Mind the Game - Ring Culture, LeBron’s Toughest Defenders and More Fan Questions

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

We truly feel like we have the best fans in the world so on today’s episode of Mind the Game, LeBron James and Steve Nash took some time to answer some great fan questions. We cover a variety of topics like The Triangle offense going extinct, the best defenders LeBron and Steve have ever seen and what goes into making a truly great coach in the NBA. All that and more on a very special episode of Mind the Game. Thanks to all our fans and everyone who has listened, subscribed and engaged in our podcast. We’re very grateful. Enjoy the show!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Yeah, it's not out of it. It's under. It's not under a hundred. Right. Probably, yeah, or just that. Yeah, yeah, set the mood in this. Theater lighting, baby. Yeah, theater lighting, baby.

Welcome back. Yes, sir. Mind the game. Again, baby. We are very fortunate to have incredible fans online the game. We put it out there to our community to ask questions. This is a Q&A episode and we got a ton of questions. Love that.

Love that. And we really appreciate the support and all the fans out there tuning in all the time. So thank you very much. All right, Laker Nerd asks, why is the Triangle offense less utilized in today's game? Um, pacing space and, um, you know, the way teams switch basketball, you know, switch everything now would be very challenging, um, you know, to, to, you know, to run the triangle. And obviously the triangle was great, you know, um, in his time was, you know, great offense.

Tex winner, obviously, you know, great and feeling them implement that into, into the NBA. And, you know, having that, you know, that pinch post game with the, with the, with the, with the, with the gaggle action on the backside, being able to, you know, read and react off of there, you know. Two man and three man games. I thought, you know, it was definitely a great system, ecosystem to have. I just think the game is so much more spread out now, the three-point shooting now, the attempts on three-point shooting, the space, you know, obviously, you know, back when they were

running it, you know. All that stuff was inside the three-point line. You know, you know, Bill Cartwright. and Luke Longley, and, you know, Horace was, you know, kind of a hybrid. He shot a lot of long tools, but none of those guys, Dennis Rodman, none of those guys was really shooting threes, you know, so, you know, they built a system that was perfect for their personnel, you know, and, but now the game is just so much different, you know, to try to run the triangle offense right now, it would be very challenging just because

how the game is played and also how defense is covering. And you could take a lot of things away, you know, now by just like switching a lot of things, depending on your personnel, obviously, and that has a lot to do it. But I think it was great in this time, but I don't see how it could, you know, it could be good. You can use certain things from it. Yeah, there's still like, you know, like you want 21. You know, we run 21 where you pitch it ahead and chase it, you know, that's basically an extended version of kind of the triangle when you hit the, it's taking component off of it.

You know, you know, they used to, you know, MJ would be on the baseline and then, you know, kind of use the Chicago screen off of Luke Longley or one of the centers to get a catch in the middle of the lane. You know, there's certain things that have been taken. If you watch our game, there's small little bits that's been taken from the triangle offense that teams and players run are still there. So it still has an impact in our game. It's just the whole landscape is not. I don't think so. It would be interesting to hear in Tex, you know, his thoughts on how it would adapt. What tweaks would you make?

Because I think you're right, like, it's just too punishing to, it's too difficult and too punishing to cover the space and pace game. You got to, the guys are stretching the floor to the deep, deep corner, out to the hash marks. Guys are flying down, like, are you in the gaps? Are you not?

What are you giving up? Like, you know, I think some people say maybe the game's gotten more homogenized, but like we talked about, it's more the jazz, the feel, play out of principles. That's what's hard to defend. Right, right. You know, when you know what someone's running,

every time. Even with their counters, that predictability can be problematic along with the switching. So I'd love to hear him know, like, how he would tweak it. Yeah, I mean, Texas is so great. I guarantee he could, you know, what would be, you know, it's like almost like, you know, like Bill Walsh, you know, running the West Coast offense. Like they're running, you know, he would probably, you know, what would he do with? He would make it to what it looks like today's game, you know, but running it exactly how they ran it, you know, in the 90s and, and, early 2000 I just don't yeah too easy to defend you're enforcing a lot of twos yeah a lot of long twos compact the paint right um so yeah it's just not a fit for this era but it would

be interesting yeah it would be interesting where he'd take it here's one um from windy city assassin who were the greatest defensive players each of us is faced and why you have anyone in mind that you're like that was a great defender yeah um ron artes was uh was uh you know, Meta World Peace now. He was, you know, Ronald.

