April Coaching Notebook
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ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES Boston's early adversity is putting Stevens' magic touch to the test (ESPN.com) -Even down an All-Star, Stevens has been careful not to temper expectations for his Hayward-less team. Instead, he has put an even greater focus on his typical "get better each day" philosophy. While observers ponder if the Celtics can still compete for a top spot in the Eastern Conference, Stevens focuses on the next day, the next practice, the next possession. -The Celtics, with an average age of 25.06 years, are the fifth-youngest team, according to the NBA's roster survey conducted at the start of the season, trailing only the Suns (24.49), 76ers (24.65), Lakers (24.89) and Trail Blazers (24.89). To combat his team from getting caught up in its overall lack of experience, Stevens won't allow his players to use age as a crutch. "Let's beat the age thing. Let's not talk about the age thing," Stevens said. "Let's talk about how we can be better at what we can control and how we can learn and grow every day and everybody expedite the learning curve.” Added Stevens: "If we're not committed to getting better, individually and collectively, then we're not good enough. If we are, we'll see what happens. But that's the only way to go about that." -"When he establishes [players' roles] and when he's explaining that everyone has to be great in their role and collectively have to be great -- every single detail is important, every person is important. And he makes sure he relays that message to every single one of us every day. It's pretty easy to kinda buy into what we're trying to accomplish after that." Jason Kidd's advice for Giannis: 'Don't get bored' (ESPN.com) -For him, from where we started and where we are to the present day, I think it just speaks volumes of his patience, his work ethic and his trust in us in helping him get to where he wants to go. And he's just at the beginning of that, so it's just remarkable watching him. The things that he can do now that he couldn't do two years ago. -[On what it takes from a coaching perspective to take a great player and get him to that superstar level where he's doing it every night] I think it comes down to listening, trust and his ability to work. And he has all those components, so it makes it really easy to be around and coach [him]. -The #1 thing Kidd would impart to Giannis as he makes his ascension: Don’t get bored. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES Raptors President Masai Ujiri (Bill Simmons Podcast) -Best management advice: Be more passionate than ambitious -Simmons’ advice: Trust the people in your inner circle. You cannot win if your inner circle isn’t empowered and good at what they do. You hired them and it’s your job to stick up for them. -Ujiri: Hire women. It’s something about them that brings us to a level where we think better. -A lot of guys have got into the NBA like that. ‘Oh you’re going to open the door for me one inch? I’m in. I’ll do whatever.’ Michael Lombardi, The Ringer -That’s when you know. That’s a perfect example of the Redskins still paying attention to their coach. That was a split read, he broke on the ball and understood what the play was. It was coached during the week and executed. Practice execution becomes game reality. That’s a key thing. That’s when you know your team is following you. When you know the team is listening to their coach. -“I’m not ever going to accuse a team of quitting on Sunday because I think it’s too hard to go out there and not give all your effort. The game is too hard, the game is too violent. But where I think the quitting occurs and where you as an executive or as an owner, when you evaluate the team…because we’re in the veterinarian business (the patient doesn’t talk to us), we have to evaluate certain symptoms that occur. When you see free access touchdowns and when you see players not paying attention to detail. You know Monday through Saturday that there’s a disconnect going on. As an executive or as an owner, you’re like ‘Well, wait a minute.’ It’s too harsh to say a team quit, but football’s a game of attention to details. Marcus Aurelius has this great quote that the secret to all victories lies in the organization of the non-obvious. What he’s saying with that quote is ‘it’s the details, it’s saying when you lie up with this split, you’re going to do this or do that.’ While the Rams are very predictable with what they do, if you don’t pay attention during the week, they’re going to catch you off-guard and they did against the Giants. To me, if I were McAdoo and I was watching that tape, I’d say, “Our message isn’t getting home.” ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES David Epstein on Finding Mastery Podcast -I call him on a Saturday morning and he’s in his lab and I thought I was calling him at home and he said, “Saturday morning experiments are the most important thing I do because there’s no one else around. You don’t have to conform what you’re doing, you can be a bit sloppy, a bit unorthodox.” Braving the Wilderness -Maintaining the courage to stand alone when necessary in the midst or family or community or angry strangers feels like an untamed wilderness. When I get to the point where I’m like, Screw this! It’s just too hard. I’m too lost! I hear Maya Angelou’s words again: The price is high. The reward is great. Chris Caputo, Miami -Habits then reads. You need to establish the habits and then build the reads. Thoughts -When you were getting ready to go to college, everyone always said “Time management, time management.” Being a head coach seems to me to be the biggest test of time management. -In scouting, you have to always keep in mind that the players don’t watch nearly as much film as you do and don’t have near the capacity to remember what you do. Find simple things they can remember that can help them. Tim Kight, Focus 3 -Culture’s job is to energize the behavior called for by the strategy. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES Pep Guardiola and the unrelenting game of fools (Football Times) -The logic behind his deep build-up is straightforward enough. The more players that you can attract towards you and outplay, the fewer players you must beat once you have successfully achieved the build-up. This is echoed in Juanma Lillo’s – one of Guardiola’s mentors – assertion that: “Everything is much easier if the first progression of the ball is clean.” This is a simple concept, you have more space to attack fewer players if you can eliminate a significant number of opponents using your own defensive players. When the build-up is successful, when it is ‘clean’, Guardiola’s players have increased time and space to make penetrating interactions upfield. It is why his team’s attacks often appear to be so swift, breathless sweeps towards goal characterised by multiple players running freely into space and enjoying numerous passing options. The opponent’s defensive block has been depleted as three or four players have been eliminated high up the pitch. The remaining six or seven find themselves suddenly required to scuttle back in hopeful retreat in the face of a raiding party of the world’s most gifted attacking players. -So, if it isn’t some secret magic that Guardiola is using, why does it seem as though his style remains so unique? Ten years have passed since his Barcelona B team began to play in this way yet the style continues to elicit a stubborn refusal to be replicated. Indeed, many critics have lambasted those coaches who have appeared hell-bent on merely recreating the work of their idol; anyone who watched teams like Roberto Martínez’s Everton labour to progress possession up the pitch, scored by the groans of the disgruntled thrill seekers in the stands will surely identify with such a critique. Plagiarism is not a tenable manifesto; the imitators are ten-a-penny – destined to a career of mediocrity spent peddling a bastardised version of another’s vision. Possession of the ball is not an end in itself. -And herein lies the rub, in my view it is Guardiola’s ability to convince his players that the risk involved in building-up – if executed according to the methodology – is less than the risk attached to playing direct that provides the psychological foundation for his players to play in this way. This lesson in risk literacy is evident in one of Guardiola’s favourite footballing aphorisms: ‘The faster the ball moves forward, the faster it comes back the other way.’ ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES -For the majority of players that he comes into contact with – particularly in the UK – this will be an alien concept, something anathema to their existing beliefs.