Re: scouting

> To be fair, in Peter May's article (kindly forwarded to me by Bill Cooper),
> it was mentioned that the scouting budget was drastically cut for "the
> second half of last year". This was when the Celts were presumably scouting
> for our current draft pick, and this pick turned out to be Walker. So has
> the scouting budget for this year been restored? (even if it has I can't
> imagine anyone scouting for the Celts being too happy about being relegated
> to watching video tapes). 
> 
> -Marc 
> 
I think some clarifications need to be made on what parts of the scouting
budget are being cut.  Each team has several scouts who go to various NBA
games to gather information on the oponents to help their team prepare for
upcoming games.  They scout out specific plays and tendencies of other
teams.  Unless things have changed a lot recently, this is the major role
of NBA scouts.

I've read how several teams have begun to take advantage of things like
Direct TV, such that their scouts don't have to be constantly flying from
one city to the next to watch other NBA teams, and instead, they can spend
more time analyzing the oponent and helping the team.

I'm not sure how much impact this has on the scouting of college players.
Their used to be limits on how often an agent or scout could go to watch a
college player for purposes of recruiting, so spending time watching the
players on TV is the best way to get extra information.  It's been my
understanding that scouting for the draft plays a very small part in the
overall scouting budget.

As to last years second half scouting cuts...it seems that would have to
be the scouting of other NBA teams.  The Celts were out of the playoff
race, and their wasn't much reason to try and get that extra edge.

Adam