Really good with his hands. Laterally was really good, strong as an ox. You know, I played again in my early years when he was in Indiana. I mean, you know,

it was challenging, you know, for sure. You know, it was one of the best defenders probably I've played against. Yeah, I mean,

it's an interesting question, right? Especially you go back to, you know, back in my era and your early career. Like, the game was different.

You're talking about defenders, you're thinking about rim protectors, typically, you know, Tim Duncan, just his feel for space, the ability to block shots, you know, KG, you know, had some versatility to it as well, incredible communicator, you know, then you think about the guards. I mean, I came in the league, you know, MJ was one of the best defenders, but point guards, you know, I always give Jason a kid a nod, you know. He didn't, Jason doesn't have a career highlights of dunk in the ball. I mean, obviously he could, but he, that was, that was. That was. was in his game but his like mobility explosiveness like his lateral quickness like he was a freaky athlete in a different way right he wasn't always going to take off and dunk on people but the way like I remember seeing him one time they take the ball out of the bounds we're trying

to press late in the game and there's literally guys 10 12 feet on either side of him and the guy kind of went this way and Jason faked and he threw it that way and he picked that pass off like I was thinking to myself like I'm in the game and I'm like rewind that how did that ball like he had leaning and he let it and stole the ball so like his his athleticism and and also you know when

he was up for it when he was you know pissed off and competitive yeah you can really get after people so but you my point is there's so many players out there that defend in different ways that it's hard to pick one but so many great defenders yeah for sure i just i had to go straight back to my early days like yeah i was trying to ron definitely had you like okay this is Yeah. The league is about, okay, just continue to lock in. This is a hell of a test for you as an 18-year-old kid out of high school, like, you know, going against this. With the target on it.

Yeah, I was like, okay, yeah, I love this. This is awesome. Yeah, for sure. Okay. From Dustin Nielsen, why is ring culture so much more prevalent in the NBA than in other sports? I wish we had a simple answer, right? Oh, my goodness. I do not know the answer.

I wish I had the answer to this, but I'm not sure, man. It's funny, yeah, I don't know. I don't know why it's discussed so much in our sport and why it's the A-all-B-all of everything. Like, okay, you weren't a great player if you never won a championship. It's like, or if you won one,

then you can't be in the same conversation with this person. But that's a great point because what you're saying is like, no matter what you have, you need more. no matter what right no matter what they can never end yeah and and it is i don't know man it's just like are you you sit here and you tell me you know alan iverson and and charles barclay and steve nash you know you know our fucking wasn't unbelievable like oh they can't be talked

about or discussed with these guys is because this guy won one one ring or one two rings or one like it's just it's just weird to me it's like sam peyton manning can't be in the same room with brady or mahomes because he only has one ring they don't never discuss that in any sport right or telling me that damarino is not the greatest slinger of all time or he can't be in the room with those guys because he didn't win a championship they don't discuss those things you know um i don't know i don't know did barry bonds win a war series i don't think so i don't think so i don't think so Barry Bond's never won a World Series

You can't sit here and tell me That he's not the greatest baseball player That ever touch a bat I just I don't understand where it came from I don't know where it started I just I hope that We just we have to appreciate more

Of what guys have been able to accomplish What guys have been able to do A ring is a team accomplishment And if you happen to have a You know a moment where you're able to share that with your team that should be discussed this this team was the greatest team okay that team you can have those conversations but like trying to nitpick an individual because he did was not able to win a team game or a team match or whatever the case

may be I just I don't know where it started it's just it's a long conversation especially when it comes to like you know yeah me individually It's just so weird. It's so weird. Coming from someone who's won a person. Yeah, it's just so weird. It's never enough. I feel like it was in the 90s.

It started to shift, you know, when I got in the league. Now, maybe I'm short-sighted. You know, our memories are fallible. I don't know. But I felt like it started to become that way. I don't know. I wonder sometimes it's part of the way we cover sports nowadays. Like we don't necessarily, like it's not 50-50 glorify and critique.

It seems like it's more. critical than it is glorified. I'm not asking for pro athletes to be glorified, but we are talking about the best in the world. Yeah. So I think it's really like we've got to be careful sometimes how we can be so dismissive of a team, a player, an accomplishment, or a failure. Because these are the best in the world.

