http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-0/The-life-of-an-advance-scout.html
January 2, 2008 10:15 AM
Posted by Brian Windhorst
Pat Zipfel has one of the most demanding jobs in the NBA and his work directly affects the outcome of games. Yet you probably have never heard of him or most people like him. He's an advance scout for the Houston Rockets and, if you listen to his peers, one of the league's best. He's been "doing advance" as they say in the NBA for seven years now, also having worked for the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers. He's former point guard who fell in love with Xs and Os while playing at Cabrini College in Philadelphia. He's also been the head coach at Centenary College and an assistant at The Citadel. On a six-hour flight from Orlando to Seattle last week, Pat agreed to answer some questions for TrueHoop about the grueling yet fascinating nature of his job.
What exactly is an advance scout?
There are two types of scouts in the NBA. There are personnel scouts, who look at players and decide if they can play, fit their system and are the type of player that will be successful with the salary fitting. The advance scout is responsible for watching the opponent, diagramming all their plays, knowing their calls, knowing their side out of bounds plays and end of game plays. Then you report back to the coaching staff and suggest a game plan on how to win that game. The advance scout specializes in the knowledge of the game.
The job of advance scout is not just a job but a lifestyle. During the NBA season, it is a marathon of traveling and watching games and writing reports. Whether your team wins or loses you feel you played a part in preparing them for the game and are fully vested in every game.
So, you feel the highs and lows of winning and losing, even though you are already ahead working on the next opponent. The truth is that It can be a bit lonely when you play a game that you spent so much time helping prepare your coaching staff and you find yourself alone in a hotel room checking the scores online to see if your team won. No one is with you to celebrate victory or share defeat.
If being around the team and getting to know the players sounds great to you, then the job of advance scout is not for you. Most of our players wouldn't recognize me since they only see me a few times a year other than during training camp. Every game they read the reports and get prepared by the coaches but almost all are unaware of the process it took to get that information to them.
How many NBA games do you see in person during a season?
Last season, I saw 144 NBA games in person during the regular season. So far this season I have seen about 65 games. But coupled with the amount of games on tape, I can't actually count how many games I have seen. While it is a dream job if you love the game of basketball, it requires a level of commitment and work ethic during the season that is grueling.
So that includes lots of time in hotels and on airplanes?
Since training camp started, I've been in my own bed (outside Philadelphia) for eight nights. Typically, I fly every day of the week, this job requires at least 100,000 miles in the air every year. A large part of the daily routine of this job is logistics, getting from one city to the next. Getting all the flights, taxis, rental cars, hotels and the whole time trying to be budget conscious is a challenge. It's not easy, especially since most of the season happens in the winter. Once last season a game in New York went to overtime and I missed the last train out of the city and all the hotel rooms were booked. I ended up sleeping in Penn Station. Because I'm up late after games working on reports and then up early to catch flights, I get most of my sleep on planes.
So who does your laundry and have you every flown to the wrong city?
Most of the 30 advance scouts in the NBA could write a travel book on how to travel in and out of the 30 NBA cities. Most of us know which airlines have direct flights, what cities and airports are the best and worst to deal with, who has the friendliest cab drivers, and even where to get laundry/dry cleaning done on short notice in each city. We see the airport, the hotel and the arena, that's it.
Most scouts stay at Marriott hotels, because you know what you are going to get and it is dependable. But because the rooms all look the same, yes, you wake up sometimes and dont exactly know where you are.
How do you get the information to your team and how has technology helped?
Advance scouting in the NBA was originally done by Bill Bertka of the Los Angeles Lakers. He could be considered the godfather of advance scouting. He was the first person to go out and watch the opponent play and report back to his team his suggestions on how to beat the opponent. Over the years, the position went from pen and paper to laptops, e-mail, software and .pdf files. Back then and now the goal is the same: to know your opponent and try to find ways to beat them.
The process following every game is the scout will go back to his hotel and input all the plays in the software that were used on that night and write a report following the game that will prepare the coaching staff on the opposing teams. That includes personnel, tendencies, play calls, frequency, and even who to suggest to foul in a close game. This information is emailed to directly to the coaching staff. Just few years ago this meant lots of faxing and FedExing but the software now allows you to do it all electronically.
The Rockets are one of the most computer savvy teams in the league, how does it carry over to your job?
Having worked for three different NBA teams, the Rockets are cutting edge with their ability to marry technology and basketball. Aside from the standard personnel database that teams have started using the past few years, the statistical and analytical work of the Rockets' front office technology team gives the coaching staff and personnel department every possible advantage. This goes back to our (general manager) Daryl Morey and (vice president of basketball operations) Sam Hinkie, they are two of the best in the business at it.
How important is getting the play calls and signals?
For our team, Shane Battier is excellent at hearing opponents calls during the game and knowing what is going to happen before the opponent runs the play and letting our coaching staff know. That type of advantage could be the difference between 2-3 possessions a game and determine the outcome.
