Mathematics AI SL Internal Assessment
Relationship between a basketball player's height (in
centimeters) and their shooting skill assessed by true
shooting percentage
Candidate Number:ksr505
Page Count:15
, 2
Introduction
As a person who has played basketball for 7 years and has a small height, I used to blame my
height every time I lost a ball or had an unsuccessful attack. In the world of basketball, my
position itself (point guard) seems to carry some expectations and assumptions often regarding
height and physical characteristics. Not only about the position of a point guard but all the
positions in itself. For example, the position of shooting guard implied that a person must have a
good height in order to succeed in their shooting. Contemplations about the physical
characteristics of a player inevitably determining the shooting skills drove me to choose the topic
of the correlation between height and the true shooting percentage of the player. Basketball's
True Shooting Percentage (TSP%) is a metric that evaluates a player's shooting efficiency overall
by accounting for free throws, three-pointers, and two-pointers. My aim for this investigation is
to prove the general opinion in basketball that taller people have better skills in shooting than
shorter people.
Methodology
In order to investigate the correlation between two variables, I chose 10 NBA teams and from
each one, I took 2 tallest players and 2 shortest. This way I thought that the contrast of True
Shooting Percentage between the two groups would be more visible. After that, I conducted a
Pearson correlation test in order to find the correlation coefficient and prove my hypothesis.
Relationship between a basketball player's height (in
centimeters) and their shooting skill assessed by true
shooting percentage
Candidate Number:ksr505
Page Count:15
, 2
Introduction
As a person who has played basketball for 7 years and has a small height, I used to blame my
height every time I lost a ball or had an unsuccessful attack. In the world of basketball, my
position itself (point guard) seems to carry some expectations and assumptions often regarding
height and physical characteristics. Not only about the position of a point guard but all the
positions in itself. For example, the position of shooting guard implied that a person must have a
good height in order to succeed in their shooting. Contemplations about the physical
characteristics of a player inevitably determining the shooting skills drove me to choose the topic
of the correlation between height and the true shooting percentage of the player. Basketball's
True Shooting Percentage (TSP%) is a metric that evaluates a player's shooting efficiency overall
by accounting for free throws, three-pointers, and two-pointers. My aim for this investigation is
to prove the general opinion in basketball that taller people have better skills in shooting than
shorter people.
Methodology
In order to investigate the correlation between two variables, I chose 10 NBA teams and from
each one, I took 2 tallest players and 2 shortest. This way I thought that the contrast of True
Shooting Percentage between the two groups would be more visible. After that, I conducted a
Pearson correlation test in order to find the correlation coefficient and prove my hypothesis.
