Billy Donovan
From an offensive standpoint, because a lot of times your personnel can change - whether it's through graduation in high school and college, or whether it's through different changes in the NBA - I think you've got to locate and figure out what each guy's strengths and talents are.Collection: Graduation
The history, the organization, what the Bulls have meant to the game of basketball and basketball worldwide, I mean, it's an iconic franchise.
The expectation is you want to compete at the highest level. You want to be able to make deep runs in the playoffs.
I think sometimes when you look at Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook it's so easy to see them as these iconic, unbelievably talented basketball players, which they are. But they're also human beings, too.
For me personally, I loved Raymond Felton. I loved being around Raymond Felton.
We're all chasing something in life and that's regardless of what we do for a living. I think what you have to look at is what is the chase molding in you?
I do believe the more and more involved I get the one thing that resonates is that culture wins. That's not to say that one culture is right and one culture is wrong, but I think that's what wins.
Too often we all got caught up in who is going to go pro on a certain team.
The challenge always is can we sustain a high level of competitiveness?
Sometimes in a coaching situation, you end up making an instinctive gut call at the spur of the moment of what you feel is the best thing at that time, but I'm a big believer of the analytics.
The NBA game is a different game, and that's one of the things that intrigued me is it's learning and growing in a different way, in a different area and a different game.
I've always spent time talking to a lot of NBA coaches, and I've always said this: There's certain things that work in the NBA that don't work in college. And there's certain things in college that don't work in the NBA.
Everybody's journey is a little bit different.
In their lives, guys figure out different things at different points in time.
Over 72 games, you are going to have games where, 'Gosh, I wish we could have had that one back. That was one where we let slip away.' Or, 'We just didn't play to the level we needed to.'
Daniel Theis brings a physicality and a toughness.
Lonzo to me is as good as an advanced passer as there is. In order to play to his strengths, we've got to get out to enable him to get his passing into the game.
The hardest position to go from high school to college and college to the NBA is playing the point guard position. Because you're running the team. You're making decisions. You've got to communicate.
I always say this: having Chris Paul, having Russell Westbrook, Paul George, the ball at the end of the game finds those guys.
I think a lot of times for frontcourt players in the NBA, a lot of times guys are dominant because of their size and strength.
I've always believed in running an offensive system where you can look at each guys strengths and talents and abilities and try to put something in place where you can take advantage of those strengths.
Most teams defensively are designed to try to make teams take two-point shots, challenged two-point shots.
My feeling is you've got to have a base package of defense where you're playing your base package and the way you're guarding. Then certainly personnel dictates and changes the adjustments you need to make.
I've always believed offensively, year to year, you have to evolve.
I tell young players that come to the NBA time, especially rookies: 'Look at your position and study every guy that you could potentially guard.' Because they're going to be on defense a lot more often than they're going to shoot the basketball.
I've always been a big believer of ball movement and player movement, trying to create situations where five people can be involved.
I coached Udonis Haslem for four years in college. And probably for a good portion of his college career, he was one of the most dominant low-post players in college basketball.
I coached against Nick Collison when he was at Kansas, and he was a dominant low-post player. Really good. And Kansas ran all that high-low action, and Collison just posted up, and he beat people up. He couldn't do that in the NBA, so he had to reinvent himself.
I think some players are looking at it from a development standpoint that, 'If I go into the G League, I'm playing NBA rules, I can learn the NBA game, I'm going to grow and mature quicker in that kind of environment.' And there's some truth to that. But this idea that college coaches can't develop players, I don't agree with that.
I do think the college game should adopt some of the things that the NBA does.
It was very interesting, when I went on the road and started recruiting college and I spoke to coaches around the country, of how little coaching assistant coaches in college did actually do. The head coach did everything.
I wouldn't be standing where I am today without coach Pitino, the investment he made in my life, the values and things that he taught me.
Obviously Carmelo is a great scorer. He's done it for a really, really long period of time.
I think you're always in the NBA dealing with different roster changes and those kind of things.
At the core, we all want to be loved, we all want to be accepted and we all want to be appreciated for who we are.
Every human being on the face of the earth is yearning to be understood and have relationships.
I always look at shots being good or bad based on contestedness.
I think any coach-player relationship, there's always going to be some level or form of disagreement, or maybe not always seeing things the same way.
For me, there's an incredible power with a group of people that are connected in what they're doing. I feel like my job, my role, my responsibility - whether it be during the season or in the offseason - is to try and create those connections.
I think the one thing you want to be able to do is really be able to adjust to certain situations.
No one is going to play perfect all the time.
One of the things with me is I'm going to work extremely hard.
I'm curious to learn and grow.
I'm excited about learning and growing. That's really, really important to me.
I feel very strongly about the game of basketball and what I'll be able to learn and how quickly I'll be able to learn it.
Coaching Russell Westbrook, it was really interesting, he was just an incredible player at getting to the basket.
What drove me nuts was the cold-calling.
I've always been a ball movement, player movement and extra pass team and coach.
I've always felt as a coach that the best thing for the game in our country is to have a universal way it's played.
College would be better off if they adopted some of the NBA stuff, in my opinion.