Why now at this time in my life and during my career as a shooting coach would I consider launching this project?
I have been in the NBA for the last eight seasons and five seasons during my time coaching in the NBA Development League. But over the last four years, this idea of sharing my coaching philosophy and techniques as a shooting coach is something that has been on my mind but has been put on hold until now. Over time as a coach, your philosophy starts to change depending on the players you work with and where you work as a coach.
Now, when I work with a player or see a player I know exactly how I would work with that player and how I would help improve or fix their shot or coach them to become a more consistent and better shooter.
That approach extends across the board regardless if I am working with an NBA player, D-League player, someone living and playing overseas, a kid in college or at the youth level. What I would do depending on who I am working with, I would take into consideration their age, size, strength and ability. If it is a really good player or at the NBA level, their situation or where they need improvement might be treated differently than a player who is working toward that level. In working with players at different levels around the game, sometimes players get pigeon-holed into being a sub-par shooter or a non-shooter, when that really is not the case. That is where working on the mental side of shooting comes into play, to help change that mentality and move forward from there. It’s all about having a plan, seeing the progression over time as you get up 10,000 three-pointers over a month for example.
It comes down to timing – the same can be said about this project, “Knock It Down – an NBA Shooting Coach’s Guide To Shooting Straight”.
The timing is right.
Like a player, you learn from your mistakes. And over the last 26 years I have learned from my mistakes. I started in this profession when I was 19-years old, working shooting camps in Indiana. I am 45 years-old now, this is my 13th professional season between the D-League and NBA (Portland, Toronto, Memphis) and I have traveled the world working with players and leading shooting camps in 10 different countries. I am confident through my experiences and ability, that when I work with a player of any age group or level, I can evaluate them on the spot and be able to coach them based on what I see.
I receive a number of emails and questions from coaches, players and parents from all over the world who want to learn, practice and grow as a shooter. So through this “Knock It Down” project, I will be able to address those types of questions I encounter and share my coaching philosophy. Through online content, interviews, Q and A’s with coaches, players and fans, to videos, and eventually an E-book, this shooting guide is a chance for me to share that coaching philosophy and my experiences, and pull back the curtain on the life of an NBA shooting coach and in player development.
But my ultimate goal for “Knock It Down” is to learn — learn as much as I am teaching. Just as a player grows in their shooting ability, I hope to continue to learn from mistakes I’ve made in order to help others improve in their own process. To help guide and shape “Knock It Down”, I will be partnering with Wendell Maxey, whom is a former NBA writer and has grown in the business of basketball both in the US and in Europe. He has known me since I started in the NBA in Portland as a shooting coach working with guys like Patty Mills and Sergio Rodriguez, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and over the last four years we’ve kicked around the idea of partnering together on this coaching venture when the time was right.
The timing couldn’t be better.
This will be fun.
It will be different than other coaching instructions you may have read and in a lot of ways will go against some coaching philosophies of the past.
It will be a great teaching tool. And this will be a project where we can all learn together and get better so we can “Knock It Down”.
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