The Simmons Site

This made me laugh from Simmons draft review:

The Knicks are on the clock, followed by the obligatory full-body massage of Donnie Walsh by everyone at the ESPN table. If Donnie crapped into his hand and whipped it at Rachel Nichols right now, the media would gush things like "the great Donnie Walsh has done it again!" and "Another savvy move by one of the classiest guys in sports!" It's unbelievable.

 

I'll be interested to see what Grantland does this fall for college football.

 

Jones will be covering McGill

 

That made me guffaw.

 

To be fair, one of the debut pieces was about a junior college game in North Dakota, which of course people said Klosterman only wrote because it'd appeal to the hipsters (who are notorious for their love of N.D. juco ball). But definitely not an East Coast-centric piece.

 

Today's Michael Weinreb piece on Renee Richards was excellent.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6706457/view/full/reneacutee-richards-wants-left-alone

 

A frontal assault on the sabermetric movement by a "science writer."

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6708682/the-math-problem

 

I liked Barnwell's Gold Cup column. Didn't see the need for one by the HipsterRunoff blogger.

 

A horseshit article. Lehrer uses the lack of sabermetric accuracy in one particular BASKETBALL postseason and tries to damn the entire process.

I don't give a shit about basketball analytics, the foremost of which (PER) was invented by John Hollinger, whose formula tells me Kevin Love was the fourth-best player in the NBA last season and Ramon Sessions was a much better point guard than Rajon Rondo.

 

I agree. Junk. Badly argued and written.

I think this tends to be Simmons, no fan of the movement, hiring someone smarter than he is to do a hit piece. And it failing.

 

Sabremetrics doesn't translate well in true team sports, far too many variables. Which is why it works in baseball.

 

Yes. Hollinger's stats work as a guide for things, which he admits and says pretty much all the time. I like PER as a quick way to measure a player's offensive capabilities, but it doesn't tell you much about his defense at all.