SPRING 2022, VOLUME 3
Finding the NBA Draft Diamonds in the Rough
AUTHORS
Ayush Batra, University of Pennsylvania (Moneyball Academy)
Wesley Neidhardt, University of Pennsylvania (Moneyball Academy)
Pranav Nanda, University of Pennsylvania (Moneyball Academy)
Daniel Galper, University of Pennsylvania (Moneyball Academy)
ABSTRACT
The NBA basketball draft involves a great deal of uncertainty. Some non-lottery picks like Pascal Siakam and Kawhi Leonard go on to have All-Star careers while top draft picks like Kwame Brown, Derrick Williams, and Anthony Bennett end up as busts. In this project, we created a model that uses NBA players standard and advanced stats from college to understand why they were successful or unsuccessful in the NBA. We then apply that model to current college players and try to predict their success in the NBA. Our data set included college and NBA data from Basketball-Reference for every player drafted in the 2007-2016 drafts who played in college and in over 100 games in the NBA.
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