L→R, Top→Bottom: ISO, Transition, P&R Ball Handler, Hand Off, Cutting, Spot Up, P&R Roll Man, Post Up, Off Screen

It can be hard to accurately judge coaches (except Jason Kidd) when so much of a team’s on-court results come down to the talent of the guys that hustle up and down the hardwood for forty-eight minutes. One way we evaluate coaches is through the plays they run. But teams go through thousands of possessions over the course of an 82 game season, making it difficult to see in real time the way that minor differences in playtype frequency and efficacy add up to major differences in wins.

So I set out to visualize it, to simplify every NBA offense to nine bubbles. These bubbles would show how much and how well each team ran the nine different play types (I know there are more than nine, but they can essentially be boiled down to these nine, and that’s how Synergy keeps track). The bubbles are also color coded to show how teams performed versus league average. Finally, I included some comments and analysis below each.

Obviously, this won’t be an exact science for team and coach evaluation. For example, while cutting is far and away the most effective play in the league, teams can only cut so many times before defensive adjustments are made, and players may cut but not receive credit for that play type if they don’t receive the ball.

Still, these charts tell us a lot. So let’s go.

How to read these charts

Higher Up: Scored lots of points per possession from this play

Lower Down: Scored few points per possession from this play

Larger: Used this play frequently

Smaller: Used this play rarely

More Red: Scored more points per possession from this play than the league average points per possession scoring from this play

More Blue: Scored less points per possession from this play than the league average points per possession scoring from this play

Note: You can come back soon for an article that displays up-to-date versions of these charts for the 2019 season.