Report: Thibodeau resisted wearable analytics devices on Bulls players
You can't stop technology, and that applies to some of the physical tools being used in the NBA's current analytics revolution. According to CBS Sports' Ken Berger, however, recently fired Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau balked at his players using wearable technology to monitor recovery.
The devices, attached to a player in practice and used in tandem with the NBA's SportVu camera technology and other items such as bio-harnesses, can measure stops and starts and body movement in real time. Among teams currently using it in the NBA are the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors.
The Warriors cited the data collected in determining rest time down the stretch for stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, according to Berger.
Thibodeau is known as an old school coach, one who clashed with Bulls management over minutes restrictions and whether he overused players. According to Berger, Thibodeau questioned the technology at a presentation last year.
"He was basically challenging it, like, 'Michael Jordan didn't need that,' " said Brian Kopp of Catapult Sports, the maker of the monitors, according to Berger. "Fair point ... There's a reason why they call it old school, because it's been replaced by new thinking."
The Bulls fought severe injuries to key players throughout most of Thibodeau's tenure in Chicago. While the evidence is still certainly at least partly anecdotal, the Raptors, on the other hand, were one of the league's least-injured clubs in 2013-14 a year after being among the NBA's most wounded.
The technology is not permitted yet for game use as per the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, but Berger quotes NBPA executive director Michele Roberts as being open to it.
"To the extent that the team and the player could come up with a better advantage based on the information, who's got a problem with that?" she said.