The invasion of statistics and probability theory into baseball since the 1990’s has been well-chronicled by Michael Lewis’s Moneyball. I could devote an entire post to why the actual premise of Moneyball is often missed by the media and pundits within the sport. Another time, perhaps.

However, if you read Moneyball, check out this week’s New York Times Magazine. There’s an article in there by Michael Lewis that essentially takes the premise of Moneyball and explores its growing popularity in the NBA. It’s an excellent read and takes all of 30 minutes. But it’s fascinating to look at basketball and how it’s probably going to have to fundamentally change in the next decade to reach a more MLB-like existence. Currently, NBA stats capture just a sliver of what goes on on the basketball court. Baseball stats, on the other hand, capture a majority of the action (with some gaps, admittedly). For Sabermetrics to really take root in the NBA, teams are going to have to come up with new statistical measurements that accurately value a player’s contributions to his team each game. That’s basically what Lewis’s article is about.

Click here to read the article.