spaceballer wrote:J_LA wrote:Nets Fans, How's your coaching staff? Do you guys have faith in Atkinson.
I admit I didn't spend much time watching you guys last season but do you guys have any pieces with potential? Any Shooters?
Thanks
Atkinson has been amazing. Nothing like Byron Scott, and I know Kenny will do a better job with DLo compared to Byron. Kenny Atkinson is the opposite of Byron Scott.
The coaches get the players to buy in by out-working them. You see Kenny on the floor sweating and playing together with the players in practice. He is up at 4am in the morning, peddling on his stationary bicycle while he reviews tape from the previous night's game displayed on a laptop lashed onto the handlebars of his exercise bike. He forms deep attachments to his players and keeps coaching keepsakes. Kenny is a humble hardworker who can be embarassed by the spotlight or praise, being very self-effacing and modest, but he has an extreme passion for basketball and is growing into a great headcoach. He admits that he is still learning as a new Headcoach and is focused on getting better, just like the players. When he made coaching mistakes, he publicly owned up to them.
His background is in player development, credited with helping JLin during Linsanity, adding a 3pt shot to Horford in Atlanta, developing Bazemore, Carroll, Teague, etc. Now that he is Headcoach, he has branched out and shown a good ability to create timeout plays, and most importantly have the trust of the players and get them to never quit or slack off even in a losing season.
The Nets culture is humble, hardworking, unselfish, hard-nosed effort no matter what the talent level. They play with ten times the intensity in order to try to use effort level to bridge the talent gap. No matter what the score, they will never ease off on the intensity and effort even late in a losing game.
In contrast to the previous Billy King era with publicity stunts and spectacles like "the blueprint" billboard ad opposite MSG, the new Markinson era is a humble low-key publicity approach adopted by the public relations guys that Sean Marks brought over from San Antonio. So it is a big market NYC team with a small market Spurs culture, organization, and approach focused on character and family. Instead of DLo sending inappropriate Nick Young infidelity tidbits, the Nets have the players' parents, siblings, wives, and 5yr old children travel on the team plane during roadtrips, and hire babysitters for their kids, arrange group dinners for the wives and girlfriends to support each other when the team is out of town, expanded the medical staff so that players can do rehab at home surrounded by family instead of trekking into the team facilities, and splurged on a million dollars worth of renovations just for a family lounge (complete with a kitchenette) so that wives, children, and family can be nearby during practice and games. And the Nets have a new kickass Brooklyn practice facility with a glass-walled panorama of the city skyline, as well as a rooftop players lounge.
Here is an article about Kenny getting up at 4am to review the previous night's game tape.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18848217/all-backfires-how-brooklyn-nets-rebuilding-nothingAll of the players Kenny develop speak highly of him. Here is an article on how tightly he bonds with JLin, one such player, including keeping a drawer full of coaching keepsakes.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2672061-linsanity-a-memory-nets-offering-second-act-for-jeremy-lin-and-kenny-atkinsonAnd here is a tribute video that a bunch of Lin fans made thanking Kenny Atkinson.
And here is a piece on the new family room.
https://www.netsdaily.com/2017/2/6/14511232/little-things-mean-a-lot-department-the-nets-family-loungeAnd about family, spouses, children on the team plane as part of the road games. (Imagine how different the Lakers culture would be if Kobe's children or Swaggy's then fiancee Iggy or Clarkson's parents were on the team plane during roadgames to be a supportive and moderating influence. The Spurs culture that Marks is trying to import to NYC focuses on families.)
https://www.netsdaily.com/2017/3/7/14839958/flying-the-family-along-with-the-teamHere are some pictures of the new practice facility on the 8th floor, and rooftop lounge
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Believe it or not, this past season was the first season with the Nets fully in NYC. With the opening of the new HSS Training Center practice facility in Brooklyn, and the closing of the old one in New Jersey last summer, the Nets are actually now more "New York" than the Knicks. The Nets play in NYC (Barclay) and train in NYC(HSSTC) and live in NYC (players like to live near the practice facility, so when that shifted from Jersey to Brooklyn, so did the players. They went from 2 players in NYC to 13 players living in Brooklyn). The Knicks play in NYC, but don't train in NYC (their practice facility is out in Westchester).
The giant picture they recently installed to reinforce the focus on culture is not of accolades or individual achievements, not of a thrilling threepoint shot or game winner or dunk or block. It is of a bunch of teammates rushing to help someone fallen. Stressing teamwork pulling each other up, the tight-knit bond of the many reaching out to the one, willingness to do the dirty work and get on the ground, effort, and the humility that even a team leader needs to be helped up and trust in his teammates. The motto is even etched into the glass of the war room used by the FO and coaching staff in HSSTC (HSS stands for Hospital for Special Surgery, who co-brand the Nets training center, and have a special partnership with the Nets and is where some Nets team doctors moonlight. Kevin Durant traveled from OKC to NYC to be operated on by the Nets foot specialist).
Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson have done a phenomenal job turning the culture around from the Billy King era. The Markinson era looks bright so far.
Hopefully that gives you a short primer on some Nets info.
Since you've followed him in LA, do you think DLo would fit into this humble, unselfish, high character, low-key publicity, hardworking, blue-collar, no nonsense, family first culture modeled after the Spurs (a third of the new hires that Sean Marks brought in with him have a Spurs background)? I'm hoping the change in culture can help him mature. But it is worrying that his issues persisted across two coaches so we can't just blame Byron Scott if he was like this under Luke Walton as well. Hopefully getting traded is a wakeup call and he grows up with a fresh start. He has a lot of promise.
