The "Theo Epstein" is apparently Daryl Morey, who teaches a class at MIT, used to work on Wall Street and works as a stats/operations/information guy for the Celtics front office.

A bright fellow named John Quincy at the APBRmetric board dug up some more on Morey, including this blog post briefly annotating a speech Morey gave at MIT in April 2005. I can't seem to run down a transcript of said presentation, but we'll take the blogger's word that Morey talked about the four factors.

It's also worth noting that a Google cache of Celtics.com's "Inside the Numbers" series of articles on basketball analytics lists Morey and Mike Zarren as authors. (The current incarnation of "Inside the Numbers" lists only Zarren and has only three articles, the most recent one being a solid primer of offensive efficiency. Zarren is listed as Boston's "Basketball Operations Analyst, responsible for assisting team decision-making via quantitative analysis." (Thanks to Google, I've also gathered that Zarren is a 2004 Harvard Law graduate and a former editor-in-chief of the school's Journal of Law and Technology.)

Morey's best article on Celtics.com may be this piece on beating opponents by increasing your number of shot attempts. It's interesting because the pendulum in the statsworld seems to have swung towards efficiency as the biggest pillar, when offensive rebounding and limiting turnovers combined are almost as important as shooting percentage. (I'm way guilty of this, by valuing Kevin Martin true shooting percentage way more than Kenny Thomas's offensive rebounding percentage.)

Morey also has a questionable stats-related article in the cache as well, one that argues that because Al Jefferson got a lot of minutes in his age-20 season, and because most players who got a lot of minutes in their age-20 seasons turned out to be stars or solid starters, Al Jefferson is therefore destined to be a star or solid starter. That argument is pretty faulty for fairly obvious reasons - you can't just take a youngster, give him minutes and watch his blossom. It's at best a baby block in the work towards serious prospect analysis.

Regardless, getting someone who understands the growing statistical revolution budding in basketball into a GM chair is huge. It's really another domino: first, it was Dean Oliver coming into the Seattle Sonics organization. Now, it's Daryl Morey getting the reins (though not until the 2007 offseason). It's getting much better.

Speaking of suits, here are my extended thoughts about Monday's game:

• I vomited in the second quarter, and it wasn't due to the Kings performance. It was the performance of the Comcast technicians: For about 10 minutes, the feed was shaky and fuzzy and dim. I had a Blair Witch flashback. Couldn't get Dramamine fast enough.

• I know this was said a lot in the 2004 playoffs when Tony Parker was running circles around the Lakers, but would it kill someone to just lay the lumber on him when he drives to the baseline and floats there, looking for a open man? He's French - he'll seriously think twice about it once pummelled (unless he knows he has big, powerful allies coming over). I might be more annoyed by TeePee than I am by Balki. Good grief, what an annoying team.

• Gregg Popovich: The mullet will not get you extra Coach of the Year votes. There's a reason the NHL in the #5 major league.

• Not sure I understand why Shareef got a technical. But he didn't seem to mind. I did understand why Bonzi got a technical, and he did seem to mind. Shows how much I know.

• Either Kenny Thomas has a really good relationship with Francisco Garcia where he feels comfortable enough to yell at him about coming to double Tim Duncan (and fouling him), or Kenny Thomas is a very self-assured defender.

• Of all the disappointments on this team so far, Brian Skinner has been the biggest. He's not doing anything but taking up space when on the floor. Truly discouraging after a mammoth preseason filled with jumpers, blocks and putbacks. We need that Brian Skinner.

• Fabricio Oberto: Funny-looking from a distance, rockstar lookalike from up close.

• It's amazing that Pop took Duncan out when he got his fifth foul. Pop knows as well as everyone that no ref is going to a sixth foul against Tim Duncan in a close game.

• The league is going to figure out Manu Ginobili one of these days, as if he was Barry Zito. He's flashy, but he can be stopped.

• Peja can do better on the suit. Remember, P, you're an upcoming free agent! You gotta look money, all the time.

f the Monday night Packers-Vikings game. Also, I really have no idea what to make of Simmons' shoes in said segment. Especially after seeing him rocking shell-toe Adidas in the NY Times piece.

Last Simmons item: The controversy over Renee Herlocker is stupid, and the Intern is a jerk for not giving a link to YAYsports!, even after admitting someone had already made her (semi-)famous. It shows a certain out-of-touchness.

Another sign fantasy sports are inherently evil: I've been openly rooting for Kobe to score 40 a night. Yes, that Kobe. I'm going to hell.

Nice shootout between Gonzaga and Michigan State last night. Adam Morrison is like Kyle Korver with driving ability. I turned it on near the end of regulation. Tom Izzo really takes the fun out of Hawaiian shirts, no?

Back later with an awesomely robust game preview.

"It's unlikely we're going to make a trade," Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

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