This week, two teams in the WNBA kicked off their preseason prep with a different than usual scrimmage game. The Washington Mystics and the Minnesota Lynx played what was called an “analytics scrimmage,” a game that is analyzed based on numbers and statistics instead of the rules. Ted Leonsis, owner of the Mystics and the NBA’s Washington Wizards, believes there has to be a method to the madness.
“There is a lot of theory that’s talked about regarding analytics, but there really is not a lot of real-life labs where you can really see it,” Leonsis explained to reporters. “You can report and analyze what happened in the past, but it’s difficult to see how some of these plans that you can implement only in a scrimmage format for now would really mean.”
In fact, it was Leonsis’ idea to do the analytics scrimmage, and the two teams chosen turned out to be a good fit for this experiment. Lynx Coach, Cheryl Reeves, and Mystics Coach, Mike Thibault, are big supporters of basketball analytics.
“I think of it as a study ground, if you will, of things to come,” Reeve said.
There is plenty of evidence that 3-pointers and points in the paint help win basketball games. These coaches want to create better ball movement to avoid fouls, and increase 3-point shots and shots in the key to help the pace of the game.
In the scrimmage there were two 10-minute halves, with a different set of rules for each period. The first period was dedicated to scoring and scoring locations. It didn’t make for a lot of excitement, but there was a lot of defense. The second period focused on the rules. Players got a 20-second shot clock, which was reset 14 seconds after each offensive rebound. Automatic points were granted for all free-throws in an effort to stop hacking. This meant players had to work on their pace, acceleration and shot timing to avoid penalties.
The big picture here is to improve the overall pace of the game – something that has been problematic for the WNBA. Leonsis hopes to increase fan appreciation for women’s athletics and to further interests in basketball analytics.
“It’s another way that we’re showing great respect for the WNBA. This is such a basketball mecca, not only Washington, D.C., but the Verizon Center,” he said before the scrimmage. “I just thought it was appropriate for us to really leverage and cross-pollinate learnings from across all of our touchpoints regarding basketball.”
While the results for each team varied, this experiment showed signs that basketball analytics work, and may have provided enough intrigue for the rest of the league to continue to test the theory.
