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Interesting.
Can anybody in the know provide a scouting report on Lindsey?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/4895660.html
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
A day after winning the NBA championship on Thursday, the Spurs called the Rockets to begin working on the future.
The Spurs sought and received permission to interview Rockets vice president for basketball operations/player personnel Dennis Lindsey to replace Sam Presti, who left a similar position with the Spurs to become the SuperSonics general manager, two officials with NBA teams said on Saturday.
Lindsey, who is scheduled to meet with Spurs general manager R.C. Buford Saturday, declined comment.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey also declined to comment.
A team official said that though the Rockets did permit the Spurs to interview Lindsey, they plan on competing to keep him.
Lindsey, 38, just completed his 11th season with the Rockets, his fifth in his current position. He was thought to be the likely successor to Carroll Dawson before Morey was made Alexander's surprise pick.
Interesting.
Can anybody in the know provide a scouting report on Lindsey?
Thanks.
BTW, looking at one of the poster's names in that thread, I see a Marcus Bryant troll possibility.
Carlos Herrera.
From what I recall, Lindsey was the company man and basketball guy in the front office who was the heir apparent as GM until the Rockets went with the 'whiz kid' stats guy from the Celtics who was attempting to do with basketball what Billy Beane, Bill James and the Baseball Prospectus types had done with baseball. That is, find ways to use quant analysis to make wiser decisions about player acquisition and contracts, as well as overall team building strategies. This isn't to say it's a bad concept, as evidenced by the success of the '04 Red Sox who were built by Theo Epstein and the ability of the Oakland Athletics to be a winning franchise in one of the MLB's least attractive markets.
Last edited by Marcus Bryant; 06-16-2007 at 02:32 PM. Reason: duh
Once upon a time Rockets fans thought they were the . I'll leave it at that.
Pop is going to have to teach him how to not think like a Rocket, he might need some therapy to overcome the stupidity the rockets instilled in him.
Also, IIRC, Presti had done the same thing in SA to some degree in evaluating potential talent in the draft.
Maybe Buford's just trying to extract intel on what the Rockets are going to do with pick #26.
link--With the NBA banning workouts until the Orlando pre-draft camp and the Rockets lacking leverage with the No. 26 pick in the draft, the Rockets came up with a way to still get a good look at some of the prospects they might consider.
They set up three days of workouts in Orlando following the camp, landing commitments from roughly 35 prospects, many whom they would likely not have seen had they not worked with a team with a better pick, the Bulls, to help attract prospects hoping to go earlier than 26th.
The NBA got wind of the Rockets' plan and sent word to the rest of the league that they could attend and watch the workouts, presumably by picking up part of the costs. That swelled the ranks of teams sending representatives to about 12, but the workouts were run by Rockets vice president Dennis Lindsey and director of scouting Dean Cooper.
linkBy the numbers
Rockets eschew convention in hiring new GM-to-be
Marty Burns
Sports Illustrated
Posted: Monday April 3, 2006 1:35PM
Updated: Monday April 3, 2006 4:47PM
Has Moneyball come to the NBA?
It certainly seems so with the surprising news last week that Daryl Morey, a statistics analyst with the Celtics, has been hired to replace Carroll Dawson as Rockets GM starting after the 2006-07 season.
Morey's out-of-left-field hiring is drawing comparisons to that of Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, whose heavy use of statistical analysis in player evaluations was the subject of the 2003 book Moneyball. However, Beane actually played major league baseball, worked as a scout and served as assistant GM before taking over in Oakland. Morey, 32, has no experience on the basketball side.
"I don't know the guy. I've never heard of him," one veteran NBA GM said Sunday. "I've heard he's some kind of stats guy. That's all I know."
Morey, whose official le is Senior VP of Operations and Information, led the due-diligence process for the Boston investment group that purchased the franchise in '02. According to the Celtics media guide, his focus since joining the club three years ago has been on "arena operations, risk management, basketball analytics and ticket sales, strategy, pricing and technology infrastructure." He also teaches a class at MIT, along with noted baseball sabermetrician Bill James, called Analytical Sports Management.
NBA teams have been employing number-crunching stat heads more and more in recent years. But some around the league wonder how valuable such analysis can be in a five-man game that is impacted by so many variable factors.
"Everybody's got stat guys now," the GM said. "There's a benefit to them for sure. It's one more tool. But you still have to see it. There's a gut and a feel and a chemistry of a team that can't be told through numbers."
As for Dawson's departure, it was not completely unexpected. The 65-year-old has been battling eyesight problems since being struck by lightning on a golf course in 1989. He is legally blind in his left eye and has suffered periodic vision loss in the right eye. However, speculation around the league was that Rockets VP of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey was in line to replace Dawson when Dawson decided to step down. It will be interesting now to see if the highly regarded Lindsey stays on in his current role or whether the Rockets will eventually bring in an experienced hand like former Magic GM John Gabriel to help Morey with the more traditional basketball duties
What prompted Rockets owner Leslie Alexander to go in a different direction? Some say he wanted a more analytical approach to personnel decisions, similar to his background as a securities trader. Others suggest the longtime owner might be thinking of selling the team, and Morey's background in that area might be of value.
