NBA Beat: Vandeweghe gets back in the game

Web Posted: 01/05/2008 10:53 PM CST

Mike Monroe
Express-News staff writer

The buzzword in sports management these days is "Moneyball," the statistically based approach to building rosters in an age of overspending, salary caps and luxury taxes.

The Rockets made Daryl Morey their general manager, in part, because of his close association with Oakland A's GM Billy Beane (acknowledged as the inventor of the "Moneyball" approach) and baseball Sabermetrician Bill James.

Sam Presti, the young basketball operations whiz Gregg Popovich dubbed the Spurs' "resident genius," is another advocate of number crunching, though he relies much more on his eyeballs than computer printouts when evaluating talent, now as GM of the Sonics.

Kiki Vandeweghe is no number cruncher, but he approaches NBA player evaluation a little differently, too.

Hired last week as a special assistant to Nets' basketball boss Rod Thorn, Vandeweghe once sat on a front porch in San Antonio and analyzed the brains of several sportswriters by getting their responses to specific fictional scenarios that challenged beliefs and measured situational ethics.

Amazingly, he determined most had both brains and scruples.

Vandeweghe likes to see how potential draftees respond to those same fictional scenarios, and while the ability to hit a last-second 20-foot jumper supersedes all other traits, Vandeweghe believes his little test gives him some insight into a potential player's interpersonal skills.

When you are building a team, this can make a difference.

The Nuggets let Vandeweghe's contract as their general manager expire two summers ago because he and George Karl didn't share the same vision of the future. He is best remembered in Denver these days as the man who drafted Nikolosz Tskitishvili instead of Amare Stoudemire, as well as the GM who overpaid Kenyon Martin.

Forgotten is the fact Vandeweghe pulled off the near-impossible by getting the Nuggets out from under some of the worst contracts in the NBA when he traded Raef LaFrentz, Nick Van Exel, Tariq Abdul-Wahad and Avery Johnson to the Mavericks for players whose contracts were shorter and more manageable.

Willing to endure the pain it takes to optimize a team's chances in the draft lottery, Vandeweghe knew the Nuggets would have a shot at LeBron James in the 2003 draft. The lottery put the Nuggets in the third spot, and Vandeweghe got lucky when the Pistons made Darko Milicic the second selection, after James. That dropped Carmelo Anthony in Denver's lap.

We'll never know how much of Vandeweghe's stated admiration for Milicic's potential was smokescreen. We don't have to wonder about things working out nicely for the Nuggets.

Now Vandeweghe is "auditioning" for the Nets' GM position left vacant recently when Ed Stefanski left for the top basketball operations job with the 76ers. Thorn hired him only through the 2008 draft.

"I expect this to work very well," Thorn told Nets beat writers when the hiring was announced. "Hopefully, it will evolve into a longer period of time."

The lack of a long-term deal doesn't bother Vandeweghe in the least.

"When I worked for the Mavericks," he said in a phone conversation Saturday, "I didn't even have a contract; just a handshake."

Thorn has been around the NBA for 45 years as a player, coach and executive, and you wonder how much longer he wants to spend on the job. Vandeweghe seems like the kind of guy Thorn might want to groom as his successor. He likes Vandeweghe's eye for talent and the fact he has experience on an administrative level.

Vandeweghe insists his first priority is to soak up the Thorn's knowledge.

"Rod is one of best in business," he said, "and it's a great opportunity for me to learn from somebody like Rod. That's honestly the way I look at it. There's always things you can learn. I love being around smart guys and absorbing what I can."

Giving up his gig as a studio analyst for ESPN was easy. The job was fun and, in its own way, educational. But he longed for the throb of the daily drama.

The Nets went into their Saturday game in Atlanta 4-0 since Vandeweghe was hired, so he is off to a good start in his new job.

[email protected]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c...n.20ad6f9.html

==
Same disclaimer as here: http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...50#post2161250