How Analytics is Transforming Basketball

By Paige Stanard

What if you turned on your TV to watch Game One of the NBA Finals or even bought tickets to the game, and discovered that LeBron or Steph weren’t playing? Fans weren’t very happy this season when quite a few top players on the Cleveland Cavs, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio spurs were kept from playing.

There is a relatively new practice of “resting” healthy players so they can regain their energy and reduce their chances of injury.  While this practice isn’t extremely new, as Magic Johnson used to have rest days back in his day, but our awareness of it is new. Data and analytics have changed the game (no pun intended) for players and fans alike.

The enormous growth of media technology has thrown every game into a national and global spotlight.   You can get live streaming of every game as well as stream high lights on literally every social media platform. And that’s not all. According to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, “Analytics have become front and center with precisely when players are rested, how many minutes they get, who they’re matched up against. [Analytics] are tracking every movement of those players….. it’s not just that they’re moving on the court during games, but during practice.”  Players wear “wearables” that track their diets, sleep habits and fatigue levels. And because there is a proven correlation between fatigue and injuries, when fatigue levels are high a red flag goes up.

Data and analytics have literally changed the basketball industry putting a spotlight on players and their biometrics.  “Analytics are part and parcel of virtually everything we do now,” says Adam Silver.  Analytics are literally transforming basketball as we know it.