Brad Stevens: Boston Celtics use analytics 'to try to get a little advantage'

Brad Stevens: Boston Celtics use analytics 'to try to get a little advantage'




FILE: Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The Celtics defeated the Pacers 101-98. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com

on February 28, 2015 at 5:00 AM




BOSTON -- During the first day of his Boston Celtics tenure, head coach Brad Stevens called himself "thrilled and excited" for all the additional data he could explore. He had always tried to uncover and use relevant information at Butler, but an NBA budget and analytics staff brought more possibilities to life.

Like any professional basketball coach worthy of his position, Stevens does not shape his decisions solely on analytics. But he does use the numbers in search of anything that should help.

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference started Friday in Boston, making the city, for the weekend, the sports analytics capital of the world. So the topic was timely Friday night as the Celtics prepared to host the Charlotte Hornets.

"I think the biggest thing - and I know the buzzword is analytics; the buzzword 20 years ago was statistics - you grab whatever you can to try to give yourself the most knowledge to prepare well for the next game, to prepare well to coach your team, to prepare well to help an individual player get the most out of their performance," Stevens said before a 106-98 victory.

"I think the biggest difference is it's probably been a lot more widely discussed and we have a mountain-load of information. So, like, that's the biggest difference. And it's probably changed. At the highest levels it's probably multiplied by however many times, but coming from college and coming from a smaller staff, the amount of information is just - you can't sift through it all, to be honest."

Asked how he whittles down the information, the coach replied, "Just what I think's important to me. And other people might look at it differently. I've said this before: if I had to choose culture over numbers, I'd choose culture. Obviously talent, you have to have talent or else you're in trouble. But you use everything you can to try to get a little advantage, and to try to figure out how, again, to help guys play well and play together. That's where it comes in handy. For certain games I look at certain things heavier than others, but I've got a pretty consistent package of things that I like to look at prior to playing a new opponent."

Stevens has stated his affinity for lineup stats, including how two- and three-man groups work together. But with so many roster changes, some of the units he's using don't have a big enough sample size to provide reliable data. He said the Celtics need to rely more on something they use a whole heap of anyway: film study.

"Video," Stevens said. "We've got teaching to do. I used the term facetiously, throwing darts (with the lineup), the other night. You've got an idea of what guys can do but you also don't know exactly how they'll react together. So that's what you find out on the fly. And that's why a lot of these teams as they go through change are going to hit some speed bumps. And we've done it a lot this year, but it took Cleveland a while. Now look at them. It's taken other places and teams a while to get used to new people, and part of the reason is just because you just don't know how all the pieces are going to fit together."



bob



.

It's heartening that Brad values culture over numbers. Because I can't even understand what he means by sentences such as "At the highest levels it's probably multiplied by however many times, but coming from college and coming from a smaller staff, the amount of information is just - you can't sift through it all, to be honest."

Keep going for the culture, Brad, and keep using only those metrics that are most helpful.

Sam