An announcement of sorts

As you might have noticed, I have somewhat disappeared as a #contentgenerator during the last bit of the NBA Playoffs. The reason for this is very happy news. Earlier this month, I began consulting for the Milwaukee Bucks. Obviously, this means the majority of my “work” is not going to be public.  For which I am somewhat sad, as I’ve enjoyed exploring, promoting and discussing the statistical side of basketball a great deal.

But the tradeoff between contributing to the public discussion and working with proprietary data to contribute directly to a team – not to mention having some tiny influence on actual decision-making! –  is an easy one to make. Also, NBA rules and regulations regarding discussing free agents or potential draft picks place additional restrictions on my ability to write and share information for public consumption.

I’d say this was a dream job, but that would imply that I had considered such a thing possible when I started doing this as a hobby a few years back.  I have to give a hearty thanks to the Bucks organization and specifically to Mike Clutterbuck, the team’s Director of Analytics, for this opportunity.

This doesn’t mean Nylon Calculus is going away. I’m staying on as an editor for now; with one important caveat: Anything discussing the Bucks specifically is going to be handled by Ian. It is probably obvious, but needs saying anyway, that nothing written here by others should be taken to reflect any sort of official opinion or analysis of the Bucks, nor should anything I’ve written, said or tweeted about the team prior to this point. I stand by everything I wrote or said based on what I knew at the time, and my opinion may or may not have changed in the interim, but that’s between me and the folks here in Milwaukee!

The intention is not for me to disappear completely. Though we aren’t sure exactly how it will look, I am still going to engage in the public conversation. I am certainly still available to answer general questions such as “where do I find…” and “what does metric X really measure…” but commenting on how those things apply to specific teams or players and especially to Milwaukee’s players and performance is probably against league rules and definitely outside the bounds of seeking competitive advantage and basic common sense.

So thank you for reading me, wherever it may have been. Thank you for coming to Nylon Calculus both in the past and going forward as we continue to strive to bring the best the public sphere has to offer. And special thanks to all of those who have encouraged, challenged and enabled me to reach this point. There are too many to mention here, but I’ve been incredibly lucky to have the support and friendship of all of you.