Ryan Rozema 10 July, 2017
The dataset that we will be studying shots taken by NBA player Anthony Davis.
This is a relatively large dataset. As stated in the introduction, it has over 120,000 instances but it also has 21 attributes. Because we are only looking at Anthony Davis's shots, we were able to cut the data down to just under 900 instances. Some of the attributes that are in this dataset we won't worry too much about because they aren't as important to predicting a shot in my opinion. Some of the attributes we will be working with are as follows:
- Location: This is a binary attribute that is denoted by n "A" for an away game and a "H" for a home game.
- Final Margin: This is a continuous attribute that tells us the difference in the score between the home team and the away team.
- Shot Number: This is a continuous attribute that tells us how many shots that player has taken, including the one that they just shot.
- Period: This is a categorical attribute that tells us what period of the game the player was in when they took the shot.
- Game Clock: This is a continuous attribute that tells us how much time was left in the game when the shot was taken.
- Shot Clock: This is a continuous attribute that tells us how much time was left in the current shot clock when the shot was taken.
- Shot Distance: This is a continuious attribute that tels us the distance between the player and the baseket.
- Closest Defender Distance: This is a continuous attribute that tells us the distance between the shooter and the closest defender.
- Shot Result - Classifier: This is a binary attribute that will state whether the shot was made or missed by the player.
This shows all of the summary data points for each column of the data set. This will be useful for quick reference later on in the document.
## GAME_ID MATCHUP LOCATION W
## Min. :21400001 MAR 04, 2015 - NOP vs. DET: 30 A:455 L:376
## 1st Qu.:21400192 DEC 27, 2014 - NOP @ CHI : 24 H:386 W:465
## Median :21400408 JAN 07, 2015 - NOP @ CHA : 24
## Mean :21400412 FEB 02, 2015 - NOP vs. ATL: 23
## 3rd Qu.:21400632 FEB 06, 2015 - NOP @ OKC : 23
## Max. :21400903 JAN 12, 2015 - NOP @ BOS : 23
## (Other) :694
## FINAL_MARGIN SHOT_NUMBER PERIOD GAME_CLOCK
## Min. :-35.0000 Min. : 1.000 Min. :1.00 0:00 : 6
## 1st Qu.: -8.0000 1st Qu.: 5.000 1st Qu.:1.00 0:03 : 5
## Median : 3.0000 Median : 9.000 Median :2.00 3:51 : 5
## Mean : 0.9108 Mean : 9.763 Mean :2.37 5:42 : 5
## 3rd Qu.: 9.0000 3rd Qu.:14.000 3rd Qu.:3.00 7:06 : 5
## Max. : 48.0000 Max. :30.000 Max. :5.00 9:49 : 5
## (Other):810
## SHOT_CLOCK DRIBBLES TOUCH_TIME SHOT_DIST
## Min. : 0.300 Min. :0.0000 Min. :-9.80 Min. : 0.10
## 1st Qu.: 8.375 1st Qu.:0.0000 1st Qu.: 0.80 1st Qu.: 3.90
## Median :11.800 Median :0.0000 Median : 1.10 Median : 8.40
## Mean :12.202 Mean :0.5422 Mean : 1.88 Mean :10.41
## 3rd Qu.:15.300 3rd Qu.:1.0000 3rd Qu.: 2.60 3rd Qu.:17.90
## Max. :24.000 Max. :8.0000 Max. :19.30 Max. :28.90
## NA's :33
## PTS_TYPE SHOT_RESULT CLOSEST_DEFENDER
## Min. :2.000 made :457 Adams, Steven : 25
## 1st Qu.:2.000 missed:384 Monroe, Greg : 24
## Median :2.000 Chandler, Tyson: 22
## Mean :2.011 Ibaka, Serge : 22
## 3rd Qu.:2.000 Noah, Joakim : 19
## Max. :3.000 Hill, Jordan : 18
## (Other) :711
## CLOSEST_DEFENDER_PLAYER_ID CLOSE_DEF_DIST FGM
## Min. : 977 Min. : 0.000 Min. :0.0000
## 1st Qu.:101162 1st Qu.: 2.100 1st Qu.:0.0000
## Median :201933 Median : 3.400 Median :1.0000
## Mean :154386 Mean : 3.739 Mean :0.5434
## 3rd Qu.:202710 3rd Qu.: 5.000 3rd Qu.:1.0000
## Max. :204060 Max. :32.400 Max. :1.0000
##
## PTS player_name player_id
## Min. :0.000 anthony davis:841 Min. :203076
## 1st Qu.:0.000 aaron brooks : 0 1st Qu.:203076
## Median :2.000 aaron gordon : 0 Median :203076
## Mean :1.088 alan anderson: 0 Mean :203076
## 3rd Qu.:2.000 alan crabbe : 0 3rd Qu.:203076
## Max. :3.000 alexis ajinca: 0 Max. :203076
## (Other) : 0
As you can see from the graph below, the distance from the basket plays a large factor in whether Anthony Davis makes a shot or not. It seems to be that when he he is just about 8 feet from the basket, he starts to miss more shots than he makes. This makes sense because he is a 7 feet tall player in the NBA which means that he plays under the basket a lot. 
It looks like the distance from the defender does not make much of a difference for Anthony Davis. Both of the graphs are extremely similar. 
This graph points out that it is more likely that Anthony Davis will make a shot if he takes a shot before between 16 and 24 seconds left on the shot clock. 