There are lots of players who make it a priority. If you sat close enough to the court of a Dallas Mavericks game, Dirk Nowitzki does a great job of calling out the other teams plays to their bench, as does Jarrett Jack of the Portland Trail Blazers for his team. If Mike Dunleavy of the Pacers knows the play, he will call it out in his teams term just to get a small edge.
How much of the job is technical (X and Os) and how much is intuitive?
The ability to watch a game and know where all 10 players are on the floor is invaluable for the job. Being able to draw up all the plays and where each player goes is important for the coaches when they see the report. But you also have to be able to suggest ways to counteract what the opponent does, which means you have that part of your mind working, too.
So after all that, do you like your job?
As a former NCAA head coach, I know the importance of knowing how to defend the other team. I have always felt this job was valuable since we are in the business of winning games and beating our opponents. So I know how important the job is and that's important to me.
Every day I hear from people what a great job it must be and even after 7 years, I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be sitting front row every night in the NBA, the highest level of basketball in the world. Just last week, I saw Kobe, Carmelo, and LeBron play in person in a three-day span. And if you love the game of basketball, that sounds like a dream job.
Showing posts with label Daryl Morey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daryl Morey. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Friday, November 2, 2007
Articles on Daryl Morey
Below are two articles on Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey that I really enjoyed:
http://houstonpress.com/2007-11-01/news/rocket-science/full
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/ballz/2007/11/outtakes_daryl_morey_couldve_b.php
http://houstonpress.com/2007-11-01/news/rocket-science/full
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/ballz/2007/11/outtakes_daryl_morey_couldve_b.php
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Battier's Contribution to His Team
Shane Battier by the Numbers
Beyond stats, there's stats
By Jason Friedman
Published: November 1, 2007
The Rockets are pouring a large amount of money into statistical analysis. Whether or not you think it's a wise investment probably depends upon your opinion of Shane Battier.
Battier enjoyed a wildly successful college career at Duke University, where he led the Blue Devils to one national championship and a pair of Final Four appearances. In 2001, Battier swept the major National Player of the Year awards on his way to becoming a Memphis Grizzly, when that team selected him with the sixth overall pick of the NBA draft.
Since then, Battier has averaged more than ten points a game only once, and that came in his rookie year. His career high per-game rebounding average also occurred during his first season in the league. To be sure, he is a versatile defender and a heady player, one who overcomes his lack of athleticism through discipline and hustle. You'd never label him a bust, but — in the traditional view — you'd never call him a special player either. A stat line of ten points, five boards and two assists doesn't exactly get the heart racing.
But the Rockets didn't care about those numbers. They were focused on something else entirely, something that most definitely made their blood pump a little faster. Here's a small glimpse at what they saw:
When Battier was on the court, his team
• Scored more
• Rebounded better
• Fouled less
• Allowed fewer points
• Shot better
• Decreased their opponent's shooting percentage
In other words, he was exactly the type of player the numbers said they had to have.
"He definitely stood out in all the methods we use," says Morey. "He's someone who creates a large margin over who he's guarding. In the NBA, it's not how many points you score, it's what you do with each time down the floor. And when Shane uses a possession, it's always a high number of points are scored. And when Shane's guarding someone, not many points are scored when the other team uses the possession on the other end of the floor. When he played versus not over his years in Memphis, the team was about eight points per game better, a very significant margin."
http://houstonpress.com/2007-11-01/news/shane-s-game/print
Beyond stats, there's stats
By Jason Friedman
Published: November 1, 2007
The Rockets are pouring a large amount of money into statistical analysis. Whether or not you think it's a wise investment probably depends upon your opinion of Shane Battier.
Battier enjoyed a wildly successful college career at Duke University, where he led the Blue Devils to one national championship and a pair of Final Four appearances. In 2001, Battier swept the major National Player of the Year awards on his way to becoming a Memphis Grizzly, when that team selected him with the sixth overall pick of the NBA draft.
Since then, Battier has averaged more than ten points a game only once, and that came in his rookie year. His career high per-game rebounding average also occurred during his first season in the league. To be sure, he is a versatile defender and a heady player, one who overcomes his lack of athleticism through discipline and hustle. You'd never label him a bust, but — in the traditional view — you'd never call him a special player either. A stat line of ten points, five boards and two assists doesn't exactly get the heart racing.
But the Rockets didn't care about those numbers. They were focused on something else entirely, something that most definitely made their blood pump a little faster. Here's a small glimpse at what they saw:
When Battier was on the court, his team
• Scored more
• Rebounded better
• Fouled less
• Allowed fewer points
• Shot better
• Decreased their opponent's shooting percentage
In other words, he was exactly the type of player the numbers said they had to have.
"He definitely stood out in all the methods we use," says Morey. "He's someone who creates a large margin over who he's guarding. In the NBA, it's not how many points you score, it's what you do with each time down the floor. And when Shane uses a possession, it's always a high number of points are scored. And when Shane's guarding someone, not many points are scored when the other team uses the possession on the other end of the floor. When he played versus not over his years in Memphis, the team was about eight points per game better, a very significant margin."
http://houstonpress.com/2007-11-01/news/shane-s-game/print
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Reshuffling the Rockets
Randy Kim of AOL Sports wrote an insightful commentary yesterday on how Daryl Morey overhauled the Houston Rockets this offseason entitled "Rocketing to the Top".
