Wizards and Player Development

[TheSecretWeapon]

I think the vast majority of player "development" is done by the players themselves. Developing skills takes some level of competent guidance, but the way humans develop skills is repetition. There hasn't been a coach or teacher in the history of everything who has been present for the hours of repetition -- practice -- it takes for a student to take what the teacher has told him/her and turned it into a useful skill.

There are points of emphasis and "theory of the game" stuff that a good coach can lay out for a player, and -- for the most part -- the Wizards have done a sub-par job of it. The rampant 2pt jump shooting the past few years, complete with Randy Wittman asserting they're "good shots", is one example.

A couple other examples: Wall STILL shooting jumpers with his off hand on top of the ball is on Wall, not the coaches who have told him to move his hand to the side. Wall continuing to use screens improperly -- I lean toward that being on the coaches not correcting him. That Wall is at his career high in turnover rate in his sixth season; that's on both. The coaches should have been pounding into him for five years to value possessions.

Anyway...

[Zonkerbl]

How do you practice not turning the ball over though?

[TheSecretWeapon]

How do you practice not turning the ball over though?

Avoiding turnovers would seem to be in the "theory of the game" bucket. It's something coaches should be emphasizing -- especially the careless turnovers that Wall (for example) is still committing. His penchant for jumping and then figuring out whether to shoot or pass. How to address it? Watching film, studying the game, reaching an understanding of the value of possessions. These are things coaches should be talking about, especially to a guy like Wall. At the same time, Wall is in his sixth season. He ought to have learned by now that his turnovers are hurting the team, and done something about it.

This doesn't really answer the "how do you practice avoiding turnovers" but to kinda illustrate the point: Wall has the 8th most zero-point possessions per 100 team possessions. The league leader is DeMarcus Cousins, but in general the players are high-usage perimeter guys: Westbrook, Mudiay, Kobe, Harden, Lillard, George, Wade, Lebron, Reggie Jackson... you get the point. But, among the "top" 40 in zero-point possessions, only two players have 20% or more of their possessions end in a turnover: Mudiay and Wall.

[keynote]

How do you practice not turning the ball over though?

Avoiding turnovers would seem to be in the "theory of the game" bucket. It's something coaches should be emphasizing -- especially the careless turnovers that Wall (for example) is still committing. His penchant for jumping and then figuring out whether to shoot or pass. How to address it? Watching film, studying the game, reaching an understanding of the value of possessions. These are things coaches should be talking about, especially to a guy like Wall. At the same time, Wall is in his sixth season. He ought to have learned by now that his turnovers are hurting the team, and done something about it.

This doesn't really answer the "how do you practice avoiding turnovers" but to kinda illustrate the point: Wall has the 8th most zero-point possessions per 100 team possessions. The league leader is DeMarcus Cousins, but in general the players are high-usage perimeter guys: Westbrook, Mudiay, Kobe, Harden, Lillard, George, Wade, Lebron, Reggie Jackson... you get the point. But, among the "top" 40 in zero-point possessions, only two players have 20% or more of their possessions end in a turnover: Mudiay and Wall.

Re: careless possession management: I think this definitely falls in the coaches' lap, because while Wall is the primary culprit, he is definitely not the only offender on the team. We have several players with good court vision for their position (e.g., Nene, Dudley, Porter), but they all share Wall's willingness to attempt high-degree of difficulty passes. When it works out, they look like Larry Bird. But none of them *are* Larry Bird, and they end up making their fair share of unforced turnovers as well. The coaching staff should be teaching all of the players to trust the offense instead of trying to force the glamour pass through.

[queridiculo]

If you haven't seen this already, what Popovich had to say on the subject of player development might be of some interest.

I've quoted just a few excerpts, definitely worth reading the whole thing, you'll come away recognizing quite a few things about the Washington Wizards under Grunfeld.

http://hoopshype.com/2015/10/13/forces-of-character-a-conversation-with-gregg-popovich/

Chad Hennings: When people talk about the San Antonio Spurs, they mention the five championships, they talk about you and Tim Duncan and David Robinson, and inevitably they talk about the high character of your team. How have you gone about building that reputation and infusing character into your organization?

