The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

[Jordigriffin]

Chapter 1
A Fresh Start

"....so after another great season by the warriors, ending 12-2, how long is this reign going to continue? stephen a smith and max kellerman in the studio. Max what are your th..."

Man i cant hear that nonsense anymore, Warriors this, Warriors that. Where is the competitive spirit nowadays, Anyway, let me tell you who i am.

My name is Jordi Griffin, or Coach Griff as the players call me. I was this year's San Antonio Spurs assistant coach or "Pop's Apprentice''. I had learned alot this year and i felt it was time for me to move to bigger and better things. And man, it feels like im on top of the world right now. I had gotten calls about GM's wanting to speak with me about a coaching job of some sorts, because as you might understand, a guy who Gregg Popovich calls "A Young Me" is going to be in hot demand.

I think about 10 teams called to set up a meeting for a role in their organization, now 5 of them i immediatly turned down. The reason for that was that i wasnt looking for another Assistant-Coach job or Trainer or anything of that kind. No i had my sights set on Head Coach. Five teams came to talk to me, Let me tell you what happened.

First it was Phil Jackson from the... heck you all know who Phil is, he wanted me to replace Hornacek as the head coach for the New York Knicks, we talked about the job and what it entitled, including ofcourse, executing the Triangle Offense.

In the following days i got visits from representitives for the Mavericks, Pistons, Kings and Lakers, well Kinda.

The Lakers send non other than Magic himself, Yes, 5 time champion, 3 time Most Valuable Player and now President of Basketball operations for the Lakers was knocking on my office door. We talked about how the lakers are a young team, and how i had the freedom to do what ever i wanted.

After the talks i decided to lay down

"Man, Its going to have to go between the Knicks and Lakers, Atleast their GM's took their time to show up themselves. On one hand we have the team i've supported since i was little, a team thats more ready to win. But i would have to implement the Triangle offense." Something i was not a fan off, i was always a fan off team defense and team offense with a little bit off iso-plays in there, how do you think Pop got the idea to start letting Kawhi ISO a bit more. "On the other hand we have the Lakers, Probably the most Storied Franchise in NBA History, great talents and minds to be shaped. But they are not going to win as much as the knicks could and i'd probably have some problems having a big figure like Magic looking over my shoulder, not to mention we have a damn Ball Brother on the team."

I woke up the next morning having dreamed about the team i was going to Coach. I decided to call them up immediatly.

"Hi, your speaking with..."

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff




Chapter 2
The City Of Angels

"..Mr Johnson's Office, How can i help?"
"Hi, you're speaking with Jordi Griffin, I had a meeting setu....."
I got cutoff, then two seconds later i heard
"Griff! im glad you called, whatsup?"
"Mr. Johnson, i wanted to accept the offer you gave me, i want to work for the Los Angeles Lakers."
"Oh thats great news man, By the way call me Magic."
"Ok Magic, Where do we go from here"
"Well i know its a sunday but work never stops. How about we discuss some details over dinner?"

He proceeded to give me details on where to meet him, he had a car pick me up and drive me to the restaurant, When i got escorted in i realised where we were setting, a complete VIP Section just for the two of us. While we were eating he started asking some questions

"Ok listen, there is some stuff i need to know about you. How are you planning on playing defense?"
"I think the best way for our young guys to learn the NBA defensive ways, is to let them play Man-on-Man. Help defense included."
"Aight i can get behind that, How about rebounding?"
"I would love to send our guys running alot, meaning no hustle for rebounds defensively, but do crash the offensive glass, second hand points are Vital"
"Ok now that we have the non-important stuff out of the way, how about OFFENSE."
"I think id like to play simple offense, bunch of screens, on and off-ball, with shooters getting open. I would also like to put some ISO's in there, i think its important that you use your stars to their maximum potential, and i think Brandon(Ingram) is a great ISO player."
"Well that wraps up tactic talks, welcome to the Lakers. Can you get the Cheque?"
"Euhh...Uhm... Yes sure.."
"Im just kidding, its on me, ill expect you on the meeting room monday 8 sharp."
"Ill be there."