No matter how you slice it. Yeah, for sure. It's like you automatically dismiss people in their careers. When you, oh, you just be like, oh, he didn't win a ring. or he doesn't have a ring it's like do you actually have you actually sat down

and actually like really looked at this guy's career and what he was able to accomplish you know I mean Jerry West I think went to like nine straight NBA finals and was only able to win one

and he's the logo of our league so you can't see here and tell me that okay well because he only won one the guy can't be in the same room with the guy who won two or three or four like why not this guy he's our logo

not good enough like he's not good enough yeah it's just it's uh you know rest you know rest you know our late great Jerry West so man an unbelievable person too by the way I love that guy a big shout out of Jerry West but yeah

I don't know when it started man I just hope that we appreciate the guys who definitely you know don't matter man But at the end of the day, when you're all done and you're done and the game is past you by, I hope you just, you know, hope you just appreciate, you know, what we're able to do. We, I don't. What do they say? They say life's an illusion.

This is just all noise, really, you know. You got to run your own race. Enjoy it. Be in the moment. Be proud of what you accomplish. If people want to talk well or poorly, that's on them. Yeah, that represents them. I always say that, right?

Like, what we say is a representation of us, not the subject we're talking about. about as much as anything. Yeah, for sure. All right, here's a question from Daniel mayna.n on IG. Why are teams having a difficult time closing games against the Indiana Pacers? That's a great question, Daniel. And let's set the stage on that question.

So they played the box in the first round. Came back from a crazy situation to win, I think, the deciding game? Yeah, that was game five? Yeah, I think it was in Indy, in Indy, overtime. Over time, mm-hmm. Gary Trent had a big game. Huge game. A couple of turnovers, couple threes, drive to the basket by Halley and game flips like that.

Game flips like that. They go and play the Cavs. So most people know this, but of course they had this crazy comeback. Yeah. I think did they miss a free throw? Hallie missed a free throw, got it back, dribbled out. Now, the shot's the shot, but it was like another 14. I'm going to call them all 14-point comebacks in two and a half years.

That's their whole thing. It feels like it. Then they go on and play the Knicks in the Garden. Yeah, game one. Crazy game. The Knicks had no business losing. They, you know, come back. He hits all the threes.

And Halley hits the shot that bounces up. Reminding me of the Kauai shot, Toronto, Philly that bounced around a bunch of times. And they win in overtime. Went an overtime. Game one of the NBA finals on the road. We think they're done. And here they come again. I mean, I'll set the stage, but it's pretty remarkable mental toughness and resilience they have.

They never stop playing. Yep. Never stopped playing. Bingo. That's the number one. That's the answer right there. You know, they don't stop playing. And then the other part of this, I think it's important for fans to recognize.

Players, we don't want to admit this. But you play to win or you play not to lose. And at times when you have a 14-point lead with three or four minutes left, you're looking at the clock, like how do we manage the clock? Because it would be stupid not to. Right. But what does that do to you? Yeah. You're trying to find the balance about being intelligent, still being forceful and aggressive, but not being silly, not being cavalier.

And so what it does is innately sometimes gets teams on their heels. They're trying to manage the clock, then win the game. So I think there's a really a nice switch and dynamic. That's why basketball's great. One team's got nothing to lose. We already got beat. We're down 14 with three minutes left or whatever. Let's see what we got.

Let's go. And for the winning team, if we lose now, so you're on your heels, you're negative. So I don't know. I love the way they play. They play fast. They shoot threes. They have good free throw shooters. They are more physical and I think better defensive team, especially than prior years than we give them credit for.

And they're just incredible, I think, mentally staying. Yeah, there it is right there. They just don't stop playing and they just mentally engaged, man. They don't waver. No matter. Win-lose or draw. They don't waver. That's the answer right there.

Amazing skill for a team. For sure. This episode is sponsored in part by American Express. American Express knows that for an obsessive basketball fan like me, the playoffs mean a lot of travel time. Between broadcasting games and catching up with old teammates, I'm on the road almost every week, from Boston to L.A. and everywhere in between. After all these years, I've learned that the journey is as important as the destination. That's why I've always, tried to find a spot to stretch, grab a coffee, and get my mind right before heading over to the arena. Fortunately, there's a card that makes every part of that journey better. With

