NBA ArticlesMatt | October 9, 2024 

 

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 from exclusively the case. In contrast, players like Steve Nash … Read more

   

AnalysisMatt | August 7, 2024 

 

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 approach, I searched for visual cues that were consistent across the sixteen best players draft … Read more

   

 

“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 to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must tr … Read more

   

 

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 and rigorous methodology updates. I was open with my process this year, grading pla … Read more

   

 

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 (not cognitive), but with an eye to dominance. I use the term f … Read more

   

 

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 a step ahead and generally make the decisions that help win ballgames. Much less tangible than … Read more

   

 

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 will try to show my notes as I sort out my analysis of 2024 prospects. Starting … Read more

   

NBA ArticlesMatt | September 1, 2023 

 

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 fertile ground for idle speculation than the Most Improved Player award. This is not a pr … Read more

   

2024 NBA Draft ArticlesMatt | August 6, 2023 

 

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 their primary usage when they skipped a level to go pro. Finding commonalities in this … Read more

   

NBA Draft ArticlesMatt | July 14, 2023 

 

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 at where my personal board diverged from what actually happened, trying to make sense of where … Read more