What are the applications of game theory in NBA basketball?


Game theory studies the strategic interaction of rationale agents. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the world's premier basketball league, which includes 30 teams across the United States and Canada. An example of game theory in the NBA is the "modern NBA", in which teams play stretch 4s (Power Forwards) and 5s (Centers) who can dribble, pass and shoot rather than simply rebound and dunk. This becomes the "strictly dominate" strategy as this allows the "modern" NBA team to shoot a higher volume of 3 pointers, which has a higher expected value per shot (40 Field Goal % times 3 = 1.2) than 2 pointers (50 Field Goal % times 2 = 1). The Golden State Warriors championship run in the 2010s with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green is a great example of this coaching and player construction strategy. Now nearly all NBA teams employ this strategy, so it is less effective (A Nash (Not Steve Nash!) Equilibrium).