The use of statistics has progressed mightily in this era of NBA basketball. Advanced stats and metrics are being analyzed more than ever as technology advances, as well as the desire to use data as a means to study teams. It’s about to be taken even further.
After testing it out in a pilot program at Las Vegas Summer League last season, Zach Lowe of ESPN reports that the NBA will be tracking hustle stats during the playoffs for the first time ever:
The league will track how often defenders contest 2- and 3-point shots, deflections by defensive players, charges taken, which players recover loose balls, and so-called “screen assists,” which the league defines as picks that lead directly to a made field goal attempt by a teammate. The “screen assist” category will not include picks that result in a teammate drawing a shooting foul or that free up someone for a shot one or two passes down the chain, officials said.
League-appointed scorekeepers tabulated the hustle stats on-site in Vegas. This time around, the league will staff the replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, with trained personnel counting hustle stats via video.
Lowe quotes the NBA’s senior vice president of basketball strategy and analytics Evan Wasch as saying, “It’s another way for us to engage fans”.
Making these kinds of stats public is significant for those players who make impacts that go beyond the box score. It gives us access to even more detailed information about these teams in terms of effort, which isn’t usually quantified.
According the Lowe, the NBA is delving deeper into more stats information, as the league is also launching a new “defensive hub” on its website with access to every defensive-based stat.
