Total Pageviews

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Basketball Applicable Quotations from Reading Widely

"Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Director Werner Herzog

Quotes don't win basketball games or many arguments. But they convey many truths when simple and direct. Provide attribution when known.

"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson  An opposing approach withholds info...Don Meyer was among if not the greatest sharer ever. 

"Get over yourself." - Gregg Popovich   Team first. 

“Every battle is won before it is fought.” - Sun Tzu  Teach players preparation. 

"The main thing is the main thing."  What is our main thing?

"People don't quit jobs. They quit people." - David Cottrell   If you are going to survive in a competitive field, you'll need overwhelming skill to overcome an abrasive personality (Think Dr. House)

"Never be a child's last coach."  How does it feel to be coached by me?

"Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear a word you say."   Our words mean little if they don't match our actions. 

"The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."   Few coaches or personalities can redeem the person with character deficits. 

"Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso   Be on the lookout everywhere for ideas or principles to steal. Learn analogies and the value of general knowledge. 

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that there is a limit to genius." - Einstein 

"It is better to be generally right than exactly wrong." - Charlie Munger   Warren Buffett's deceased partner said a key to their success was avoiding stupidity. Easier said than done...

“Utilize strengths, attack weaknesses.” - Sun Tzu  Leverage your strengths.

“Every happy family is alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in a different way.” - Tolstoy in Anna Karenina   There is no "classic defective basketball culture." It can go wrong many ways. 

"A lion never roars after a kill." - Dean Smith   Stay humble because basketball and life will always deal out setbacks. 

Lagniappe. Stay curious. 

 Lagniappe 2. Teaching players to separate and finish goes a long way. 

Posted by at

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Basketball - Always "Traffic in Specifics"


Inhabit specifics. There is no et cetera. Many players cannot fill in the blanks. Compare your basketball knowledge now to 'growing up'. Day and night. 

1) Cutting. "Basketball is a game of SEPARATION." Lazy cuts, failure to set up cuts, improper use of screens all are 'fails'. Cutting means cut urgently. "Set up your cut" is a Bilas "Toughness" criterion. "The ball is a camera" and has to see you to find you.

2) Passing. "Fall in love with easy." See the floor, scanning for players in better position to score than you. Do not pass or dribble into traffic. Learn to make the right pass for varied situations. Certain passes are “steal me” passes - wing to top, top to low post, throwing through hands.

3) Shooting. As Jay Bilas reminds players, "It's not your shot, it's our shot." Don Kelbick says, "Think shot first." Get 7's (high quality shots) and ROB shots (in range, open, balanced). The degree of "contestedness" often determines the shot quality (how open are you?)

4) Turnover prevention. "The ball is gold" or "value the ball." "Turnovers kill dreams" and are zero percent possessions. If your habit is turning the ball over, then sitting on the bench is a certainty. 

5) "Everybody plays defense." - Coach Bob Knight  How does that look?
  • Know your assignment. 
  • Contain the ball. 
  • Deny dribble or pass penetration. 
  • Challenge shots without fouling.
  • Communicate - early, loud, and often. 
  • Be alert to conversion - defense to offense and offense to defense.
  • Block out or rebound.
Make a positive, unselfish attitude your standard.
  • Play with joy.  
  • Team first. 
  • Strive to make everyone around you better. 
Lagniappe. 

Lagniappe. Do you have managers? We were blessed to have two GREAT managers in high school, John Hunneman and Andy Johnson. Teammates. They helped us get edges with shot charts and game statistical analysis.  


Lagniappe 2. Growing up in a 1-4 high system, the progression to "Horns" is natural. It opens the lane and has no "natural" weak side. 


Posted by at

Friday, August 29, 2025

Are Hard to Guard Actions in our Basketball Offense?

How do you plan to score? Do you have ideas for transition, motion offense, set plays out of core formations (e.g. Horns, 5-out), and hard-to-guard actions? 

Even with skilled players, creating separation and quality shots can raise offensive efficiency. 

Consider adding a few to your repertoire: 

Complex screens:

Spain PnR (backscreen the roller)

Atypical screening: 

2. Horns "Elbow get"

If you have "bigs" who can put the ball on the floor, then you may have a mismatch against a big less accustomed to defending dribble drive. 

In addition to conventional ball screen action, rejecting the ball screen adds deception. 

Sequential screening (e.g. Iverson action or Corner rip) 

Iverson action

5 - Out options


After running dribble handoffs (DHO), "dribble at" triggering a back cut adds deception.


