Analytics has been a huge part of basketball for quite some time. Lots of teams have started shooting more 3PT shots and finishing at the rim, rather than settling for tough midranges. That is a direct influence of the analytics movement within the league.
However, some people are still skeptical about the ability of complex numbers to help players and teams get better. When speaking on the ETCs podcast with Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley blasted analytics, claiming that people “made it up” because the rich team governors want their relatives to get front office jobs.
First of all, they (analytics) are just stats. They just gave it a name. It’s kind of like yoga. Yoga’s nothing but stretching. They just call it yoga so they can charge more. I tell people, yoga’s just stretching. They gave it a different name to charge you for it. The statistics, they change the name — ‘We’re gonna charge you for analytics now’ — and they just raised the price, but it’s nothing but stats.
There is no question that advanced statistics are based on basic box score numbers. However, there’s certainly use to them, and sometimes, analytics can help front offices identify good players who provide beyond-the-box score contributions. For example, if one looks at Draymond Green’s box score, nothing necessarily pops out as outstanding bar passing. However, a lot of Draymond Green’s advanced stats have been great over the years, showing that his contributions go far beyond just points rebounds, and assists.
Analytics may not be a catch-all solution, but they’re overall a positive contribution if they are used correctly. Josh Hart once said that you can “lean on” and “rely on” analytics, but they won’t “get you home”. It makes sense that they can help, but you have to combine the analytics with what you see on the court.
