Veterans provide knowledge; young players bring the energy

Reds manager Dusty Baker, 59, "has a reputation for preferring veterans at the expense of young players."

"I get tired of defending myself," he says. "It's the biggest crock of (bull) I've ever heard. I never had one (young team) except my last year (2006) in Chicago. In San Francisco, they had a big mortgage on the building. We had to win now."

What's important to Coach Baker is not whether a player is young or a veteran; it's whether the player wants to improve.

"Growth, that's exactly what I want," Baker says. "Baseball intellect, the ability to learn and retain what they learn. Some guys get it right away. Other guys you've got to keep reminding. I want intelligent, energy-type players. Competition from within without envy and jealousy. Veterans give us knowledge, kids give us energy."

When asked if some of the younger Reds players were likely to develop into team leaders, Coach Baker replied: "Leadership is not appointed. It's anointed by your teammates."

If you don't communicate, you'll never be a great defensive team

Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie talked recently about chemistry and on-court communication:

"People, when they're talking about chemistry with a team, they always talk about offense," Coach Gillispie said. "Do they share the ball? Are guys selfish? Do they shoot shots they shouldn't shoot?

There's as much chemistry that has to be established defensively as there is offensively, maybe even more so, because you're seeing so many moving pieces.

You can have an above-average team, probably, if you don't communicate, but you'll never be a great defensive team if you don't. You have to be constantly talking."

According to this article, "great defensive teams can adjust on the fly. Strong defensive units can compensate when one teammate breaks down during a possession."

"You can't adjust if you're not talking with your teammates. Our young guys -- and it's understandable -- don't talk nearly as much as they need to and nearly as well as they need to," said Coach Gillispie.

"That's why you see really good teams playing on TV and they have the best recruiting classes in the country -- not even close, in everybody's opinion -- and all the all-star freshmen are sitting on the bench in the last five minutes of the game."

Balancing a razor's edge

Made it over to the Lakers-W's game in OAK last night. [Here's the box score.]

Watching two of the league's best veteran coaches manage minutes for their young players reminded me of something Jim Boylen told me Rudy Tomjanovich used to say about balancing winning and developing young guys: "You can't serve two masters."

To paraphrase Rudy, "It's like balancing on a razor's edge. You can fall off either side if you're not careful."

For the Lakers, who have some injuries, Coach Jackson got 6-foot-9 rookie Sun Yue into the game for a few minutes. As this article describes, Sun looked "uneasy" on the court.

Sun entered the game in the second quarter with 5:56 left and the Lakers leading by 16 points. He was back on the bench with 2:42 left in the second quarter and the Lakers lead down to seven points.

After the game, Sun admitted he's not comfortable with the system yet, saying, "I might not be getting used to the whole system 100%, but I think I'm at about 60% and it's getting better."

According to Coach Jackson, the staff has a plan for Sun:

"He's still a guy learning how to manipulate the offense and get into the position where we want to work on the floor. We just want him to go in there and play spot minutes, just do a job. I thought he did fine. He hustled and he worked hard. Things deteriorated around that group that was out there, [but] it wasn't all his fault. He has practiced hard. He's worked hard on his game. He's not ready yet, but he's going to have to play. Some of it's about advancing the ball and setting up the offense and being comfortable under pressure out there."

On the other side, Don Nelson got rookie Anthony Randolph into the game for nearly 15 minutes. He finished with 8 pts, 2 rebs, and 3 fouls.

After the game, Coach Nelson said he's trying to "bring my guy along the way I think is best. [Randolph] takes things for granted and he's got to work his way into it."

What often goes unseen to even ardent followers of basketball is how the flow or momentum of the game changes when young players who aren't as comfortable with the system enter the game.

In Sun's case, he showed good athleticism, ran the floor well, and can handle for his size, but he lacks experience and clearly is not ready to be on the floor for extended periods with a team challenging for an NBA title. Of course, with all of LA's injuries, Derek Fisher needed rest, which gave Sun a chance to play some.

This game was a good example of how every possession of a game is important. Every time down the floor matters. With Sun, three minutes had a real impact on the game.

Two final observations:

1. Kobe's out for pre-game and halftime warm-ups and, unlike a lot of guys, isn't chatting or casually shooting. He's focused, taking game-speed jumpers.

2. W's fans are incredible. 20k there last night. Knowledgeable. Passionate. Loyal.

O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose and their scoring averages

More than 30 games into the NBA season, and O. J. Mayo leads all rookies in scoring average (19.7), nearly three points per game more than CHI guard Derrick Rose.

