With NBA teams not officially allowed to sign free agents until Dec. 9, the Detroit Pistons nonetheless made an important addition to their franchise on Monday: Joe Dumars, President of Basketball Operations, announced that Ken Catanella is the Pistons new Director of Basketball Operations, via MLive.com.
Catanella boasts a resume you would expect of someone filling such a role: He joins Detroit after spending several years with the NBA league office, prior to which he managed the New Jersey Nets' analytics and "spearheaded the creation and implementation of their statistical scouting systems."
Catanella brings with him an MBA from Duke University, experience working on Wall Street providing analytics on stadium financings for professional teams, and he even played collegiately at Amherst College as well as in Germany's Bundesliga for the Cologne 99ers, for whom he later served as an assistant general manager.
He will attempt to resurrect a proud NBA franchise that is coming off its two worst seasons since 1995, losing 55 and 52 games in the past two years. Catanella will at least know the road they will travel soon, as the NBA is set to release the regular season schedule on Tuesday.