{"id":1392,"date":"2018-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/resetting-the-rockets-process-talent-evaluation-data\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:42","slug":"houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/houston-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Resetting the Rockets: Process, Talent Evaluation & Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n May 17, 2018 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Resetting the Rockets: Process, Talent Evaluation & Data<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Data & Innovation<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Rockets\u2019 Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas lifts the lid on how the Rockets have become one of the NBA\u2019s most competitive franchises.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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\u201cWe often say basketball minds ask questions only analytics guys can answer. At the same time, analytics guys ask questions only basketball guys can answer.\u201d This quote from Gersson Rosas, Houston Rockets\u2019 Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations is just one example of how the organisation has worked to improve organisational alignment.<\/h4>\n

Three years ago the Houston Rockets underwent a strategic reset in an attempt to make them true NBA Championship contenders. After finishing fourth in the Western conference in 2016, the Rockets went two better in 2017 (2nd<\/sup>) before finishing top of the conference in 2018. It no longer seems like there\u2019s a problem in Houston.<\/p>\n

At the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London last year, we sat down with Rosas to delve into the organisation\u2019s reset, how analytics has been integrated in their culture and to get his take on how the Rockets look at the talent process.<\/p>\n

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By Luke Whitworth<\/h6>\n

Resetting the process<\/strong><\/p>\n

Change management occurs in every organisation, but only few hit the ground running after a seismic transition. \u201cUniquely we had an environment where our former owner (Leslie Alexander) owned the team for 25 years,\u201d Rosas explained. \u201cHe had a mentality that he didn\u2019t want to lose, that he didn\u2019t want to tank and he didn\u2019t want losing habits among our players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were challenged with the fact that if you look at it analytically, the best way to do it is to tank. It gives you the best opportunity in the draft and the best opportunity to rebuild the roster. However, our focus has always been to stay competitive and rebuild as we go. Our real focus was on creating a winning environment and a winning culture, and that actually set a foundation for us in free agency that was pretty strategic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through an interesting reset three years ago. In reality we knew we weren\u2019t as good as our results. We got to a place when we knew from top to bottom we weren\u2019t married philosophically. We knew we were good but we didn\u2019t have the substance to be great. It led to an off-season of introspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we were going to hire our new Head Coach we decided to go all in. We wanted to find the best offensive coach we could find and a pioneer, which we found in Mike D\u2019Antoni. We were all in, we were married up and we wanted to build a team around our star player James Harden. If you look at our last season, we had less talent but we were able to overachieve and have more success because there was a unity from top to bottom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to live it. Culture is something that lives and breathes every day; it\u2019s not who you were in the past, as much as who you are striving to be today. For us and especially my role, we have to connect all the dots from ownership to coaching, to the staff and to the players. We\u2019ve got to united people and focus on what we value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Integrating analytics into your culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

With analytics guru Daryl Morey steering the Rockets\u2019 ship as General Manager, the organisation is one of the most well positioned when it comes to the data and analytics revolution. \u201cWithin the last five to eight years the data [available] in the NBA has become very rich. The interesting challenge is that because everyone has the data, how do you use it? I do think the advantage goes to teams who know who they are. Analytics is allowing us to evaluate and provide accountability to what we believe in. We often say basketball minds ask questions only analytics guys can answer. At the same time, analytics guys ask questions only basketball guys can answer. I think this leads to a development of analytics in the organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things is integration. The success we\u2019ve had is in bringing the analysts and the basketball people together, and getting to a common bond. The reality is that there is so much battling from both sectors. Our coaches, our assistants, our player development coaches and even our players, are given the reason and the logic so they can buy-in.<\/p>\n

The talent equation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a constant contender in the NBA means you have less chance of plucking the next great talent out of the draft, so more emphasis must be placed on recruiting creatively and developing your talent in-house. \u201cYou have to think about translation and for us, the key is thorough evaluation. Anything you can innumerate we are looking for. Whether it is statistics, analytics, background, any information we can get into our process so we can make a fully educated decision. System fit is something that we look at but when you look at the draft it is a three to four year decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at development of talent, our focus when we did the reset was to simplify it. We got our trainer, our strength and conditioning coach, our Head Coach and our front office personnel in a room and we established processes that were simple, had open lines of communication. It was our performance guys who have really driven it. In the past we had processes that were inefficient, communication was falling through the cracks and other departments in our organisation weren\u2019t on the same page in terms of where players were at.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London last year, we sat down with Houston Rockets\u2019 Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, Gersson Rosas to delve into the organisation\u2019s reset, how analytics has been integrated in their culture and to get his take on how the Rockets look at the talent process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1393,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[23,20],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-1392","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-innovation","category-leadership-culture-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nResetting the Rockets: Process, Talent Evaluation & Data - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/houston-rockets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resetting the Rockets: Process, Talent Evaluation & Data - 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