In addition to basic give-and-go (left), '1' can delay and '3' fakes a return "wing to top" pass baiting a steal by the opposing point guard. '1' then basket cuts. 

Duke elbow series


Clear a side and play a two-man game. '1' can pass and follow for a handoff or use a fake handoff which can create confusion. 

These actions create defensive challenges and get your skilled players edges.

Lagniappe. Time is a precious and irreplacable asset.  
Lagniappe 2. What can we give to our team? 
Lagniappe 3. How many players have you made suggestions or corrections to who were unwilling to change? I remember one player who ALWAYS went right. "If you go left, your defender wlll be totally surprised." She goes left and scores...that one time. 

Posted by at

Thursday, August 28, 2025

A Brief Classic Education for Coaches and Multiple Bonuses

Coaches are teachers, historians, psychologists, judges, and more. Share our classical education with our student-athletes. Use analogy where applicable to playing or coaching basketball. 

“Veni. Vidi. Vici.” - Julius Caesar, 47 B.C.  

Caesar proclaimed, "I came. I saw. I conquered." That's always the goal although not always the result. Students of coaching also remember what Dean Smith said. "A lion never roars after a kill." 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle  

Success in sport reflects our mastery of habits. 

  • Self-care is a habit - diet, exercise, sleep 
  • Skill development 
  • Study - reading, video, basketball IQ/game management
  • Resilience - mindfulness/sport psychology (have we taken even one mindful breath today?)
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits says that our habits are votes for the type of person we want to be. 

“Every battle is won before it is fought.” - Sun Tzu, fifth century B.C. 

Successful players and coaches fall in love with training. Preparation is physical, mental, game planning, player development (e.g. drill book), playbooks, and more. 

Author Salman Rushdie discusses our creative imagination and our critical imagination. Coaches develop our philosophy, offensive and defensive program and playbooks, and then revise it according to our people, opposition, and results. 

“Fortune favors the bold.”

The saying dates back thousands of years and has been adapted and adopted by many cultures. Coaches want players to reflect their philosophy. Strong teams invariably have aggressive players, although aggression comes in many forms - power, speed, craft. 

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates

Socrates preached the value of self-reflection and critical thinking. Watching a game, we see "intention," what a team is trying to accomplish at both ends of the court. If it's not apparent, then it's likely that clear strategies don't exist, that the teaching isn't good, or the players aren't receptive. 

"What we do now echoes in eternity." - Marcus Aurelius   

Marcus Aurelius wrote the classic Meditations. Should we care about our coaching legacy or what would we like it to be? 

Aurelius frequently reflects that even the most celebrated men—heroes, philosophers, emperors—are quickly forgotten. He reminds himself not to chase after posthumous fame because those who hand it down are fleeting, too. In Book 4, Section 19: “All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike.”

Our biggest impact is upon those whom we coach. Seek to provide them a memorable, worthy experience. 

“No one can hurt you without your permission.” - Epictetus 

We've all had different types of coaches, different personalities, different substance, and different styles. In "The Four Agreements," Ruiz reminds us to "Never take anything personally," because what others say to us or about us often isn't true. 

A firehose of ideas surrounds us every day. Filter it and use whatever we can to make those around us better. 

Lagniappe. How does a play affect you? 

Lagniappe 2. Shooting drills from Coach Haefner.  

Posted by at

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Lincoln and Coaching

“Make friends with the dead.” A small fraction of people ever born are alive (around seven percent). Lunch with Lincoln could enlighten all of us…

Character

"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Focus on out authenticity not on external validation.  

Euroleague Champion coach and former Spurs' assistant Etorre Messina said, "Character is job one." 

Preparation

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Elite preparation raises performance and lowers the chance of regret. 

Professionalism means preparation. Have you studied your opponent and have a plan to counter?

Teamwork

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." It's exceedingly rare for fractured teams to succeed. The most notable exception was the 1978 Yankees, the Bronx Zoo. 

Mark Cuban coined coined what he calls the “one knucklehead rule”, famously saying: “I have this rule: a team can have one knucklehead. You can't have two. One knucklehead adapts; two hang out together.”

Persistence and Growth 

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back." A growth mindset achieves remarkable feats. This recalls the Russian "General Who Never Lost," Alexander Suvorov, whose motto was "Always forward." Another great Suvorov quote was, "We are here to fight, not to count."

