They analytics foks would prefer I defined drafting as a science. They would have me & you believe that statistics provide the best clues a GM needs to select wisely. Cold numbers leave me cold. I can't get excited about decimal places and %. I do not mean they are not worth examining and taking into account. But as a criteria for the best draft choice, I think it is better to look at art as the model.
There are many definitions of art, some so vague as to be too mentally exhausing to matter. I like the definition that art is harmony that parallels nature. Harmony is such a telling word when it applies to sports teams. The Golden State Warriors, 2022's NBA Champs are one of the best examples that consider harmony to be one of the most important elements of their team philosophy. Thus they seek players who they believe will FIT, a sports way of saying harmony. Four championships out of eight years and six Western Conference Championship during those same eight years should be enough for GM's, not named Bob Myers, around the league to look at the Warriors as models to emulate.
Which brings me to the defination of art that I think should be the first consideration for coaches and GM's and scouts as they make their final draft decisions. Plato said it: Art is MIMESIS. in Greek, this means copying and imitation. Here's how this applies to sports teams Teams need to identify the very best teams in NBA history and use them as models for futiure draft choice. What did their rosters look like? What skill sets did the players on those teams possess? What mix of reserve players did these teams have on their benches? What was the psychological attitudes of the players on their teams? An example of the later criteria would be the Chicago Bulls trading for one of the most unhinged human beings I 've ever watched on a basketball court in Dennis Rodman. What does that tell a GM getting ready to draft in 2023? It's okay to have one crazy. As long as the rest of the players are in harmony. I daresay two Rodman-types on the Bulls might have very well destroyed the harmony of the Bulls and cost them the championship.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Sacramento Kings have been criticized for drafting Iowa's Keegan Murry and not the the supremely talented guard Jaden Ivey. GM Monty McNair is accusedod drafting for need. I suggest that NEED is just another way of asking the following: Do you know of any championship team that didn't have a multilevel defender/stretch shooter at the three and the four? Name me one. McNair could have drafted Ivey and then found the player who better fit a championship model through a trade. I blogged before the draft that had the Kings drafted Ivey, they could have wound up with a bunch of young vets from the Wizards who coveted Ivey. McNir choose to selct a young, but seasoned basketball player with hieght and length and two-way chops. At twenty-one years old, a player who would fit harmoniously in his opinion with the players he already has on his team. Did analytics play any part in McNair's choice? Sure, the stats demonstated exemplary growth, but what matters and mattered is that there has always been a similar type player on every significant NBA championship team. On can argue player skills, but now the Kings have all their primary positions covered and some of their reserve positions covered. McNair has more work to do. But if he follows Plato's definition of art, he'll wind up with the team the Kings need to get into the playoffs and hopefully beyond.
The NBA is over. It's baseball season. Here's a little poem about our National Pastime:
THE BASE STEALER by Robert Francis
Both ways taut like a tightrope -walker,
Fingertips pointing the opposites,
Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball
Or kid skipping rope, come on, come on,
Running a scattering of steps sidewise,
How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,
Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,
He's only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,
Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate - now!
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