Visualizing Basketball: Analyzing Player Positions Through Data

How much have important statistics changed over time?

To find this data visualization, I searched NBA statistics visual. This visualization is communicating how basic NBA statistics have changed over time. As you can see in my visualization, the three basic and most known NBA statistics shown are points, rebounds, and assists per season. This visualization is very effective. This is because you can see how total assists and rebounds per season have stayed constant throughout roughly twenty years of NBA basketball. The statistic that really stands out is points per season. This number has increased from an average of roughly 3500 points per season in 1997, to an average of roughly 4500 points per season. This shows how players skills have evolved in todays NBA. This relates to my topic because I am trying to figure out essentially what is the best NBA position. To figure out what is the "best" or "greatest" NBA position, it would help to find out how far NBA positions have developed. A big portion of this points per game increase comes from the 3-point shot. NBA positions are developing to a spot where every play on the court needs to be able to shoot this 3-point shot.

This line chart shows the statistics the players by position put up in todays NBA. A trend you can see with the graph would be how all the positions in the NBA average around the same amount besides the fact that the point guard averages are a little higher. This chart is useful when answering my question of what is the "best" NBA position. This is because you can see where positions prevail over others.

This scatter chart represents the field goal percentage players average along with the amount of points being scored. If you have a high field goal percentage that means you are making a lot of the shots you are taking. With this graph you can see the trend is that most players average around 10ppg with a field goal percentage of aroun 50%. Most role players in the NBA average around 10ppg. This graph relates to my topic because it shows the basic field goal percentage and points per game needed to average to have a long successful career in the NBA.

This graph shows which positions average the most rebounds, whether the rebounds being offensive, defensive and then total. The trend throughout this graph shows that the taller positions, (centers and forwards) tend to average more rebounds than the guards. This graph is important to my topic because it shows that if you are good rebounder you could prevail in one of these positions in the NBA.

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