http://houston.cbslocal.com/2011/03...spends-time-working-with-the-rockets-newbies/ Of course, too early to tell how Thabeet will turn out, but CD sounds like he's having fun at least.
Apparently, Thabeet can catch the ball well, so he's got that going for him. Listen to CD's tone change when the subject turns to Yao's recovery. You can tell he really respects Yao's work ethic and Yao as a person. Working with Thabeet sounds like a waste of CD's time.
Spoiler On with myself Shaun Bijani, Barry Warner, how's it going? Pretty good guys. Appreciate the time. I imagine today a bit more busy than usual for you. How did the workout go? Very interesting. Getting acquainted. I had forgotten he went to HS here in Houston. We talked about that. Had a informative get together to get his goals, what he wanted to do, what he thought he could do and what his plan was. I listened a lot to him then went to work for about hour and 45 minutes. It was interesting. He is a little bit of a project. He's been in the league a couple years but hasnt played a lot. I like the answers he gave me. We'll see how goes along and how hard he works. I told him right now, he got in this league because people thought he would be a rebounder and shot blocker. I said he got to work on his D and O as well. He's all for it. He sees himself as an up and coming NBA player. He got high goals now. If you talk to every one of these guys, that's what they tell you. Not anything new. I go by how hard they work. He worked hard today so I was pleased with initial workout. We'll go again tomorrow and we'll see. Appreciate Rick and the staff letting me...I probably jumped off a bridge if I had to quit basketball. They dont have a Betty-Ford clinic for basketball coaches. They would have CD wing in Waco if that were to happen. Well Barry, I see you showed up. It's Sean's show. I'm only here to provide comic relief. Ok. ... CD, when Moses came, he was skinny. We were all here when stick Sampson came here. Then Olajuwon. You could see the athleticism in those young men and of course Yao. When I look at Thabeet, he reminds me of an akward, gawky teenage girl. Shes pretty, got nice hair, got braces, got some zits, you say, maybe by the time she gets to college, she'll be fairly good looking and then shazam, you grow into your body. I've seen one irons that are thicker than Thabeet. This kid looks like he could play 25 lbs heavier by 27-28 years of age. That's probably true. He's 7'3. That sounds tall unless working with Yao the last 10 years. He got a long wingspan. I think the motor in an individual comes with confidence. Hes going at a pace at which he can do things at. As his skills get more refined, he'll pick up. His shotblocking and rebounding skills are almost God-given. Everything else he'll have to work on. He worked hard, he listened, we changed a couple things and thats a big thing. Im not big on changing people that's been working all their life a certain way because it loses them. You gotta talk to professional players --that's why we talked so long to find out where he thought he was and if he thought he could be helped here. You dont force anything on anyone. We never forced anyone to do anything, we would suggest. They get to this level a certain way. You dont want to destroy that. They all have an ego. We suggested a few things today and you get his opinion and he jumped on board fast. You made a point, you're not taking away from the staff, Rick and Sikma are teaching him things he needs for tomorrow and next week. You're trying to work specifically on a lot of drills, and a lot of the basics. Where to catch the ball, where to move, where to position yourself and come down with basic fundamentals that somehow, someway because your big, what is it, the coaches think you got the game down. They gotta take this kid back to square one so to speak. Well I think...one of the things I wanted to find today was how good his hands were. Always an issue with big people. I threw him the ball from different spots and he did well. One of the things you gotta find out is how his reaction is in the game. Believe me, its not always the way it is in practice. I've learned that over the years. Nervous system is different in each individual. We had some people that would kill in practice and in the game, not near that player. Everything today, it looks like to me that they started with him and Gasol, Gasol got ahead of him and he got left behind a little because Marc developed so fast. Sometimes you have to kick these guys in the tail, some you need to hug, others you have to push along. Gotta find out how to coach him the best. One of my favorite guys to coach was Jim Peterson. To make him go, you had to go nuts and almost stomp a mudhole in his backside. He would respond though. Then we had Joe Barry Carroll --if my voice got one octane higher than normal, we minus well take him out. Gotta find out how to coach these guys and get them going the right way. I couldnt believe how fast a hour and 45 minutes went by today. Got some good