NBA experimenting with stats to quantify hustle, intangibles

[Monkhouse]

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/2015/07/09/new-stat-tracking-coming-nba-summer-league/KW2uDINDLj7jAOv2H9ZodM/story.ht

All 67 games in the NBA Summer League at Las Vegas will have so-called ‘‘hustle stats’’ officially tracked, a nod to the league’s evolving reliance on analytics and all the things besides scoring that help decide the outcome of games. A trained crew will chart 2-pointers contested, 3-pointers contested, deflections, loose balls recovered and charges taken.

‘‘It wins games. Hustle wins games,’’ Miami forward Udonis Haslem said. ‘‘Whether you want to keep a stat for it or whether you want to say it’s not a big deal, it wins games. We’re not going out there and just running like a chicken with your head cut off. That’s two different things. I'd say 95 percent of the time, when we win the hustle areas, dominate the loose balls, dominate rebounds, dominate steals, those categories, we win the game. It’s a fact.’’

Adding them to the box score, or at least getting the nitty-gritty-type numbers out there more openly, might serve as motivation to players as well.

‘‘When you can put numbers and stats on things, it gives a player a reason why we’re telling them to do certain things,’’ said Minnesota assistant coach Ryan Saunders, the Timberwolves’ summer league coach. ‘‘So to have physical data and reasons for those kinds of plays is definitely a positive for us as coaches.’’

Thoughts on this? I like it. What does this mean for players like Smart, Crowder, or Draymond Green's PER/RPM? Does it elevate and increase? If so, it would also definitely give players a higher incentive in contracts to push themselves when hustling.

[jpotter33]

I'm having trouble with the notion of trying to quantify basketball intangibles, which by definition, unless I'm mistaken, are basketball characteristics/traits that aren't quantifiable.

[YeezusChrist]

I believe this has already been solved by Tommy Heinsohn... its called a tommy point 

[Monkhouse]

I'm having trouble with the notion of trying to quantify basketball intangibles, which by definition, unless I'm mistaken, are basketball characteristics/traits that aren't quantifiable.

Why so serious?

[Celtics4ever]

Sully will be at the bottom of the hustle stat.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I hope they come up with a collective good name for these stats, so I can yell it whenever I have a hustle play in pick up. I guess I could always yell "intangibles!"

[Boris Badenov]

I believe this has already been solved by Tommy Heinsohn... its called a tommy point 

Right on. Have a TP yourself.