All great teams and individuals are persistent.

Success (1) 

"The best way to predict your future is to create it." Don't assign blame for our limitations and playing time to the coaching staff. Through preparation and practice, force coaches to put you on the court. 

Coaches assign playing time but it's the players who reinforce it with their actions. 

Success (2)

"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Lincoln lost many elections before breaking through. Progress often comes in fits and starts. Plateaus are common. Keep grinding. 

John Wooden won his first NCAA title at UCLA in his sixteenth season. As Bill Walsh said, "Champions behave like champions before they are champions." 

Judgment and bias 

"I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better." Our first judgment may not be our best, limited by sample size or poor communication. Coaching and administration depends on quality relationships.   

First impressions matter but sometimes it takes time for us to understand a person's or a player's character and potential...

Lagniappe. Add tools. 

Lagniappe 2. Coach Wooden said that Bill Walton's greatness arose in that he never tired of working on fundamentals, especially footwork. 

 


Posted by at

Give Yourself Confidence and Stress Relieving Exercises

Never underestimate the power of our thoughts. Coach Bob Knight said that basketball is a game where the mental is to the physical four to one. You can only be as good as you believe you are.

One approach is to divide the head game into elements of confidence building and stress reduction.

Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry wrote Performing Under Pressure which points out that pressure degrades performance and those who perform best have the least degraded performance. 

Confidence building exercises:

1) Affirmations. Think back to this scene from The Help. 

Expectations develop from a young age. 

In Ten-Minute Toughness, Jason Selk includes breathing, affirmations, and visualization. The simplest form of breathing exercise is "square breathing" with four seconds of inhalation, hold, exhalation, and hold. 

His affirmations are an identity and a performance statement. Identity, "I am an experienced and aggressively prepared player." Performance, "I bring energy and attacking to both ends of the court." 

Visualization. Imagine yourself performing the skills needed in your daily work. Selk advises creating a "highlight reel" of your best moments available for replay. Think back to when family, a teacher, or coach told you, "I believe in you." 

Video review. You can do more than imagine. Replay actual video of your highlights. See both what worked and why it worked.

Mindfulness training. Mindfulness has multiple physiologic, anatomic, and psychological effects. It increases focus, decreases depression and anxiety, and reduces stress hormones. MRI studies show that it builds brain in the learning and memory centers and reduces brain in the amygdala, the anger center. 

Body positioning. In some studies, short-term expansive body positions have been shown to increase testosterone levels and decrease stress hormones. "Make yourself big." 

Stress Reduction. 

Some of the above like mindfulness, body positioning, and breathing exercises serve multiple functions. 

But this wouldn't work. Who would even consider it? 

LeBron James would...and does. 

Stress balls work.

Music. Music can amp us up or calm us down. Rossini, in The William Tell Overture, shares music that does both. Start at 0:58. 


5-4-3-2-1. Under stress, distract yourself with 5 things you can touch, four you see, three you hear, two you smell, and one you can taste. Think back to the smells of Tufskin and sweat and the salty taste of sweat. 


 
Posted by at

Monday, August 25, 2025

Raising Basketball Performance with OKRs

Structure helps outcomes. Better process, better outcomes. In Measure What Matters, John Doerr explains OKRs (objectives and key results) and how they transformed organizations both well-known (Intel, Google) and less-known (Nuna, MyFitnessPal).

OKRs provide transparency in setting and achieving goals, with the KRs (key results) measurable, trackable, and ideally scalable.

Recognize that less is more. Attacking problems with a hundred battle fronts fails. There's no way to plan, monitor, and fix each one because the approach is too diffuse.

Imagine you have the worst offense in the league and it's obvious from film review that two issues dominate, shot selection and turnovers. 

Each OKR has a target and 'measurable' key results

Our first objective listed is "Shoot better." The criteria are flawed because the first key result "shot selection" is semi-quantitative. Passing matters, recalling Pete Carril's quote, "the quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass." Shooting percentage will depend on shot selection, better passing, and skill. Prioritizing passing also emphasizes the impact of teamwork. 

Every turnover is a zero percent possession, a shot nullified. 

Be granular (detailed) so that players can understand and comment, sharing their input.

In a business, quarterly and annual reviews measure impact. For a basketball season, more frequent measurement (e.g. monthly) makes more sense. 