guys down there-- Sean Respert and Brett Gunning helped me today. They are hard workers and help alot. Went by so fast because I was trying to find out if he had touch, hands, footwork, etc. This is a process. ... Wanted to get back to what you were talking about last segment --you said guys respond to different coaching styles. How you do you think Hasheem will respond or what type of demeanor do you need to have with him? Dont think you need to scream at him. I'm talking individual workouts here, not with Rick or anything like that. Its different with everyone, we all respond differently. You gotta find that if you really want this person to be what they want to be and what you want them to be, you gotta find the right key for them to respond at that level. Thats apart of coaching. You can scream but they may get worse so you gotta find out. He looks you in the eye, listens, and tries to do what you say. So he is coachable? Oh yeah. ... The thing about...todays workout was that you noticed right away, where a guy thinks he's being punished for having coming out an hour and a half over everyone else, you look at things like that, when I was coaching all those years, we'd bring someone in, I knew they would be good in front of coaches because they wanted to play here, what we'd do is send them with a weight guy to weight room away from the coaches and make them and not have input of them in tough times, and how they responded to that had a lot to do because once they get away from the coaches, personality changes. They come back and the coach says he worked harder than ever. When we look at Thabeet now and end of this season, do we look for development on D or what should fans look for? Or is this process gonna take a whole offseason and summer league before it shows itself? No there will be some things. Like today we changed his free throws. Shot 50% last 2 years so...I told him if you keep shooting like today, you'll shoot about 75%. That's what hooked him in to get started. I like to know about what they think. I got a report from locker room of what he said. It was positive. He was excited. I think Gasol got most of the attention. Thats not fault on the Grizzlies so I dont mind going down there. Coach cant take hour and half for 15 guys every day Do you take that upon yourself or do the coaches ask you to come down and what if Dream was going to come in and work with him? He might. Dream likes to do that. Hes not here right now but wouldnt be surprised if he did. He is a giver. He likes to help. That's fine. Fact is, we have an owner that wants to win. He tries to touch all the bases. A lot made about easier schedule of the Rockets. All huge games. Does this team have enough grit/chemistry to make a solid run? They got chemistry. They never gotten down at all. I would say that if you asked Rick if he enjoyed coaching this team, he would say yes. They're fun to be around. They're all very intense, confident. Schedule is turning easier. Do you think Rick had a hard time realizing Yao would be out for the year, and all the other early injuries in the season that he had to make do with this young and athletic group? Injuries are apart of it but not when you lose a guy like Yao Ming. Holy cow, that breaks my heart. I said a lot of prayers for him just for being able to come back again because I dont want it to end like this. For like 5 years, he didnt miss a game. Now the past 2-3 years, it's one thing after another. Heart that this guy has, he's working out already hard, he'll try it one more time.... Think he plays again? I know he's gonna try. If its possible...it's been done before. Was not good for Walton, but Ilgauskas got back. If it's possible, Yao will do it. There is nobody that works harder than him. He's already down there 3-4 times a week rehabbing right now. If its humanly possible, he's the guy I would pick to make it happen. Thanks so much for the time. Chirp chirp One thing, if the people listening, I was just named the new President of the Texas Sports HOF in Waco. Been trying to get....just want to invite people if they're in Waco, go through the Texas Sports HOF. We want to have you on and do a show for it. Appreciate the time. Fun to be with you guys. Anytime.
Getting there is tough. Especially if you don't have the energy to get there. I hope thabeet gets a good breakfast in the morning and knows how to fuel his body for the training process.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time posting about Thabeet until he actually does something, but I don't have a parallel for someone his size doing what he did in college and not panning out unless he was just stupid. So far I agree with West, but it's going to be awhile before we can reach any conclusion. But if he's a bust, so what? We haven't invested heavily in him, unless you think we're going to win it all next season. CD was not enthusiastic here at all though. Not sure I got anything from the interview. Oh, well... we'll see, but it's not like Thabeet's critical to our plans. He's just a hope.
