Sunday, October 6, 2024

Basketball - Buy, Sell, Hold Items Under Consideration

"All stocks are bad, only the good ones go up." - Wall Street adage

Many basketball absolutes change. The width of the lane changed. The time required to take a shot changed. The value of a basket changed. Rules change regularly.  

Consider any risk asset, our choices are to buy, sell, or hold. Price is a snapshot; value is the underpinning factor.

Within our basketball ecosystem what belongs on buy, sell, hold? Choose three in each category. 

BUY - Add if we don't already have

1. Kara Lawson's monologue on "handle hard better." The "easy bus never comes around."

2. Buzz Williams "Bedtime Audit" via Bob Starkey


Impact winning. Impact others. Impact ourselves. 

3. Possession enders. Possession enders get stops and scores. When a player scores, assists, rebounds, or defends as "best in class" they're a possession ender. Find those "guys." Cultivate those guys. Possession enders occur in other sports, too. 

Honorable mention: watch more practices. Learn from other coaches. Watching Geno Auriemma's four-peat team was a privilege. So was watching Brad Stevens prepare the Celtics for Toronto. 

HOLD - have these and don't surrender them. 

Toughness. Jay Bilas's Toughness book is his legacy, above his Duke career or broadcasting. Toughness, real toughness, makes good teams better, and excellent teams exceptional. 

Efficiency. Squeeze every drop of benefit from practice. Every activity should have a purpose and impact development and winning. Revise our portfolio of drills and "kill your darlings," stuff that you might love but realistically doesn't help. Think about Brian McCormick's "fake fundamentals." Condition within drills. Abandon punitive actions that don't elevate guys. 

Video. "Video is the truth machine." Doc Rivers believes thirteen clips is the maximum. Video coordinators become the rising stars as they learn the nuances of the game. Erik Spoelstra was a pioneer. Video accelerates player development. 

Honorable mention: fun. Play the game. Warming up with "dribble tag" inside the arc is just one example of blending fun with skill development. 

SELL - absolutely extinguish these brushfires. 

Turnovers. Turnovers are zero percent possessions. Even worse, live-ball turnovers become opposition hoops with high points per possession. "Turnovers kill dreams." 

Selfishness. Selfishness manifests in 'credit hogging', ball hogging, shot selection, refusing to pass to teammates, and other nefarious ways. A parent told their child, "for every shot _____ takes, you get one." Selfishness includes playing one end of the court. Basketball is not a one-way street. 

Dogma. The word "dogma" comes from a Greek root, "dok" to seem good. Hard-headedness, stubbornness, and "we do it because we do it" aren't winning arguments. Read and reread Adam Grant's "Think Again." Keep a "rethinking scorecard" of mind changes. "Jaylen Brown will never play on a champion." 

Honorable mention: Analytics help, but don't apply NBA statistics to our high school teams. Shooting three-pointers works when you have 'guys' who make them. Teams whose three pointers are "shot turnovers" deserve condemnation not unconditional love.  

Lagniappe. Extra possessions win. Think UCONN or Jrue Holiday against Dallas. 

Lagniappe 2. Fleshing out "movement kills defense." 

Lagniappe 3. Paying attention is the first price paid. 






  

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