awesome-nba-data
Curated NBA data sources, APIs, analytics tools, learning resources, and metric explainers.
https://github.com/JovaniPink/awesome-nba-data
Last synced: 6 days ago
JSON representation
-
Advanced Stats Explained
- Ben Taylor's NBA Stats 101 Series
- PER - Player Efficiency Rating - Overview of John Hollinger's pace-adjusted box-score summary metric.
- Win Shares - Basketball-Reference methodology for allocating estimated team wins to players.
- VORP - Value Over Replacement Player - Overview of the box-score estimate of points contributed relative to a replacement player.
- BPM - Box Plus/Minus - Basketball-Reference methodology for estimating player contribution per 100 possessions from box-score data.
- eFG% - Effective Field Goal Percentage - Explanation of field-goal percentage adjusted for the added value of three-pointers.
- TS% - True Shooting Percentage - Overview of scoring efficiency that incorporates field goals, three-pointers, and free throws.
- Net Rating
- RAPTOR - Intro and Method - Archived FiveThirtyEight explainer for its historical player-impact model.
- Net Rating - Discussion of team or lineup point differential per 100 possessions and its limitations.
- EPM - Estimated Plus-Minus Methodology - Dunks & Threes methodology for its player-impact estimate.
- LEBRON - Metric Introduction - Basketball Index introduction to its player-impact metric and design goals.
-
Analytics & Advanced Metrics Sites
- ESPN NBA Stats - Unofficial league-wide player and team leaderboards with sortable tables.
- Basketball-Reference - Unofficial historical reference for player, team, season, and game pages; automated reuse is governed by Sports Reference's data-use policy.
- Cleaning the Glass - Paid analytics that filter garbage time and provide team, player, and lineup views.
- 82Games - Lineup, five-player-unit, on/off, physicality, and game-analysis archives with current-season research.
- Inpredictable - Win probability models and tempo/variance research for NBA and other sports.
- NBAstuffer - Aggregated dashboards, pace/strength-of-schedule, lineup tools, and analytics guides.
- PBP Stats - Derived on-off, WOWY, lineup, and possession views with a subscriber API.
- Stathead (Sports-Reference) - Paid research queries for player, team, game, streak, and split analysis.
- Dunks & Threes - EPM - Derived Estimated Plus-Minus and team-rating leaderboards with a public methodology page.
- BBall Index - LEBRON - Derived role, skill, and LEBRON tooling with a mix of public and paid access.
- Crafted NBA - Player/team dashboards and meta-metrics (DARKO, DRIP, LEBRON, RAPTOR, CraftedPM), comparisons, and roles.
- NBA RAPM (nbarapm.com) - Career and rolling **RAPM** plus cross-metric peak summaries.
-
APIs & Open Data
- nba_api - Unofficial MIT-licensed Python client for NBA.com endpoints; upstream schemas and endpoints change without a public stability contract.
- PBP Stats API Docs - Paid API documentation for derived possession, lineup, on-off, and WOWY data.
- pbpstats (Python) - Library to parse NBA/WNBA/G League play-by-play; powers PBP Stats.
- balldontlie API - Free JSON NBA data API (games, players, stats). Great for prototypes; not 100% complete with tracking/synergy-style data.
- Kaggle - NBA Datasets - Community dataset index where provenance, license, coverage, and correction behavior must be checked per dataset.
- sportsdataverse-py - Open-source Python package for NBA schedules, play-by-play, box scores, rosters, and related source wrappers.
- hoopR - Open-source R package and bulk loaders for men's basketball data, including NBA play-by-play releases from 2002 onward.
- pbpstats - Open-source parser that derives possessions, lineups, and shot-zone context from NBA, WNBA, and G League play-by-play.
- BALLDONTLIE NBA API - API-key service with free teams, players, and games; statistics, play-by-play, lineups, injuries, and odds require paid tiers.
-
Data Analysis Libraries & Tools
- Basketball Reference Web Scraper - Unofficial Python scraper retained for legacy research; Sports Reference policy review is required before automated use.
- hoopR - R package for loading NBA and other basketball data from SportsDataverse sources.
- pbpstats - Python package for parsing possessions, lineups, and shot zones from NBA, WNBA, and G League play-by-play.
- Polars - Open-source DataFrame engine suited to typed, lazy transformations over Parquet and other analytical formats.
- DuckDB - Open-source analytical database for local SQL over Parquet and reproducible research snapshots.
-
Legacy / Archived (still useful)
- FiveThirtyEight NBA - NBA coverage largely archived; RAPTOR explainer still valuable.
- FiveTimesFive - Blog: thoughtful analytics write-ups (posting cadence varies).
- 82Games - Classic lineup/five-man and on/off archives.
- NBA Match Visualizer - Single Game Example - Example link to a historic game visualization.
- Back Picks - Ben Taylor's long-form analytics pieces and historical series.
-
Licensed Production Feeds
- Sportradar NBA API - Licensed B2B NBA feeds with schedules, rosters, statistics, play-by-play, change logs, and provider identifiers.
- SportsDataIO NBA API - Commercial NBA feeds for scores, statistics, play-by-play, injuries, projections, and betting data with subscription-specific access.
-
NBA Analysis and Stats Sites
-
Official & League Data
- NBA.com - Official league site for scores, schedules, standings, news, and video; use remains subject to NBA terms.
- NBA Stats (stats.nba.com) - Official stats portal for box scores, play-by-play, shooting, tracking summaries, lineups, and Hustle data; it is not a published bulk-data license.
- NBA Official (Officiating Hub) - Official rulebook, Coach's Challenge, and Last Two Minute report hub.
- NBA Communications - Official press releases for transactions, awards, schedule changes, and league announcements.
- NBA Top Shot - Official blockchain collectibles; occasionally useful for media assets and moment metadata.
- NBA Injury Report: 2025-26 Season - Official, season-specific reports containing participation statuses and stated reasons that teams update throughout reporting windows; this changing web reference is not a historical bulk-data API.
- NBA Player Transactions - Official filterable transaction reference for signings, waivers, trades, and other roster moves; the public page does not establish a documented bulk-data license.
-
Official Sites
-
YouTube Channels
-
YouTube & Learning
- Thinking Basketball - Film + stats breakdowns, metric explainers, historical series.
- Hoops Tonight - Analytics, history, and film breakdowns.
- Basketball Index (channel) - Occasional metric and player/role breakdowns.
Categories
Sub Categories