After dinner his driver brought me to my hotel, as i didnt have time to look for housing yet. I lay down and just couldnt believe that it was all happening. Me, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Suddenly i jumped out of my bed thinking "They're going to expect something from me, i need a roster and plans!"

Then i calmed myself down, it was only offseason so the roster wasnt even finalised, it wasnt even 100% sure that they were going to draft Lonzo. Lets just calm down, we know what we want tacticly, lets just bring that knowledge with me when i get there monday.

Sliders
Difficulty : Superstar with Sliders favored CPU a little more
Season Length : 14 Games
Quarter Length : 10 Minutes
Simulated Quarter Length : 12 Minutes
Playoffs : 1-1-1-1
Controlled teams : Lakers
Draft Class : EmbraceThePace 17/18/19

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 3
The Draft

There i was, in front of the meeting room. I stepped in and was greeted by 5 guys. There was Magic, The Head Scout, Head Trainer and two other scouts. We were going to discuss our picks, as we did have a bunch of picks in the draft, and we got number two in the lottery.

"Ok gentlemen" Magic Started "We know who we are going to pick at number 2, Lonzo is our top prospect, We will take Markelle if Lonzo's picked at 1, But the real question is what will we do with our 18th, 20th and 31st picks? we have prospects of many, but now its your time to choose. We get 12 invites for the Pre-Draft workouts, besides Lonzo and Markelle, who do we invite? the scouting team will make up 6 of the decisions, Coach and Trainer do two each."

And so it began, it took about an hour for everybody to finish their decisions and talk about it, we gave eachother our lists and so we formed the final 12, it looked like this:

1. Markelle Fultz - Projected 1st
2. Lonzo Ball - Projected 2nd
3. Luke Kennard - Projected 15th
4. Tony Bradley - Projected 16th
5. Bam Adebayo - Projected 18th
6. Ike Anigbogu - Projected 20th
7. Harry Giles - Projected 26th
8. Jarrett Allen - Projected 27th
9. Dillon Brooks - Projected 28th
10. Nigel Hayes - Projected 29th
11. Kyle Kuzma - Projected 30th
12. Thomas Bryant - Projected 39th

And thats when the draft day arrived. we got some offers for our second overall pick but we all knew what we wanted. And we got him, because the sixers picked markelle first, and we took Lonzo second. Everybody kind of already knew this so we just moved on to our next two picks, 18 and 20.

"Ok team, out of the people left, who do you think we should take at 18 and 20?"

I decided to speak up "I think O.G. being left is a complete steal for us, he has size, athetlicism and is a lockdown defender.
"Yeah but his jumper is just not there, do we really want to risk it on him?" the head scout added.
"Very true, but i dont think value wise there is anyone better than him out there do you?" The trainer backed me up. We had a long talk and Magic decided to take my decision, drafting O.G. Anunoby at 18, now at 20 we were all prety set to take Kyle Kuzma, a stretch 4 from Utah, we all loved his game but decided that pick 18 was a bit too early for him and second round was probably going to be to late.
with pick 31 the scouts decided on Sindarius Thornwell out of South Carolina, we needed a shooting guard and he was our best option still available.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 4
Free Agency and Summer League

Now we did what we had to do at the start, accepted the young guys' team options in Larry Nance Jr. and Julius Randle, Let go off Tarik Black and Tyler ennis. Unfortunately Nick Young accepted his player option which i wasnt happy with, not looking forward working with him ill tell you that much.

Then the news hit.

We had traded away Larry Nance Junior in another attempt to get younger and get rid of some bad contracts. The full deal was something like, Larry Nance, Luol Deng and Corey Brewer for Alec Burks.

The Jazz had gone in panic mode after Gordon Hayward decided to check out what was out there in free agency. Now im both happy and concerned about this as we do get rid of Luol's contract, which was a big one and another small forward in Brewer, because with the drafting of Anunoby we had a lockjam at small forward. But we got rid of Larry Nance, the guy was the perfect backup Power forward for us! Young, Grabbed rebounds scored in the paint, good defense.

