The rise of sports analytics may have begun predominantly with baseball, but the NBA now stands at its forefront. Cameras track on-court player movements in tiny fractions of a second. Every possession is broken down by play type, defensive coverage, shot clock & game situation, individual player involvement, shot location, defender proximity, and outcome, such that teams can calculate the expected value of a possession and objectively grade player performance in any number of ways. Publicly-available data reveals how any given lineup or 2-man, 3-man, or 4-man combination performs compared to its opponents. And teams even electronically monitor players off the court, including their sleep habits, diet, and physical output (heart rate, etc.) during training.
With so much information at everyone’s fingertips, the obvious question becomes: what do you do with it? Many of the articles on this site heavily incorporate data analysis, particularly including the Synergy-based scouting reports. Here are a few that explore basketball analytics more broadly.
Identifying Player Comps using Similarity Scores & Play Index Tools (December 2016)
The Role of Analytics & Its Relationship with Scouting (November 2016)
Measuring Greatness / A Look at Adjusted Plus-Minus Stats (August 2016)
The Hidden Value of Outside Shooting: Gravity, Distraction, & Respect (July 2016)