Basketball: C4 Notes, Greg Jockims, Lessons from Successful Teams and Celtics Highlights

What have you learned from successful teams - collaboration, communication, culture, sacrifice? 

Greg Jockims shares lessons from the Cross Canada Coaches Clinic sponsored by Basketball Immersion. Here are my notes: 

His goal is to "figure it out" in his journey. 

Restate his observations as "identity" versus "performance." 

Doesn't dismiss basketball values but argues it's about being together. 

Compares transactional to transformational coaching. 

Vision - What do your want your team to look like? 
Mission - Your plan to achieve the vision.
Values - (What goes into your culture?)

Examine our program from multiple angles (our musts, needs, wants overview)

Everything has to focus on teamwork. 

"Practice Stoppers" (Deviation from teamwork)

Great story...Western Canada semis, had a chance to win with one free throw (tied) as time expired. Player missed both. Coach had to help the player off the court. Team got together to win for that guy, so he wouldn't have to carry that burden. They outscored the opponent 24-2 in overtime. 

Productive story...As a young coach, he called out the "team leader" for not leading...and ultimately turned the season around with the support of the leader. 

What do you (as a player) want from the experience?

Find meaning. What does 'contribution' mean to a given player...especially as a backup? Discusses one player whose primary "moment" was challenging the starters. His contribution was meaningful although he wasn't "playing."

At higher levels, players have more ownership and accountability

"Control what you can control." 

Takeaways:

- What works for you? 
- What works for them (the players)?
- Players need ownership. 
- Make the experience meaningful. 
- Find great stories. 

Lagniappe: Favorite stories. 

When I was an assistant, the head coach always gave me the "twelfth pick" to choose a player. I selected an athletic, fluid girl who didn't have a lot of skill or experience. Over time, she became our top player, with excellent finishing skills with either hand. Her high school career got sidetracked by injuries, but she had a good career and was also on the state championship volleyball team. 

Lagniappe 2: Celtics stagger DHO



The Celtics have multiple bigs who seal defenders on the drive. 

Lagniappe 3: Stagger PnR Slip 


As the play developed, I was thinking Spain PnR. Marcus Smart had other ideas. 

Lagniappe 4: "Movement kills defenses." Celtics ball movement




It's a joy to watch young players expand their game. When Danny Ainge drafted Jaylen Brown at three, some said that was a reach. Brown continues to grow his game. 

Basketball Friday: 1-3-1, Drill, Concepts, Play. "Coaching Dumacity"

"Nobody's argument was ever won by name calling." - Neil DeGrasse Tyson

We're responsible for teaching - the game, respect, and life. I'm not talking about teaching politics or religion, but values and sportsmanship. We model excellence or something less. 


"Sweep the leg." Years ago, I saw a girl dive for a loose ball, up fifteen with five seconds left. Great hustle! But not when you clip a defenseless player and take out her ACL. Use common sense. 

Drill. Box Drills. Footwork and finishing. There's no "too fundamental." 



Great drills for bigs and wings. Adding a defender makes it even better. 



Concepts.

Dumacity (a made-up word) is the "act or condition of being a dumbass." Drugs, drinking and driving, smoking, and many other plagues affect our children. Coaches exert dumacity, too. 

Referee-baiting. Is it necessary or helpful to argue every call beginning with multiple in the first forty-five seconds of a game? Having coached about fifty games in the past two seasons, I don't think one game was decided by the officiating. If we teach our players "referee abuse," what have we modeled? 

"Play hard." In our second postseason game, we're trailing by about fifteen with two minutes left. Our "deep reserves" are in the game. The opposing coach has multiple starters in, applying full court pressure, shooting threes. What's your point? My old coach, Sonny Lane told of a game where he was coaching a rag-tag bunch against an elite team, trailing by about sixty and the other team is still pressing. Or about the coach who had players intentionally throw the ball in to the pressing team who scored five consecutive layups. The coach yells at the other coach, "tell me when it's enough." 

