Until he sustained a severe knee injury on Dec. 15, Parker was among the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year honors, averaging 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds. Exum is averaging 4.9 points and 2.0 assists coming off the bench for the Jazz.

Smith said he felt that if Hill’s facial-coding analysis could be so effective in such a short time, his skills would be even more useful when he was given more time to assess players and work with the organization. “I wanted him to be our secret weapon,” Smith said.

But is such facial analysis truly effective? Martha Farah, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Center for Neuroscience & Society at the University of Pennsylvania, said she was skeptical about its applications in sports.

“To me the big question is, how well does the method actually work?” she said in an email interview. “It’s not easy to get good evidence, because a player’s performance and teamwork are complex outcomes, and the teams are not run like clinical trials, with coaches and managers blind to the facial coding findings and so forth. So it’s hard to know whether this system works well, gives some marginal benefit or does nothing at all.”

Hill has done facial analysis for 16 years, mostly for companies developing advertising campaigns or new products. He said his analysis is especially useful with focus groups whose members are often unwilling to speak frankly or have trouble conveying their true opinions.

“I look for quick, micro-expressions and instances of the say/feel gap — said this, but felt that — to guard clients against what I call speed bumps: hidden objections that keep a person from buying, if not recognized and addressed,” Hill said.