Sports 4 Dorks

I mentioned this yesterday, but it bears repeating: During the Houston Rockets‘ 20-game win streak, they have been led in scoring by five different players (T-Mac 12 times, Yao five times, Luther Head once, Alston once, and even Carl Landry once). Throw in Mutombo and Chucky Hayes’ defensive contributions (as well as Luis Scola’s overall performance), and you’re suddenly looking at seven or eight guys who, on any given night, have led this squad to a victory.

Well, this morning, Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star adds another key "player" to the Rockets’ history-making list: Houston general manager Daryl Morey.

Morey is the first NBA GM to be heralded as a disciple of what’s been termed the "Moneyball" approach to sports management. He’s a self-professed stats geek who has studied the work of both Bill James, the baseball-versed pioneer of sports statistical analysis, and Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM who famously (and successfully) applied some of James’s principles to his team architecture. […]

He has said the Rockets have invested millions in everything from the massive computer servers required to store the hours and hours of digital video from which statistical trends are mined, to the analysts who do the prospecting. And if Morey has hit on something revolutionary, nobody is expecting him to share the wealth of proprietary data.

It’s true: Morey has done an extraordinary job filling out the Rockets’ line-up with unheralded players, most notably by stealing Scola from the Spurs this summer. (Forget Pau, Kidd or Shaq … could that have been the biggest trade of the season? Crazy.)

Anyway, it’s a great read, and just another angle to keep in mind as the Rox keep reeling off wins.