Determination of basketball players` high-performance profiles in the Spanish League

Coaches and sports scientists are looking for a way to predict performance in complex team sports such as basketball. However, concerning knowing what type of player`s profile is needed to win the competition, there is not too much information in the literature. Hence, our study had two aims: (i) to identify how the individual game-related statistics discriminate between winning and losing among different player positions through a cluster analysis; (ii) to elaborate predictive models that explain better performance through a decision tree analysis. 335 matches of the men`s Spanish League 2018/2019 were analysed, with a total of 7,345 individual statistics performances. The cluster analysis identified 3 performance groups formed by foreigners with both low (FLC; 23.8% shooting-guards) and high contributions (FHC; 32.1% centres) and Spanish with low contribution (SLC; 32.9% shooting-forwards). The decision tree analysis revealed that having players of SLC and FHC profiles predicts better results in the competition. Coaches can apply these profiles to build team composition.
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Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:sport games
Published in:International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport
Language:English
Published: 2023
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2023.2183460
Volume:23
Issue:2
Pages:83-96
Document types:article
Level:advanced