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It’s Selection Sunday, and March Madness officially kicks off this week. Now that the brackets are out, office productivity around the country will take a nose dive.
While there is so much excitement around the games and tradition, NBA teams will be watching closely trying to find their next draft pick.
Here is a look at a few games and top prospects in each region to keep an eye on.
There is an old saying that you can’t teach scoring. Ask any NBA general manager what they need more of, and the answer is almost always scoring.
With the Sloan Sports Analytic Conference reaching a mainstream following, the need to understand statistics and data is at a premium. Despite many complicated numbers and formulas to uncover gems and underrated players, one truth exists: Teams value players that create extra possessions. In a given playoff game, each team may have 80 possessions. With defenses locking down, scoring efficiency is a significant value.
Before Sloan, points per game mattered. Now, teams care more about efficiency. For instance, if a player scores 20 points, does he need to take 18 shots to do it? Or can he get that many points on 14 shots?
Will the 2013 draft deliver the next LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or Carmelo Anthony? Absolutely not, but it could deliver a quality starter or a key contributor off the bench.
The NBA is a copycat league, and with the majority of the best players in the league playing small forward, it is easy to see why teams are eager to target that position in the draft.
In an extremely loaded four-team preseason tournament, the Legends Classic in Atlanta tonight will place No. 7 Kansas against No. 14 Michigan State on one side of the bracket while the defending national champion No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats will face the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils.
Although Kentucky escaped its matchup with the Maryland Terrapins on Friday at the Barclays Center, it’s clear that this Kentucky team is a work in progress and will try to find itself as the season progresses.
