By: Dan Savage
April 4, 2018
NEW YORK – The Orlando Magic are currently preparing for two drafts.
One is most likely very familiar to you. The NBA Draft features the top college players and basketball prospects from around the world, takes place on an international stage, and its broadcast is watched by over 3 million viewers.
The other is a first-time affair. None of the players are currently household names – although, they could be in the near future. And with some of their massive social media followings, they may already be more popular in youth circles than the aforementioned future NBA stars. This inaugural event, of course, is the NBA 2K League Draft, which will take place on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden’s Lobby.
While the Magic have a massive staff in their basketball operations department dedicated to breaking down current and future basketball prospects, Orlando’s current 2K League staff has a headcount of two: Director of Magic Gaming Ryan DeVos and Team Manager Chris Toussaint.
The duo has a tough task ahead of them. When it comes to Wednesday’s draft, there are no models to follow, no past examples of success. Instead, they are paving the way as they get set to select the first NBA 2K League professionals in history.
“It’s next to impossible,” DeVos explained.
Although there are no historical reference points, the Magic Gaming staff is still exhausting all avenues to set themselves up for success.
They’ve enlisted the help of the team’s Basketball Operations analytics staff to build out models that rank draft prospects in relation to a series of key metrics.
But how do you come up with relevant data for a league that less than a year ago didn’t even exist?
First, they had to narrow down the draft pool.
Over 72,000 people tried out for the NBA 2K League qualifier and draft combine. Eventually, that number was trimmed down to just 102 participants.
Second, they had to find out where they were picking.
After the league’s draft lottery on March 13, 2018, Magic Gaming was awarded the eighth overall selection in the 17-team draft.
In a traditional draft format, that could be considered far from ideal. However, the 2018 2K-League’s six-round selection process follows a snake format, meaning the order of picks reverse after each round.
“Ultimately, we feel it’s a pretty good spot to be picking,” DeVos said. “It gives us a bit of flexibility round to round and it means there aren’t massive gaps in between where we select.”
And third, they had to marry the player performance data from the qualifier and draft combine with their selection slot.
“We don’t have college performances, we don’t have anything like that to be going off of and we also aren’t looking at long-term development,” said DeVos, referencing the league’s free agency model, which currently does not allow teams to keep players year-to-year. “What is this player going to look like eight years from now, that’s not our reality at this point.”
While that data will provide a drafting base for Magic Gaming, there are other factors to consider. In a league where players will be not only playing together, but also living with one another, chemistry is of the upmost importance.
“We need to know how exactly we’re going to be fitting these six guys together,” DeVos explained. “They’re going to be living together, they’re going to be practicing together day-in and day-out, they’re going to be traveling together; they’re going to be together a lot, so we need to ensure that they can get along and that their personalities won’t clash.”
Still, with teams permitted just one 30-minute phone call per prospect, it’s a challenge to get a deep sense of personality traits and potential player chemistry.
“We’re using these (interviews) as a tie-breaker for guys that we feel from our analytical approach are very similar,” DeVos said. “If one has better overall leadership qualities or is a better communicator or is more personable, we may pull that prospect forward, if we are picking between the two.”
Ultimately, the picks are made with just one objective in mind.
“Our goal is to win a championship in the first season,” DeVos said.