You are the most tanking obsessed person in the world. The need to insert it into every discussion and thinking it about 24/7 cannot be healthy.
The Player Development Thread
- Thread starter SoberasHotRod
- Start date
You are the most tanking obsessed person in the world. The need to insert it into every discussion and thinking it about 24/7 cannot be healthy.
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
99% of everything that happens around this team this season is connected to tanking. It would be insane to try to avoid the issue.
You spend 99% of your time inventing ways to be upset.
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
Not upset, just not interested in sugarcoating something that is ugly and unethical.
Are you kidding me? He isnt new to iso ball for having played it for 1-2 years? Most of these kids played streetball for most of their youth and have over 10 years of experience of 1on1 basketball when they are drafted. Put Ace in front of them to try and beat them and what happens? Disaster. Ace said he was just a tall body under the rim for vast majority of his youth basketball years.
It doesnt even matter how much iso he did at Rutgers or before that. What matters is how advanced he is in those areas, and whether the right thing to do is work in the lab or start putting things in practice.
From what i understand each player has "in-season training regime" that dictates what drills they run in shootarounds and private/team practice sessions. During the season this is very limited because games and travelling restricts time and access to training facilities. They also spend time lifting weights, doing other PE (like swimming and running), video room stuff etc.. all of which limit their available time and energy.
You cant just magically "start developing a skill" by starting to do it in games, unless you are already advanced enough so it doesnt end up being a complete disaster. If his current training regime does not involve a heavy dose of ball-handling drills then you would have to change it to include some, which also means giving up something that you are currently developing.
Yeah, and like I said, I wouldn't completely take them away, but it's like 10%. The **** is pretty fun to watch and when he actually hits them I'm sure it's a big boost to his confidence, but you cant just be taking tough middies all the time and become predictable.
His biggest skill need currently is attacking the rim. That's harder from an iso than it is off a screen. He needs to work on that skill getting downhill with an initial advantage and learn from there.
Think Ace is a pretty clear example of a player that needs more baby steps to develop. Be patient.
Peter_Mentor
Active Member
He’s also flashed some really nice chemistry with Nurk, and I’d love to see him build on that. DHOs, give-and-gos, maybe some pick-and-rolls.. Fun stuff when both of them are willing passers and Ace is such a fluid athlete. I don't mind him taking those elbow jumpers either.
How can I say his experience level with isolation or current isolation is not a reason for parking him in a corner? I’m not really hung on the idea of how much iso ball he’s actually played. It’s pretty much exclusively what he did in college but idc if you think that’s a lot or a little.
The biggest trait he needs to develop is attacking the rim, and as I’ve said (and others) that doesn’t necessarily have to come from just on ball reps or isolation. He needs to have mentality no matter how his touches are produced.
But, I think he the capacity to take in a bit more than what he’s currently doing. 10% is a made up number, but that sounds to good to me. I just want to be 10% of a bigger pile of stuff.
Schrödinger's Gerbil
Well-Known Member
Can't disagree with any of this.
Not ever having been a coach, I imagine it's a bit like being a parent. Different children have different personalities and respond differently to different motivational stimuli. Being a hard-*** with some kids will only alienate them from you, whereas with others, it may work fine.
To take one example (meant to illustrate, not to generalize), my daughter was a high-level athlete. She analyzed and internalized everything. When coaches yelled at her, it had the opposite effect of what they wanted. It only caused her more stress without addressing the issue, leading her to eventually tune it out. She responded much better to coaches who dealt with her in a calmer, more analytical manner.
I realize it's difficult for coaches to adjust their approach to suit every personality or temperament, and they generally go with what has given them (or they think has given them) success.
By way of aside, I always had the impression that Greg Popovich was one of these hard-assed, old-school coaches. However, when I read player accounts of how he interacted with players, they described him as collaborative and as empowering players' voices. Maybe he cracked the code, though if he did, it was when he had three Hall of Famers on his team, and one of the best ever to play the game, and less so when he didn't. It's always interesting to see how coaching savants fare when they no longer have the elite players to coach, typically not so well (ahem, looking at you, Bill Belichick).
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
At the risk of repeating myself: I don't think Hardy treats real NBA games as teaching sessions. He gives the most responsibility to the players who give him the best chance to win.
He's obviously not "holding Ace back" – nobody's stopping Bailey from attacking the rim if he thinks he has an angle – but Hardy's also not gonna force feed a rookie touches and shots in a way that would be detrimental to the team as a whole in that game.
Hardy has shown that he accepts the tank as an overall strategy, but he'll always coach to win. Anyone who expects him to bench Lauri so that Ace can experiment with things he can't do is gonna be waiting for a long time.
Schrödinger's Gerbil
Well-Known Member
Given that tanking and discussions of it absolutely dominate this board and have for some time now, it seems a bit disingenuous to accuse some individual of being obsessed with it. This board is obsessed with it. However, given the context, i.e., tanking is the Jazz's current reality, that's understandable. I mean, in every discussion about the Jazz these days, tanking hovers above it like some dark, sinister force controlling and dominating our senses. It's inescapable.
It's kind of like someone accusing someone else of being obsessed with Trump, when our politics, culture, society, and discourse are obsessed with him. Our whole current political/social ecosystem is Trump-saturated, just as this board's current ecosystem is tanking-saturated.
No ones parking him in corner. He runs curls, cuts, pick and pops and other perimeter based actions. He gets 30-40 touches and the most important thing I wanna see is that he makes as many correct decissions as possible.
Offseason is another story. I would prioritize strength training over others but dribble drills should be part of the diet.