PDA

View Full Version : Book Rec - "Chasing Perfection" by Andy Glockner - advanced stats prism



Billy Dat
03-07-2016, 10:52 AM
I just finished a book that I think will be of great interest to those who enjoy advanced stats and learning about how modern NBA franchises try to optimize all aspects of operations.

"Chasing Perfection - A behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes game of creating an NBA champion" by Andy Glockner.

Glockner has been a basketball writer for a long time, used to be with ESPN.com and lately has been at SI and their new digital spin-off "The Cauldron"

The book takes you behind the scenes of how the best current NBA franchises use advanced stats and cutting edge performance/training optimization techniques to get an advantage in the hopes of winning the title. It includes:

-A history of advanced stats in basketball
-The key advanced stats tracked and utilized
-The challenge of applying the stats and presenting them in a way coaches and players can understand and appreciate them
-Advances in player peformance maximization with a focus on training, recovery, injury-recovery, etc.

For those already deeply into advanced stats, the book will likely be most revealing when it talks about the barriers to applying them and how to make sense of them, especially the new SportsVU data. There is a lot of Duke and Duke-related talk in the book Coach K and Team USA, Wojo and SportsVU, Shane as the poster boy for advanced stats application, etc.

It's really good all around. Now I can crack into the new Feinstein book about K, Dean and Jimmy V.