Amex Platinum, you earn five times membership rewards points. On prepaid hotels and flights, booked through Amextravel.com on up to $500,000 on flight purchases per year. Plus, you get access to the Centurion Lounge, which makes travel that much more enjoyable. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. For more information, visit Americanexpress.com slash travel. After many years in the game, both on court and off, I know all about high-stakes showdowns. That's why I'm hooked on Michael Crichton's binary on Audible. From the creator of Jurassic Park and ER comes this classic techno-thriller about a radical

aiming to bring down the government with a deadly nerve gas. The cat and mouse game between the terrorist and a determined State Department agent had me on the edge of my seat in the ride over here. But Audible isn't just about heart-pounding thrillers from electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine-tingling horror and romance in far-off realms. Audible delivers thrills of every kind on your command. You'll find gripping titles that keep you guessing, exclusive Audible originals, and bestsellers that hook you from the first minute. Ready for your next great adventure? Sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash game and discover what lies beyond the

edge of your seat. Question here from Lakers lead. How much do assistant coaches matter in the NBA? Quite a bit. I think the responsibility that a head coach has on the things that he has to prepare for and the things that he has to get the guys ready to play is so much. already, you know, and, you know, for the assistant coaches to be able to take some of the burden off the head coach, you know, either with helping with substitution patterns, helping with all the room, you know, head coach shouldn't have to deal with that all the time. Now, I understand, like, I've had fortunate enough in my career to have head coaches that had like an open door policy, if you had a problem come and talk to me. But on a day-to-day basis, you know, a head coach shouldn't have to be facilitating that all the time, you know, because it's ups and downs and things and guys.

have their emotions throughout the course of a season. And if you have great assistants, they can, you know, they can tune that down. You know, they can help with that, facilitate that. And also, you know, just the stuff like the small things that happen when guys get to the, get to the arena early or guys get to practice facilities earlier, being able to have assistant coaches that come out there and work with you, watch film, which you get on the court, with you things of that nature, and just conversate throughout the rest of the day, throughout the rest of the games, on the road, whatever the case may be.

So I think assistant coaches are very vital to team's success. Yeah, I mean, great rundown there. I think it just doesn't work without assistant coaches. In all capacities, I think fans have to understand that whether it's them dealing with personalities for the coach or the coach dealing with the personalities and the assistants dealing with some of the film and tactical elements preparation, there's a scale there. But all that work needs to get done. You're playing three, four games a week.

Like, you have to cut off responsibilities and coach. collaborate. Maybe we should break down for, like, fans, what an NBA assistant coach's responsibilities are. I mean, where do we start? Yeah. So, first of all, usually NBA assistant coaches have one, two, three players that they're responsible for. So that they have to work on film, their routine. You know, in the NBA, just for fans, everyone's got to have a routine. You play so many games, different time zones, you're traveling. Some guys are high minute guys. Some guys don't play and got to stay ready. maybe we start there like what does it look like on a staff with an assistant coach and his responsibility to a player

well yeah i mean you just you started off by saying in the sense of when it comes to routine you know guys have a routine and they locked in on that you know and like you said you're changing time zones you're in different cities you know but the one thing that never changes is the the time that you're supposed to be on the court the time you're supposed to be in the weight room the time you're supposed to be in the training room you know getting those work getting that work done now you have some of the older vets, sometimes it could change kind of just a little bit depending on, you know, if they played a lot

of minutes the night before, or if it's three games and four nights, you know, they might switch it up a little bit, but for the younger guys and for the guys that's like, you know, fifth, six, seven years into the league, it has to stay the same and guys go off that routine and the assistant coaches is the ones that

are, you know, you're accountable for your own work, obviously, but the assistant coaches be on you about it and you know, so every day, you know, it comes to, okay, this is what time you need to be on the court, if you shoot at 90 on the clock, or if you shoot at 50 on the clock, okay, well, before that 10 minutes come out 10 minutes early so we can watch film, you know, we can lock in on, you know, the film from the previous three or four games or just last game or we just clipping the defensive side or whatever

the case may be. So, you know, they're locked in on everything that needs to get done for when the game starts, you're already prepared. And if you're not someone that's in a regular rotation right now, then like you said, they're ready, stay ready. They have those games. Sometimes you could see, you could come, I get to the arena so early, there's times where if I don't beat everybody there that you could have a couple guys that's not playing out there actually running up and down to court with assistant coaches staying ready, you know, going through the same offensive things that we're going to run, the same defensive coverages that we would do, you know, so they're always prepared whenever your number is called

Because we're all professionals, you have to stay ready, and the assistant coaches, they stay on that. So essentially what LeBron just mentioned here is the player development component. And that happens to the star player all the way down to a guy who's trying to make his name in the league. It's different. Obviously, a star player, it's about refining, tweaking, staying optimal. For a young guy, it might be like a three-year plan. Right.

