Coaching U Live 2018 Clinic Notes
What I Have Learned in the NBA
1. Create a Culture
- Our work ethic
- Do we have fun?
- Compassion: we want to be a family, consider what is going on in real life outside of basketball within your team.
- Competition: we keep a winners board, every drill for the day. We want to be a team that thrives in stressful situations.
2. Preparation and Planning
- How do we create fun within the most boring drills?
- You better be prepared for situations before they come.
- Anticipate problems that might happen, be a step ahead.
- Starts with your staff meetings, keep checking in.
- Our players know the game so well.
3. Relationships and Trust
- If they don’t think you’re in it to help them, your knowledge is useless.
- Go out of your way to build relationships.
- Then when it’s time to hold them accountable, they will know that you are in it with them.
Lakers Identity
- We wanted to be the best fast paced team in the NBA.
- Any good fast break team has to be able to get stops, that’s where it starts.
- Our strength was our versatility — we gave our bigs (Randle) the freedom to start the break.
- Fill these spots: deep corners, dunker, pro lane extended, point guard
- What do you want your identity to be?
The more ownership you can give to your players the better
Transition Offence
Most of the time, we can fill any spot on the floor.
Steve Nash cut = catch it on the sweep, never stationary.
Pace without space is a nightmare.
We have the best players in the world, so give them the freedom & creativity to make plays.
Floor spots = dead corners, pro lane extended, dunker spot (weak side behind the backboard), point guard
5 trips = wing kick x 2, over the top to big, Drag Screen short roll, point guard create.
Has to be some type of flow from transition into secondary action = swing through trail big and get into your secondary action.
Final Thoughts
Culture and values never change within any team I coach
Positionless basketball is where the game is headed, switching takes away specialists.
Phil Jackson = best at staying level, being present and embracing the moment.
Meditation = the opposite of how the world works now, but being present is the ultimate skill in sports.