Scouts are professionals hired by
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
franchises to evaluate player talent or opposing teams' preparation or strategies. A prospect scout typically looks for younger players with potential or existing players whose rights may be available through
free agency
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
or trade. An advance scout, however, helps prepare the team by studying the strategies or tendencies of opposing teams.
Scouts travel extensively, attending basketball games to do these evaluations.
Scouting attire and equipment
Scouts will sometimes dress very casually so as to blend in with the public and fans at the game. This is done so other teams do not know the players that their respective organization may be actively interested in.
In the late 1990s, NBA scouts began using computers to organize information or compile data used to evaluate and grade each player or team being scouted.
Scouting criteria
There are many factors which contribute to a scout's analysis of a player and scouts place differing importance on each of these factors. This is commonly called projection. Projection influences some of the best and worst decisions scouts and general managers make. The most basic projections which a scout must make include the player's physical status such as height, weight, age, position, and
conditioning Conditioning may refer to:
Science, computing, and technology
* Air conditioning, the removal of heat from indoor air for thermal comfort
** Automobile air conditioning, air conditioning in a vehicle
** Ice storage air conditioning, air condition ...
. The scout will also the study the player's skillset including: shooting and
scoring
Score or scorer may refer to:
*Test score, the result of an exam or test
Business
* Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio
* Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company
* Score Media, a former Canadian m ...
capabilities,
ball handling,
defensive
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense indust ...
capabilities, and
passing abilities. The scout will also attempt to note the presence or absence of intangibles such as
coachability,
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
, desire, and instincts.
References
{{Reflist
External links
CollegeHoopsComputer Scouting
National Basketball Association draft