| Coaching The Anthonys In Vegas Authored by Derek Flack - August 5, 2009 - 2:02 pm
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Coach Fields shared his basketball wisdom last year when we spoke about the Olympics and international basketball. In case you missed it you can read it here:
Coach Fields recently spoke with me about some of these compelling and exhilarating young players as well as other basketball happenings.
RealGM: You spent the past season observing with the Utah Jazz; what did you learn from Hall of Fame Coach Jerry Sloan?
Coach Fields: Well, first of all, I just have to thank Coach Sloan for allowing me the opportunity to come in and observe on a daily basis and consult a little bit with him. It was a valuable learning experience for someone like myself who has traveled and done a lot of things my own way for more than a decade internationally, so to sit and watch a Hall Of Famer at work on a daily basis it was truly a clinic for me and I want to thank the Jazz organization and Coach Sloan. It was purely a clinic on a daily basis to watch him work with the press, how he would deal with the players and how they would do things in different situations. As the season progressed, I thought he did a masterful job of being the glue and keeping that team together and having those young players play as hard as they did when it seemed like they had one injury after another.
When Deron Williams went down earlier in the season with the ankle sprain then Carlos Boozer missed 40 plus games with his knee surgery and then Kirilenko had surgery as well. When your star players and Olympic caliber players go down, to watch have those young kids come in and develop and play and contribute the that they did I thought he did a great job. The way he dealt with the press during some of those tribulations when you’re on the road, it was really good for me to sit and watch and learn from him, I learned a lot.
RealGM: You mentioned some of the injuries to Jazz players, with Boozer being injured, Paul Millsap had a great opportunity to fill in and contribute. In your opinion which power forward is a better fit alongside point guard Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer or Paul Millsap?
Coach Fields: Coach Sloan has been a head coach for a longer tenure then anybody else in the NBA and in my opinion there’s several seasons that he should have won the Coach of the Year award. The great thing about him is he has a philosophy and a system; you can plug different players into that system. In the championship era of course it was John Stockton to Karl Malone, now you see a D-Will and Carlos Boozer who fit that role. When Carlos Boozer went down and missed more than half the season recovering from surgery, Paul Millsap stepped in and did a great job. He had 19 consecutive double-doubles and he showed the kind of value that ha has. Now you’ve seen how it affected him early in the free agency period where Portland jumped in and signed him to an offer sheet that the Jazz matched at $32 million. Seeing a young man of Paul Millsap’s caliber who in my opinion is a great player; he’s very quiet and very professional, he worked his butt off and doesn’t say a lot, he just comes in and he has a lot of heart. I think him falling back into the second of the draft had him come into the league hungry to prove himself, and he did that and was patient and kept working hard. He fit Jerry Sloan’s system because he was just a hard working tough-nosed guy. To see him now, how can you not be happy for a guy who filled in and did a great job and earned a nice contract? I know he will continue to work hard and not be complacent with that money that has earned. I think he or Boozer will do a fantastic job and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the summer plays itself out. Whoever comes in for the Utah Jazz Coach Sloan will do a great job coaching them and have them playoff ready.
RealGM: How did the Jazz players and coaching staff react to longtime owner Larry Miller’s death due to his complications with diabetes?
Coach Fields: You could see firsthand what Larry Miller meant to this franchise and also what he meant to the Salt Lake valley as a businessman and what he meant as an icon to the state of Utah. When you lose a man like that of course it’s going to have an affect on your franchise. His son Greg has been his right hand for several years and sure he will come right in and take over and do a great job. Emotionally, it was a tough thing to lose an owner who built this franchise up from the floor. Coach Frank Layden was with the franchise when they came to the valley then Larry took it the next three or four steps and built the arena which is now the Energy Solutions Arena. He’s definitely going to be missed. I think Greg has an amazing challenge ahead of him especially with the salary cap issues but I think he will do a good job. The players are professionally and they come out and do their jobs, but he will certainly be missed.
RealGM: You just finished observing and learning from the Golden State Warriors summer league team, how was that experience?
Coach Fields: Again, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to openly thank my friend Smarty for allowing me the opportunity to come in and observe and learn from him once again this summer. This was the third year that I’ve worked with the Golden State Warriors. Last year, Keith Smart was the head coach in Vegas then they came up to the Rocky Mountain Revue, Sydney Moncrief was the head coach here in Salt Lake City. I helped them on the floor and did some scouting last summer so I’ve had that history with Keith Smart and again he allowed me to come in and grow as a coach. I am between coaching positions, so to have the opportunity to shag some rebounds, make some passes and help the players develop it is a fix for me.
