  Optimizing the performance of a basketball offense may be viewed as a network
problem, wherein each play represents a "pathway" through which the ball and
players may move from origin (the in-bounds pass) to goal (the basket).
Effective field goal percentages from the resulting shot attempts can be used
to characterize the efficiency of each pathway. Inspired by recent discussions
of the "price of anarchy" in traffic networks, this paper makes a formal
analogy between a basketball offense and a simplified traffic network. The
analysis suggests that there may be a significant difference between taking the
highest-percentage shot each time down the court and playing the most efficient
possible game. There may also be an analogue of Braess's Paradox in basketball,
such that removing a key player from a team can result in the improvement of
the team's offensive efficiency.
