Data Trends V1 - Does Size Matter?
A look at past NBA Draft Data (1st round) for some trends and things to look out for while scouting.
How much does size matter when evaluating NBA Draft Prospects. Below you will find data of all 240 First Round picks in the last 8 years and if their height correlated with their draft position and possibly see some trends to help better predict where prospects will land in the draft. I will have my analysis of these charts below but feel free to make your own observations off of the data and let me know if you see any trends!
This will be the first post of many of graphical data from past NBA drafts in order to see/ establish trends that have gone on to better project where your guys may land.
All data taken from: NBA Draft Past Data
Analysis: We are looking at very specific metrics here and we are only comparing two things, Height & Draft Position. Generally it looks as if all graphs trend towards the taller the player the earlier they get drafted. It looks this way for Point Guards and Centers and the others have some pretty odd data. (I could probably make this better by adjusting everyone’s position to either Guard, Foward, or Center for more accurate results).
Looking at the forwards chart, most of our data is nested in the PF & SF columns (trust me on this, I will adjust the data at a different time to update positions) but in this case we see a general trend down in draft position as a player gets taller.
If there’s one thing you can’t teach in basketball it is size. Size is everything and every GM will see loads of potential in said prospect. My favorite thing to say during these draft cycles is “6’8 guards don’t grow on trees", get em while you can”.
In my next update to Data Trends, we will look at if Age has any effect on the metrics we saw above!