Dean Oliver (@DeanO

Dean Oliver

9,202 posts

Dean Oliver

@DeanO_Lytics

Book #2 is Basketball Beyond Paper. Book #1 got me famous. I do sports analytics, mostly hoops. Now at ESPN, teach @SMWW, doing science of credit division.

Washington, DC

nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/97814…

Joined July 2012

Pinned
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Nov 4, 2025
It's been almost 40 years since I created Offensive Ratings for teams. I was a college kid. I don't know if I dreamed it would be used so much. My lens was that it helped *me*. Am very happy that the sport embraced the metrics and hope that it helps others as much as it did me.
1.9M
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Nov 4, 2025
Replying to @Herrojuku
The framework is great. You do have to ask "Why is a team ranked there?" That's where the Four Factors come in - to explain the rating. Potential interpretation problems can occur when garbage minutes are large, but that's true for all stats.
46K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Mar 19, 2025
Very happy to see that the efficiency measures I created decades ago are now regularly used by the league that I love.
NBA
@NBA
Mar 19, 2025
During their 7-game winning streak, the Rockets rank 2nd in offensive rating (122.1), 4th in defensive rating (107.5) and 1st in Net Rating (14.6). 🚀
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Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
May 17, 2018
20 years ago today, I recovered enough for the doctors to take me off life support (I used to aim to win at any cost, even my life). I began a bonus life, when I wrote Basketball on Paper, got into sports, met my wife, and lived a lot. Very grateful for 20 yrs of bonus life.
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Nov 11, 2025
Remember these Clippers' t-shirts to emphasize transition defense before the start of the year? The Clippers are currently 29th in transition D.
Tomer Azarly
@TomerAzarly
Sep 30, 2025
Jeff Van Gundy inspired these shirts that all Clippers coaches were wearing today at practice. “Get The F.U.C.K. Back”
espnanalytics.com
NBA Net Points - ESPN Analytics
Models and data visualization from ESPN Analytics. NBA & NFL Draft, schedule analysis, receiver scores and more.
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Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Jan 7, 2025
OKC has 22 of its 30 wins when losing the rebounding battle. CLE has 21 of its 31 wins when losing rebounding. The best teams in the league are sacrificing rebounding like no one else. OKC is bad on both ends, CLE just on O. They're redirecting their energy to other things.
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Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Apr 1, 2019
Threshold Win: When a player has more positive net points than the team won by. Also interpreted as: The team wouldn't have won w/o him. Threshold Loss: When a player has more negative net points than the team lost by. Also interpreted as: The team would have won w/o him.
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Mar 9, 2025
Al Horford faced 23 isos last night, second-most in tracking history. He allowed just 0.39 points per direct play, per Second Spectrum, on those. His +5.2 defensive net points were best of the day.
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Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Mar 3, 2025
Luka has 19 assists to LeBron, highest of any Lakers combo since the trade. LeBron's shot quality on those assists has been a crazy high 76%, per Second Spectrum.
30K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Aug 19, 2024
I got the advance proofs this weekend.
67K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Dec 30, 2024
Winning the 3pt battle is winning 71% of NBA games thus far. It started higher, went lower and is now back part of the way up. Rebounds are recently over 50%. Turnovers were initially high and have come down.
51K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
May 5, 2025
This morning, First Take had a segment about how bad James Harden has been in Game 7s. He had -4.7 net pts on Saturday. He has averaged a poor -1.4 net points in 7 of them. But note that Kawhi hasn't been great either, averaging 0.0. Both are among the worst of the great players
84K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Nov 9, 2025
That Sengun play - going full court against Giannis pressure D, burning him with dribble moves, creating a lane to the rim against help D then converting for an and-one - was some kind of resume highlight.
13K
Dean Oliver
@DeanO_Lytics
Aug 3, 2019
Thanks for the encouragement since the announcement of my new position. As I've promised the Wizards, I promise that I will work hard, work smart, and aim for the highest levels of success, in hopes that it also opens up opportunities for others...But I won't promise many tweets.