The Warriors finished 4-1. The exciting thing for the Warriors right now is they had the 7th pick in the draft and the basketball gods kind of gave them a gift and Stephen Curry fell to that pick. The summer league was everyone’s first look at Curry in a Warriors jersey. Golden State has a lot to be excited about with the young crew that they have, Don Nelson and Larry Riley have this thing moving in the right direction. For me, it was great to come in with Keith Smart and watch him run the summer league and learn some of his terminology. I get to learn a new system on both ends of the floor, see how he runs his blitzes, traps and see his out of bounds plays is educational.
Again, I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity to be on the floor with them and coach. This was the second year for Anthony Randolph and Anthony Morrow, to see those guys come in after a year of maturity and see how they have developed after playing a year in the NBA was neat to witness. In game 4 Anthony Randolph tied the single game summer league scoring record with 42 points, then in our last game Anthony Morrow, who was an undrafted player last year who was the MVP last year at the Rocky Mountain Revue actually broke the single game scoring record when he dropped 47 points. What makes that exciting is these players scored more than 40 points in a 40 minute ball game, [laughs] so the Nellie small ball was definitely in full effect. It was two totally different philosophies as a coach to watch two different styles of basketball being played between the Jazz last season and the Warriors this summer.
RealGM: What kind of progress has Anthony Randolph made since you worked with him last year and what does he still need to work on the most?
Coach Fields: As a Pro coach that is not officially on staff, these are just my observations and humble opinions. It appears he has put on 15-18 pounds of muscle since last year. Of course, last year he came into the draft and was only a freshman and played one year at LSU and was long and lanky. Of course, he’s still long and very athletic but you could see how he matured physically in that one year and the discipline and dedication that he has had with his physical fitness. He’s taking it stronger to the basket this year, the way he penetrates and gets to the basket; he was able to take a few knocks easier than last year when he was knocked off balance a lot. He got to the rack, drew the contact and still finished several plays this year that last year he was not able to finish.
RealGM: You mentioned that Anthony Morrow broke the scoring record by dropping 47 points. Do you think Morrow will be a more consistent NBA player in his second year?
Coach Fields: This is just my observation, I can, without a doubt, see the difference in the maturity level of the players. When they first come in they’re like a deer in headlights; there’s a lot of hesitation and they don’t want to make mistakes. Anthony came in this summer and was physically stronger and had a little bit of swagger to him and was more of a leader this year where last year he was soaking everything in like a sponge. The Warriors lost the first game in Vegas against the Houston Rockets and Anthony was not playing because he turned his ankle in the first workout, he missed the first two games but came back and they won the rest of the games and he set the scoring record. I think it shows what type of shooter he’ll be, I don’t know the exact stats but I’m going to guess that he hit 8 or 9 three pointers in that game that he scored 47 points.
RealGM: Stephen Curry was a very popular college player, but does he have the skill and talent to be a superstar on the NBA level?
Coach Fields: From a coach's eyes you can definitely tell that he’s come from a great family. His father Del Curry was a former NBA player and you can see that he has been around the game. In my opinion, you can see he’s very cerebral and picks up on things very quickly. It’s going to take him awhile and he’ll have a transition year to get used to the speed, to get used to the athleticism and the size and an 82 game regular season schedule. But you can see that he’s very coachable; everything was yes sir, no sir, and he looked the coaches dead in their eyes; that mentality is really going to help him. He picked up plays and he picked up blitzes when they would run at him on a trap, he just sees the floor really well. They’ll use him as a combo guard but he showed great point guard skills in the summer league that probably surprised a lot of people as a coach not on staff, but as a coach at the professional level I would give him a B or a B- for his summer league performance, but I assume if you were to ask him he would probably say a B- or a C+. It’s going to be a work in progress but I think he knows that and understands that, but he’s going to do some good things for the Warriors in the years to come and I’m sure he’s going to contribute right away. I think he’s going to be a player and he’s going to be good for the league.
RealGM: Besides the Anthonys for the Warriors, who were the best players at the Vegas Summer League?
Coach Fields: As a coach setting up close and personal, I had a great seat to evaluate a lot of talent. The Warriors had another player that was in camp, Cartier Martin, I was real impressed with Cartier; a very coachable young man. He spent a little time with the Charlotte Bobcats last year, was a D-League call up. He did a great job; I think he was averaging about 19 points the first three games for the Warriors. He has a strong body, got to the hole and knocked down some shots; he hit some crucial shots in the overtime win where the Warriors beat Sacramento. He has a contract offer with Treviso, Italy, and I’m sure it has an NBA escape clause so I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t get called into a veteran camp somewhere.
