Coaches take a fresh look at the NBA as a teaching tool

Friends University junior guard Brett Williams’ family split Dallas Mavericks season tickets with friends. He picked games based on the NBA stars he wanted to see play.

Individuals. Not teams.

That is precisely what drives many lower-level coaches to disdain the NBA for its star culture, isolation plays and one-on-one action. That attitude is undergoing a shift, one highlighted by the 2014 NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. College and high school coaches are finding the NBA game can be used as a teaching tool, instead of an example of bad basketball.

“It’s good to see the Spurs playing team basketball and succeeding,” said Williams, a native of Plano, Texas. “That has really changed the way people look at NBA basketball. I’ve had coaches telling me ‘Don’t watch the NBA.’”

The Spurs defeated the Miami Heat last June and coaches rejoiced. It wasn’t so much that the Heat played bad basketball — LeBron James is as unselfish a superstar as exists. The Spurs, seemingly at a disadvantage athletically, sliced up the Heat with a display of passing, shooting and moving.

“Every coach would love their team to play offense like the Spurs played offense,” Derby High boys coach Brett Flory said.

The Spurs passed the ball quickly and willingly. Players moved on offense, setting screens, cutting and finding open spots. Here, coaches discovered, was an NBA team their players could relate to. Their players won’t ever play run and jump with James’ talent. They can attempt to pass and help their teammates as the Spurs do. And it’s not only the Spurs. Coaches find inspiration in Kevin Durant’s MVP speech praising his teammates, the pick-and-roll chemistry of countless teams and the enthusiastic defense of Houston guard Patrick Beverly.

For some coaches, it required them to adjust their skeptical attitude toward the pro game.

“I’ve always used the NBA, most of the time, as a motivation of how not to play,” Hutchinson Community College coach Steve Eck said. “There’s times in practice where I don’t mention the Spurs, but the players do. The players are aware of it. It’s a helpful teaching tool for every coach.”

In August, Williams and his Friends teammates started receiving emails and texts from assistant coach Aaron Hanshaw with links to NBA highlights. One of Hanshaw’s favorites is a two-part tribute video called “The Beautiful Game,” which highlights San Antonio’s unselfish offense. Hanshaw scouts many NBA teams to look for ideas that might help the Falcons and the Spurs lead his list.

“There’s no wasted movement,” Hanshaw said. “The way they read the defense. They way they set up defenses coming off screening action. It’s all very intelligent movement, ball movement, player movement and I think that really struck a chord with our guys.”

Friends coach Dale Faber is a playoff NBA fan and in recent years he finds himself watching more closely and appreciating a move away from four players watching one dribble his way to the basket. NBA teams that use the entire court to run an offense can help Faber with his offense. Newman University coach Mark Potter uses a lot of ball screens, so he mines NBA games for pick-and-roll strategies that might apply to small-college basketball. Rules differences mean many NBA strategies don’t translate to college or high school. Because of the longer three-point distance and the defensive three-second rule in the NBA, it is easier to stretch defenses in the pro game. The 24-second shot clock means the game moves at a different pace. NBA players are paid to work on their craft year-round, so coaches must adjust their expectations for athletes who are also students.

“They used to bring the ball to one side and play that side,” Faber said. “I find myself saying, more so than in the past, why something can work, instead of why it can’t work, at our level.”

Coaches know their players are watching the NBA and some think their players watch more NBA than college. Teammates gather at Williams’ apartment for watch parties for big games.

“(The Spurs) have something special going on,” Potter said. “They won it being unselfish. Those are the kind of things all coaches are looking for. I would be stupid if I wasn‘t paying attention to that.”

If the players are tuned in to Tony Parker, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook, coaches want them learning their best habits. Most players can’t dunk like Blake Griffin or shoot like Klay Thompson, but they can work on playing the game the right way.

“You ought to be able to pass and move, set a screen,” Faber said. “That’s what the Spurs are doing. The Spurs do a great job bringing the ball to the action. The ball seems to find where all the good things are going on, and that’s movement.”

On Tuesday, the Falcons won two scrimmages. Williams saw some Spurs-like qualities.

“Our offense was really fluid,” he said. “It’s been real helpful to study how fluid (the Spurs) are and what they run and it comes so natural to them. The results really speak for themselves.”

Flory played for a high school coach who disliked the NBA for its showboating and one-on-one style. An attempt to make a flashy play was likely met with “Knock off that NBA stuff.” His mission is to convince his players that making the extra pass is cool. Derby often plays with four guards, so their style of spreading the court, shooting three-pointers and screening can help his team.

“The Spurs brought more of an international style to offense, and a lot of people are gravitating toward that,” he said. “It’s the way the game is moving and the way San Antonio plays.”

Goddard Eisenhower coach Steve Blue sees his players using moves such as the Euro-step, popularized by international players such as San Antonio’s Manu Ginobli, and floaters over defenders. Players see it on TV and want to imitate those skills.

“Kids are doing those moves, so we might as well help them perfect it,” Blue said. “Kids are so skilled these days, we have to up our game.”

Like most high school coaches, Blue works with his players during the summer. His job got easier after the Spurs put on a clinic in team basketball in June.

“We always preach team basketball,” he said. “We told them that if NBA players can buy into a team system, surely you guys can buy in.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2014 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Coaches take a fresh look at the NBA as a teaching tool."