So what's the reason for Mayo's big numbers?

"You've got these big guys who set great screens," Mayo said. "It's a longer game. Things are a little more spread out and there are good players around you. Defenses have to pay attention to those players or they can have a 20-point night and hurt you. That makes it a little easier. The most important thing is for us to get better."

In the meantime, could Rose's numbers be bigger? According to his coach, Vinny Del Negro, absolutely.

"Derrick is a guy who doesn't talk about stats," said Coach Del Negro. "He wants to win. If he needs to score 30 for us, he'll try to score 30. If we need him to score two, he will. That's his makeup, probably his best and strongest quality."

Experience: That most brutal of teachers

How "young" are the 2-13 KC Chiefs?

Half of the players on the 53-man roster have two years of pro experience or less, including the 18 rookies on the roster.

As a point of comparison, the 13-2 Titans only have six rookies on their roster.

Clearly, the team's youth is one reason for its record this season. [Going back to last year, the club has lost 22 of 24.]

But the decision to take their lumps now -- as difficult as it's been -- was the right one, according to KC coach Herm Edwards.

"This was the right thing to do for the organization. When you do something like this, you’re doing it for the right reasons. That’s something I thought about and we all thought about, but it was the correct thing to do. This is going to be a good football team. There’s no doubt about that.

The experience this team has gained will help them next year. These games we let slip away will be ones that you win.

I believe (the Chiefs are) well-coached. It’s a young team. It’s gained a lot of experience. [Despite the losses and injuries] they continued to play with tremendous effort. They don’t always do everything right, but the effort has been there for the most part, and that’s what you hope for as a coach."

Young teams, regardless of what level they're playing at, are generally at a disadvantage as they simply don't have the luxury of experience on their side.

I recently saw a talented but young group of high school kids get beat by an older, less talented team. This season, we've seen it at the college level (with Tom Crean) and the pro level (with Don Nelson), too.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:

"Experience: That most brutal of teachers. But you learn. My God do you learn."

Playing time is not a gift

Coach Don Nelson on why he takes young players out of the game after they make a mistake:

"Part of that is a teaching tool. I couldn't tell you I'm going to let a guy screw up too many times and not take him out of the game, but I'll put him back in, correct him. Within reason (players should be allowed to make mistakes), yeah, but also, you want to make sure that the guy is developing, and you don't hurt his chances by giving him too many gifts, he's also got to earn it. So it's kind of a delicate line. I'd say yeah, within reason, I can accept some mistakes, as long as they're not repeated too often."

If you can't coach both sides, you probably shouldn't be coaching

Good Q&A with coach Scott Skiles on the Bucks website. A few highlights:

On having a balanced approach to offense and defense: "If you can’t coach both sides (offense and defense), you probably shouldn’t be coaching."

On changing the Bucks' culture: "To boil it all down, without X-ing and O-ing, it’s a competitive mind-set that we have to have. We’re all creatures of habit, and it’s habitual. We have to decide who we are and what we want to accomplish. It’s an environment we have to create right here, and it’s got to be the way we go to work every day. We’ve got some habits, maybe, from some guys that have been here that we have to change."

On being optimistically realistic: "There’s a fine line we have to walk here. We’ve got to be positive, excited and upbeat about the season, which we are, but at the same time, we’ve got to realize that last year we only won 26 games. To think we only need one player or something like that is a little foolhardy. We want to be a playoff team and win a title, just like every other team."

On work ethic: "It’s not just a professional-athlete situation. It’s a human-being situation. A lot of people make a lot of money and don’t work hard at their jobs or get excited about going to work. Now if those people are crass enough to think, ‘Well, if I just made more money, then I’d be excited,’ I don’t think that’s very common sensical. So they’re just like everyone else. I think the large majority of NBA players play hard almost all the time. The truth is, there are some that don’t. But the vast majority of them do. I think if you looked at the percentages, it’d be the same as any other profession, or even better."

On players earning minutes: "If you look at my teams, I’m not afraid to play a lot of guys. I do sort of old-fashionedly believe that if guys are going to show up and give it to me at practice, I’ll try to find a role for them, even if it’s very limited minutes. Every coach, I think, would like to have the ideal nine- or 10-man rotation, maybe, on a given night. But that all depends on how the players are playing. They’ll show that to you."

On playing rookies: "A coach knows, historically, that if he’s playing too many young guys, he’s going to get beat. But again, that shows itself to you, too. We like our rookies, and they’ll show you if they’re ready to go out there and earn playing time. If they can’t, you just bring them along a little more slowly and they work their way in.”