I'm trying to build there. You mentioned playing, the stay-ready group, you know, we used to call it in Brooklyn. guys that don't get a lot of minutes need to run up and down. So one thing just to mention is usually NBA film rooms nowadays are built with four, five, six guys that have played, at least four or five of them have played in college or maybe overseas. So they can play against your young guys, just have enough bodies because the rotation guys can't play every day. So you need guys to play against them whether it's one-on-one, three-on-three, five-on-five. So that's an important thing for people to recognize. You can find guys that are intelligent, hardworking, that played the game that you can teach the film stuff to, but they're able to get on the ball.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny you say that because, I mean, one of our assistant coaches who pretty much works day-to-day with Bronny was James Hardin's college backcourt mate. Okay. So, you know. So did he get any shots in college? Probably not. Probably not. We brought the ball up, gave it to James. James do your thing.

But like you just said, those guys are, you know, either played in college, played over. overseas, you know, and so when they're getting out there, they're like really going, you know, obviously they're going at the guys and those guys are going at them as well. And it's, and it's still fun. It's still competitive, you know. So, you know, having that, having that ordeal is definitely, you know, great for the state ready guys, for sure. As far as the extended responsibilities, so a lot of NBA teams have an assistant coach as an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator. They also have to do scouts. Pre-game scouts. So you'll break down. The next opponent, so typically for fans out there, and NBA assistant coach may have, who knows, five to, you know, all the scouts, depending on how your staff divides them. But that coach has got to probably watch, typically, like the last four games that team's played,

starts to put together clips, start to formulate a game plan. You know, then they go and talk with the head coach about it, how we want to play them, you know, when are we blitzing, when are we switching, what are we doing after the switch? What's our second line of defense like? What actions can we go out with them? So there's a lot of scouting that goes into it.

I'm sure you've had some coaches that were incredible game planning over your career. Yeah, I mean, my first stint in Cleveland when Mike Brown took over, you know, two guys that was basically, you know, ran a lot of our things. Mike Malone was our assistant coach, you know. You know, Lloyd Pierce was our player development guy. Chris Gent was one of our player development guy and Mike Brown gave them a lot of the rain You know and obviously we you know

Mike Malone's an NBA champion as a head coach You know and obviously you know you see Lloyd Pierce now It's right there next to you know Rick Carlisle in the finals right now You know so you know those guys get a lot of responsibility you know And I think there's a sense of pride too when you become like an assistant coach And you start getting that responsibility where now you're doing the breakdowns of teams and you're doing the scouting

so you come in you do the scouting you're saying okay this is the personnel this is who you're guarding this is things they're going to run this is how we're going to prepare for them and if that assistant coach

if you win that game that night because of your scout you know the players start to feel a certain way of too about it like you know you start knowing like if you got three or four coaches and one of the coaches

is doing the scout and we're winning those games you know, you get, like, excited for that coach to come up and talk again, you know, because like you said, it could be, you can have three or four coaches that does scouting throughout the course of the season. So there's a sense of pride from assistant coaches, too, when they get up there and they do their scout and they, like, they win those games, you know, so that's pretty cool, too. Yeah, they're keeping score.

No, they definitely keep a score, for sure, for sure. They hope they had a good draft at the start of the year on the opponents, but they're keeping score. Right, you know, one thing that, you know, I think is an interesting topic. a conversation is NBA staffs have gotten so big. Now, I don't think there's one way to do it, but I do think that having a big staff can be too much sometimes. You know, nowadays, you know, you've got a head coach, you've got eight or nine assistants. You know, you've got four on the front, you got four on the back at least. You know, that's before you mentioned film guys, analytics guys, like we mentioned, guys in the film room that are playing. You know, it adds up

to your managing a lot of personalities. And frankly, at times, you know, coaches are trying to make their way in the league. You got eight other coaches with you. You're trying to validate your presence. It can be very difficult for head coach, I think, to manage the personalities on the staff. And I don't even remember when it took the spike. I don't remember. I guess I just remember we'll just one day just coming to the bench and then just like looking down and was like, holy shit, this is as many coaches as players sitting on the bench. When you got in the league, I think it was probably a head coach and three assistants on the front. But there was no guys. I don't remember guys being behind the bench

when I first came in. No, now you have more coaches behind the bench than you do in front. Yeah, yeah. Now, I think there's plenty of work. There's enough work for everyone to do, but managing the voices, the opinions, you know, even sometimes the egos.

That sometimes, especially, I would say this, especially for young coaches, I think that can be a challenge, right? You know, being a coach in the NBA has never been more difficult in a lot of ways because you're kind of a startup CEO. Right, right. If you're a young coach, you come into a situation, it's a new project, no matter if you have a veteran team or not.

