Lawrence Dean Oliver (born February 6, 1969) is an American statistician and coach. Oliver is a prominent contributor to the advanced statistical evaluation of

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. He is the author of ''Basketball on Paper'', the former producer of the defunct Journal of Basketball Studies. More recently, Oliver has served in front office roles with the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly shortened to Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Division (1967–1970), and ...

and

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(including when the controversial trade for

Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson ( ; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "The Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as both a shooting guard and point guard. As an NBA rook ...

was made). In October 2015 Dean Oliver joined TruMedia Networks as Vice President of Data Science. TruMedia Networks is an engineering firm specializing in sports analytics solutions for leagues, franchises and media partners, and says of Oliver in a press release announcing Dean Oliver's hiring, "Oliver was most recently in the front office of the Sacramento Kings and is considered one of the best minds in the world of sports analytics." Oliver developed his work through a combination of technical studies and traditional basketball experience. He played

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

collegiate basketball at the historically win-challenged

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, graduating with honors with a degree in engineering there in 1990, and served as an assistant coach for the team beginning as a junior. He earned a Ph.D. in statistical applications in environmental science at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in 1994 while scouting for Bertka Views, a scouting organization run by then-

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

assistant coach, Bill Bertka. Dean 2016 conference

He served as an engineering consultant between 1995 and 2003, continuing to do basketball research during this period, writing ''Basketball on Paper'' in 2002 and writing on pro basketball for

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...

between 1996 and 1998. In 2004, Oliver set out to create a position in the NBA for statistical analysis, following the trend set in baseball, as illustrated by the

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. ...

book ''

Moneyball Moneyball or money ball may refer to: * '' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'', 2003 book by Michael Lewis ** ''Moneyball'' (film), 2011 film adaptation of the book * ''Moneyball'' (album), 2025 album by Dutch Interior * Sabermetrics ...

'', in 2003. By October 2004, he had impressively accomplished his goal and was hired as the first full-time statistical analyst in the NBA. In 2019, Oliver joined the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays i ...

as an assistant coach. He is also a Basketball Analytics instructor and an annual Basketball Career Conference speaker for the online sports-career training school

Sports Management Worldwide Sports Management Worldwide (SMWW) is an international sports agency and private for-profit sports management training institution based in Portland, Oregon. It is an accredited online Sports Management school and is certified by the Oregon Depa ...

. Oliver developed the statistic Player Winning Percentage (PW%), which comes from the formula: : Player Winning Percentage = Offensive Rating¹⁴ / (Offensive Rating¹⁴ +

Defensive Rating Defensive rating or defensive efficiency is a statistic used in basketball to measure an individual player's efficiency at preventing the other team from scoring points. It was created by author and statistician Dean Oliver. Oliver introduced the ...

¹⁴)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Dean Living people 1969 births American statisticians Caltech Beavers men's basketball players University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni People from Mountain View, California People from West Hartford, Connecticut Sports statisticians Washington Wizards assistant coaches