The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to repeat their surprising run to the NBA Finals this season. Incredibly, their fate lies not in the shooting hand of Kobe Bryant, the legs of Pau Gasol, or even the shoulder Lamar Odom. Instead, the Lakers’ destiny rests on the knee of Andrew Bynum.

To use Beijing as a springboard towards future triumphs and not a singular rally, the program will have to change and grow. The Redeem Team dominated, but it clearly had weaknesses and imperfections (i.e. outside shooting, half-court offensive execution). Their gold medal finish brought much rejoicing, but it also raises a number of questions regarding the future of the program.

Last week’s Advanced Stats 101 studied two key defensive APBRmetrics in hopes of understanding how advanced statistics can propel the way we collectively think of defense. This week’s piece aims to shed similar light on rebounding, an aspect of the game that seems very straightforward but which careful consideration shows to be anything but.

Most recently in this continuing space, Advanced Stats 101 has looked at APBRmetrics for Player Shooting as well as exploring Team and Player Offensive Ratings. Given the old adage that defense wins championship, it seems only appropriate to follow with a look at two key defensive stats and their application.

As the brilliantly executed “There Can Only Be One” ad campaign told us, winning an NBA title confers a player with many perks, including respect from their peers, admiration from fans, and an affirmed sense of validity. It would seem for at least one Boston Celtic, it promotes one more upshot: delusions of grandeur.

Last week’s Advanced Stats column furthered our examination of basic APBRmetrics and their application. Thus far we have considered new measures for team and player shooting statistics. This week we explore another important “dynamic statistic”: Offensive Rating.

In this space last week, we explored some basics regarding APBRmetrics and their application when considering team shooting. Let us now consider the same three metrics used to evaluate team performances and examine how they pertain to individual shooters.

Though concrete measures and objective statistical analysis has been a part of the professional game since its inception, most of us will go more on feel and intuition than hard data to win an argument or state our viewpoint. This underscores two truths about the way basketball fans rate and debate players’ abilities and skills: fans are always partial and standard statistical measures are inadequate.

How is it possible for a player to be considered among the Top 10 players ever, have the NBA’s very logo designed after his silhouette, and still be undervalued? The answer to that conundrum lies with Jerry West, who in this writer’s opinion was the greatest player of all-time not named Michael Jordan.

As Joe Alexander waited anxiously in the green room during the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft, he undoubtedly took a quiet moment to pause and reflect on the unique journey that brought him there.