So, what I did is I went to all the different team’s pages and located the minimum and the maximum for tickets within those two categories. (Try to find Ulm’s, not that simple…) Once I had all those prices in an Excel chart, I put them together in a smaller chart, sorted it by alphabetical order of the team name and colored the fields from red (most expensive) to green (cheapest). There’s a function for that in Excel. This is what I came up with and put in my tweet (that went through the roof, compared to pretty much all tweets I ever sent out):

Beko BBL 2014-15 Season Ticket Prices pic.twitter.com/Xh5ELLurFy

— Jannes Schäfer (@courtsideBBL) September 19, 2014

No interpretation in the tweet, just what I labeled the chart with. So far, so good. Now, remember that each team has their own way of special offers, package deals an so on? Well, some teams (Artland and Bamberg) package BBL games and Eurocup Regular Season games. These packages are not optional. Take it, or leave it. Alba for example offers both, a season ticket for all BBL games, a season ticket for all Euroleague games, and a season ticket for both. Bayern gives you the Euroleague RS for free if you buy the extra Euroleague package (thanks to Erik Blosze for clarifying). They also have cheaper tickets for the stands, but those are not on their website, they are held by the fan club. (Thanks to Mattes for making me aware.)

Oldenburg, Frankfurt, Ulm all have seperate deals for Euro competition. Crailsheim offers the choice between a jersey and a hoodie that comes with the season ticket (for free), Göttingen gives you a shirt, Bayern a scarf. There’s all kinds of special offers. I decided to not account for those. Just like I didn’t account for courtside seats and so on.

What I wanted to show is what a fan (I’m a fan) has to pay to buy a season ticket for his favorite club. I do BBL, my Twitter handle is @courtsideBBL, obviously I do care about transnational competition and tweet about it sometimes, just not that often. My focus is and always has been on BBL basketball. So I’m a BBL fan, I want all BBL home games in one package, what do I have to pay? This is what the chart illustrates. If I’m a regular adult (meaning I have no reason to get reduced prices) and want to see all of Bonn’s BBL games, my options for a season ticket range from 190 to 425 Euros. If I’m a student from Hagen and want to see all BBL games, I have to pay between 110 and 150 Euros to get in. That’s how it goes.

Now, as I said, some teams bundle their BBL and Euro competition games. Good for them, their choice, they’ve thought about how to best sell their tickets thoroughly, I’m sure of that. But if I’m a BBL fan, want so see all my team’s 17 BBL home games, and don’t care about Eurocup basketball, their’s no option for me to exclude the EC games from my season ticket. Thus, I have to pay for them and leave the seat open, sell my rights to the season ticket for those games to any other person, give it to a friend, or whatever. Point is: The package, like I said, is not optional. So if I’m a regular paying adult from Quakenbrück, I have to pay between 249.5 and 513.5 Euros. That’s on their website. If I’m a student from Bamberg, want to see all … and so on … I have options ranging from 99 to 280 Euros. It’s on their website.

I hate making mistakes, grammar-wise and mixing up numbers, but it happens. If you find one, please tell me. I did not, however, mix up any of those numbers, at least as far as I’m aware. And I did not interpret any of those numbers. All I did was color them from red to green, depending on how costly they are compared to other team’s season tickets. For a fan that wants to go see all of their team’s 17 BBL home games. I could have, should have clarified this in my chart, and did to some degree with excluding special offers. I could have put in an extra column for how many extra games, jerseys, wins, sell-outs, chants you get for your money. I didn’t. This is what it costs. This is how much you pay for 17 BBL home games if you order a season ticket.

Take it, or leave it.

Update (September 19, 2014, 17:48): Thanks to S. I stand somewhat corrected. Trier’s season ticket prices were for the 2003/2004 season. Double-checked every other number, couldn’t find any other mistakes. Here’s the updated chart:

Update (September 19, 2014, 20:22): Birte Meyenberg made me aware that buying single tickets for every Artland Dragons BBL home game would be cheaper than buying their BBL-Eurocup season ticket package. I haven’t checked, but she would know.

Anyways, I’ve done it for the first-round and second-round matchups, so here’s the Shot Charts for the Finals between Bayern München and Alba Berlin.¹

Shot Charts for the 2013/2014 Beko BBL Finals. (All numbers per June 19, 2014)

Alba did shoot slightly better percentages in the paint and from mid range, the latter especially due to Radosevic’ deadly shot from the elbow. (He alone went 13-for-18 from mid range in the Finals). But Bayern packed the paint and forced Alba to take a lot of threes, way more than they usually take. Those shots Alba coulnd’t convert on a high-enough level.

Bayern, on the other hand, shot a playoff-best 46.6 % from three-point land, no team shot a higher percentage over a series in the playoffs (let alone over the Regular Season). Finals MVP Malcolm Delaney at 8-for-19 (42.1 %), Bryce Taylor at 9-for-17 (52.9 %), and Heiko Schaffartzik at 8-for-15 (53.3 %): It’s tough to beat a team that’s as hot from beyond the arc as Bayern was.