Ofcourse we did get help at our weak shooting guard position in alec burks, but hes a difficult player to work with, Likes the ball in his hands, doesnt play too much defense. We didnt do anything in free agency either, magic wanted to test out players in summer league first before we went and did something in signing backups.

Our own summer league players were:
PG Lonzo Ball
SG Sindarius Thornwell
SF Brandon Ingram, O.G. Anunoby
PF Kyle Kuzma
C Ivica Zubac
Added Players afterwards: Shelvin Mack, Tyler Ennis, David Nwaba, James Ennis, Kevon Looney, Thomas Bryant, Robert Sacre

Results
Hornets vs Lakers - 131-119
Lakers vs Clippers - 149-78
Lakers vs Celtics - 81-91
Lakers vs Knicks - 106-110
Championship Day
Lakers vs Wizards - 72-76

Trail Blazers Win Summer League

After the summer league i came home to a voicemail from Magic, Telling me i needed to file a report on the summer league team. "He really values my opinion huh, im starting to like this organization more and more by the day"

This is how my report looked

Brandon Ingram 19.4ppg, 4.2rpg, 2.3apg Looked dominant, as i expected off him, very versatile scorer. Looked very good off dribble, going to the basket, on the catch and shoot and also a little in the post.
Lonzo Ball 13.4ppg, 3.6rpg, 9.2apg Very good teamplayer, values passing over shooting, looked very promising overall.
O.G. Anunoby 7.4ppg, 5.6rpg, 1.0apg VERY good defensively, showed some promise on drives to basket, shooting needs improving badly, also has some promise as a rebounder/playmaker.
Kyle Kuzma 8.2ppg, 6.6rpg, 1.8apg decent passer, decent rebounder, decent shooter, raw prospect but looks like has good potential to be something valuable
Sindarius Thornwell 13.8ppg, 0.6rpg, 2.0apg decent at driving, ok playmaker, no defense, very good shooter, surprised me. Very good pick by Scouting Team. shot .477% from the field and .519% from three.
Shelvin Mack 10.6ppg, 1.2rpg, 2.4apg if hes available and we need a guard hes the best option, very good leader on the floor with good playmaking and shooting.
Ivica Zubac 9.8ppg, 9.0rpg, 0.6apg Elite shotblocker/rebounder, very slow though, little basketbal IQ and needs to work on finishing around the rim.
David Nwaba 5.4ppg, 2.0rpg, 1.4apg Great defender, only pick up if we need defense, does little to nothing on offense.
Thomas Bryant 5.2ppg, 7.0rpg, 1.2bpg More athletic but less polished Ivica Zubac, very worth picking up if we can. Very talented for 20 years old.
James Ennis, Tyler Ennis 3 point shooters, dont do anything else but that.
Kevon Looney, Robert Sacre Great teamplayers, Good rebounders. Thats it.

Players i recommend getting
Shelvin Mack, David Nwaba, Thomas Bryant, Robert Sacre.

To be completely honoust i was very impressed with our rookies, and i was very excited to get into the season with them.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

FREE AGENCY BIG SIGNINGS ROUNDUP

Warriors re-sign Stephen Curry to 5yr/$146.17M deal
Clippers re-sign Chris Paul to 4yr/$133.61M deal
Raptors re-sign Kyle Lowry to 3yr/98.09M deal
Suns sign Paul Millsap to 3yr/$97.93M deal
Knicks re-sign Derrick Rose to 4yr/$101.42M deal
76ers sign Kevin Durant to 4yr/$133.61M deal
Clippers re-sign Blake Griffin to 5yr/$146.17M deal
Kings sign Dion Waiters to 3yr/$50.64M deal
Celtics sign George Hill to 3yr/$79.27M deal
Kings sign Serge Ibaka to 3yr/$58.34M deal

"Wow this is going to set the league on fire, after grabbing the championship the guy moves to the sixers? sure he was mad that they couldnt offer him the max, but still. what a decision."

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 5
The Last Board Meeting Before Season Starts

I woke up with a great feeling, and i mean how could i not? I was Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and i was loving every single minute off it. It was pretty early in the morning on a Monday and i had to get into the office by 9. so i grabbed my coffee and left the Hotel i was still staying at. Since i also did not own a car yet Magic still had me picked up by a driver, which was an amazing feeling.

