Drew Cannon

After graduation, Cannon was leaning towards becoming a writer. His parents just hoped Cannon could find a job of any kind. His father remarked that Cannon had earned the right to pursue his passion, joking "if he had to live in the basement for a year, we could feed him. He would’ve had to share the basement with the dog, but so be it." Cannon soon moved to Chicago where he lived with family and considered tending bar on the side as he freelanced for the websites he wrote for during college.

In July 2013, Stevens was hired by the Boston Celtics and brought Cannon with him.

In July 2013, Stevens left Butler to become the new head coach of the Boston Celtics. One of his first decisions as coach was to hire Cannon, although his role was not immediately defined. Stevens said that's the way he wants it, remarking "I like the idea that it’s not really defined ... I don’t want it to be restraining at all."

As a child, Cannon was fascinated by sports statistics and, after reading the work of Bill James, began to design his own statistical projects to analyze sports. At age 15, he got an internship with well-known basketball scout Dave Telep. Over the next seven years, his research helped improve Telep's recruiting, while Telep worked to round out Cannon's personality. Cannon developed writing skills during college and his research was published by Basketball Prospectus, ESPN, and Kenpom.com. He graduated from Duke in 2012 and was hired by Brad Stevens to do statistical analysis for the Butler basketball team. Cannon produced regular reports on how to increase the team's efficiency. The success of his recommendations won over doubters and led to multiple reporters describing Cannon as Butler's "secret weapon".

Cannon graduated from Cardinal Gibbons High School in 2008 and attended Duke for college, majoring in statistics. On the advice of Telep, Cannon took writing classes to increase his ability to communicate. Starting his sophomore year, Cannon sought outside opportunities to publish his writing. By graduation, Cannon had written articles on his statistical research for Basketball Prospectus, ESPN, and Kenpom.com. While classmates did their senior projects on economic models and health care management, Cannon's was on high school basketball recruiting, leading his father to joke "Who are the slipshod parents who led him down this path?" Cannon graduated with a degree in statistics in the spring of 2012.

At a casual lunch with friends in 2004, Jim Cannon met recruiting specialist Dave Telep. Soon the conversation turned to basketball. Telep had just finished reading Moneyball and was intrigued with the idea of bringing advanced statistics to basketball. "My mind (was) wide open about how we can apply [Moneyball] to basketball", Telep recalled. After lunch Cannon approached Telep: "There's this kid in my house that I don't know what to do with. Can you help me?" Telep met with Drew Cannon, then a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, and soon offered him an internship, paying $600 for the summer.

Drew Cannon (born April 21, 1990) is an American statistician and sports writer who currently works on the Boston Celtics staff.