As an assistant years ago, I tracked stats and told the middle school girls that we'd report team shooting percentage and turnovers. Tracking improved shooting percent by twenty percent and reduced turnovers by an even higher percentage. Players felt more accountable for shots and ball security. 

OKRs give teams a proven and measurable way to impact results. 

Lagniappe. Players don't want to let down excellent coaches.  
Lagniappe 2. Pascal Meurs shares a drill for finishing at the rim. 

Posted by at

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Basketball - Perception, Power, and Teamwork



Teamwork is hard won not freely awarded. 

Sport teaches life. Learning key lessons early can change our lives. When you read a book chapter, an essay, or a blog post, take a minute to ask "what did I learn?" Use 'critical thinking' to test the validity of the information.

Success follows not only performance but perception. If our performance is excellent but we are viewed as uncooperative or less collaborative, then career advancement will suffer. First impressions matter. People judge us on how we look and how we sound before they have objective data about our abilities. Eye contact and a firm handshake go a long way. 

First impressions are powerful, creating "thin slices" of truth. If we want visibility in a role, then be visible. A coach recently told me that a player was at practice over 90 minutes before her practice officially started. She wanted to get extra reps. Coaches may not see everything but they see a lot. 

The best way to earn a favorable eye is to make your boss look good. Your success rises with your ability to make your boss succeed. 

Enthusiasm and positivity count. To promote a player, emphasize and prioritize what she can do. Don't dwell on her limitations.

Advocate for yourself. When you want a bigger role, ask "how can I earn more playing time?" The answer might be "work on consistency" or "work on passing." When we don't ask, we don't know. 

Teamwork builds champions or dissolves them. 

An area high school team was favored to go deep in the postseason. Before the first playoff game, one player "stole" another's boyfriend. The team split psychologically and was eliminated in the first round. 

Years ago a college basketball program encountered a situation where a rift developed between the 'straight' and 'gay' players. They couldn't coexist and the team fell apart with several players transferring because of the broken culture. 

The 1999 UCONN Men didn't have the resume' or the cachet of Duke which entered the Finals on a 32-game winning streak with future NBA players. Duke featured Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Trajan Langdon, and William Avery on that squad. Brand was a top NBA selection, Battier 6th, and the others were no lower than 14th. Rip Hamilton was UCONN's most celebrated player and the only one drafted (7th) in the first round. Exceptional teamwork overcame star power. 

The 2004 Detroit Pistons had excellent players with Hamilton, Chauncy Billups, Rasheed and Ben Wallace, and Tayshaun Prince. But they didn't have the "conventional" star power usually seen in NBA champions. The Lakers had Shaq, Kobe, an aging Karl Malone, Gary Payton, and Derek Fisher. "Chemistry and commitment" can defeat superior forces. 

Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer has made a career studying, teaching, and writing about power. Power can be used for good or evil and advancing your career depends in part on your understanding of power. Inform people about your accomplishments without bragging. But as Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean said, "If you can do it, you ain't boasting."

Here's a ChatGPT Plus 'hallucination' (what AI does) in response to a 'prompt' about Professor Pfeffer. 

Jeffrey Pfeffer has built his career on studying and teaching power—how it is built, used, and maintained. In Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t, he distills decades of research into practical lessons. Here are half a dozen of his signature power principles:

1.Power Comes from Social Perception, Not Just Performance

Pfeffer argues that being seen as powerful often matters more than actual performance. People tend to equate confidence with competence, so projecting authority, decisiveness, and certainty helps build power. Those who wait to be “discovered” often never are.

2.Build a Strong Personal Brand and Reputation

Reputation acts like a form of currency in organizations. Pfeffer emphasizes visibility, recognition, and differentiation—ensuring others know who you are and what you stand for. He often cites that it’s not enough to be effective; you must also be known as effective.

3.Control Resources and Access

Power flows to those who control scarce resources—budgets, information, opportunities, or access to key people. Pfeffer stresses that resource dependence creates influence. By positioning yourself at points of leverage, you make others reliant on you.

4.Act with Boldness and Persistence

Pfeffer highlights that many people hesitate because they fear being disliked or making mistakes. Yet those who act boldly and persistently often win by default. He notes that over-caution erodes influence, while decisive action signals leadership and attracts followers.

5.Cultivate a Broad and Strategic Network

Powerful people rarely operate alone. Pfeffer insists on building diverse, deep networks across levels, departments, and industries. Connections expand access to information, amplify reputation, and create allies who can advocate when you’re not in the room.

