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Probability distributions for predicting basketball players' points scored?

I have had some success creating predictive models using a fairly simple Poisson distribution model for individual players' rebound and assist numbers in basketball games. These figures match the requirements of the poisson distribution; namely, they are infrequent and occur 1 at a time.

I was working on trying to create similar models for points scored by a player in a basketball game. However, point scoring occurs differently: players can score a 2 point basket, a 3 point basket, and a 1 point free throw. If I had numbers for all of these different types of scoring, any suggestions on how to put them together and model a player's total scoring output?

I'm mainly using this for two different purposes:

1. Predicting how many points the individual player scores (ie. "Probability that Player X scores more than 15 points)

2. Predicting players' scores in relation to each other (ie. "Probability that Player X scores more than Player Y).

Thanks in advance!

8 Answers

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  • Mark P
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Rather than attempting to model scoring by the sum of three independently varying random variables, have you considered simply modeling it as a single random variable and ignoring the underlying 1, 2, and 3-point contributions?

    That would be much easier, and I suspect if you've gotten reasonable results on rebounds and assists, you will for total points as well.

  • 1 decade ago

    Would you suppose that a normal distribution for total point output might work? I know normal distributions are not discrete, so that you might get predictions like 15.2874 as an answer to some question.

    It would probably be easier not to worry about where the points come from (1,2, or 3 points), but just look at overall point production. There is an average and a stan dev, and I could easily see how from there it would have a normal-like distribution. Very high scores would be highly unlikely, though not impossible.

    I suppose you would have to make some adjustments, since negative scores are not possible. There must be some model for normal-like distributions in which negative values are not possible, such a population distributions or something like that.

    I hope this helps.

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    5 years ago

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    5 years ago

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  • 4 years ago

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  • 1 decade ago

    You have already solved your own problem (the way you analyzed and framed the problem already have the answer in it).

    It is 3 poisson processes. 1 point process, 2 point process, 3 point process; each has its own lambda. (count by basket)

    Total point is just the sum of 3 processes (1x 1pt basket + 2x 2pt basket + 3x 3pt basket). Good job, good application.

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