Comments on: Discerning Morey’s Philosophy 5.3

By: Blake

Blake — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Oh boy, nice lamps, buddy! These lamps are great! I can just think of all the basketball discussion uses for lamps. What an illuminating comment! You really shined a light on my problem!

By: lamp-club

lamp-club — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 06:46:00 +0000

Great! Dreaming http://www.lamp-club.net/ Are Introduced Last Week!

By: The Point Forward » Posts Court Vision: Wall finds new running mates «

The Point Forward » Posts Court Vision: Wall finds new running mates « — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:47:52 +0000

[...] court, making decisions based purely on algorithms. But Rahat Huq of Rockets blog Red 94 says that caricature remains common and reminds folks that Morey, you know, watches actual games of basketball and considers things [...]

By: Jeby

Jeby — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:38:00 +0000

Morey’s tweet today, in response to Bill Simmons’ column, http://es.pn/9qj4Fe , made me proud:
“What is your alternative,that we avoid good players?Also,we don’t need a trade,we are going to surprise NBA.”

I don’t know if it says much about his philosophy, but it says something about him as a person. He understands people, and he understands motivation.
This summer he was talking about taking opportunities to “upgrade” the roster. Is this basketball or software? I’m not enthused about rooting for the b-ball equivalent of Windows Vista. And if I’m a player, it makes me think the boss views me as a commodity.
But reading the blustering comment, “we don’t need a trade” from the February Swindler himself…well, it kind of feels like the coach saying “I love you guys” at the end of Hoosiers.

By: Rocket Fan in Santa Barbara

Rocket Fan in Santa Barbara — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:17:00 +0000

I watched the game that “Lifesyle” references–Melo had a near tripe-double and his game seemed very different. He was consciously passing out of double-teams and adjusted his game to get to the line when his shots were not falling. Not to attach to much meaning to a pre-season game, but it is important to remember that players can and do change. Statistical analysis is absolutely essential, and I’m glad the Morey and the Rockets use it so effectively. But it is, by definition, an analysis of the past, which can only be extrapolated to the future with great care. Perhaps that is why Morey puts so much stock in “character”–he wants players that can more easily change and improve. That takes a great deal of intuition–not so much about a player’s talents, but how that player might change and evolve over time.

By: benj

benj — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:53:00 +0000

The margin of error for winning a championship is so ridiculously small. Take one of the luckies teams – the Lakers. Fisher makes an absurd turnaround shot from near the timeline and it’s the Lakers who get the momentum to take the series against San Antonio and eventually win the title….a few timely Ariza steals to seal the deal for LA against the Nuggets two years ago. ..how different would the Lakers series against Orlando have looked if Courtney Lee had made that layin at the buzzer? The point is, regardless of what the method is for building a contender, you have to catch some breaks along the way – a few calls at key moments, a luck shot or two, an rare gaffe by the opponent(didn’t Ray Allen miss two free throws in a row in a key playoff game a year or two ago?). Therefore, the only real way to judge success is not by titles, but by consistency in the same way we are better advised to judge a player based on their shot percentages rather than how many big shots they hit….. and to that point, the teams most heavily involved with statistical analysis have all been the most consistent playoff teams of the last decade – look at the list of teams here:

http://www.nbastuffer.com/component/option,com_glossary/Itemid,90/catid,44/func,view/term,NBA%20Teams%20That%20Have%20Analytics%20Department/

By: Bob Schmidt

Bob Schmidt — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:33:00 +0000

Great managers are often judged as great for occasionally making decisions based upon intuition, or maybe better referred to as gut feeling. Going against statistical analysis sometimes produces results that are nothing short of amazing… Computers and analysis will never replace the genius of great intuition, that’s why Morey and others like him are special.

By: Lyfestyle

Lyfestyle — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Carmelo Anthony had 30, 14 and 9 last night, making 17-19 FTs (but did shoot at a horrible clip from the field). Just throwing that out there for no good reason.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:37:00 +0000

I think what I’m most interested in, which I could never compose as a post without putting everyone to sleep, is the extent of their attempts to quantify things. for instance, we know they are keeping stats for certain things, all which can be quantified. but what about the things that supposedly can’t be quantified, like ‘health’, ‘desire’, ‘professionalism’. we know they aren’t ignoring those things, as i explained in the post. but how do they account for them? do they just arbitrarily factor them in or do they try to assign a number and then use that in the calculation?

One might say, ‘well, there’s no way to put a number on heart.” that’s true, but if you’re arbitrarily accounting for it anyway, does it matter? you’re measuring it in the same manner, just not putting a number on it. so isn’t the best method just to put a number on everything and add it up? in fact, i would guess this is what they do.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:24:00 +0000

What I’m often curious about are what specific stats Morey and other GM’s like him keep/consider important when evaluating players at particular positions or in specific combinations.

There was a Rockets Craigslist job posting a few years ago looking for statisticians, and part of the application was to make up/present your own stat. I didn’t apply but considered keeping track of the single game/season average variance of offensive stats that a player guards. The results from a few games might not tell you much, but with a larger sample size, it might be an effective way to measure a player’s man-to-man defensive abilities.

(I realize that this is exactly the vein of comment that Zzzzzzzzz from the last post is really fuming over. Sorry, man. Also, get over yourself. It’s the pre-season. We literally have nothing else to talk about.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:38:00 +0000

Glad I’m not the only one at the computer at this hour.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:34:00 +0000

Good stuff. Because it’s early I saw a comma instead of a close parenthesis for the Patterson part. I read the following:
(i.e.: he stated that the decision to draft Patrick Patterson was impacted by a feeling that he would fit with the team culture, and from common sense, we know that this just is not the case.
Scared me a little bit.