Meet Nik Raivio, The Next Jeremy Lin

Published: 3rd Mar 12 4:25 pm
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by Joshua Casey
Joshua Casey
Meet Nik Raivio, The Next Jeremy Lin
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

First off before I start to understand this post you need to know what the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is. The MIT SSAC (for short) is “a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. MIT Sloan is dedicated to fostering growth in this arena, and the conference enriches opportunities for learning about the sports business world.” That’s pretty much all you need to know. Alright here we go.

During the second day of the SSAC a man by the name of Muthu Alagappan presented a research paper titled, From 5 to 13: Redefining the Positions in Basketball. The paper used a new Ayasdi proprietary data analysis engine and decades of computational topology research at Stanford, to mathematically categorized players into 13 new positions (all of which were unveiled during the presentation).

But the biggest draw in Alagappan’s research was his research of shaping the data acquired, based on the research mentioned above, in terms of performance-based positions. Through this Alagappan said that he would be able to “discover undervalued players, manage in-game decisions, optimize rosters, and draft more intelligently.” Once everyone heard undervalued they already knew that somehow Jeremy Lin would be linked to this paper.

Sure enough Alagappan did talk about, through statistical data who, he saw as the next Jeremy Lin and who was closest to Lin (in terms of statistics). By using all the data I mentioned above and using “topological data analysis” Alagappan declared that Nik Raivio is the closes thing to Jeremy Lin.

Raivio is a 6’4, 205 lb. guard from the University of Portland who is currently playing in Kaposvar, Hungary for the Kaposvari Kosarlabda Klub. I couldn’t find his stats this season as it took me about three hours just to find what team he was playing for but according to Alagappan he definitely has the talent to become the next Jeremy Lin. The only questions is will some NBA team give him a chance.

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