Make way for a smarter Basketball

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Make way for a smarter Basketball

• https//datasportsgroup.com/

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Basketball is a fans sport, and it is growing
like a wildfire throughout the world. With NBA
touching skies, the teams are coming up with a
system to select the best fitting players for
their team from the drafts. Not just selecting
players, but how the teams are going to play, how
new strategies can be implemented are all done by
this system. This system is called data science
in basketball. Data science is crunching of
numbers and coming down to a result. People say
that the use of data science and analytics is
ruining the fun of the game, but the experts have
a different take. They say that NBA has never
been in a better condition ever before.
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How teams benefitted from basketball data
analysis? The NBA finals in 2015 between the
Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers was
the most watched match in NBA history at that
time. Both the finalist teams, armed with data
analytics in basketball. Both teams set their
gameplay according to the analysis from previous
matches. The analytics system has mixed views.
The teams who benefit from it would like to stay
away from opinions by personalities like Charles
Barkley, who ranted against the system. Along
with the Warriors and Cavaliers, the Houston
Rockets were a team that depended on the data
provided by the analytics. They never favor 2
points shooting as they think that it is the
worst strategy in basketball. Their stats showed
them that the ball is too far away from the rim,
so scoring percentage is very low. This gave them
a path to go for more 3-point shooting, and they
went on to make a record of scoring 894 three
pointers in a season in 2015.
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How NBA statistics affect the players? Every
year with the draft, some astonishing additions
are made to the NBA teams. Some turn out to be
good, some do not live up to the expectations.
Teams have now started to look into the
University records the players have registered
and do a proper NBA data analytic search. This
was not restricted to the new incoming players.
In the year 2013, NBA had installed systems to
track the players. It was installed in all of
their arenas.
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From then, every player's movement, dribble,
jump, and body language, everything was recorded
and noted down. Due to this, the weaker sides of
all players could be seen, which usually got
sided by their good skills. There were certain
players back then who used to excel in offensive
game. They scored a lot of hoops for their side,
but their contribution to the defensive side was
null. Even big names like the late legend Kobe
Bryant and Carmelo Anthony were caught up in
their offensive gaming and were criticized for
not contributing in the defense.
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The rise of 3-pointers Starting with the
strategy laid down by the Rockets, many teams
leaned towards more 3 point shots as per the NBA
statistics. But once, the Los Angeles Lakers
coach Bryan Scott thought of going the other way
round. He wanted to go for more 2 point shots, a
decision opposing the data science in basketball.
That decision resulted in the Lakers having their
worst season ever and finished the campaign with
the worst record of the franchise. The Warriors
won the championship in 2015, and also they were
the leading team for 3 point shooting that
season.
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Earlier, the 3 pointers were not given much
preference until it was introduced in the ABA in
1967. But with time, the shot was taken into
consideration. The veteran Larry Bird in 1982
recorded 90 shots all over the 82 game season.
Eventually, in 2015, with the NBA statistics
leading to the use of 3 pointers more, Stephen
Curry registered a whopping 286 three-point shots
in the season, almost 3 times the record
registered by Bird. Curry is a skilled
professional who has mastered the art of long
range shots and 3 pointers as well. According to
comparison, Curry scored more 3 pointers than the
entire NBA did in the year 1980. This was
possible due to the development in the playing
styles, recorded by the NBA data analytic teams.
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Pointing a direction towards defense Now that
the scoring machines in the NBA has been
discussed in detail, let's have to look out for
the defensive side, the fans also seem to have a
keen interest in it. The defensive side has
always been in the shadows due to everyone just
being focused on the offense. It is an equally
crucial part of the game and as shown by the NBA
statistics and player performances, players
should learn defensive characteristics as well.
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According to a study by Goldsberry, defensive
characteristics have never evolved and have been
stagnant. He mentioned that Defense is half the
game. But in the past many years, basketball has
been imbalanced due to every player favoring
offense. The players today are learning from the
data science in basketball and are trying to be
more versatile. It is an obvious thing that
basketball data analysis is going to go a long
way ahead and is going to improve more and more.
Till now, it just focuses on the numbers and
gives us the result, but there are many other
aspects like mental state and emotions that the
system cant detect yet. To know more about NBA
statistics, we, the Data Sports Group, are here
to provide you with the information. We will keep
you up to date with the scores, post-match
analysis, player records, and all sorts of stuff.
We cover 50 different sports. Just step on the
ride with us to know more about data analytics.
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Contact US

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• Phone - 1 [phone]
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