The most under-scouted position in European basketball

I’m going to start with something unusual for this platform.
Today, I’m talking about soccer. And if you know me, you know I don’t like soccer.

But a few weeks ago, the leader of the Belgian league made a move I couldn’t ignore.  Union lost their successful head coach early in the season.

Their solution shocked everyone.
They hired David Hubert, coach of the team sitting second to last. Two points out of 18.

The headlines wrote themselves.

The leader hires the loser.

But somewhere in a small analysis, almost hidden between the noise, I found the only comment worth reading:
“He fits Union’s playing philosophy perfectly.”

They looked past the ranking table.
Past the win–loss column. They looked at fit.

Union has been consistent and succesful these past years to rely on advanced data to make their decisions with a limited budget.
Yes, Moneyball comes to mind if you’re analyzing their philosophy.

And a few weeks later? Hubert started off with 10 points out of 12.
While still adapting.

It rarely seems to work like this in European basketball. We love to talk about scouting talent, scouting potential, scouting the next import who might save a season.
But we hardly ever talk — really talk — about scouting a coach.
It seems to me the most under-scouted position in European basketball.

I mean:
How does he teach?
How does he think?
How does he want his team to play in month five, not week one?
How does he prepare opponents?
How does he react to consecutive wins or losses?
How does he “bring” young players?
How does he treat people (players, staff, ..)?
How does he manage his staff?
… ?

Last season in Belgium’s BNXT League, a coach was fired after gameday 1.
In Luxemburg, 3 out of 10 D1 coaches were gone before November.
This year, new coach Karacic at Aris didn’t make it past October.
Even the Euroleague doesn’t seem an exception.

The philosophy didn’t match the environment.
Or maybe the environment didn’t understand the philosophy.

I experienced this the hard way too.

After a successful season in the CIBACOPA with CDMX Ángeles, I signed with a club in the Mexican LNBP.
Twenty-three days later, I was out.

My first dismissal as a professional coach since I started in 2011.

It wasn’t emotional. It wasn’t dramatic.
It was simply this: although I thought we discussed philosophy, we weren’t fully aligned before shaking hands.
The foundation was thinner than I wanted to admit.
And when the first results didn’t go our way — preseason, 5 days, 7 players available — the foundation cracked.

Mid-October I already received an offer from a D1 club in Europe — another reminder of how quickly the market moves.
Another sign that identity and fit should matter more than a short stretch of results.

It reminds me why I built this platform in the first place.
Here, I try to be transparent about who I am as a coach: the ideas I believe in, the details I value, the way I see the game.
If someone reads this blog, they know what they’re getting. No surprises. No hidden style. No vague philosophy.

So let me end where I started.

Clubs invest enormous effort in scouting the right player.
They know exactly what goes into that process.

But what goes into selecting the right head coach?
My take is that on many teams more time is spent on scouting a player than on selecting the coach.

And if a player doesn’t fit, you replace him.
If a coach doesn’t fit, the whole team has to change…