Alpha, Charlie, 27 Purple. As an assistant, I watch our (8th grade) opponent run a set play EVERY possession. Their playbook outweighed War and Peace. Again, what's your point? And most of the plays were to set up (airball threes) for what had to be the coach's kid. Teach the game, not an exhaustive playbook. Coach K said, "the game is about making plays not running plays." 


Fight like a girl. We're playing a 7th grade contest and the opposing coach plays a 2-3 zone for the first twenty-nine minutes. We play man. We don't shoot well, but we pass okay and we're up by eight. With three minutes to go, I tell our kids to hold the ball out and make them come out and play us. The other coach starts screaming, "Play basketball." Seriously. Live by the zone, die by the zone. 

Play. Duke Elbow Handoff.



Duke runs a variety of actions from Horns sets, including dribble handoffs. 

Duke also liked clearouts with handoffs from a Horns set. 

Lagniappe: What is lagniappe? 

Lagniappe 2: Former Princeton Coach Pete Carril Quotes: 

"Everybody makes such a big deal today about team play because there's such a scarcity of it. Greed is a reason. You have to understand the influence of greed. A player has to be selfish in the pursuit of the development of his skills, but he cannot be selfish when it comes time to blend them in with what's good for his team."

"I don't recruit players who are nasty to their parents. I look for players who realize the world doesn't revolve around them."

Lagniappe 3: Princeton's biggest moment. 

Basketball Podcast Notes: Len Acuff with Chris Oliver

Chris Oliver shares with Lennie Acuff (Lipscomb). He shares many wonderful insights. Here are my notes from the Basketball Podcast. 

What is the Art of Coaching? "It depends." 

"The closest thing to a 1 shortcut in coaching is having the right mentors."

"The longer we ran (Princeton offense), we had problems a times (in our league)...it is an extremely 2 hard game when you can't score." 

"Mentor is someone who has your best interests at heart."

"You can do anything you want; you can't do everything you want." 

"Feel best teacher (of basketball) was Don Meyer." 

Taking a job - "Everything in life is fit." 

"No better way to learn than being a head coach." 

"It doesn't matter where you coach, it matters why you coach." 

Job suitability: 

• First, can you survive (on the money) with your family? 
• Can you live there? 
• Can we have enough success to advance? "Winning is hard." 

"You don't fix a flat tire by changing the driver." (Can't win everywhere)

"Coach from the community to the floor..." - build your support from the community to survive...if community support is good, you have a better shelf life. 

"Underpromise and overdeliver...slow to speak, quick to listen." 3 (Needs assessment when taking a job)

"Whom do you have to beat...then you have to put a plan in place."

"We tried to stay (consistent) positive." 

"Coach next year's team this year." (There's going to be a next year...can't ignore development...long-term vision with short-term goals)

"That's us; that's not us." (Coach Don Meyer)

"Leave the locker room better...respect..."

Coaching against coach Meyer, they could play harder longer than we could (culture)...

About Coach Beilein (time with him) - clear concept of identity

• Humility
• Love of the game "I cannot wait to get to practice..." 
• Value of language (knowledge within your organization)

"We are trying to get to the next concept." (Allows better-defined teaching)

"Helps us see through the fog"...(one word can represent a concept/playing commitment or correction)

"The ball talks." I want ball movement...(the game is different when the ball moves)

"Not yet...you're not a guy that's going to get the most shots (yet)."

Role players - "Can you affect the game without scoring and make the game easier for our best players?" Ergo, "Can you make an open shot and can you cut?" 

Make practice fun. 4 "You're not coaching basketball, you're coaching kids." Like it...love it...live it. There's an argument for playing more five-on-five. Wants players to play more pickup..."you have to be able to take drill work into live play." 

E.g. if you're more of a shooter than a driver (north-south), your pickup play, then you need to devote more time to that skill set. If you need more quickness, play against quicker guys. 

"Validate scrimmage wins with a free throw...will win or lose a game on a free throw blockout." 

"Do I want to coach him (recruiting)?" 

Coach Carril talked about "lightbulbs" and Acuff discusses dimmers.

"Bet on character; bet on production...certain guys get it done." 

5 "Guys with high basketball IQ win for you." 

When players are young they can be hard to watch. Demand cutting and pace..."our pace has to be better than the defense's ability to keep up."

