Team Composition: Are the Best Players on the Best Teams?

Leonard C. MacLean and William T. Ziemba

Chapter 16 in Sports Analytics, 2022, pp 239-255 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: We investigate whether or not the best players are on the best teams. We isolate those players who contribute the most to success and find that they are not necessarily the best players. Also having several good players is usually preferable to having one superstar. We use player ranking data from Sports Illustrated and from NFL players’ rankings. Defensive players are often more important than widely believed.

Keywords: Sports Analytics; Statistical Analysis of Sports Decisions; NFL Football; Thoroughbred Racing; Basketball; Baseball; Hockey; Jai Alai; Optimal Betting Strategies; Mean Reversion Risk; Arbitrage; Decision Strategies by Coaches (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 L83 Z2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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