¹ The colors range from a green (better than the opponent and better than all teams’ playoff averages) over yellow (worse than the opponent but still better than the averag) to red (below-average and worse than the opponent). Shooting locations as available in the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.

As for Bayern: Oldenburg held them away from the basket, forcing bad shots and taking away their dominance in the paint. They responded with a mid-range heavy shooting output which suits them just as well with their Big Men’s (especially Thompson’s and Bryant’s) soft touches and Heiko Schaffartzik and Malcolm Delaney hitting shots from everywhere on a regular basis in the semi-finals.

Oldenburg, on the other hand, were forced to take a lot of threes which they shot better than in the first round, but still way beyond their Regular Season average (39.3 %). They made over 60 % of their shots in the paint with Adam Chubb doing what he does best, Rickey Paulding going to the rim in Game 3 and their fast guards exploding to the basket. Still wasn’t enough.

Alba, just like Bayern, took a big load of shots from mid-range, often times lacking creativity vs. Artland’s clever man-to-man defenders. Only they didn’t shot as well as Bayern did. They did, however shot a good percentage on threes, though they took a lot less then they did in the first round vs. Ulm.

Artland killed Bamberg from three, making a tremendous 43 % from long range. Berlin found a way to take those shots away, just like they did in the quarter-finals vs. Ulm. Artland hit just 36 % on threes in the semis, not enough for another upset.

Bayern-Alba in the Finals.

¹ The colors range from a dark green (really good) over yellow (mediocre) to a dark red (really bad), always compared to the rest of the playoff teams in the semi-finals. Shooting locations as available in the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.

I’ve counted all shots being taken by any player in the league with five or less minutes on the clock in the fourth quarter or overtime when the teams were within five points of each other.

Here’s the table of all players who took at least ten of those shots, sorted by their FG% in the given situation:

Top-15 players in FG% when the game is on the line

These numbers include the quarter-final games for each playoff team. I was thinking about just going with the Regular Season numbers as every team has an equal number of games played making the numbers easier to compare. But, as I’ve found, crunch-time minutes vary so drastically that it doesn’t really matter whether to take into account four or five more games for this year’s playoff teams. Also, crunch time in the Playoffs is more valuable than crunch time in the Regular Season as the outcome of a playoff game most often is more important than the outcome of any other season game. That’s why those numbers should go in their as well.

And here’s the Top-15 sorted by Total Points scored in crunch time:

Top-15 players in Points Scored when the game is on the line

Few things I found interesting (in no specific order), all numbers are crunch time only:

1. Bamberg is actually the worst free-throw shooting team in the league (by a lot), making just 63.9 % of their shots. They’ve been bad at the line all year, but that stat still suprises me, especially given that they lead the league in FG% in those situations (44.8 %).

2. Anton Gavel took 29 free-throws, no other Bamberg player more than 10. Gavel scored 48 points, leads his team, but Rakim Sanders actually shot the highest FG% at 59.1 %.

3. EWE Baskets Oldenburg shoot a tremendous 50 % on threes, with Rickey Paulding alone going 7-7 from three this year in crunch time. Both, Oldenburg and Paulding lead the league in 3P%.

4. Anthony King and David Holston have scored a combined 114 of 209 Artland Dragons points in close-game situations, King 64, Holston 50. Anthony King also leads the league at 40 FTA, shooting 85.0 %.

5. Three players with 10 or more attempts shooting 100 % from the free-throw line: Braunschweig’s Isaiah Swann (20 FTA), Bremerhaven’s Darius Adams (13 FTA), and Bayern’s Heiko Schaffartzik (10 FTA).

6. Angelo Caloiaro leads all players in FG%, shooting 14-21 in crunch time (66.7 %). He shouldered a lot of responsibility this year, and was able to deliver in most of the games. What’s more interesting, though: He shot 10-11 from near the rim (90.9 %), by far the greatest percentage of anyone taking 10+ shots from that distance.

7. As Braunschweig have played a lot of close games, there’s three players in the Top-10 for points scored in crunch time, Isaiah Swann (42), James Florence (40), and Immanuel McElroy (38).

8. David Logan shot 5-22 from the field, ranking last in FG% for Alba Berlin, same as Malcolm Delaney for Bayern at 1-15 FGA (6.7 %).

9. Alba’s Jan Jagla has taken three shots in crunch time, all in the playoffs. (He made two of them.)

10. Bonn’s Ryan Brooks took the most shots in crunch time (36 FGA), but shot just 36 % on those, 1-11 from mid-range.

Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter!

