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Where did you get this background from, when did you first start to believe & why do you believe so strongly that these analytics and advanced numbers are the way to build successful basketball teams? From a young age I was reading Bill James' 'Abstract'. When I went to Northwestern, turns out the company that helped found Stats Inc. was right next door in Skokie, Illinois so I worked there for 5 years and got my break with the Celtics and eventually hired by the Rockets. Always believed from a young age you can use data to improve your decisions. Everyone as a fan felt like that growing up. "Boy I can do better than these guys." The hope was I would get a shot to do it. As this goes on and becomes more prevalent, the fights you get, in a bigger sense, is it the players I guess like myself, former players, who are last to buy in to analytics and numbers? I'm not sure that's true. Take Coach McHale for example. He's probably best in the NBA at blending both what the information is telling you and his ability to work with players, inspire them to play their best, put them in position to succeed. He's one, from his playing days, he was always asking questions and wondering what was the right thing to do. If you have a curious mind, you'll want to know information and what's the real answer here? Teams that have 19 point leads with 14 minutes left in games win 98% of the time. How did your team fall in the 2%? That was all part of the plan. That's why we play sports. I've been on the other end of some pretty bad losses. We were up 17 once against the Bulls with 6 minutes to go and lost the game. That's why you love sports. If it wasn't for those moments where a group gets together and clicks and defies the odds of an underdog, I think we'd all stop watching. When they had 19 point lead, did you think this was done? Yeah, that goes through your mind for sure. I thought we had to get it to 10. One thing fun about basketball, while final margins are very tiny, within the game there are huge runs. You know you're always in a basketball game, you just need to have a string of 3-4-5-6 possessions go your way. It's hard to do but it's always there and always possible, just like in baseball, you're not done until your last out. Hack-a-player rule, should it be changed this offseason? I do think it should be changed and I appear to be in the minority. When we were just at the league meetings, it did not seem there was a lot of momentum to change it, which discouraged me a bit. Are you in favor of a 4 point line? I'm always in favor of looking at rule changes, I don't know about that specific one. There may be ways to add rules there. There were ways to get 4 points in the old CBA before the league folded. ... I'm always interested in talking about rule changes and things like that. Would you like draft lottery changes? I like the lottery but I like the tweaks the league office has come up with. They've come up with several plans. You do get a more of a chance if you're a worse team, but if you're a bottom 4-5 team, you get an equal chance. The league is looking to tweak that and it's a smart change. Magic wand, what rule do you want? I'd love to change the basket interference rule. After an offensive rebound, you don't have to worry if it's in the cylinder. You don't have judgement calls at the rim whether or not someone is interfering with the basket. That'd be one rule I'd change. Single biggest key to your team winning this? We have to slow Golden State's transition game. That's where they get on a roll scoring in bunches and taking teams out of it. If we can slow them down and win the transition game or make it close, we got a shot. http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=12912464
this, the rules should be designed so that there is no incentive to foul if FTs are not enough of an incentive not to foul, then the rules need to change
I think he alluded to the fact that the vast majority of teams see it as an edge they have against the three or four teams that know its their weakness. Sounds like the whole argument within the league isn't really about the spirit of the game, and viewership... its all about competitive advantage and whats best for THEIR TEAM. If you don't have bigs on your team that can't shoot free throws. Its an advantage to your team to keep the ruling as it is today just in case you face a team like the Rockets. Those teams will always be in the majority so I really don't see a change coming any time soon.
Momentum on the issue = TV partners words to Silver. It is ugly to watch; provides op to dial away. I read somewhere the TV folk are kicking in a few more bucks pretty soon. I guess they are the 500# gorilla here...
