Josh Hart Shits On Analytics And 45 Year Old Dudes Who Never Played And There's Just One Massive Problem

Josh Hart, clearly not an analytics guy. I feel like there will forever be a rift between players and the analytics community and it’s certainly not a new debate but you can’t really argue there is a place for analytics in not just the NBA but profesisonal sports in general. Sure teams can go too far, but they are a useful tool if used correctly. It’s always pretty lame when you hear players talk about how nobody can have any knowledge or insight about basketball unless they played in the NBA. There are people in front offices/scouting departments that watch so much basketball to say they don’t know anything just because they didn’t play in the league is silly.

But I’m not here to talk about why analytics are actually important. I’ll ignore the fact that maybe Josh Hart feels this way towards them is because his advanced metrics stunk out loud last year. For a guy that went out and publicly made it pretty clear he hates 45 year olds who are not athletic and never played in the league as well as analytics, well there’s only one massive problem.

What is it? Enter this man

Ah yes, newly hired Lakers head coach Frank Vogel. For those who don’t know, let’s run through a quick checklist

Age: 45
Played in the NBA: No
Athletic: Did start for a Division III school called Juniata College and then again for the JV team at Kentucky, so….maybe?
Lover of analytics: Judge for yourself

Well this awkward. Josh Hart basically said everything he absolutely hates about today’s game just so happens to describe his head coach perfectly. Bold move considering Vogel is the guy who decides Hart’s minutes. Not great! Vogel got his start as a video coordinator for the Celtics and very much is one of those examples of how a person can be really knowledgable about basketball without playing at the highest level. Something tells me Hart should maybe listen to those people and maybe he’d shoot better than 40/33%. Maybe he wouldn’t have a -7 net rating on the year and be a complete disaster on the defensive end.

The fact that the Lakers and their players keep giving the rest of us on the internet this type of material is why they are the gift that keeps on giving. I am now looking forward to the spinzone from Josh Hart about this because there’s no chance he doesn’t immediately regret what he said once someone tells him who his coach is.