Whatever the reasons, don't look for major changes on the court right away. Dawson will remain with the club next season, helping Morey make the transition. Also, Rockets insiders say Morey's hiring is just one piece of a bigger puzzle and that the team will continue to rely on scouting and other traditional tools. But Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, whose contract expires after next season, says he expects things to be different.
"With any change, it's never one change," Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle. "There are more changes. That's how it is. When there is a major change in any organization, there are more changes on the horizon. And yet, I can honestly say, whether that includes me or doesn't include me, I haven't given it one thought. I'm happy where I'm at."
I'm just puzzled that any team would hire someone from the Celtics front office of the last, say, 20 years, to run ANYTHING. WTF? They suck.
maybe he had the right brain type. if so, dunno why ainge would let him go since he is so big on it. brain typing has done wonders for the celtics.
My guess is that Lindsey is still miffed about being passed over for the stats guy and will not turn down a chance to join the premier NBA organization in Texas.
I was thinking the same thing about the Spurs wanting to hire anyone from the Rockets front office.
About the only feedback on this guy is that he campaigned for them drafting Cuttino Mobley (a guy who is worthless without Steve Francis to share a hotel room with) and the Chuck Hayes signing (yay, he signed a good garbage man).
LUther Head
Steve Novak
Kirk Snyder
Vassilis Spanoulis
Jake Tsakalidis
don't exactly inspire confidence.
Digging some more, they say he has been in charge of their draft plans the last 5 years. Take a look at this list and tell me why I should be impressed.
2006
Steve Novak
Lior Eliyahu
2005
Luther Head
2004
Luis Flores
2003
Malick Badiane
2002
Yao Ming
o Maddox
Well, at least they didn't screw up the Yao thing...
The Rockets' front office also found someone to give them Tracy McGrady for Steve Francis.
Luther Head hasn't been a bad pro. The '06 guys were both 2nd round picks. Luis Flores was pick #56 or so and was traded for Spanoulis. Badiane was pick #44.
If I wanted, I could take a look at the Spurs' draft history and find where they screwed up. The only 1st round picks in the Rockets' last 5 drafts were Ming, Nachbar, and Head. Last time I checked all 3 were still in the league.
Picking up Battier for Swift and Gay wasn't a bad move. Look at how Memphis fell apart this season after losing Battier.
Snyder was a nice pickup considering what he cost and also what he had done in his 2nd year in the league at age 22/23. Spurs were interested in Snyder back in '04 IIRC.
The coming draft next month and the next year will be crucial as the team retools again. So they probably want someone with a lot of current experience to replace Presti rather than take a chance with an unknown quan y at this time.
And yet Chris Wallace was being interviewed for the Griz job.
So we're getting the guy who couldn't get another scorer in Houston, who lost out on his promotion to the guy who statistically concluded Brian Scalabrine was the most clutch shooter in the NBA....Well, we could've gotten the stats guy...
Maybe RC figures that's a way to assure his own job security.
Just for fun, here's the Spurs' last 5 drafts...
2006
Their 1st rounder was part of the deal with the Knicks for a year's rental of Nazr Mohammed. Knicks took Mardy Collins. Spurs could have taken Daniel Gibson or Paul Millsap.
They deal their 2nd rounder to the Bucks for the better of the Bucks' 2nd rounders in the '07 draft.
2005
1st, #28 - Ian Mahinmi
Spurs traded their 1st rounder from Phoenix to the Knicks, who turned out to be David Lee. Monta Ellis was also available.
2004
1st, #28 - Beno Udrih (selected over Varejao and Chris Duhon)
#43 Viktor Sanikidze (traded for the Spurs' 2005 2nd rounder)
#53 Romain Sato - whereabouts unknown
#58 Sergei Karaulov - Siberia or some such
2003
1st, #28 - Leandrinho Barbosa, traded to Phoenix for a future 1st round pick (2005). Barbosa was 6th Man of the Year in 2006-07. In addition the Spurs passed on Josh Howard. Also a number of solid pros in the 2nd round the Spurs missed out on.
The Spurs didn't have a 2nd round pick because they traded it for Mengke Kahn.
2002
1st #26 - John Salmons, who was traded along with Mark Bryant to the Sixers for Speedy Claxton
#56 - Luis Scola
#57 - Randy Holcomb (included in Claxton trade)
So it's a horizontal move.
Eh, not bad. If it was his idea to get Chuck Hayes, that'd be a pretty good resume builder. Novak and Spanoulis will probably end up panning out under Adelman.
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