A basketball laboratory for overthinkers.
Studies, experiments, puzzles, and dispatches on the game of basketball — published by the Hardwoodist Research Institute.
Norris Colollary
A daily puzzle. One very specific stat identifies exactly one player. Six guesses.
Once a player appears as a Norris Colollary answer or in a Starting Five lineup, that archive page stays open to all readers. Everything else is behind the Founding Member wall.
- 01Study
The Big Fix
Promotion and relegation, an in-season tournament, alternative playoff brackets. A data-driven, intensely modelled case for a better league.
HWRI-SIM-E7GZ-RRM9-41SF-8PBW-UFZF - 02Laboratory
The Big Fix Lab
Pick a real NBA season. Apply the reform. Run the simulation. See what happens.
HWRI-LAB-R9EZ-AGPB-O47H-939C-TJJB - 03Explorer
Galaxy Explorer
A basketball similarity exploration in three dimensions. Find your favorite player's nearest neighbors across eras.
HWRI-TOL-YME1-LW5L-156T-WCTZ-A91S - 04Retrospective
The All-Time Title Scaler
Championship counts, rebased against league size. Winning a title in an 8-team league is not the same structural feat as winning one in a 30-team league — the ledger says so.
HWRI-HIS-8RVZ-7KG7-4GUS-TQIP-JMTH - 05Index
Interior Dominance — Shaq Factor
Close your eyes and visualize prime Shaq. What do you imagine? Celebrating one of his dominant performances with the Lakers in the finals? A preposterously sized man carrying half the New Jersey Nets to the hoop? An anxious trip to the foul line, sweat dripping into his eyes as he lines up for another clank? A surprisingly soft touch on hooks around the paint? Gathering in offensive rebounds by the dozen?
HWRI-PLR-AP9P-2QFV-3ED1-46N4-X3E6 - 06Index
Franchise Cornerstone — Duncan Index
An index of the franchise-anchor archetype: sustained two-way excellence, identity-defining floor- and ceiling-raising, deep playoff runs, low chaos. A short list of “if you could start your team with anyone, who would you pick?” An attempt to quantify the unquantifiable.
HWRI-PLR-XCXN-52Q0-HLR8-R3HL-CDMH - 07Index
The Floor Generals — Stockton Index
An index of the floor general — the classic “point guard shaped” archetype. Who does the most to make their teammates better, organize the offense, and provide positive overall lift.
HWRI-PLR-55SW-T1OQ-WX4D-22VD-VBQE - 08Index
Gravity
“Mass tells space-time how to curve; space-time tells mass how to move. The Institute observes a comparable phenomenon in basketball.”
HWRI-PLR-AAAA-AKX5-Z66C-HRA1-6UB4 - 09Experiment
Concordance
A field guide for paired traits. Every player-season is a specimen, plotted by how aligned its offensive and defensive action signatures are against how effective its flight has been. Common species, rare birds thriving, and the rare birds extinct for a reason. A draft register in the Comparative Avian Taxonomy idiom.
- PendingFranchise Builder
- PendingSeries Simulator
- PendingThe Swap
- PendingThe Butterfly
- PendingThe Tree
- PendingThe Rip Hamilton Award
- PendingThe Bubble Championship Anomaly Audit
- PendingThe σ Outlier Browser
- PendingThe Hardwoodist Universal Score
- PendingThe Jokic Inflation Index
- PendingThe Lowe Postseason Award Addendum
- PendingThe Legler Hypothetical Engine
- PendingThe Basketball Family Atlas
- PendingThe 1960s MVP Counterfactual
- PendingThe Title Difficulty Ranking