Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems (지능정보연구)

Korea Intelligent Information System Society (한국지능정보시스템학회)
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Prediction of Key Variables Affecting NBA Playoffs Advancement: Focusing on 3 Points and Turnover Features

미국 프로농구(NBA)의 플레이오프 진출에 영향을 미치는 주요 변수 예측: 3점과 턴오버 속성을 중심으로

  • An, Sehwan (Graduate School of Technology & Innovation Management, Hanyang University) ;
  • Kim, Youngmin (Graduate School of Technology & Innovation Management, Hanyang University)
  • 안세환 (한양대학교 기술경영학과) ;
  • 김영민 (한양대학교 기술경영학과)
  • Received : 2022.03.04
  • Accepted : 2022.03.22
  • Published : 2022.03.31
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Abstract

This study acquires NBA statistical information for a total of 32 years from 1990 to 2022 using web crawling, observes variables of interest through exploratory data analysis, and generates related derived variables. Unused variables were removed through a purification process on the input data, and correlation analysis, t-test, and ANOVA were performed on the remaining variables. For the variable of interest, the difference in the mean between the groups that advanced to the playoffs and did not advance to the playoffs was tested, and then to compensate for this, the average difference between the three groups (higher/middle/lower) based on ranking was reconfirmed. Of the input data, only this year's season data was used as a test set, and 5-fold cross-validation was performed by dividing the training set and the validation set for model training. The overfitting problem was solved by comparing the cross-validation result and the final analysis result using the test set to confirm that there was no difference in the performance matrix. Because the quality level of the raw data is high and the statistical assumptions are satisfied, most of the models showed good results despite the small data set. This study not only predicts NBA game results or classifies whether or not to advance to the playoffs using machine learning, but also examines whether the variables of interest are included in the major variables with high importance by understanding the importance of input attribute. Through the visualization of SHAP value, it was possible to overcome the limitation that could not be interpreted only with the result of feature importance, and to compensate for the lack of consistency in the importance calculation in the process of entering/removing variables. It was found that a number of variables related to three points and errors classified as subjects of interest in this study were included in the major variables affecting advancing to the playoffs in the NBA. Although this study is similar in that it includes topics such as match results, playoffs, and championship predictions, which have been dealt with in the existing sports data analysis field, and comparatively analyzed several machine learning models for analysis, there is a difference in that the interest features are set in advance and statistically verified, so that it is compared with the machine learning analysis result. Also, it was differentiated from existing studies by presenting explanatory visualization results using SHAP, one of the XAI models.

본 연구는 웹 크롤링을 이용하여 1990년부터 2022년까지 총 32개년에 해당하는 NBA 통계 정보를 획득하고, 탐색적 데이터 분석을 통해 관심 변수를 관찰하고 관련된 파생변수를 생성한다. 입력 데이터에 대한 정제 과정을 거쳐 무의미한 변수들을 제거하고, 남은 변수에 대한 상관관계 분석, t 검정 및 분산분석을 수행하였다. 관심 변수에 대해 플레이오프 진출/미진출 그룹 간 평균의 차이를 검정하였고, 이를 보완하기 위해 순위를 기준으로 하는 3개 집단(상위/중위/하위) 간 평균 차이를 재확인하였다. 입력 데이터 중 올해 시즌 데이터만을 테스트 세트로 활용하였고, 모델 훈련을 위해서는 훈련 세트와 검증 세트를 분할하여 5-fold 교차검증을 수행하였다. 교차검증 결과와 시험 세트를 이용한 최종 분석 결과를 비교하여 성능 지표에서 차이가 없음을 확인함으로써 과적합 문제를 해결하였다. 원시 데이터의 품질 수준이 높고, 통계적 가정을 만족하기 때문에 적은 수준의 데이터 세트임에도 불구하고 대부분 모델에서 좋은 결과를 나타냈다. 본 연구는 단순히 머신러닝을 이용하여 NBA의 경기 결과를 예측하거나 플레이오프 진출 여부만을 분류하는 것에서 그치지 않고, 입력 특성의 중요도를 파악하여 높은 중요도를 갖는 주요 변수에 본 연구의 관심 대상 변수가 포함되는지를 확인하였다. Shap value의 시각화를 통해 특성 중요도의 결과만으로 해석할 수 없었던 한계를 극복하고, 변수의 진입/제거 과정에서 중요도 산출에 일관성이 부족하다는 점을 보완할 수 있었다. 본 연구에서 관심 대상으로 분류했던 3점 및 실책과 관련된 다수의 변수가 미국 프로농구에서의 플레이오프 진출에 영향을 미치는 주요 변수에 포함되는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 기존의 스포츠 데이터 분석 분야에서 다루었던 경기 결과, 플레이오프 및 우승 예측 등의 주제를 포함하고 분석을 위해 여러 머신러닝 모델을 비교 분석했다는 점에서 유사성이 있지만, 사전에 관심 속성을 설정하고, 이를 통계적으로 검증함으로써 머신러닝 분석 결과와 비교하였다는 측면에서 차이가 있다. 또한 XAI 모델 중 하나인 SHAP를 이용하여 설명 가능한 시각화 결과를 제시함으로써 기존 연구와 차별화하였다.

Keywords

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