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Saturday, August 3, 2019

Basketball Education: Eric Musselman Podcast with Chris Oliver

Chris Oliver interviews Eric Musselman. Here are my notes on this "Coaching Clinic" within a podcast.

 Musselman hosted the Eric Musselman basketball notebook, a blog of brief basketball messages. "As you get older, you want to share..." Seek wisdom every day.

 He's now at CoachMuss.com. 

 Musselman said that his minor league coaching experience helped a lot as he learned without intense media scrutiny. He asks, "how do you put together a team?" He classifies players according to: 
  • "Lottery pick talent"
  • "Mid-first round talent"
  • "Second round talent"
  • "Non-drafted" 
But he applies these labels to future college players. You need three stars to win in the NBA and that's how he looks at it. He also examines other models like the 76ers and Warriors and how they acquired players. 

"Pro model." Lay out the foundation of expectations during college, the vision for the player over time. "Programs can oversell a player's role." 

"We stopped enjoying winning." Between his 3rd and 4th year at Nevada, he learned that his team needed more fun, more team-building. At the same time, player focus wandered from college basketball to professional futures. Compete and have fun in the moment. Knowing how to manage expectations matters with a lot of talent. 

In the NBA you need the best players taking the most shots in their preferred spots. He doesn't want less effective players having to take the shots. "Have you lost your mind with your shot selection?" Pro model, beat the defense down the floor, good pace and get "a shot on goal." Live ball turnovers are disaster, usually becoming a layup or a foul or an and 1 at the other end. "Team is built on do not turn the ball over" despite a pretty good pace. 

Players define their roles in the off-season. Who's putting in the time? Here's the order of who we want shooting late game...he'll list the players 1-13. 

He has a big play package of simple plays. "The play call has to make sense to the player." He starts a lot of plays with the same alignment. He wants to avoid confusion. "The trainer should know the play call (simplicity). Like the Patriots, he wants his team to adjust some game to game. 

"You can't be guessing with your philosophy..."

Chuck Daly, "Don't ever put in a play unless you know it works." 

He watched a lot of football practices of the Oakland Raiders...

He knows from study the likely adjustments by their opponents (e.g to PnR offense). He divides responsibilities among coaching "coordinators." Wants assistants in the trenches coaching hard during practice.   

Mechanics of introducing plays: (multiple)
  • Paper
  • Texts
  • Video
  • Walk throughs (players dislike skeleton and it limits focus/engagement) 
Notes that NHL and NBA first year (with organization) coaches both won championships (as did the Red Sox...not mentioned). Championship coaches get a different level of buy-in. 

Chuck Daly, "If every four minutes there was a meeting (timeout) in business, how would that work?" Players get tired of hearing the same voice. 

Lagniappe: via @RadiusAthletics 

Lagniappe 2: Quick points from Eric Musselman notebook - 

 On Kobe film study - 
The goal is for Bryant to pick up tendencies of rival players. Have they added any new moves? Have they been aggressively driving to the basket or have they been satisfied to drift from the hoop and settle for outside jump shots?

Kobe's objective is "to find ways to take away comfort zones from opponents."

Points of emphasis from Cy Alexander


On Pat Riley hires:

In his article, Smith tells a story about how when Pat Riley is considering hiring someone, "he first checks the trunk of the applicant's car. If there are golf clubs in there, they're not hired. With Riley it's about work."

Lagniappe 3: 

As a youth coach, I learn many possible adaptations but can't let winning become the main distraction from developing better people with better habits. "The main thing is the main thing." 


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