76ers hire Barzilai as director of basketball analytics
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76ers hire Barzilai as director of basketball analytics
John Mitchell, Inquirer Staff Writer
The 76ers announced today that they have named Aaron Barzilai as their director of basketball analytics. Barzilai was previously the basketball analytics consultant dating back to April, 2009.
In his role with the Grizzlies, Barzilai was the sole advanced analytics consultant for the team and reported directly to general manager Chris Wallace. He assessed potential transactions, including trades, free agent signings and draft picks.
Barzilai is the founder of BasketballValue.com, a website which presents adjusted and unadjusted plus/minus for players and units to illustrate the impact a player has on the court as well as on a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency. He has also contributed content to 82games.com.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Barzilai also owns a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. He was a member of MIT’s varsity basketball team and was the co-captain his senior season.
Collins won't be listening to this guy. like Harris said in Mitchell's piece Thursday that pointed out the deal was almost done, this guy is just a small piece of what they are doing. I really think this whole analytics thing is big among fans who live vicariously through these guys. They imagine that if that dude can do it, so can I.— Rawkus- Pretty funny how this guy spent 8+ years on post-high school education to wind up making just 100-120k/year while basketball players he crunches numbers for make tens of millions.— The Baron
- Why not? He was co- captain of MIT's team. Seems Like a Collins type guy. It's all about the difference between wingspan and height (read SI.)— Klambake
- Math never lies. Money ball comes to b-bal— adipaolo
- nice education and he will need it to figure out bynum the bust and why DC just cant coach real talent— stayoutofphilly
- Brains rarely beat talent in the NBA. Just ask all of those ex champions who are now bankrupted with twelve children from thirteen different women.— RufusG
- Can see Josh Harris hand in this hire.Now he`ll have enough numbers to 2nd guess everything,if it starts to go wrong. Collins will take what he needs but never admit it.— boogsbell
- Nothing beats watching the players play the game. I don't believe that applying Hooke's Law is going to help.— ESSquared
- Formula is simple....just keep the other team from scoring more than you.....if you do that 60 times out of 82 games your pretty good!— bbrady25
It's worked out real well with Howie Roseman.— kjuggs77- If he worked for the Memphis Grizzlies, then I know we got our man. Who can't appreciate the pure genius of obtaining Marreese Speights?— rwolffd12
- I would like to associate myself with the comment of rwolffd12. Also what is up with his face in his espn profile? http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3460/marreese-speights— 40
John Mitchell is in his second year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
