When I worked for one NBA team, Chad Forcier was the lead assistant coach. Chad was one of the best I’d been around for doing video sessions with the team. He had a way of speaking to the group that could be honest, to the point, and caring, all at the same time. He was great at video sessions.
There was one video session that stood out to me.
It was early in the season and we were trying to teach our players about what a good shot was and what a great shot was.
Chad started off the sessions by explaining Point Per Possession (PPP) as a simple analytic. Basically, you multiply the number of points you get for a shot but the percentage of time you make it, and you find out how many points you get on average every time you shoot that shot. It was important stuff that most players KNOW, but don’t really UNDERSTAND.
Chad explained that if all we did was shoot 2 free throws all game, and we made them at the league average of 75% then we would average 1.5PPP and score X number of points per game, and if we could do that we would win every game. 1.5PPP is outrageously high.
He then explained that if all we got way stuff around the rim, and we made 60% of them, we would get 1.2PPP and probably finish the season with 60 wins. Same thing for open 3s. If all we did was shoot open 3s at 40%, we would get 1.2PPP and win sixty games.
Chad presented these ideas and I thought it was a good video session. Then he made one more point that turned it into a great session.
He explained that obviously we can’t expect to get free throws, lay ups, or open 3s every possession, but that we had 24 seconds to try. For some reason that really resonated with me. We have 24 seconds to search for the best possible shot. You don’t always find one, but to settle for a shot that is valued at .8PPP with 18 seconds on the shot clock is like saying “in the next 18 seconds, we stand no chance of finding a better shot than this!”
Players and coaches (and especially trainers) need to understand this. This is a team game, and every time our team gets the ball we are given 24 seconds to find the best shot possible for us. The more time we spend standing, dribbling in isolation, the less time we have.
The best part of the video session Chad ran, was that we did a similar session every month or so. I, personally, saw 3 of them. Then at the end of the season I was talking with one of my players and explained the idea again in different way. “That’s really interesting” he said, as though he was hearing it for the first time.
We need to have these conversations often, and then hold players accountable to the concepts.
