Martim 🏀
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mempire25.bsky.social
Martim 🏀
@mempire25.bsky.social
Lisbon 🇵🇹. Data science for a living.
Sometimes I like basketball so much I write about it: https://borrachalaranja.pt/category/autores/martim-pardal
Older stuff: https://atlantichoops.substack.com
Open to projects.

Lots of🏀clips & stats on this feed!
Updated Report Card:
November 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM
🏀🎞️ A lot of what Anthony Black did in his career night against the 76ers was in transition during the 1st half

But he still showed enough as a driver in general that I feel a bit validated for this previous post...
November 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Despite all this driving, he's more assisted in makes at the rim than last year!

It shows how his rim self-creation suffers as teams go under + use both PnR defenders to block his driving lane. Obviously, the best counter is his passing - and we saw how that has been remarkably effective.
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
(Can you tell I hate the current character limit vs the algorithmic incentives of not leaving the first "proper stuff" in a reply? /rant)

But yes, you can see how the extra self-creation makes it harder to finish at the rim:
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
🏀 With more responsibility, Amen Thompson gets fewer easy looks @ the rim w/o a playmaker beside him. And w/ KD out, spacing suffers further

Still, he went 6/11 from midrange v PHO & also had 8 ast, showcasing this dual role

And his playmaking metrics are quite impressive for one in this new role:
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
🏀📊 Shoutout Kel'el Ware because there has been a huge leap in his rebounding this season.

It's what one likes to see from someone of his size, coming off his rookie year and learning to use his size and build out his strength.
November 25, 2025 at 12:57 AM
🏀📊 Still on the theme of his impending retirement, a little more love towards Chris Paul, showing how his peak offensive impact ranks along with the other great players of the last 20 years:

➡️X: On Court ORTG
⬆️Y: On / Off ORTG
🟡Color: On / Off Teammate TS%
November 23, 2025 at 8:34 PM
1/4 of Claxton's passes and ~1/2 of his assists are to MPJ. And ~1/3 of MPJ's assisted makes come from Nic. They interact the most with each other of any 2-man combo in Brooklyn.

Last night in Boston, 8 of his 12 logged assists were to Porter. And we've never seen this much playmaking from Claxton:
November 22, 2025 at 2:05 PM
🏀🎞️ Shoutout to the great (& quickly developed) MPJ / Claxton chemistry.

The Nets also run these trendy 3-man elbow (or higher out) plays where a big passer holds as 2 guys screen for each other. And Nic can find MPJ on cuts or go hand off so he pulls up.

You get lots of in-flow handoffs as well.
November 22, 2025 at 2:05 PM
🏀📊 Visualizing NBA offenses through behaviors of ball movement.

Plotting, at both team and player-level, passes attempted per ball touch x how many of those passes are directly leading to shot attempts.

Patterns of ball-swings vs pass-to-shot approaches - and how those mix - become visible.
November 22, 2025 at 2:48 AM
And yeah, I think he showed effort on the other end too. There are limits to what he could do but he held up really well for a rookie in terms of battling with the best player in the world.

Good job just competing, trying to deny the ball or use his speed to beat him to a spot.
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Queen did a good job getting these slower bigs out of balance with his handle.

Be a fake handoff or a change of speed, he can create real issues for these guys. That step-through is wonderful.

The Nuggets zone principles aren't built for a big that gets around Jokic that easily
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
He struggled with protecting the ball in some of these spots but both of these happened in the first quarter, which speaks well to how the game developed after a shakier start.
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
He has so many possessions where he's the offensive initiator for this squad.

He can bring the ball up or be a trailer, but he gets in the spots to make decisions at the top of the floor or have an action for him, like an inverted pick and roll, to initiate his attack.
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
🏀🎞️ The Nuggets took care of business in New Orleans but it wasn't a cakewalk and part of that was the play from Derik Queen.

He posted 30 points on 69.7 TS%, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 'stocks'.

Here's some quick throughs with clips 🧵⏬:
#Pelicans
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Diabate is one of the league's best offensive rebounders but he's now getting help from the young players that have joined the team this season.

In this Pacers game, albeit a loss, Diabate had 7 offensive boards in 24 minutes, but Kalkbrenner (5) and Knueppel (4) combined for 9.
November 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
ensive rebounding component to their game: They are now 4th in the NBA in OREB%!

Right now, 8 of their 10 players >=100 MP are at least in the median of positional OREB Score, and half of them are above the 80th percentile!
November 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
🏀As a Warriors fan, allow me the small happiness of seeing Harrison Barnes get to this late stage of his career and still be such an efficient piece for the Spurs offense.

Weird to think he'll have spent almost 3/4 of his career out of Golden State by the end of the season.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 AM
🏀📊After a positive Anthony Black post, let's balance it out with this:

Even with a couple of makes in the last Orlando win, it's a difficult start to the season for Tyus Jones on all fronts.

The shooting is the bit that really is a total outlier, so it is worth visualizing.
November 19, 2025 at 9:03 PM
The efficiency with him is always a question because of the jumpshot but it just looks like these drives have more intentionality and less of a "I can't shoot so I better drive" feel.

Here's some data on those same drives:
November 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
🏀In his 3rd year for the Magic, Anthony Black seems to be improving his driving game in visible ways. I really like to see it.

Handle looks fluid, with more horizontal shiftiness as he controls the pace with fakes, decelerations and adjusts his finishing angles.

Some data in the reply📊⏬
November 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
🏀📊I know 2nd-year players are meant to improve... but we can all agree that this sort of offensive juice from Kyshawn George is well beyond expected, right?

I was sure of his value as a Wizards core piece as at least a defender + connector. But this production is far beyond that.
November 18, 2025 at 12:21 AM
🏀📊 It's been a particularly bad start, with the noise of the early season probably explaining the outlier nature of his On/Off offensive impact.

But there is a consistent trend of Zach LaVine never really having elite values here, contrasted to how effective he is as a scorer.
November 17, 2025 at 7:11 PM
🏀📊 Overperforming expectations, these new Phoenix Suns have a ton of attacking and generating ball movement from that penetration.

This is evident when looking at the changes in Drives v Passes Per Drive for Goodwin, Booker, Allen, Brooks - as well as the addition of Gillespie
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I am seen raising my hands in disbelief watching that insane shot. I miss Litos playing on our side...

--------------------------------

Fui apanhado pelas câmaras a levar as mãos à cabeça quando o Litos fez esta loucura. Saudades de o ver neste pavilhão mas do nosso lado
November 17, 2025 at 12:12 PM