In 2019, Joshua Ebrahim left his job as an agent at Rosenhaus Sports and started a new business. He wanted to solve a problem he encountered too often as an agent – that he didn’t have enough information and influence during negotiations.
Without it, he felt the return on his investment was being affected, both in time and money. He wanted to create a platform that would help; he first introduced himself as a Bloomberg terminal NBA players. Now it’s ProFitX, an AI-powered program that makes ratings and projections for players across the league. He hopes to use it to help players negotiate a free agency and contract. Teams now run analytics departments on a regular basis, and some franchises have invested heavily in theirs. On the player side, the use of analytics can vary per agency.
“That was my mission; to create transparency and benefit the athletes, help them reach their financial potential,” said Ebrahim: “Because if you don’t have numbers, how do you know what your worth is?”
Ebrahim teamed up with an AI development company to design a platform that could create assessments for players, using 130 different performance metrics, and use those assessments to assign them current and real-time contract value. The model assesses what they are expected to make in the coming years, all under current KBA parameters – in addition to a wider range of assessments that its model could create, such as projected future performance and best team fits.
This season, he signed a deal to partner with the Dallas Mavericks† Earlier Brooklyn nets assistant general manager Bobby Marks, now an ESPN analyst, sits on the company’s board. Marks helped refine the model. Ebrahim has consulted agents who have used his platform, and he wants to use it to help players get what they’re worth. Ultimately, he would like to expand into football and the NFL†
“This is a tool that we think can help a lot of athletes during the season, during the off-season, during contract negotiations, during player development,” he said.
Teams often use analytics to model contract values for players and project their performance. It helps them determine a value for players in free agency; ProFitX does the same. While values may differ between teams or even individual leaders in a front office, the athletic asked Ebrahim to make contract projections for several free agents this summer to see how ProFitx values them and what it expects them to earn in free agency. The monetary values are the contract that ProFitX believes each player is valued in terms of performance, injury history, player development and potential. That’s all stuffed into one output number. Ebrahim believes those players will sign within that financial range.
Jalen Brunson
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $34.2 million
Free desk projection: $27.3 million, with a range between $23.3 million – 31.2 million
Deandre Ayton
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $28.2 million
Free desk projection: $29.7 million, with a range between $26.2 million – 33.26 million
James Harden
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $40.4 million
Free desk projection: $39.88 million, with a range between $38 million – 41.7 million
Collin Sexton
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $4.1 million
Free desk projection: $33.25 million, with a range between $29.1 million – 37.45 million
Miles Bridges
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $29.9 million
Free desk projection: $28.2 million, with a range between $24.3 million – 32.1 million
Victor Oladipo
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $4.1 million
Free desk projection: $12.6 million, with a range between $9.2 million-16 million
Mo Bamba
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $17.4 million
Free Desk Projection: $11.1 million contract, ranging between $9.4 million-12.8 million
Mitchell Robinson
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $12.2 million
Free agency projection: $10 million, with a range between $7.8 million – 12.2 million
Jusuf Nurkić
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $19.8 million
Free desk projection: $16.2 million, with a range between $12.7 million – 19.76 million
Isaiah Hartenstein
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $14.1 million
Free desk projection: $7.8 million, with a range between $6.5 million – 9.1 million
Anfernee Simons
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $18.1 million
Free desk projection: $16.19 million, with a range between $13.6 million-18.8 million
RJ Barrett (rookie extension)
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $26.67 million
Free desk projection: $32.9 million, reaching from 28.67 million
Marvin Bagley III
Real-time value during 2021-22 season: $10.3 million
Free desk projection: $12.7 million, with a range between $11 million-14.4 million
(Top photo: Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Sports. Embedded images courtesy of ProFitX)