Another basketball professional joins the ranks of Daryl Morey, Tom Thibodeau, etc. and provides an overwhelmingly positive assessment of Chuck Hayes' abilities.
One of the best basketball articles I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Thank you very much naismith ps this is the way to start the season
No, I don't work for the Rockets, although I am trying to get my foot in the door. I have, however, been fortunate to do some things for them and am looking to do more (either with them or other league contacts I have built).
I absolutely love the fact that the front office is using a logical and semi-quantitative approach to the construction of the team. Too often with other front offices they use knee-jerk reactions and sign awful contracts for players who had an anomaly of a season or were successful due to a system more than their talent.
Thank you Jason Friedman for another well written and insightful article. The articles at Rockets.com have been less than stellar up to this year. I can definitely say that I look forward to reading each and every one of your articles, and they are now on my "must read" list. I really enjoy not only the "inside" information such as this article as well as your interviews with players during the preseason, but I also like your writing style that makes it entertaining to read. Major major props for a job well done thus far, and keep up the good work.
Man, I love the article. But Jason, I am worried that you are giving out too much to the public. (j/k) Seriously, some team is gonna snatch up Hinkie like how we plucked Morey from Boston. The whole league is going to copycat us. GMs like Isiah Thomas, Kevin McHale will be a thing in the past. People are going to realize just because a guy has been a great player doesn't mean he "knows" basketball.
We actually copied other people. Analytics in basketball has been going on for a while now. It has been more publicized because of DM's hire since he is strictly a stats guy and didn't have any prior playing or coaching experience. Teams have been employing stats guys but it has never gotten to the level it has now without the hiring of DM.
That's what I meant when I said people would copy us. No other team has ever trusted a pure "brain" guy to run the team. They all assumed that you can "know" basketball only if you have firsthand playing experience. That, of course, is BS. Does a doctor have to have first hand experience of a disease before he can cure it?
I understand. Sam Presti is pretty "brainy", but he did play college ball. Granted it wasn't D1, but it's more than DM. There are a few other guys out there like DM who could end up running a team. Sam is one. Rich Cho is another.