Gregg Popovich: Sometimes when I hear people talk about character I think it’s a little too general of a term. We’ve all seen a million books on it and everybody’s got a different definition of what makes up character. People always say our teams have character and they know how to win, know how to lose, all sorts of those things. I try to be a little more specific in my definition, especially when it comes to the character of players we bring in.

Can you explain that process a little bit and get into the nitty gritty of your definition of character?

GP: When I’m interviewing a kid to draft I’m looking for specific things. Over the course of sitting in the gym and talking, having lunch, watching him at free agent camp, this is what I’m after and not necessarily in this order.

Having a sense of humor is huge to me and to our staff because I think if people can’t be self-deprecating or laugh at themselves or enjoy a funny situation, they have a hard time giving themselves to the group.

You look at a guy like Tim Duncan. He never changes his expression but he can hit you with some of the best wise-ass comments in the world. I can be in a huddle, laying into him about his rebounding, saying to him, “Are you gonna get a rebound tonight or what? You haven’t done anything.” Then on the way out of the huddle, he’ll say, “Hey, Pop.” I’ll say, “Yeah.” He’ll say, “Thanks for the encouragement,” and walk back on the court. He’s being facetious, but nobody sees things like that. I think when a player has that ability and has respect it’s a good thing.

It’s funny you bring this up because nobody has mentioned the idea of having a sense of humor in terms of character, but you’re right, it really is important. For levity, for relationships, for leadership, humor can be a very effective tool. And it’s great that you use Tim Duncan as an example of that, because most people might not be aware that he’s a funny guy. What are some other character traits you look for?

GP: Being able to enjoy someone else’s success is a huge thing. If I’m interviewing a young guy and he’s saying things like, “I should have been picked All-American but they picked Johnny instead of me,” or they say stuff like, “My coach should have played me more; he didn’t really help me,” I’m not taking that kid because he will be a problem one way or another. I know he will be a problem. At some point he’ll start to think he’s not playing enough minutes, or his parents are going to wonder why he’s not playing, or his agent’s going to call too much. I don’t need that stuff. I’ve got more important things to do. I’ll find somebody else, even if they have less ability, as long as they don’t have that character trait.

That really is a good indicator. If someone is always blaming other people for their shortcomings, chances are they’ll eventually blame you too. So much about having character is taking responsibility for your actions and putting yourself on the proper vector for success. What else do you look for?

GP: Work ethic is obvious to all of us. We do that through our scouting. For potential draft picks, we go to high school practices and to college practices to see how a player reacts to coaches and teammates. The phrase that we use is seeing whether people have “gotten over themselves.”

When there’s a guy who talks about himself all day long, you start to get the sense that he doesn’t listen real well. If you’re interviewing him and before you ever get anything out of your mouth he’s speaking, you know he hasn’t really evaluated what you’ve said. For those people, we think, Has this person gotten over himself? If he has then he’s going to accept parameters. He’s going to accept the role; he’s going to accept one night when he doesn’t play much. I think it tells me a lot.

I like that. “Has this person gotten over themselves?” Such a simple question, but the answer speaks volumes. If they haven’t, they can’t give themselves to the team and won’t put the work in.

GP: Right. We also look at how someone reacts to their childhood. Some of these kids, as you know, had it pretty tough coming up. Once in a while somebody has had it easy, but for the most part a lot of guys have had some pretty hard knocks already. I like to hear situations where they had to raise a brother or sister, or where they had a one-parent family or a grandma or grandpa raised them and they still ended up doing pretty well academically in high school.

I like to see if they participated in some function in the community, or if they’ve overcome something or had a tough injury and came back. That sort of thing tells me what kind of character they have. I think all those things together tell me about their inner fiber. When I think about character I want to know about the fiber of an individual. I want to know what, exactly, they’re made of; what’s attached to their bones and their hearts and their brains. It’s all those things that form their character to me.

[keynote]

Bumped.

Jared Dudley was the first guest on JJ Redick's new podcast on The Vertical:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-vertical-podcast-with-j-j--redick--the-blake-griffin-situation-144948954.html

Dudley contrasted Wizards' practices with his practices with the Nash-era Suns, noting that the Suns placed a much higher emphasis on players doing shooting drills during practice. Redick noted that players have an onus to put up shots on their own time, but both Redick and Dudley agreed that a team's emphasis in practice often reflects their identity, e.g., defensive-minded teams invest relatively more time going over their defensive sets, good shooting teams invest time in shooting, etc.

