The Blind Board: Run an NBA draft room using only the numbers
What if video didn't exist and NBA teams had to draft on data alone?
Analytics, or the eye test? The eye test, or analytics? The answer is obviously
both. It’s a silly debate that NBA fans like to have. But what if video
didn’t exist and you only had the data? How well would you do? That’s the
thought experiment behind the Blind Board.
There are a few different ways to play. The Daily Challenge shows you two
players who were available at an actual draft spot. Using only their stats,
choose the one who went on to have the better career. Here’s one from the 2019
draft.
In Re-Draft, you replay the draft history for a given team or a
given draft slot. Think the Sacramento Kings’ GMs have been so bad that you
could beat them without the help of video? Replay every Kings pick for any
stretch from 2011 to 2025. Or maybe you think you’d do better with late
second-rounders than most GMs. Go ahead and replay the 52nd overall pick from
each of the last five drafts.
Remembering some dudes
Of course, part of the fun is simply remembering some guys. Here are three
college stars from top-10 teams.
And then you might also learn about some guys. To amp up the degree of
difficulty, the lists are full of the best players from the America East, the
Southland, the SWAC, the MEAC and more. Look at these numbers. Who were they?
The draft board
The default Re-Draft view shows 18 different stats, all sortable and
filterable. Click the Stats button to add 13 more, or to hide some of the
defaults.
As always, shoot me an email if you
find any errors. At some point soon this will be updated with 2026 data. Happy
drafting!