International NBA Bar-Graph Analysis

By extrapolating data and presenting it visually, we can see information through another lens that can help us to identify or draw new conclusions to pre-existing information. I have taken the international players in the NBA by team and grouped them on a kind of bar graph to show how many international players there are per team, formerly under contract pending NBA lockout negotiations. From this new presentations some conclusions can be drawn and some interpretations that I explore are evident, but I invite you to make of this what you will and comment on any unexamined patterns or other factors that I may have missed. I know that with these players you could argue that many of them are questionably international (Tim Duncan - Virgin Islands anybody?...) but for the most part these are the international players most recently under NBA contract.

ATLANTIC - 15 total
CENTRAL - 14 total

SOUTHEAST - 15 total
SOUTHWEST - 19 total

NORTHWEST - 19 total
PACIFIC - 10 total

- In the Atlantic it is evident that the Raptors have the most International players, it has been a staple of Raptor basketball in the Colangelo era, but the Raptors 6 international players ties Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, and Utah for the team with the most international talent.

- Dallas had six international players and won the NBA championship. Utah and Denver had tumultuous years and remain in the middle of the pack. Cleveland and Toronto were at the bottom of the league. It seems like international talent is not a surefire recipe for success.

- It is also shocking to look at the Indiana Pacers lineup and realize that all of their players are American-born, and not a single roster spot holds international talent. Only the Magic and Clippers have only one international player and all of the other NBA teams have at least two.

- The Pacific Division is badly lacking in international talent. With only roster spots held by international players it is by far the least diverse division. Contrast this to the other two Western Divisions who both have 19 international players -nearly double!

EAST total - 44
WEST total - 48

- Overall the Western Conference holds more international talent, but it is weighed down by the Pacific division, while the Eastern Divisions are remarkably similar in number (15-14-15) with little deviation.

- Any other findings?

Two online sources of information

Win % correlated against number of international players on roster- year unknown

Online Map of the NBA World