Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Quote of the Day: Sam Hinkie on EVs
A Random Dribble Down Ball Street?

Sam Hinkie, Rockets VP of Basketball Ops, as told to Rockets.com's Jason Friedman:

“I’m probably pretty boring to watch a game with because I’m all about expected values. I don’t even care if it goes in or not, I’m all about it, ‘Should it go in?’ I can live with randomness. I mean, if it’s a close game in the end, yeah, I’m just like anyone else. But I just want us to play the odds all the time.

“Sometimes it’s even important to live with randomness because too often we all decide whether a play was a good play or bad play only after we’ve watched whether the ball went into the net. I think that can be misleading. Of course any shot that goes in we’ll take, but over time I want our players to continue to make smart decisions over the long term, and to do that you really have to take out whether the shot goes in or not, and you have to focus more on whether it should go in and whether it’s a good shot for our offense. That’s pretty critical, otherwise you end up chasing what you just saw—which might have been pure luck—versus constantly focusing on the future and what you’re most likely to see.

Damn, the Rockets front office is smart. I'm so crazy to pick Houston to win the NBA title?

-- D.S.

(h/t: TrueHoop)

3 comments:

The Mark Show said...

Yes, you are crazy. That's a nice philosophy for the front office to have but that doesn't mean the Rockets have the personnel to win a championship, and the fact is they DON'T have the personnel. Throw in the inevitable Yao injury and possible Artest meltdown and that solidifies it even further. Just another instance of you throwing shit against the wall, and like most of your predictions, this won't stick.

Michael W said...

Dan, you're not crazy. You're not even the only columnist picking Houston. King Kaufman over at Salon.com is predicting Houston over Detroit.

http://www.salon.com/sports/daily/feature/2008/10/29/nba/index.html

Unknown said...

The only problem with picking the Rockets is the potential for injury for both Yao and McGrady. But assuming both can stay healthy for most of the year, and more importantly, are healthy for the playoffs, it's a perfectly reasonable pick. I'll also take this chance to say I was wrong about Texas, and specifically Greg Davis. I'm still not convinced he's a good offensive coordinator, but the offense has played great so far, so I can't really bash him.