NBA TAKING PLAYER-TRACKING TECHNOLOGY LEAGUE-WIDE
Last year, the Suns became one of 15 NBA teams to embrace the analytics era by investing in SportVu Player Tracking technology to acquire a higher level of player performance analysis. Good for them. This year, the NBA reached a multi-year agreement with STATS Inc., which owns the SportVU technology, to put six cameras in every arena and become the first American pro league to quantify and analyze each in-game player movement. Good for you. The Suns were commended for getting out in front of the analytics wave, but the movement has gone mainstream. The Suns kept all the data gathered last year to themselves, but this league move is the best thing for hoop junkies since NBA League Pass.
The NBA already headed this way by adding advanced stats to NBA.com last year. Now, they will post unprecedented data from SportVu on its site (wonder how many points per touch Eric Bledsoe is getting?) and for use in broadcasts (“Eddie, Marcin Gortat has run the equivalent of a 5K tonight”).
The Suns do not lose out because they shelled out about $100,000 for it last year, and the NBA is footing the bill for the other teams this year. The Suns have a baseline of data, for management, coaches and athletic trainers, that half of the league will not be able to use for comparative analysis. The Suns will get a more complete study from this season, rather than missing some road games last season.
The key for the Suns is to have a better system of analysis than other franchises, which now get an even playing field of data and spreadsheets.
That is their job. Your “job” just got easier because you now will be able to look up statistics that are gathered from cameras taking 25 images per second of each player on the court. Those images result in speed, distance, player separation and ballpossession data.
That data turns into stats such as rebounding chances, contested rebounds, secondary “hockey” assists, uncredited assists setting up free throws, passes, dribbles, touches, catch-and-shoot percentages, pick-and-roll efficacy, shot location, live ball turnovers and defensive reaction time. The days of saying you can’t measure defense are gone when you can now break down help defense to time and position specifics.
This will be too much minutia for many fans but the casual fan might not be the toughest sell. Not every coach wants to hear “nerd numbers” for what his eyes have told him for decades.
Free throws
The only two teams mentioned as interested in Michael Beasley have been the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. Great teammates with strong personalities may be a combination that goes with low expectations and a minimum-salary contract for Beasley.
But the Lakers? You would guess Mike D’Antoni would talk to his close friend Alvin Gentry about a player whose presence helped to get him fired. The Heat? Second and third chances with different teams did not work. Why would a team that has been through it believe in a second chance?
If Beasley signs with another team, only part of the salary would offset the Suns’ buyout, which pays him $4.67 million this season and $778,000 for each of the ensuing three seasons.
» Gortat joked that he would miss training camp if his Polish national team medaled at the European championship. Poland (1-4) was eliminated after pool play but went out with a win and Gortat’s best game. He had 19 points and 12 rebounds and was a plus-27 in 30 minutes of a 71-61 win against Slovenia, led by Suns teammate Goran Dragic.
Slovenia (3-2) advanced to the 12-team second round, as did Ukraine (4-1) with newly acquired Suns center Slava Kravtsov. Kravtsov comes off the bench for 7.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 17.8 minutes per game. Dragic has averaged 13.8 points, 5.0 assists and 1.4 steals with 36.4 percent shooting.
» Suns guard Shannon Brown and his wife, singer Monica, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Laiyah, a week ago.
» Bledsoe’s former Clippers teammate Jamal Crawford told HoopsWorld.com: “I don’t know when because everybody’s (learning) curve is a little bit different, but there’s no question he’ll be a star. He has the athletic ability and he wants to get better. He has gotten better. A team like that in Phoenix, they’re going to see great results.”