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Monday, June 16, 2025

Basketball - Hippos, Elephants, and Coaching Friction

The Friction Project by Sutton and Rao addresses friction and its impact on organizations. Friction (barriers, obstacles, limitations) can be good or bad. Invariably, "task-orientation" conflicts with "relationship orientation." Ideally both converge with a better product and experience. 

Let's address solutions first:

1. Be an elephant, with big ears and a smaller mouth, instead of a hippo. Listen more and speak less. 

2. Subtract. Find what we can eliminate as in excessive meetings, emails, and blame-focused evaluations. 

3. Prioritize the player experience. That always comes in conflict with minutes, roles, and recognition. 

4. Combat perfectionism. Chase excellence above perfection. 

5. Apply generative AI (eventually) to improve individual and team productivity including predicting their attack and defense. 

Where can friction be helpful? Imagine that we had unlimited practice time. Would we feel pressured to be efficient? And what about the impact on the players' families and on their studies? Sports can rob Peter and pay Paul. Coaching requires 'order and discipline', along with fun. 

In medicine, making prescription of opioids more difficult to obtain reduced opioid prescriptions and probably toxicity and addiction. Making access to weight loss drugs (e.g. semaglutide/Ozempic) harder created a lot of friction for "providers" and dissatisfaction for patients. 

Think of examples of friction in your athletic career. Half of our high school burned down in 1971 from arson. We went on 'double sessions' upperclassmen 7-12 and underclassmen 12-5. Basketball practice moved to the evenings. Afternoon playoff games excluded an underclassman (who was drafted by the NBA and NFL) whom administrators refused to release from class. 

As a sophomore (before the fire), varsity baseball selection beckoned...but not playing time. After a few games, I thanked the coach for picking me and asked if I could be "demoted" to JV where I could get more playing experience for the future. That worked out well. Demotion reduced friction.

Friction can appears as time, resources (courts and equipment), and the usual issues of playing time, roles, and recognition. 

Lagniappe. Coach Nick interviews Thibs on 'ice' defense concepts. 

Lagniappe 2. AI consultation re: The Friction Project from ChatGPT...

In The Friction Project, Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao examine how friction—anything that makes work harder than it needs to be—can either hinder or help performance, depending on the context. In high school sports, friction can have both positive and negative effects, shaping team culture, performance, and growth. Here are five examples of each:

1. Friction: Strict Coaching Standards

  • Positive: Clear expectations and accountability build discipline, structure, and long-term success.

  • Negative: Overbearing or rigid coaching may stifle creativity, erode morale, or lead to burnout.

2. Friction: Competing Priorities (Academics vs. Athletics)

  • Positive: Balancing school and sports teaches time management and resilience.

  • Negative: Constant juggling can lead to stress, reduced focus, or dropout from either domain.

3. Friction: Team Conflicts or Role Disputes

  • Positive: When managed well, conflict fosters communication, clarifies roles, and strengthens cohesion.

  • Negative: Poorly handled conflict fractures team chemistry and undermines trust.

4. Friction: Physical and Mental Demands of Training

  • Positive: Adversity builds toughness, self-efficacy, and identity as an athlete.

  • Negative: Excessive demands may cause injury, fatigue, or disillusionment.

5. Friction: Administrative Bureaucracy (eligibility rules, scheduling)

  • Positive: Structure ensures fairness, safety, and proper oversight.

  • Negative: Excess red tape slows progress, causes frustration, or leads to missed opportunities.

Conclusion: In high school sports, some friction sharpens athletes and programs, while other friction grinds them down. Leaders must learn to reduce bad friction (pointless barriers) and amplify good friction (discipline, effort, challenge with purpose).

Lagniappe 3. Generative AI depends on how we use it. Can we apply "opponent models" and predict how they will attack and defend? Can we eventually produce "IEPs" for players to maximize their contribution? 

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Sunday, June 15, 2025

All Coaching Is Editing

 

Coaches wrestle with the blank page early in our careers and messes later. Author Salman Rushdie reminds us that “all writing is rewriting.” Coaching is editing. Every season reflects the sum of the good and the needy. 

