In recent years, the NBA has been using big data to give teams a competitive edge. This data includes player stats, game footage, and even fan information. The Sports Techie community blog believes in this kind of data-collecting sports technology across sport.
The goal is to use this data to help teams make better decisions on and off the court. The NBA is becoming an ever more exciting and unpredictable sport thanks to big data.
How Teams Are Using Big Data to Their Advantage
Teams in the NBA are starting to use big data to their advantage. By analyzing player data, teams can identify areas where players need to improve.
For example, the Golden State Warriors have used data to help them understand how players perform in different game situations. This has allowed them to decide better when to substitute players and what plays to run.
Other teams are using data to improve their scouting and player development processes. By analyzing data from college and high school games, they can identify players that have the potential to be successful in the NBA.
Finally, teams use big data to understand the best way to use their players. By analyzing player data, they can determine which players work well together and what lineups are most effective.
These examples show how teams use big data to improve their performance. While there is still a lot of room for improvement, it is clear that big data is starting to have a significant impact on the NBA. The NBA Advanced Stats page runs on SAP.
Challenges Teams Face When Trying to Use Big Data Effectively
There are several ways teams can collect big data to improve their performance. However, there are also some challenges that they face, including:
- Ensuring that the data is accurate and reliable: This is a challenge because data can be collected from various sources, leading to inconsistency and errors.
- Interpreting the data: This is a challenge because big data can be complex and difficult to understand. As a result, teams need experts who can analyze the data and provide insights that will improve performance.
- Acting on the data: This is a challenge because it can be difficult to change how teams operate based on data. For example, a team may need to change its strategy or personnel to improve its performance.
Overall, the use of big data can be beneficial for NBA teams. However, they need to overcome some challenges to use it effectively.
Wrap Up
The NBA’s use of big data analytics is changing how the game is played. By understanding how players move on the court and where they are most likely to score, teams can better position their players and adjust their strategies.
This information also helps coaches understand which plays are most successful and make better decisions about substitutions during a game. It will be interesting to see how the use of big data evolves in the NBA and whether other professional sports leagues follow suit.
Sports Techie, sports analytics is the way.
In fact, Turner Sports, the NBA and SAP have partnered on “GM School Powered by SAP” since 2019 because next-gen front office candidates need to know as much as about sports tech, big data and scouting as they do about the salary cap set for the 2022-2023 season at $122 million, as well as the luxury tax set at $147 million.
When I reflect upon the recent NBA Finals, it’s easily apparent to see the Warriors made the right adjustments, both in-game and post-game, to handily win the series in six games while playing the last game on the road in Boston at hostile TD Garden. The Celtics gameplanned to make Steph Curry play defense on the ball in order to score more easily and too wear down the eventual finals MVP. It didn’t work because Curry saw it coming a digital mile away thanks to game preparations, in addition, the Warriors team defense, was stifling. It was if the Warriors knew exactly what plays their NBA Playoffs opponents liked to run in any situation because of superior advanced scouting and film breakdown.
When you look at the game six Box Score, take a look at the +/- column at the far right. Notice the thin benches each coach used and the fact that the Warriors substitutes all had positive (+) games, while the three Celtic subs all had large numbers in the negative (-). Coach Steve Kerr and his Warriors staff knew their bench was much better both physically and mentally than the Celtics players and exploited it as the metrics indicate.
I love perusing data and stats, regardless of sport. Notice, the amount of 3-point shot attempts by the Warriors at 46, then compare that to the Celtics who shot only 28. Taking 18 more 3’s is telling.
Georgia’s own Jaylen Brown had a huge game offensively for Boston but at 6-10′ he had zero blocked shots. C’mon man.
Finally, look at the Celtics personal fouls tally. Only Marcus Smart, the NBA’s defensive player of the year, was in serious foul trouble with 5. My point being, the rest of the starters like Jayson Tatum, were way too worried about fouling out so they could play in the fourth quarter on national TV and were simply not concerned enough with stopping dribble penetration by taking a charge or making a steal for the other three quarters.
In many ways, modern NBA hoops is like the NBA 2K video game published by 2K Sports. The advanced technology in the NBA 2K22 Season 7 gaming engine, is used not only for motion capture and rendering but also for robust game planning, exact player customizations and even rehabbing injuries.
Chase Center, home to the Warriors, is also a massive tech-centric facility competitive edge but that’s for another blog.
The experts, analysts and Vegas oddsmakers are saying the Warriors are favored to repeat again as champs.
Let’s wait until the NBA Draft this Thursday, June 23, at least to make educated, data-driven predictions for the coming season.
Or, trust your human gut.
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