Report: NBA studying wearable GPS devices for eventual in-game use

NBA players could soon be outfitted with wearable GPS devices during games, if the NBA's investment into studying the technology proves beneficial.

The league is funding a study involving the wearable technology, according to a report from Grantland's Zach Lowe. The Mayo Clinic research will look further into existing products from device-makers Catapult and STATSports.

Catapult (which Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has heavily invested in) merged its services with SportVU in May of 2014, integrating SportVU's 3D-tracking data from games with Catapult's GPS-tracking data from practices. Many teams already use the devices during practices, and Catapult expects to have around 20 NBA teams as clients by the time the season starts, according to Lowe. The D-League's Fort Wayne Mad Ants also experimented with Catapult monitors during games last season as a perceived trial for the NBA.

Lowe describes the technology as follows before going into greater detail about its potential to maximize performance and prevent injury:

Weighing less than an ounce, these devices are worn underneath a player's jersey. They track basic movement data, including distance traveled and running speed, but the real value comes from the health- and fatigue-related information they spit out. The monitors track the power behind a player's accelerations and decelerations (i.e., cuts), the force-based impact of jumping and landing, and other data points. Team sports science experts scour the data for any indication a player might be on the verge of injury - or already suffering from one that hasn't manifested itself in any obvious way.

Ken Berger of CBS Sports previously reported that the Golden State Warriors rested Steph Curry and Klay Thompson late in the season based on fatigue indicators found in Catapult and SportVU data.

The NBA-financed study will determine the efficacy of the tools before bringing them to the players union for approval. The league would have to collectively bargain the in-game use of player-tracking devices. Lowe reports the union isn't opposed to the devices, but has some apprehensions about how the data will be used by teams and who will have access to it.

"My greatest concern is how some of this information might be leaked or used in contract negotiations," NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told Grantland.