What’s the story and what’s the language? Remember, story (intent), characters (players), and dialogue (possessions). Director Ron Howard says, "the director is the keeper of the story." As the coach is the keeper of the performance. 

Rushdie says, "Be able to step back from the work and come back to it and look at it afresh." If we can't acknowledge when our work isn't good, that's a problem. 

In a twenty game high school season you approach 1,500 offensive and defensive possessions. Plenty won't have gone as hoped for.

Key points-

  • Shift gears from creative to critical imagination
  • What’s in our program that needs removal?
  • What’s missing that needs inclusion?
1) Critical imagination. What is wrong, harming our success, and 'what does our team need now?'

2) What needs removal? Hollywood comedy writers exhaust their career 'shaving syllables'? Experienced coaches created a lengthy drill book, playbook, performance-enhancement program. There are always elements that need removal or replacement. Always. 

3) What's missing? Offensively, a significant number of teams need better fundamentals - spacing, urgent cutting, ball movement, excellent shot selection, better shooting. "We can't run what we can't run." 

Many teams also don't use enough "hard to defend actions" - core PnR actions, back cuts, complex screening (staggers including Iverson actions, screen-the-screener, Spain PnR), early offense like pistol and zoom.

The offseason allows us to review, revise, reteach, and reinvest in our work. Everyone can do better.

Lagniappe. "Great defense is multiple efforts." 

Lagniappe 2. Attention to detail separates excellent from good. 

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Saturday, June 14, 2025

Basketball - The Axe Forgets

The axe forgets but the tree remembers". - African proverb

While the concept is simple, applying it is not. A person hurt in a situation remembers, whereas the aggressor may not. A waitress served a large party, working diligently and providing good service. They left no gratuity.

She never forgot and they probably never remembered. And it drove her to treat everyone well. 

Sometimes genuine misunderstandings happen. But many of us remember slights that seemed intentional. In Teammates Matter, walk-on Alan Williams describes the equipment manager not providing him with a black-and-gold Wake Forest travel bag. He was helpless. Later, he returned to his locker and found one. The star player had left his. When the best player is the hardest worker and the best teammate, ripple effects happen. 

Hard work, focus, toughness, teamwork, and empathy are choices. People remember how we treat them. 


Strive to treat people better - how we greet them, how we lead them, how we write and speak about them. Our human imperfections will leave us short at times. 

How can we do better?

  • Plan hard conversations. Discuss both performance and feelings. Always have another adult with us during a hard conversation. 
  • Allow a cooling off period. The "24 hour rule" lets everyone calm down. 
  • Never "punch down." 
  • Work on positivity. "We cannot live a positive life with a negative attitude."
  • Listen better. Listen to understand not just to respond. 
  • Make respect of others a priority. 
  • Remember the Fourth Agreement. "Always do your best." 
  • Traffic in specifics. "This is our expectation for you. This is how we want you to do this." 
  • Get feedback. "Now that we've explained the process, the intermediate steps, and the desired end state, please explain your understanding." The planning scene in The Dirty Dozen does this magnificently. 
Get an AI consult (here, DeepSeek):

The proverb "The axe forgets but the tree remembers" speaks to how the person who inflicts harm (the axe) often moves on quickly, while the one who was harmed (the tree) carries the memory of the pain. In basketball, this concept can apply in several ways:

1. Physical Play & Tough Fouls

  • A defender might deliver a hard foul to stop a fast break, then immediately move on—especially if it was a strategic "no harm, no foul" play. But the offensive player who got hit may remember that foul the next time they drive to the basket, possibly hesitating or playing more cautiously.

  • Example: A player like Draymond Green (known for aggressive defense) might forget a hard foul, but the opponent (like LeBron James after a playoff battle) may remember and adjust their game accordingly.

2. Trash Talk & Mind Games

  • A player might talk trash in the heat of the moment, then brush it off after the game. But the targeted player could carry that disrespect, using it as motivation in future matchups.

  • Example: Michael Jordan famously remembered every slight—real or imagined—and used it to fuel legendary performances against opponents who may not have even realized they’d provoked him.

3. Playoff Rivalries

  • A team that dominates another in the playoffs (e.g., sweeping them) might quickly shift focus to the next round, while the losing team stews over the defeat all offseason, using it as fuel for redemption.

