Sixers reportedly to hire Aaron Barzilai as director of analytics

The Sixers are poised to make Aaron Barzilai their new director of analytics, a source familiar with the situation has told Liberty Ballers.

Barzilai was previously a quantitative analyst for the Memphis Grizzlies. He also founded the popular website basketballvalue.com, which is a great tool for looking up adjusted +/- and other statistics that look to quantify a players value while he is on the court.

Barzilai has also been published at other places such as 82games.com.

The news comes just days after Doug Collins talked about how he does not rely on advanced statistics all that much.

76ers owner Joshua Harris and general manager Tony DiLeo have been big proponents of increasing their usage of advanced statistics, with hiring a guy to oversee that one of the first things DiLeo mentioned when it was announced he would be the new general manager.

Barzilai is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Further updates will provide as they come in.

Update (10:46 am): Aaron Barzilai has released the following statements on basketballvalue's twitter page confirming the news:

Thanks everybody for the well wishes, I can't say enough how much I appreciate it.

— BasketballValue (@basketballvalue) November 2, 2012

It's been great working with everyone on the @memgrizz , and I'm really looking forward to opportunity with the @sixers

— BasketballValue (@basketballvalue) November 2, 2012

Update (3:38 pm):

The Sixers have released the following press release about the hire:

PHILADELPHIA, PA. - NOVEMBER 2, 2012 - The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that they have named Aaron Barzilai as their Director of Basketball Analytics. Barzilai joins the Sixers from the Memphis Grizzlies, where he served as the Basketball Analytics Consultant dating back to April of 2009.

In his role with the Grizzlies, Barzilai was the sole advanced analytics consultant for the team and reported directly to General Manager Chris Wallace. He assessed potential transactions, including trades, free agent signings and draft picks.

Barzilai is the founder of BasketballValue.com, a website which presents adjusted and unadjusted plus/minus for players and units to illustrate the impact a player has on the court as well as on a team's offensive and defensive efficiency. He has also contributed content to 82games.com.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Barzilai also owns a Ph.D. and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. He was a member of MIT's varsity basketball team and was the co-captain his senior season.