6.Understand and Play by Organizational Rules—Not Just Ideals

Pfeffer pushes against naïve views of fairness. He reminds us that organizations often reward political skill, loyalty, and alignment more than pure merit. To succeed, one must recognize how power really works in practice—then align strategy to those realities rather than wishful ideals.

👉 Taken together, Pfeffer’s principles reflect a pragmatic worldview: power is not accidental, but something you intentionally cultivate through visibility, networks, and bold action.

Lagniappe. One way organizations underachieve is through "silos" as people hang with those like them. Upperclassmen with classmates and underclassmen with younger teammates. General Stanley McChristal achieved more in the Middle East intelligence community by breaking down silos. He shared this in "Team of Teams." 

 

Posted by at

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Basketball - "Stacking Days"

Whether building a house, earning a degree, or training, "stacking days" adds value. The analogy to "stacking bricks" in construction is obvious. 

Stacking represents:

1) The power of consistency - an excellent day is great; streaks of great days creates long-term excellence. 

2) The primacy of process, "Trust the process."

3) Compounding, a one percent daily improvement produces a 37-fold improvement over 365 days

4) Resilience - power comes from showing up every day. 

Classic examples of stacking:

Kobe Bryant, featured in "Relentless," worked by himself and with Tim S. Grover to become an unstoppable force winning five titles. He earned accolades both offensively and as an All-NBA defender. 

Tom Brady was drafted 199th in the 2000 NFL draft. His self-care with nutrition and recovery as well as his study habits were legendary. A Patriots' exec was leaving late around 730 and asked a custodian why the lights were still on. The janitor explained, "there's some guy named Brady in watching film." He rose from a depth chart "four" as a rookie to winning the Super Bowl in his second season. 

Serena Williams' career was the ultimate journey of 'stacking' from childhood through adulthood, winning  23 Grand Slam titles. She even won multiple titles after overcoming the grind of recovering from life-threatening blood clots. 

Lagniappe. "To inspire true commitment, leaders must practice what they teach. They must model the behavior they expect of others." - "Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs" by John Doerr

Lagniappe 2. Chris Oliver's advice of defensive rebounding... 

Posted by at

Friday, August 22, 2025

Basketball - Points to Ponder - More, Impact, and Cellphone Use

How do we use information? Is AI adding useful information or more? 

Life throws a firehose of information at us daily. Separate "signal" from "noise."

Author Fergus Connolly, a Human Performance Expert, writes an article about the Fallacy of AI. Performance isn't about acquiring the most information, it's about applying what works best for our organization.

Two points stand out for me:

1. Better is better. 

That's not necessarily more or less. It's better. Judge ideas on merit, not the source.

During the 2015 NBA Finals, 28 year-old Warriors video guy Nick U'Ren suggested to Coach Steve Kerr that video showed the Warriors might matchup better with a small lineup, Iguodala over Bogut. Kerr made the change and Golden State rallied to defeat Cleveland. 

2. Does it impact winning? 

Organizations become wedded to "that's the way we do it." If it wins, keep doing it. Brian McCormick wrote a series of Fake Fundamentals books exploring which traditional drills didn't impact winning and advised coaches to ditch them. 

One author suggested that players shouldn't use cellphones on game day because it changed their visual and mental focus. 

Here's the skinny from AI:

There is indeed a growing body of evidence—both experimental and observational—that suggests refraining from smartphone or cellphone use around training sessions or competition (e.g., game day) can help preserve athletes' focus, cognitive function, and even performance. Here's what research highlights:

Evidence from Controlled Studies

1. Mental Fatigue & Decision-Making

  • A controlled study with professional male soccer players found that 30 minutes of smartphone app exposure led to mental fatigue and a significant decline in passing decision-making performance during simulated matches. The Physical Movement+8YSBR+8TIME+8The Guardian+4ResearchGate+4ScienceDirect+4.

  • In volleyball, young athletes using social media immediately before training experienced mental fatigue and impaired anticipatory effort. PMC+1.

2. Physical & Technical Performance in Footballers

  • Another controlled experiment involving adolescents found reduced physical endurance and worsened technical skills (like passing accuracy) after 30 minutes of smartphone-induced mental fatigue. DMT&E Center+12Efsupit+12ResearchGate+12.

3. Cognitive & Reaction Impairments Across Sports

  • A broader review emphasized that across sports—including football, volleyball, swimming, boxing—pre-activity smartphone or social media use leads to mental fatigue, which lowers decision-making accuracy, slows reaction time, and increases errors. YSBR.

