When he's on the court, all the pieces start to fit together

A must-read article by Michael Lewis (author of the book "Moneyball) in the Sunday NY Times Magazine about Shane Battier and the search for players like him.

[Thanks to Coach Caputo at GMU and Jake for passing it along.]

The article tells of how Rockets GM Daryl Morey joined the team, his charge from ownership was to "find ways to improve the Rockets without spending money."

Says Morey: "We couldn’t afford another superstar, so we went looking for nonsuperstars that we thought were undervalued. That’s the scarce resource in the N.B.A. Not the superstar but the undervalued player."

Through innovative statistical analysis, Morey "came up with a list of 15, near the top of which was the Memphis Grizzlies’ forward Shane Battier. This perplexed [Rockets owner Les Alexander] who hired Morey to rethink basketball."

“All I knew was Shane’s stats," Alexander says, “and obviously they weren’t great. He had to sell me. It was hard for me to see it."

Alexander wasn’t alone. It was, and is, far easier to spot what Battier doesn’t do than what he does.

His conventional statistics are unremarkable: he doesn’t score many points, snag many rebounds, block many shots, steal many balls or dish out many assists. On top of that, it is easy to see what he can never do: what points he scores tend to come from jump shots taken immediately after receiving a pass.

“That’s the telltale sign of someone who can’t ramp up his offense,” Morey says. “Because you can guard that shot with one player. And until you can’t guard someone with one player, you really haven’t created an offensive situation. Shane can’t create an offensive situation. He needs to be open.”

For fun, Morey shows me video of a few rare instances of Battier scoring when he hasn’t ­exactly been open. Some large percentage of them came when he was being guarded by an inferior defender — whereupon Battier backed him down and tossed in a left jump-hook.

“This is probably, to be honest with you, his only offensive move,” Morey says. “But look, see how he pump fakes.”

Battier indeed pump faked, several times, before he shot over a defender. “He does that because he’s worried about his shot being blocked.” Battier’s weaknesses arise from physical limitations. Or, as Morey puts it, “He can’t dribble, he’s slow and hasn’t got much body control.”

Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse.

He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers.

On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly ­reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates — probably, Morey surmises, by helping them out in all sorts of subtle ways.

“I call him Lego,” Morey says. “When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category.”

When evaluating talent, the key, according to Morey, is to "measure the right things. The five players on any basketball team are far more than the sum of their parts; the Rockets devote a lot of energy to untangling subtle interactions among the team’s elements. To get at this they need something that basketball hasn’t historically supplied: meaningful statistics."

There is a tension, peculiar to basketball, between the interests of the team and the interests of the individual. The game continually tempts the people who play it to do things that are not in the interest of the group.

It is in basketball where the problems are most likely to be in the game — where the player, in his play, faces choices between maximizing his own perceived self-interest and winning. The choices are sufficiently complex that there is a fair chance he doesn’t fully grasp that he is making them.

For Morey, Battier is the "exception: the most abnormally unselfish basketball player he has ever seen. Or rather, the player who seems one step ahead of the analysts, helping the team in all sorts of subtle, hard-to-measure ways that appear to violate his own personal interests."

Last season when the Rockets played the San Antonio Spurs Battier was assigned to guard their most dangerous scorer, Manu Ginóbili. Ginóbili comes off the bench, however, and his minutes are not in sync with the minutes of a starter like Battier.

Battier privately went to Coach Rick Adelman and told him to bench him and bring him in when Ginóbili entered the game. “No one in the N.B.A. does that,” Morey says. “No one says put me on the bench so I can guard their best scorer all the time.”

The author writes that "before the Rockets traded for Battier, the front-office analysts obviously studied his value. They knew all sorts of details about his efficiency and his ability to reduce the efficiency of his opponents. They knew, for example, that stars guarded by Battier suddenly lose their shooting touch. What they didn’t know was why."

Morey recognized Battier’s effects, but he didn’t know how he achieved them. Two hundred or so basketball games later, he’s the world’s expert on the subject — which he was studying all over again tonight. He pointed out how, instead of grabbing uncertainly for a rebound, for instance, Battier would tip the ball more certainly to a teammate. Guarding a lesser rebounder, Battier would, when the ball was in the air, leave his own man and block out the other team’s best rebounder.

