Lakers announce previously secret analytics staff
It looks like Los Angeles is saying, 'Hey, look, we do analytics!'
Less than two weeks after Los Angeles Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss defended the way the franchise uses analytics, the Lakers have announced some new analytics-based positions in their front office.
In a press release announcing promotions for Jesse Buss (from director of scouting to assistant general manager/director of scouting) and Ryan West (from assistant director of scouting to director of player personnel), Los Angeles explained that assistant coach Clay Moser is now also the director of basketball strategy, meaning that he will "work closely" with director of analytics Yuju Lee and associate director of analytics Aaron Danielson. More on the analytics guys:
Lee brings a wealth of statistical and computer science knowledge to his position, holding MS degrees in each discipline from UCLA, while working closely with the basketball operations, coaching, and training staffs to incorporate statistical analysis into the day-to-day operation of each department. Lee was originally hired as a consultant by the Lakers for the 2012-13 season, contributing to a variety of analytics projects.
Danielson’s role includes designing and implementing statistical analysis for the basketball operations department, while also assessing league trends and developing new analytic content for the coaching and training staffs. Currently finishing his PhD in statistics at UCLA, Danielson previously earned master’s degrees in public policy from the University of Chicago and in economics from NYU. He began working with the Lakers two seasons ago in a consultant role.
It's notable that Jim Buss had previously said the Lakers were "ahead of the game" and thus didn't want to announce what they were doing, numbers-wise. Their analytics staff has largely been a mystery to even those within the relatively small NBA statistical analysis community. Now, they no longer want to be secretive. Perhaps responding to the backlash from the segment of the NBA world that believes Los Angeles is stuck in the stone age, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told USA Today's Sam Amick that this was a conscious choice:
“I understand that (need to share more regarding their internal structure),” said Kupchak, who is entering his 16th season as general manager. “We’re going to be judged on the product and whether we win or lose, but the last couple of years, we’re not winning. And our goal is going to remain to win games. But we do have to, I feel, we have to show our fans that we’re doing everything we can to get back to that spot. If that means sharing these inner workings of the organization moreso than we ever did, then we have to do that.”
…
Kupchak – who noted that former Lakers and Houston Rockets coachRudy Tomjanovich and his son, Trey, are also part of the analytics staff – is clearly bullish on where the Lakers are now.
“The five people that we talked about who are in charge of accumulating, acquiring and interpreting the data, I feel they measure up to anybody in the league,” Kupchak said. “I would put them against anybody in the league … I would not hesitate to put our department in a debate with any other (analytics) department (of another team). I know that they would be great.”
Regardless of how brilliant these people are, what really matters here is how the analytics work gets implemented on the court. If Moser has a great relationship with Lee, Danielson and the rest of that department, that's nice, but it doesn't mean much if it doesn't affect the Lakers' game plan. Due to Byron Scott's very public comments about 3-pointers and his old-school style, eyes will continue to roll whenever the Lakers try to position themselves as a forward-thinking organization. The perception will change if/when the team plays differently. Maybe that's this coming year, but we'll believe it when we see it.
