Blazers Players Use Ipads During Games
If you think you've seen the Blazers looking at iPads during games your eyes are not deceiving you. A quick survey of Portland's key players produced some interesting results. Lillard, Matthews, Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge all said that they are using iPads for help during games, but all pursued individual approaches as to what they wanted to see and all had individual habits about when and how they wanted to see the on-demand footage.
Matthews and Aldridge were the biggest advocates of the new technology. Matthews told Blazersedge that he uses the tablets to examine plays on both sides of the ball. On his offensive touches, he's concerned with his shooting form, whether he rushed his shots, and whether there were additional options available to him when the ball swings his way. On defensive plays, Matthews is checking for his stance, his spacing relative to his opponent, and how players are scoring on him.
Aldridge does not look at Portland's defensive possessions, instead reviewing the opposition's defensive coverages when he has the ball in the block or in isolation. Where are the double teams coming from? When do they come? Who are opponents leaving open? What are his passing options? He sounded like a football quarterback or offensive coordinator when describing this instant, in-game "reading the defense" process.
Both players painted the iPad study as a serious competitive advantage.
"It does [help] because you get to see it [again], and in the game everything happens so fast," Matthews, who finished with 17 points (on 6-for-14 shooting) and 6 rebounds, told Blazersedge. "You ask yourself, 'Did I rush it? I felt like I rushed it.' [The video can tell me] when I'm in that same situation off a flare screen, when Nic [Batum] passes over the top, [if] I have more time to get the shot off or [if] I have to shoot it at that speed again. Or, could I have driven it?"
What might once have been a "halftime adjustment" can now take place before a player checks back in during the second quarter.