You know, you got eight, nine assistant coaches, staff of ten coaches. You got four, five, six in the video room. You got, depending on the organization, four or five in analytics. You got ten on the, ten in the performance team. You got a general manager, assistant GMs, you know, player personnel director, all that stuff. So you look around and you're kind of in the middle with the GM of 50 people plus. 50, so that sounds like a, it's not, that's running a business. It's running a business and it's not, and unfortunately, depending how you divide and

conquer the work, you know, a lot of times it can be more managing than it is coaching. Yeah, for sure. And it is X's and O's. And so, especially in a player empowerment era, you know, trying to facilitate the way agents are involved in our game, the way owners are involved in the game, you know, there's a lot of dynamics that I think make it very difficult. So sometimes really being very, very, very. focal and how you build your staff can be super important. You got me thinking now like I want

if a head coach the head coach can can he decide how many coaches he actually wants to be on the bench or is it is it mandatory? So the league allows a certain on the front and then there's only a certain amount I think because of space on the back right right now the team can decide the team can decide how many seats how many they want to fill on the back right right but that's limited because like say we go play the lakers the lakers might say in our building you got six seats on the bench use them how you wish yeah yeah yeah i was just wondering like if i was a head coach like if i was like okay well i just want you know three you know seats in the front and two in the back yeah and that's it you absolutely can okay i think either you have to have a minimum of

three or four assistant coach obviously to fill the foot of the bench um i think the the interesting part comes now what's the general managers relationship with the coach how do they feel about it what is the owner as far as salaries like I just want my number one assistant on the bench in the front you know and my my number two and three assistant behind and then one more guy and that's that's you know I don't know I actually don't know the rule of having less but but I think the philosophy you're coming with is interesting yeah like because I think of one thing that I maybe struggled with as a coach and and I wonder if other coaches is clarity at times being overthoughtful thinking of too many parameters thinking of too many

you know this thing you start getting the side conversations that's going on and the time out is we still preaching the same thing or is right this guy telling me I should be doing I don't know so your point of like obviously you're exaggerating but you got one assistance in here like keeping it clear keeping it simple making sure you start your North Star and you stay as vocal to that's possible of course we need to adjust we need to think of everything but I think fans have to understand NBA coaches, especially with these big staffs, they've thought of everything. Yeah, for sure. It's a matter of what do they think they can transmit to their team and their team can execute, right?

And so that is a part of this that I think is really important to recognize. But I do think a head coach is, I think a head coach is great. But I think a head coach, as great as they can be, is only as great as their assistants. I think I think their assistant coaches really, really helped throughout the, this micro-managing things, you know, you know, head coach is so locked in, you know, you guys are, you guys are standing up, you know, throughout the whole game pretty much, and you guys are trying to watch everything that's going on and, okay, is, you know, is that guy in a rhythm, is that guy not in a rhythm?

Or maybe even miss that, like, you know, I'm so locked in on, okay, we didn't blitz this guy the right way, like, you know, and to have the assistance to be able to sometimes just lock the head coach back in, not saying you were, you wasn't locked in. Maybe I was just focused on this. You know, we didn't get a great shot the last three or four possessions. You know, I wasn't thinking about, you know, this guy right here.

I hadn't put him in in four or five minutes, you know. And having the assistance being able to just be able to micromanage a lot of things and bring things to the forefront of your mind, too, why you guys are focused on so much. I think, you know, when you have great assistance, man, I think it matters a lot. Important point.

Important point. I think there's great coaches, but there's also great staff that make a coach better and the totality and the way they worked together is really important. We got a few questions about coaching.

What makes a good coach from AE Coach 32? This is a sliding scale. Yeah, it is. What makes a good coach? I think what makes a good coach, one, holding guys accountable. You know, being very clear

about what you want to get accomplished. you know um you know and that's every day like this is what we want to do this is how we want to play you know um and also being able to have um you know once that trust is built being able to if you have the personnel you know to be able to you know have that extension from that that guy on the floor that you all can kind of have that relationship that's even even deeper than just the other 14 guys you know or if it's two guys you know that you have that you have have. But I think, you know, as far as coaching, I've, you know, coaches has always gotten the most out of me and got the most out of the teams that I've played on since I was a kid to now.

It's just like, you know, not sure coding it, not being afraid to have that conversation. And then just having a clear cut, you know, understanding of like, okay, being prepared, you know, When a coach is prepared and, you know, it's every day, it's the practice, it's the film sessions, it's the games, obviously, wins and losses take care of themselves, you know, the ball bounces in different ways. And, you know, that's things you can't control, but what you can control is like, how prepared do you feel when you walk out on the floor as a player, you know, and I think that your coach and the coaching staff, you know, put you in position to feel like, okay, we have the answers to the test. And let's go out and execute that. You know, so I think those are great, there's obviously there's so much more. But communication and preparedness.

