Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbsy
i'm willing to take my harsh criticism of burke's comments back. I thought these statements were made to the media directly, which it seems they were not.
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They weren't but for a piece that really isn't supposed to be Burke centric, he's taken the lion's share of the talking point out of the piece. It's interesting that most of them are objective or at least open minded about players, or that Lombardi can compile a whole folder/video on a player only to have Burke more or less disregard any facts brought to the table just to share his own preconceived notions about the player.
The best GMs/managers all share a common trait in that they are cognizant about how to obtain or maintain a competitive advantage over the rest of their peers. Much of this just pertains to their ability to adapt and evolve to the way the game is trending, both in evaluating players and the type of style their teams play. It;s increasingly clear that Burke is not willing to change his vision for a team or how he analyzes his players. His Toronto team is doing the exact opposite that any conventional data says they should, and the team is slowly falling down the standings just like anybody who looks at shot data said they would.
I think it's interesting that at the 2011 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at MIT there were 5 teams represented by speakers: Chicago, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. It's extremely telling that the aforementioned teams have won 4 of the last 5 cups and have been among the league's elite since their respective team cores have matured, and they all speak about how their teams were put together with an emphasis on statistical evaluation, but just a few weeks ago Burke is up a the podium hollering about how the blueprint he used in Anaheim is the gold standard for how the teams above and the rest of the league are trying to build their teams. It's inherently false and arrogant.