This fanpost is catalyzed by reading this article.

But it's really been percolating in my mind for awhile now, because it seems to be a consistently good culture in the Rockets organization of high character guys like Battier and Scola and Patterson, even if their ceilings aren't the highest, not to say the least of the current core of high-character guys with high upside.

I really starting squinting, however, when during the recent Sloan conference, Morey has mentioned that the next big thing in analytics is in personality/mental assessments to really figure out which mental/personality characteristics lead to people doing well in the NBA. Hilarious in context of guys like Royce White, perhaps, but also perhaps because Morey felt like his organization has the structure in place to be able to cope with White.

And then there's this article...

According to coach Keith Smart, the Rockets, as well as other teams in the league, are finding players that not only have size and athleticism, but a high-level understanding of the game as well.

“I think every team is developing players,” Smart said during his pregame media session on Sunday. “So I don’t think it’s one team over the other. I think they (Rockets) do a good job of looking at guys that fit not only from a physical standpoint, but also from the mental part.

“As you move through the league, the guys with the physical attributes, it evens out,” Smart continued. “Now (you look for) the guys who can take it to the next level from a mental understanding of how the game is played – how to prepare, how to be ready for adjustments in game…”

And the Houston front office, led by Morey, is doing a great job of finding these types of players

So there's my current thought that Morey probably already HAS his stat teams analyzing and weighing players based on personality traits/issues and weighing these factors into his moves as much as, say, their rebound rate.

It's not to say that other GM's and their teams don't make decisions based on player's personalities, but that, given Morey's comments at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that he's already been doing this in a systemic way behind the scenes... or else he would not have mentioned this idea in public, that psychology was an area that analytics (in specific) would develop in.

Sorta like the way that NASA and the military gives the public neat toys but they still keep all the best stuff under wraps and for themselves.