Analyzing Player Attributes from Top 10 NBA First Round Draft Picks
Author: Chidvi Doddi
Every June, the National Basketball Association (NBA) holds a draft, where each of the thirty teams have an oppurtunity to select two top prospects to join their organization. With only two rounds in the draft - and only two chances per team - it is crucial that a team does proper research, scouting, and analysis to ensure that their draft picks have a significant impact on their odds at winning a championship.
Using the NBA data API for all players currently in the league, I will examine top 10 draft picks and see how they compare to all players in the league. Then, I will make use of various individual player attributes to determine what properties correlate to top NBA draft picks. After having read through our data analysis, I hope that you will understand the importance of research and scouting that NBA teams undergo in selecting top draft picks.
- Project Introduction
- A. Libraries and Dependencies
- B. Data Sources
- C. Importing and Examining the Dataset
- D. Getting Top 10 Draft Picks
- E. Various Data Trends of Top 10 Draft Picks
- Exploring Top 10 Draft Picks
- A.How Many Current NBA Players Are Top 10 Draft Picks?
- B. How Many Current NBA Players Are Not Top 10 Draft Picks?
- C. Top 10 Draft Picks by Position
- D. Top 10 Draft Picks by Size
- E. Top 10 Draft Picks by Place of Origin
- Analysis of Top 10 Draft Picks' Attributes
- A. What Attributes Matter Most?
- B. Reducing and Comparing Attributes
- Finding Key Attributes Using Multiple Linear Regression
- A. Null Hypothesis Testing
- B. Using SciKit-Learn and StatsModel for Regression Model
- Predicting the Ideal Draft Pick Based on Player Attributes with ML
- A. Training and Testing
- Project Conclusion
- A. Closing Statement About Attributes
- B. Closing Statement About Draft Pick Prediction
- C. Final Thoughts & Other Resources