His players are scoring and winning, and MacKinnon has a stat of his own to point out to them.
“We’ve done a little research on it,†MacKinnon said. “Over the past three seasons, 87 percent of players who were called up were on teams that were winning 55 percent of their games or better, so winning does matter. I think that’s another thing we’re trying to impress on our players. Teams don’t want you from a losing situation; they want you from a winning situation.â€
via D-LeagueDigest.
This complicates things.
Look, if you’re a D-League franchise and five of your players get call-ups throughout the year, you’ve done what the league has asked you, especially if a few call-ups get recalled for active duty. But you’re also likely in the tank, not selling tickets and possibly on the edge of bankruptcy.
What these numbers tell us is that teams do value a “winning attitude.” That can be huge, considering how many of these guys have previous character issues that were the reasons they found themselves in the D to begin with. I’d also like to see a cross-reference of how many of these call-ups have come from owned affiliates. Because the Spurs rotate those guys off the end of the bench like they’re Netflix.
But this is also a really positive trend for the D-League. Winning begets success is the lesson you want to be teaching these guys. It’s actually a more successful strategy than getting numbers. You want to be able to show you can contribute to a team’s success not just get your own to impress the scouts. That may be the gap between coaching staffs and scouting staffs.
Also interesting in this piece is the discussion of pace, and how Mackinnon has used it to boost stats and give the players what they want while also contributing to winning. My only fear is what it will do to team’s concerns about their defensive effort when they look at the results. Idaho is last in the league in points allowed at 105.6 (no, I have not calculated def eff yet. It’s on my to-do list, okay?).
