While there probably isn't much reason to explain why Nneka Ogwumike deserves the ROY as the WNBA prepares to resume play during the Olympic break, the discussion about candidates for the All-Rookie Team is a bit more interesting.
Over at Grantland, Bill Barnwell proposed a system for measuring an NFL player's performance as a draft pick. It's a very simple system that can easily be adapted for the WNBA.
Today, I continue looking at RAPM, but narrow the scope to a one-year perspective to get a sense of how RAPM matches conventional wisdom about the top performers of the 2011 WNBA season.
There are two forms of plus/minus currently publicly available to WNBA fans: the type that shows up in the boxscore and "net plus/minus" often used for to evaluate player seasons. Here we introduce a third: Regularized Adjusted Plus/Minus (RAPM).
So with a rather coveted free agent signed, who else is left and who might be particularly valuable to a team?
Coming Into Focus, the New York Liberty Capture Victory
Last night, when the New York Liberty hosted the Atlanta Dream, the points in the paint statistic showed a glaring discrepancy between the two teams. Nevertheless, despite scoring one third as many points in the paint, the last-place-in-the-East Liberty still pulled out a convincing win over the top-ranked Dream, defeating them 91-79.
The World’s Most Famous Arena. Madison Square Garden, home of New York’s storied, if not always successful sports teams. One of those teams, the New York Liberty, opened its 14th season today versus the Chicago Sky in the great arena, and I was on hand as a women’s basketball novice to take it all in.
