As part of its quiet investment in analytics, the Nets have added a second "basketball analyst" and like last year's hiring of Glenn DuPaul as analytics director, they've tapped a baseball guy.
There was no formal announcement of the job opening or the hire, but the Nets front office directory lists Rami Antoun, basketball analyst, under basketball operations. Antoun holds an MBA in business analytics from the University of Texas and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from USC. He has been a "quantitative analysis associate" on the Dodgers staff since last June. Prior to that, he worked for a data management company. He speaks both French and Arabic.
Antoun will report to DuPaul, the Nets director of analytics who was hired away from the Kansas City Royals. Billy King has said DuPaul's work has helped the team win some games.
Lionel Hollins has long been criticized for not embracing analytics, something he has joked about, and in an interview with NetsDaily in October, Mikhail Prokhorov suggested that while the field is developing quickly, "I am not convinced you can calculate your way to victory. I do believe there are intangibles that no stat sheet will show you."
Despite that, the Nets now have two full-time analysts, both 20-somethings, for the first time.