The Week That Was (Mar. 4-8, 2024)
A roundup of what I wrote, read, watched, etc. over the past week.
In this space on Saturdays, I do a weekly round-up of sorts: Sifting through what I wrote that you might have missed during the week, what I’ve been reading and watching myself, and some other fun things that have been going on. Let me know what you think about the format in the comments (or email me!), and if there are running sections you’d like to see on a regular basis.
What I did this week
Stealing a bit from Will Leitch’s newsletter format, here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.
🏀 The 2023-24 Boston Celtics Are One of the Greatest Regular-Season Teams in NBA History - Yes, they immediately lost a couple of games after I wrote this (the stat curse is real!)… but this year’s Celtics still have some of the most impressive metrics of any team in NBA history.
🏒 Does the NHL Trade Deadline Matter? - I love trade deadlines, and this year’s edition in the NHL delivered tons of moves. But will any of them matter? History says the amount of talent a team adds at the deadline has a small correlation at best with stretch-run (and playoff) success.
⚾️🎧 Are the San Francisco Giants Trying to Win or Not? - The San Francisco Giants are always one of my favorite teams to follow because they perennially defy all predictions and expectations. But this year’s team is especially confusing, because even they don’t seem to know how good they want to be.
🏀 Predictions! 13 Writers on a Boston vs. Denver NBA Finals - As part of
’s ensemble cast, I offered my prediction for a hypothetical Celtics-Nuggets Finals based on my prediction model.🏒 The Vegas Golden Knights Are Gearing up to Save Their Repeat Bid - Last year’s Golden Knights won the Cup with one of the weirdest roster constructions of any champion, but it appears they’re taking steps to look more like a normal champ this time around. And based on their surprisingly high probability of missing the playoffs, they probably needed to do it.
🏒 A Visual Guide to the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline - Ahead of Friday’s deadline, I charted all of the pending free agents who might be available (based on playoff odds) by their Goals Above Replacement. While it’s not rocket science to predict that these are the types of guys who are typically on the move, a lot of the names we highlighted ended up being traded later in the week!
Some interesting things I read/watched this week
⚾️ Can We Predict Minor League Sprint Speed? by
🏀 3s aren’t everything by
🏀 Finding Balance: The Path To A Meaningful NBA Rotational Role by
🏈 Inverting The Pyramid: The Optimal Offseason Guide to NFL Team-Building by
🏒 Daniel Sprong has never seen a shot he didn't like. He also has one of the best shots in the world. by
🏀 Film Findings Ep. 15: Jokic, Sabonis, and high post playmaking by
🏀👑 Is LeBron the most consistent athlete ever? by
🏀 We're Underestimating Victor Wembanyama. by
🏀 Rebuild Retrospective: Oklahoma City Thunder by
⚾️ Innovation should be celebrated! ... then again, here are 10 failed experiments by
🏀 Your 2024 defensive player of the year is Houston by
🏒 Let's talk about the Vegas Golden Knights by
🏀 NBA Inside Stuff Review - Shining Star by
🏀📺 The NBA Video Game of the 2000s by
⚾️ Prune The Past To Promote New Growth by
💰 The Dartmouth Basketball Union by
⚾️ Educating Twitter: Konerko's Red Herrings by
Just a general shoutout, but I’ve been really enjoying
’s I Might Be Wrong podcast — very funny commentary on things from both 1924 and 2024!
Updating tracker of week
🏁 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Rankings 🚗
Chart of the week
The great Dale Earnhardt Jr. had one of the most inexplicable mid-prime slumps in 2009, with his Adjusted Points Index dropping from 68% better than the Cup Series average to 20% worse at the height of his career. He would rebound to 7% above average the following season, and was 92% better than average again within 3 seasons. Go figure.
Old YouTube game(s) of the week
Braves vs Giants (6-1-1994, ESPN joins in progress bottom 2nd)
Music to play us out
“Shadow People” by Dr. Dog
Filed under: Weekly Round-up