Slappin’ Glass sits down this week with current Las Vegas Aces Assistant Coach, Natalie Nakase! The trio dive into a variety of interesting topics including building championship habits, playing with with pace and space, limiting turnovers, and talk coaching in Japan, playing with shot blockers, and Veer Screens during the always fun “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”
Inside the Episode
The Las Vegas Aces just completed an incredible season topped off with a WNBA Championship. We were lucky to sit down with Assistant Coach, Natalie Nakase, right before their title-winning playoff run to dive a little deeper into what makes the Aces tick along with Coach Nakase’s philosophies on making a life in coaching. Coach Nakase has coached in the WNBA, NBA, G-League, Japan, and Europe, so has a ton of insight to offer. It’s a tremendous listen with highlights including:
- Unselfishness – The Mark of a Winning Team: We opened the podcast by discussing what Coach Nakase believes are some of the most important “off the court” characteristics on the winning teams she’s been around. One of those traits she and the Aces value most is “unselfishness”. We dove deeper into what that actually means, looks like, and sounds like with the Aces as well as how it transfers onto the court and into X’s and O’s.
- Pace and Space: For anyone who watched the WNBA Playoffs, the Aces were a pleasure to watch offensively. Coach Nakase detailed how they thought about playing through simple “pace and space” advantages and the teaching points that went along with it. Within this conversation we also touched on the challenge of limiting turnovers while playing at such speeds.
- “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”: This was a tremendous segment as we discussed what Coach Nakase learned on her coaching stops around the world, “Veer” and “Flex” screens for shooters, and the value of a shot-blocking Big.
Coach Nakase also flips the script a bit in the very last part of the show where we always ask the guest about the “best investment” they’ve made in their career. Coach Nakase gives both her best AND her worst investment and the advice is really worth a listen.