"Only the fools think that is in the strategy." 

Meyer, "At the end of the day, you can't out-coach people." (You are not going to turn a team without talent into a championship team.)

"It's all about the buy-in, relationships, and your players." 

"Play with emotion without being emotional." 

6 "These are the things that we have to do to win the game." 

"Don't be afraid to do something different." Don't be ruled by ego. 

Three most dangerous words for any coach, "I got this." 

"I have more questions about the game now than I ever had."

CO: "If it were all science, we would all have the answer." 

"This is a tough profession; we need good people who love the game...and the kids." 

"Coaches need to be able to take care of each other." (Mutual support)


Lagniappe: "Football" (after a made basket). Other teams have used Acuff's innovation.




Lagniappe 2: NBA stars go "ball watching" and play bad defense. 

Basketball: One Percent Better Every Day

1 "Little things make big things happen." - John Wooden

The power of small gains is nothing new. Quickly we think of John Wooden, Darren Hardy's The Compound Effect, Japanese Kaizen, British cycling under Dave Brailsford (produced Olympic gold within two years), McLaren Formula One racing and their "Tenths" program, and the 2001 New England Patriots (Super Bowl XXXVI) built from free agents and castoffs. 




22 Years. One man. He cut through a mountain. "Don't tell me you'll try. Show me you can." 

"The Aggregation of Marginal Gains"

2 Tiny gains constantly acquired produce exponential improvement. 

James Clear reviews the process of habit formation. 

"Tell the story of why you failed." 3 Do a pre-mortem examination. Examine what went wrong before it goes wrong. We can't change if we're unaware.

Brad Stevens restates noticing with a question, "what does my team need now?" What's the proper motivation for a developmental team? I want us to be a worthy opponent. Repetitions remind us, "the magic is in the work." And Liking reminds me of the eulogy where a worker celebrated his boss, "was your work good enough that you would sign your name to it?" 

Our environment conditions our motivation. 

4 "Every outcome is a point along the spectrum of repetitions." 

"The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback." - Seth Godin

5 Clear, using a Seinfeld example, reminds us, "Don't break the chain," meaning stick to your desired (good) habit. That could be exercise, reading, writing, our morning routine. Remember Mike Dunlap's "SAVERS" acronym - silence (mediation), affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading, scribing (journaling). 

Clear distills this with advice to 6 "Never miss twice." 

The quickest path to improvement is knowledge over size, athleticism, and skill. Reading and consistent video study are vital for serious students. 

Clear closes with a story about the Ship of Theseus. If you change out every board of a ship during its long-term maintenance, do you have something fundamentally the same or different? Consistent programs constantly have turnover yet maintain a standard of excellence. 

Lagniappe: Why the numbers? In his MasterClass, investigative journalist Bob Woodward informs that every piece he writes has a minimum of six messages he wants to convey. 

Lagniappe 2: Celtics/Heat, flare screen creates corner three or drive for Jaylen Brown, the Celtics' most consistent player thus far in The Bubble. 




Lagniappe 3: James Clear on 1% Better 

Basketball: Be Like Her, Clip It, and B+

"There's no timeline for trust." - Brandon McMillan, MasterClass (Dog Training)

"Regrets, I've got a few." Name one thing you'd do differently, starting over. I wish I had a highlight film of how players executed specific tasks at "high performance" levels. Players benefit from clear models. I had players who couldn't be screened, made great outlets, excelled at help defense. But I don't have a video record (outside my mind). 

Key recommendation 1. Catch players doing something great. But players can be sensitive to being called out, even for positives. 

Key recommendation 2. Clip it. 

• Assemble hustle and highlight clips, technique and tactics. 
• Develop a "Be Like Them" reel. I substitute some wonderful examples. Find yours. 

Key recommendation 3. B+ Be positive. 

Rebound aggressively. 

Outlet well. 

Look down court.



Be great in the pick-and-roll (15 second clip).  



Get on the floor.

Be a great teammate...pick up teammates, applaud, recognize an assist.

Contain the ball. Kawhi Leonard's length, quickness, and persistence are enviable. (16 second clip)



Don't get screened. 

