The Jaylen Brown “seventh-best player” conversation made me want to see the model
Hope this is allowed. I wrote a quick reaction to the Local Hour Jaylen Brown analytics conversation because that segment sent me down a rabbit hole.
I’m not anti-analytics at all. I’m actually building a sports analytics site, so the Bobby Marks quote caught my attention for a different reason.
If an NBA analytics model says Jaylen Brown is the seventh-best player on a team, I don’t even want to yell at the model right away.
I just want to see it.
What is it measuring? What is it punishing? Is it basketball value, contract value, role, efficiency, on/off stuff, something else?
That was the part of the Le Batard conversation I thought was interesting. Not just “is Jaylen Brown good?” Obviously he is. More like: when one anonymous model gets dropped into the sports conversation, should we get to see the work behind it?
I wrote the full thought here:
Curious what the show community thinks. Was the quote just ridiculous, or is there something real buried under it?