June 22, 2012 Big data might be finding all sorts of patterns,
but for basketball fans, it’s a matter of what makes the ball go
in the hoop. Systems developed to track missiles are now being
used to track basketballs (and their players). SportUV Systems
has cameras hanging from NBA arenas, and they are recording
everyone’s every move. Basketball teams are starting to sign on
to using the data collected to improve their games. While it is
standard to keep track of a basketball player’s shooting
average, everyone knows that circumstance plays a huge role. Big
data can bring in conditional probability. What is the shooting
average of Kevin Durant when his has a defender 3 feet away?
SportVU can tell you. And it can also tell you the likelihood he
makes a shot given many other circumstantial pieces of
information, like who passed him the ball and how many minutes
he’s been playing. The results are limited by a number of
factors. The biggest is lack of data; without data on past
performance, no future performance