# NBA Evolution Analysis (1990–2024) # Course: Introduction to Data Science # Author: Tomer Golan # Objective: Analyze how the NBA game evolved over time using EDA and visualization url = "https://huggingface.co/datasets/Tomertg/stats/resolve/main/players_stats_by_season_full_details.csv" df = pd.read_csv(url) # Step 1: Import required libraries import pandas as pd import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import seaborn as sns from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator # Configure visual style sns.set(style="whitegrid", font_scale=1.1, palette="muted") # Load dataset df = pd.read_csv("players_stats_by_season_full_details.csv") # Focus only on NBA data df = df[df['League'] == 'NBA'] # Select relevant columns cols = ['Season', 'PTS', 'AST', '3PM', 'height_cm'] df = df[cols] # Preview print("Shape:", df.shape) df.head() # Drop missing values and ensure numeric columns df = df.dropna() df['Season_Year'] = df['Season'].str.extract(r'(\d{4})').astype(int) # Filter for reasonable timeline df = df[df['Season_Year'].between(1990, 2024)] # Convert numeric columns properly for col in ['PTS', 'AST', '3PM', 'height_cm']: df[col] = pd.to_numeric(df[col], errors='coerce') print("After cleaning:", df.shape) # Summary statistics df[['PTS', 'AST', '3PM', 'height_cm']].describe() # Group by year and calculate averages trend = df.groupby('Season_Year')[['PTS', 'AST', '3PM', 'height_cm']].mean().reset_index() # Rename columns for clarity trend.rename(columns={ 'PTS': 'Avg_Points', 'AST': 'Avg_Assists', '3PM': 'Avg_3PM', 'height_cm': 'Avg_Height' }, inplace=True) trend.head() # Helper function for clean, clear barplots def make_barplot(data, x, y, color, title, xlabel, ylabel): plt.figure(figsize=(9,6)) ax = sns.barplot(x=x, y=y, data=data, color=color, edgecolor='black') ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True)) plt.title(title, fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel(xlabel) plt.ylabel(ylabel) plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # Average Points & Assists plt.figure(figsize=(10,6)) bar_data = trend.melt(id_vars='Season_Year', value_vars=['Avg_Points', 'Avg_Assists'], var_name='Metric', value_name='Average') ax = sns.barplot(x='Season_Year', y='Average', hue='Metric', data=bar_data, palette=['orange', 'mediumseagreen'], edgecolor='black') ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True)) plt.title("Average Points and Assists per Player (NBA 1990–2024)", fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel("Season Year") plt.ylabel("Average per Player") plt.xticks(rotation=45) plt.legend(title="Metric", loc='upper left') plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # The 3 Point Revolution plt.figure(figsize=(10,6)) ax = sns.barplot(x='Season_Year', y='Avg_3PM', data=trend, color='dodgerblue', edgecolor='black') ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True)) plt.title("Average 3-Point Shots Made per Player (1990–2024)", fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel("Season Year") plt.ylabel("Average 3PM per Player") plt.xticks(rotation=45) plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # Average Height Over Time plt.figure(figsize=(10,6)) ax = sns.lineplot(x='Season_Year', y='Avg_Height', data=trend, color='purple', linewidth=2.5, marker='o') ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True)) plt.title("Average Player Height (1990–2024)", fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel("Season Year") plt.ylabel("Average Height (cm)") plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # Points vs Assists over time plt.figure(figsize=(10,6)) scatter = sns.scatterplot( x='Avg_Assists', y='Avg_Points', data=trend, hue='Season_Year', palette='coolwarm', size='Avg_3PM', sizes=(50, 300), alpha=0.8, edgecolor='black' ) sns.regplot( x='Avg_Assists', y='Avg_Points', data=trend, scatter=False, color='black', line_kws={'linestyle':'--', 'linewidth':2} ) plt.title("Points vs Assists Over Time (Color = Year, Size = 3PM)", fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel("Average Assists per Player") plt.ylabel("Average Points per Player") plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.legend(title="Season Year", loc='upper left', bbox_to_anchor=(1.02, 1)) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # Ratio of Points to Assists trend['PTS_AST_Ratio'] = trend['Avg_Points'] / trend['Avg_Assists'] plt.figure(figsize=(10,6)) ax = sns.lineplot(x='Season_Year', y='PTS_AST_Ratio', data=trend, color='crimson', linewidth=2.5, marker='o') ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True)) plt.title("Ratio of Points to Assists Over Time (Team Play Indicator)", fontsize=15, weight='bold') plt.xlabel("Season Year") plt.ylabel("Points / Assists Ratio") plt.grid(True, linestyle='--', alpha=0.6) plt.tight_layout() plt.show() corr = trend[['Avg_Points', 'Avg_Assists', 'Avg_3PM', 'Avg_Height']].corr() plt.figure(figsize=(6,4)) sns.heatmap(corr, annot=True, cmap='coolwarm', fmt=".2f") plt.title("Correlation Between NBA Performance Metrics", fontsize=14, weight='bold') plt.tight_layout() plt.show() # Summary of Findings print(""" Summary of Findings (1990 - 2024): 1. Average points per player have risen slightly - the game became faster and more efficient. 2. Assists grew steadily - NBA teams now play with more collaboration and spacing. 3. The 3-point revolution exploded after 2010 - the single biggest transformation in modern basketball. 4. Average player height slightly decreased - speed and versatility are prioritized over size. 5. The ratio of points to assists dropped - showing that more scoring now comes from teamwork. In short: The NBA has evolved from slow, isolation heavy basketball into a fast, perimeter oriented, analytics-driven, and team first game. """)