I have a question concerning Power Rankings for those of you who do simulations for NBA. Basically, do you use some sort of Power Ranking in your model? The problem I am having is in direct comparison of teams playing out of division. Teams playing out of division only play each other a couple of times a year, so direct comparisons becomes problematic. You have the ongoing problem of not enough recent data and long term past data being irrelevant. For example, if team A only plays team B twice a year, I have to incorportate ten years of data to get twenty games of head to head competition. And, what happened ten years ago is probably not reflective of the two teams today.
Just wondering if Power Rankings would be beneficial here. Any thoughts, comments?