I mention this because the Wizards have attempted to shift from a big, defense-first team to a smaller pace-and-space team. However, our "sharpshooters" on the perimeter have been inconsistent from beyond the arc -- especially when taking contested 3s. I'm sure that the coaches have invested time in introducing the new offensive sets, but I wonder if they've devoted enough practice time to guys simply putting up shots.

I dunno.

Looking at the numbers, I see that Ramon Sessions, Gary Neal, Jared Dudley, Kris Humphries and Drew Gooden have been dramatically better at shooting the 3 in Washington than they were elsewhere.

I figured that was due more to them getting more open looks than to improved accuracy from practicing. I wonder what their percentages are like on contested threes this year vs. previous years. I can't isolate the #s for 3PTA, but here's what I could find in general:

http://www.nbaminer.com/player-trackings/
Dudley 14/15: 50% contested, 46.3 uncontested (72.5% of shots uncontested)
Dudley 15/16: 45.8% contested, 48.3 uncontested (81.5% of shots uncontested)

Sessions 14/15: 38.2, 36.2, (38.0)
Sessions 15/16: 48.7, 45.4 (36.9)

Neal 14/15: 36.7, 38.5 (37.2)
Neal 15/16: 44.6, 47.5 (50.0)

Hump 14/15: 45.9, 48.8 (56.3)
Hump 15/16: 42.6, 39.8 (65.6)

Gooden 14/15: 33.7, 43.4 (62.5)
Gooden 15/16: 29.2, 33.3 (60.0)

Temple 14/15 40.0, 39.5 (64.5)
Temple 15/16 47.0, 37.7 (63.0)

Porter 14/15 50.3, 41.3 (57.2)
Porter 15/16 48.8, 44.0 (64.3)

Since the #s don't distinguish between 2PTA and 3PTA, we gotta take them with a grain of salt. But I don't think Dudley is necessarily shooting better; he's just getting more open looks. Sessions and Neal have improved their FG%, no matter how you slice it, but Neal is definitely getting more open looks. Hump's data is too hard to parse without info on shot location -- but his shift to the perimeter is the likely reason for the increase in his open looks as well. Temple has shown a dramatic improvement in making contested shots -- which definitely maps with the eye test. Porter's gotten more open looks.

Our shooters are easily run off of the 3PT line, so the increase in uncontested shots might also be attributable to them passing up shots they *should* take.

[payitforward]

Great interview! Great podcast overall -- Redick is going to be a huge success in the media.

On practicing shooting: there was no mention of work on shooting mechanics in that regard. That was just about players getting shots up -- as a scheduled part of *team practice.* He points out that teams differ -- e.g. that Doc's Clipper team doesn't practice at all (did I hear that right?).

He also mentioned that all teams, Wizards included, have "player development" guys now: that's separate from team practices. That's where you'd be working on shooting mechanics, no? You wouldn't schedule that as part of regular team practice.

[keynote]

Great interview! Great podcast overall -- Redick is going to be a huge success in the media.

He's a natural, agreed.

In practicing shooting: there was no mention of work on shooting mechanics in that regard. That was just about players getting shots up -- as a scheduled part of *team practice.* He points out that teams differ -- e.g. that Doc's Clipper team doesn't practice at all (did I hear that right?).

He also mentioned that all teams, Wizards included, have "player development" guys now: that's separate from team practices. That's where you'd be working on shooting mechanics, no? You wouldn't schedule that as part of regular team practice.

That's what I had previously thought as well. And, Redick mentioned that he carves out his own time to get his reps in, regardless of the structure of practice. Still, it's interesting to hear that some coaches do devote practice time to shooting drills, and some don't. Dudley didn't shed much light on where the Wizards fall on that spectrum; it would've been nice to know.

As for the distinction between shot reps and working on shot mechanics: perhaps the latter falls outside of the scope of every NBA team's practice. But even so: players working on their mechanics still need to get the reps in to burn thew new mechanics into their muscle memory. The onus is always on the player find the time to improve his skills, but I'm sure some organizations provide a more nurturing environment than others. Both McGee/McGee's moms and Vesely took shots at our player development program. Granted, neither blossomed into skills-first players elsewhere, but it's still a data point or two against the org.