Characteristic of Playing Positions in the Basketball through the Social Network Analysis

Mohammad Mehdi Kheirkhiz ^1* Behroz Abdoli ¹ Lorenzo Laporta ² Alireza Farsi ¹ Faezeh Hadian ³

• ¹ Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
• ² Laboratório de Investigação Neuroquímica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
• ³ Department of Sport Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Alborz, Iran

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the social network indicators in different positions in offensive phases of basketball and determine differences in positions by their network properties. These metrics were applied in two levels of analysis: micro (individual analysis) and macro (global interaction of the team). This study also examined the differences in the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful networks in achieving this goal.Methods: Twenty-four official Chemidoor Club competitions competing in the 2020 men's Iranian Basketball Premier League were selected by available sampling. The team consisted of 12 players (age 24 + -5 years), and they were identified based on the shirt number. This research analyzed the network properties of Degree centrality (Dc), Betweenness centrality (Bc), Closeness centrality (Cc), Eigenvector centrality (Eig), and Density centrality (Dc) across team and positions.The one-way ANOVA for the factor position in the micro-level found statistical differences between the game positions in the dependent variables of Degree: (F(4,15)= 61.29, p= 0.000), Bc: (F(4,15)= 210.11, p= 0.000), Cc: (F(4,15)= 78.55, p= 0.000).However, no significant difference was observed in the Eig: (F (4, 15) = 1.58, p= 0.184).Results of post hoc test in Dc, Bc, and Cc indices were significantly different between position 1 (point guard) and other positions (p<0.05). Macro-level team density analysis showed a significant difference between performance results in successful, unsuccessful, and overall situations F (2, 69) = 12.341, P=0.000).Furthermore, the guard player role was observed as the situation that establishes the most interactions with teammates during the competition. Therefore, players with higher degrees were not the ones assisting the most shots. The most effective teams may have a player specializing in directing passes so they can most easily reach the best assister(s), who can then set up a successful shot. Moreover, team-building is crucial, especially for coaches in deciding how to structure their plays and where to place their best players to increase the chances of a successful outcome.