Playoff strategies - apply them all season

On March 16th, thoughts were provided regarding tournament strategies and how they should really be applied all season. The same can be said of the NBA playoffs. The lessons and messages from the coaches of the four semi-final teams have likely been stressed repeatedly. Even though the playoffs seem to provide the bigger spotlight and microscope, if the concepts below aren't addressed in the regular season then a team will not even make the playoffs. Some recent quotes to ponder:

• "Most disappointing to me was I didn't have our team better ready to play," (Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy)
• "It's my job. I'm the coach of this team. It starts with me and I'm not happy with where we had our team tonight or anything I did." (Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy)
• "He's leading the team. He's playing with great focus. He's giving an amazing effort, never giving up on any possession." (Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers commenting on the play of his point guard, Rajon Rondo)
• "We've found a number of ways to score." (Lakers coach Phil Jackson commenting on his team's unselfishness and every player being involved)
• "Every time we tried to make an adjustment to slow them down.......they go somewhere else" (Suns coach Alvin Gentry regarding the Lakers having many players that attack, the sharing of the ball, and the subsequent difficulty to defend)
• "It was a defensive game, and we like those.......everyone is healthy, everyone's listening, and everyone's buying into our defensive schemes." (Celtics coach Doc Rivers)
• "As a coach you try to look at situations and try to put them in the best positions to see if they can execute and do some things that would help us defensively. Didn’t work, so we’ll try something else." (Suns coach Alvin Gentry on defensive game-planning, using his defenders, trying to exploit a team's weakness)
  

Balance is important

As coaches, we are repeatedly emphasizing the concept of balance to the players in our program. In a court sense, balance with respect to their feet when shooting, their stance when defending, etc. Also balance away from the gym with respect to family, school, volunteering, friends, work, community, and many other important priorities.

It is equally important that, as coaches, we remind ourselves of the balance that is vital to maintaining our passion for coaching basketball. In the wake of the health problems experienced by Coach Urban Meyer of Florida, Andy Katz of ESPN.com wrote a timely article concerning the great importance of life balance for coaches. In his entry, Mr. Katz relates the balance issue to Coach Billy Donovan of Florida, Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest, and Coach Stan Van Gundy of Orlando. With respect to Coach Donovan, Katz cites the topic of balance as a guiding light in Coach Donovan's decision to remain at Florida and NOT make the jump to Orlando. Coaches may never achieve the balance that they seek but that is no reason to stop striving for something close to it.