I don't remember anything too eventful off the top of my head about Ernie Grunfeld's press conference today, just because he typically spoke in generalities and avoided getting too specific about things in front of the tape recorders and the cameras.
However, afterwards, I was able to get Ernie to talk a bit about his feelings about some of the more advanced stats that are used by several organizations, most notably the Houston Rockets:
"Statistics sometimes are very important, [but] they're part of the process," he said. "At the end of the day, I trust my eyes as much as I trust statistics. Not every player is a stat player. A lot of times, a guy does a lot of little things that don't show up in stats ... I think those stat things are great for fantasy leagues and things like that."
However, that doesn't mean Grunfeld and the rest of the team don't use them to paint part of the picture.
"We look at them too, to see who has what type of efficiency and other things," he said. "In my opinion, you can't put everything in that basket, but it does play an important role over a long period of time. It shows certain trends."
I asked him point blank whether the Wizards employ any stat guys, like the Rockets and the Cavaliers and several other NBA teams that I don't know of off the top of my head. Ernie's response:
"Do we have a [stat guy]? No. But we use some services to do some statistical things for us," he said.
Full report coming later.