Post#1 » by mkwest » Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:12 am
Frankly speaking, the coach needed to improve his time management during practice, he should consider using different techniques in pushing the right buttons of his players, and, on top of it, improve those crucial in-game decisions, on both ends of the court.
But this assessment of an NBA coach wasn't coming from a newspaper columnist, an ex-player turned TV talking head, anyone with a hidden agenda or some goofy slide show on a blog.
"I don't have the time to worry about it [the pressure] — whether it's the critics or the blogs or the papers or the TV," Del Negro, 46, said recently. "I don't have the time nor the energy. My energy is directed toward the preparation of this team on a daily basis."
Del Negro had never coached before he took over the Chicago Bulls for two seasons. In his four seasons as an NBA coach, he has missed the playoffs just once. The good and the bad in Chicago shaped him, just the way the good and the bad has done so in Los Angeles.
"There was no question all those experiences make you better," Del Negro said. "Are some of them difficult to go through at times? Yeah. But that's probably the best part about it, as you look back at it. Hopefully you become better at your craft. You have to work at it. It's a never-ending process."
The longest-tenured Clippers player happens to be center DeAndre Jordan, now entering his fifth season. But Jordan has noticed the difference in Del Negro and the team during a tumultuous two seasons in which very little stayed the same, featuring a rotating cast of characters.
"It took us a year and a year and change for everybody to really get on each other's page," Jordan said. "It's great now. He's a player's coach. New guys, different personalities came in and we're all on the same page and we all know what our goal is. The coaching is going to get a lot easier with the guys that we have."
Lisa Dillman,
LA Times
