I remember hearing John Kruk on Baseball Tonight say that the A's had abandoned moneyball in favor of players that are strong in traditional statistical categories. I don't know if he was right or wrong, but I do know that Oakland has never won a world series (they haven't even made the world series) with their moneyball philosophy. Now some of you will talk about how other teams like the Red Sox and the Mavs use moneyball to win, but you can use any philosophical approach and field an elite team when you have a payroll of over $100 million. We know where moneyball has gotten the Rockets...nowhere...but yeah, Finch is the moneyball guy that Morey wants as the team's eventual head coach.
One of the reason McFail was hired because of his openness to a stat and metric derived data, as oppose to Adelman who put aside the data that was given to him. I guess you can say that Adelman thought that Morey was encroaching the coach's territory. However, i truly believe that Mcfail is just a stop gap until his contract runs out and Finch is ready to take over the reigns.
It already has and that's on him. Coaches do matter even in a star dominted sport like basketball. Had morey not forced adelmans hand by trying to make finch as his successor,the rockets would be a lot better. In the basketball world adelman>>morey.
JerryH This is Finch´s offense influenced by Morey. It´s not a good fit for Lin and his game is almost lost here in comparison to NYK and Mike D`Antony´s game. The game against the Lakers confirmed that. Just shooting 3´s won´t win you a title and will not develop the young players. This team needs a good offensive coach type Adelman or D`Antony to get some wins. The current coaching staff is not capable of winning close games even when the team is scoring well, they are clueless.
Sorry but this is how I'm seeing it - ("Yeah Moneyball does NOT work. Okay teams have won championships with Moneyball, but that DOESNT 'count' "). Not sure how that comes together Like: - A hot looking waitress dyed her hair blonde in Houston but didnt get tipped too well in an average bar. - An average looking waitress dyed her hair blonde in Los Angeles and got tipped well in a nice bar. - Therefore the hot girl in Houston shouldnt dye her hair cuz it gets you NOWHERE. Along with the apples to oranges comparison of baseball Oakland A's to basketball Dallas Mavericks Still, there's a slight difference between METHODOLOGY and RESOURCES You can have a Moneyball METHODOLOGY, but NOT have the financial, scouting, facilities RESOURCES to execute it well. You can have a Moneyball METHODOLOGY, you're out in front cuz you're first, then later have deep pocket teams "STEAL" the approach. You can HAVE financial resources, but have a POOR TEAM (New York Knicks, Mets) Simply put, its like a small tech company putting out a patent, then a big tech companies BUY the RIGHTS to use the patents for themselves. The early adopters and originators might not get all the benefit, but the methodology has success
I've seen that mentioned as well, valuing the leadership qualities that moves people to get things done. Which seems to go against the quant approach and goes with human judgments. But was interesting in how it went against the notion of Morey just wanting to have an automaton Hal/Watson running the team just off electronic iPad computations In my view its not THAT uncommon to have selective coaching hirings and firings in other sports like the NFL and MLB. You can fire the manager and keep the hitting coach and 3rd base coach, or fire the head coach and keep the linebackers coach. Maybe there's more loyalty factor in the NBA with smaller staffs Still to me, if Finch is that much your guy, why not just give him the job outright. But I guess it shows how much they got to pay some dues to get in the "circle" first.
Lin fits in well with the moneyball approach. In an interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wIbHHVn4wc), Morey said that he preferred a scoring point guard (who can attack the hoop) to a traditional point guard. In the past season, we usually played Lowry and Dragic at the same time. Both of them attacked the hoop. One of the main reasons Rockets let Adelman go and hire Mchale is that Mchale is willing to work with the data analytics team. Also, he let Finch be the offensive coordinator. Finch is Morey's choice, so there's no way that he doesn't take those data into account when he prepares the offensive scheme. Then why isn't Lin involved in the current offensive scheme? My guess is that Harden came after the preseason camp/games, so the coaching staff tried to learn how other players can complement Harden's game. As the season goes, Lin will run pick-and-roll and attack the hoop more frequently.
