Marc Iavaroni

Going through a packet of notes from the University of Florida Coaches Self Improvement Clinic I came across some thoughts from Clippers Assistant Coach Marc Iavaroni.  Coach Iavaroni has been a player and coach in the league for many years.

Know Your Players:
Know your players as people.
This guy likes the fray, he likes the battle, put him into those kind of situations.
Know they player off the court, on the golf course, in the dorm room, in the cafeteria, in social situations.
Know what there strengths are.
Know who your decision makers are, your screener's (tough guys)
Dont put your players in positions to fail.

Philosophy of the game:
If you want to know about great offense, talk to the great defensive coaches.  Talk to them about what they can't handle, find out what works and gives them trouble.
If you can guard pick and roll offenses well, you've got a pretty good defense
Basketball is a game of counters.  What do they do and how are we going to counter it?
It's all about penetration.  If we can keep penetration to a minimum we don't have to rotate and create problems where we have penetration in the paint.
With Coach Wooden it was about recruiting quickness.  Trying to get a player that was quicker than an opponent and create mismatches at every postion.

Recruit Shooters:
If you space the floor and have good shooters on your team you will be successful.
Coaches can run a play for an open shot, but if they guy misses, most people (fans not coaches) think it's bad offense.

Fast-Break and Flow-Break:
Should be running for layups
Most teams in the NBA run for layups
In a 3 on 2 or 3 on 1 situation, if a player is open for a layup there is no hesitation in giving him the ball.
You need to recruit four good shooters and an ass kicker.  Three-point shooters are like archers:  They dont have to get their hands bloody, they just kill from a far.