Communication and being prepared, I think, are two of the, you know, great qualities that a coach can start with. Being prepared and just being able to communicate. And we all are different people, you know. You know, your communication may be, you know, very, very ha ha, ha, or your communication, some guy's communication may be just more,

put you to the side, or I may talk a little louder or, you know, talk lower, you know, and I think for players, you can't always listen to how they say it. It's about what they say, you know, and you can't be, you know, emotional about the process, you know. So communication and just being prepared, I think those are two great things you can start with. And then all the other stuff, you start to learn. We all, you know, we all learn as the days go. by and the years go by and if that's something that you're passionate about you'll continue to

learn from it. You made a great point about having tough conversations. I think it's really important for coach to just to be honest because when you skirt an issue, when you sugarcoat something, you know, the player leaves maybe with a different interpretation of that conversation that was intended and now you start to get this gap in understanding and then they lose trust and whatnot. So I think it's always important for a coach to be pretty direct, pretty honest. It's not emotional. Trying to get better. Like, this is what we need to do.

Let's just be clear with it. I think that's an important part of coaching. You know, the X's and O's, the game management, that's a whole other side of the business. But it's a sliding scale, right? Like some coaches can be incredible communicators or motivators. Some coaches may be incredible exes and O's or on the practice or teachers. So there's a whole bunch of ways to coach and be effective and be tremendous coaches.

Not everyone's excellent at all those things. You know, you have to be true to your personality. to your background, to your acumen. So that, I think, to answer the question, you know, in another way, is that, like, coaching can take on many different forms. No, for sure. Especially depending on your team, your personnel, your staff, your environment. Is it a developing team?

Is it a contending team? Is it a team trying to find an identity? They all need slightly different coaching. So I think that's really important for fans to recognize. As a coach has to meet that team where they are, try to impart a vision, a clarity, like you said, on the way we operate, not just on how we behave every day, but also how are we going to play,

what's our style of play? And then you're able to hopefully build those habits. You're always talking about that too, building habits every day and a team. How important are drawn plays versus letting your star player lead the offense freely from Ball Muse? How important is drawn plays

and being able to have the ability to have the play? be able to just be free and just make, I, I, I love great ATOs. Yeah. And obviously, you draw the play to start the game. You draw the play to start the second half. And I think that throughout the course of a game, when time-offs are happening, great ATOs catching the team off balance, is something that's, I think, is really cool and really dynamic. And I'm, I've always, like, acknowledged, like, the coach, if the coach draw all up a play

and we go out there, execute it. You're like, that was some good shit right there. Like, that was dope. You know what I'm saying? But throughout the course of the game, you know, being able to, you have to have the personnel, you know, to answer that second part. You have to have that player.

You know, you have to have that person that is an extension as a coach's an extension of him, you know, on the floor, that knows what you're trying to get across, how you want to play, and he's able to put guys in position that benefits their skill. you know and if you have that player that can not only get himself going but also put the guys

in position of how we want to execute and play out on the floor then you know you let him go you let them do it you trust that you just know that play out of principle play out of spacing yeah you play out of principle play out of spacing okay this is how we want to play you know and you know that he's going to put guys in position um to not only help the ball club but but help his guys on the floor individually too. He's going to make sure that they're in the right positions that they don't do things out on the floor that doesn't benefit their game or doesn't benefit their skill set. Know your personnel. Yeah, no, K-Y-P, you know, know, your personnel. If you got that guy, then, you know, that's awesome. So I think it's a, I think it's a, it depends on the

personnel. It depends on your personnel, but, like I said, having a coach that can, you know, You know, draw up a great ATO after a timeout, you know, catch a team off balance. I think that's pretty cool, too. Yeah. Great ATOs are always fun, right? It's always fun. The reality is, and I think maybe this, and I'm not sure this is where the question is coming from, we don't see a lot of set plays in the NBA anymore.

