What can we learn from J.R Smith horror show....will your players do better?

So much is being said about JR Smith in last night game.

Well, knew or didn’t know. Aware of the score and time or not, I think everybody is in agreement that he did not do what his coach wished he would. 

Now as a punishment, lets hang him in town’s square or grill him on TV and in social media, or…. in all seriousness-

2 good things we can walk away with out of this situation. 

One - ask yourself: do your guys / gals know special situations and familiar with your philosophy as a coach when it comes to end of game plays and reactions to them?

Two - how would you pick up a player from such a devastating loss that in all fairness players' lack of awareness, or judgment, caused the team a very good shot at an important game (not to say - the whole season is on the line!!!).

The first part is easy. How come? 

My head coach at St. Francis College, Coach Ron Ganulin taught me that. He served during the early 90’s as an assistant to Jerry Tarkanian (Tark the Shark) and won the national championship with UNLV Running Rebels in 1990. So, again, it was not luck, I picked it from an experienced wise man. We practiced it early every season. Most likely before November came around.

Every year as a head coach I would run a “Blue Vs. White scrimmage”. College style. One assistant takes the white, the other takes the Blue, bring league refs in and let them run it. One half play man one half run the zone, press, push, the whole 9 yards. Than play a “3rd half”, which built with few 2 minutes mini games. And those were made exactly for that. All you run is end of game situation. You pre-planed score, who has what kind of foul trouble and who has the ball and where. Which allows you to not only talk about, but to also let the players go through, exercise and experience it. Now you know that you didn’t tell them, you made them go through it. The odds of successful execution are much higher. Its not that you will not need a time out during a league game. But for the most part, your philosophy as a coach is known to your players through experience. I don’t know if that is a Coach Ganulin or a Coach Tark thing. to work on it ant the beginning of the season, but I am pretty sure the lack of it - is a game 1 in 2018 NBA final thing now.

Second, and much more urgent (if you are on the Cavaliers side) is how to prepare J.R Smith to the next game coming up on Sunday.

72 hours to the next game, which almost 24 has past by - guilty or not, this guy has to take over the floor again and deliver. And it is up to Ty Lou to do whatever it takes to bring him there again, physically, emotionally and mentally.

Dwelling on the past will not help, and talking on what was done wrong, I am sure he have heard more than needed. What he does need is reassurance. Yes, even in this level. On ANY level. We are all humans. Pick him up, remind him what brought him there, and make sure that he is at the top of his game for Sunday. 

How?

One of the ways that I find effective is a short clip of few good actions from what you would like to emphasize. Couple of defensive actions, a rebound, 2 assists, a lay up and 3 clutch 3 pointers from earlier this season would be a combination I would go with for a guy like Smith. And a clip like that could work wonders. Since we are visual creatures and our mind works with images, you to let him watch it 3-4 times before the morning soot around, and than again 3-4 times right before the evening practice. These successful images with the right music will stick with him. 

What you do here is not patting his ego. And not cutting him slack. You are reminding him that he is good, very good. And put him right back at that mind set.

Practice wise, one might want to do “the regular” stuff, other coaches maybe would look to run couple of extra reps on the plays we have for him and things of that nature. Again, reassurance, and making him work. Not feeling petty for him and cutting him slack. These are the tools I found helpful in the past to pick up and bring back those who had this downfall and we needed them right back up.

And one word for Coach Ty Lou. Right after the game, he said that he spoke to Smith and their conversation is between them. He under-minded the error, praised the rebound, and added that he believe in JR, nothing have changed and he will start the next game as well. Publicly, he took care of business. Well done.

These are my 2 points I would like to walk away with from this heroic great ball game last night.

What are your ideas of picking up a player after a devastating error to get him or her back on track?

Please share with your friends or coaches if you think it can help or entertain. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below.