I was looking for a relatively quick analysis to experiment with some of the NBA stats APIs, so I examined player performance before and after the Raptors-Knicks trade on 2023-12-30 from a Raptors perspective.

I excluded the shorthanded game they played against the Pistons that day, and compared players' average game scores for the ~31 games prior to and ~7 games after the trade (including the pitiful loss to the Jazz on January 13th).

I chose the Hollinger Game Score to summarize player performance, which can be calculated from a player's box score.

The formula is: PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV.

Game Score was created to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. The scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance, etc.).