When i got to the Meeting room i was the first one to arrive, the Head Trainer and my temporary assistant coach, who was really a trainer, came shortly after, followed eventually by the one and only Magic.

"Well gentleman, before we begin i want to announce to you who we picked up to fill out the roster, i've seen everyone's Summer League Recommendations and negotiated with some players to eventually fill out the roster to 15. Before i give you all the final rosters i think you should be proud, you all thought about the same about all the players, so we are on one line."

"Without Further or due, here is the final roster, i've highlighted the players i recently added" he said as he gave everyone a spreadsheet

*Notes recently added players

"I just wanted to say we came out getting basicly everyone we wanted but Shelvin, i know he was high on everyone's list but he was too costly for a third string point guard. On to the next order of business, Griff, do you have the Starting Lineup ready?"

"Yes sir" I Started "I believe our best starting lineup would be Lonzo starting, He will be our Main ball handler, he will be accompanied by Burks in the backcourt. Right now im not so sure about his capabilities to play offball, but i think with his skillset and Head Trainer's Abilities we can make it work. Our starting Forward will obviously be Brandon Ingram, he will be our secondary playmaker, and if the play doesnt work our fallback option, i believe Trainer is working on his one on one ability as we speak correct?"

"Yes" he added "His postup is coming along very well, we think hes ready to get some plays for that"

"Amazing, now for our frontcourt i think we will be running Randle and Brook, Randle will be our third ball handler he together with brook will take turns covering the paint and stretching the floor, as they both can do either task well."

"Off the bench we have Jordan Clarkson as our 6th man and primary ballhandler off the bench. I will start with Thornwell as his Guard option on limited minutes and we'll see how he does in the NBA. Nick Young will start as one of our forwards, with O.G. Getting limited minutes. Kyle Kuzma will be stretching the floor, and Zubac will be controlling the paint for the second unit."

"How about the rest?" Magic asked

"Sacre, Bryant, Nwaba and Laprovittola will not get any minutes as of yet, if we need their particular skills during the game, the will get their minutes."

"Well thats all we need then, Good job griff. Trainer i will like a report on Brandon's One-on-One Play weekly, Make sure Griff gets it too. Get used to these meetings happening once every month, with emergency meetings if needed." Magic ended the Meeting with those words.

After the meeting i decided to check up on The Personal Training Brandon was doing, and it looked very promising. I came up to him and Asked
"Listen Brandon, what are your goals?"
"This season or in general?" he asked
"Both" i said
"I want to become our number one choice scorer this season. and for my career i want to become the best of all time, but ive got a lot of work to do Coach."
"Good" i said as i walked away.
I was happy that he wanted that, i was hoping he would really go to a next level scoring wise this season, and his hopes are high. Lets just hope he stays humble.

In two weeks it was all going to start off, With us travelling to Phoenix.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 6
Fighting a Dragan in Phoenix

"..Its opening night in the NBA for alot of teams, what are your thoughts Steven A..."

"Yes" I said while turning the TV off "Its finally time"

We flew into phoenix last night and its finally here, my first ever NBA Game as a Head-Coach. Now we were going up against a team in the same situation as us. They had a couple of veterans in Bledsoe and Recently signed Paul Millsap, but also a bunch of promising Talent in Booker, Bender and Tatum.

Let me tell you how the game went

The first half sucked, our players, especially ingram, missed their shots, but our offense was creating open guys, so i was stuck. In the third quarter i decided to let Brook have the post a little bit more and it worked, he put us on like a 12-2 streak to end the quarter. Our bench was great this game too, shooting efficiently, except for damn Nick Young. Everytime he got the ball he started to forget about the play and just wanted to ISO everytime.

