About Our Research
The term "success cycle," when applied to sports, refers to the notion that teams, over many seasons, may perform very well for a certain period of time, and then very poorly for another period. Of course, there may be some teams that are consistent contenders, or there are some teams that are consistently at the bottom of the standings. There is currently a lack of research into both the success cycles of NBA teams and the effect certain decisions might have on such a cycle; we will aim to fill this gap with this research. We will employ descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive methods in order to achieve this goal.
our research questions:
- Are there success cycles in the NBA, and, if so, are there different patterns of success over time?
- Which factors most influence a team’s likelihood to be successful?
- What decisions should a team make in order to increase its likelihood of shortand long-term success, based on its current makeup and external factors?