Every spring there’s a name read out late on day three of the draft that barely registers. A sixth-rounder from a school most fans couldn’t find on a map. Three years later he’s starting, and the story becomes how everyone missed him.
Somewhere in a building, a scout drove four hours in February to watch him practice and came back with a report that said more than his tape did. A few months later, a general manager stood up in a room full of people with louder opinions and spent a pick on him.
That work rarely gets seen. When the pick hits, the player gets the headline and the coach gets the clip. The person who made the call gets a line in the press release, if that.
The hardest part of the job is the part of a player you can’t see from the outside. You can time his forty and watch every snap he’s ever taken. What’s harder to know is how he takes in information and learns, which shapes how a staff will need to coach him once he’s in the building.
That’s where we spend our time at AIQ. We describe how a player processes the game, so the people deciding on him and the people who’ll coach him start from the same picture. The best front offices already have a feel for this. We try to put language to it.
So alongside the coaches, The Read is spending the next few weeks with the people who build the roster. The ones who saw it at a February practice and waited years for everyone else to catch up.
— Scott
Scott Goldman, Ph.D., is a clinical and performance psychologist and the creator of AIQ. He consults for the Golden State Warriors and has worked with NFL and NBA teams for over two decades.