Here’s how all eight teams shot in their first-round matchups:¹

Shot Charts for the 2013/2014 Beko BBL playoff teams. (All numbers per May 22, 2014)

I’m gonna make it short:
Bayern dominated the paint (suprise!), offensively and defensively.
Artland went berserk from three, killing Bamberg’s hopes of a five-peat.
Alba shot well from three, but was solid from everywhere, really.
And Oldenburg just barely managed to not shoot as bad as Bonn.

Bayern-Oldenburg, Alba-Artland in the semis.

¹ The colors range from a dark green (really good) over yellow (mediocre) to a dark red (really bad), always compared to the rest of the league. Shooting locations as available in the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.

Now, with the Beko BBL playoffs and Artland’s series against Bamberg coming up, I did the same for Bamberg’s shooting percentages from the different areas. Here is what I came up with:¹

Brose Baskets’ Shot Charts for the 2013/2014 Beko BBL Regular Season. (All numbers per May 10, 2014)

With their penetrating guards and the athletic Big Men, Bamberg shoot a BBL-best 60.3 % from near-distance. While not taking a lot of shots from mid-range, they convert 44.8 % of their attempts, highest percentage of any team. Only their three-point shooting falls off: At 34.3 % from downtown they rank 13th in the BBL (league average is 35.2 %).

In contrast, Artland, their first-round matchup, ranks second in three-point percentage behind only Oldenburg. Bamberg though defend the three-pointer like no other team, allowing just 33.1 % from long-range. With D’Or Fischer leading the charge, Bamberg’s opponents make just 46.8 % of shots close to the rim; only Alba’s defensive line held opponents to a lower percentage over the Regular Season.

Taking Artland’s three-point game and shutting down Anthony King under the basket will win them this series. Bamberg in four.

¹ The colors range from a dark green (really good) over yellow (mediocre) to a dark red (really bad), always compared to the rest of the league. Shooting locations as available in the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.

Take Artland as my first try:

Artland Dragons’ Shot Charts for the 2013/2014 Beko BBL Season. (All numbers per Apr. 5, 2014, 28 games played.)

Few words concerning Artland’s offensive output:

3-Point Shooting:
This comes first, because Artland Dragons are a really good 3-point shooting team. Lawrence Hill is shooting 50.5 % from three-point land for the season (47-93 3P), which is insane. Topper is at 41.5 % (44-106 3P), and they have two more guys in Bastian Doreth and Guido Grünheid shooting above 40 % (three, if you count Anthony King’s 2-5 3P). As a team, this puts Artland into 3rd place in 3P% behind only Oldenburg and Bayern.

Mid-Range Shooting:
Now, this is where they are not really good at. Artland take 16.4 % of their shots from mid-range, that’s above-average. Only 5 teams take a higher number of shots from that distance compared to their overall field goal attempts. Which wouldn’t be too bad, if the Dragons showed some good shooting percentages from that distance (like Berlin for example). But, actually, no team shoots worse from here: League-average is 37.3 %, Dragons shoot a lowsy 29.9 %.

Near-Distance Shooting:
Statistically, you want a lot of shots from near the basket. Now, Anthony King and Kenneth Frease (Artland’s Centers) are not those kind of players that carry you on offense. Other bigs like Hill or Grünheid might rather take the three than going inside. So, the Dragons don’t go there as often as other teams do: 45.1 % of all field goal attempts they take come from the area between the basket and the free-throw line (again: according to the official Beko BBL play-by-play data). That’s below-average, only Braunschweig, Vechta, and Würzburg take less of those “easy” shots.

Huge upside to Sanders playing at Power Forward (all numbers per Mar. 13, 2014)

Also, I thought he might lose some minutes to Elias Harris when Bamberg signed him, but Sanders kind of blossomed instead. He might even have found his shooting rhythm over the last games and could make his 3P shot a bigger threat to opposing defenses.

(OffRtg/DefRtg in points per 100 possessions, all numbers are generated from the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.)

Frankfurt’s offense stagnating since Rautins has gone down (all numbers per Mar. 8, 2014)

(OffRtg/DefRtg in points per 100 possessions, all numbers are generated from the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.)

(*Note that Jacob Burtschi, too, missed every one of those six games plus one more.)

First one goes for Robin Smeulders: He plays a lot of Center this season, mostly due to Adam Chubb’s injury. Oldenburg, as a team, though does better both offensively and defensively with Smeulders at Power Forward. Shooting and rebounding numbers tell that Smeulders himself performs (slightly) better, too,  when playing at the 4.

Oldenburg doing better with Smeulders at PF (all numbers per Feb. 28, 2014)

Then there’s Konrad Wysocki. When Machowski plays him at Power Forward, Oldenburg outscore their opponents by 2.1 points per 40 minutes (which is the regular length of a game), but by 22.3 points per 40 when he plays at Small Forward in big lineups.

Same goes for Wysocki: Oldenburg better when playing him at Small Forward (all numbers per Mar. 2, 2014)

(OffRtg/DefRtg in points per 100 possessions, all numbers are generated from the official Beko BBL play-by-plays.)