Required Readings

This page is filled with required readings for those who are not familiar with Wins Produced (WP). Please read the following posts (accumulated from various Wages of Wins Network writers - most notably David Berri) before you try to comment on the veracity of WP:

Basics
  1. Winning in basketball
  2. Shooting and WP
  3. What Wins Produced says and what it does not say
  4. Does Wins Produced overvalue rebounds?
  5. Wins Produced vs PER
  6. Correlation between WP and PER and wins
  7. PER, Beasley, Boozer, and Odom 
  8. 2008-09 Overrated players
  9. 2008-09 Underrated players
  10. Win Score
  11. Wins Produced vs. Win Score
  12. Win Score vs. Game Score
  13. Why Adjusted plus/minus is not a good metric
  14. A guide to evaluating models
  15. A comment about model building
  16. Strength of schedule does not affect teams wins (most years, anyways)
  17. Bench players don't always play against weaker opponents
  18. Agreeing to disagree

Intermediate/Advanced
  1. How to calculate WP
  2. Defense and WP
  3. PAWSmin
  4. Diminishing returns in the NBA
  5. Rebounding
  6. Why we credit rebounders for rebounds
  7. Usage and efficiency
  8. David Berri's FAQs


FAQs and Common Criticisms

  • Doesn't WP overvalue rebounding?
No. Please read basics #4 and intermediate/advanced #4-5.

  •  Doesn't WP undervalue scorers?
No. "Scorers" who score their points efficiently do well in WP. Inefficient "scorers" - that is, players who take a lot of shots to score their points - do poorly. Please read basics #5-8.

  • WP is wrong because it says that [insert player here] is better than [insert player here].
When you base a model or metric on your preconceived notions you are making a mistake. Please read basics #3 and basics #14-15.

  • Why use WP instead of PER?
WP is more highly correlated to wins and PER rewards inefficient scorers. Please read basics #5-7.

  • What about diminishing returns and usage? Shouldn't a player like Kobe Bryant be evaluated differently because he uses a lot of possessions?
Diminishing returns has very little affect on productivity in the NBA. Please read intermediate/expert #4-5.


This page is a work in progress.

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