According to NBA dot com tracking data, players are running nearly 10% more distance per minute on court than they did a decade ago It's no surprise that the more miles a player puts on his body, the more likely he is to get injured - ThreadSky

levakabas.bsky.social • 2 days ago

According to NBA dot com tracking data, players are running nearly 10% more distance per minute on court than they did a decade ago

It's no surprise that the more miles a player puts on his body, the more likely he is to get injured

Comments

robpergament.bsky.social•2 days ago

I would be so interested in even a rough estimate of this going back decades. I feel like there was so much more standing around in the 90s and 00s, even vs. the 10s. Completely different sport today in terms of the fitness and athleticism.

lethaljorts.bsky.social•2 days ago

What the hell happened in 2019?

sif99.bsky.social•2 days ago

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats_per_game.html looks like pace shot up that specific year a ton. The overall trend since 2012 (lockout year so skewed a bit lower than the year prior) was to increase until 2019, but it's been flat since then

sciguy17.bsky.social•2 days ago

Injuries not about distance. They're about possessions. Injuries happen during possessions where there's cutting, jumping, and contact.

maybeacrook.bsky.social•2 days ago

Oooo how far back do we have data on this? Is that the start?

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

Unfortunately this is the start

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

Note: This number might be high. I'm not sure how reliable the tracking data was in its early years

However, I believe the data to be directionally accurate. There was a huge spike in pace in 2018-19, and to my eye, defenders are covering much more ground than they used to

ericcolumbus.bsky.social•2 days ago

It would be interesting to see if minutes per starter has dropped to compensate.

rhetorrolo.bsky.social•2 days ago

I'm literally going to steal this to use in my math class when I teach misleading graphs. What a perfect example!

picardsflute.bsky.social•2 days ago

explain please; i wanna learn

fragilemachinery.bsky.social•2 days ago

Some people get really upset when the y-axis doesn't reach zero, because it can exaggerate trends.

oquizza.bsky.social•2 days ago

The range of data on this graph only about 1/3 of a mile difference. But because they essentially zoomed in on a section of the graph and didn't start the Y-value at 0 it makes it look like there was a more pronounced leap than it is.

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

I would argue this graph is also misleading in a different way... it makes the change look insignificant when it's not, and obscures the fact that most of the change occurred between 2018 and 2019

hoyainnj.bsky.social•1 day ago

Eliminate back to back games and shorten the season

davesison.bsky.social•2 days ago

Is there a reason you chose to scale the y-axis this way?

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

I don't think this chart conveys much useful information

benwanderin.bsky.social•1 day ago

Actually, it does. Much more useful than the original chart.

joecorey3rd.bsky.social•2 days ago

How does it reflect in practices

josephvw.bsky.social•2 days ago

utm.bsky.social•2 days ago

Pace and Space was a mistake

ccninetysix.bsky.social•2 days ago

cc: @elliek.bsky.social

elliek.bsky.social•2 days ago

this is very interesting thank you!!!!

nblindberg.bsky.social•2 days ago

At the beginning of the season, I tried to calculate how much players had increased their running volume since the 80s by finding what correlated best to offensive and defensive miles covered and then using a linear forecast to go back in time

https://open.substack.com/pub/abovethebreak/p/the-truth-behind-load-management?r=5vfjo&utm_medium=ios

skittlesnbeer.bsky.social•2 days ago

@fenstersteve.bsky.social Interesting stat here.

fenstersteve.bsky.social•2 days ago

Saw that. Wonder if it’s just a symptom of pace of play? Or if there is something else causing such an increase

skittlesnbeer.bsky.social•2 days ago

I wondered the same thing. Pace of play was the first place my head went.

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

Pace is up 5% so that accounts for about half the increase

The other half I think would be a more spaced out game / defenses having to help and recover more often

malars.bsky.social•2 days ago

Is 2022 when they implemented rules against load management resting of players? Curious if that’s the reason why it started going back up at that point on the graph.

levakabas.bsky.social•2 days ago

My hunch is that it's just shifts in offensive and defensive schemes, but possibly

blueskywestside.bsky.social•1 day ago

Also the change to resetting the shot clock to 14 after an offensive rebound means more possessions per game perhaps?

hairybusiness.bsky.social•2 days ago

Firmly believe that basketball shoes aren't designed for this amount of running and that they exacerbate Achilles issues

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