J.J. Redick wants to play in next preseason game if Clippers will let himHe had been held out of Wednesday night’s game against Toronto because the biometrics technology tracking system the Clippers are using this season determined that Redick’s body needed a break.
His “workload during training camp,” Redick explained before practice, has been on the “sort of high group of guys,” explaining why he wasn’t allowed to play in the back-to-back game.Redick has always been attentive to his conditioning and even spent time this summer working out using some trendy sports science.
But Redick also admitted he’s somewhat skeptical of all the new technology being used.
“I think collecting data is fine. How you use that data and how you interpret that data is another thing entirely, so I’m always a little cautious as far as what … is being collected,” Redick said. “But I’m a curious person … If there’s anything to sort of gain from the data – whether it’s performance-related or injury prevention – I’m all for it.”However, Rivers said that the use of biometrics technology is not something his players should be worried about.
“You always have skepticism with everything,” Rivers said. “That’s how we are, or most of us. All of them to a man have used it, have liked the stuff. Some believe in it, some don’t. That’s fine. You can get numbers anyway. I don’t think that’s an issue.”
Brad Turner, LA Times
Clippers' J.J. Redick says biometric program raises interesting questions about use of that dataWith the Clippers, the numbers are, at least partially, in charge this season. As part of sweeping organizational changes throughout their basketball operations department, the Clippers added Mark Simpson to be their Director of Performance and Jay Porterfield as a Performance Scientist/Biomedical Analyst.
The data the team is collecting from wearable monitoring devices during practice can be used in injury prevention and specialized training, and those applications have players like Redick intrigued. But, there’s concern the data could be used in ways that might not be in a player’s best interest.“What Mark (Simpson) has brought here has been really good so far,” Redick said. “Again, I mean, you always want sort of a different set of eyes, whether it’s noticing something about your posture or your gait or anything like that that can be helpful for performance and injury prevention.”
While decisions will be made thanks to a mixture of the data and observation, Rivers wants something to be clear to his team.
“At the end of the day, my job is to make sure that they know what Mark says is the law,” Rivers said. “Sometimes, you don’t have to ask. If they come and tell me Raymond Felton has to sit down, Raymond Felton’s sitting down.”
Dan Woike, OC Register
