Every front office has a process. Fewer have stress-tested it.
This is a quick audit to run against yours. Ten statements, one point for each one that’s true of how your organization evaluates players today. Be honest. Nobody’s checking but you.
☐ We evaluate movement skill separately from scheme fit.
☐ Our interviews test how a prospect works through a problem in real time.
☐ We track processing speed independent of measurables.
☐ Our bubble-roster calls use more than tape and gut.
☐ We know how a prospect learns before he’s in our building.
☐ We account for the system a player came from when we grade his tape.
☐ Personality and intelligence get assessed as separate things.
☐ Scouts and coaches use the same language to describe how a player thinks.
☐ We have a plan for how to coach a player before we draft him.
☐ After a miss, we write down what we didn’t see.
8 or more: You’re in good shape. Look at the ones you didn’t check, because that’s likely where your next surprise comes from.
Under 8: You’re in good company. The gaps tend to cluster around the same thing, the part of a player that’s hardest to see from the outside. That’s the part we’ve spent 25 years trying to measure.
If you want to talk through the ones you left unchecked, reply. I’m happy to walk through how other staffs have closed those gaps.
— 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.