2672
by TFIR
OK this is non Cavs related (but NBA related) but it blew my mind!! Incredibly sophisticated!
Inside Blake Griffin’s ‘scientific’ offseason
James L. Edwards III Sep 26, 2018 16
Dwane Casey described it as “scientific.” Blake Griffin, with his nonchalant off-the-court demeanor, brushed off the idea that his summer workload was as empirical as his new head coach made it out to be.
Though Griffin understood why Casey would think that.
“I just had a very, very clear plan,” the Detroit Pistons star said.
It was a regimen crafted by Griffin and Noah LaRoche, a sought-after trainer based in New Hampshire who owns Integrity Hoops and has worked with Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Victor Oladipo and Diana Taurasi in recent years. Shortly after the season ended, a mutual connection put the two in contact. Griffin detailed to LaRoche what he wanted to accomplish during his first healthy summer in three years. LaRoche got to work by examining Griffin’s film and stats, and constructed a proposal of his own based on his findings.
They had a meeting of the minds and ironed out a comprehensive plan centered around playmaking and read-and-react situations that was exercised over a four-month period. There was very little one-on-one work between the two.
“Jerry West told me very few players are legacy players,” LaRoche, 36, told The Athletic in a phone conversation. “I said, ‘What’s a legacy player?’ He said, ‘There are a lot of guys who are big-time athletes, there are a lot of guys who are super skilled, but legacy players see the game in slow motion and can make everyone else better and see things before they happen.’
“That’s a big thing for us. At the end of the day, the game is played with four other guys and you have to be able to lift those guys up. Everything we did was (based around) trying to find the best shot available, whether it’s for Blake or someone else.”
For up to five days a week — sometimes six, LaRoche said — the two spent around “70 to 90 minutes” going through a workout that analytical admirers would drool over. They shot-charted everything. However, it wasn’t as elementary as “make 10 from this spot.” LaRoche said he’d instead surround Griffin with coaches — both offensively and defensively — and force him to make a decision based on the situation.
LaRoche defines this as “engaged reps.” That means if Griffin had the ball, he had to decide if he had a shot; needed to make a pass and relocate; make a pass and then position himself for a shot; or make a move, or series of moves, before deciding what the best outcome would be.
Each drill was designed to simulate live-game action, and there were sprinklings of technical development, too.
“It’s constant thinking,” LaRoche said. “We try to put as much toll on the body and spark motor learning, the cognitive stuff. We want to see if he can make a decision.”
Along the same lines, LaRoche documented every little detail in a method he calls “live coding.” Griffin is the hub of the Pistons’ offense, so the purpose was to see how many touches he had per possession, how many dribbles he took per touch and how many points he scored per possession.
This, specifically, was a top priority heading into the offseason.
“When the ball slows down or I’m stuck with the ball, I think our offense is going to be worse,” Griffin said. “I think the more that the ball moves and the quicker decisions we make, the better off we’ll be. It’s important.”
The coaches, or “dummy defenders,” as Griffin described, would comb through his habits and force him into weaker positions. If they noticed something he needed to address, they’d hammer it home on the court. This allowed him to see the alternatives from every action.
“We’re like, for example — and I’m not saying this is true — ‘Hey, Blake has a habit of catching and driving left all the time, whether or not that’s the right play. So make sure you close out on his left hand so he starts driving right and reading that play,'” LaRoche said. “Trying to simulate stuff he and I felt he would see or struggle with.”
Every workout was filmed, and LaRoche gave Griffin the footage following each session. The video was detailed but meant to be more of a morale booster than a fixation on any wrongdoings.
“The psychology of going home at the end of the day and dwelling on the things we didn’t do or screwed up, rather than say, ‘I got a good workout in, I got my bills paid, I returned that book,’ we don’t think about that stuff,” LaRoche said. “Instead, you beat yourself up.
“Seventy percent (of the film) is positive reinforcement, and it’s like a two-minute breakdown of the positive things done. And then I’d say 20-30 percent were corrective stuff. We’d also send him film from his past season of things we’re working on or things he did well.”
Per Griffin’s request, LaRoche’s offseason plan didn’t just help the power forward improve his own personal development. Griffin also had a goal of making his teammates better. It all goes back to LaRoche’s conversation with West about how a player’s true talent is seen through the lense of his team’s success.
Griffin, more than anything, was motivated to make strides to better facilitate for his teammates.
“At the end of the day, when you work with these players, I think the point, for me, is how do they impact their team winning in the winter?” said LaRoche, a former Division III basketball player. “Everything really came down to that: How can Blake get better as an individual player but also how can he impact winning? That, in my mind, is what makes athletes great. The great athletes do that.”
LaRoche uses a similar method with all of his clients. As a result, he internally manifests an annual excitement. He evaluates his job performance solely on that of the players’ forthcoming seasons.
“In some ways I guess you could say I am a scientist because, now, you’re trying to see if your experiment worked,” said LaRoche, who insisted he was just a fraction of Griffin’s offseason army. “I’m very eager to see how he does and how the team does. I respect Coach Casey and I know a lot of those guys on staff. They work their butts off, and I suspect they’re going to have a good year.”
(Top photo: Paul Sancya/Associated Press)
James L. Edwards III is the Pistons writer for The Athletic Detroit. Previously, he was a reporter for the Lansing State Journal, where he covered Michigan State and high school sports. Follow James L. on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.
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