The Wages of Wins Journal

Winning in the NBA can be tricky, but Alexander Barza shares a secret that most successful NBA teams already know.

Few people are surprised to see the Spurs, Heat, and Pacers rank among the top teams in the NBA this season.  What may be surprising is that the Portland Trailblazers are currently the 4th best team (in wins and point differential) in the Association. Why is this surprising?  Last year …

Andrew Sutton does stand up and likes to act.  He is also a rational pessimist and sports fan, with some interest in trying to explain what we see in the world of sports.  Quick question: Who is currently the third best team in the Eastern Conference?  When it comes to …

Chris Herring (@HerringWSJ) — from the Wall Street Journal — often tweets about the Knicks.  This morning he has two that I thought were especially interesting.  Each includes a quote from Mike Woodson (the team’s head coach). Woodson: “I don’t know what kind of team we really have” because we’re …

My sense is that not everyone who reads this blog follows me on Twitter.  So I thought I would share some of what you are missing (so you can feel good about your choice :) To summarize what you will see below: Russell Westbrook hasn’t been good this year. Pacers …

The field of sports economics has grown dramatically over the past few years. Unfortunately, much of this research (being published in academic journals and/or presented at academic conferences) is often not accessible to non-academics. To help remedy this issue, the Wages of Wins Journal has elicited the help of Jill …

Once upon a time the Detroit Pistons were title contenders.  In fact, this team did more than contend.  The Pistons – unlike a significant number of NBA franchises – have actually won NBA titles. In recent years, though, the Pistons have struggled.  The Pistons have not had a winning record …

If you read the first part of this argument from Tom Sunnergren at Hoop76, you can see why I have a hard time disagreeing with this post. I say this without irony or exaggeration: I love Dave Berri. The Wages of Wins author and wins produced architect has had more influence on …

Josh Blakely is an attorney in the Milwaukee area.  He topped out as a bench player for a small Wisconsin high school, but has continued to play in intramural and pick-up games to this day.  His closest brush with basketball greatness was quizzing John Hammond on what he saw in …

Last night Rudy Gay did something few people in NBA history has ever accomplished.  He took 37 shots from the field and managed to get only 11 to go through the hoop.  Many people took to Twitter to celebrate this accomplishment.  Here is some of what people said: ‏@TheNBAUpdate Rudy …