As the offseason winds down and training camps prepare to open, it's a good time to try to determine which NBA squad improved itself the most this summer.
There are a few obvious choices: By trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, the Celtics quickly grew from a young rebuilding club to an Eastern contender. Both the Blazers and the Sonics have new hope thanks to the arrival of ballyhooed rookies Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, respectively. And by trading for the controversial Zach Randolph, the Knicks acquired a 20-10 player who could help carry New York back to the postseason if he can stay out of trouble.
All of these were subpar clubs that finished last season well out of the playoff picture, however. As far as the league's top teams are concerned, few made any significant changes this summer. In fact, look over the list of seven teams that won 50 or more games in 2006-07 and only one squad stands out as a franchise that made major improvements this offseason. Only the Houston Rockets had the gumption to add a new coach, two new point guards and a new starting power forward to a 52-win team.
What makes these drastic changes even more improbable is that this summer was Houston's first under new general manager Daryl Morey. And even more remarkable still? The Rockets GM is all of 35 years old.
Naturally, because of his assured roster moves, young age and close friendship with Oakland A's mastermind Billy Beane - the subject of the best-selling book "Moneyball" - Morey has quickly earned a reputation as the league's resident wunderkind who relies on objective statistical analysis more than pure basketball intuition. To that end, Morey doesn't deny borrowing from Beane's philosophies, yet he maintains that a good hoops executive can't make decisions based on stats alone.
"I think with every decision, whether it's baseball or basketball, what (Beane) and I and others are trying to find is some level of objective evidence to confirm your beliefs," admits Morey during a telephone interview. "And with each decision, there should be some component of analytical and objective evidence, and some component of more traditional methods.
"In baseball it just turns out that the sport lends itself to those decisions being driven more by objective evidence," continues Morey. "But in basketball, given the high level of interaction between the players and the play - you know, did a guy make the shot because there was a good pick, or because there was bad defense, or because the guy's a good shooter? - it's very hard to isolate those things, so you need to blend (scouts and statistical analysis) a lot more, and traditional scouting is something (the Rockets) value highly."
Morey is also aware that while being seen as a new-school, number-crunching GM was vital to him getting the Rockets job, there are also challenges that can come with that kind of reputation.
"(As a young GM, there probably are) some feelings of, 'He's a kid and he hasn't paid his dues,' " admits Morey. "But I've found that as a group, the GM's in the league are extraordinarily smart and welcoming. It's a very small community, and even if you aren't a fan of whoever's running another team, it's in everyone's best interests to keep those relationships strong."
Morey's theory of keeping relationships strong was perhaps best put to the test when the Rockets showed interest in a player the rival Spurs held the rights to: talented Argentinean power forward Luis Scola. Morey felt the chances of San Antonio GM R.C. Buford cutting a deal with their intra-division - and intrastate - rivals were slim. But Buford said Houston had a shot at acquiring Scola and he stuck to his word.
"We felt like throughout (the Scola trade) was a bit of a long shot because both of our teams are reluctant to trade with each other within the division," says Morey. "But I give R.C. a lot of credit. He told me that we would have a shot at the (Scola) deal if we were the highest bidder, and we were."
Morey doesn't just credit Buford as being a fair man, however. When asked if there's one team that he'd like to model the Rockets after, the Rockets GM is quick to mention Buford and Gregg Popovich's Spurs as the franchise that best knows how to navigate the NBA's tricky talent landscape while also winning games.
"You can look at lots of teams getting a Tim Duncan-like player, like maybe Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, and the pieces don't form around him well," says Morey. "But I think that (Buford and Popovich) have done a tremendous job of taking a smart, methodical approach to maximizing the talent around Tim Duncan. I'm extraordinarily impressed by the Spurs and hopefully we can copy just a small piece of what they've been able to do."
In his effort to mimic San Antonio's success, Morey hasn't just gone after Spurs players like Scola and Jackie Butler, however. Similarly to the Spurs, Morey places a precedence on eschewing long-term deals for anyone other than a team's stars - in Houston's case, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming - and showing stern fiscal responsibility when it comes to signing complementary players.
"Teams that don't (manage the salary cap) well get hurt, especially with teams like New York and Dallas coming off, basically, (a period when they would take) any contract on and not worry about the luxury tax," says Morey. "With those homes sort of going away, it makes the discipline of managing to the cap more important. And the teams that do it well will be able to pick up extra players and picks."
Having cap flexibility to grab those "extra players" is precisely how Morey was able to improve his team's one weakness: at point guard. In fact, it could be argued that Morey was a bit over-zealous as he now has six point guards on the Houston roster: Rafer Alston, Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis, Mike James, John Lucas and Bob Sura. But Morey maintains there can be strength in numbers.
"(Mike James is) probably the best shooter of all of the guys we've got, which is obviously always at a premium," explained Morey. "Rafer's more of a pass-first, up-tempo guy, and probably the best team defender ... And then Steve's just the ultimate guy who can get to the hoop and cut and rebound."