In HOU's game against the Lakers, "on defense, it was as if Battier had set out to maximize the misery Bryant experiences shooting a basketball, without having his presence recorded in any box score. He blocked the ball when Bryant was taking it from his waist to his chin, for instance, rather than when it was far higher and Bryant was in the act of shooting."

“When you watch him,” Morey says, “you see that his whole thing is to stay in front of guys and try to block the player’s vision when he shoots. We didn’t even notice what he was doing until he got here. I wish we could say we did, but we didn’t.”

Before facing Bryant, the Rockets' staff hands Battier a "special package of information" which breaks down "the floor into many discrete zones and calculated the odds of Bryant making shots from different places on the court, under different degrees of defensive pressure, in different relationships to other players — how well he scored off screens, off pick-and-rolls, off catch-and-shoots and so on."

Battier learns a lot from studying the data on the superstars he is usually assigned to guard. For instance, the numbers show him that Allen Iverson is one of the most efficient scorers in the N.B.A. when he goes to his right; when he goes to his left he kills his team.

The Golden State Warriors forward Stephen Jackson is an even stranger case.

“Steve Jackson,” Battier says, “is statistically better going to his right, but he loves to go to his left — and goes to his left almost twice as often.”

The San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginóbili is a statistical freak: he has no imbalance whatsoever in his game — there is no one way to play him that is better than another. He is equally efficient both off the dribble and off the pass, going left and right and from any spot on the floor.

“He’s the only player we give it to,” Morey says. “We can give him this fire hose of data and let him sift. Most players are like golfers. You don’t want them swinging while they’re thinking.”

The data shows that while Kobe "is better at pretty much everything than everyone else... there are places on the court, and starting points for his shot, that render him less likely to help his team."

When he drives to the basket, he is exactly as likely to go to his left as to his right, but when he goes to his left, he is less effective. When he shoots directly after receiving a pass, he is more efficient than when he shoots after dribbling. He’s deadly if he gets into the lane and also if he gets to the baseline; between the two, less so.

“The absolute worst thing to do,” Battier says, “is to foul him.”

It isn’t that Bryant is an especially good free-throw shooter but that, as Morey puts it, “the foul is the worst result of a defensive play.”

“If he has 40 points on 40 shots, I can live with that,” Battier says. “My job is not to keep him from scoring points but to make him as inefficient as possible.”

The reason the Rockets insist that Battier guard Bryant is his gift for encouraging him into his zones of lowest efficiency. The effect of doing this is astonishing: Bryant doesn’t merely help his team less when Battier guards him than when someone else does. When Bryant is in the game and Battier is on him, the Lakers’ offense is worse than if the N.B.A.’s best player had taken the night off.

A player whom Morey describes as “a marginal N.B.A. athlete” not only guards one of the greatest — and smartest — offensive threats ever to play the game. He renders him a detriment to his team.

According to Morey, “The Lakers’ offense should obviously be better with Kobe in. But if Shane is on him, it isn’t.”

For coaches, this next passage from the article is excellent:

And if you knew none of this, you would never guess any of it from watching the game. Bryant was quicker than Battier, so the latter spent much of his time chasing around after him, Keystone Cops-like.

Bryant shot early and often, but he looked pretty good from everywhere. On defense, Battier talked to his teammates a lot more than anyone else on the court, but from the stands it was hard to see any point to this.

And yet, he swears, there’s a reason to almost all of it: when he decides where to be on the court and what angles to take, he is constantly reminding himself of the odds on the stack of papers he read through an hour earlier as his feet soaked in the whirlpool.

“The numbers either refute my thinking or support my thinking,” he says, “and when there’s any question, I trust the numbers. The numbers don’t lie.”

Even when the numbers agree with his intuitions, they have an effect.

“It’s a subtle difference,” Morey says, “but it has big implications. If you have an intuition of something but no hard evidence to back it up, you might kind of sort of go about putting that intuition into practice, because there’s still some uncertainty if it’s right or wrong.”

Looking at the stat sheet at halftime of the LA-HOU game, the scored was tied and Kobe was the high-scorer with 16 points. "But he required 20 possessions to get them. And he had started moaning to the referees."

Bryant is one of the great jawboners in the history of the N.B.A. A major-league baseball player once showed me a slow-motion replay of the Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez in the batter’s box.