Seems like the hosts always interrupt CD when hes saying something interesting. These guys like to listen to their own voices too much. I could care less what they say. I'm glad CD thinks Hasheem is a hard worker. Certainly takes a load off of my mind.
I've always read comparisons between DM and CD as gen. managers and how CD was a bad one, but CD's a great coach and mentor! So nurturing ... I think Hasheem will improve a lot and will surprise a lot of people.
Is CD on Rox payroll? If not, and there is a work stoppage (and who among us does not believe there will be?), theoretically CD (and/or Dream) could work with HT this summer, yes?
I'm so glad CD is still working with our team. He is a legend in this town when it comes to training big men. He has worked with the best of the best (sampson, hakeem, Yao) (cato lol). If he can turn this kid around he will only add to his resume. It's too bad Hill has decided being trained by CD is a punishment. That just shows his lack of professionalism and understanding of the game. It also shows why he has come off completely from the rotation. At least Thabeet's start is promising. Let's hope he is not another hopeless Dorsey.
i am not very excited as you all. here is what i have after listening the clip. 1) thabeet has NOTHING but GOD-GIVEN things, shotblocking and rebouding. it means he hasn't learned anything yet since he came into this league. 2) CD doesn't know how to coach him and CD is trying to find a good APPROACH right now. it sound very discouraging. of coz, it could really mean two things. thabeet is absolute a strange to bball. CD doesn't know where he should start to coach him. i highly suspect CD has ever had a player who know nothing bball and had to coach him. it could also mean whatever CD tried during the session didn't get through. in other words, nothing makes sense to thabeet. 3) thabeet is a very slow learner. CD has to use the very polite words "he is going at a pace which he can do things at". such as he was asked to change his FT style. these things don't require reaction. it's easy to ask him to learn. he was also asked to show his hand when they threw the ball to him from different directions. CD didn't ask him to do things after receiving the ball. it sounds to me they were in a summer kids bball camp. anyway, after one session, CD didn't get any conclusion what else thabeet can do besides his GOD-GIVEN things. we are talking about CD who has been with so many bigs in his career, aren't we? if CD is scratching his head, i won't bet anything on thabeet.
I came away with a totally different interpretation of what CD had to say. It sounded as though he goes through the same process with everyone. 1st - figure out the players thoughts on where his game is and what his goals are 2nd - figure out what type of coaching the player responds to, whether that be gentle pushing or yelling 3rd - start slowly with basic skills, teach footwork and the basics to a back to the basket game (ie. a jump hook and a drop step). I don't think you can make any assumptions about how Thabeet will do long term, based on what CD said, unless you think he'll do well b/c CD said he is a very coachable young man.
CD was talking about his coaching process and style alot more than about thabeet coz CD didn't anything exciting. you don't feel any excitement from CD. it's not a good start. i can't remember CD had ever talked in this way after he worked with dream and yao first time.
I doubt Thabeet will become anything close to Yao or Dream, but perhaps he can be Kelvin Cato, Greg Ostertag, or Shawn Bradley. That'll at least be something.
Chill, Your getting ahead of yourself. The session was only an hour and 45 minutes long, its hard to get a feel for the guy in such a short period of time. CD, didn't say he didn't know how to coach him. On the contrary, he said that Thabeet followed everything he said, and worked hard throughout the practice session. He also said that Thabeet has good hands and a good work ethic, which are a "big positive" in raw big men.
I think the hope is for a Greg Ostertag. Just someone that can block some shots and rebound. Granted Ostertag at least was big which allowed him not to be bullied underneath easily.
I can't remember either. Do you have a link to what he said, after the first time he worked with dream and yao?