In fact, maintaining team chemistry might be a bigger challenge for new coach Rick Adelman than figuring out the point-guard rotation. Alston has been arrested twice this summer, something that Morey has openly said he's troubled with. And Francis, whom Morey admits kind of fell into the Rockets' laps, has a reputation as a me-first player who needs the ball in his hands to succeed. Morey, however, thinks they have a new Francis (nee "Stevie Franchise") on their hands.
"In most of (Adelman's) systems, a guy who's going to succeed is a cutter," says Morey. "It's very difficult for the guards to dominate the ball, or whatever criticisms there have been with Steve in the past. I think to Steve's credit he's taking winning over money, and he's got a new attitude."
So with all of these moves, does Morey see the Rockets as contenders for the title next year? The answer: While Morey isn't so green as to make brash predictions for the Rockets, he is still young enough to be openly optimistic.
"We felt like we were a good team last year but there was still a gap between us and the Spurs and the Suns and the Mavericks, and we feel like this offseason we've closed the gap," answered Morey. "We feel like we're in the mix (for a title) and certainly not getting farther into the playoffs would be a big disappointment for us."
So where does a thirtysomething exec who makes such a big splash in his first offseason come from? Well, for Morey, in the same way that most players have the lifelong dream of someday going pro, he has always yearned for a career in sports.
"I was always huge into sports from a very young age; my honeymoon was at the Olympics," admits Morey. "I did leave that goal (of a career in sports) for a little while, because it's extraordinarily hard to get a job in sports. But eventually I got my shot when I helped the Celtics' eventual owners buy the team."
From there, Morey networked within NBA circles and got pulled into the Rockets' fold by longtime Rockets GM Carroll Dawson. Dawson took Morey under his wing and introduced him to a number of league execs before he propped him up in the driver's seat.
"I knew some people through the Celtics, but Carroll was in a different network than Danny (Ainge), and he was very gracious with (his introductions)," says Morey. "And I think often when you come into a new situation, like maybe Sam Presti in Seattle, you have to make moves quickly, because you want to make those moves before things settle in."
But as quickly as Morey has made a splash, he hopes to mimic Dawson's longevity.
"He was around 28 years. I hope I make it that far," says Morey, before laughing to himself in wonderment. "I've got a little while still."
Given how well things have gone for his team so far, Morey stands a good shot at sticking around long enough to shed that "new kid" label. But in the meantime, don't be surprised if the Rockets win a couple of games along the way.
http://sports.aol.com/story/_a/rocketing-to-the-top/20070910192909990001
As the offseason winds down and training camps prepare to open, it's a good time to try to determine which NBA squad improved itself the most this summer.
There are a few obvious choices: By trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, the Celtics quickly grew from a young rebuilding club to an Eastern contender. Both the Blazers and the Sonics have new hope thanks to the arrival of ballyhooed rookies Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, respectively. And by trading for the controversial Zach Randolph, the Knicks acquired a 20-10 player who could help carry New York back to the postseason if he can stay out of trouble.
All of these were subpar clubs that finished last season well out of the playoff picture, however. As far as the league's top teams are concerned, few made any significant changes this summer. In fact, look over the list of seven teams that won 50 or more games in 2006-07 and only one squad stands out as a franchise that made major improvements this offseason. Only the Houston Rockets had the gumption to add a new coach, two new point guards and a new starting power forward to a 52-win team.
What makes these drastic changes even more improbable is that this summer was Houston's first under new general manager Daryl Morey. And even more remarkable still? The Rockets GM is all of 35 years old.
Naturally, because of his assured roster moves, young age and close friendship with Oakland A's mastermind Billy Beane - the subject of the best-selling book "Moneyball" - Morey has quickly earned a reputation as the league's resident wunderkind who relies on objective statistical analysis more than pure basketball intuition. To that end, Morey doesn't deny borrowing from Beane's philosophies, yet he maintains that a good hoops executive can't make decisions based on stats alone.
"I think with every decision, whether it's baseball or basketball, what (Beane) and I and others are trying to find is some level of objective evidence to confirm your beliefs," admits Morey during a telephone interview. "And with each decision, there should be some component of analytical and objective evidence, and some component of more traditional methods.
"In baseball it just turns out that the sport lends itself to those decisions being driven more by objective evidence," continues Morey. "But in basketball, given the high level of interaction between the players and the play - you know, did a guy make the shot because there was a good pick, or because there was bad defense, or because the guy's a good shooter? - it's very hard to isolate those things, so you need to blend (scouts and statistical analysis) a lot more, and traditional scouting is something (the Rockets) value highly."
Morey is also aware that while being seen as a new-school, number-crunching GM was vital to him getting the Rockets job, there are also challenges that can come with that kind of reputation.
"(As a young GM, there probably are) some feelings of, 'He's a kid and he hasn't paid his dues,' " admits Morey. "But I've found that as a group, the GM's in the league are extraordinarily smart and welcoming. It's a very small community, and even if you aren't a fan of whoever's running another team, it's in everyone's best interests to keep those relationships strong."