We've talked about this before. But the reason why, two main reasons. Teams switch a lot of stuff. So you can run the best ATO. If they switch it all, you're going to end up on the clock in ISO and getting to your spacing anyways. And so the other part of that is it's easier to play with, pace and space. So when a team's retreating, they're on their heels, you got your star player coming down the floor. What do you want to do? Have LeBron James walk the ball up the

court and call a play, or have LeBron catch that ball in the move, try to fight that defense while they're recovering, they're not set, they're not ready for no rotations. So the pie of offensive plays is becoming more and more pace and space, quick decisions play out of principles because defense has said, I can't let you have this easy, quick hitter. We're going to take that away by switching, we'll help from behind, we'll flood, we'll load to the ball, whatever it is. So the ATO is becoming important, but also in its own little part of the game. You know, end of game plays, ATOs, like you said, first of the play of the game, first play of the half. But essentially the toughest thing to guard

in our league as a team coming down, full speed, wide spacing, getting to a quick hitter or having the star just go. You can get downhill. That's the best option we do. Yeah, for sure. Right. That's an important thing for, I think, for fans to recognize. All right, this question from Ron, can the NBA adapt to Feeba rules? This is a different question. Of course we can. Of course we can.

Why would we? There's a couple of things in FIBA that I like. When it comes to the rules, and obviously I've played a lot of FIBA games being part of Team USA. The physicality that you're allowed to play with is awesome.

But we talked about this too. You're asking this question, but do fans want to say, see playoff basketball physicality for a 482 game season. We discussed that. We don't have the answer to it. We don't know.

It's for the fans. You guys talk to us. But also straight zone. You've got the center, can just sit in the middle of the paint. Yeah. Do we want to have it where you can just play straight zone and, you know,

Victor Womenyama and Rudy Gober and those guys can literally just, you know, sit right there in the middle of the paint and they never have to leave. You know, do we want to see that type of, that type of game? I don't know. Yeah. The, the 40-minute game is intriguing.

It is. Because the game happens so damn fast. So there's no. Isn't that crazy how international games can be over? Oh, my goodness. Yes. And you have no, like, there's no easing into an international game, you know. Right.

And that gives it a little bit more, like, sense of urgency, you know. you know so that's something to discuss that would be something that could you know we could possibly you know have a conversation about you know be hard because you know you start messing with the history of the game and all that stuff you take eight minutes that you know all that type of stuff but something to discuss that's not and that's something that could be talked about too I've always like I've been very intrigued with the go-tinent room I was going to ask you I actually love it I love it it it's it's exciting um you know it doesn't happen as much as you would think right you know and and even when you're

playing against the international guys and and this is their rule you know there's times where the ball is like tinkling around the rim and they just you kind of get like oh shit I should win got it like it's harder than it looks you know but I think that's um I actually like to go to 10 rule like that's pretty cool that's an interesting point because maybe I'm biased thinking NBA athletes are so you know amazing athletes that it would become such a big part of our game but i don't know like it's not that easy right you're looking to box out you're looking to you know what i mean defend you're in a rotation whatever it is then to just be there flat-footed to be able to go up and get a ball

the room it's not as straightforward no it's not a straightforward so i'd be scared if it did i would i wouldn't like it if it was happening all the time right right right right right right right there's a lid on the bucket right right right but i think there is something too it wouldn't be i wouldn't be opposed to exploring it yeah we have the g league we have the g league we have the g league we have the G-League, you know, we got Summer League, the showcase, we can try a couple I don't think the whole Feeba rules, I don't, but it's some things that we could possibly like, you know, just tinker with maybe

in the G League and the Summer League and see how it looks. Yeah, look, the FIFA game is great. Yeah. It's great. It's different. It's different. The NBA game, the Y, we've tried to like, no three-second defensively in the lane, you know, we've tried to create a more athletic, fast pace, guys getting downhill, making plays, getting on top of the rim,

Now the game's stretched, there's even more space. I love all that. I love seeing our athletes, our players, our skilled players thrive in the way that we've become accustomed to playing in the NBA. Is it perfect? No. But neither is Fiba. I think it's great to have this kind of contrast.

It's a challenge, right? Like when you guys start playing with Team USA, it's not easy the first few games. Oh no. Yeah, it's a challenge. It's different. Like the feeling the other team, it's kind of it levels it a little bit, you know? And then for it being such a contrast for NBA players, it takes time. Yeah, it takes time.

for sure yeah so in all i think um i i vote NBA now i would i would take i think the NBA should stay with its ethos of trying to make this as exciting athletic but that doesn't mean that feeba gaming isn't great and that we could experiment with more things yeah for sure to meet in the middle lebron what team would you coach have you become a coach let me just stop that one right now and say please please please there's no way there's no way guys Please don't coach for Alfonso Taylor. Thanks for the question, by now. Alfonso Taylor, appreciate you for a kind question, but it ain't happening.

No team. That's a zero chance. Zero chance. If you're counting at home. No chance. Thanks for watching Mind the Game. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe for more content. Thank you.