Portland Trail Blazers

Trail Blazers hire sports scientist away from NHL team

Published Sep. 25, 2015 8:06 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Portland Trail Blazers are a forward-thinking organization.

They use analytics to guide their decision-making process and, for the most part, are intelligent and thoughtful. News that they've hired a sports scientist shouldn't surprise anyone.

What's interesting is where they hired him from.

After losing LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Robin Lopez and Wes Matthews over the summer, no team will fall faster and further than Portland this season. But front office hires like this one really show they're willing to think outside the box, and are serious about gaining whatever edge they can on the long climb back to contention.