Expert Model of Decision-Making System for Efficient Orientation of Basketball Players to Positions and Roles in the Game – Empirical Verification

The purpose of the research was to empirically verify the expert model system designed for more efficient orientation of basketball players to particular positions and/or roles in the game (specialization). Participants were 60 randomly chosen male basketball players (12 players per each position) from the 12 Croatian 1st league teams in season1998/99. Data were gathered from 10 basketball coaches who estimated overall performance (actual quality) of players on defense (7 variables) and on offense (12 variables). Variables were established by Trnini}, Perica and Dizdar1. A measure of body height was added to the aforementioned group of variables. The results obtained suggest that the proposed decision-making system can be used as an auxiliary instrument in orienting players to the positions and roles in the game. It has been established that the players have attained the highest grades of overall performance exactly at their primary playing positions in the game. The largest differences were determined between point guards (position 1) and centers (position 5). The greatest difficulties have occurred in determining optimal position for small forwards (position 3), then for shooting guards (position 2) and, last, for power forwards (position 4), because all these basketball players are the most versatile ones. Therefore, reliability of the system is the lowest when it is applied for selecting and orientating players to these positions. Convenient body height significantly contributes to aptitude of these players to play multiple positions and to assume multiple roles in the game. This research has reinforced the thesis that body height is a variable with the greatest influence on orientation of players to particular positions and roles in the game

Empirical Verification of the Weighted System of Criteria for the Elite Basketball Players Quality Evaluation

This article is a continuation of research aimed at formation of a system of criteria for the expert evaluation of the basketball players’ actual quality. So far, the external standards for assessing players’ performance have been defined and described and the relative importance coefficients of each criterion for the performance evaluation per positions in the game have been established as well. The purpose of this research was to test empirically the latter – the weighted system of criteria for evaluating the actual quality of basketball players proposed by Trnini} and Dizdar (2000). Based on the determined descriptive indicators and the coefficients of importance of criteria, and on the degree of the objectivity level (interobservers’ agreement) of the expert evaluations, it can be concluded that the measuring attributes (objectivity and sensitivity) for most of the criteria are in accordance with their relative importance coefficients for a particular position in the game. Consequently, the structure of the relevant criteria for each play position in the basketball is proposed

Pragmatic Validity of the Combined Model of Expert System for Assessment and Analysis of the Actual Quality Overall Structure of Basketball Players

The authors presumed that it was possible to replace certain criteria of the expert system aimed at evaluating actual quality of basketball players, proposed by Trnini} et al.1, with the corresponding indicators of situation-related efficiency (official statistics of the game). Hence, the aim of this study is to verify the potential of establishing such a combined model of expert system that would consist of both the evaluation criteria and certain number of objectively measurable aspects of actual quality (player\u27s partial performance or playing efficiency) and to determine its pragmatic validity. To achieve the aim the sample comprised of 60 basketball players that were competing in the Croatian First Division League in the 1998/99 season was tested. The sample and their quality of play was described by the two different types of data: 1) the 13 situation-related efficiency data (FIBA statistics of the game) utilized to objectively assess performance or playing effectiveness of players, collected at 132 games played by 12 teams, and 2) the evaluation data, subjectively assessing actual quality of players, i.e. their perceived overall performance, collected at the end of the season from the 10 basketball trainers. On the basis of relatively high correlations within the 7 pairs of mutually equivalent variables (from 0.63 to 0.84) and the extremely high correlation (0.97) obtained between the perceived overall performance (actual quality), subjectively assessed with respect to the 19 criteria of the original expert evaluation system, and the overall performance (actual quality) assessed by the combined model (where the 8 evaluation criteria had been replaced by the 7 corresponding indicators of playing efficiency), it is feasible to consider the combined model of expert system as an acceptable tool for more objective and economical assessment of actual quality of basketball players

Basketball game-related statistics that discriminate between teams season-long success

The aim of the present study was to identify the game-related statistics that discriminate between season-long successful and unsuccessful basketball teams participating in the Spanish Basketball League (LEB1). The sample included all 145 average records per season from the 870 games played between the 2000-2001 and the 2005-2006 regular seasons. The following game-related statistics were gathered from the official box scores of the Spanish Basketball Federation: 2- and 3-point field-goal attempts (both successful and unsuccessful), free-throws (both successful and unsuccessful), defensive and offensive rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, blocks (both made and received), and fouls (both committed and received). To control for season variability, all results were normalized to minutes played each season and then converted to z-scores. The results allowed discrimination between best and worst teams' performances through the following game-related statistics: assists (SC=0.47), steals (SC=0.34), and blocks (SC=0.30). The function obtained correctly classified 82.4% of the cases. In conclusion, season-long performance may be supported by players' and teams' passing skills and defensive preparation