Study experts.
Running a business is like running a team. Few have run one better than Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger - Berkshire Hathaway. They use the "float' (cash from insurance operations) to invest in 'great companies'. Those companies grow profits and cash.
Here's a quote from Munger's "Poor Charlie's Almanack":
"There Are two types of mistakes:
1) doing nothing that Warren calls "sucking my thumb" and
2) buying with an eyedropper things we should be buying a lot of."
Translate that into 'basketball'. You don't win if you can't score. I see teams with no discernible plan to create advantage:
a) Spacing
b) Player and ball movement
c) The Scoring Moment (finishing)
There's no "you have to run Princeton" or "dribble drive motion" or "Horns sets" or "Spread offenses." Maybe you have overwhelming talent and you can 'roll the ball out' and win. Only a handful of teams have that luxury.
When you have no plan, you're Buffett's "sucking my thumb."
Second, use "hard-to-defend actions..." a lot.
If you watch a team run almost zero ball and off-ball screens, then you see a team deprived of separation. Conversely, a team like Bishop Fenwick got to the state finals and scored a ton off pick-and-roll and screening actions designed to get their bigs open. If you run one pick-and-roll a game, you're "buying with an eyedropper."
Expecting results overnight is unreasonable. Another Munger quote: "I don't know anyone who learned to be a great investor with great rapidity. Warren has gotten to be one hell of a lot better investor over the period I've known him, as have I. So the game is to keep learning. You gotta like the learning process."
You say, "but we're not good at executing the pick-and-roll." That's why we practice, to strengthen what we're good at and to improve where needed.
Summary:
- Great businesses are like great teams, masters of execution.
- Doing nothing is "sucking my thumb."
- Be all-in on value.
- Run hard to defend actions.
- Use practice to reinforce strengths and temper weaknesses
