The world of sports has gotten more complex than Xs and Os and just the plain-old eye test. Scouts aren’t the only shear way to evaluate talent there is analytics in sports first in the MLB now it’s apart of all four major sports. NBA Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley, has sparked the debate if the NBA and analytics go together after calling out the Rockets GM Daryl Morey.
I think that both analytics and the eye test along with old school scouting can coexist in the NBA. You can say that James Harden is the best scorer in the league by the eye test but there is no way to quantify how he does it. Analytics will tell you where he is most effective on the court and where he isn’t so defenses can get him to the spots they want him shooting from.
Most people are for anything that will help the sport no matter what. What Barkley said comes from the perspective of a former player and someone who doesn’t understand the numbers, his job was to play. It is the GM and the all the front office people along with the coach to worry about the numbers.
When asking a fan he seemed for analytics in the NBA. “Yes, there has to be to a way to quantify how every player is doing,” Andrew Fair said.
If the MLB has found a perfect way to blend analytics with old school scouting I think the NBA and all the talking heads like Barkley can. He has to learn to accept it because analytics help people make the case for players who are in the basketball hall of fame and who aren’t. It makes his numbers look better than the rest of the hall of famers.