  • Example: The 2011 Miami Heat may have moved past their Finals loss to Dallas, but Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks carried that underdog mentality for years, making their 2011 title even sweeter.

4. Coaching Decisions

  • A coach might bench a player for a bad game, then forget about it, but the player could internalize that lack of trust, affecting their confidence or relationship with the team.

  • Example: Young players like Tyrese Haliburton (traded by the Kings) have spoken about how being benched or undervalued stuck with them long after the coaches moved on.

Key Takeaway for Basketball:

In the NBA—where physicality, ego, and competition collide—players and teams must balance aggression with awareness. The "axe" (aggressor) may forget, but the "tree" (target) often remembers, and that memory can shape rivalries, careers, and legacies. Smart players use this to their advantage, while wise opponents avoid giving unnecessary motivation.

Lagniappe. "Great offense is multiple actions." 

Lagniappe 2. Coaches need information "on the ground." If we're detached, then we'll miss out on opportunities to improve. Here's a quote from Isaacson's Elon Musk that applies. "Because Gracias spoke Spanish like most of the factory workers, he was able to learn from them where the problems were. “I realized that if you invest in a company, you should spend all your time on the shop floor,” he says." 

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Friday, June 13, 2025

Basketball Ideas Versus Suggestions

Ideas convey a different feeling than suggestions. For example, "I was thinking about" differs from "why don't you try this?" 

Another way to broach a situation is "How can I help?" Good coaches always seek edges. Others may choose to answer, "I'm good." 

The best coaches read, study, and weigh input from 'team members'. Steve Kerr reviewed input from video coordinator Nick U'Ren whose video evidence displayed the effectiveness of Andre Iguodala over Andrew Bogut. The Warriors lineup change helped defeat the Cavs.

Trailing 26-12 early in the second quarter, Coach asked for suggestions. "What do you guys want to do?" The point guard suggested "83," the UCLA 2-2-1 three-quarter court zone press. That launched a 23-0 run over 8:35, leading to an upset of the 22-0 top seed. 

Dean Smith famously would tell teams under pressure in big games, "Isn't it great to play in such a great game?"

Another approach is crowdsourcing, getting more accuracy from crowd input. Here's artificial intelligence from Claude.ai 

Crowdsourcing has found several valuable applications in basketball, leveraging collective intelligence to improve accuracy and insights:

**Statistical Analysis and Advanced Metrics**
Basketball analytics sites like Basketball Reference and FiveThirtyEight use crowdsourced data validation where fans and analysts contribute corrections to play-by-play data, shot charts, and player statistics. This collective verification helps catch errors that automated systems might miss.

**Player Evaluation and Scouting**
Draft analytics platforms aggregate evaluations from multiple scouts, analysts, and basketball experts to create more comprehensive player profiles. Sites like The Stepien and various draft databases combine professional and amateur scouting reports to provide fuller pictures of prospects than any single evaluator could offer.

**Game Strategy and Tactical Analysis**
Basketball communities on platforms like Reddit's r/NBA and specialized forums crowdsource film breakdowns, identifying tactical patterns and strategic insights that might escape individual analysis. Coaches and analysts sometimes reference these collective observations.

**Injury and Load Management Tracking**
Fan communities and dedicated tracking sites crowdsource player injury reports, minute restrictions, and load management decisions across the league, creating databases that help with fantasy basketball, betting analysis, and general team monitoring.

**Shot Chart and Efficiency Mapping**
Platforms like Cleaning the Glass combine official NBA data with community-verified information to create more accurate shot charts and efficiency metrics, with users contributing corrections and context.

The key advantage is that basketball generates enormous amounts of data, and distributed analysis can catch patterns, errors, and insights that centralized systems might miss, while also providing broader perspective than individual expert analysis.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Lagniappe. Horns sets. 

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

Basketball - Blogs Are Made of Books

"I learn from everybody, even if sometimes it’s what not to do." - Abraham Lincoln 

Learn across domains. Everything connects with everything else. 

In Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, he notes that "books are made of books." So are blogs. Sam Davies shares an excellent summary:

Book Summary: Show Your Work by Austin Kleon | Sam Thomas Davies
samuelthomasdavies.com
Book Summary: Show Your Work by Austin Kleon | Sam Thomas Davies
This is a book summary of Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. Read this Show Your work summary to review key takeaways and lessons from the book.    

On the cusp of summer, what books (or authors) are you reading?

I’m slogging through Elon Musk, by noted biographer Walter Isaacson. Musk could have become a great coach…until one of his players or assistants killed him.

Musk like some driven and highly intelligent people, has no patience for those whom he considers to be 'fools'. And fools can have a broad definition. He expects everyone ultimately to bend to his will and his authority, setting up inevitable conflict. Coaching is about relationships, adding value, and teaching. Doing that while living on a razor's edge can't be comfortable. 

Kobe Bryant’s The Mamba Mentality clarifies the secret sauce - outwork everyone. It's not just Kobe's opinion of himself, but the examples cited by Tim S. Grover in Relentless. 


Fundamentals provide players a technical and tactical advantage. 

Self-assessment and self-correction belong to success stories. Thumb through “The Tao Te Ching” to learn about self-evolution.

Reading exposes coaches to examples of success and failure beyond basketball. Abraham Lincoln's political career ran the gamut from his Presidency to earlier losses and decades of depression. General "Fighting Joe" Hooker had early major battlefield successes, but diluted by liquor and wandering eyes, he suffered a catastrophic defeat in May 1863 to Lee at Chancellorsville. 

Extract the lessons:
  • Failure is not final (Lincoln).
  • Distractions will be held against you (Hooker).
  • Beware the 'numerical' underdog with an effective plan (Lee at Chancellorsville)
Coach Kevin Eastman commits to reading two hours a day, citing the advantages of 180 hours of professional reading a quarter. 

Lagniappe. Dos and Don'ts. This is who we are and that is who we are not. 

Lagniappe 2. As an individual we set our standard of performance. That was a key to Bill Walsh's success with the 49ers as well as Kelvin Sampson.  

Lagniappe 3. Reread great books and abandon bad ones. It is better to read a great book multiple times than to read ten bad books. Wooden, Dean Smith, Krzyzewski, Newell, and Knight all wrote great books. Other famous coaches wrote less highly recommended ones. 

 

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025

What Makes Good Writing? It's not Unique to Basketball

 

"Hey, nobody is above being coached." Written work matters. Everyone can write better, just as we can coach better. Good writers are informed and inform readers. 

Coaches are teachers. Teachers change behavior. Teach good writing as part of teaching communication.  

Sharing our writing is thinking out loud. Sometimes it works...not always.

Capture the reader's attention. The average reader devotes 36 seconds to a column. Author Matt Haig writes, "every story is about someone searching for something." What is your reader searching for? 

Add value. Bob Woodward provides a minimum of six pieces of information that he wants readers to know. Readers should leave saying, "I didn't know that" or "I hadn't considered that," and want to learn more. 

"Don't be boring." Shave syllables. "Brevity is the soul of wit." In The Friction Project, Sutton and Rao emphasize reducing friction including red tape and unnecessary meetings. 

Accuracy matters. As President Ronald Reagan quipped, "Trust but verify." Write for a local paper and misspell a Biddy Basketball player's name and there is hell to pay. 

Revise. Few columns, game plans, or 'campaigns' are winners out of the box. General Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, "Every battle is won before it is fought." Author and humorist Anne Lamott says to get it down, "shi**y first drafts."

If unable to avoid jargon, explain the basketball terminology. 

Provide supporting evidence such as quotes, data, and images where applicable. "Bring the receipts." These sometimes include analogies. How often an athlete will describe their 'organizational DNA'. After Game 4 against the Knicks, Pascal Siakam said, "we have to stay on an even keel," a nautical analogy. Mike Breen described Siakam as an "unappreciated" superstar, part of the 2019 Raptors title team. 

Be impactful. Drop knowledge that readers can use to change their belief, practice, or management. A recent column shared a Mike Neighbors quote, "Practice chaos equals game calmness." 