Help on defense. "The ball scores, not your guy." 

Take a charge. We haven't excelled in this area. (14 second clip) 


Be a willing passer. Ticha Penicheiro was one of the WNBA's finest. (10 second clip)


Attack the basket.

Be a shot maker. 


Summary: 

- Capture people doing something great.
- Record it.
- Be positive (B+).

Lagniappe: Wanting to achieve greatness cannot be taught. 

Lagniappe 2: Dog training versus coaching? Brandon McMillan explains:

Playing time is not your only contribution. Be a great practice worker. 

Basketball: Cataloging Defensive Mistakes and Errors

In Why the Best Are the Best, Kevin Eastman shares that during a playoff game against the Lakers, the champion Celtics allowed thirty-two points on defensive mistakes. The 2008 Celtics allowed the second fewest points per game (90.3) after Detroit (90.1). 

Can we catalog defensive mistakes, teach, and eliminate a significant number of points? Because many games are won or lost by two possessions or less, even modest improvements could change outcomes. Brad Stevens reminds us that the difference between a good and poor defensive team is a few possessions.

From CoachJacksonsPages (2014)

We can argue about the most common mistake and both be right because your team's mistakes may differ from mine or another coach's. 

This would always be a work in progress. Admittedly, there is overlap among physical and mental mistakes. And we can argue about good offense versus a defensive error. 

Mental mistakes:

• Not covering a player
• No help or rotation - "the ball scores"
• Bad fouls - Fouling jump shoots, fouling bad shots
• Allowing a scoring cut to the basket - our nemesis
• Poor coverage in transition 
• No communication

Physical mistakes/limitations:

• Poor effort in transition
• Poor ball containment 
• Poor blockout 
• Pick-and-roll coverage (unexecuted plan) 
• Poor closeout (none or out of control)

These examples were from a "preseason" tournament game last year. It's a criticism of the coaching and our execution, not of individual players. FWIW, defensive breakdowns led to four of the first five baskets (and many more). 

Every coach teaches defenders to "jump to the ball" and "ball-you-man" to take away scoring cuts. 


Lack of defensive floor balance/transition defense (team defense).



A turnover becomes a three-point play via an unnecessary foul. 



You don't hear me yell "watch the back cut" about five seconds before we make this error. 

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Give credit to opponents, but don't confuse good offense with poor defense. 

Lagniappe: Chris Dorsey's Zone attack, "fire" and freedom. 

Recently, coaches have asked me... “What do you do vs. Zone⁉️”

Here’s what we do👇🏽

The Rules:
1️⃣: 🏀 must stay 🔥
2️⃣: Freedom to shoot 👌🏽
3️⃣: Freedom to 🚗 pic.twitter.com/pMiHH1Tl2W

— Chris Dorsey (@GentsCoachD) August 2, 2020

Basketball: Learn from Innovative Thinkers, Disruptive Motion

Basketball has a lot of great thinkers, but other sports do, too. Ron Jaworski's Games That Changed the Game reveals a number of them - Sid Gillman, Dick LeBeau, Bill Belichick, and more.  

Gillman was the father of the modern passing game. He taught spacing, setting wide receivers beyond the numbers. He wanted defenses to defend the 53 by 100 yard gridiron. 

He believed in precision, a specific time for the ball to be in the air. He preached the advantage of small details, what foot did the defender put his weight on and how that impacted reaction. 

His spacing concepts from the late 1950s and early 1960s flavored the seam routes for future Bavaros, Gronkowskis, and Kelces. 

"What you're looking for is reaction and overreaction from the defense...I want the big play." 



Watch from 00:10 to 00:25. On the second play from scrimmage, the Chargers get that overreaction. In a regular season game versus Boston, they never used running back motion. Here, they put Paul Lowe in motion to the left and the Patriots jump offside with both outside linebackers. San Diego runs a trap to the right and the Patriots have little in the middle of the field. It only got worse from there. 


Here's the basketball analogy. Motion to the left informs a gap to the right (via Basketball Immersion). 

