Matt

Recent Posts

cason-wallace-star-potential
Cason Wallace’s Star Potential
October 9, 2024
NBA Articles
Star basketball players are often obvious from the get: you have your Victor Wembanyama's, your Anthony Davis's, even Nikola Jokic's, if you're looking in the right direction. But it's far...

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spotting-the-stars
Spotting the Stars
August 7, 2024
Analysis
With this study I wanted to keep it simple and start from the top: what do the best of the very best have in common? Rather than take a statistically-minded...

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Lessons from the Draft Cycle
July 11, 2024
2024 NBA Draft Articles
“My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so...

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Matt Powers’ 2024 NBA Draft Big Board
June 22, 2024
2024 NBA Draft Articles
Welcome to my big board! While I may have some far out of consensus takes, I assure you my process is done thoughtfully with careful tape review, statistical deep dives...

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how-prospects-outflex
How Prospects Outflex Their Opponent
April 20, 2024
2024 NBA Draft Articles
I struggled with the title of this piece, the third of three pieces on how I frame prospect analysis. This final installment will discuss a player's athleticism, well, physical athleticism...

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nikola-topic-how-prospects-read-the-game
How Prospects Read the Game
February 10, 2024
2024 NBA Draft Articles
Productivity is the first basis of a player's game - how do they make things happen? But just behind that is a player's wiring: how they feel the game, think...

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how-prospects-produce-zach-edey
How Prospects Make Things Happen
February 3, 2024
2024 NBA Draft Articles
How Do Prospects Produce? That's the first question I ask myself as I begin the process for my 2024 NBA draft board. By separating production, feel and athletic premiums, I...

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Seven Ways to Break Out
September 1, 2023
NBA Articles
In the doldrums of summer it can be easy to let the narratives run away with themselves. With no new NBA basketball, imaginations run wild, and there is none more...

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Becoming Primary: Aly Khalifa and Andrew Rohde
August 6, 2023
2024 NBA Draft Articles
From Steph Curry to Damian Lillard to Ja Morant to CJ McCollum to Pascal Siakam to Paul George, there have been countless examples of mid major draft picks who kept...

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Lessons-from-the-draft-cycle
Lessons from the Draft Cycle
July 14, 2023
2023 NBA Draft Articles
With the first Swish Theory draft cycle in the books, it’s time to recap the cycle in this follow-up to my final piece with The Stepien. Here I’ll be looking...

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Alyssa Thomas: Carnage and a Bucket
July 6, 2023
WNBA Articles
Precedents “Bodies on the floor, carnage…and a bucket” was the play-by-play description for what could have been any given Alyssa Thomas highlight: Sensing an opportunity, she dove on the floor,...

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flawed-freshmen-dariq-whitehead
Evaluating the 2023 NBA Draft’s “Flawed Freshmen”
June 27, 2023
2023 NBA Draft Articles
The NBA draft is in the books but things are far from determined. That is especially the case for our set of “Flawed Freshmen,” viewed so for lack of consistent...

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everything-everywhere-prospects-2023-nba-draft
The 2023 NBA Draft’s “Everything Everywhere” Prospects
June 6, 2023
2023 NBA Draft Articles
My first piece recapping the 2023 NBA draft cycle focused on dynamic prospects, those whose production declined as competition increased. I called them "whiteboard" prospects given their obvious strengths/weaknesses, seemingly...

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Whiteboard-Prospects
The 2023 NBA Draft’s “Whiteboard” Prospects
May 9, 2023
2023 NBA Draft Articles
Concept The sample for NBA draft prospects is tiny. Even if we have perfect data for a player’s prep and pro careers, the top draft prospects are typically aged 18-22,...

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Outlier Development Series: What Pascal Siakam Can Teach Arthur Kaluma
December 31, 2022
Analysis
Why This Series? When a great player becomes great, there is often the narrative of inevitability tied into the fabric. While there may be some truth to that – no...

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Scouting Reports