Morey's theory of keeping relationships strong was perhaps best put to the test when the Rockets showed interest in a player the rival Spurs held the rights to: talented Argentinean power forward Luis Scola. Morey felt the chances of San Antonio GM R.C. Buford cutting a deal with their intra-division - and intrastate - rivals were slim. But Buford said Houston had a shot at acquiring Scola and he stuck to his word.
"We felt like throughout (the Scola trade) was a bit of a long shot because both of our teams are reluctant to trade with each other within the division," says Morey. "But I give R.C. a lot of credit. He told me that we would have a shot at the (Scola) deal if we were the highest bidder, and we were."
Morey doesn't just credit Buford as being a fair man, however. When asked if there's one team that he'd like to model the Rockets after, the Rockets GM is quick to mention Buford and Gregg Popovich's Spurs as the franchise that best knows how to navigate the NBA's tricky talent landscape while also winning games.
"You can look at lots of teams getting a Tim Duncan-like player, like maybe Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, and the pieces don't form around him well," says Morey. "But I think that (Buford and Popovich) have done a tremendous job of taking a smart, methodical approach to maximizing the talent around Tim Duncan. I'm extraordinarily impressed by the Spurs and hopefully we can copy just a small piece of what they've been able to do."
In his effort to mimic San Antonio's success, Morey hasn't just gone after Spurs players like Scola and Jackie Butler, however. Similarly to the Spurs, Morey places a precedence on eschewing long-term deals for anyone other than a team's stars - in Houston's case, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming - and showing stern fiscal responsibility when it comes to signing complementary players.
"Teams that don't (manage the salary cap) well get hurt, especially with teams like New York and Dallas coming off, basically, (a period when they would take) any contract on and not worry about the luxury tax," says Morey. "With those homes sort of going away, it makes the discipline of managing to the cap more important. And the teams that do it well will be able to pick up extra players and picks."
Having cap flexibility to grab those "extra players" is precisely how Morey was able to improve his team's one weakness: at point guard. In fact, it could be argued that Morey was a bit over-zealous as he now has six point guards on the Houston roster: Rafer Alston, Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis, Mike James, John Lucas and Bob Sura. But Morey maintains there can be strength in numbers.
"(Mike James is) probably the best shooter of all of the guys we've got, which is obviously always at a premium," explained Morey. "Rafer's more of a pass-first, up-tempo guy, and probably the best team defender ... And then Steve's just the ultimate guy who can get to the hoop and cut and rebound."
In fact, maintaining team chemistry might be a bigger challenge for new coach Rick Adelman than figuring out the point-guard rotation. Alston has been arrested twice this summer, something that Morey has openly said he's troubled with. And Francis, whom Morey admits kind of fell into the Rockets' laps, has a reputation as a me-first player who needs the ball in his hands to succeed. Morey, however, thinks they have a new Francis (nee "Stevie Franchise") on their hands.
"In most of (Adelman's) systems, a guy who's going to succeed is a cutter," says Morey. "It's very difficult for the guards to dominate the ball, or whatever criticisms there have been with Steve in the past. I think to Steve's credit he's taking winning over money, and he's got a new attitude."
So with all of these moves, does Morey see the Rockets as contenders for the title next year? The answer: While Morey isn't so green as to make brash predictions for the Rockets, he is still young enough to be openly optimistic.
"We felt like we were a good team last year but there was still a gap between us and the Spurs and the Suns and the Mavericks, and we feel like this offseason we've closed the gap," answered Morey. "We feel like we're in the mix (for a title) and certainly not getting farther into the playoffs would be a big disappointment for us."
So where does a thirtysomething exec who makes such a big splash in his first offseason come from? Well, for Morey, in the same way that most players have the lifelong dream of someday going pro, he has always yearned for a career in sports.
"I was always huge into sports from a very young age; my honeymoon was at the Olympics," admits Morey. "I did leave that goal (of a career in sports) for a little while, because it's extraordinarily hard to get a job in sports. But eventually I got my shot when I helped the Celtics' eventual owners buy the team."
From there, Morey networked within NBA circles and got pulled into the Rockets' fold by longtime Rockets GM Carroll Dawson. Dawson took Morey under his wing and introduced him to a number of league execs before he propped him up in the driver's seat.
"I knew some people through the Celtics, but Carroll was in a different network than Danny (Ainge), and he was very gracious with (his introductions)," says Morey. "And I think often when you come into a new situation, like maybe Sam Presti in Seattle, you have to make moves quickly, because you want to make those moves before things settle in."
But as quickly as Morey has made a splash, he hopes to mimic Dawson's longevity.
"He was around 28 years. I hope I make it that far," says Morey, before laughing to himself in wonderment. "I've got a little while still."
