Our resident basketball guru, Steve McPherson, has posted a very interesting and detailed NBARank vs. NBA 2K13 article comparing the ratings created by ESPN's NBARank project and those of NBA 2K13.
So we have two systems of rating players, based on two very different methodologies. How do these systems of rating compare to each other? Well, first, we have to make them numerically comparable.
You see, NBARank looked at more players than were rated in the initial rosters for NBA2K13. (There has also been one roster update since the game was released. I didn’t add any missing players in, although I have updated some of the notable ratings changes. In most cases, changes were on the order of a point up or down.) So I’ve removed about 100 players from the NBARank list and, let me tell you, it was no great loss. The lowest ranked player by NBARank is now Jared Cunningham of the Dallas Mavericks, with a rating of 2.03, so most of the cuts came from the bottom end of the scale. We’re talking about players who make very little impact.
The other key thing to do to make these ratings comparable is to adjust the NBARank scale to the NBA2K13 scale. This was actually easier than I thought it would be, although not because I figured it out but rather because fellow HP writer and Excel wizard Eric Maroun helped me with it. The lowest possible rating for any of the individual ratings that go into making the overall rating for 2K13 is 25 and the highest is 99, which we’re going to call 100 , whereas the lowest possible rating for NBARank was 0 on a scale of 10. Fortunately, this makes the conversion fairly straightforward. Starting with the NBARank, we multiply it by 7.5 and add 25 to get a rank now calculated on a 100 point scale and with a bottom limit of 25.
You see, NBARank looked at more players than were rated in the initial rosters for NBA2K13. (There has also been one roster update since the game was released. I didn’t add any missing players in, although I have updated some of the notable ratings changes. In most cases, changes were on the order of a point up or down.) So I’ve removed about 100 players from the NBARank list and, let me tell you, it was no great loss. The lowest ranked player by NBARank is now Jared Cunningham of the Dallas Mavericks, with a rating of 2.03, so most of the cuts came from the bottom end of the scale. We’re talking about players who make very little impact.
The other key thing to do to make these ratings comparable is to adjust the NBARank scale to the NBA2K13 scale. This was actually easier than I thought it would be, although not because I figured it out but rather because fellow HP writer and Excel wizard Eric Maroun helped me with it. The lowest possible rating for any of the individual ratings that go into making the overall rating for 2K13 is 25 and the highest is 99, which we’re going to call 100 , whereas the lowest possible rating for NBARank was 0 on a scale of 10. Fortunately, this makes the conversion fairly straightforward. Starting with the NBARank, we multiply it by 7.5 and add 25 to get a rank now calculated on a 100 point scale and with a bottom limit of 25.
Source - Hello Data: NBARank vs. NBA2K13
Comment