John Hollinger hired by Grizzlies

[baller crimson]

According to the Commercial Appeal's Grizzlies blog Twitter feed (now that's a mouthful), the Grizzlies have hired ESPN analyst John Hollinger to a front office position.

He will apparently be their new VP of Basketball Operations. Seems like NBA teams are more open to hiring writers into their front office now...second one this year (that I know of), the other one being Sebastian Pruiti with OKC.

LINK

[silentjim]

Interesting. I would guess Hollinger is being hired more for his basketball analytics than his writing ability, but who knows for sure.

[RedHopeful]

Interesting. I would guess Hollinger is being hired more for his basketball analytics than his writing ability, but who knows for sure.

Good for Hollinger. I'm happy guys with advanced metric backgrounds are gaining traction among NBA employment opportunities. It's about time former players and guys who have been around the game their entire lives solely relying on the "eye test" be replaced.

[silentjim]

Interesting. I would guess Hollinger is being hired more for his basketball analytics than his writing ability, but who knows for sure.

Good for Hollinger. I'm happy guys with advanced metric backgrounds are gaining traction among NBA employment opportunities. It's about time former players and guys who have been around the game their entire lives solely relying on the "eye test" be replaced.

I have heard a lot of neat arguments of late about the difficulty in using basketball metrics compared to baseball. Basketball and football being true team sports where baseball is typically a 1 one 1 match-up of pitching vs hitting when using analytics. I'm sure basketball can use more stats, but I think it would require a lot more than saying Lebron is 4 of 13 on game ending shots. It would requite individual defender stats, shot type, defensive scheme, and insane number of other variables. Who knows maybe it'll happen some day.

Stumbling into a good team like Memphis can't hurt Hollinger for sure.

[RedHopeful]

Stumbling into a good team like Memphis can't hurt Hollinger for sure.

Actually, I would have preferred to go to a cellar dweller like the Wizards or Bobcats. See if he could help immensely improve their personnel decisions.

[bujfan2030]

Even though Memphis is a good team, they've got a few areas where they could be better. For example, should Rudy Gay really have the highest usage rate on that team. They're still near the bottom of the league in 3's taken and eFG%. My guess is that having to pick so late all the time, they brought Hollinger to help with personnel as well.

[plonden]

Isn't it funny how much of a difference a few years can make? Memphis is suddenly a very desirable destination for NBA players and personnel, whereas a few years back they would have been lumped into the same category as Washington and Charlotte.