[NYTIMES] Quantifying Basketball’s Intangibles, With Some Help From Computers

Tb-Cain · Jun 15, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/sports/basketball/15tech.html?ref=basketball

By JONATHAN ABRAMS
Published: June 15, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. — Since the N.B.A.’s inception, the performance of its players has been measured by a somewhat archaic rubric system. Points, assists and rebounds — the plays that meet the eye — are quantified, but the game’s data supply does not expand much beyond the limited horizon of those meager numbers.

The N.B.A. has been faced with the problem of defining what, exactly, is defense? Or, was that goaltending call made correctly?

That could all change shortly with technological advancement aimed at defining what has to this point been indefinable in the N.B.A.

As the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic tested one another’s resolve in the finals, the N.B.A. was testing a new tracking system, one that could perhaps alter how the game is watched, measured and coached.

Perched high above and adjacent to the court, six high-definition cameras in a semi-circle have captured and traced the movements of each player, the referees and the basketball in Games 3 and 4 of the N.B.A. finals at Amway Arena. The cameras streamlined information into two data processing computers tucked behind the rafters that are aimed at rapidly defining an N.B.A. game in a way that has not been seen before.

Through the processing computers, the data became relative and relatable. For example, the cross-angle cameras confirmed that a goaltending call on Orlando’s Dwight Howard was accurate. When Howard blocked the shot by Andrew Bynum, the ball had already descended about 3 inches, according to the computers.

In a game of swift movements, when one play can decide the outcome, the technology could be an important step toward verifying the accuracy of calls made by officials. The system is still in its infancy and will continue its trial run through next season with the hope it can be implemented league-wide sometime in the 2010-11 season.

“I would say we’re going to quantify a game that was previously hard to describe with statistics,” said Steve Hellmuth, the N.B.A.’s executive vice president for operations and technology. “We’re going to describe basketball much, much better.”

Hard is perhaps an understatement. In the N.B.A.’s play-by-play description, a typical offensive possession often consists of a rebound, a shot and an assist, if that much. In that time span, there are dozens of other factors that affect a play, including the movement of players away from the ball, matchups and the velocity of passes, that have never been officially recorded.

“You link these two things together, you now know not just that this player has a certain field goal percentage,” said Brian Kopp of Stats, the N.B.A.’s official provider of statistics. “You know where on the court this player has the field goal percentage. You know when someone is within 5 feet of him, what his field goal percentage is versus if they are farther away or how well they shoot in other spots on the court.”

In recent years, the N.B.A. has tipped toward quantitative analysis, paced by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets and a former employee of Stats. Sam Hinkie, the Rockets’ vice president of basketball operations, got a look at the new technology on Thursday.

The Rockets are tight-lipped about their in-house statistics, with Morey cloaking them in secrecy. He does not discuss his methods much beyond the basics, lest another N.B.A. team become wise to the organization’s methods. In the near future, that could change.

“We could sort of try this ourselves and have tried similar things, but I don’t think the other 29 teams are going to let me in their doors to install a bunch of cameras,” Hinkie said.

The Rockets, like other teams, are hoping that they will be able to benefit from the new technology more than other teams.

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BrooksBall · Jun 15, 2009

Nerds.

Easy · Jun 15, 2009

The first thing the league should track is flopping.

All the other stuff has already been exploited by Morey.

ghettocheeze · Jun 15, 2009

Easy said:

The first thing the league should track is flopping.

All the other stuff has already been exploited by Morey.
Click to expand...

Thank you, finally I will get payed for my league leading stats.

Signed,

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