Seasons are over, evaluations are taking place, meetings are being called day after day. But what is truly being accomplished? Is all of this looking back or looking ahead? Although I think both need to enter into the conversation, I think you look back to identify but you have to look ahead to improve.

Maybe we spend too much time in the off season complaining about what players didn’t live up to expectations, what players didn’t play hard, what players didn’t understand how to play. While all of these things are important to identify, at some point you have to move on to the future. You have to get past this and get on to the “how can we overcome and improve on these areas of weaknesses” phase.

If the off season is about getting better, then it has to be about committing to do the things that need to be done to make sure you are a better player, coach, team, and program than you were last year. Make this off season a season of commitments rather than a season of complaints.

We see players in all sports being suspended. My first thought every time is that I’d like to ask the player, “Did your action that got you suspended help your team or did it just help you feel good? Are you a team player or just a player who’s on a team? Are you willing to do everything – both on and off the court – for the team?”

The answers to these questions will tell you all you need to know about a player. These are questions that need to be asked early in a player’s career and must be continually asked to keep the answers fresh in the player’s mind. To be successful and reach the goals the team has set, every player must put team first. That includes how you conduct yourself off the floor as much as how you conduct yourself on the floor — not to mention how you conduct yourself in the off season. Can we trust you that you are working on your game to help the team improve?

I know this: every team in the NBA wants guys they can trust and who put team first. When you have a team full of players who seriously take on this responsibility, you will have a chance to win it all! And that’s what we all play for!

I was reading an article the other day about Larry Brown — always trying to learn more about successful coaches. A comment he made about himself was very revealing and a great lesson for all coaches, no matter how successful they may be. He said, “I love practice. My biggest fear is I haven’t done enough as a coach… where these guys encounter something I haven’t prepared them for.”

That’s what he said, but what is the lesson? We have to go deeper and analyze what was probably behind this statement:

• Putting constant every day thought to what the opponent might do — and being ready for it.
• Analyzing his team’s weaknesses and working on them to make sure the players are ready for when that opponent tries to take advantage of them.
• Putting in detailed teaching points to make sure the player does things the right way to combat what the opponent may try to do.
• Making sure he teaches things individually and then making sure his drills incorporate this in a game-like situation.
• Understanding that his ultimate job is to give his team every possible chance to win the game. To do this he must think of EVERYTHING he needs for them to know and execute, leaving no stone unturned!

You can go on and on and add to this list. The biggest thing to me is that here is a Hall of Fame coach who has forgotten more than many of us will ever know, and he’s worried that he hasn’t prepared his team well enough! That tells you the passion and the hunger that makes up one of the best coaches of all time. Not a bad example for the rest of us to emulate.

There’s no question that defense wins championships. I know first hand, as our 2008-2009 team won the NBA Championship with a defensive mindset. We weren’t going to give our opponent anything easy. Every possession became a personal challenge of our defense vs. your offense. The pride we took in our defense was incredible, which is usually the case with championship teams in any sport!

Beyond intelligent ball pressure, the basis of our defense was our ability to play great help defense. We felt that help defense isn’t just about positioning alone. We wanted to be in the proper help spots and we wanted to get to those help spots quickly, but there was more to it than that.

Not only did we want the player with the ball to see our help (so that it would immediately discourage him from driving into that area), but we also wanted him to hear our help. We wanted to let that ballhandler know — verbally — that we were right there and waiting. He was not going to have an easy drive or easy possession!

Our talk was so important that we actually taught it and demanded it. We want our talk to be early, loud, and continuous. We wanted to intimidate them not only with our positioning but also with our talk. We felt that talk was intimidating. Letting them know we know what you want to do and we are here to stop it.

Analyze your defense. Make sure it is both sound and intimidating. That’s what championship teams do!