Moneyball in the NBA: The San Antonio Spurs

[n_huffhines]

Excerpts:

They stayed great in the face of David Robinson retiring. They’ve stayed great in the face of Tim Duncan aging like milk. Wrap your head around this, since the 1997-1998 season the Spurs have won fourteen consecutive 50 game seasons (if you adjust the 1999 lockout season to 82 games). With just one more win this season they’ll stretch that to fifteen consecutive seasons. It’s all been Duncan right?

• Gaming the draft: Do you need a top pick to find good talent? The Spurs haven’t. This season they’ve even found a rare star in Leonard. There is talent all over the place in the draft. You just have to look past the conventional wisdom.
• The international daft: Oh man, do the Spurs love to grab undervalued international players. Unlike teams like the Bucks and Raptors though, the Spurs take their talent late in the draft. Does it matter than those players might take a few seasons to come over? Not at all!
• Players other teams give up on too quickly: Matt Bonner and Danny Green were young cheap players on bad teams. If you’re a bad team frankly young and cheap players are a good way to go. Yet, the Spurs traded an almost 30 Rasho Nesterovic with a $7 million dollar contract for a young Bonner. They picked up Danny Green out of the Cavs discard pile. Which is one of many distinctions between San Antonio and bad teams.
• Gary Neal: I still want to give some credit here. He’s not that great. But as a backup he’s incredibly cheap. Unlike teams like the Bulls and Thunder that think over $3 million for old backups are worth it, the Spurs have found their roster fillers cheaply.

How the San Antonio Spurs are Moneyballing the NBA | The Wages of Wins Journal

[Yankee_Vol]

It's amazing how they've done it for so long

[n_huffhines]

More moneyball by the Spurs. Only 1 pick in the draft, it's the very last pick, and they go with the guy advanced metrics say is 11th best player (Marcus Denmon).

I'm thoroughly convinced now that they are banking on advanced metrics.