Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks making good use of the NBA lockout – NBA Update
The NBA lockout has not only spelled disaster for the players, the team managements and the coaches have also been on the receiving end. They are not allowed to meet their players, talk to them, nor can they show their reaction.
If they do, the NBA is there suck the money out of them.
For coaches like Mike Brown and Rick Adelman, who have just taken over the job, this is even tougher as they cannot discuss the strategies for the upcoming season or develop any cohesion with players.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City Thunder’s coach and management staff are using the lockout period differently and smartly.
However for teams with a well settled coaching setup, the extended NBA impasse has ensured some extra time for honing the tactics in the next NBA season, whenever it happens.
One such team is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Since the lockout began, the Thunder staff, headed by coach Scott Brooks, has been meeting almost every day for hours to discuss new strategies and sort out the weaknesses from the last season.
When asked about the particulars, Scott added
“We meet and we go over last season, we've watched every playoff game. We've gone over them and broken them down again many times…We're staying busy. We're doing things that we don't have time to do during the season. We’ve been
looking for ways to get better and do things better.”
OKC were a revelation last season. Marshalled by the prolific Kevin Durant, Thunder exceeded all expectations and went on to reach the Western Conference Finals. At that stage however, they hit the resurgent Dallas Mavericks, and
although OKC gave the Mavs a run for their money, experience proved to be the difference between the two sides.
Going into the next season, all Thunder need is a system which shores up the deficiencies exposed by the Mavs and the Memphis Grizzlies last post season. The changes required arte minor and Brooks agrees with that notion.
“Sometimes, when you have a lot of time you want to change things up, but I have to show restraint and not change things up; just try to tweak a few things here and there. But I do know that we can get better.”
If the Thunder can learn from their mistakes, they will be a force to reckon with next season. They have one of the most talented teams in the league and to complement that, all their superstars are young and rearing to make it
big. If Brooks manages to fine tune his strategies during the lockout, the Thunder juggernaut might be impossible to stop next season.
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