Comments on: Pistons name Ken Catanella as Director of Basketball Operations

By: Patrick Ryan

Patrick Ryan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:57:57 +0000

Very true, Frankie D. The last few years have underscored how important it is for Dumars to have an intuitive, proactive assistant, such as John Hammond. As we’ve seen from Hammond’s work in Milwaukee, he makes a good share of pretty shrewd decisions with limited resources. And even when he whiffs on some, like Maggette, he’s willing to move on quickly and still get valuable resources in return. I think having a checks-and-balances system in place helps the front office function better and the outcome is better.

With that said, I’m certain that the Pistons have had a “capologist” over the years, since all teams have specialists who direct significant (if not exclusive) focus to the cap. The key is having someone on board who is willing to think out of the box, like the OKC front office seems to do. Dumars was actually pretty good at flipping assets when he had the green light to make deals in the Bill Davidson era, so it will be interesting to see what he’s able to do.

I think the real value that Catanella will add is going to be by way of analytics. Using statistical information in concert with scouting and player development, the Pistons will be more likely to find undervalued assets and long-term forecasting. Since almost every team has an analytics department (or specialist) these days, it will be harder to gain an outright edge. But at least now the Pistons are playing on the same field as other teams.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:25:39 +0000

if this is the first guy dumars has had in that role, it would go a long way to help explain some of the problems the team has had the last 5 years or so.
just about every good team has at least one person handling cap issues specifically, a “capologist” and lots of teams have someone doing nothing but stats.
joe’s pitiful handling of free agency, his ineptitude in using his team’s cap space was obvious the summer he signed CV and gordon. while OKC picked up a nice PG during the season for nothing – eric maynor – because of their adept use of their cap space, joe seemed totally incapable of doing anything but spending the money he had to spend. the idea of using it strategically, as OKC did, and as other teams routinely do, did not seem to occur to him.
if it is true that he did not have a specialist handling those issues for the team, that is just plain incompetence. and it helps to explain his ineptitude in dealing with those issues as they have become more and more important.

By: Patrick Ryan

Patrick Ryan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:28:37 +0000

I like the hire a lot. I remember reading that TrueHoop interview when it came out and I was pretty impressed with a lot of the type of thinking that Catanella was sharing. Of course, he couldn’t go into proprietary methods, but as a kid who grew up as a stat head, I was pretty excited to get a glimpse into what teams were starting to do.

Looking into Langlois’ profiles of the assistants (especially Charles Klask), as well as some of the front office moves such as this hire, I’m very excited about the Pistons future. It will take some time to get the ship righted, but I feel much better about the process now than I did six months ago.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 01:05:15 +0000

so, joe had not had a guy doing that kind of statistical work previously?
what about a cap specialist?
was there a guy specifically doing work as a cap specialist?

By: detroitpcb

detroitpcb — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:22:10 +0000

Good hire. I know the guy from his days in Amherst. Inteligent. Very organized. Should be a nice addition to the front office