Anyone Else Disappointed with Sloan Agenda?

[nileriver]

I was wondering if anyone else is disappointed with the presentations planned for the Sloan conference. There are a couple of sessions I am looking forward to, but overall I am not sure how much I will get out of attending the conference this year.

[nrestifo]

Yes, but still pumped to go.

[schtevie]

Out of curiosity, nileriver, what are the presentations of the past that you feel, quality equivalent, are missing this year? The offerings seem of a piece from past conferences.

I won't be going, but I just took occasion to watch last year's analytics panel, and it was pretty good - at least in terms of things one could infer. Some highlights for me:

(1) The continuing general lack of interest in analytics in the NBA. On the one hand, there was Steve Kerr, who displayed a remarkable lack of curiosity on the subject (so much so that I was wondering why he was on the panel) and on the other was Stan Van Gundy (and maybe his was a bit of performance art) who clearly could articulate some of the issues but was going out of his way to bombastically knock down the straw men of his making. Then finally, there was Bryan Colangelo (was is an interested party) noting that NBA franchises are or should be spending between a quarter and a half million dollars on such endeavors, which translating to expected returns on the court puts the valuation of analytics at close to nothing.

(2) Mike, why the bad manners? There you had Steve Kerr on stage with you, and you couldn't bring yourself, in front of a Boston crowd, to thank him for passing on Kevin Garnett in 2007? I understand how that might have been awkward later in the show when Kerr, in dismissing the value of some statistics, illustrated the point with high praise for Amare Stoudemire, but really, I thought the omission a bit rude. The good thing is, you'll get another chance in a couple weeks, this time thanking Mike d'Antoni, who I am supposing was the other half of the non-deal! But maybe that should be the job of the moderator. And what a good and provocative question that would be!

But I digress.

Does anyone go to Sloan for the presentations anyway?

[nileriver]

Out of curiosity, nileriver, what are the presentations of the past that you feel, quality equivalent, are missing this year? The offerings seem of a piece from past conferences.

I won't be going, but I just took occasion to watch last year's analytics panel, and it was pretty good - at least in terms of things one could infer. Some highlights for me:

(1) The continuing general lack of interest in analytics in the NBA. On the one hand, there was Steve Kerr, who displayed a remarkable lack of curiosity on the subject (so much so that I was wondering why he was on the panel) and on the other was Stan Van Gundy (and maybe his was a bit of performance art) who clearly could articulate some of the issues but was going out of his way to bombastically knock down the straw men of his making. Then finally, there was Bryan Colangelo (was is an interested party) noting that NBA franchises are or should be spending between a quarter and a half million dollars on such endeavors, which translating to expected returns on the court puts the valuation of analytics at close to nothing.

(2) Mike, why the bad manners? There you had Steve Kerr on stage with you, and you couldn't bring yourself, in front of a Boston crowd, to thank him for passing on Kevin Garnett in 2007? I understand how that might have been awkward later in the show when Kerr, in dismissing the value of some statistics, illustrated the point with high praise for Amare Stoudemire, but really, I thought the omission a bit rude. The good thing is, you'll get another chance in a couple weeks, this time thanking Mike d'Antoni, who I am supposing was the other half of the non-deal! But maybe that should be the job of the moderator. And what a good and provocative question that would be!

But I digress.

Does anyone go to Sloan for the presentations anyway?

I definitely understand that for many the biggest reason to attend is networking. However, as someone on the outside looking in I really was hoping to learn more about the industry through the presentations. I enjoyed my trip to the conference last year, but looking at this year's agenda there are blocks of time where there isn't anything of much interest to me. I don't remember that being the case last year. That is of course my personal opinion, but it is also why I am wanting to know other people's take on it.