The Los Angeles Lakers coach said that he doesn’t believe in the use of advanced metrics to improve his team’s dismal performance.
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott has suffered through a cold season in sunny Southern California.
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His Lakers team is currently sitting at 15-41, playing their season out without aging superstar Kobe Bryant or possibly promising rookie Julius Randle.
But even with the team’s misfortune, Scott has found a way to minimize their potential with odd lineup decisions and ineffective defensive coaching.
The picture became clearer Wednesday night when the Orange County Register’s Bill Oram revealed that Scott didn’t believe in recognizing and applying patterns in data to help his basketball club.
BScott on analytics: "I think we’ve got a few guys who believe in it. I’m not one of them." (Note to B: They're numbers. Not Santa Claus)
— Bill Oram (@billoram) February 26, 2015
Byron said he has weekly analytics talks with assistants. Says he listens. Have any coaching decisions stemmed from those convos? "No."
— Bill Oram (@billoram) February 26, 2015
Of analytics, particularly SportVU, Kupchak told ESPN 710, "it’s of most use to a coaching staff." But Byron Scott says it's of no use.
— Bill Oram (@billoram) February 26, 2015
He can humor those pocket-protector doofuses we call assistants once a week, but he’s not going to actually take their suggestions. That’s that math garbage. Byron Scott’s more of a humanities guy anyway.
Scott has declared some of his odd coaching ideas before, like his belief in eschewing the three-point shot, clearly in favor of the long two that the Lakers are apt to shoot. His team has also inspired TNT analyst Charles Barkley to channel Mohandas Gandhi by going on a hunger strike until the Lakers won a game.
This issue sprang about when Barkley described Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey as an “idiot who believes in analytics”.
Clearly Daryl Morey is the last person to require any sort of pride boost, but he must feel like Galileo trying to explain heliocentrism. No, the Earth does not remain fixed in the heavens, Byron Scott, but rotates around the orb of warmth and light we know as the Sun.
Scott has instead emphasized old school motivation and leadership ahead of an analytical approach, which has led the Lakers straight towards the lottery. A large part of the team’s misfortune is due to Scott’s mismanagement of player minutes and lineups, leading to injuries and unmotivated players.
Mindsets like Scott’s will eventually be flushed out of the league, but for the time being Lakers fans are going to continue to be frustrated with his ignorance.
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