Mind the Tech NY2021
“Build on what is working and not focus on what is failing.”
Samer Jassar, the director of basketball strategy and analytics for NBA champion the Milwaukee Bucks explained why, when using data, you should “choose the right problem” to solve to make the most impact
16:1017.11.21
Originally from the Arab community Jatt in northern Israel, Samer Jassar, serves as the director of basketball strategy and analytics for NBA champion the Milwaukee Bucks. Speaking at Mind the Tech NY 2021, Jasser discussed some of the “things we do with the Milwaukee Bucks that help us win.”
“Analytics is problem-solving, but the way we look at it with the Milwaukee Bucks is we try to choose the right problem that solving will have the most impact,” he explained. “There are many people here from different industries, everybody deals with processes, with big projects, manufacturing problems. We try to solve problems, that is what we try to do, we try to use the data to solve problems, but we took it a step forward when dealing with data.”
Jasser went on to present the process used by the team during last year’s NBA playoffs which included five steps: detecting the data, pointing what is working for us, pointing what is not working, coming up with a game plan, and getting feedback. “So when we look at the data, we try to eliminate what is not working, we try to channel our energy on what is working, build on what is working and not focus on what is failing.”
Describing the situation the team faced after the Game 2 loss to the Phoenix Suns, “the stats said this,” Jasser explained, “there were 430 teams in NBA playoff history that were down 2-0, only 7% of those came back and won. Then, we specifically looked at the NBA Finals, there were 35 teams that were down 2-0, we should feel good about ourselves because 11% of those teams won, only four teams. So we asked ourselves how we can be the fifth team to win? So we walked through our process.”
Watch the full presentation in the video above
