Visualizing the NBA via networks.

NetStats is an interactive basketball analytics platform designed to visualize team dynamics and bring deeper context to both traditional and advanced statistics. By analyzing each team's passing network, we quantify player roles using intuitive, interpretable metrics derived from network topology. In addition to individual roles, NetStats computes team-level network statistics to uncover broader patterns of ball movement and strategy.

Team Explorer

Interact with teams through two core lenses: the passing network and lineup-based insights.

Passing Network

Visualize the frequency and direction of passes between players. Hover over a player to see only that player's pass edges and shot chart. Clicking on a player in he network will open a more detailed player page. The Flow toggle in the upper right corner will show a cleaner view of the team's network. The edges in this view are the combined passes between players, where the player on the white side of the edge receives more passes in the duo.

Lineup Explorer

On load, you will be shown a table of the selected team's top 10 lineups (ranked by minutes played together). When a lineup is clicked, the lineup's assist network and shot chart will be displayed below. Both the assist network and shot chart are conditional to that lineup, meaning assists and shots are unique to when those 5 players were sharing the court. Click on any player in the assist network to view that player's shot chart within the lineup.

League Explorer

Player Metrics

Explore player roles across the league. The roles defined thus far are:

Players who are the offensive engines of their team. High number of passes made and recieved along with high number of touches, time of posession, and scoring

Players with a high number of passes made, with few passes recieved. Less emphasis on scoring than a Hub. Important that they make a lot of passes to several players (wide distribution of high-frequency outgoing pass frequencies).

Players with a high number of passes made and recieved akin to that of a Hub. Important charateristic is they have several high-frequency incoming and outgoing connections. There is less emphasis on scoring, touches, and time of posession for Conduits compared to Hubs.

Players who score in an efficient manner and do not make a lot of passes. This doesn't mean they don't pass or they don't get a lot of assists, but it does imply they typically are on the recieving end of passes.

An offensive black hole, a player that takes many shots at a low efficiency and may have a high number of passes recieved contrasting a very low number of passes made.

Player pages

Click on any player in one of the League tables to view player stats, the individual player's passing network, their role-score calculations, and their shot chart.

Team Metrics

Explore network metrics that aim to quantify aspects of team dynamics and ball movement charateristics.