Like everybody else I was curious to see how Blake Griffin was going to do. He was strong and has all upside; it was a no brainer that he’d be the number one pick. He’s physically strong and actually did some things in the summer league action that I think a lot of people had question marks on. He hit the midrange jumper, he faced up and did some things and even had some spin moves in the open floor and finished strong. He’s going to be a good one as long as he keeps his head on straight and has the work ethic that he has now. I liked what some of the drafted players were doing, but was more impressed with the sophomore class.
RealGM: Last season Sidney Moncrief left his assistant coaching position with the Warriors to pursue an opportunity with the Chinese Basketball Association. Having coached professionally in China yourself, did he seek your advice?
Coach Fields: I’ve become good friends with Coach Moncrief, matter of fact he and I spoke after the Golden State Warriors game in Utah and we sat and talked about it. He shared with me that he had done some work over there in the past and that the Beijing Ducks of the CBA was acquiring about his services. We talked about the culture and the league and I gave him the names of some people who thought it would be helpful for him to meet. We talked about it for about a week to ten days. I think it was about two weeks after that game against the Jazz last winter that he took that job. He’s in a good situation and is doing a lot of coaching and he also has some player personnel titles with the Beijing Ducks. I think he’ll be good for the team and be good for the League. The players will definitely grow and develop under him as a coach because he’s a former NBA player who also has some NBA bench time and can use all those years of knowledge. He did a nice job teaching and working with the younger guys last year with the Warriors so I think the Beijing Ducks will have a lot of success for as long as he’s there; I wish him the best of luck.
RealGM: You’ve coached numerous seasons overseas, in your opinion what foreign player that was drafted in the NBA this year has the most potential?
Coach Fields: I like Ricky Rubio. If you watched him in the Olympics with the Spanish National Team you know he’s got a lot of flare to his game. He’s real good in the open court and played with the Gasol brothers. That was a very talented team that he played for there in Spain. I actually thought that he would go a little higher in the draft then the 5th pick where Minnesota picked him right up; of course they picked another point guard [Johnny Flynn] up right after him but I wasn’t surprised by that move at all. It’s not fair to a player to say “he’s going to be the next Steve Nash” or “he’s going to be the next Jason Kidd or “Pistol” Pete Maravich”, but I think he just wants to be Ricky Rubio. He does have a lot of flash to his game and once he does get here to the NBA he’s going to have a nice career and do some good things. He’s already played at such high levels internationally that I think he’ll step in and contribute right away.
RealGM: There weren’t as many international players drafted this year as there have been in recent drafts, why do you think that is?
Coach Fields: Well, you did continue to see several players go in the second round which means that they’re much younger players that will probably stay in Europe for a year or two before they come over. The overseas game hasn’t lost anything; the players continue to develop and get better. When the World Championships come up in a couple years you’ll see quality basketball because the game truly is global now since Michael Jordan took the game globally. That’s why some of these countries are doing so well now, if you remember when the Dream Team was in the Olympics all these other countries and players were so enamored and in awe of the American players. Other countries then got better and better and then beat America over in Greece and made us play their way. It was nice to see the American team get back in the last Olympics and be a gold medal team. It took a lot of hard work and there were a lot of sacrifices by a lot of people but it showed how great the game of basketball is.
A lot of credit goes to Jerry Coloangelo and Coach K and his staff for the job they did preparing for the Games. You also have to respect the fact the NBA players made a three year commitment to the team as well. I hope to see us continue to dominate International play. There is no doubt the rest of the world has caught up to us.
I just want to close by saying I am truly blessed to have worked with some of the top players the NBA has. I also have a lot of gratitude to all the coaches who allow me to come sit in on their practices. They allow me to ask questions and to give input. They have allowed me to feel a part of it. I am always trying to learn and grow as a professional. These names mentioned prior are just a few of the quality people around the league who have let a passionate guy from Indiana get his feet wet. I am confident I will be an asset to an NBA franchise, but until it is my time, I don’t take for granted the kindness these individuals have shown me. This is just another step in the journey. I appreciate this forum to express my opinions.
If you have any questions or comments about this interview with Coach Fields feel free to contact me at derek_flack@msn.com |