4. Training Adaptation and Long-Term Effects

  • In volleyball players over four weeks, those engaging in social media before sessions showed no improvement in decision-making metrics, while control groups (e.g., watching neutral content) did. TIME+14YSBR+14PMC+14.

  • In swimming, avoiding pre-training social media use correlated with measurable gains in endurance, race times, and cognitive control—results not mirrored by those who used social media. YSBR.

Mechanisms: Why Phone Use Can Be Detrimental

Cognitive Distraction and Mental Fatigue

  • Engaging with social media or apps involves rapid micro-decisions, emotional content, and fragmented attention—depleting cognitive reserves essential for game-time focus. YSBR+2Tuition Rewards+2.

Sleep Disruption

  • Evening phone use—especially screens or social media—disrupts melatonin production and sleep quality, which indirectly diminishes recovery and performance readiness. YSBRNature.

Cognitive Bottlenecks

  • Media multitasking (e.g., using phones while preparing for play) slows reaction times and impairs attention switching, reducing performance efficacy. Wikipedia.

Presence Alone Can Distract

  • Even just having a phone visible, without using it, can diminish performance on complex tasks—suggesting phones may remain mental distractions until out of sight. TIME+1.

Bottom Line: Does Avoiding Cellphone Use Help?

Yes—there is clear evidence supporting the idea that abstaining from smartphone or social media use before training or competition:

  • It helps preserve decision-making accuracy and cognitive focus.

  • It potentially ensures better physical and technical performance, especially in skill-dependent sports.

  • It supports optimal recovery and sleep quality, indirectly bolstering performance sustainability.

Practical Takeaways for Athletes and Coaches

  1. Implement “phone-free” zones during pre-game preparations and training warm-ups.

  2. Encourage downtime before key sessions—replace spontaneous scrolling with relaxation or mental visualization.

  3. Discourage evening phone use, especially on social media, to protect sleep and recovery.

  4. Remind athletes that even a visible phone can sap focus, so stashing it away matters.

 Lagniappe. Make work cool. 

Posted by at

Thursday, August 21, 2025

Basketball Advice that Players Will Never Regret

Target your audience. Today it's players. There's a lot to learn and the more you know, the more you realize there's much more to know.

Absorb and process a handful of truths.

1. "Do hard better." Skill development is hard. Conditioning is hard. Studying the game is hard. Make doing hard better a priority.

2. "Learn every day." Find resources to help you improve across a spectrum of sources - books, video, clinics online, leadership articles. 

3. "Find a mentor." Passionate athletes find people who want to help them develop. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Ask. 

4. "Chunk" visual information. Chess grandmasters see a board and see relationships among the pieces. Basketball "minds" see 'setups' and read the play. 


Real-time, I saw a 1-4 high set with the wing at the top leaving and the wing at the bottom cutting, knowing this Iverson action would create a great shot. 

5. "Play with purpose." In Jay Bilas's "Toughness" article, he describes "set up your cut" as a tough action. Failure to set up cuts or to cut urgently is a major definition of offensive success or failure. Basketball is "a game of separation." If you don't separate you either won't get the ball or will be crowded on the catch. 

6. "Win in space." Your parents taught you not "to play in the traffic." Don't dribble into traffic or pass into traffic. Both play exactly into what the defense wants. If you "draw two" that opens a teammate. 

7. "The quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass." - Pete Carril  Passers can lead players into open space or into trouble. Passes to the "shot pocket" allow the shooter better shooting conditions. Crisp passes open shots better than lackadaisical ones. 

8. "Think shot first." - Don Kelbick  If you're always ready to shoot, then you're always a threat. 

9. "Become a possession ender." Possession enders create scores and stops. Rebounds, steals, turnovers, and time end opponent possessions. Sometimes blocks and deflections do. 

10. "What is your primary skill?" Do more of what gets and keeps you in the lineup and less of what doesn't. If you don't know what your primary skill is, then you don't have one. 

Lagniappe. Simplify. What can we eliminate to become more successful? 

“A few extremely well-chosen objectives,” Grove wrote, “impart a clear message about what we say ‘yes’ to and what we say ‘no’ to.” A limit of three to five OKRs per cycle leads companies, teams, and individuals to choose what matters most." - "Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs" by John Doerr

Lagniappe 2. Stay abreast of new developments. This video shares what the author calls, "Three across." 


