Today we feature links to stories about two teams: the Celtics & the Rockets that focus on player evaluation and team building.

The Celtics’ story:

“Down on the baseline a group of men watch silently, seemingly unmoved by the spectacle. They are NBA scouts and their expressions reveal little. It’s their eyes that are constantly at work. They are watching everything.

It’s their eyes that are constantly at work. They are watching everything.

How did the big rotate over from the weakside? Does the shooter have good mechanics? Does the guard turn his back against pressure? The scouts’ eyes aren’t limited to what’s happening on the court. When a player commits a careless foul and gets yanked, they immediately scan the bench area to see how he reacts. Can he handle coaching in heated moments?

One player makes a move to get into the paint. Just as he’s about to meet the opposing center, he lowers his shoulder and initiates contact, leaving the larger defender reeling back on his heels. To the untrained eye it’s a sweet move. But to these observers it’s something different. It’s an NBA move.

Despite the lack of lottery talent on the floor, there are more than a half-dozen scouts and executives assembled in front of the student section. One of them is Ryan McDonough, the 33-year-old assistant general manager for the Boston Celtics.

Just saying the word “scout” conjures up images of old bird dogs in trench coats and fedoras, sneaking into remote gyms across the country looking for the next big thing. Those days are long gone. With the swipe of a finger, McDonough can call up reports on his ever-present iPad of players he’s seen live and broken down on video. As he sifts through his information, he’s cautious against being too high or too low on a player. Scouting isn’t linear. His evaluations are a constant process.

“Whether it’s your visual observations, statistical analysis, information you gather on background and personality, if you’re not using all that information you’re at a disadvantage,” McDonough says. “The trick is how do you weigh all of that? More importantly where is that information coming from? Over time you figure out individually what’s most important to you as an evaluator and everybody does that differently.”

The rest of the story is at: http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/3/27/4149404/botson-celtics-gm-ryan-mcdonough-profile

The Rockets story:

“…Little about McHale suggested a statistical leaning. When he was becoming one of the game’s greats as a player, McHale, in the words of Morey, “wasn’t on the floor worrying about the analysis of his hook shot.”

That’s Morey’s game, worrying about the analysis. To some it seemed a doomed pairing, but there was a method to the madness of hiring a coach with a 39-55 career record whose clipboard instructions were once described by a former player as, “like a little Etch and Sketch. Like a kid just messing around.”

Whatever he lacked as an obsessive tactician in the mold of Tom Thibodeau, McHale was known as a fun coach to play for. Before he left Minnesota in 2009, budding star Kevin Love remarked, “Everybody likes him and would love to play for him again.”

See, McHale wasn’t a system coach brought in to lead a specific team. He was a hoops generalist hired to coach a specific process.

Since McHale was officially hired on June 1, 2011, the Rockets’ front office has flipped the roster not once, but twice.”

The rest of this story:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9024190/moreyball-how-houston-rockets-became-nba-most-exciting-team