Basketball Analytics Using Spatial Tracking Data

Abstract

Spatial tracking data are used in sport analytics to study the players’ position during the game in order to evaluate game strategies, players’ roles, performance, also in prospect. From the broad fields of statistics, mathematics, information science and computer science it is possible to draw theories and methods useful to produce innovative results based on speed, distance, players’ separation trajectories. In basketball, spatial tracking data can be combined with play-by-play data, joining results on spatial movements to team performance. In this paper, using tracking data from basketball, we study the spatial pattern of players on the court in order to contribute to the literature of data mining methods for tracking data analysis in sports, with the final objective of suggesting new game strategies to improve team performance.