Basketball Analytics to Improve Player Performance

An excerpt from the book I am writing, "The Simple Guide to Coaching Girls' Basketball."

This year we began experimenting tracking performance using alternative performance metrics.  Using a modification of Lee Rose's Performance Rating System (PRS), we measured player performance for our middle school team.  Players accrue performance points for scoring, rebounding, assists, setting screens leading to scores, getting held balls, taking charges, et cetera.  Players lose points for turnovers, missed shots, charges given, and so on.

Does the PRS yield unexpected information?  It absolutely adds coaching points, especially concerning better shot selection, turnover reduction, and gives coaches impetus to demand more from players (e.g. rebounds, sharing the ball, defense) when aggressiveness is suboptimal.  It also allows the coaches to analyze what types of turnovers we must reduce, and key offensive and defensive trends. For example, it’s remarkable how much more enthusiasm players have for setting screens when they know we value a screen leading to a score the same as the score itself.

• Basketball analytics provide a much clearer picture of why games are won and lost.

• Players like and respond to the feedback-rich environment of the Performance Rating System as it recognizes more types of contributions