Investment in young players in 2022 weakly predicts …
Claude did some statistical analysis, and found something interesting: the correlation strengthens over time. Investment in young players in 2022 weakly predicts wins by 2024 (r = 0. 29), but very strongly predicts wins by 2026 (r = 0.
66) . What we see in these electric Western conference finals are teams that began playing young players years ago. The same is true of the playoffs generally.
(The Knicks are a bit of an exception. 19th in the league in playing young players over the last four years … and killing everybody in the playoffs so far. ) The Thunder’s 2022-2023 roster featured 19 players, 16 of whom were under the age of 25.
The team wasn’t amazing, finishing with 40 wins and 42 losses. But it was an important year for the team to figure out which young players mattered to their long-term. A dozen young players got real NBA playing time trying to see if they could learn to play with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
21-year-old Jalen Williams, 23-year-old Luguentz Dort, 23-year old Isaiah Joe, 20-year-old Jaylin Williams all earned way more time than they would playing under a lot of coaches, and are now key parts of a team that’s defending a title. TrueHoop This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Investment in young players in 2022 weakly predicts …