LAist: ESPN Hates LA Basketball

bruinryan

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:41:14 -0800

i would likewise put my money on hollinger. but when gms overvalue picks, it's usually because they place too much weight on private workouts, physical tools, and "upside" while ignoring on-court results, or lackthereof (guys like brandan wright and yi jianlian in this year's draft). what the local guys mentioned have shown is a demonstrated ability to help their teams win. should that be the primary criteria to judge them? of course not. i'm just saying it shouldn't just be ignored either. if all you do is plug numbers into a spreadsheet, you're going to miss some of the nuance which drove those results. it's better than only watching with your eyes and not using any objective analysis. but it's not foolproof - nothing operates in a vacuum.

guest

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:54:04 -0800

If we were to put money on who would do better this year, the actual order (the GMs) or Hollinger, my money is on Hollinger. Becoming enamored with the "intangible qualities of leadership, clutch play, and heart " is what leads to mistakes and poor judgement.

bruinryan

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:59:07 -0800

i agree that objective analysis is an effective tool and that hollinger's numbers have correlated with success in the past - i said as much in the post. but as hollinger wrote in his article, he's got his share of duds in his historical rankings as well (just not as many as the moronic nba gms) so there is no perfect system; you need to utilize both statistical analysis and scouting to most accurately evaluate players. not saying that he's wrong in his model's assessment, just that he's not necessarily right. only time will tell if the players in question prove him wrong.

guest

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:18:13 -0800

Except he used the formula and statistics to find out what traits in the past have led to good NBA players...they aren't numbers in a vacuum. Common Sense is often wrong - that's why there are so many draft "busts" and "surprises" - because common sense was wrong. He's trying to eliminate that. That's what statistics should be used for! To eliminate bias! If the numbers correlate strongly with actual performance, it's something to be considered.

Militant Angeleno

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:08:27 -0800

The Eastcoast Sports Propaganda Network's hatred of Los Angeles teams is not limited to basketball. BOYCOTT ESPN!