Given how well things have gone for his team so far, Morey stands a good shot at sticking around long enough to shed that "new kid" label. But in the meantime, don't be surprised if the Rockets win a couple of games along the way.
http://sports.aol.com/story/_a/rocketing-to-the-top/20070910192909990001
Friday, September 7, 2007
The Business of Sports: Here Come the Technocrats
The Business of Sports: Here Come the Technocrats
Wall Street Journal
By Russell Adams | September 16, 2006
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115813109459661786.html
This past spring, the Houston Rockets hired a 33-year-old guy with almost no playing, coaching or scouting experience to be the National Basketball Association team's general manager of the future -- a move that reverberated loudly in the basketball world.
In some corners, the hiring of Daryl Morey, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management), part-time business professor and former financial consultant, signaled the official arrival in the NBA of the data-oriented approach to running a team chronicled in "Moneyball," Michael Lewis's 2003 best-seller about baseball's Oakland A's. Others saw it as evidence of an owner gone mad.
The Business of Sports
As sports has grown into big business, the teams and leagues have gotten serious about how they find off-field talent. Plus, as any nonathlete who has tried knows, it takes a lot more than desire to get to the top of the sports business.
But at 226 Causeway St. in Boston, where the NBA's Boston Celtics conduct business, the Rockets' move brought validation. It was the Celtics that, three years earlier, had given Mr. Morey, then a financial consultant who had never sniffed an NBA front office, his first job in professional sports.
"It's so much fun trying to do things in a way they haven't been done before," says Wyc Grousbeck, managing partner and governor of the Celtics. "I didn't hire him thinking he was going to become an NBA GM. But why couldn't a junior consultant become an NBA general manager?"
Striving for Efficiency
Since taking over the team in late 2002, the Celtics ownership group has exemplified the challenges of bringing modern business sensibilities to a tradition-bound franchise operating in a world historically averse to change. They've replaced nearly half of the team's employees (some of those through natural attrition), turned the ticket-sales operation into a yield-management business that allows them to use inventory data to maximize revenue, and built a small army of statisticians to unearth valuable information -- on ticket sales and players' performance -- for the front office and coaching staff.
It's a phenomenon playing out throughout sports in recent years: Having spent astronomical sums on their franchises, a new breed of aggressive, tech-savvy owners are demanding greater efficiency in an often pathetically inefficient industry.
But they're not always well-received. The Oakland A's success and "Moneyball" made baseball front offices around the league more open to number-crunching general managers, setting off a turf war between these outsiders and the baseball lifers who view their experience in the game as a requirement for entry. And in the NBA, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's convention-defying approach -- whether it's turning the arena into an all-purpose entertainment venue or exploring new statistical tools for measuring player performance -- is part of what has made him one of the league's most polarizing figures.
The group of venture capitalists and private-equity investors, who in 2002 paid a then-record $360 million for the Celtics, arrived at the beginning of this sea change, but with the added challenge of melding modernity with tradition. By then, the proud franchise of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and Larry Bird had fallen into a distant third in the Boston sports hierarchy -- behind baseball's Boston Red Sox and the National Football League's New England Patriots. So when Mr. Morey mastered the NBA salary cap in a weekend while doing a valuation analysis for the prospective owners, the group saw someone who could help maximize an underleveraged asset.
"I said, 'Daryl, you're going to look pretty good in green if you get this deal done,' " recalls Mr. Grousbeck.
Modernizing Ticket Sales
As senior vice president of operations and information, Mr. Morey's first job was to modernize the ticket-sales operation. He tapped a Cambridge company called StratBridge Inc. to install technology allowing the sales team to visually analyze, in real time, who the customers are, where they're sitting and what they're willing to pay for tickets. A 40-inch plasma screen on the wall of the sales office shows a map of the TD Banknorth Garden, with each seat rendered a different shade to indicate availability and sales patterns. The 25-person sales team uses that data to study buying trends and develop promotions -- sometimes just hours before the start of the game -- to sell unused seats.
"It's about finding the right seat for the right price for the right person on the right night of the week," says Rich Gotham, the team's chief operating officer. "It's not rocket science."
Since the new system was implemented a year ago, Mr. Gotham says, the team has doubled its group-sales business and remained at the top of the league in individual ticket sales. But he adds that it's not all about the technology; they've significantly increased their sales staff as well.
Scott O'Neil, the NBA's senior vice president of marketing, says 22 of the league's 30 teams have since adopted the same system. "The Celtics are one of the most forward-thinking, innovative and creative teams when it comes to using data and taking the analytical approach to decision making," says Mr.O'Neil.
Evaluating Players
But basketball operations is where this approach might ultimately produce the biggest rewards. Mr. Morey also had long explored basketball analytics and had worked as a consultant at Stats Inc., a company that provides sports statistics and analysis primarily to teams, leagues and media outlets. At Stats, he had developed a way to apply the Pythagorean theorem of baseball - which predicts wins based on runs scored and runs allowed -- to other sports. Mr. Morey offered to do statistical analyses for the Celtics, which gave him the go-ahead to hire a small team of statisticians who would provide input to the basketball operations and coaching staffs.
