You ever wonder what NBA assistant coaches are scribbling on their clipboards during games?
They’re taking down stats. But not the stats you’ll read in any box score. They’re logging numbers like touches in the paint, passes per possession, three-pointers off kick-out passes, secondary assists, fouls drawn –- information central to a game’s outcome but not found anywhere near a traditional box score.
This is how it’s been for years.
But the stats being tracked by these blazer-wearing NBA lifers -- both during the game and in the film room -- are nothing compared to what’s being done by tiny cameras in the rafters of a number of NBA arenas.
Those cameras are part of a system called SportVU, and it has the potential to change everything we know about analyzing NBA basketball.
“This is everything we’ve been charting, all-encompassing, and so much more, and it’s all sortable,” says one Eastern Conference executive. “This isn’t something I ever thought possible.”
It was used by ten teams this season -- up from six last year and four in 2009-10 -- and with a third of the league now using SportVU and sharing data with each other, we can begin to draw conclusions about areas of the game previously left up to conventional wisdom.
SportVU tells us, with relative certainty, which player has the fastest top speed in the NBA. It tells us not who scores the most, but who scores the most per touch. It tells us who dribbles the most per game, and who dribbles the most compared to how many shots they take. And that’s just the surface.
If you’re wondering, the leaders in those stats -- and many more -- are dispersed throughout the words below.
Some of this data’s useful. Some of it isn’t. Some confirms conventional wisdom, some challenges conventional wisdom. But it’s all fascinating.
If you’re wondering about how serious this system is, know this: This is technology that was originally made for military use. SportVU was created in 2005 by Israeli scientist Miky Tamir, whose background is in missile tracking and advanced optical recognition. He used some of that same science to track soccer matches in Israel, spitting out similar fitness and movement stats now being tracked in the NBA.
The possibilities of what this can bring to advanced stats is amazing. I can't wait until it becomes a common thing.
