While in trading, "the trend is your friend," in basketball, maybe not so much. Kevin Sivils discusses trend following in Study Coaches.
Shakespeare had it right, "First above all, to thine own self be true." You need a philosophy that you can live, you can teach, that you can trust. I've discussed the warfare analogy - infantry, cavalry, and artillery. You can't be an "artillery" coach with "infantry" players. If you have aircraft carrier players, then wanting to play speedboat basketball makes no sense.
I grew up playing in a system that was a hybrid defensively between UCLA (three- quarter court 2-2-1) and North Carolina (run-and-jump), but could morph into a variety of defenses in the quarter court. Maybe my coach followed John Wooden and Dean Smith, but maybe the players ball pressure in the backcourt and size in the front court dictated a "safe press" environment. What I know, in the Pete Newell tradition, is that "coaches who try to coach what they played usually end up with a poor reproduction of the original."
Coaching is teaching players to "see the game" and to problem solve real time by recognition and repetitions. Playing well requires twin tracks dedicated to learning constantly and accepting the repetitions of deliberate practice. If you want to become a carpenter, then you need to learn how to use a variety of tools. If you want to become a scorer, then you need to develop scoring moves suited to your talent and disposition. A smaller athletic player can have a post game, but learning to score in transition and off the drive, to come off screens, to knock down perimeter shots, and to penetrate and kick makes more sense in basketball teleology.
I want to be able to teach like Pete Newell and Kevin Eastman, to have the detail orientation of Wooden, the communication skills of Smith and Shaka Smart, the self-control of Brad Stevens, the intensity of Bob Knight, the discipline of Pete Carril, the moral authority of Del Harris, and more. As a player, I wanted to be Jerry Sloan not Jerry West. Grind.
Dribble drive might be trendy but teaching values of grit, teamwork, and accountability offers more durability.
