octothorp wrote:
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However most stats aren't really about actually about ranking players. Yes that is done by some more than others, but generally its only for 'ease of use/interpretation', since most discussions come down to comparing players anyways. ie. one can get an idea of how much impact (or combined impact) player A has vs player B. There is nothing wrong with this except that people take it too literally.
We have to remember stats are not finite precision, they are probable predictions. Think of them like a coin flip - no one knows for certain what side of the coin will come up, but we do know there are only 2 possibilities and each has an equal chance of happening (if we don't cheat ofcourse). Over the long run (say 100 flips) we could have any combination of flips, but the most likely outcome will be close to 50/50. Basketball stats aren't saying (are indeed never saying) it will be heads or tails, what they are saying is "its most likely to be close 50 of each side over a period of time".
I think where the problem lies is non-stats guys don't quite realize this (they think its predicting heads or tails), and the stats guys forget it (and pretend they can predict heads or tails).
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