In the fourth we were still down by some points, i think it was 10. I decided to run some small ball with Ingram at the 4 and Young at the three, as he still was our best shooter. it all came down to these last moments, Brook got us to a 2 point deficit, Ingram on the post-up, double teamed. Kicks it out to Young, Three pointer..... BANG, he hit it, we were up 1 with 44 to go. Now on the other end, Booker gets inbound. receives screen from Dragan, Shoots. Rims out, we call a time out. We have 36 seconds left, and we are 1 up. Ingram in the post, nice fake inside, Steps back Jumper... Misses, rims out. Suns call timeout. 12 seconds left, inbound to booker, passes it to Tatum, Tatum for two... And it went in. we were down by 1 with 3 seconds left.

Nobody was open for our inbound, Nick young comes off the screen, Jumper...

He misses, we lose to the Suns 113-114

I think the guys played well, too bad we couldnt get the W but that is just how it goes sometimes, we played against a very good Suns team and we still have alot to work on.

I decided to take a look at the box scores

Spoiler

I think i was satisfied, Brandon had a really bad start and he picked it up later on, and everyone else shot at a decent rate. There is one problem to our team though.

WE HAVE NO DAMN DEFENCE.

Ball plays a little defense, Burks doesnt, Ingram is allright because of his size, Randle is a good defender, Brook does a little. we have no lockdown defenders on the starting lineup, its a problem and im going to have to talk to magic about this.

I was already excited though, to play my first game in the Staples center vs the Nuggets in two weeks.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 7
OT Thriller

"..I mean Ingram was just bad once again. His field goal percentage was awful against Phoenix and he will, like i said be a Rotation player at Maximum."
"Here is where i dissagree with you Stephen, The guy is 19 years old for damn sakes. He scores from wherever he wants already. Just give him some time and he will develop into something special, TRUST ME"

"Thanks Max, atleast you believe in Ingram" I said while i was driving to the stadium. We had our first home game coming up against the Nuggets, and i couldnt be more nervous. When i got the stadium everyone was already warming up.

"Ok guys, lets get into the locker room, we got some stuff to talk about."
A resounding "Got it Griff" was what i got from them, To be completely honoust i liked how they called me Griff, it meant that i was part of them, not their leader, it gave me the feeling they trusted me.

"Listen guys we have a tough team up against us today, The nuggets play great defense, we will be executing the pick and roll as much as possible, get easy looks, no forced up shots like last game please."

"But our main focus should be Jokic, Hes a threat from everywhere, Julius you will be guarding him, use your body to force him outside."

Then i send everyone out towards the floor, but i asked Brandon to stay with me in the locker room. "Listen Brandon, for today i want you to focus on your driving, dont settle on the jumpshot, you are very crafty and fast going towards the basket, dont just take contested jumpers unless you have too okay?"
"Allright Griff, ill try my best"
"I know you will"


The 1st Quarter started out slow, both team getting out there on the fast break, nobody really doing anything special.
The 2nd Quarter the game broke open, both teams attacking aggresively and shooting Three's, now what caught my eyes the most was how Ingram was doing what i asked, he was damn aggresive going to the ring, sure he shot (And missed) some three's but he took his scoring role to another damn level.

In the third quarter we stretched our lead, ending the quarter leading by 9.
Very good showing again by our bench.

The fourth quarter was a massive one, the Nuggets scored 37 points on us while going in the lead by 3. We had about 3.5 seconds left so i had to draw up a play, let me show you what i did.



Since my handwriting is so bad here's an explanation:
First the player in the left corner ran across two screens, but instead of catching the inbound, he himself was a decoy as he set a screen for the man guarding Ingram, this got Ingram open and....



BANG, Ingram hits the three to send us to overtime!

OT 1 was a pretty calm one, we played a lineup with Mr. ISO aka Stretch Four aka Swaggy P aka Nick Young, Randle at center and Lopez on the bench. We had some nice pick and roles between Ingram and Randle, and a Contested Nick Young Jumper (The only one of his 1-8 from three that went in) went in, after that he shushed his own home crowd.... after shooting his first three after missing 7 before that. But whatever, we were up by three.

The ball was given to Emmanuel Mudiay, Got a screen from faried, didnt work shot a contest three and...



He hit it... he ******* hit it, Mudiay who has been criticised for his jumpshooting his whole career. Just shot a three pointer to tie the game in the Face of David Nwaba and Julius Randle.

