The San Antonio Spurs improved their defense by using statistics as a basis for evidence-based decision making.
“This summer, we looked at our defensive efficiency, which for years had been very high. And last year, we went in the 10-15 range,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. “And I think we were valuing some things that weren’t nearly as important as the data showed us. We learned from the Celtics.
“While they were really high in defensive efficiency, they weren’t very high in defensive rebounding. And that was a big part of where our emphasis was, and it made us question is that really where we should be paying attention. And those were discussions that were then brought to Pop from our coaches and from our analytics team. And some great discussions came from that, that ended up having us reevaluate what was important to us.”
The Spurs have fallen from 1st to sixth in defensive rebounding percentage, in part, because they’ve put in a revised defense designed to better contest shots and force more turnovers.
As a result, the Spurs improved from 11th in defensive efficiency last season to third this year.
