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Injury Prevention Technology? Hawks Players Are Wearing It

As the Hawks' finished the final session of their camp at the University of Georgia Thursday, director of rehabilitation Mike Roncarati made his way around the gym, stopping for a few seconds with each player. The final player he approached was Kent Bazemore, who stepped away from a free throw competition to turn his back toward Roncarati, a member of the Hawks' newly reconstructed training staff. Roncarati reached between Bazemore's shoulder blades, slipped his hand inside a compartment sewn into a compression shirt, and plucked away an electronic device the size of a chicken nugget.

The device is part of a larger system designed by Catapult, an Australian company that specializes in using wearable technology to monitor biomechanical processes. The idea is that in studying the performance of athletes on a day-to-day basis and establishing a baseline level of performance, teams can work to improve those baselines. Perhaps more importantly, they can also use their records to spot signs of exhaustion, with the goal of reducing fatigue-based injuries.

The technology uses accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers as a means of measuring force, direction and tilt. The overall movements of players are tracked with a GPS system or a GPS-like indoor system that puts portable satellite devices in an arena to achieve even more finely-tuned dataset.

Without a doubt, science and technology are a part of sport unlike ever before.

Kyle Korver, himself a longtime client of the training institute P3 where similar information is harnessed, sees the value in the gaining such information.

"Everything is about numbers these days, right?," Korver asked rhetorically. "Analytics are everything. Teams are trying to get the advantage over the other team by what kind of reads we can get, how can we measure guys if they're tired – all these things."

For team president and head coach Mike Budenholzer, the top value lies in trying to prevent the injuries that arise from overuse.

"In practice, we're using the Catapult system," Budenholzer said, "and trying to monitor what our guys are doing and what their workloads and capacities are with our new medical team and Keke Lyles. They'll be able to take that data and analyze it and make sure we're not overworking them, which is probably as important as anything. All the guys are wearing the Catapult, and we'll be able to take that data and analyze it."

Lyles (whose first name is pronounced 'kay-kay'), Roncarati and Budenholzer all have previous experience using the Catapult system, which is used by at least a dozen NBA teams.

According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, the San Antonio Spurs have been using Catapult since the 2011 lockout, which means that Budenholzer had a couple of seasons of experience in San Antonio (where he was a longtime assistant coach) before being hired by the Hawks.

Lyles, the Hawks' executive director of player performance, came to Atlanta after two seasons as the director of athletic performance of the Golden State Warriors. Roncarati was the Warriors' strength and conditioning coach. Together, they used the tracking system to help guide Golden State to good health in the 2014-15 season, one of the key ingredients in their run to the NBA title.

Obviously, the system isn't a foolproof way to health. It won't necessarily help prevent collision injuries like the ones that hampered Paul Millsap's shoulder, Al Horford's pinky finger, and Korver's ankle last spring. But there is ever-increasing proof that good health is a must in an NBA season that lasts well over 100 games for league's best teams.

Despite the benefits, benefits in which he surely believes, Korver also expressed a concern over how such information is used. 

"As players, a lot of that (data) is really good," Korver said, "and there's also a point at which, from the player's perspective, it's probably too much. In contract negotiations, are they going to use that information they have against us somehow?"

"This is a huge conversation that is being had, because there definitely is a push by teams to want this information," Korver said, holding the vowel sound in the word huge for two extra beats in order to emphasize just how big a topic it is at the moment."

Korver went on.

"Without a doubt, there are going to be more and more things happening, and they'll be able read that on our bodies," Korver added before ending with a quip, "and hopefully not put chips in our arms or anything."

Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @KLChouinard