QUESTION: How did you handle the mini losing streak? Was it more important to improve on-the-floor productivity or the psyche of doubt that creeps in with losing?
ANSWER: First of all, this is a great question and one most all of us will have to come to grips with in our coaching careers. There are so many areas that I could get into because so much of it depends on the make-up of your team. Are they young? Veteran? Been through these before? Take hard coaching? Need delicate handling?
If you have read my blog before, you will notice one common theme and that is you must constantly read your team. You must know your guys like no one else. You must invest time in building relationships so that you know what makes them tick. I will reiterate that Doc Rivers is one of the best I have ever been around in terms of keeping an everyday pulse on our entire team. He feels it is extremely important to know where each guy stands and how we can reach each guy at that particular time of the season.
So let me throw out some food for thought based on things I have done or observed through the years. I will also try to address specific areas of losing in future blog posts.
Truly evaluate your team. If you are a team that probably shouldn’t be winning games, then your approach should be less on the wins/losses and more on improvement. I would suggest you concentrate more on progression than perfection, that is, is your team getting better? Can you prove this to your team? Comparative stats will help you sell this.
If wins will be difficult, then concentrate on getting better and prove to your team that you are getting better. Give examples of teams that have had rebuilding years and then turned it around. Think about how you can sell “progression” and not live and die with wins-losses. Keep in mind that the goal of every team is to still try to win the game; you must let them know this but also let them know you have other goals that can keep you moving forward and keep you in a healthier state of mind through these losing streaks.
Progression of Evaluation. I always think it starts with the coach. Are you doing your job? Are you preparing your team in practices, walk-throughs, and games? Always start with yourself; my rule is to evaluate myself first, evaluate myself second, and then take a look at the team. Once you get to the team, take a look at – in order:
- were you good enough to beat the team(s)? Personnel
- are you doing things hard enough? The effort game
- are you doing things well enough? The execution game
- are you doing them with the right players? Tweak line-up
- is the scheme or the game plan the right one? Tweak the system
Know Your Team. I can’t tell you one sure way to approach your team with the talks you may have with them, but I will say that I would always try to keep it positive. I think “hope” can keep motivation alive longer than anything else you could create. I think we are actually living this now with President Obama. He did a tremendous job of creating hope that things will change, but what I like about his approach is that he also kept it realistic and truthful. The same can be said for dealing with your team; acknowledge that you are in a losing streak, let them know the truth — but don’t do it in an accusatory manner or blame any one person.
We always state the truth and follow it up with three things: (1) stats, (2) film and (3) the solution (how can we improve). When all is said and done, there is no “right way” to bounce out of a losing streak. But there are definitely ways to stay in them: not working hard in practice; not evaluating your own coaching decisions; not truthfully evaluating your team; not bringing the problems AND THE SOLUTIONS up to your team; simply trying to avoid the issue or continuing to do the same things the same way.
We still believed in our system but we felt we needed more focus and a re-commitment to holding each other accountable for our team play. Through all of this we fortunately had players who stayed together and attempted to get through this together.
Fingers were never pointed — but rather hands often came together as one.