We go to OT 2 because we failed our inbound play with 4 seconds left.

OT 2 was alot less spectaculair than OT 1, We got ahead and a Clarkson three with 15 left gave us a 5 point lead and sealed the deal, even though Murray shot a three afterwards. We win the game 131-133. And i couldnt be more proud.

Box Score

Spoiler

After the game Magic called me into his office.

"Great game today griff, you are really making the fans proud, we knew we had the weaker team today and we still pulled out the win. You want a drink?"
"No sorry sir, i want to get up early tomorrow to figure out new plays and i have a meeting with the Trainer."
"Ah a working horse, you know ill give you one tip Griff, Dont overwork yourself, take some time for yourself. You'll get burned out. I'll see you tomorrow, Congratulations again."
"Thank you Magic."

I went home with the best feeling ever, what could go wrong? i asked myself while i fell asleep on the couch.

[trekfan]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Ah, a double-OT classic! Ingram played probably the best game of his young career, got to love how he responded to some coaching up. The question now becomes if your young team can maintain the momentum from such an exhausting win.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Ah, a double-OT classic! Ingram played probably the best game of his young career, got to love how he responded to some coaching up. The question now becomes if your young team can maintain the momentum from such an exhausting win.

I agree, i definitely see Ingram as our future number 1 guy. there's probably gonna be some Talks about that, as the whole of LA seems more hyped about Lonzo. And damn that game was nice to play. Thanks for responding!

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Update: I will now be putting about 4/5 games into one post and maybe put some storylines in between as, this season, we kinda have a transitional period where i dont really know if we want to win or not and there isnt really any pressure on me as a head coach. Starting from this off season there's going to be a lot more going on though, i already have some great storyline ideas.

feedback is appreciated.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 8
Trade Deadline is around the corner

Whew its been a long time since i talked to you guys, so heres a little update. we are 2-5, yes we suck. We are the 14th seed in the west and playoff chances look pretty grim right now. But with the trade deadline so soon we might have a good chance at landing someone who fits our style better. Either way, here's an update on our recent matches.

Lakers @ Pelicans 94-114
We just caved under the big boy front court pressure, Brook isnt a great defender already, imagine him defending DeMarcus cousins. I had to take him off for Zubac in the fourth, which for one put a dent in our offense because Zubac while being a terrific defender cant make a basket to save his life. And second put our best overall player on the bench.

Lakers @ Timberwolves 102-110
I felt like we did well against a team thats basicly a year ahead in their rebuild process, wasnt enough though as we got beat.

Kings @ Lakers 103-115
A cheeky win at home, we were just the better team as they struggle on offense.

Lakers @ Jazz 91-98
We made it difficult on the jazz who were clearly missing Hayward after leaving them for the Pacers in Free Agency, they were still better teamwise though, both teams kinda sucking on offense that game.

Rockets @ Lakers 129-128
Harden hit a game winner on us, we were so close to beating a playoffs team, yet again edged out by a team that has a top 5 player, starting to see a trend building here.

And now here we are, 2 weeks from the trade deadline with a warriors game coming up in a week.

I was having real hard thoughts, did we want to make this team better already? or was tanking another season just the better way to go? Whatever the answer was i had to keep it on a hold, as i was heading towards another Monthly Board Meeting, and Oh was this an important one.

"Allright Gentlemen, Trade Deadline is coming up and we got important decisions to make as a franchise, and you are my advisors, so whatever information or opinions you have, Spit it out so we can make some damn decisions" Magic said

"We know you both(Me and Head Trainer) have had problems with Alec Burks and Brook Lopez throughout the season, How do you stand on that"

"I still think they do not fit into the system" I said
"Brook is a halfcourt player who doesnt play one on one defense and Zubac almost outrebounds him on half his minutes. He doesnt run the floor like the rest of us guys and id be fine with that if his main ability wasnt offense. Also his three point percentage has been at an all time low for him, and its not like hes taking them contested."
"Burks i feel like has been trying to fit into the system, but hes just not a Catch and shoot guy, he also doesnt really play defense. In a team with Lonzo and Brandon, we dont need any more ball handlers."

