| Abstract: |
This note examines the productive efficiency of 62 starting guards during the
2011/12 National Basketball Association (NBA) season. This period coincides
with the phenomenal and largely unanticipated performance of New York Knicks’
starting point guard Jeremy Lin and the attendant public and media hype known
as Linsanity. We employ a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach that
includes allowance for an undesirable output, here turnovers per game, with
the desirable outputs of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per
game and an input of minutes per game. The results indicate that depending
upon the specification, between 29 and 42 percent of NBA guards are fully
efficient, including Jeremy Lin, with a mean inefficiency of 3.7 and 19.2
percent. However, while Jeremy Lin is technically efficient, he seldom serves
as a benchmark for inefficient players, at least when compared with
established players such as Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade. This suggests the
uniqueness of Jeremy Lin's productive solution and may explain why his unique
style of play, encompassing individual brilliance, unselfish play, and team
leadership, is of such broad public appeal. |