How Big Data Is Transforming the NBA (video)

How data transformed the NBA

The Economist (economist.com) video above published Dec 4, 2018:

NBA teams are changing the way they play basketball. The Houston Rockets, who boast stars like James Harden, have used data analytics to help them become championship contenders in recent seasons.

An invisible powerful force is lifting professional basketball to new heights, transforming how this multibillion-dollar sport is played and, crucially how to win. In elite sport the difference between success and failure is often the finest of margins. The Houston Rockets are one of the top teams in NBA basketball. They boast some of the sport's biggest stars, including the NBA's most valuable player in 2018.

In the past decade the Rockets have risen from mid-table mediocrity to serious NBA championship contenders. But it's not just big names that have fueled this dramatic ascent - it's big data.

The Rockets recent success owes much to their pioneering decision to start crunching data about every aspect of their game - and this is the man responsible. Computer scientist Daryl Morey is the sport's foremost data and statistics guru among NBA bosses. Ten years ago Daryl set out to find that winning formula. The Rockets were one of four NBA teams to install a pioneering video tracking system which mined raw data from games. What they discovered changed the way teams try to win. 

In the 1990s, long two-point shots from just inside the three-point line were common but Darryl's data analysis showed that statistically these shots provided the worst return.
In the 2017-18 season the Rockets made more three-pointers than any other team in NBA history and this was a major reason they won more games than any of their rivals. 
Professor Rajiv Masheswaran co-founded Second Spectrum (secondspectrum.com), The analytics company gathers and codes a vast range of increasingly granular data for all 30 NBA teams. Cameras now track and record 3D spatial data for every player and ball movement at 25 frames per second. Machine learning technology uses this huge volume of data to produce interactive visualizations allowing teams to analyze the minutiae of their performances and achieve marginal gains on court.

There is a particular focus on all important data around player movement and the probability of making a shot. Qualitative data analysis has even changed the type of players that successful teams like the Rockets have players today are on average leaner and more agile. When it comes to recruiting new players from the college draft each season, poring over data on player performance has given the Rockets a winning edge. Basketball has constantly changed but it's about to enter a brave new world where data could be courtside in the hands of coaches, helping to swing a game as it happens.

Tweets by NBA

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Meet Ozlo Your Friendly AI Sidekick! Who Needs Google Anymore?

Ozlo: a personal AI Chat Bot built for a mobile world (images below from ozlo.com)

Domain Name: ozlo.com
Offices: Palo Alto and Seattle
Twitter: @TeamOzlo - News and updates from the people building Ozlo—your friendly AI sidekick! 
Tweets by @TeamOzlo

Introducing Ozlo - TeamOzlo | Medium.com: "Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Ozlo, a faster and better way to find information from your phone. Ozlo is a personal AI (Artificial Intelligence). While he’s still very young, with your help, he will soon grow to become the digital companion people turn to everyday for help. Ozlo is available today on iOS for the first 10,000 people who sign up at ozlo.com..." (emphasis added)

An introduction from one of the venture capital firms funding Ozlo:
Our Investment in Ozlo | Greylock.com: "... Mobile is different, and the interactions and questions and answers should be different, too. Our phones know a lot about where we are and what we’re doing. We’re only paying partial attention to them — we’re out in the world and distracted, not focused like with PCs. We mostly use our phones to communicate — not at all like traditional search engines. Above all, when we turn to our phones with questions, we want answers fast. It seemed clear that there was an opportunity to build something more modern — higher signal for our mobile lives, much faster to get to information, but mostly just better able to answer the questions we actually have when we are out in the world, living our lives ... Ozlo, which is launching today as an iOS app but will eventually have many more ways to interact with him. Ozlo lives on your phone and answers questions like, “Where can I find good coffee within walking distance?” Traditional search engines would struggle with a question like this. That’s a point that’s worth emphasizing — even in 2016, traditional search approaches aren’t great at answering basic human questions. Here’s a post from Team Ozlo that shows you a a few things about how he works and what it can do today. At the moment, Ozlo knows about restaurants & foods — over time he’ll learn about more domains ... I think it’s unique partly due to the design and partly due to the deep technology stack that Team Ozlo has built. The design stands out for me as the best example of a conversational interface that I can find. Ozlo’s not a command line bot; it’s deeper and richer. He’s also not pure text — or rather, he can be sometimes, but also will use more sophisticated UI elements when he’s able, like in this native app. Ozlo gets the back & forth exploration of a real conversation. He knows things about who I am and what I like. And his interactions are fast & fluid in a way that feels natural and native. The technology stands out because the team has blended approaches from the worlds of search, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and even interactive fiction — it’s a full stack developed to build rich conversational experiences, and it shows ..."

See also: Ozlo The AI Chatbot Wants To Help You Find Coffee And Food | BuzzFeed News: "With $14 million in funding led by the likes of Greylock Partners, this new bot will find you a place to eat, scan the menu, and show you how to get there ..."


Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Interactive World Map of Sunrise Tweets

Sunrise around the world (via Twiiter)- Geotagged Tweets mentioning 'sunrise' in different languages, April 6, 2014, GMT


Follow @DomainMondo
Seguir a @DomainMondo