Heisler on analytics

[joveLeffud]

Heisler is correct John Hollinger has done far more damage than good for analytics. He made a simple stat formula that is something out of a fantasy basketball league and ESPN labeled him one of their analytics guys.
However I am going to type one word which will make Heisler look like an idiot for acting like Analytics do not play a daily role in all sports

VEGAS

[wilq]

So who is the eastern GM that he got the anti-analytics comments from?

IMHO the question is - how's that working out for you eastern GM??
You play in a clearly weaker conference and even there you can't win that many games...

Also I find it very ironic to use Keith Law's quote in anti-analytics article while he was on the pro-analytics side during MVP debate...

"Two years ago they were down on Damian Lillard. He was too old [then 21 after four years at Weber State without attracting enough interest to enter the draft]. He didn’t play in a major conference. He wasn’t a steals guy. He didn’t shoot a lot of free throws."

He was 6th in the entire NCAA in FTA!
And major conference is more of problem for scouts than easily adjustable numbers, right?

Overall, I find this article laughable and an obvious example of cherry-picking at it's worst but there's one interesting question... Let's say you meet this GM...

"Tell me one guy that they’ve found that nobody knew about"

What examples would you use for players which were ignored by the scouts and "discovered" by the models?

Anything is possible, even disaster scenarios in which they’re right, I’m wrong and I have to learn what WARP is.

So I guess there's a hope he will try to understand the thing he is attacking... Nice.
Though I'm sure he will find many excuses even if Smart turns out to be actually good.

[Crow]

Good points made in the responses.


As for the GM who scoffed at or downgraded analytics, I guess I might add Masai and Jeff Bower as possibles, but less so than the others I suggested.

[Bobbofitos]

Good points made in the responses.


As for the GM who scoffed at or downgraded analytics, I guess I might add Masai and Jeff Bower as possibles, but less so than the others I suggested.

there's 0 chance it's Masai. there are a lot of badly run eastern franchises, of which it could be any one of them.

[Crow]

Ok. I knew certain or many folks would disagree with the mention.

But there are probably some GMs who talked out of both sides of their mouth on this topic, depending on the nature of the conversation and who it is with.

Some may like analytics, especially when it agrees with their subjective. But given a chance to claim superiority over those who produce it, may knock it down some too.