If you've watched an NBA game lately, you know it's incredibly fast. But the technology running behind the scenes? It's moving even faster – tracking millions of data points in any given game for just one single player!
What does the NBA do with these mountains of metrics? They're putting them to work to enhance the game for players and coaches as well as the fans watching from home.
The NBA recently announced a huge partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Now, if you hear "AWS" and your brain just pictures warehouses full of stuff, you're not alone. But AWS is actually Amazon's cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) division.
The league is teaming up with them to use that high-powered cloud-based tech to completely reimagine how fans, players, and coaches engage with the game.
And the best part? Our sole Canadian NBA team, the Toronto Raptors (and their parent company, MLSE) are already deep in this tech, using it to find a winning edge.
Get Ready for Some Next-Level Nerdy New Stats
The biggest thing most of us will interact with directly will be a brand-new platform called NBA Inside the Game powered by AWS.
The NBA tracks billions of data points, including the movement of every player on the court (capturing 29 data points per player!). AWS's job is to take that mountain of data and turn it into cool, easy-to-understand insights for us during live broadcasts and on the NBA App.
During the 2025-26 season, you'll start seeing new AI-powered stats that measure stuff we've never been able to measure before.
Here are the ones that may be the most interesting for fans:
- Defensive Box Score: For years, it's been hard to really quantify good defense with stats. This new tool uses AI to figure out which defender is responsible for which offensive player in real-time. This means it can finally track and tally things like ball pressure, double teams, and defensive switches.
- Shot Difficulty: This goes way beyond just "make or miss." The AI will look at everything—the shooter's orientation, how much pressure the defender is applying, and where everyone is on the court—to calculate an "Expected Field Goal %." You'll finally be able to prove that was a terrible shot selection.
- Gravity: This is my favourite. We all know some players (like Steph Curry or Damian Lillard) warp the entire defense just by being on the court, even without the ball. This new "Gravity" stat will finally measure that "invisible" impact. It measures the level of attention a player gets from the defense and quantifies how much space they create for their teammates.
This tech will also power a new "Play Finder." Using AI services like Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock, broadcasters (and, eventually, fans) can instantly search for similar plays from thousands of games to understand offensive strategies better.
How the Raptors Are Geeking Out
It's one thing to create this tech. It's another to get teams to embrace it. Fortunately, Canada's home team in the NBA is already putting this tech to work. MLSE selected AWS as its official cloud and AI provider back in 2022 and launched an R&D program called SportsX to build new solutions.
One of the coolest results of emracing new tech? The Raptors Shooting Lab.
This is a high-tech tool built by MLSE and AWS to give coaches and players incredibly detailed feedback. Here's how it works:
- Capture: Multiple cameras record a player taking a few shots.
- Analyze: AWS-powered AI models (using Amazon SageMaker) process the video instantly.
- Feedback: The system provides biomechanical data on things like elbow velocity, release angle, stance width, and shot trajectory.
On-site biomechanists can then walk players through their personalized stats to make professional-grade feedback digestible and help them fine-tune their mechanics.
I got to try it out firsthand (if you missed the video at the top of the article, you'll find it here) and it was super cool to see how fast I could get information related to my throw, really breaking down where things were changing (and likely going wrong), so I could make better decisions next time I practice to improve my game (in theory).
Historical Highlights from Hours to Minutes
The on-court tech is cool, but MLSE is also using AWS to change how their internal teams work. They were even named the NBA's Most Innovative Team of 2024 for it.
A big reason why is their new Gen AI Dynamic Video Editor.
From all the players, from all the seasons, from all the games, think about how many hours of footage the MLSE creative team has. If they want to make a highlight reel, they used to have to scrub through all that footage manually.
Not anymore.
This new tool, powered by Amazon Bedrock, lets the team use natural language search. They can just type in a request, (example: "buzzer beater hail-marys that ended up being game winners") and the AI finds and assembles the clips.
Basically, an editing process that used to take hours can now be done in minutes.
As someone who does a LOT of video editing (and also works with a different professional sports league and is best friends with the guy who cuts highlight reels during that league's games, I think it's worth pointing out that this isn't AI editing to replace the job a person would do.
This is a tool that would allow an editor to take something that would be tedious and time-consuming to the point where it just wouldn't be fesible to include in an edited "package," to all of a sudden having a freedom to pick and choose what's "best" rather than what's "doable" within their timeframes.
From new stats that change how we watch the game, to biomechanical labs that change how players train, this AI partnership is set to touch every part of the sport. And, as more leagues take note of the possibilities, it will be very interesting to see how these technologies can be adapted for other types of sports around the world.
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