Minnesota Sports Forum

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13225337/nba-track-hustle-stats-all-games-las-vegas-summer-league

We talk here about contributions to the game that don't always show up in the box score, and now the NBA is going to try to track and measure them. I think I like this.

We can thank Delly for this new stat.

Somewhere, Mark Blount is smiling smugly... knowing this metric might have cost him millions of dollars.

What I'm curious about is doesn't SportsVU already provide this type of information? If you're tracking every player on every play, wouldn't you be able to identify which player was guarding which? You can derive all sorts of "contested" information from the data they should already be getting, and I'm pretty sure we have a lot of that data. I've seen in broadcasts of the Wolves where they talk about guys shooting x% wide open, or y% contested from various spots on the floor.

GymRat wrote:What I'm curious about is doesn't SportsVU already provide this type of information? If you're tracking every player on every play, wouldn't you be able to identify which player was guarding which? You can derive all sorts of "contested" information from the data they should already be getting, and I'm pretty sure we have a lot of that data. I've seen in broadcasts of the Wolves where they talk about guys shooting x% wide open, or y% contested from various spots on the floor.

Sure. But how often are they made public... or included in the accessible stats from each game?

"When you can put numbers and stats on things, it gives a player a reason why we're telling them to do certain things," said Minnesota assistant coach Ryan Saunders, the Timberwolves' summer league coach. "So to have physical data and reasons for those kinds of plays is definitely a positive for us as coaches."

I thought this quote and article was really interesting after a discussion I was a part of last night talking about assessment on campuses of higher learning. It's nice to have some trackable data.

monsterpile wrote:"When you can put numbers and stats on things, it gives a player a reason why we're telling them to do certain things," said Minnesota assistant coach Ryan Saunders, the Timberwolves' summer league coach. "So to have physical data and reasons for those kinds of plays is definitely a positive for us as coaches."

I thought this quote and article was really interesting after a discussion I was a part of last night talking about assessment on campuses of higher learning. It's nice to have some trackable data.

To carry that even further... getting paid for those hustle stats is a pretty good motivator as well.

You know agents and teams will use those in negotiations.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

GymRat wrote:What I'm curious about is doesn't SportsVU already provide this type of information? If you're tracking every player on every play, wouldn't you be able to identify which player was guarding which? You can derive all sorts of "contested" information from the data they should already be getting, and I'm pretty sure we have a lot of that data. I've seen in broadcasts of the Wolves where they talk about guys shooting x% wide open, or y% contested from various spots on the floor.

Sure. But how often are they made public... or included in the accessible stats from each game?

Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. And to your further point about hustle stats being made part of potential contract dealings, it can be very valuable. It can also help to dispel myths about certain players who look the part, but don't actually make a tangible difference.

Abe, Blount is sitting with a nervous Andre Blatche.

LloydBraun wrote:Abe, Blount is sitting with a nervous Andre Blatche.

I have doubts this will filter down to the Chinease leagues so I think they are safe.