# The Kings' starting five is great. So why are they bad?



## Basel (Mar 31, 2005)

> NBA lineup data is both useful and limited. Looking at the performance of five-man lineups gives really good -- not complete, but really good -- context for production. It's the most relevant data for figuring out what works and what doesn't on the court because it's a perfect reflection of what happens on the court. If a five-man unit gets outscored by 10 points per 100 possessions, that's probably not a good lineup. There's little wiggle room.
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> There are two main issues. First, raw five-man lineup data doesn't account for opponents. The other major problem is five-man units are used for comparatively few minutes. Whereas an individual player could play up to 3,000 minutes in a season, due to injuries, staggered rotations and the nature of role players, only a handful of the most-used five-man lineups in the league top out over 1,000 minutes together in a season. (Only two lineups have played more than 500 minutes together so far this season: the starting fives of the Clippers and Hawks.) In terms of deriving meaningful analysis, the sample sizes are pretty small.
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http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/2/...gs-lineup-starters-ty-corbin-demarcus-cousins


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