Use influence tools. Learn and apply Cialdini's six "Principles of Persuasion." Start with these:

1) Authority - Knowledgable? Act like it. 

2) Liking - Be likable, the author worth sharing a coffee with. 

3) Social Proof - "Lots of people read this person." Maybe there's something there.


Your readers deserve excellence. Deliver. 

Summary:
  • Help readers find the story. 
  • Share information within your piece. 
  • Don't be boring. Shave syllables. 
  • Be accurate. Bring receipts. 
  • Don't hesitate to produce a "****** first draft."
  • Use proven influence tools. 

Lagniappe. Many young players are not "shot ready." One told me, "But I'll look funny." 

Lagniappe 2. Need a three. Use this "screen gem."  

Lagniappe 3. Musical (no chairs) free throws? Try this. 

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Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Basketball - There Is a Place for Enthusiasm

“Raw enthusiasm is contagious.” - from Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

"Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm." Remember the sixth grade tryout where young Naomi approached me. "Coach, I am really excited to be here." Nothing more profound was spoken before or since.

Bring enthusiasm to our work daily. In the Navy, the saying was, "Another Great Navy Day."

A Hall of Fame coach recently shared, "I am really looking forward to having daily practices to teach and watch them grow."

Recall the mental model, "Invert, always invert." What opposes enthusiasm? Indifference and complacency. Those dogs won't hunt.

Take enthusiasm in context. Legend Don Meyer explained three types of coaching - blind enthusiasm, sophisticated complexity, and mature simplicity. Simplify enthusiastically.  

Anne Lamott is one of the most energized writers around. She emphasizes writing it down, celebrating $***** first drafts.

Enthusiasm benefits teams and players. 

  • Enthusiasm energizes. 
  • Enthusiasm shows up as hard work. 
  • Enthusiasm manifests as extra effort, hustle plays. 
  • Enthusiasm is preparedness. Be "off book," knowing the team philosophy, offense, and defense. 
  • Authentic enthusiasm beats 'false hustle'. 
Competitiveness is enthusiasm. Share video of competitors.
 



Lagniappe. "The ball has energy" but only if you share it. 

Lagniappe 2. Making everyone better also makes us happier. 

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Monday, June 9, 2025

Basketball - "It's Time for Jeopardy" Quotes Edition

As a coach, keep a portfolio of quotes. That will give us something to do when we're looking for our next job. 


What's a good score? I have no idea. 

Lagniappe. Great leaders have things in common. 

Lagniappe 2. Control what we can control - attitude, choices, and effort. Coach Berge examines choice. 

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Sunday, June 8, 2025

Basketball - What's in Our Wunderkammern?

"If you happened to be wealthy and educated and alive in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, it was fashionable to have a Wunderkammern, a “wonder chamber,” or a “cabinet of curiosities” in your house—a room filled with rare and remarkable objects that served as a kind of external display of your thirst for knowledge of the world." - from Austin Kleon in Show Your Work

Once we called these "prized possessions" collected over a lifetime. Basketball fuels our memory machines, the sum of our experiences. No two are alike. 

This is not Jason Selk's "highlight reel" in 10 Minute Toughness. What artifacts might we unearth along our wunderkammern memory lane? 

  • Scrapbooks
  • Books
  • Trophies
  • Videos and CDs
  • Photographs 
  • Cards and letters
  • Awards and honors 
The contents hold unique value to us. Imagine having your picture on an SI cover...like Butch Lee. 


I speculate that Brett Vroman has a net 'clipping' from the 1975 National Championship at UCLA and a plaque commemorating being a Parade All-American. 


Treasures like those make our collections seem small.
 





                              Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli
 
Our craft never springs full grown like Botticelli's "Birth of Venus." Our work emerges after painstaking practice and preparation over a lifetime. My first exposure to art history was Fine Arts 13 at Harvard. Learning about the craft of masters matters as much as hearing Newton's Laws. 

Our next basketball memory might spring from hearing Mike Breen's "Bang" or seeing a wondrous drive from SGA. Or watching Drew Hanlen or Chris Brickley train stars and wannabes. 

The blog originates in books read, videos, sports, and interviews watched, and the shots taken against the wooden backboard nailed to a tree, with eight year-old me imagining that I was Sam Jones off the glass. 