Sid Gillman dreamed of coaching in the Big 10. But he never got a sniff at a job because Gillman was Jewish. "Sid was very sensitive to any type of discrimination...one of the first pro coaches to actively scout historically black colleges, sign those athletes in significant numbers, and assign them roommates by position, not by race." 

Basketball evolved to emphasize threes, layups, and free throws, points per possession. And the cost of defending the perimeter is opening the middle. But we have to force opponents to defend the perimeter by shotmaking. Layups are one 'counter' to perimeter-focused offense. 

And basketball uses misdirection to reject screens, for backdoor cuts, and unconventional screening, like Spain pick-and-roll. 

Spain pick-and-roll action out of horns high ball screen. 

And basketball uses ball and player motion to open gaps for driving and cutting and move defenders against the zone. 

Obradovic 1-3-1 set PnR. 

"Clock" zone offense with sequential cutters pressuring the middle of the zone. 

Our young players need constant reinforcement of the possibilities formed by spacing, cutting, screening, and passing. The Neanderthal "20 dribbles and a shot" mentality has to go. 

Lagniappe: Well-run 1-4 press breaking has always given us problems. Via TeachHoops 

Basketball: Sustainable Concept - "Always Do Your Best."

"You will never regret doing your best." 

Our best won't always be great. Sometimes, it won't even be good. Doing our best helps us honor other agreements. 

Don Miguel Ruiz authored The Four Agreements. The final is "always do your best." Some quotes: 

"If you're doing your best, you will feel good about yourself even if you still make assumptions, still take things personally, and still are not impeccable with your word. 

Your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. (Situations change.)

As you build the habit of the four new agreements, your best will become better.

But if you do less than your best, you subject yourself to frustrations, self-judgment, guilt, and regrets. 

if you always do your best there is no way you can judge yourself. And if you don't judge yourself there is no way you are going to suffer from guilt, blame, and self-punishment.

Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you're expecting a reward.

When you do your best you learn to accept yourself.

You do your best because you want to do it, not because you have to do it.

Taking action is being alive. It's taking the risk to...express your dream.

Let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment

Everything you have ever learned, you learned through repetition.

I have fallen many times, but I stood up and kept going. And I fell again, and I kept going. I didn't feel sorry for myself."

Comment: When we do our best, we don't need to protect a fragile ego. Don't forgive ourself for preparing, practicing, and our best effort. But if we constantly do our best, our best gradually gets better. And our best flows to every aspect of our lives - how we treat each other, learn, teach, and share.  

Lagniappe: Training our dog, our team, and ourselves isn't so different. Brandon McMillan shared concepts about dog training in his MasterClass. Coaching is similar. 

Lagniappe 2: Rescreening creates a defensive challenge (20 second clip)

Lagniappe 3: a 5'11" prospect with wing skills as an 8th grader, #UnrequiredWork (8 second clip)

Lagniappe 4: I am no religious scholar. We don't discuss politics or religion at practice. But hate your neighbor? 

Basketball: Eric Spoestra (Notes on Notes) and a Big DON'T

"Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso

Not sure of the clinic time or place, but Eric Spoelstra "Spo" is good seven days a week. 

"We're not for everybody." - Be authentic, unless you're an authentic jerk 

Know your core values. (Write them out)

"Build better relationships with players." 

"Every team has a pecking order."

"How important is winning to you?" (As a developmental, middle school coach, I live with a ton of cognitive dissonance)

No compromise from being on the same page. One message. 

The Heat teach young players HOW to watch film (and that you will be coached)

"Build a growth mindset." 

Know the analytics. 

• "Shooting percentage spikes on inside-out 3's." 
• Where are our points going to come from? 

Heat (25 Horns) via Doc Rivers (see multiple teams run now) 

Lagniappe:  I knew a player who did this too often. Eventually, you get payback and it won't be pretty. I specifically teach players NOT to do this. Rip low. 

Trainers, stop teaching this rip thru move where the elbows get to the height of the defender’s face. At best, it’s a foul, at worst, you do serious damage to the defender’s face. You absolutely should not be doing potentially injurious moves pic.twitter.com/dv1o7SQHvc

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) August 1, 2020