Glancing back to see where the catcher has set up is not strictly against baseball’s rules, but it violates the code. A hitter who does it is likely to find the next pitch aimed in the general direction of his eyes. A-Rod, the best hitter in baseball, mastered the art of glancing back by moving not his head, but his eyes, at just the right time. It was like watching a billionaire find some trivial and dubious deduction to take on his tax returns.

Why bother? I thought, and then realized: this is the instinct that separates A-Rod from mere stars. Kobe Bryant has the same instinct.

Tonight Bryant complained that Battier was grabbing his jersey, Battier was pushing when no one was looking, Battier was committing crimes against humanity. Just before the half ended, Battier took a referee aside and said: “You and I both know Kobe does this all the time. I’m playing him honest. Don’t fall for his stuff.”

Moments later, after failing to get a call, Bryant hurled the ball, screamed at the ref and was whistled for a technical foul. Battier had once again turned Bryant into a less-efficient machine of death.

At the end of the Rockets-Lakers game, the scoreboard read: "Bryant: 30. Battier: 0."

"I know that doesn’t look good," said Rockets VP of Basketball Ops Sam Hinkie. But remove Shane from the lineup and "we lose by 12. No matter what happens now, none of our coaches will say, 'If only we could have gotten a little more out of Battier.'"

Coaching is a constant sales job

BOS President of Basketball Ops Danny Ainge coached the Suns for four seasons in the late 1990s, going 148-99 (including playoffs).

As this article describes, "Ainge hasn't coached since, but he uses that experience to aid him in his front office role with the Celtics."

"It was a great experience," Ainge said. "I'm glad that I coached. It helped me in the job that I have now . . . I thought I could get people to do things and get players to work harder. It wasn't as easy as it appeared to be. I thought it would be better.

Coaching is more difficult than I thought it would be, especially with grown men. It's a constant sales job. But I liked the people I was coaching with a great deal. It's a great experience. It helps me understand that when things happen so many of us immediately go to the coach for blame. If the coach would have done this or that . . . That's an easy solution.

I watch our team practices. I watch what we do and the emphasis. Sometimes it doesn't look the same on the court. I think we need to be a lot more tolerant of coaches. I'm more into blaming players in the final stretch than coaches."

Stress: It's there and it's constant

Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, who's done TV play-by-play for the Chicago White Sox for nearly 20 years, spent one season as a general manager -- in 1986 with the White Sox.

He doesn't have fond memories of the job.

"It's the worst job in sports," Harrelson said recently. "But sometimes this takes a life of its own. You can go from a very good situation to a very bad situation. But when you don't fulfill expectations, it all comes to you. The focus shifts to you and not the players. You lay in bed at night, but you're not sleeping. You go through every scenario and think about what you can do or what's next. The biggest killer of a player is pressure. For a GM, it's stress. It's there and it's constant."

Setting a foundation for success

At the All-Star beak, the Blazers are 12 games over .500 with a 20-5 home record.

As this article describes, Portland GM Kevin Pritchard began setting the groundwork at the 2006 NBA draft when he "took out a red pen and wrote: 'We’re Back!!!' on a board in a hotel room."

Pritchard's background has prepared him well for his current role in Portland. He played four seasons at Kansas for Larry Brown and Roy Williams before playing four seasons in the NBA.

He coached at the college level and in the minor leagues, then scouted for the Spurs under GM R.C. Buford. He's also worked in player personnel and, in 2005, coached the Blazers on an interim basis. In 2007, he took over as POR's GM.

"I first wanted to change the culture, have both talent and good guys,” Pritchard said. "It’s all about team, putting individual awards and statistics last and put the team first. I can only control what I can control,” Pritchard said. "There are a lot of opinions out there. We focus on us. We try to do the best we can do, learn from everything that happens and move forward. We have a very good coach and guys that play the right way. You have to get lucky and gel together. We need our young guys to grow. And they are growing."

A star basketball surgeon who can diagnose and fix basketball illnesses

Last month, Jim Souhan, a columnist for the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis, described Kevin McHale as "great NBA player who considers coaching a hobby that impinges on his lifestyle."

In December, SI's Chris Mannix wrote that "McHale hates travel. He doesn't like late nights or the beating it puts on his body."

Coach McHale, who moved from VP of basketball ops to the bench in early December, has said he's resisted coaching because, "I don't enjoy the wins, and the losses just kill me. I don't know why I should [coach] , unless you go 82-0."

But Jim Petersen, who like McHale played at the University of Minnesota and had an eight-year NBA career, contends that Coach McHale is built for coaching.

"McHale's humor and intelligence are best suited for coaching. I equate it to being a physician. Some are great at research or diagnosing disease. Some are great at lecturing, teaching, surgery. The key to being a great GM is similar to being great at research. You have to be a grinder, a basketball junkie willing to travel, talk and dig. That is not (McHale's) strength.

He is a star basketball surgeon who can diagnose and fix basketball illness. He adjusts, supports, encourages and motivates during games," Petersen said. "He builds, demands, fixes and develops during practice. He has his priorities straight. He commands respect and encourages calmness during tight in-game situations."

Players want to be coached and they want to get better

The Cleveland paper had a good Q&A with former Bucks GM and current Warriors assistant Larry Harris recently.

Among the questions he was asked was how being on the bench differs from working in management for 20 years:

"[As an assistant] you get a chance to see [the players] from a different viewpoint -- from the coaching side. It's really helped me in my evaluation. Sometimes when you sit upstairs or are observing from a distance, you don't get some of the nuances of what's going on within the team. It really becomes a lot clearer for me now that I've been on the floor.

Being in management, the biggest thing is patience. One thing is, the players do want to be coached, the players do want to get better. Our job is, more than anything else, whether you're in management or coaching, it's all about communication. If we can find out what their roles are, we can eventually get them to maximize their effort on the floor which gives us a chance to win every game."

Fighting with one arm tied behind your back

Loved this quote from Cardinals GM Rod Graves, who "drafted Pro Bowlers Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Adrian Wilson and Darnell Dockett, then tapped dynamic rookie cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and running back Tim Hightower in last April's draft."

Graves' late father, Jackie, was a "highly-respected, longtime NFL scout and former player personnel executive with the Philadelphia Eagles until his 1989 death."

"I think about the character my parents gave me," says Graves, who was a scout for the Bears in 1985 when they won Super Bowl XX and would work his way up to become CHI's director of player personnel. "If you have a situation where you feel like you have one hand tied behind your back, you fight like hell with the free arm. That's really been the nature of my approach: 'We're going to fight like hell with the free arm to get to where we are.'"

Does he care about winning, or does he care about playing?

Good quote today in the NY Times from Orlando GM Otis Smith on how he evaluates players:

“The character is huge for me. Does he care about winning, or does he care about playing? Because at the end of the day, the players get paid whether they win or lose the game.”

You've got to be realistic about what you have and where you're going

Sometimes, a casual fan checks the NBA standings and sees a team with a 19-22 record, and assumes the coach isn't doing a good job.

In some cases that may be the case.

But, as this story in the NY Times describes, it's certainly not the case in NJ where Nets coach Lawrence Frank, whose team is 19-22 in this his fifth season as head coach, has "done a hell of a job," in Doc Rivers' words.

According to Coach Rivers, "this year may be his best coaching job. What they’ve done in changing their team and with the youth they brought in..."

Nets team president Rod Thorn maintains his objectivity about where his team is, saying "You’ve got to be realistic about what you have and where you’re going."

Frank, who "is considered one of the hardest-working coaches in the NBA...is applauded for his preparedness. Most days, he is among the first to the practice facility and the last one out. He often knows the opposition’s plays as well as he does his own."

According to Sixers GM Ed Stefanski, Coach Frank's players recognize their coach's hard work and how it pays off in games.

“The players see it,” Stefanski said. “That is crucial. They know that they’re going to be in the right spot at the right time. When the other team runs a play, he knows exactly what the play call is.”

Coach Frank, who runs "conditioning drills with his players" and occasionally presents them with motivational books, is praised for making time for individual film sessions and "bringing his energy and motor every day."

Former WAS coach Eddie Jordan, who worked as an assistant along with Coach Frank on Byron Scott's staff in NJ, contends that coaches have to be able to adjust to the situation, something Coach Frank's done well in his five years as a head coach.

“You’ve got to have adaptability. With injuries, an 82-game schedule and personalities that vary from time to time, you’ve got to be able to adjust as you go through the journey. Everyone says, We need a change because we need a different voice. Lawrence has different voices within himself.”

We're all in this dog pile together

In Columbus, coach Ken Hitchcock (right) and general manager Scott Howson (left) aren't anything alike.

As this article describes, Coach Hitchcock is known for his gregariousness. Howson is "soft spoken and measured."

"He calms me down when I want to fight every fight," Hitchcock said of his boss. "When we're talking after a tough game, he can take the emotion out of the competition and get us focused on the next day. In that way we work well together. It's very unique. We both lean heavily on each other. We're all in this dog pile together."

While "Hitchcock and Howson don't always agree... they share a similar vision for the franchise."

In Howson's words, "I think we respect each other's positions. He cares about winning the next game, and my focus is more long term. But he respects the intricacies of the position. He understands you can't just wave a magic wand."

According to the article, "Howson values Hitchcock's experience and knowledge of players in the league. He considers Hitchcock not only a proven coach but an excellent resource. Hitchcock appreciates that his general manager does not panic in the face of trouble. Howson might still be new to the job, but he doesn't act it."

Says Coach Hitchcock, who guided the Dallas Stars to a Stanley Cup in 1999:

"I've always thought that good coach and general manager tandems are joined at the hip."

As a leader, if you don't like tough decisions, it won't be long until you're very average

If you missed Mike Shanahan's press conference yesterday after he was fired, you can read the full transcript here. It's worth taking 5-10 minutes reading through it.

Coach Shanahan thanked members of the Denver front office and a number of his former players and assistants. He also thanked various members of the Denver media and the fans.

Here are a few highlights from Coach Shanahan's comments:

The one thing that was really exciting to me is the football team we have and the character of this team. I think the things we were able to do this year, when you leave a football team and you leave a team that has the utmost character then you feel good about it.

I feel good about the job I have done. The thing is, you have to make some tough decisions when you run an organization. You have to do things that are in the best interest of the organization, and I felt that that was right and I understand the direction he went. I have no problem with it because he is the best owner in sports.

I have been here for 14 years, I had 14 great years and it has been fun. It has been a great ride. Twenty-one years all-in-all, when you go back to those experiences I don’t give anything up.

Do you deserve it? We didn’t win for the last three years. We were 8-8, heck we were a .500 team. You get judged by performance, and I didn’t get the job done, that is the bottom line. Your job is to win and to win championships and we have not won a championship in awhile. The next place I go to, that will be the one thing that I am thinking about—What gives me the best chance to win a championship?

I think what you do is reflect through your relationships and what you are able to accomplish. I think we have done a lot. This is the best organization in sports. Pat Bowlen does unbelievable job of giving the best chance to be successful. When you look at everything, you say, ‘Hey, it has been fun.’ We will always be friends; we will always be best friends and appreciate people having to make tough decisions. It is not easy, but you have to do what you think is in the best interest of the organization.

When [I was fired] the first time with the Raiders, it was very tough, the first time you are fired. All of a sudden you start getting used to getting fired and it is not quite as bad because you understand sometimes people have to make some tough decisions.

On the serious side, it is always tough when you put your heart and soul into something and you are let go. That is all you care about is winning, and that is the bottom line. When you are not able to do that, it is hard especially when you think that you are not too far off.

The bottom line is you understand people have to make decisions that they feel gives this organization the best chance to win. Those decisions for me over the years have been very tough. I have loved a lot of these guys that you have to let go, but you do things that you think are going to give you the best chance to win.

Those are tough decisions, the toughest there are. That is what leaders do. You have to look at something and say, ‘Hey I made a mistake or I think it is the best interest of this organization to go in a different direction’.

Sometimes you have to do that with coaches and you have to do it with support staff. But you better be on the cutting edge because if not, it is going to pass you by. The executives will tell you if you don’t like those tough decisions, it won’t be long until you are very average.

It does. It does hurt, but tough times don’t last, tough people do. That is life. You regroup and you go find another job. My goal has always been to win a Super Bowl. My next job that I go to will be based on one thing: It gives you the best chance to win because this thing is about winning, all the time you put in.

The thing that people don’t understand very often is that [job] titles really don’t mean anything. What matters is people making decisions. What you want is competent people to run different parts of your organization and that is what I have always wanted.

If I got a general manager that is taking care of personnel, they may give me the final say but how often do I have the final say? What I want is advice. I want the guy that is coaching those quarterbacks or the offensive line to coach it better than me. I know they are putting all their time into it.

I want the GM that is a lot more qualified than I am in the personnel because he is doing it 24 hours a day to tell me who to sign. That is how you develop a strong organization; you want to find people that are stronger that you in certain areas that have a chance to be successful and I have always tried to do that.

Every assistant that I have hired knows that position better than me or else I could coach that position. That is not my specialty. That is what I think they try to do in every organization, try to get the best. If a certain position needs help then it is my job to go and help that certain position whatever it may be. That is why you are the head coach, that is why you are put in those situations.

We are all judged by what you get done and the expectations are very high and they should be. The bottom line is that it came back to me. I didn’t get it done. It doesn’t matter if it is what happened relative to anything. The bottom line is that it comes back to me.

[On what he is looking for in his next job.] Everything… and players. (Whatever) gives you the best chance to win. A person (owner) that wants to compete, a person that wants to win the championship as badly as you do. That would be No. 1. Ownership that wants to win just like you do and is willing to go to extremes to get that done.

It depends on ownership and people willing to compete. Do they want it as badly as you do?

[On telling his assistants that he's been fired.] That’s the toughest thing there is about being fired as a head coach. You let a lot of people down and a lot of families down—people that you believe in, people that you are for—and you are not able to take care of those families. So that’s the toughest part about it, by far.

[On what he'll miss most.] I think relationships with the people that you work with any day. Anytime you work 100-hour weeks and you’re busting your rear end to make things happen, that’s where football is—that’s what the family is about. Just working your tail off and trying to make it happen, trying to win a Super Bowl. And that’s what I’ll miss because I think we had a lot of things in place going in the right direction.

I’m going to be coaching. I can’t give you a time frame. I’m going to look at my options, see what options are out there.

All I can say is in my experiences here, it was just off the charts. You know, how you develop the friendships, how you develop relationships is going through those experiences together—going through the tough times, going through the good times.

And I’ve had a lot of those experiences with the Denver Broncos as an assistant coach and as a head coach. And that’s why I appreciate everybody in this room, because you don’t make it happen—one person doesn’t make it happen. Everybody makes it happen.

You have to have an owner that gives you the ability to go out there and get the best people and keep the best people. You get the best players and you get the best coaches because all I am is one of many. To win a Super Bowl and separate yourself you have to be the best at every area.

Golfing less, working more

Loved Sam Smith's article on Bulls.com about the Miami Heat's culture, one that really reflects the personality and values of Pat Riley.

According to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, "Pat created a culture with the Miami Heat. He works everybody hard and is a student of the game. It's not uncommon if you get to the office at 6:30 you might be the sixth or seventh person there."

In his article, Smith tells a story about how when Pat Riley is considering hiring someone, "he first checks the trunk of the applicant's car. If there are golf clubs in there, they're not hired. With Riley it's about work."

Smith writes that "when things go wrong [in Miami], Heat owner Mickey Arison doesn't begin looking for successors."

"I won 15 games," noted Riley. "There never was anything written I'd be fired. You take the good with the bad with a franchise and stay with it until you get back on track. In the league now, there's a chasm (too often) between the coach and GM. You have to be tied in some way. I feel it's important that me and Erik are almost one person.

One thing that stands out in all the years was [Erik's] someone you converse with about what you've done, who to trade, someone who has a lot of thoughts and not your typical thinking. He's someone who respectfully disagrees but after that we can unite on a situation.

He's one of those guys who apply their trade and don't look for recognition early, just work and learn. He wanted to learn before being recognized. You teach them and they take some of the culture and learn from a lot of people. I thought he was a guy ready a couple of years ago. You watch them grow, groom them to take your spot and that's the position I'm in."

Making every decision about improving the team

ATL general manager Thomas Dimitroff (pictured here with owner Arthur Blank) says he's followed a blueprint similar to that of the Patriots in building the Falcons:

"There's no question that we've tried to emulate here what the New England organization has done in terms of making every decision and move about improving their team," Dimitroff said. "Coach (Bill) Belichick and (vice president) Scott Pioli have built a culture that's all about the sum of the parts."

In his first season as a GM, Dimitroff, 42, is being mentioned as a top candidate for NFL Executive of the Year.

“I gave Thomas years to rebuild our team,” [Falcons owner Arthur] Blank said, “and he did it in months. He’s a special guy.”

With communication comes clarity

In WAS, new Wizards coach Ed Tapscott and GM Ernie Grunfeld have pledged to have open lines of communication so that there are no misunderstandings.

Says Coach Tapscott:

"The theme that you hear resonating in what I've tried to say in the last couple days is, 'Let's get everybody in agreement with what we're doing. Clarity. Avoid confusion. Eliminate confusion. Communicate and talk to each other so we have clarity, we know where we stand with each other. Clarity allows the mind to sort of focus in on the right things."

Upgrading the bottom of the roster

Dolphins VP of Football Ops Bill Parcells is almost 70, but don't expect him to hang it up anytime soon.

According to a story in the Palm Beach Post, Parcells is in no hurry to retire because "guys he considers both friends and contemporaries - a group that includes former college basketball coach Bob Knight, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa and horse trainer D. Wayne Lucas - remain active and successful in their respective sports."

"It's like they're all the same people," said CBS Sports reporter Leslie Visser, who has known Parcells since he was an assistant coach in New England in 1980. "They're all extraordinarily successful, and they all (understand) each other's success and what drives them."

These days, Parcells is less interested in the game-day strategy and more interested in building a team. "Part of his genius is the bottom five guys on the roster."

Says Visser: "I've been in his office when [Miami GM] Jeff Ireland has come in and said, 'Green Bay just waived so-and-so,' and they'll talk about it. They're always looking to upgrade that group."

Miami coach Tony Sparano, whom Parcells hired as the team's coach back in January, describes Parcells as a "personnel addict.''

One current Miami player who played for Parcells said that, as a coach, Parcells "made sure everybody was ready. He knew what guys he had to get into their heads and what guys to leave alone before a game. And during the game he was worse. You knew Bill Parcells was the coach, because he let you have it."

Says Sparano, who was on Parcells' staff in Dallas:

"One of his great strengths has always been to poke and probe players. What he likes to do is elicit a response. He can do it in a playful manner, where you almost think he's sarcastic, or he can do it in a serious way.

There are times where he and I might have a conversation on how we might want to get a message to a player. Sometimes I kind of like him to give that message: 'Well, you walk by him and do this.' Having somebody like that around, to be able to do those things with our players, is a tremendous value to us."

Basketball as meditation

How does 67-year-old Knicks President of Basketball Ops Donnie Walsh deal with rebuilding a team that won 23 games last season?

According to an article in the Nov. 3 issue of New York magazine, "Walsh copes with the stress by meditating. He sits in the most comfortable chair in his new apartment on the Upper West Side, closes his eyes, and tunes out the world. Walsh has been taking a Zen vacation at least once a day for 25 years now."

Says Walsh:

"It clears my mind. I think too much, and if you're not thinking all the time, maybe you put yourself in a better position to make a decision. But if you want to see me meditate, watch me watch a basketball game. Meditation means focusing on one thing and that's what I do. I just watch. I really get into it. Watching is part of the reason I love the game, now that I can't play it."

Knowing how your role players fit around your stars

Modeling their team after the Spurs, the Portland Blazers have a bright future, built on a foundation of character, according to SAS coach Gregg Popovich:

"They are way more than just on the right track. I think they're doing what good organizations that want to be successful are doing. A lot of things begin with character. Portland has gotten a crew of guys in (Portland) who have that.

They understand priorities ... and care more about the group than individuals. That has to happen. It doesn't matter how much talent you have. If you don't have (character), it's not gonna fit together, because all the pieces have to fit."

Coach Popovich credits Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard (pictured above), the former KU guard and a former Spurs scout, for the progress in POR:

"We knew from the beginning that he had a feel for the game. He has a passion, is competitive and smart.. He wasn't a superstar by any stretch. Often, it's those guys who know how the pieces fit and how role players have to fit around the stars. For all those reasons, you just knew he was going to be successful, given the opportunity."

The relationship between coach and GM

In his book "Building a Champion" (with Glenn Dickey), the late Bill Walsh had some strong opinions about the relationship between GMs and coaches:

"The advantage of having a coach and a general manager is obvious: You have two people with clearly defined responsibilities who can concentrate on their individual areas of expertise. There's certainly enough work for two men.

In some cases, that division of labor has worked very well. The disadvantage is that often the general manager and coach aren't compatible, a real problem because the two have to work together in difficult circumstances, through long periods of stress and sometimes frustration.

The most important aspect of building and sustaining a sports franchise is the acquisition and development of talent. In this critical area, the two men can evaluate players' abilities and potential differently.

If the two differ, there can be delays, confusion, stalemate, and even chaos. The general manager may acquire players he feels are important to the team's future, but they are not developed as he anticipated because the coach doesn't want them, or doesn't have the same opinion of their value. These situations are fairly common...

Each man's priorities can be diametrically opposed because of their roles and basic responsibilities. The general manager's first consideration is the economic bottom line: How much will it cost? He thinks of the team's long-term future, perhaps five years down the road.

For him, winning in the current season may be secondary.

The coach, for his own security, must emphasize winning immediately. Then, he thinks of the short-term future, which is the next season. Financial ramifications are his last concern.

Often, too, you have an owner who dabbles in the team, demanding to be involved in some decisions but not in others.

In recent years, the role of the personnel director has changed dramatically. Historically, he had been the chief scout and, with his small staff, would go about quietly evaluating college players and makes his recommendations during the annual draft.

Today, it has become a subindustry. With this newfound authority and visibility, the personnel director begins to play a major role, not only in evaluating future choices, but in deciding whether or not those choices are being properly utilized or developed by the coaches.

With daily access to the owner and general manager, he can remind them that his selections were great and blame the coaching for any disappointments. If one of his selections is not playing well, he convinces the owner and general manager that (1) the coach isn't utilizing the player properly; (2) the style of play doesn't make use of the player's talents; (3) the coaching staff simply isn't improving the player; and finally (4) team morale is so poor, no player could do well.

The tail is wagging the dog because the scouting staff should be serving the needs of the coach, rather than the reverse.

The prospect of all four working together compatibly and effectively can be further compromised if any one of them craves public attention and needs to either take credit for the team's success or shift the blame if the team is losing.

When the general manager or personnel director becomes the team's primary spokesman on football matters, it's an ominous sign for the coach.

When the team is out of contention, the general manager will say he's given the coach everything he needs to win, from talented players to superior facilities and proper accomodations on the road.

The owner complains that the stadium isn't full; for the money he's spending, he should be getting better results. He's embarrassed and humiliated because his friends seem to know more about the game than his coach does. He can't show his face in public.

Meanwhile, the coach is sequestered in his office, working into the early-morning hours, looking at game tapes, examining scouting reports thoroughly, worrying about injuries, putting together the game plan.

He's totally unaware that his fate is being decided by the owner, general manager, and personnel director.

This scenario repeats itself every three or four years with many NFL franchises. The media has a field day with it. Everybody is excited about the new coach and celebrates, then the process begins again.

Teams that have sustained success have had either the same head coach and general manager for years, or a coach who has been the titular head of the organization and responsible for personnel moves and, in some cases, virtually all of the organizational decisions.

When a mistake has been made, or a miscalculation has occurred, or a decision doesn't bring the proper results, ego prevents people from admitting error. One of the major factors in successful leadership is the willingness to concede a miscalculation or mistake and change course immediately."

Kerr: I'm willing to pay the price

A story in yesterday's Phoenix paper claims that "if these Suns flame out, [GM Steve] Kerr will go down as the guy who messed up a good thing."

But Kerr, who was a member of five NBA championship teams as a player, isn't ducking the challenge:

"A lot of people warned me when I took the job. They said, 'There are only two places you can go. You can take the next step to the top, or the team goes down and you're the goat.' I'm aware of that. And I'd be lying if I told you that it didn't enter my mind from time to time.

I understand what's at stake. I've kind of laid myself out there in a lot of ways. It may work, it may not. I don't know. But I'm willing to accept the results. I don't expect us to be a championship team in November, and I know I'm going to take a lot of heat during the growing pains. I know I'll pay the price publicly, but I like the path this team is on, and we have to make that transition."