- Which country (other than the U.S.) produce the most number of NBA players?
- Which school produce the most number of NBA players?
- Does teams with larger overall size (in terms of height and weight) win more games?
- When do players reach their maximum potential after being drafted?
- Home court advantage over the years
- Does home court advantage vary by location?
- Which players are associated more wins? Identifying MVPs programmatically
- Can we use ELO rating to predict the Playoffs winners?
- Do teams win by a smaller margin when winning at away vs. at home?
- Can we cluster different teams into categories/groups based on their playing styles and performance output?
- What’s the effect of playing back-to-back games on game outcomes?
- What’s the effect of distance traveled for games on game outcomes?
- What happens if a fast-paced team plays against a slow-paced team? Do fast-paced teams outperform slow-paced teams?
- Is team’s average age of players a good indicator of game outcomes? (How do teams of veteran starting players fare against teams of young athletic starters?)
- Is team’s average height/weight of players a good indicator of game outcomes? (Do bigger, taller teams dominate teams with smaller players?)
- Suppose there are three teams, A, B, and C. A beats B. B beats C. C beats A. How should you rank these teams? Is there rock-paper-scissors relationship amongst basketball teams? (https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2018_standings.html)
- Is there a way to visualize the different areas of strengths of a team? (See https://www.r-graph-gallery.com/143-spider-chart-with-saveral-individuals/)
- Is there a way to quantify/visualize the talent difference between East and West Conference teams?
- Has game pace changed over time?
- Are there foul call favors for home teams?
- Which players/teams take the most number of forced shots?
- Which teams move the ball around the most?
- Which teams run the most?
- Which are the most team-oriented teams, as measured by the usage percentage or assist ratio?
- Do teams have a harder time covering the spread when they are on the 2nd game of a back to back or if they have to travel far to their next game?
- Is there a system that assigns players with an offensive/defensive value to see how it will affect the teams scoring and defensive output?
- Is there a good relationship between a team’s pace of play versus whether or not they hit the Over/Under?
- What exactly is the KenPom equation and can we apply it to the NBA?
- Can we identify prolific-scoring but low-efficiency players (i.e. players who accumulate points simply by taking a lot of shots)?
- Size in the NBA, what ways do height and wingspan affect defense?
- The effects of rest and is there a critical point of rest?
- The 5 conventional positions are outdated. Can we reclassify positions with machine learning?
- Machine learning: classifying the true contenders every season.
- Can we use machine learning to predict the MVP halfway through a season?
- Identifying the importance of rhythm in the NBA. Can we identify players who are ready at a moment’s notice and the players who play better with some amount of minutes?
- Is isolation basketball really that bad? Comparing win percentages, isolation percentages, and effects on low usage teammates.