<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Based on interviews with players, assistant coaches and general manager John Paxson, here are seven habits they attribute to Skiles becoming an effective NBA coach: 1. Work well with others In professional sports, it?s common for a coach to arrive at a new job and demand to hire his own staff. Skiles hired one old friend, Jim Boylan, but otherwise retained the assistant coaches left from Bill Cartwright?s tenure. Not only did Ron Adams, Pete Myers, John Bach and Mike Wilhelm stick around, they appear to be working very well with Skiles. John Paxson: ?He knows who good basketball people are. He didn?t come in and demand anything in terms of new coaches.? Adams: ?I think Scott?s a very easy guy to work for and with because he?s highly organized and he makes our jobs easier. We always know the direction we?re going.? Eric Piatkowski: ?You?ve got to like the way we go to work every day. In practice, everything that we do, I think, is relevant. In the past, there were many times where I?d sit there and say, ?Why are we doing this?? That almost feels like you?re there just wasting time because the coaching staff has you at practice.? 2. Get to work early Tyson Chandler called the first training camp with Skiles the toughest of his four-year NBA career. The hard work seemed to carry over throughout the season. Chandler: ?It was the best training camp since I?ve been here. And I?m pretty sure if you went around the league, we had one of the top five training camps in the league. ?Everybody was out there doing exactly what the coaches said and executing that way. There were no easy way outs. There were no guys lagging. In previous camps, you could see guys trying to get through drills, trying to take the easy way out of things.? 3. Yell with a purpose Sure, Skiles can get loud. But he?s probably not the screamer he?s made out to be. His style, like many coaches, is to relentlessly demand the best from his players. Ben Gordon: ?Sometimes he may be yelling or whatever, but I built up an immunity almost to the screaming. He reminds me a lot of (Connecticut) coach (Jim) Calhoun, just in the fact that he demands the most out of his players and he?s relentless. He?s never going to accept less than what he thinks a player can do.? Antonio Davis: ?He?ll yell at me sometimes. Then he?ll come back the next day and say, ?Hey, I?m glad we did that.? And I?m like, ?Did what?? He?ll say, ?Well, I said something to you in a certain way and you responded and now you?re doing it better.? ?I like that and respect that. Don?t let me sit out there doing things the wrong way and not say anything about it. Don?t worry about how I?m going to react or how I?m going to take it. The most important thing is do what you?re supposed to do.? 4. Think like a player Skiles is a relatively young coach at 41. He?s not far removed from a 10-year NBA career that ended in 1996. Adrian Griffin: ?I have never been around a coach who knows the game as a player and knows the game as a coach. He does a terrific job of combining the two. He knows what goes on in the mind of a player and so he knows how to take that and translate that into his coaching.? Othella Harrington: ?Fred (trainer Fred Tedeschi) told me when I first got here, when (Skiles) calls an out-of-bounds play, nine times out of 10 it usually works. And nine times out of 10, if we execute, it usually works to perfection. That?s really surprised me. Most teams don?t execute that well. ?He?s probably one of the most creative coaches, as far as X?s and O?s, that I?ve been around. He just has a good feel for the game and what plays work in certain situations.? 5. Trust them to do it One trademark of the Bulls this season has been great depth and an uncanny knack for finding somebody on the roster to come through on a given night. Piatkowski: ?One of the most important things is (the coaches) believe in all their players. If you?re the 12th man on the roster and you?re playing well, you?re probably going to play the rest of the game. That?s a great deal. ?Nothing?s worse than for you to be a bench player and go in there, get it going and bring the team back from a deficit. Then there?s six minutes left and it?s like, ?Whoops, here come the starters because you guys aren?t worthy enough to finish off the game.? ?It might not seem like a lot, but to a player that?s huge when your coach shows that type of confidence in you.? 6. Be honest, be yourself Jannero Pargo: ?A lot of coaches tend to just let guys play because this is a high level and guys know the game. He doesn?t take it for granted that guys know. He treats everybody as if we?re babies and we don?t know. And if you mess up, he?s right there to teach us. It can (get annoying), but as players and professionals, you?ve got to be coachable.? Chris Duhon: ?All players want a coach to be honest. Everyone has this opinion of him always being a tough, tough guy. But he?s a fun guy. He jokes around with us. He lightens up the locker room as well. But when he needs to be tough and get on us, he?s gotten on us.? 7. Create some believers Kirk Hinrich: ?The key to coaching is getting your players to want to play for you. You can have the best schemes and the best everything, but if the players don?t buy into it, carry it out and play hard for you, you?re going to get fired in this league. The team?s not going to win and everybody?s going to think you?re a bad coach. ?I think Coach Skiles is a good coach. But the bottom line is, these guys in this (locker) room have really done the job. I just think that?s the fact of it.?</div> Source
