the sports and entertainment industry’s leader in consumer insights collected from surveys. Seiferheld graduated from Cornell with a Masters in Statistics. In his time at Turnkey, he has worked with WWE, ESPN, NFL, Disney on Ice, and 18 out of the 30 MLB teams, in addition to many others. During his Skype interview, he reviewed professional career and offered advice to members of our club in how to get a job in sports. Read about it after the jump.

Does Union Solidarity Decrease Fighting in the NHL?

Rival stars such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin
flank NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr during the lockout.

Recently, in a collective bargaining course at the ILR School, a labor official familiar with this season’s National Hockey League lockout gave his take on a number of issues. While it was easy to accept most of his opinions on collective bargaining in sports as expert testimony, one prediction would have to be tested by looking at data. The speaker claimed that because of the solidarity developed among players during the work stoppage, the NHL would experience fewer fights this season. He felt that the goodwill exhibited as union brothers off the ice would carry over on the ice. 

The argument seems to stem from the fact that NHL Players Association Director Donald Fehr effectively united workers who are normally paid to compete against each other. The NHLPA leadership effectively pitted players against management rather than against each other. There was actually more dissent among League leadership and owners, who arguably compete for much higher stakes in normal years. But while solidarity is always an important part of union strategy in collective bargaining, could it have unintentionally made players less pugilistic?

Bulls Expose Nets lack of shooting in Game 2

Gerald Wallace's shooting struggles have hurt the Nets

When the Miami Heat signed Lebron James and Chris Bosh in the Summer of 2010, they formed a "big 3" that consists of 3 superstar caliber players surrounded by a group of role players. The Nets pursued the same strategy this past offseason by re-signing Brook Lopez and Deron Williams to maximum salaries and trading for Joe Johnson, the third highest paid player in the league in terms of average salary. There are a few significant diferences between the roster construction of each franchise. First, the "big 3"of the Heat is much better than the "big 3" of the Nets. Furthermore, the Nets have two marginal players with big salaries, which limits their flexibility to make improvements. They signed Kris Humphries to a 2 year $24 million dollar deal this past offseason and he was relegated to the bench early in the season. His deal is only 2 years so it's not severely damaging. On the other hand, Gerald Wallace has a 4 year $40 million dollar deal and his contract and playing style could limit the Nets from becoming a legitimate contender in the next few seasons.