Of course, progress on the analytics front is not gauged just by sending staffers to conferences or publicizing roles and résumés. But roughly a year ago, when asked by ESPN for specific examples of any decisions that were driven by analytics, the Lakers came up empty. That has changed. In fact, Scott and his players have been vocal about information provided by the analytics staff that has helped improve the on-court product.
In a notable instance in late February, Scott pointed out how he was informed that his team was among the NBA's worst when it came to moving the ball side to side. As such, he installed a new offensive set focused on ball movement.
The impact is obvious.
Through February, the Lakers were averaging 277 passes per game, 28th among 30 NBA teams. Entering Sunday, the Lakers are averaging 317 passes, eighth in the league behind Golden State (seventh) and just ahead of Atlanta (ninth), two teams well known for being among the NBA's best at moving the ball.
"We had a bunch of stats shown to us today where we've improved our ball movement, we've stopped dribbling so much," Lakers rookie forward Larry Nance Jr. told reporters after the Lakers' 107-98 win over Orlando on March 8.
Beyond that, even though the Lakers are on pace for their worst season in franchise history, they proceeded to win three of their next six games after Scott implemented that new set on Feb. 26, including beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in a shocking 112-95 upset at Staples Center on March 6.
"They've been great," Scott told ESPN of the Lakers' analytics staff. "A lot of times numbers can be a little misleading, but, for us, some of the things that we try to chart, especially offensively and when we added the set to see what the difference in our ball movement was, the numbers that [Moser] gave me were fantastic. It showed that we are doing some good things with it and the pace has been just as good and we're getting in the paint more and our field goal percentage went up. It's been good."
ESPN Truehoop | Baxter Holmes
Article goes into detail on how the Lakers staff and players get information packets before and after games with graphs and other easy to digest analytical information as part of the day to day preparation.
So with the basketball side finally embracing things and Gary Vitti modernizing the medical wing, we might finally be on course to get with the times.
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