One of the first big projects was a regression analysis of 25 years of NBA drafts to determine which college statistics best equate with NBA success at each of the five positions. The stats group now is developing a similar database of European players, says Danny Ainge, the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations, as well as an analysis of the composition of NBA championship teams. But Mr. Ainge plays down the utility of statistics for evaluating basketball players, saying it is "dangerous" to assume the numbers can tell you everything.
"I still am in favor of the old-fashioned way of spending time and studying players," says Mr. Ainge, who adds that the statistical information is merely a complement to what the scouts say.
He says that his skepticism is, in part, a function of the newness of this approach, and that data showing which combinations of players perform best together have been helpful to head coach Doc Rivers and his staff.
For his part, Mr. Morey says he takes a balanced approach, and that while he's "obsessive about testing beliefs about what helps a team win using analytics," the foundation of his beliefs come from traditional approaches. "I'm not someone who leads with numbers," he says.
For sure, the team so far has had mixed results producing a winner -- on and off of the court. The Celtics have lost more games than they've won in two of the past three seasons. And over that period, they've never been higher than 18th in the league in attendance. This season might bring more of the same, as the team remains light on stars and loaded with talented but inexperienced players.
Team officials say that in sports, business only booms when the team wins.
The key is squeezing the most out of the asset when demand is low so that you can maximize growth when the team is winning. The model for getting the most out of an asset is just across town, where the Red Sox have squeezed every last penny out of historic Fenway Park. In so doing, the Red Sox have opened themselves to criticism from some baseball fans who see a front office full of bean counters willing to stomp on tradition.
Emotional Investment
The Celtics' new regime has been similarly aggressive on the business side, but team officials say they realized early on that they couldn't operate the team like they operate any other business. Buying a season ticket or a sponsorship, say team officials, is an emotional investment that demands personal attention from the team.
"It's very much an interpersonal industry," says Mr. Gotham, "and you can't just take a quantitative approach. The successful organizations understand that pretty well."
The Mavericks' Mr. Cuban advised these owners early on to let the fan base know that the owners are the team's biggest fans. Mr. Grousbeck is such a staple in the stands and around the team that some of the players have taken to calling him a clone of Mr. Cuban. At least it's not an act.
Mr. Grousbeck is a lifelong fan of the team. And in that, he's far from alone among the ownership group. Stephen Pagliuca, a managing director of Bain Capital, one of the biggest buyout firms in the world, is a Celtics diehard with a basketball court in his house. Robert Epstein, a principal at Boston real-estate company Abbey Group, is a graduate of Mr. Cousy's basketball camp. And James Pallotta, a managing director at Tudor Investments Corp., plays in a regular pick-up game at Harvard University's gym with several former NBA players. Mr. Grousbeck has asked if he could play but was told he's not good enough.
Wall Street Journal
By Russell Adams | September 16, 2006
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115813109459661786.html
This past spring, the Houston Rockets hired a 33-year-old guy with almost no playing, coaching or scouting experience to be the National Basketball Association team's general manager of the future -- a move that reverberated loudly in the basketball world.
In some corners, the hiring of Daryl Morey, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management), part-time business professor and former financial consultant, signaled the official arrival in the NBA of the data-oriented approach to running a team chronicled in "Moneyball," Michael Lewis's 2003 best-seller about baseball's Oakland A's. Others saw it as evidence of an owner gone mad.
The Business of Sports
As sports has grown into big business, the teams and leagues have gotten serious about how they find off-field talent. Plus, as any nonathlete who has tried knows, it takes a lot more than desire to get to the top of the sports business.
But at 226 Causeway St. in Boston, where the NBA's Boston Celtics conduct business, the Rockets' move brought validation. It was the Celtics that, three years earlier, had given Mr. Morey, then a financial consultant who had never sniffed an NBA front office, his first job in professional sports.
"It's so much fun trying to do things in a way they haven't been done before," says Wyc Grousbeck, managing partner and governor of the Celtics. "I didn't hire him thinking he was going to become an NBA GM. But why couldn't a junior consultant become an NBA general manager?"
Striving for Efficiency
Since taking over the team in late 2002, the Celtics ownership group has exemplified the challenges of bringing modern business sensibilities to a tradition-bound franchise operating in a world historically averse to change. They've replaced nearly half of the team's employees (some of those through natural attrition), turned the ticket-sales operation into a yield-management business that allows them to use inventory data to maximize revenue, and built a small army of statisticians to unearth valuable information -- on ticket sales and players' performance -- for the front office and coaching staff.
It's a phenomenon playing out throughout sports in recent years: Having spent astronomical sums on their franchises, a new breed of aggressive, tech-savvy owners are demanding greater efficiency in an often pathetically inefficient industry.
But they're not always well-received. The Oakland A's success and "Moneyball" made baseball front offices around the league more open to number-crunching general managers, setting off a turf war between these outsiders and the baseball lifers who view their experience in the game as a requirement for entry. And in the NBA, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's convention-defying approach -- whether it's turning the arena into an all-purpose entertainment venue or exploring new statistical tools for measuring player performance -- is part of what has made him one of the league's most polarizing figures.
