Morey must have figured out a way to objectively measure heart

It's really not that hard to sort them out on the days Tracy decided to show up for work.

 

I hate the pitbulls reference. Yes they're relentless, but pitbulls go after things with no thought behind it. The Rockets play smart basketball AND they play hard.

 

What's nice is that these guys are tough, tough, tough but without being dirty or hot-headed. Luis Scola is a mean mofo down in the paint but you won't catch him dishing out flagrant fouls or punching people. The same goes with Landry, Hayes, Lowry. Meanwhile, you have Ron out there just wearing people out with his strength and Battier being the most disciplined defender I have ever seen. Hell, even Brooks is getting after it defensively these days.

Even Jalen Roses' man Kyle Landry is apparently really good.

 

Kenny Smith either agrees with you or is saying "I said it first".

 

pssh....he just ran names through NBA Live '09

 

it is funny. I thought money can buy anything, but in NBA, underpaid players usually have more heart than overpaid players.

another supporting fact to money ball.

 

+1 to this thread, I laughed when I read the thread, but then thought about it and said...hmm he probably does

 

German shepherds would be better reference.

 

I think battier was a jvg move and brooks was an ra pick. It seems like the difference between being a choker and having heart are a few bounces here or there.

Look at the mavs from a few years ago they were so close to a championship, a few bounces from winning and then the bottom fell out.

 

Interesting. Everybody talks about heart as an intangible. But maybe all the details and nuances that Morey analyzes -- at the least -- correlate highly with what we call "heart." And maybe, at best, they actually equate to the abstract notion of "heart."

That's probably too strong of an assertion. But quite possibly, heart is a prerequisite for players to come out with a favorable evaluation within Morey's framework. If you pair that analysis with the filter of players who don't shine in terms of traditional box-score metrics, it's not surprising that you end up finding guys with heart, balls, or whatever.

We keep hearing that the Rockets' run against the Lakers has been improbable. But maybe, in light of Morey's rigorous statistical analysis, it's not so improbable after all.

 

Anyone remember that old thread where someone asked for definitions of 'heart' and claiming that it's a pointless attribute?

 

Morey picks players who are not afraid of contact and draw fouls. To be honest, playoff games are officiated very differently from the regular season games.

As I remember, Morey looked at Lowry's drawing fouls per 48 minutes. He likes Landry's showing up big against Oden in college games. He asked opponents of Oregon(Brooks' team) about who they fear most.

Simply put, I guess if you looked at those player's games before they come to Rockets, they all showed 'hearts' in the past. So I doubt it's only a stat research thing.

 

Heart is actually a quantifiable statistic. It's included in contracts of high profile players more and more these days.

 

This might sound ridiculous but I think his forumulas actually do. here is why,

he talks about how he measures certain stats per minutes on the court, and certain formulas that measure effectiveness. Well all those stats he is looking for role players are things like rebounds, steals per minute as opposed to over a course of a game (role players dont play as much, and bench players play less). These formulas are showing waht guys achieve the most with a limited amount of time, and think about it, going all out ina little amount of time is showing how much energy you play with, and that shows us fans who is playing with heart.


So in a way, Morey does have a formula that is pretty accurate on predicting heart

 

Anyone know where luther head is now?

 

it comes from players who are overlooked...

 

Possibly cleaning JVG's pool.

 

That was started by me .

Basically, Morey looks at a player's positive and negative impacts on a game, and is able to quantify what kind of value they bring. Also, they look at the character of a player and their track record throughout their basketball career - does this guy have the characteristics of a winner?

For instance, in Lewis's moneyball article about Battier, they noted things such as better team rebounding when he is on the floor.

I'd imagine a host of defensive statistics that are currently nonexistent in mainstream forms show a lot about players quantifiable impact on the game. Taking that and dividing it up - you can see the "standard deviation" of their impact as well, do they impact some games and disappear other times?

I haven't heard the term heart thrown around as much as I have throughout this series, but I gotta say, I sure don't mind. What the Rockets have done this season has been awesome and inspirational. To watch them conduct themselves with class and grit in the face of the "giant" (some real cheap-shot artists too) has been a real privilege. And I can tell you this is not just Houstonians ... I've seen the Rockets win over people from all over the nation. The TNT crew who used to routinely disrespect the team now has a real respect for them. Many Blazers fans after playing them in the first round, have a second favorite team in the Rockets. Lakers, Jazz, Kings fans have great respect and appreciation for what's happened. (See here for an example).

As for the original thread. Well, I'm still a guy who believes that you can quantify just about everything into a helpful set of numbers (so does our GM). But witnessing this .... these guys play with a lot of heart . They play so hard, they play the right way, they trust each other. It's awesome.