"Got anything to add Trainer?"
"No i think he is right on the money with those two, i dont think they fit well into the team, and they are also not as commited in the gym as the other guys."

"Well ok then, I will be looking to find a suitable trade for them, as we have about two weeks left."

Up until this point i was very happy with Magic, he agreed with us on almost every decision and worked his butt off to make this Franchise as good as it can possible be.

We also all knew that the young guys were developing just like we wanted them, Brandon was our Leading scorer at this point and was Getting better all around, better rebounder, Better passer and his post-up game has never been better, something he only did three times in his whole college career. Lonzo was just as much of a pass first point guard as you could have one, the boy was averaging a double double with 5 rebounds added aswell going to that ROTY award.

Actually now that i talked about it, let me show you the spreadsheet with our Leaders



Ingram is also shooting .500% from the field and .452%, a huge improvement from his afwul first two games.
Lonzo still needs to work on his shooting, being .406% from the field and a pretty bad .293% from three.

Whatever was going to happen in the upcoming two weeks, i was sure of the fact that Magic was going to do the right thing.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 9
OG or O.G.?

All there was on everyone's minds was "What are we going to do before the deadline" i mean there were a good amount of questions, Brook had notified the team that he was testing his value on the market this offseason, which speaks to his friendly character. Me and him both knew he wasnt a fit for this team, and if there was some value to be gained for him, im sure Magic was eager to take it, as our playoff hopes were kinda stepped on anyway.

I wasnt part of that "Everyone" i just described, we had a match against the warriors tomorrow and i still hadnt figured out what to do with the rotation if we didnt Trade Burks or Brook.

I walked into the Warriors Away Gym early, i wanted to set up some Specific Drills when i saw that the lights were on, someone was practicing.

At first glance i couldn't see who it was, i saw a Lakers jersey, Number 99, Sleeve on his left arm, and an afro. When i realised who it was i couldnt help but grin.

It was O.G. Anunoby, Remember him? He was our 18th pick in the draft. I was the only one on the team, With Magic eventually agreeing with me, Who wanted him on the team. When we drafted him he was a fantastic Lockdown Defender with little to no offensive game. It has changed a little, over the Season games his driving ability has improved. Now dont get me wrong, the boy is still building a brick mansion from three, but his Motivation was certainly there.

"OG! What you doing here so early man."
"Just getting some shots up Griff."
"Allright ill let you be"

This is when i got an idea, Burks was a very Ball-Heavy Shooting guard, and we missed some scoring off the bench. What if i started 6'8'', Super Athletic, Lockdown Defender O.G. Anunoby at Shooting Guard against the Warriors? And thus it began, i made a lineup with him at Shooting Guard, and i told him before the game what was going to go down. He was happy, very happy.

Then the hard part came, where i had to tell Burks he was going to start off the bench, surprisingly though, he took it well. I promised him he was going to get the ball in his hands alot more off the bench, and his minutes wouldnt drop drasticly. He was actually kind of excited, i could tell.

And so the match began, and i could actually see so much defensive improvement. Even though Klay eventually went to score 32 points, he did it from shooting 8-21, which is unlike Klay. To be very very honoust with you though, we didnt stand a chance but that was not what it was about, our rookies played very well and i finally saw the full potential our team has.

We did like i mentioned lose to the Warriors in Oakland 100-115. We were now 2-6 on the season.

Spoiler

Three days later back in LA we had a meeting about the end of free agency, this was the meeting where we were going to hear if Magic made anything happen.

"Well gentlemen, Ive got news" Magic started.
"Its probably not what you all hoped, but we did get a trade to go through for Brook. I came to an agreement with the Milwaukee Bucks for Nene and this years first round pick, Both straight up for Brook."
"Now before you start, i know that this probably wasnt the best deal out there, since Nene will be leaving us this offseason and The pick will be less valuable with them trying to contend"

To be fair at this point the Bucks were 5-3, but struggling massively in half court. Brook was an amazing Replacement for them. Giannis at this point was ranked 8th in the league and Parker was a top 50 player.

