| dc.description.abstract | This study aims to employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate the operational performance and player efficiency of National Basketball Association (NBA) teams across seasons from 2012 to 2022, and to investigate whether there is a positive correlation between teams paying the luxury tax and their operational performance and player efficiency. For team analysis, the expenditure of the team is considered as the input variable, while the number of wins in regular seasons, average net points difference per game, team revenue, and average ticket sales rate are considered as output variables, to measure the operational efficiency of NBA teams during the seasons 2012 to 2022. In the first phase, the study summarizes whether teams that pay the luxury tax have higher operational efficiency than non-luxury tax-paying teams. The second phase calculates the average efficiency scores for the 30 NBA teams over these seasons and analyzes the relationship between the frequency of luxury tax payments and average efficiency scores, as well as the differences in input and output variables between teams with higher versus lower average efficiency scores. The results indicate that, in the first phase, out of 330 teams in the seasons from 2012 to 2022, 106 teams have an efficiency score higher than 0.9, of which 6 are luxury tax-paying teams; 49 teams have an efficiency score lower than 0.6, of which 18 are luxury tax-paying teams. This suggests that most luxury tax-paying teams invest significantly but do not achieve corresponding outputs, resulting in poor efficiency. In the second phase, the New York Knicks, Utah Jazz, and Boston Celtics have the best average efficiency scores among the 30 teams in the seasons 2012-2022, with luxury tax payments of 3, 2, and 3 times respectively, which is not significantly different from the average of 2 times for other teams, indicating that operational efficiency is not significantly impacted by the frequency of luxury tax payments. Further analysis reveals that luxury tax-paying teams generally have lower operational performance due to high expenditure without corresponding revenue or number of wins.
Regarding player analysis, player salaries and average playing time are used as input variables, while average scores, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, player efficiency ratings, and win shares are considered as desirable output variables, and average turnovers and fouls are considered as undesirable output variables. The results show that point guards and centers tend to be more efficient compared to players in other positions, which is associated with higher assist numbers for point guards and higher rebound numbers for centers. Teams can consider this in recruitment strategies with relatively reasonable salaries. In the second phase, the study analyzes whether luxury tax-paying teams have a correlation in terms of performance and player efficiency. The results show that implementing a luxury tax strategy does indeed help the team′s winning rate, but due to excessive investment, it does not significantly aid player efficiency. The findings of this study can be used as a reference for team management in operating NBA teams. | en_US |