basketball-reference.com (a.k.a the greatest NBA historical resource in the universe) has added a nifty feature. For those familiar with the site, for a given player's season, you can find the players who had the most "similar" season at the same age. It does this by calculating similarity scores. Very interesting stuff. Recently, the site augmented this by showing the ten most similar player-seasons, regardless of age. A constant basketball topic of debate is who's the most similar player to Michael Jordan. This helps us get to that question. Here's Jordan's b-r page. Scroll down the similarity scores section. For each of his season, it shows which players were most similar, statistically. What do you know, for 8 of his first 9 seasons (second season isn't shown since he only played 18 games), a Kobe Bryant season was calculated as most similar. And if you go through the top 10 for each of the seasons, Kobe dominates the lists (particularly in the first half his career when he was Jordan was scoring like crazy. Keep in mind that height is also factored into the similarity score, so Kobe gets extra points for being 6'6 as well. It's interesting to see how the players change as your progress through Jordan's career. Gives an indication of how his game changed. Dominique Wilkins turns up a lot in 1997 and 1998. And in 1996, on perhaps the greatest Bulls team, Mark Aguirre was the most similar player. Makes sense, when you think about how he played (much more a post up player). 1985 Kobe Bryant, 2004 (953) Kobe Bryant, 2003 (951) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (950) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (950) Paul Pierce, 2006 (946) Clyde Drexler, 1992 (940) Paul Pierce, 2002 (940) Clyde Drexler, 1988 (939) Kobe Bryant, 2000 (939) Paul Pierce, 2001 (936) 1987 Kobe Bryant, 2006 (944) Kobe Bryant, 2003 (905) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (900) Dominique Wilkins, 1988 (894) Jerry Stackhouse, 2001 (889) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (883) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (882) George Gervin, 1982 (881) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (881) Kobe Bryant, 2004 (881) 1988 Kobe Bryant, 2003 (932) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (912) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (912) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (909) Julius Erving, 1980 (906) Vince Carter, 2005 (903) Bernard King, 1985 (899) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (899) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (897) Jerry Stackhouse, 2001 (896) 1989 Kobe Bryant, 2003 (938) LeBron James, 2006 (919) Paul Pierce, 2003 (916) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (914) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (908) LeBron James, 2005 (908) Dwyane Wade, 2006 (906) Kobe Bryant, 2005 (903) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (901) Grant Hill, 2000 (899) 1990 Kobe Bryant, 2003 (935) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (924) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (918) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (916) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (914) Vince Carter, 2005 (913) Mark Aguirre, 1984 (911) Bernard King, 1985 (908) Julius Erving, 1980 (906) Tracy McGrady, 2005 (901) 1991 Kobe Bryant, 2003 (933) Julius Erving, 1980 (925) Vince Carter, 2005 (923) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (919) Mark Aguirre, 1984 (910) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (908) George Gervin, 1979 (905) Julius Erving, 1981 (905) Julius Erving, 1982 (905) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (905) 1992 Kobe Bryant, 2003 (952) Vince Carter, 2005 (940) Julius Erving, 1980 (933) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (929) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (927) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (927) Mark Aguirre, 1984 (925) Tracy McGrady, 2005 (925) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (924) Vince Carter, 2004 (923) 1993 Kobe Bryant, 2006 (938) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (923) Kobe Bryant, 2003 (917) Vince Carter, 2005 (914) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (908) Dominique Wilkins, 1988 (903) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (900) Mark Aguirre, 1984 (895) Bernard King, 1985 (895) George Gervin, 1982 (894) 1996 Mark Aguirre, 1984 (932) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (931) Kobe Bryant, 2003 (930) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (928) Vince Carter, 2005 (926) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (923) Bernard King, 1985 (922) Dominique Wilkins, 1988 (922) George Gervin, 1981 (919) Dominique Wilkins, 1993 (919) 1997 Vince Carter, 2005 (950) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (943) George Gervin, 1981 (935) Mark Aguirre, 1984 (929) Dominique Wilkins, 1990 (929) Dominique Wilkins, 1993 (928) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (927) Vince Carter, 2000 (926) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (926) Dominique Wilkins, 1994 (925) 1998 Dominique Wilkins, 1988 (947) Dominique Wilkins, 1987 (943) Kobe Bryant, 2001 (941) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (941) Vince Carter, 2005 (941) George Gervin, 1981 (938) Dominique Wilkins, 1986 (937) Bernard King, 1985 (934) Dominique Wilkins, 1985 (934) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (931) 2002 Tracy McGrady, 2006 (932) Kobe Bryant, 2006 (922) Vince Carter, 2004 (910) Jerry Stackhouse, 2001 (903) Vince Carter, 2005 (901) Jerry Stackhouse, 2002 (900) Tracy McGrady, 2004 (900) Tracy McGrady, 2003 (896) Paul Pierce, 2003 (896) Paul Pierce, 2004 (896) 2003 Paul Pierce, 2004 (937) Jason Richardson, 2005 (936) Jamal Crawford, 2004 (933) Glenn Robinson, 2002 (932) Rick Barry, 1978 (931) Kobe Bryant, 2002 (931) Walter Davis, 1986 (929) Mitch Richmond, 1997 (929) Kobe Bryant, 2004 (929) Kobe Bryant, 2000 (928)
cool list. I thought that there would have been more early VC. Is this only a statistical comparision?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">cool list. I thought that there would have been more early VC. Is this only a statistical comparision?</div> Yeah, check out the similarity scores link for details.
WOW that is pretty a complicated way to compare players. I still dont see why VC in toronto isn't on there. Similar height, numbers, minutes, and shot attempts. Not to mention styles of play
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">WOW that is pretty a complicated way to compare players. I still dont see why VC in toronto isn't on there. Similar height, numbers, minutes, and shot attempts. Not to mention styles of play</div> Well, "styles of play" can be deceptive. They're both great dunkers, but the similarity score isn't interested in that. But I agree, I am somewhat surprised he doesn't turn up more often. I'm sure they are very similar, but he probably just misses the cut on many of the seasons. Carter isn't as prolific a scorer as Kobe, McGrady, or 'Nique. He doesn't get to the free throw line nearly as often as Jordan did. And his assist rate has also been relatively low. I guess that combination somehow separated him from the pack. The site also has him listed as 1 inch taller, which you wouldn't think would make much of a difference, but the formula weights height twice as much as any other attribute.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Raps-CB4:</div><div class="quote_post">I think d-wade should be on that list</div> He should, but unfortunately the similary score metric takes height into consideration (I think it gives it too much weight, personally). That's probably why Wade doesn't turn up. The 2-inch difference in official height was probably just enough to bump him out of the top 10.