I guess you didn't know our offense is eerily similar to D'Antoni's offense, did you? - PnR at top of key initiating attack. - Two players at corners for spacing. - Lots of open 3's. - Lots of passing. The only difference between Lin w/ Knicks and Lin w/ Rockets: Harden initiates most of attacks, where as in NY, it was all Lin. Take a close look at our offense. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with our offense against the Lakers. Rockets had an awesome game offensively!!! Points 108 FG 48.9% 3PFG 39.1% Yes, shooting 3's will not win titles; defense will. That was where we lost the game, especially in the paint! PG and Center are the most difficult positions to learn. If any LOF expecting Lin to have a 18/10 or 20/8 season, it's obvious that you are in for a miserable season.
JerryH I don´t agree. Finch´s offense is a motion offense, D´Antony´s has a different look. It appears similar, but it´s not. Also, the Lakers don´t really hustle in D against average team like the Rockets because they know that they can outscore them easily, as it happened. Also, with this offense the Rockets can be competitive only when players like Parsons shoot at 60% or more - how many games do you think this will happen?! We need Lin to start creating and Harden (like Kobe) be the driving force. Pretty inconsistent so far.
Funny that Morey has addressed that in an interview. They were able to gain an advantage with moneyball, but it was not sustainable because their advantage was reproducible. Once the big-money teams also use similar moneyball methods, the advantage was lost. Morey says that one potential way to sustain the advantage is to secure proprietary data. Obviously the key here is to stay ahead of the moneyball curve.
Morey after the 2nd Portland loss... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o9Q0kp8CMFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And that's too bad that Morey who pays so much attention to detail with his statistics wouldn't think that using advanced stats during a game would help. Games can turn with just a few possessions here and there. Giving more minutes to players who deserve them can have a huge impact in a given game. I'm really hoping this Finch guy is an extension of Morey and our future coach. I know it's an odd analogy, but in the eSports world, games like StarCraft are all about using the right personnel AND micromanaging. The pro players won't win games if they aren't highly skilled in both areas. I think Morey vastly underestimates the value of micromanaging in basketball.
All this and the fact that, imo, for a young team/players it's more difficult/important for them to learn defense, and nail their defensive rotations; so that's where their focus is, and why Sampson is interim head coach. I think the wear is getting on Sampson's defensive assistant coach duties however, because he's edoing two jobs at once at this point.
Basketball is not baseball. Morey's quant analysis is not capable of operating at the granularity of coaching. The analysis sits above the individual basketball plays and players. Morey, all in all, most probably has significant input into McHales coaching. He just does not get down to the basketball "moment" - the time slice in which a pass or shot is executed. It is probably Morey saying "I need to know ..." and "This is how I think we should find out". And then McHale, Finch and Sampson implement something (not necessarily what Morey suggested) to get the answer. Which is why I think Adelman was fired. He would not get the answers that Morey required, nor take suggestions that impinged on his coaching fiefdom.
He hired McHale based on high esteem from a stinkin' interview. When it comes to leadership, people get fooled easily by flair and charisma. When ORL wanted an analytic GM, they passed on actual analytic mastermind and OKC Presti right hand man Troy Weaver for OKC equipment manager travel agent glorified ballboy Rob Hennigan because they were "impressed by Hennigan's interview." When SAC wanted a head coach, it came down to a choice between genius Tom Thibodeau and flair man Paul Westphal, and they ultimately chose Westphal because they were "impressed by Wesphal's interview and had doubts about Thibodeau's." Saying the right things is easy. Even Royce friggin White can do it for several interviews.
None of this takes away from the notion that you can use any philosophical approach and field an elite team when you have a payroll of over $100 million. Thus far, moneyball without an usually high payroll has failed to produce a championship in any sport.
Where the heck did you come up with that piece of drivel? From some deep and confused part of your mind, obviously. I actually wanted to put it in a much more derogatory manner, but I decided not to. That initial sentence is not based on any fact or even rumor. Should have been posted on some alien sightings or conspiracy theory website. It would be well at home there.