"Show your work." Build connections with others. 

Lagniappe. "There’s a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as “scenius.” Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals—artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers—who make up an “ecology of talent." - from Austin Kleon, "Show Your Work"

Lagniappe 2. Flip the switch. 
Lagniappe 3. What defines your experience? 









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Saturday, June 7, 2025

Basketball - Design and Implementation

Learn across domains. First, a quote from Walter Isaacson's biography, "Elon Musk." 

"It was a philosophy that he would carry through to Tesla, SpaceX, and then Twitter. Separating the design of a product from its engineering was a recipe for dysfunction. Designers had to feel the immediate pain if something they devised was hard to engineer."

Understand the possible linkages between your basketball design (e.g. ideas, program building) and engineering (implementation). 

Implementation could include:

  • Player acquisition (e.g. recruiting, youth programs)
  • Player development
  • Offensive and defensive systems 
  • Budgeting/fundraising/compensation
  • Coaching staff 
  • Compliance 
  • Public relations
My high school coach, Sonny Lane, explained that a coach proposed an offensive system to him, saying, "I understand it perfectly." Coach Lane answered, "Your players will never understand it." The 'engineering' mismatched the design. 

Coaching youth players, I considered a "run and jump" ("trap and go") secondary defensive system and it became clear that our players or my teaching would not work. The engineering failed.

Design counts and practical engineering, the 'nuts and bolts' of implementation, absolutely matters. Thus, the popularity of 'five-out' and 'horns', as well as conceptually simple actions like 'zoom' (downscreen into DHO) and pistol. 

Believing that NBA actions readily translate into youth and lower level play recalls Pete Newell's warning, "copies are generally poor reproductions of the originals." 

The take home should be to invest time to consider how theory will transfer to practice. 

Lagniappe. Quote from Kobe Bryant's The Mamba Mentality, "What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths."

Lagniappe 2. Short-lived edges...from 49ers executive Kwesi Adofo-Mensah "You think you have an edge—now, that edge goes away in this business, just like that. Every year you have to tweak, evolve, adapt.”" - from "The Why Is Everything" by Michael Silver. 

Lagniappe 3. Playing Time 

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Friday, June 6, 2025

Basketball - Teaching Video Points

"The biggest element that changed over time, however, was I went from watching what was there to watching for what was missing and should have been there. I went from watching what happened to what could have and should have happened." - from The Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant

Basketball is a game of ________ (mistakes, advantage, mismatches, cutting and passing, etc.) 

I hoped to find the good example of a "Gortat Screen" where the screener screens high and then rescreens in the paint but it wasn't available. 

Siakam gets a size advantage, the pass is true, and he finishes. 


Speed kills. Blown assignment. OKC is known for its suffocating halfcourt defense. Pacers attack a confused OKC defense with a "lone corner" three. 
 

Less common PnR action as SGA's brilliance allows for a cutback and finish. 


The "help dilemma..." Caruso penetrates and Pacer helps exposes an open Dort for an uncontested three. "Draw two" defenders.
 

Increase points/possession with paint touches and ball reversal ('one more' passes). Teach 0.5 second decisions...
 

Head turning, penetration, and a corner cut yield a dunk.
 

Basketball is a game of deception. McConnell drives baseline and a subtle fake opens another open corner three. 


"A great shot fake is a shot not taken." Turner called that bank?
 

Lagniappe. Chris Oliver shares a great example of the sequence of spacing, player and ball movement and the scoring moment. 

Lagniappe 2. Kelvin Sampson's "unscripted points." 

Lagniappe 3. From "The Why Is Everything" - Do players respect and buy in? "You wanna know the best thing we do in L.A.? It’s not scheme. It’s not Xs and Os. It’s emotional IQ. That’s the f***ing challenge. The challenge isn’t Matt getting Aaron to respect him as a football mind. It’s connecting. You’re still in the selling process of getting guys to buy in and believe. This guy is so smart. He doesn’t respect anybody unless they’re on his level. But if you’ve got the ability to challenge him, on a level where he respects you and you’re not infringing on Aaron Rodgers the person, it can be amazing.”"

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