We would get back NeNe who for some reason was eating up all the Bucks' Cap Space at 22Million for one year. (I really dont know what happened with the CPU here but whatever) He would be a solid backup to the now starting Ivica Zubac, and at the end of the year we would say our goodbye's to him. Now the pick was going to be interesting, i mean it will probably become a pick in between 18-30 as they are most certainly going to make the playoffs, but like we did last year, we could steal someone like O.G. who proves to be extremely valuable.

"Oh and before i forget Griff, we have a little situation. Ivica will be out for about Three weeks with a Sprained left knee."

Great i thought, who the hell was i gonna start at center then?

Rest of the Season Schedule
vs Clippers - 01/03/18
vs Mavericks - 15/03/18
@ Trail Blazers - 22/03/18
@ Thunder - 29/03/18
vs Grizzlies - 12/04/18
vs Spurs - 16/04/18

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff

Chapter 10
All-Star Weekend

3-Point Contest

Spoiler

Slam Dunk Contest

Spoiler

Rising Stars Challenge

Spoiler

Wow man, this was going to be a great All-Star weekend for me. Me and Pop were both voted as Coaches for Either all-star teams. Since we both represent the West there was a lottery where i got Drawn the eastern team and Pop got Drawn the Western team.

I didnt speak to Pop since i left San Antonio Besides some back and fourth phone calls, so it was nice to see him again.

There was a little bit of a twist on this All-Star game and everyone felt it, It all started when Durant decided to move to the East to join the Sixers after winning a ring with the Warriors. Now dont get me wrong the East loved having him, they knew he was going to give Lebron some great competition in the Conference Finals and so they Kept Making Remarks Like "Oh the real finals is in the Eastern Conference Finals". This Started some kind of war between Eastern fans and Western Fans, and so after a big uproar the NBA and East/Western players decided that This All-Star game everyone will give it their all on Offense AND defense.

The Lineups were as followed:
East Starters-----------------------------West Starters
G Kyrie Irving - Cavaliers-----------------G Russell Westbrook - Thunder
G DeMar DeRozan - Raptors--------------G James Harden - Rockets
F Kevin Durant - 76ers--------------------F Anthony Davis - Pelicans
F Giannis Antetokounmpo - Bucks--------C Demarcus Cousins - Pelicans
F Lebron James - Cavaliers----------------C Nikola Jokic - Nuggets

East Bench John Wall(WAS), Kevin Love(CLE), Greg Monroe(CHI), Rudy Gay(BKN), Markelle Fultz(PHI), Jimmy Butler(CHI), Kemba Walker(CHA)

West Bench Kawhi Leonard(SAS), Chris Paul(LAC), Karl-Anthony Towns(MIN), Draymond Green(GSW), Rodney Hood(UTA), Steph Curry(GSW), Jrue Holiday(NO)

My gameplan was simple going in, Play Lebron at the 5, let him control the game while we play 5 out with cutting people. And it worked for a while until Pop knew what i was doing, he used Kawhi on Lebron and Played cousins in the post against Giannis. The game was super close with alot of fouls left and right.

with 34 to go we were 3 points down as Demarcus had just got an and-one on us. I decided to do a pick and role with Durant and Lebron as that had been working all night for us, this time though they played help defense and we had to kick it out to the corner to an Open Kyrie and.....

He hit it, we tied the game with about 26 seconds to go.

Their play was simple to catch for me, they were going to Post-Up with boogie. He did a nice spin move to get away from Giannis but Lebron Jumps up and Blocks Boogie as he is about to throw it down!

6 seconds on the clock, inbound from lebron. Giannis sets a screen for Durant, he gets open and....


HE GETS IT! Durant puts up the EAST by two with 0.0 on the clock.

The East won this battle. Kevin Durant gets MVP.

BoxScores

Spoiler

On my way flying back to LA, i realised that not using twitter for a day wouldnt be the worst thing in the world. Since i will probably get spammed for Leading the East to the win as a Western Coach.

Next Match at home vs Clippers.

[Jordigriffin]

Re: The Story of a Young Head Coach - Coach Griff