Posted by at

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

More Thoughts on Basketball Efficiency

What does 'efficiency' mean for a basketball player? There's the 'eyeball' reading and analytical metrics.

It makes sense that more positive contributions and fewer negative ones result in higher efficiency. I wrote about this first in 2015, although it was not a new concept. 

NBA and WNBA player efficiency calculations differ. ChatGPT explains:

The WNBA Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is a measure of a player's per-minute productivity, similar to the NBA's version created by John Hollinger. The WNBA does not officially publish PER on its website, but basketball analysts and advanced stat sites calculate it using the same core formula.

Here’s how PER is generally calculated (same as in the NBA, with WNBA-specific stats plugged in):

Formula (Simplified Overview)

The basic structure of PER is:

PER=1/Minutes×(Positive Contributions - Negative Contributions)×League Adjustment)

But in practice, it’s a very complex formula that includes:

Positive Contributions:

  • Points

  • Assists

  • Rebounds (Offensive and Defensive)

  • Steals

  • Blocks

  • Free Throws Made

  • Field Goals Made

  • Three-Pointers Made

Negative Contributions:

  • Turnovers

  • Missed Field Goals

  • Missed Free Throws

  • Personal Fouls

Complete Calculation (Highly Technical)

Hollinger’s original formula weights each action using statistical constants and adjusts for:

  • Team pace

  • League averages

  • Minutes played

The detailed equation includes terms like:

uPER=1MP[(3P)+23(AST)+(2−FGM)+0.5(FTM)−VOP⋅TO−VOP⋅DRBP⋅(FGA−FGM)−VOP⋅0.44⋅(FTA−FTM)+VOP⋅(1−DRBP)⋅(TRB−OREB)+VOP⋅DRBP⋅OREB+VOP⋅STL+VOP⋅DRBP⋅BLK−PF⋅(lgFT/lgPF)]uPER = \frac{1}{MP} \left[ (3P) + \frac{2}{3} (AST) + (2-FGM) + 0.5 (FTM) - VOP \cdot TO - VOP \cdot DRBP \cdot (FGA - FGM) - VOP \cdot 0.44 \cdot (FTA - FTM) + VOP \cdot (1 - DRBP) \cdot (TRB - OREB) + VOP \cdot DRBP \cdot OREB + VOP \cdot STL + VOP \cdot DRBP \cdot BLK - PF \cdot (lgFT / lgPF) \right]

Where:

  • VOP = Value of Possession

  • DRBP = Defensive Rebound %

  • lgFT = League FT made

  • lgPF = League Personal Fouls

Then the league average is normalized to PER = 15.0.

Alternative: Efficiency (EFF)

The WNBA does publish a simpler version called Efficiency (EFF), often used by broadcasters and box scores:

EFF=(PTS+REB+AST+STL+BLK)−(FGA−FGM+FTA−FTM+TO)

This is not PER, but a rougher and easier-to-calculate metric of total productivity.

Summary

MetricUseProsCons
PERAdvanced stat sitesAdjusted for pace, team, and leagueComplex and less transparent
EFFBroadcast & WNBA.comEasy to calculateDoesn’t adjust for pace or context

If you're tracking player impact in the WNBA and need a balance of accuracy and clarity, EFF works for casual analysis, while PER is better for deeper insights when calculated correctly.

If you wanted to apply one to high school or youth play, the latter is much easier.

How can we "be a scientist" not a preacher as a coach? 

"Possession enders" get scores and help get stops (steals, blocks, deflections, defensive rebounds). 

Inefficiencies show up as turnovers and high volume shooting without many points. Neither Hollinger PER or WNBA "Efficiency" show up as defensive rating. 

Here's a link to the most current WNBA stats ranked by Player Efficiency. Napheesa Collier had been the league leader but A'ja Wilson has slipped ahead. Note that Angel Reese is a highly productive fifth.  

Here's a link to current WNBA defensive player ratings, sorted by those playing at least 20 minutes/game. Individual defensive ratings will depend to some extent on team defensive rating. For example, Dallas trails Indiana by 6.3 points per game so comparing individual defensive ratings might take that into account. 

Analytics don't replace the 'eyeball test'. They add to it. 

Lagniappe. Maintaining relationships with coaches and players is a blessing. 

Lagniappe 2. Effort, unselfishness, body language, character...and you have to be a player... 

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)