Intro to Gravity | The NBA’s Newest Metric & How to Use It
Written by: Varun Sharma
Last Update: Wed Feb 18, 2026, 6:30 pm ET
Read Time: 7 minutes
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It's not often we get new metrics or data points to follow in the NBA, but this year they've rolled out a brand new stat and I feel like it's not getting enough attention.
Gravity is something we've talked about a ton over the last few years but it's been a tough thing to quantify and put on paper. This year with the help of artificial intelligence, the NBA's been able to put a number to it and we're here to talk about it.
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Gravity
What is it?
Gravity is the first stat we've seen that has the ability quantify how much defensive pressure any offensive player draws; both on and off the ball. The easiest example to bring up when talking about gravity is Stephen Curry.
Steph is one of the toughest players to guard and it's why team's will continue to make sure he sees little to no daylight. Whether its on-ball or off-ball; Steph consistently get's picked up at half-court, consistently gets switched on and is never left alone on an NBA court. Now we have a way to put a number to the amount of 'attention' a player like Steph draws on the offensive side of the ball.
How's it Quantified?
The NBA uses Second Spectrum tracking to measure analytics such as:
- Average distance to nearest defender
- Number of defenders within 'x' distance
- Defensive shifts when an offensive player relocates
- Help defender moves, for example: do they stunt, tag or shade offensive player
What is Second Spectrum tracking? This is the official player-tracking and analytics provider for the NBA and they're using AI optical tracking, alongside multiple cameras in the rafters taking hundreds of pictures every minute. The cameras track the location of every player on the court, taking close to 25+ pictures per minute and tracking each individual movement.
The system takes things like player location, ball location, speed, acceleration, defender distance, screen interactions and countless more; combines it with the machine learning AI model and it gives us data points we not have had otherwise.
It does a great job of displaying offensive metrics like spacing, gravity or just off ball movement. It helps defensively with things like rim contest rates, help responsibility, coverage breakdowns and tracking switches.
Important Statistics
All of the in depth gravity statistics are available for free at here on the NBA Stats page, but let's talk about how to interpret this data. First, gravity is split into two categories; gravity minutes and average gravity.
- Gravity Minutes: Total minutes where player 'x' is generating a measurable amount of gravity
- Average Gravity: How strong is the defensive pull when player 'x' is on the court — measure of intensity
After that, we split it into a couple more categories. We've got 'on-ball gravity' and 'off-ball gravity'; then we've got both of these further subdivided into 'interior gravity' and 'perimeter gravity'.
It sounds convoluted when you lay it out like that, but basically we're measuring the defensive pull of any player, both on the perimeter and on the interior; while also examining whether their gravity is greater with the ball or without the ball. It makes sense when you compare a player like Steph to someone like Joel Embiid.
Steph's gravity is something that remains high whether he has the ball or doesn't, no matter if he's on the interior or on the perimeter. Now compare that to Joel Embiid, someone who's mere presence in the paint almost always draws a double team.
Gravity Leaders
Average Gravity
This year's leader in total gravity rating, by no surprise, is Stephen Curry. He's got a gravity rating of 20.4 and leading the NBA in off-ball gravity rating both on the perimeter and the interior. He does so much to draw defenses in and open up shots for his teammates, it just hasn't worked this year due to how bad this Golden State Warriors' offense has been.
The Warriors average just 104.0 points per game this year without Steph on the court and the team's shooting percentage drops to 42.7%. With Steph in the lineup that jumps to 120.3 points per game and the team shoots 47.5% from the field. Steph is averaging 27.2 points per game this year but this year we're also able to better measure how he affects the game, outside of the box score.
With a gravity rating so high, it's no surprise the Warriors offense rating drops from 120.3 to 110.0 when Curry's off the floor.
Gravity Minutes
In terms of total gravity minutes, there's a few guys leading the pack. Kevin Durant's up there both due to his average gravity rating and the fact he's playing a ton of minutes this year. Durant's only missed three games this year and he's averaging 36.7 minutes per game. At 37 years old Durant is leading the Houston Rockets in scoring and without him the offense has a tendency to dry up.
Another example is a guy like Tyrese Maxey. His gravity both on the interior and perimeter helps facilitate open shots for his teammates and he's playing a ton of minutes. Trey Murphy's also been great this year for the New Orleans Pelicans and we've seen their offensive rating take a nose dive when he's off the court.
Lastly, a guy like Michael Porter Jr. has also drawn a ton of attention this year. Partially because he's been so good, but also because he's playing on a team where no one else has been a consistent threat. His volume has been great and even though he's not a guy known to dish out assists; his gravity does a lot to help out this offense. The Brooklyn Nets' offensive rating goes from a 117.8 with Porter on the floor, to an abysmal 104.7 when he's on the bench.
How do we use it?
With this metric being so new, it's something we're going to have to continue learning from and learning how to use. That being said, more data is always a good thing; at least in my opinion. Data like this allows us to better track how an offense may perform on any given night, especially if some players are unable to suit up.
With Curry currently still without a timetable to return, it's hard for me to see the Warriors offense finding life and finding a way to compete. The same could be said about Nets team looking to drop as many games as possible and Michael Porter dealing with some nagging injuries.
We can also look at this to help us identify certain matchups where certain players could see an increase in their assist numbers. Kevin Durant has been someone we've seen this year pick up his assist numbers against tough defensive matchups. Team's that up the defensive intensity and force the ball out of Durant's hands. He's had 7+ against the Spurs twice this year, 7 against the Timberwolves and 7 twice against the Mavericks.
This stat won't be the most important when looking to handicap games, but like I said above; an extra tool in the utility belt never hurt.
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