Because they are a pretty new thing, especially to front offices. I don't think sports like basketball or football will ever be purely statistical, but the reason they are 'just starting to work' is because they have just recently become mainstream, and not just a trick used by teams with low resources to gain an edge. Literally every team has been forced to adapt to use saber metrics to some degree, because if you don't your just so behind the curve.
Also, coaches from the past would be absolutely bamboozled by a team like the Warriors or Rockets, as they've literally never seen anything like it. If they played them, after the first couple of threes they'd scoff and tell their defenders to keep letting the other team fire away. Then all the sudden they'd be down 20-7 and wondering wtf is going on. Thinking about it, I'll take D'Antoni as my coach if he's still available. Red Auerbach won't know whats about to hit him.
Fair enough. Let's just ask LCA how much coaching plays a role in this Draft and Judging. Run and Gun was very common in the past, how else would players like Wilt score 100 pts? He would not score 100 today but the point is people started scoring way back. While the Warriors and Rockets have tremendous shooters, those athletic Top Centers in the past would give Capela, Nene, Zaza, Bogut, a lot of problems inside and from the midrange. Auerbach is a bad example, I just forgot that he was Bill Russell's coach. The Celtics had a history of good coaches. But I recognize that today's coaches have been closing the gap and surpassing some of the Alltime Great coaches. But again i.e., in this Draft, if you have Pat Riley, with Magic, with others who played for him, they got an advantage of chemistry and cohesiveness. Same Team coach and players = Works for us.
It's more just the three point revolution I'm reffering to. In 1990, Denver led the league in threes with 12.9 a game, which is nearly 10 three's lower than the least 3-point shooting team in the modern NBA today, as Sac is averaging 21.1 attempts a game. Would be tough for coaches to adapt from thinking about threes as a gimmick to keep the defense honest to a more efficient way to score, and a necessity for spacing.
Coaching plays a big role in how offense and defense will be ran, this is why we took time to select them. If you're going to tell me D'Antoni runs a lockdown defense, and half court offense, you're going to have a bad time friend.
no reason why, tbh i probably just liked looking at Oscar's and Giannis names next to each other. i don't think it matters much because players still play the same and are defended the same. if you put Shaq at shooting guard, he would still be guarded by my center and would play in the post, similar with Giannis, naming him 2, 3 or 4 doesn't change how he plays and who guards him. i worried about having some shooters next to him and being able to defend all positions. it's a good question which position to call him, but i didn't think it matters much if all positions get covered defensively either way. if we can adjust for matchups, i might move him around depending on which star i have to defend (probably wouldn't be online enough though)
I think 31 was his prime, he should've been the MVP that year, but Kobe had a better story. I think Boston saved all of their big 3 a bit, since they were blowing teams out either way. I can see a case for historically proven chemistry, but on the other hand, i think 2008 proved that KG was a great team player who could easily fit in and build great chemistry. He also built great chemistry and had a great team with Sprewell and Cassell, also in the first year. KG was great for chemistry because he was an MVP talented glue guy, not a go to guy. I would've picked KG instead of one of those other guys, maybe instead of McHale, maybe instead of Havlicek. i might even have picked KG and Allen if that was possible. but it would be boring with no differences in opinion
Have to remember that McHale averaged 26ppg on 60 fg% in one of the toughest eras. Seeing how guys like Kanter or Embiid flourish in the post and today's NBA, I'd think McHale would absolutely rape a lot of bigs here. Was also agile, great passer and extremely solid on defense.
btw, I really wanted to write Giannis and Kareem's names next to each other (Giannis at 4) but man do the Bucks suck at wings. Everybody's either an all star or didn't spend 2 years. The best wing left was Carlos Delfino, that I could find.
Haha obviously there's a tradeoff. Wasn't even referring to this draft, I don't really care about winning anyways just like drafting, just think its interesting how different basketball is played these days, and a big part of it is based on analytics
