| Scouting versus Research |
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| Written by Chip Crain |
| Sunday, 02 August 2009 20:00 |
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This weekend I led off the Weekend Update blog with a quote from a friend of mine who asked if the rescinding of the Hakim Warrick Q-offer was another salvo against the fans of the Memphis Grizzlies. I kind of laughed it off at the time. After all not allowing Hakim to force the Grizzlies to pay him to be the 3rd string PF didn't sound that outrageous to me. Sunday morning I read Geoff Calkins article telling the world that the Grizzlies (re: Michael Heisley) had fired the entire Grizzlies scouting team and how it proved Heisley was all about making money and not about producing a winner here in Memphis. I wondered just how far off that quote really was. Then I got defensive. Yes it will save the Grizzlies money. It's a business after all and that is the objective of businesses in America. The new Democratic party power push hasn't changed the country that much yet. This isn't Russia after all. It isn't Russia is it?  Now just about everyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I have a lot of respect for Chris Wallace as a talent evaluator. I feel far more comfortable knowing he is making the selections than I do thinking Michael Heisley and Lionel Hollins are making the picks (and I prefer Hollins to Heisley in case people are wondering) but even a brilliant talent evaluator can't check out all the top players in college basketball and international ball by himself. He needs someone to weed out the chaff from the wheat. Michael Heisley can't run all of his businesses and still have time to scout players either. But then I stopped to think. How many scouts does an NBA team really need? How many scouts do other teams have? I was fortunate to have a copy of the NBA Media guide handy so I could look up the latter question. Low and behold, Memphis is not alone in having a team devoid of scouts. Another penny-pinching, watch the bottom line team has no one listed as a scout on their team page. That scum sucking, cheap team that cares little for their fans (just like Calkins implied the Grizzlies are) was none other than the San Antonio Spurs. The same Spurs who managed to overcome that huge problem to locate such notable talents as Tony Parker in France plus Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili in Argentina. Curious don't you think? Other teams with few or no scouts include Portland, Utah and Cleveland. Funny but I seem to remember all of those teams in the playoffs last season. Even big money spending Dallas only has four scouts. Memphis just fired 5 at once (technically two quit and only 3 were fired). One could argue that not only is Memphis not being ridiculously cheap but in fact they are being prudent. Read what Chris Wallace said about the scouting department over a year ago when asked if the Grizzlies have an extensive scouting department. Throw on top of that the reality that most of the top players in the draft are known well in advance (how many pre-season mock drafts are there anyway and the names are nearly identical on each), the games are played every night of the week not just Saturdays or Sundays and the increased use of group workouts in the NBA and you can see why an extensive staff really isn't needed any more. Or to quote Chris Wallace in the interview:
A little research on Geoff's part would have discovered that but his article wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining for those who hate the Grizzlies nor upsetting to Grizzlies fans. |
Comments
Thanks Chip!
The Spurs have always had people with them that were not scouts, but advisors in Europe, and some of them were pretty expensive. For example Antonio Maceiras last year, who is part of the elite in Europe and now the GM of Real Madrid.
So they DID put their money into scouting in one way or other.
But what you are forgetting is that the only "scout" kept by the Grizzlies was their European scout and the team has excellent contacts over in Europe via contacts they made when recruiting some of their international players. Chris Wallace was also one of the first NBA people to recruit overseas. He has plenty of good contacts.
The Grizzlies also have people not called scouts who's main job is scouting other teams. Mitchell Anderson, Gordan Chiesa and the Barone's are not called scouts but that is their primary responsibility. Chris Wallace has been emasculated as the GM by Heisley's decision making power trip as well so he can get out and scout people too.
Let me make this perfectly clear. Every team in the NBA has multiple people who wear multiple hats in their organization. Portland, San Antonio, Utah and others have people who assist in scouting who have titles that aren't 'scout.' So do the Memphis Grizzlies. The opinion piece written by Geoff Calkins inaccurately stated the Grizzlies fired their scouting department. They did not. The Grizzlies still have Tony Barone Jr as Director of Scouting, Mitchell Anderson, Gordan Cheisa, Kenny Williams and Tony Barone, Sr. who assist in scouting and Chris Wallace - who's only job Heisley hasn't usurped as owner is scouting players and I pray that never changes even if Heisley doesn't listen to Chris as much as he should.
I apologize to any person at other organizations who took my words to somehow be insulting. It was not my intention to insult anyone. It is however the truth that, just like the Grizzlies, not many teams actually have 5 or more 'scouts' on their team listing. That doesn't mean those teams don't scout just like it doesn't mean that because the Grizzlies no longer employ Danny Manning's father or Jerry West's son (two of the so called amateur scouts no longer working with the Grizzlies) that they are not scouting players.