NBA physicians, trainers, players and teams increasingly rely on sports analytics and devices to prevent injuries.
Here are six things to know:
1. IBM's analytic results show that injured players impact a team's chemistry, record and fan attendance. The correlation has led to an increased reliance on predictive analytics, which allows physicians and teams to predict injury risk and modify training regimens for players.
2. Teams such as the Golden State Warriors use SportVu cameras to monitor players' movement intensity and acceleration. Film study often reveals signs of drop-offs, fatigue and overuse, according to CBS Sports.
3. Australia-based Catapult creates devices to track players' heart rates, movements, energy levels and more, according to Sports Illustrated. NBA.com reports Catapult currently works with 16 NFL teams, 15 NBA teams, four NHL teams and many more high school, college, national and pro teams around the country.
4. U.K-based StatSports' Viper Pods device serves a similar purpose and is used by a number of NBA teams and a great deal of European soccer clubs, according to The Washington Post. The devices track movement, efficiency, biomechanics and fatigue.
5. Although the NBA bans players from wearing devices during games, commissioner Adam Silver recently highlighted the importance of advanced biometric readings at the league's Tech summit in New Orleans, according to ESPN. The league has progressed and consistently seeks methods to measure players' heart rate, skin temperature, VO2 max, respiration levels, sleep quality, caffeine levels and blood pressure in real time.
6. A study presented at the 2016 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference reported, "If we rested the top 20 percent of high risk players it would potentially prevent 60 percent of all injuries... This is a 300 percent increase compared to randomly selecting 20 percent of all players to rest. This provides a data driven way to rest players to potentially prevent injuries."
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