Photo: NBAE via Getty Images

Shane Battier, one of the best defenders of the league, after ending his career in 2014, continued to be around basketball as a FO executive of the Miami Heat.

Battier serves as the Heat’s vice president of basketball development and analytics since the 2017-2018 season. The former NBA champion credited Daryl Morey and Sam Hinkie for his successful stint in Miami in the last 3 seasons.

“I was lucky to play for Daryl Morey and Sam Hinkey, who taught me how to look at the data,” Battier told The Athletic’s Kelly Iko and Mo Dakhil, per Sports Illustrated. “Analytics is like blackjack. When the dealer has a five showing, what do you do? You double down. Why? Because the book tells you that is the best play at the time and gives you the most chance to win the hand and win money.”

The Duke product certainly had part on several good prospects Miami Heat picked up the last few years via the draft and the free agency. Namely, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn are some of them.

“Analytics has a lot of the same aspects as [blackjack],” Battier continued. “When you make Kobe Bryant go to his left hand, he’ll score 44% of the time. When he goes to his right hand, he’s gonna score 56% of the day. So you don’t need to be a math genius to understand that the defender should take Kobe to his left hand.”

You can listen the rest of Shane Battier’s interview here: