Learning the intricacies of the midrange game

How does it feel to go from "one of the go-to players on the 2008 NCAA Tournament runner-up to being an end-of-the-roster rookie in the NBA"?

Nets rookie Chris Douglas-Roberts, who averages a little more than nine minutes a game for NJ and has logged 40 DNPs this season, has worked with Nets assistant Doug Overton on "learning the intricacies of the midrange NBA game."

It paid off earlier this week in a win over the Knicks when Douglas-Roberts had 14 points and three steals in 27 minutes.

"We played a different type of game (at Memphis)," Douglas-Roberts said. "It was more open offense, and there's a lot more sets in the NBA. So I just go over everything. I watch a lot of film. This is my job now. So I spend the majority of my time on basketball. You have to be mentally strong, but I'm not the first rookie to go through this. There've been plenty of rookies who had to pay their dues and later in their career, they became stars. So I just look at it like that. I'm always positive. I stay positive."

A more collaborative coach

Raja Bell was a rookie on Larry Brown's 2001 Sixers team that reached the NBA Finals.

In December, Bell was reunited with Coach Brown in CHA, where he says he's seen how his 68-year-old coach has changed over the years.

“More mellow,” Bell said recently. “From the first couple of days (after Bell’s trade from Phoenix to Charlotte), I could see a different guy. When he needs to yell, he will. But in day-to-day demeanor, he’s a different guy.”

According to Bell, "Brown is no less an authority figure. But he’s more collaborative, less strident, less prone to overreact and wear out players with constant criticism."

Coach Brown "insists he hasn’t gone soft (and there’s plenty of evidence at practice that he hasn’t). However, he agrees he’s more flexible these days in his approach with players."

"The biggest thing now is (how you coach) depends on the person you’re dealing with," Brown said. "Kids are all different. I used to treat 1-15 (on a roster) exactly alike. That’s how I was taught" by his mentor, former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. "That way, nobody knew who my favorite was. The important thing is to get each of them better."

[Thanks, Coach Cooley!]

Intelligence over emotion

In Washington, Ed Tapscott, who took over as coach the Wizards around Thanksgiving of last year, is emphasizing composure and diligence over the course of an 82-game season:

"The NBA season is a marathon. So you learn that you have to ease out the bumps and stay on an even keel, because it's long and difficult and you're presented with challenges. You can't get hysterical about it, because it leads to hysteria on the team. You stay calm and analytical and keep telling the guys, 'I over E' -- intelligence over emotion. Let's use that. Let's be smart about what we do, not emotional about it. You can be smart every day. You don't want to be emotional every day. It can't help you."

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."

Screaming is not teaching

A good passage from Lenny Wilkens' book "Unguarded" (with Terry Pluto):

Coach Wilkens, who became a player/head coach for the Sonics in 1969, recalls a key moment early in his coaching career:

One day, a college coach named Marv Harshman was at a practice. I really lit into one of my players because he couldn't get the ball to one of our big men at the low post. I let him have it: How dumb could he be? Didn't he see the man open? Didn't he want to get him the ball?

After practice, Harshman told me, "Lenny, you know that you're a very gifted player."

I waited, knowing Marv has something on his mind.

"You really see the floor," he said. "It's easy for you to make that play, to get the ball to the low post. But not everyone sees the game the same as you."

I was starting to get the message.

"You have to show them, to teach them," he said. "You can't assume everyone knows the game like you do. Show them that there's more than one way to make that play."

I nodded.

Of course, teach them. It sounds obvious as I talk about it now, but teaching wasn't the norm for NBA coaching back then. It was screaming.

What Marv told me made sense. I thought back to my rookie year with the Hawks, and how no one really taught me anything. Few people even said a word, unless it was to yell at me. I was acting just like my former coaches, who figured, "Hey, I know how to make that play, so you should, too."

But why would the players know how to play the pro game, especially the rookies? Even some of the veterans had real blind spots in their games, because no one bothered to show them how to make certain plays. If you didn't pick it up on your own, the assumption was that you couldn't do it.

About midseason, I really started coaching the guys. We went back to the basics. And I felt better because of something else that came out of that conversation with Marv Harshman: I didn't have to yell all the time. Screaming was never part of my personality, so I was glad that I could coach more like myself. Talk quietly. Listen. Teach. Be patient. Admittedly, not all of this happened at once, but slowly I began to feel comfortable as a coach.

And we began to win.

[I'll post additional excerpts from Coach Wilkens' book over the weekend.]

Sometimes a player's impact on the game doesn't show up in the box score

On a post earlier today, I mentioned Antonio Gates, a five-time Pro Bowl TE for the Chargers.

Then I come across a story here in the San Diego paper about how Gates, who is almost always double-teamed, deals with teams game-planning to take him out of the game.

“When it first happened, I was kind of frustrated. As I matured as a player, I (came to) understand that sometimes your impact on the game doesn't necessarily come statistically. The fact that you get double-teamed and that they take you out of the game has just as big an impact as a guy catching a pass.

Patience now, for me, is real important. There are going to be times when I go without getting an attempt and I have to be patient, understanding that as long as we hit other areas offensively, eventually this thing will open up and I can make a play. And when my number is called, be ready to make a play.”

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength

Coach Mo Cheeks had a thoughtful answer when he was asked about the recent rash of firings in the NBA:

"It's the urgency to win, to try and get the gratification early. That's what this business is, just trying to win. [Owners] want to get their team where they want it to be and they feel like they're not going in that direction."

The great John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was a believer in patience (and hard work). In his words:

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."

A family friend sent me a book a few years ago by David Keller called "Oasis of Wisdom." In the middle of the book, there's a chapter on patience. Here's an excerpt from that chapter:

Twenty-first century cultures have become increasingly impatient. Fast food, fast credit, even faster traffic and quick and efficient solutions to conflict... are hallmarks of our era.

It is difficult to be a leader in today's society. The pressure for results are intense. With communications and events taking place with greater speed, the public demands quicker responses and solutions.

Leaders in all sectors of life have little time to ponder decisions. Leaders are often considered... weak if they take time to weigh options or balance their public responsibilities... with reflection.

This modern impatience places a higher value on the moment and short-term results than on longer-term vision and development.

What are we becoming and who are we becoming in our "results rule" frenzy?

When I was back visiting the University of San Diego recently, I saw a quote posted on the door of a professor (or graduate assistant) that read:

"The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen."

Unfortunately, as Keller points out in the excerpt above, today patience is regarded not as a strength, but as a weakness. Today, people equate patience with inaction.

But patience doesn't mean sitting around doing nothing.

As novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton put it: "Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength."

Similarly, there's a great saying that goes: "Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience."

As Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, and the Celtics will tell you, "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."

"Experience has taught me this: We undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits." -- Michel de Montaigne

Assessing problems, considering solutions, and implementing them

To my surprise, there were "below-the-surface murmurings before the season about whether Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy still had his team's attention," according to this story.

I also didn't realize that Coach Dungy had "contemplated retiring a year ago."

But one thing wasn't surprising. After starting the season at 3-4, Coach Dungy turned things around. With Sunday's win over DET, IND has won seven straight.

As this article contends, after the slow start, there were "no fiery coaching clichés about backs against the wall, or us vs. them, or being disrespected, or finding out what this team is made of, men. Dungy assessed the problems. He mulled over solutions. He implemented them."

“At 3-4, we knew what the problems were,” Dungy said. “A lot of it was ourselves and our execution and that's what we focused on more so than pointing the finger at someone or figuring out who's to blame. I think a lot of that goes back to the players really listening to the coaches.”

The ability to stay the course, and get his players to buy in and listen is a credit to Coach Dungy, who is close to leading an NFL team to the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season, which would set a new NFL record.

A player with an innate understanding of spatial relationships

Read where 12-year NBA veteran Tim Duncan recently played in his 1000th NBA game for the Spurs.

But as this writer describes, because of Duncan's fly-below-the-radar persona and focus on fundamentals, there's not much new to say about the former Wake Forest star.

"It's like figuring out something new to say about the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River or the Sphinx (at least when the great stone critter isn't whining over a referee's whistle). As in: It's, uh, still there.. And, y'know, still great."

MIN coach Kevin McHale contends that, among the NBA's current big men, Duncan is "by far the best.'' And much of his success, argues McHale, has to do with Duncan's basketball IQ.

"He's smart. He doesn't run around. No wasted energy. Things I'm trying to get our guys to do -- basketball's a game of read-and-react. Especially with young guys, they want to 'run' the offense. But the offense doesn't score -- the read inside the offense does. Things happen, Tim just stands there and goes [McHale very slowly looks left, very slowly looks right]. Then he moves into the open spot.

Believe it or not, that's how everybody played. You didn't run on top of each other. You gave everybody space. He's different because, right now, for whatever reason -- either how the game is taught or how the young guys play in AAU or whatever -- it's, 'We're going to go as fast as we can, run around as fast as we possibly can.'

He just takes his time. Let the defense make mistakes.''

Duncan, a 10-time All-Star and two-time league MVP, is the first to admit that he's not a flashy, super-athletic player who's going to make SportsCenter highlights very often.

"I'm not a quick guy. I've never been the most athletic guy. I'm not as quick, I don't jump as high, all that stuff. So [it has taken] a conscious decision about playing harder, positioning better, getting to spots, getting your feet set, giving yourself another half second to react to something, things like that. If I can slow it down, take my time and go to my own strengths, I can neutralize a lot of what people are able to do against me. You try to make people react to you more than you react to people. When you can do that, you're the one in control. You know what's going on and everyone else has to figure it out on the fly. I try to base my game around that. That's how I've always played.''

According to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, Duncan has "an innate understanding of the game and spatial relationships, what teammates are going to do and what's needed at a certain time. Never in a hurry. Always a patient, skillful player who understands the situation. He's a throwback."

Giving it the time to be done

Came across a good article about a month ago about second-year Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik, whose team began the season at 2-0 before losing 10 straight.

ISU won three games last season under Coach Chizik, a former defensive coordinator at UCF, Auburn, and Texas.

But, according to this story, ISU's president and AD "are both patient and understanding of the magnitude of his task."

"We know there are no quick fixes,'' [AD Jamie] Pollard said, adding that when he hired Coach Chizik, "he was looking for more than a coach. He wanted a leader."

Coach Chizik's father, Gene C. Chizik Sr., is a former Marine and high school coach/principal.

Mr. Chizik "was among the few to survive the fierce battle of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa in 1945. The Marines took heavy casualties in the fight but captured the pivotal target. The elder Chizik... never talked to his son about what happened on Okinawa, the friends who fell and the medals he received."

The father did impart his values and his toughness to his son. Because of his father, Gene Chizik is who he is: a smart and unflinching leader who inspires loyalties and has the fortitude to finish what he has started.

"Losing as much as we're losing is not easy,'' Chizik said. "My dad was a very tough but fair man who went through a lot of tough times himself. I often think of what he'd say now. He'd say to carry on and conduct yourself the right way. That's what we're trying to do every day.''

Coach Chizik is tough, but he also understands the need for balance. One Sunday afternoon earlier this season, to help take off some of the pressure off his young team and have some fun, he brought his players together to play dodgeball.

ISU, like Mizzou, is determined to stick with their coach and show "what can happen if an administration stands up to outside pressure. [Mizzou Coach Gary] Pinkel went 9-14 in his first two seasons with Missouri, but athletics director Mike Alden stayed with him."

"There's some method to the madness,'' Chizik said. "People get impatient at times, and understandably so. You've got give it the time to be done, and you have to go with what you believe in. Patience will run out eventually. I don't think patience is forever.''