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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."

crazyeights wrote:Wish it didn't take 50 games, but it's progress and I'll take it!

(Another reason I'll be thrilled if we keep the pick: next year there won't be any reason not to improve fixable things, or at least there won't be the impression we're not trying to improve...because a roster this young can't learn bad habits forever.

It'll really separate incompetency from intention.)

Slava wrote:
Next year is truly going to be the litmus test for this franchise and the management with Kobe gone for the better or worse and the tanking cycle completed. There won't be a bigger shadow to blame things on or hide behind.

TKainZero wrote:Byron scott also Just put an Obama 2008 bumper sticker on his car
Next week, he learns about Twitter

Slava wrote:

TKainZero wrote:Byron scott also Just put an Obama 2008 bumper sticker on his car
Next week, he learns about Twitter

He's well ahead of that, he was asking dudes to fight on Instagram.

DEEP3CL wrote:At least we'll have some credible info for pitch meetings now.