Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 20 Luxurious teaching assistants

The summer league that the Thunder will participate in is the Orlando Summer League led by the Orlando Magic. This league was launched by the Magic in 2001. Currently, there are 10 participating teams. The game time is from July 7 to 7.

This year's Orlando Summer League is a little different from the past. This game will award the championship title. Although it is not important to the NBA, it will be a great incentive for the participating rookies and free agents.

And this game is not just a game, but more importantly, it is a reference for each team to inspect the players.

It’s okay for rookies, after all, they have signed a contract. For free agents, this is a good opportunity to show off. Every year, many free agents, including undrafted picks, are signed by the team through the summer league.

Logically speaking, as the head coach, Li Sheng doesn't need to lead the team, just leave it to the assistant coach.

However, with Brooks' departure, the Thunder's coaching staff is also facing a reshuffle.

In the past few days, with the help of Presti, Li Sheng also started to form his new coaching staff.

His choice, of course, is to discover from among the future winners.

In the post-10 decade, the most successful individual in the NBA may be James, but the most successful team should be the Warriors, or at least one of them.

The rise of the Warriors is not only due to the fact that their own players played out one by one, the boss's bold operation and the change of coaches are also important reasons.

Perhaps in the future Cole will become stubborn and playful, but Cole, who has just taken office, is not just picking peaches by luck, and his coaching team, including videographers, are all real.

Jalen Collins was a second-round pick in 01. He retired after the 11 season and is currently unemployed at home.

As a native of California, although he was only a marginal rotation when he played, he first worked as a scout after retiring, and then joined the Warriors coaching staff.

Because Jalen graduated from Stanford University and is an alumnus of Warriors owner Lacob. When he played in the Suns, the general manager of the team was the future Warriors bishop Steve Kerr.

What's more, he will go to Daigo after leaving the Warriors, and help the Pelicans finally enter the playoffs through the playoffs after their poor performance in the first half.

Just looking at his resume, it is obvious that he is superior, so even if Li Sheng has never had contact with him before, he still feels that he can be recruited.

For Jalen at this time, this olive branch was at the right time, so he readily agreed.

Of course, Jia Lun may have some contacts, but he is even more rookie than Li Sheng, so it is no problem to ask him to do things, but it is impossible to rely on him alone.

In fact, Jalen can become a good assistant coach, which is probably related to his long-term care of the drinking fountains in his career. He has enough time and energy to observe how the coaches do things.

Of course, Li Sheng needs to find a veteran who can lead the coaching staff and provide him with experience and help at critical moments.

So he immediately thought of someone, Alvin Gentry!
For the current Li Sheng, Gentry is already considered a famous coach. His qualifications are very old. He was the assistant coach of the old coach Larry Brown like Popovich at the beginning.

However, due to the team's poor record last year, Gentry was fired by the Suns and has been at home since then, but he is not short of market.

In the future, he joined the coaching staff of the Clippers and the Warriors successively, and served as the chief assistant coach of the Warriors. He assisted the rookie coach Kerr to win the championship in the first season. His training of the Warriors' offensive end was an important guarantee for the Warriors to win the regular season.

After all, unlike Cole, Li Sheng has no friendship with the other party, so he first asked Presti to send an invitation as usual, and then asked Jalen to meet Gentry in private.

Jalen played under Gentry in the 09-10 season and has a good personal relationship.

To put it bluntly, the NBA is a circle of people. There is me in the relationship network, and you are in the relationship network. Often the radish is pulled out to bring out the mud. If you want to find someone, you must first sort out the relationship circle.

Of course, Li Sheng is also very clear that with Gentry's urgency, especially his qualifications, it is impossible for him to be a teaching assistant all the time, but even if he only stays for a year, it is enough for himself and Jalen to grow up.

After talking with Li Sheng, Gentry also agreed to join.

This also depends on the platform of the Thunder. After all, the Thunder has been a powerhouse in the Western Conference for the past three years, and with Dewey around, the team has many fans and high attention. As long as the results are achieved, even the assistant coaches will definitely follow.

Li Sheng's persuasion is the icing on the cake, after all, his mouth has not really been opened.

Then Li Sheng turned his attention to the Spurs coaching staff, and his primary goal was Amy Udoka.

Uduka was similar to Collins when he was a player. He joined the Spurs coaching staff in August 12. Like Li Sheng last season, he was a member of the championship coaching staff.

In the future, he will coach the Celtics, bring the Celtics back to No.2 in the Eastern Conference, and complete the sweep against the Nets with Irving and Durant in the first round.

The characteristic of his coaching is the tight rotation defense. Of course, this requires extremely rich defensive resources, but the Thunder's current lineup really does not lack this.

When I was in the Spurs before, the predecessor and Udoka had a good friendship, and they lived close to each other, so there would naturally be more contacts at work.

The predecessor didn't like to talk, but Udoka is privately talkative like ordinary blacks, so the combination of the two is quite noticeable in the Spurs.

Relying on this relationship, Li Sheng has successfully poached the "old club". This is also the first time that he has truly succeeded on his own. Naturally, the result is that Popovich called and fought fiercely.

But there is no way. After Udoka won the championship, he had more ideas, and the Spurs seemed to be unable to satisfy him.

Li Sheng has promised him that after Gentry leaves, the position of chief assistant will be his.

And Li Sheng pays attention to not only the "present" people, but also the "future" people.

Ettore Messina is the future coach of the International Basketball Hall of Fame. He has been coaching in Europe in his early years, but as the basketball league with the highest attention and the highest commercial value in the world, he certainly cannot refuse the invitation of the NBA.

In 11, he signed a one-year contract with the Lakers as a team consultant. Later, he did not renew his contract and returned to Europe. Probably because of this failure, he returned to the NBA to sign the new champion Spurs in the future.

This is inseparable from the Spurs star Ginobili. Ginobili was once a favorite under Ettore. His mentor and apprentice helped the team win the Serie A championship. Ginobili also won two MVPs.

So if he wanted to contact him, Li Sheng would naturally go through Ginobili's relationship.

Of course, Ginobili also hopes that his mentor will go to a higher place, so this is also a no-brainer-in fact, he should have been recommended to the Spurs. After all, the Spurs have just left Udoka, but who told Li Sheng to act quickly and do both at the same time.

Then there is another one. Li Sheng knows that he will not be poached, but it should be no problem to ask him to help this offseason.

That is the Spurs' shooting coach Chip Englander. His career as a player was also unsuccessful, and he couldn't even play in the NBA. He had to go overseas.

Leonard, the "rough guy" in college, was under his advice, his shooting gradually improved, and he eventually became a superstar with excellent offense and defense.

Cole once said that Englander will analyze the shooting action and every point of force like a dog, and then let you turn shooting into a habit of conditioned reflex like a precision instrument, and eventually become a lethal weapon on the field.

Li Sheng's idea is to let Antetokounmpo and Durant go to San Antonio together after the summer league, and learn from England with Leonard for shooting training.

(End of this chapter)