SpursReport.com - Spurs among15 of the league�s 30 teams purchased a data-tracking camera system!!

Very nice read by Zach Lowe

LINK

The Height of Wonkery: An In-Depth Look at the NBA With the Most Innovative Technology Available

Fifteen of the league�s 30 teams have purchased a data-tracking camera system from STATS LLC that records every single movement on the court � the ball, the players, the referees, etc. � in three dimensions. The cameras can measure just about anything, and the teams that are using them best have moved far ahead in developing their own algorithms to measure whatever they wish � which team forces pick-and-rolls left most often, where corner 3s typically rebound when they miss, and how often a player accelerates from �jog� to �sprint� during a game.

(These are the subscribing teams: Houston, Boston, New York, Washington, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Golden State, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas, Minnesota, Toronto, Cleveland.)

Teams hoard their own data like kids hoard candy on Halloween. But STATS was kind enough to send Grantland a giant pile of exclusive information from the 2012-13 season, updated after Wednesday�s slate of 13 games, on a few general categories STATS tracks for all subscribing teams. The data focuses on both the player and team level, including drives to the basket, post touches, and touches at the elbow areas. From that pile, here are some Friday nuggets for your perusal:

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Writer Zach Lowe also mentions Tim Duncan new moves towards the end of that article:

Quote:

Tim Duncan, a New Kind of Offensive Hub

Guess who leads all players in recorded shots from the elbow. That would be Tim Theodore Duncan, a very respectable 37-of-81 (46 percent) on jumpers from the elbow. But here�s the interesting thing: He shoots only 37 percent of the time when he gets the ball there, which is not far above the league average for a big man.

The same thing happens in the post. Duncan nabs about 5.3 post touches per game, a top-15 number, but shoots on only about half those touches � right around Pau Gasol�s shot frequency. The Spurs score a very nice 1.3 points per possession when Duncan touches the ball in the post, and 1.1 points when he touches it at the elbow. This makes intuitive sense. The Spurs use both the post and the elbows a lot on offense, but they do so just as often for facilitating as for shooting.

You know who rates similarly in this way? The Wizards, and specifically Nen�. The Wiz are the only camera team averaging more post touches per game than San Antonio (the Grizz and Bulls, not surprisingly, are the top two when you broaden the database to non-camera clubs), and they use the elbow a decent amount as well. Nen� averages 7.0 post touches per game, second among camera players, behind only Nikola Pekovic.

But while Pekovic is a scorer, shooting a whopping 66 percent of the time he touches the ball in the post, Nen� shoots just 37 percent of the time he gets the ball there � one of the 20 lowest numbers in a sample that includes a lot of non-scorers who get the ball down on the block almost by accident.