While discussing a misconstrued early-season narrative about how the Bulls instructed him not to shoot the mid-range, Zach LaVine inadvertently made us question how far behind the front office had truly fallen compared to the rest of the league. Specifically (and shockingly), he told ESPN’s Zach Lowe on the Lowe Post Podcast that the Bulls “don’t even have an analytics department.” Which … ouch.
The statement came in passing, and was perhaps hyperbole, but it certainly caught the attention of Bulls fans, including myself. And indeed, whether he was exaggerating or not was largely besides the point. His intent was made clear. Fortunately, The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry got to the bottom of things, later confirming that Chicago does, in fact, have an analytics department … or at least something of the sort.
In any case, the comments sparked a broader discussion about the strength and efficacy of that department/analytics team, in whatever shape it took. For example, back in January, I wrote about how the organization has struggled to effectively implement analytics into their daily routine. And today, I’d say the hope is that Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley can bolster and improve this side of the organization enough to where the team’s star player couldn’t miss it.
With that said, that evidently hasn’t happened just yet.
The Athletic’s Seth Partnow recently released a list of all 30 NBA teams’ analysts, and you’ll likely not be shocked to learn that the Bulls have a whopping … three staffers (Assistant General Manager Steve Weinman, Manager of Minor League Scouting and Analytics Miles Abbett, and Coordinator of Basketball Analytics Faizan Hasnany). That’s fewer than 14 other teams, tied with 10 others, and more than just five other teams. In other words, it’s certainly on the smaller end of the spectrum.
Take a look at the full list:
Inspired by @hayyyshayyy and @SethWalder, I debuted The List of current NBA Analytics Staffers (as near as I could tell, please update me with questions comments and clarifications): https://t.co/6lXl7qmtLS pic.twitter.com/MKSHY30rAW
— Anchorage Man (@SethPartnow) August 3, 2020
Now, to be clear, Partnow states this doesn’t include part-time staffers and consultants, and he also writes that the list itself is an “evolving work in progress.” Teams keep some of this information under wraps and most don’t offer a cut-and-dry “analytics department” category in their staff directory (which … if that was their true and only purpose, as we’d hope it would be, why not?). Additionally, it’s hard to say size is all that matters. While I’d prefer the Bulls to build out their staff, we can see that plenty of solid teams don’t seem to have dense analytics department. For example, the Bucks, Lakers, Warriors, and Jazz are all listed with only two or three staff members. With that said, most of those organizations may have a strong understanding of analytics across the front office, and, therefore, fewer people are hired solely in this area. I don’t think we could say the same for the Bulls before Karnisovas, Eversley, and company were brought aboard. But there’s still clearly work to be done. And frankly, I do think we can expect the Bulls to add in some capacity.
Karnisovas may come from the Denver Nuggets where Partnow only listed two analytics staffers, but Eversley comes from the 76ers, who appear to have one of the largest staffs in the NBA. Also, even for those teams that have only a few staff members, there seems to be a designated leader. “Director of Basketball Analytics” is a popular title around the league, and it’s one that – duh – signifies there is an actual analytics department to direct. According to prior reporting, I guess Weinman is the face of the Bulls analytics department, but as an assistant GM, it’s assumed he’s tasked with other duties, as well. That’s just not an ideal setup.
In any case, for a team with so much young talent and the 29th offensive rating in the NBA, a more capable analytics department should be at the top of the “to-do” list. Work your magic, AK.