The group of venture capitalists and private-equity investors, who in 2002 paid a then-record $360 million for the Celtics, arrived at the beginning of this sea change, but with the added challenge of melding modernity with tradition. By then, the proud franchise of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and Larry Bird had fallen into a distant third in the Boston sports hierarchy -- behind baseball's Boston Red Sox and the National Football League's New England Patriots. So when Mr. Morey mastered the NBA salary cap in a weekend while doing a valuation analysis for the prospective owners, the group saw someone who could help maximize an underleveraged asset.
"I said, 'Daryl, you're going to look pretty good in green if you get this deal done,' " recalls Mr. Grousbeck.
Modernizing Ticket Sales
As senior vice president of operations and information, Mr. Morey's first job was to modernize the ticket-sales operation. He tapped a Cambridge company called StratBridge Inc. to install technology allowing the sales team to visually analyze, in real time, who the customers are, where they're sitting and what they're willing to pay for tickets. A 40-inch plasma screen on the wall of the sales office shows a map of the TD Banknorth Garden, with each seat rendered a different shade to indicate availability and sales patterns. The 25-person sales team uses that data to study buying trends and develop promotions -- sometimes just hours before the start of the game -- to sell unused seats.
"It's about finding the right seat for the right price for the right person on the right night of the week," says Rich Gotham, the team's chief operating officer. "It's not rocket science."
Since the new system was implemented a year ago, Mr. Gotham says, the team has doubled its group-sales business and remained at the top of the league in individual ticket sales. But he adds that it's not all about the technology; they've significantly increased their sales staff as well.
Scott O'Neil, the NBA's senior vice president of marketing, says 22 of the league's 30 teams have since adopted the same system. "The Celtics are one of the most forward-thinking, innovative and creative teams when it comes to using data and taking the analytical approach to decision making," says Mr.O'Neil.
Evaluating Players
But basketball operations is where this approach might ultimately produce the biggest rewards. Mr. Morey also had long explored basketball analytics and had worked as a consultant at Stats Inc., a company that provides sports statistics and analysis primarily to teams, leagues and media outlets. At Stats, he had developed a way to apply the Pythagorean theorem of baseball - which predicts wins based on runs scored and runs allowed -- to other sports. Mr. Morey offered to do statistical analyses for the Celtics, which gave him the go-ahead to hire a small team of statisticians who would provide input to the basketball operations and coaching staffs.
One of the first big projects was a regression analysis of 25 years of NBA drafts to determine which college statistics best equate with NBA success at each of the five positions. The stats group now is developing a similar database of European players, says Danny Ainge, the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations, as well as an analysis of the composition of NBA championship teams. But Mr. Ainge plays down the utility of statistics for evaluating basketball players, saying it is "dangerous" to assume the numbers can tell you everything.
"I still am in favor of the old-fashioned way of spending time and studying players," says Mr. Ainge, who adds that the statistical information is merely a complement to what the scouts say.
He says that his skepticism is, in part, a function of the newness of this approach, and that data showing which combinations of players perform best together have been helpful to head coach Doc Rivers and his staff.
For his part, Mr. Morey says he takes a balanced approach, and that while he's "obsessive about testing beliefs about what helps a team win using analytics," the foundation of his beliefs come from traditional approaches. "I'm not someone who leads with numbers," he says.
For sure, the team so far has had mixed results producing a winner -- on and off of the court. The Celtics have lost more games than they've won in two of the past three seasons. And over that period, they've never been higher than 18th in the league in attendance. This season might bring more of the same, as the team remains light on stars and loaded with talented but inexperienced players.
Team officials say that in sports, business only booms when the team wins.
The key is squeezing the most out of the asset when demand is low so that you can maximize growth when the team is winning. The model for getting the most out of an asset is just across town, where the Red Sox have squeezed every last penny out of historic Fenway Park. In so doing, the Red Sox have opened themselves to criticism from some baseball fans who see a front office full of bean counters willing to stomp on tradition.
Emotional Investment
The Celtics' new regime has been similarly aggressive on the business side, but team officials say they realized early on that they couldn't operate the team like they operate any other business. Buying a season ticket or a sponsorship, say team officials, is an emotional investment that demands personal attention from the team.
"It's very much an interpersonal industry," says Mr. Gotham, "and you can't just take a quantitative approach. The successful organizations understand that pretty well."
The Mavericks' Mr. Cuban advised these owners early on to let the fan base know that the owners are the team's biggest fans. Mr. Grousbeck is such a staple in the stands and around the team that some of the players have taken to calling him a clone of Mr. Cuban. At least it's not an act.
Mr. Grousbeck is a lifelong fan of the team. And in that, he's far from alone among the ownership group. Stephen Pagliuca, a managing director of Bain Capital, one of the biggest buyout firms in the world, is a Celtics diehard with a basketball court in his house. Robert Epstein, a principal at Boston real-estate company Abbey Group, is a graduate of Mr. Cousy's basketball camp. And James Pallotta, a managing director at Tudor Investments Corp., plays in a regular pick-up game at Harvard University's gym with several former NBA players. Mr. Grousbeck has asked if he could play but was told he's not good enough.
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