The Memphis Grizzlies Hire John Hollinger

[CDawg834]

No more Hollinger ratings!   

My thoughts exactly. As TripleOT says, Hollinger drove the Insider "content" for ESPN, so they'll need to somehow find something else besides Marc Stein and Ric Bucher cranking up the Trade Machine scenarios to justify subscriber fees.

I've been thinking about cancelling Insider anyway, this may be what puts it over the top.

[Chris]

No more Hollinger ratings!   

My thoughts exactly. As TripleOT says, Hollinger drove the Insider "content" for ESPN, so they'll need to somehow find something else besides Marc Stein and Ric Bucher cranking up the Trade Machine scenarios to justify subscriber fees.

For me, Chad Ford is the guy I would come for, but yeah, it will be interesting to see how they replace him.

As for Hollinger, I am interested to see how this works.  The guy that we have all seen is a pop stat guy, who tried to make stats for public consumption, but I do think he is pretty well respected in the stat community for the stuff that he didn't write about on ESPN (because not many readers would understand it).

[ssspence]

I will be really interested to see how he does.

Me too. I'm the rare csblogger who very much likes hollinger and feel he's been a valuable to contributor to league wide NBA coverage.

If nothing else, the fact that I can't recall him ever saying or writing "sources tell me" deserves a hat tip.

[nickagneta]

Most stat geeks that work for sports front offices are involved in the statistical preparation of players in the draft, the teams production and tendencies and advanced scouting of opponents.

For Hollinger scouting the Celtics he probably would put together stats for such things as:

-Number of times certain plays are run.
-Times during the game in which KG sits.
-Historical shooting percentages of Celtics players while being guarded by certain Grizzly players
-Area on the floor that is the highest field goal % for each opposing player.
-Shooting percentage based on time left on the shot clock.


These are just a few things these stats guys do for teams that you never see anywhere else.

[kozlodoev]

No more Hollinger ratings!   

My thoughts exactly. As TripleOT says, Hollinger drove the Insider "content" for ESPN, so they'll need to somehow find something else besides Marc Stein and Ric Bucher cranking up the Trade Machine scenarios to justify subscriber fees.

I've been thinking about cancelling Insider anyway, this may be what puts it over the top.

I find it unbelievable people still pay for sports content that's not live game streaming. Especially for that bunch of talking heads at ESPN.

[manl_lui]

I love to steal things from Celticslife...

this one is kinda funny

[GreenEnvy]

No more Hollinger ratings!   

My thoughts exactly. As TripleOT says, Hollinger drove the Insider "content" for ESPN, so they'll need to somehow find something else besides Marc Stein and Ric Bucher cranking up the Trade Machine scenarios to justify subscriber fees.

I like their Scouts, Inc. stuff more than anything Hollinger does. I'm almost positive I will like anyone who replaces him, as he is a pretty big tool with no real grasp of the game other than statistical analysis.

As long as they aren't a Windhorst- or Adande-type homer, ESPN is better off in my eyes.

[moiso]

No more Hollinger ratings!   

My thoughts exactly. As TripleOT says, Hollinger drove the Insider "content" for ESPN, so they'll need to somehow find something else besides Marc Stein and Ric Bucher cranking up the Trade Machine scenarios to justify subscriber fees.

I've been thinking about cancelling Insider anyway, this may be what puts it over the top.

I find it unbelievable people still pay for sports content that's not live game streaming. Especially for that bunch of talking heads at ESPN.

It's free if you subscribe to ESPN the magazine.

[KY Celts fan]

His daily rankings are junk. Lakers lose their fourth game in a row and somehow jump up two spots. Jazz beat the Spurs, the best team in the league, and drop two.

Analytics work great in baseball. They haven't made it work for basketball yet.

[TripleOT]

His daily rankings are junk. Lakers lose their fourth game in a row and somehow jump up two spots. Jazz beat the Spurs, the best team in the league, and drop two.

Analytics work great in baseball. They haven't made it work for basketball yet.

Mark Cuban gives his analytics staff and the director, Roland Beech, from 82games.com, a lot of credit for his team's title run.

 http://www.thesportsiq.com/basketball-analytics/

The key to utilizing advanced analytics is whether your coaching staff values and integrates it into their coaching.  Sounds simple, but a lot of coaches resist it (See Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Art Howe in Moneyball).