Proposal

“Pressure’s On!” Determinants of Draft Selection in the WNBA: an Interactive Study

Author

Will St. John, Hamza Mahamud, Nox Matse

Project Description

Our project focuses on the WNBA draft and player evaluation, using basketball statistics to understand how teams choose players and what factors lead to success in the league. Teams often consider criteria such as scoring ability, rebounding, passing, defensive performance, efficiency, and overall impact when selecting players. Through interactive data visualizations, this project will benefit sports fans, students, analysts, and anyone unfamiliar with basketball by making player comparisons and decision-making processes easier to understand.

Research Questions

What influences whether a player is selected first overall in an WNBA draft?
What factors influence success in the WNBA/Who has the best [insert basketball stat]?
What players should I pick for my All-Star team?

Inspiration

We enjoy basketball and wanted to explore a topic closely related to how it functions and the players we get to watch. Mostly we are curious how the drafting process works and what factors that affect player selection. The WNBA is underexplored, and exploration of the NBA already exists so we wanted something more novel. Hopefully a fun thing to do is ti simulate being a coach and having to select a player given certain factors.

Potential Data Set

We want to design an interactive dashboard that allows the user to either:

Select a player and see stats on that player, providing an overall rating for them
Select specific stats and see which players are the best

We want to use an API from stats.WNBA.com or something similar to get the stats, then visualize the data.

Dataset Link:

Option 1: Player Data 1997-2021
Option 2: WNBA Salaries 2025
Option 3: WNBA Gamelogs 2015-2025
Option 4: Use an API to get stats from stats.WNBA.com

Communication Plan

We plan on communicating via text, and catching up in class periodically when we see fit.

Roles

Point of Contact: Hamza - the main person to email the instructor/preceptors
Technical Lead: Will - the person who will oversee the code base and website
Style Lead: Nox - the person who will make sure the code is following the COMP/STAT 112/212: Code Styling Guide

Conflic Resolution

Conflict resolution will be handled on a case by case basis. the team will be flexible in dealing with issues, provided that communication is open. in any more serious contexts, Amin will be consulted.

Rough Implementation Plan

Decide on a data set (Apr 1)
Create professional visualizations (ie. player card, stat summary dashboard) (Apr 22)
Implement into shiny app (Apr 29)
Beautify (May 4)

--- title: "Proposal" subtitle: "\"Pressure's On!\" Determinants of Draft Selection in the WNBA: an Interactive Study" author: "Will St. John, Hamza Mahamud, Nox Matse" --- # Project Description Our project focuses on the WNBA draft and player evaluation, using basketball statistics to understand how teams choose players and what factors lead to success in the league. Teams often consider criteria such as scoring ability, rebounding, passing, defensive performance, efficiency, and overall impact when selecting players. Through interactive data visualizations, this project will benefit sports fans, students, analysts, and anyone unfamiliar with basketball by making player comparisons and decision-making processes easier to understand. # Research Questions 1. What influences whether a player is selected first overall in an WNBA draft? 2. What factors influence success in the WNBA/Who has the best [insert basketball stat]? 3. What players should I pick for my All-Star team? # Inspiration We enjoy basketball and wanted to explore a topic closely related to how it functions and the players we get to watch. Mostly we are curious how the drafting process works and what factors that affect player selection. The WNBA is underexplored, and exploration of the NBA already exists so we wanted something more novel. Hopefully a fun thing to do is ti simulate being a coach and having to select a player given certain factors. # Potential Data Set We want to design an interactive dashboard that allows the user to either: - Select a player and see stats on that player, providing an overall rating for them - Select specific stats and see which players are the best We want to use an API from stats.WNBA.com or something similar to get the stats, then visualize the data. Dataset Link: - Option 1: [Player Data 1997-2021](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/mattop/wnba-draft-basketball-player-data-1997-2021) - Option 2: [WNBA Salaries 2025](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/max1220/wnba-2025-salary) - Option 3: [WNBA Gamelogs 2015-2025](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/natoshakennebrew/wnba-gamelogs-2015-2024) - Option 4: Use an API to get stats from [stats.WNBA.com](https://stats.wnba.com/leaders/?Season=2025&SeasonType=Regular%20Season) # Communication Plan We plan on communicating via text, and catching up in class periodically when we see fit. # Roles - Point of Contact: Hamza - the main person to email the instructor/preceptors - Technical Lead: Will - the person who will oversee the code base and website - Style Lead: Nox - the person who will make sure the code is following the COMP/STAT 112/212: [Code Styling Guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iftIfk-mHUtomnGfAsZefoCeot1lZDb06Dapz-MflyI/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.g9zsnr1qdz2i) # Conflic Resolution Conflict resolution will be handled on a case by case basis. the team will be flexible in dealing with issues, provided that communication is open. in any more serious contexts, Amin will be consulted. # Rough Implementation Plan - Decide on a data set (Apr 1) - Create professional visualizations (ie. player card, stat summary dashboard) (Apr 22) - Implement into shiny app (Apr 29) - Beautify (May 4)