'tommyGunZ said:
'Hack Attack said:
'tommyGunZ said:
'Premier said:
Tommy > can I get a Hollinger/Knicks update please?
Hollinger the day D'Antoni was fired, Knicks record was 18-24: "Changing coaches won't help Knicks"Knicks record for the remainder of the regular season: 18-6.

He originally projected just above .500 and fight for the a low playoff spot. Right as the season ends but I'm guessing his projections had nothing to do with D'Antoni getting fired/quitting and them finishing the year 18-6 under Woodson. Under D'Antoni they were quite under his projections. Then Woodson takes over and his theory that it wouldn't change anything. Obviously the Knicks out performed that. So in the end they really under performed his D'Antoni projection and quite out performed his Woodson projection so just because that happened to hit his over all projection from sheer luck, not sure he deserves props for being right. Two wrongs don't make a right. Seems clear Hollinger didn't peg the Knicks with either coach, just got lucky the two coaches together hit his mark.
Yep. I think the Knicks situation is fascinating b/c on the surface it appears to be a fantastic case illustrating the over reliance of some writers on advanced statistics. Hollinger is my favorite ESPN writer, but IMO his analysis overlooks non-statistical dynamics that are fundamental. That doesn't mean I'm an advanced stat hater - quiet the contrary. Bill James' theory on closers is similarly flawed.
This ridiculous argument shows that
you really don't get the concept of projections and statistical analysis.A projection is supposed to be a mean. Obviously it can't predict everything that will happen to a player or a team in a given time frame. There will be some things that go better than the projection assumes (in the Knicks' case, Lin, Shumpert, Novak) and some that will go worse (the D'Antoni drama, injuries maybe although probably not). That's how projections work. Saying that he got the right result but that he failed to predict the peaks and valleys and therefore was "wrong" TOTALLY misses the point of projections.
Bottom line, despite all the howls of protest in the preseason, he nailed the Knicks this year.
Also, let's not get carried away with the praise for the Knicks 18-6 (now 19-10) finish under Woodson. Anyone who was watching the NBA this year knows the final month or so was a total joke because of the compressed schedule and the fact that most teams were locked into a playoff spot early and others were tanking. The Knicks were one of the few teams that had a strong motivation to win almost all of their last 20 or so games. Plus their schedule was fairly soft at the tail end, having just completed their last long road trip just before Woodson took over. No back-to-back-to-backs under him, only one road trip longer than two games and that was a three gamer to Jersey, Cleveland and Atlanta.