Episode 137: Simon Gerszberg, Optimizing a Player and Teams’ Shot Selection

Guest: Simon Gerszberg, Founder and CEO of ShotQuality

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, founder and CEO of ShotQuality Simon Gerszberg joins the Basketball Podcast to discuss optimizing a player and teams’ shot selection.

Simon Gerszberg, a data analyst for Colgate Basketball, founded a product that calculates the quality of shots on a play-by-play basis. The goal of the website is to create actual change for coaches by optimizing their player and teams’ shot selection. www.shotquality.com is now used by over 40 NCAA teams and over 5 NBA teams.

Shot Quality is calculated by multiplying the percent chance a shot has of going in, i.e. the probability that the basket is made and the type of shot, denoted by the no. of points that shot entails - either a 2-pointer or a 3-pointer.

Over 90 disparate variables are incorporated to output the overall ShotQuality. The most important aspect of calculating ShotQuality is computing the individual player's shot-making ability, and there are a plethora of factors involved in quantifying this.

Breakdown

1:00 - Why ShotQuality.com

3:00 - Calculating Shot Quality

5:00 - Independent of the Outcome

7:30 - Creating Paralysis by Analysis

11:30 - Game Strategy

14:30 - Shot Quality Defense

16:30 - Quality of Opponent Affecting Metrics

20:00 - Conversation about Player Development

24:00 - Improving Shot Quality

28:00 - Evaluating Shot Selection into Intuition

31:00 - Dribble Threes