Sacramento Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro announced on a Reddit AMA today that the team will be holding a very special contest in the coming weeks. The prize? Two spots in the Kings’ war room during the NBA Draft on June 26.
The contest, which the Kings are calling “Draft 3.0,” is very real and involves, as the contest page says, for a fan to “devise your own methodology for evaluating the long-term value of potential NBA draftees by position.” While ostensibly the goal is for the winners to parlay this into a front office job, the Kings make no promises of that.
This is a first of its kind venture, and indeed is a shrewd one by D’Alessandro and new owner Vivek Ranadive. Analytics are becoming a major driving force behind basketball decision-making, and—like with baseball—there are a number of “armchair statisticians” around the world who pour over NBA stats for fun and are constantly looking for ways to innovate.
By dangling the carrot of being involved in the draft in front of these people, the Kings have a great chance at finding a couple talented and bright minds whom they otherwise never could have discovered. And, hey, when you haven’t won more than 30 games since 2008 and haven’t been in the playoffs since 2006, you’ve got to try everything right?
[via Reddit]
