I'm an NBA basketball coach. I'm not an official, and I'm not trying to be an official.
We just kind of relied on written scouting reports through the eighties and even the early nineties. I've really been amazed by some of the data that's out there, especially with regards to tendencies of hitters, and certainly tendencies of pitchers as well. I would have loved to have gotten that data when I played.
I'd like to be a scout, go watch the games, and try and find a diamond in the rough.
I really focus on process as much as anything else: process for how we evaluate players, process for how we make decisions, process even for how we hire people internally, process for how we go about integrating our scouting reports with guys watching tape in the office.
I don't think I'm ever surprised at how high the quarterbacks go. There could be a lot of teams that often times don't have a lot of first-round grades on guys that are going in the first round, and that's just the nature of the business.
We knew the 2017-18 offseason would be one of our most challenging. We've known that for a long time.
If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?
I used to tell people that in 2012 when I was trying to understand where am I most likely to be drafted and who are the three or four teams that have pursued me the most and it would make sense that they would pick me, I never thought of who would be least likely to draft me.
But it's been a learning experience; learning the NBA, learning the travel schedule and certain coaches, their styles, what they like to run out of timeouts, personnel, tendencies.
I talk about the NFL Draft on a daily basis because this is the sport I cover - this is the show I do - and I talk about everything that's taking place every single day.
The one thing that young coaches should do is if there is an NBA team in your area, get to training camp and see the coaching that goes on.
My job was to play football the last 16 games and do my part, and then in the offseason, really, it's just sit back and let the team or other teams let you know that they want you.
At the end of the day you never know what team still wants what player. You just never know with the draft.
The scouts are watching matches and we have a huge amount of data we purchase and a pyramid approach in terms of delivering that information to our chief scout and his team who are assessing it.
It's important to know as much as I can about the players.
ESPN is all meat and potatoes. It's pretty much scouting reports. There isn't a great deal of humor, and when there is, it's pretty sophomoric.
I look at scouting reports, but don't let them dictate what I'm throwing.
All the in-depth scouting reports we have on the opposing pitchers - just kind of learning how to study that, it's huge.
The draft is an exciting time.
It would be a lot different for me because there is a lot of information that you need to know about as a player. How pitchers are pitching you, how defenses are playing, certain situations about certain pitchers.
I think in the NFL knowledge is power, and you try to get the knowledge by whatever means.
