Number Crunchers: Knicks Seek to Boost Analytics with Brock Aller and Sean MacLean

Back in 2015, the New York Knicks were at the very bottom of the NBA barrel, alongside the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers. It wasn’t a coincidence that ESPN’s Great Analytics Rankings project had New York in the bottom three.

The NBA has only gotten smarter since then, but the Knicks are still a lottery team. In today’s NBA, analytics reign supreme. The Lakers banked on solid draft selections while the Nets polished diamonds in the rough. Both teams parlayed their internal growth into star power, while New York made blunder after blunder.

The Knicks have made puzzling mistakes during this latest rebuild: Odd draft choices, strange signings, and instability around the club’s lone star in Kristaps Porzingis. The 2019-20 Knicks are a confusing mix of players. But perhaps there is hope on the horizon.

Former team president Steve Mills is out, and Leon Rose seems up to the task of revamping the club. He’s been busy hiring some of the smartest minds around to help reshape how the Knicks do business.

The Knicks' current director of scouting and analytics is Mike Smith. He has been with the club since 2003, starting out as a video coordinator before getting promoted to his current position in 2012.

Enter Brock Aller, the highly-touted and data-driven capologist from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rose hired Aller to be his VP of basketball and strategic planning.

“Brock has always been an analytics guy,” former Krossover CEO Vasu Kulkarni told Off The Glass. “The Cavaliers had a very strong analytics staff for as long as I’ve been working with them.”

Kulkarni, now with Courtside Ventures, built Krossover, a top video analytics company. One of his clients was the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, who worked with Kulkarni between 2014 and 2018 to augment the team’s analytics department. Aller was with the Cavs at the time. (Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert was an investor in Krossover, which was sold to Stack Sports in 2018.)

Aller was in the background during the team’s clashes with the Golden State Warriors in four consecutive NBA Finals. While he wasn’t on the court, he was an intimate part of a clash of two great analytics departments. The Warriors famously introduced a pace-and-space, 300 passes system. Cleveland, on the other hand, was busy building a scheme around their ball-dominant duo of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

Now Aller will bring all that he learned and his data-driven mindset to New York.

“Aller is a beast,” Kulkarni told OTG. “I’ve known him for a long time. He worked his way up in Cleveland. He’s insanely loyal. He’s the kind of guy you would love to have on your side. I’m thrilled that he was able to get this job in New York and I look forward to seeing him help to turn the franchise around.”

It was a chance to be part of what could be a historic turnaround that drew Aller to the Knicks. Aller has already gotten to work revamping the Knicks analytics department. The team brought in Sean MacLean as the club’s basketball strategy lead.

It was Vasu Kulkarni who helped link up the two Clevelanders. MacLean spent four years at Krossover.

“Sean was a Swiss army knife for us at Krossover,” Kulkarni said. “He’s a data nerd but also a jock, who is a sports junkie.”

The Knicks could use a guy of MacLean’s caliber and complement Smith’s analytics department. As Kulkarni explained:

“He (MacLean) can work the spreadsheets but most importantly, he can translate the numbers into actual sports talk, which is important to be able to get your point across to front office guys as well as the coaching staff. I think that is his biggest strength. There’s plenty of data guys out there, but the basketball side won’t take you seriously if you can’t speak their lingo. It gives me a ton of pride to see Sean with the Knicks as a result.”

While he’s a staunch supporter of analytics, Kulkarni still cautioned that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

“The good news is talent won’t be an issue. Wes [William Wesley] and Leon [Rose] will get them. Now, if you can use data to get them to play together the right way, the Knicks have a chance.”

That remains to be seen. The Knicks still need a new head coach. Who will they pick?

Follow this writer on Twitter: @alderalmo