With the emergence of Steph Curry as one of the dominate forces in the NBA game, the term 'gravity' has made its way to the basketball court. Gravity in basketball terms simply refers to the pull that a certain player has over the defense, or, how closely you have to guard a player at any given time on the court. Steph Curry has strong gravity because no matter where he is on the court, all defenders must know where he is and be close enough to him to close out and take away shots. Great shooters such as Kyle Korver also have strong gravity off the ball. Great drivers, like Kyrie Irving, also have strong gravity, but with the ball more so than when they are off the ball (although Kyrie is also a high level shooter). When Kyrie has the ball in his hands, the defense has to shift towards him early enough to keep him from getting to the basket. Great rebounders, especially on the offensive end, can also have strong gravity. Guys like Tristan Thompson have strong gravity when shots go up because defenders have to find him and put bodies on him because he can change the game on the offensive boards. It was documented how the Golden State Warriors even game planned on how they would block him out during the NBA finals. Here is an article from ESPN that dives further into explaining gravity and some numbers behind it.
This article comes from Hoopthoughts.Blogspot.com regarding the
characteristics needed to be a successful head coach.
Bill Polion, one of the NFL’s best general managers, in his book, "The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team,"
gives great insight to what he is looking for from a head coach.Below are the 10 characteristics that he
finds most important in a head coach:
The 10
characteristics he outlines are:
1 – Organization
2 – Leadership
3 – Communication
4 – Emotional Stability
5 – Vision
With the Warriors and Cavs
facing off in the finals for the 3rd straight year, it’s been fun
being able to watch two completely different styles of basketball facing off
against each other.
On one hand, you have the
‘Flow’ of the Golden State Warriors motion offense where the set screens, get
ball and player movement, and ball reversals in looking for great shots and
scoring opportunities by taking advantage of defensive breakdowns.
On the other side, you
have the Star Power of the Cleveland Cavs where every offensive decision is
made by one of the stars. They spread
the court and breakdown the defense and create scoring opportunities by taking
advantage of their 1 on 1 matchups and ball-screens.
Ganon Baker has
trained thousands of basketball players the world over — ranging from junior
high schoolers to NBA and WNBA players.
Below is an article written about his journey to become one of the most
well-known trainers in the world.Here
are a couple of my favorite responses: DP: If you had 15 minutes with any player, boy or girl, any level,
and you had to divide that up, what are the three most important things you
could tell them about being a better basketball player? 1 – Show them how to work hard
2 – Show them how important it is to study the game and be mentally prepared
3 – Find their kryptonite and help them overcome it
DP: Are you a fan of anybody in particular?
GB: "The Spurs. Their style, their culture. They buy-in to
coaching, they respect the coaches. A lot of teams don't listen to the
assistant coaches.That’s why I love the
Spurs.They do it the right way.”
DP: You're in your 17th year of training. What keeps driving you
to do this? GB: “ I'm helping the kids have a better quality
of life by instilling the values of passion, purpose, discipline, honesty,
responsibility, grit — there's hundreds of values that I choose to speak about.
Obviously, the longer I have with the kid the better ... but I feel they're
going to go be a better person and be more attentive in school, to have goals
and to be driven in life to do something positive. I use basketball as a
platform.”
You can read the article in full below:
Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald was a small point guard from the Bronx, NY.At 6’0, Tiny was a smart, tough, and flashy
point guard who groomed his game on the playgrounds of NY before taking his
talents to Arizona Western College and then to UTEP.In 1970, Tiny was drafted in the 2nd
round by the Cincinnati Royals.After
playing so well coming off the bench, the Royals ended up trading starting
point guard Norm Van Lier so that Tiny could run the show full time.
Early in his career, Tiny was unguardable offensively.He was quick, ambidextrous, and could finish
around the basket with creativity, much like Kyrie Irving today.In his 3rd year in the league, he
became the only player in history to lead the league in scoring and
assist.His 34 points per game broke the
NBA record for a guard, and his 910 assists was an NBA record at that
time.Tiny was also named MVP that
season.He was very unselfish but knew
when to take over the game.
Tiny was traded to the New York Nets in 1976 and then traded to the
Buffalo Braves.
He then joined the Boston Celtics where he was the MVP of the 1981 NBA
all-star game.He played a key role on
the Celtics 1981 championship teamTiny changed the game by giving smaller guards
hope that they could play and have an impact in the NBA game. He now helps continue to grow the game, teaching and coaching in the New York area.
LeBron James, Draymond
Green, 2 Chainz and special guests come together at a local New Orleans
barbershop to talk the NBA, Olympics, music, football and more. They hit on many topics, including what its
like to play in a classic game 7, playing for Coach K in the Olympics, ‘the
process,’ LeBron’s decision to come back to Cleveland, and guys in the NBA who
don’t know their roles and DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY!
There are a lot of guys who have no
idea what their roles are.They have no
idea where to shoot.There are guys who
DON’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY.
LeBron James, Draymond
Green, 2 Chainz and special guests come together at a local New Orleans
barbershop to talk the NBA, Olympics, music, football and more. You can see the entire video here:
At about the 9:25 mark, Record
producer Steve Stoute starts out talking about business resumes and the fact
that for all of the skills that are on resumes, they never talk about a
person’s work ethic.He says that
everybody gets credit for stuff that you didn’t do when you are part of a team
because that is part of being on a team.But he likes to ask, 'What role did you play in driving the outcome vs. being a
teammate of the outcome?" Great coaches,
great CEOs, and great managers have to decide:
Is it the guy or is the
environment that the guy was in?Are you
the driver or just along for the ride.
Rich Paul, a friend and
business partner of LeBron James, adds that there is a combination of things
that play into a player’s performance, including the player, the people around
the player, and the maturity level of the player.It’s also important, as a leader, to give
your athletes roles and that they understand their role, and their ability to fulfill that role to the highest of expectations.
Steve Stout comments that
there are guys are running around and playing in the NBA, but don’t have a role or a sense
of purpose.They don’t even know
when/where to shoot from in the offense.It
has to start from day 1.Coaches have to
have a set role.As Steve Stout asked,
‘How do you put 5 guys on the court and they don’t have a role.
Charles
Oakley then mentions how important it is for coaches to establish roles in training camp. He says that coaches have to set their roles and coaches have to
set the locker room, right away.You
have energy guys, scorers, 3 point shooters, ball movers, defenders, etc, but
everybody has a role that they have to perform and perfect.
LBJ added that the coach
and the leader/commander of the team have to address athletes when they aren’t
doing what they need to be doing or aren’t filling their roles to the level
that is expected.You have to nip it
immediately so it doesn’t unravel the team.
They then add that not
only do players not know their roles, there are guys who don’t even really know
how to play!
-->
As an athlete, know what
you bring to the team, know your role, and work hard to perfect it.As a coach, it's important to makes sure that
everybody knows their role and performs it to the level of expectations that
you have communicated to them.
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