"I don't believe in that analytical crap"-- Charles Barkley

Please, how can analytics be bad? Just because you use analytics doesn't mean you have to follow what it says no matter, it's just another tool you use, if analytics says Jason Kidd is the 2nd best pg in the NBA it doesn't mean you have to go get Kidd and pay him the max, you will always have the option to follow common sense and not give the 33 year old dude a 5 year contract.

That's like saying being smart is sometimes worse than being dumb.

 

It's funny, I just watched Moneyball for the first time last week & thoroughly enjoyed it. It's amazing how the Rocket's roster since Morey taking over has played out much like that movie.

Who in their right mind starts Chuck Hayes as the starter at center?

Morey does & won with him there. THAT is the quintessential advanced stat player doing right by the team.

 

Since when did Daryl Morey focus on signing players that were "smart"? Someone needs to show him all of Harden and Dwight's tweets. They aren't exactly Shakespeare when it comes to grammar.

 

This is a great point even the OP glossed over. Harden/Howard aren't really the analytics players. Lowry and Martin (ugh) were the basis of the Harden trade. Lowry was a backup to an undeveloped Mike Conley and Martin was high scorer on a bad team. Morey flipped them at their peak as a budding all-star (Lowry) and a top efficient scorer on a .500+ team.

 

Good ole Chuck.

 

Harden is totally an analytics player. Remember how many people said he'd play like garbage without Durant and Westbrook? Anyone who was really paying attention knew how good of an iso scorer and shot creator he was.

 

Some old school people used to criticized Tom Landry pioneering using computer to aid his coaching. Most of those people are lying in graves now. Today, nobody can imagine running a football team without computers.

The greatest lesson we learn from history is that we never learn from history.

 

Gotta love Barkley. The world's biggest reverse poseur. Made a whole career out of playing smart while acting dumb. And now he's doing it again. If only he had self-discipline. But then he wouldn't be Barkley.

 

This is the man who picked Allen Iverson with the first pick of the first round in a mock-draft to create the best team of all time.

 

Harden seems like a perfect poster boy for analytics. No team was willing to pony up more than KMart, Lamb(12th pick), next year's 4~14th pick, top-20 protected pick, high 2nd rounder for the guy as recently as last year.

Think about that. If teams truly valued Harden as top 10~20ish player, you think THAT above trade would be OKC's best offer?

 

yea there were a bunch of folks crying when lamb left.