Is the inside pass a performance indicator? Observational analysis of elite basketball teams

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: 1) to analyse the influence of inside pass on the basketball offensive success and 2) to detect the influence of both passer and receiver location, and the receiver immediate action on successful inside pass. The sample was 1324 attack phases of nine games of the 2012 Euroleague Playoff. All recorded matches were analysed by four observers. Observational methodology was used through a follow-up, ideographic, and multidimensional design approach. An ad-hoc instrument was developed in order to obtain behaviour systematic registration. For the first aim, analysed criteria were: 1) offensive effectiveness, 2) shooting zone, 3) total points scored by attack phase, 4) possession duration and 5) number of passes. For the second one: 1) passer location, 2) receiver location, and 3) immediate receiver action were registered for each inside pass attack. Multirater k free index (Randolph, 2005) was used to measure inter-observers agreement, obtaining a value over .84 in each case. In addition, intra-observers reproducibility was evaluated at the end of the observation process by calculating Cohen´s Kappa, obtaining a minimum value of .90. For statistical data analysis, Mann-Whitney U test, crosstabs, Chi-square and multinomial logistic regression were carried on.  The finding results show that a) those attack phase in which inside pass is done are more effective and achieve a larger amount of points, and b) passer location and immediate receiver action determinate a successful inside pass, being the outside pass with an inside reception the most effective option. These results suggest to consider the inside pass as a performance indicator in basketball.