Former NBA player believes Daryl Morey’s use of AI to make basketball decision’s does not make sense and gave Russell Westbrook as one of the reasons.
Westbrook is currently playing some valuable minutes for the Denver Nuggets and is a locker room leader in a team that is led by Nikola Jokic.
He is averaging 13.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG and 6.3 APG, but also has 3.1 turnovers to his name and is not a great shooter of the ball.
Although Westbrook’s numbers may not show his brilliance, but the truth stated by his coach Michael Malone and other players is that Brodie is a key part of the Nuggets roster.
The 76ers GM had earlier in an interview mentioned he uses AI data to make a few basketball decision for his Philadelphia 76ers team, but Morey’s method was not taken well by many in the NBA community.
Paul Pierce expressed his disappointment and stated there was a lot more to the game of basketball than numbers.
Paul Pierce played in the NBA for 19 years and even won a championship, which is why his stance on player impact over numbers has credibility.
Speaking on ‘Ticket and the Truth’ podcast, Pierce said: “The eye test and the numbers is two different things. Westbrook’s numbers ain’t going to say the impact he got on Denver right now.
“It ain’t going to reflect, in the locker room, when it’s time out, 30 seconds to go when you down one. It ain’t going to reflect, making the right play. “
Pierce also opined that eye-test would be enough to see if players are the right fit or not.
“Numbers is just numbers, that’s the one thing that these GMs mess up across all sports.
“If you don’t know the game inside out, know the ingredients that go to winning, I could look at a dude on a losing team and say ‘he’s a winning player, he needs to be on this squad, he going to look better over here, the impact don’t show it, you got to be able to see it.
“I don’t agree with that,” added Pierce.
Daryl Morey joined the 76ers as the president of basketball operations in 2020 and came in with a lot of experience having previously held roles at Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics.
In his time at Philly, the team has had to deal with a whirlwind of problems including the Ben Simmons and James Harden trade situations.
They are yet to reach Conference Finals and last offseason made a big move to sign Paul George as a free-agent – a decision that has completely backfired.
Philly are looking likely of missing the playoffs, which will be the first it happens since he has taken over the franchise.
But given the talent and the resources they have, the 76ers should not be in the situation and this could affect Morey’s tenure as the president of basketball operation.
