Slappin’ Glass sits down this week with one of the world’s best coaches, Andrea Trinchieri! In this fantastic conversation Coach Trinchieri shares his thoughts building a team identity, including the differences between newer vs. more mature teams, and dives into innovation vs. simplicity, along with stats that matter during the always fun “Start, Sub, or Sit?!” segment.
Inside the Episode
“Of course you want to have a winning mentality. Of course you want have good habits, culture, of course. But how to get to this point? I don’t like general stuff. ‘Ah, we have winning mentality.’ What is winning mentality? For you, a winning mentality is ‘I hate to lose’, and for you, winning mentality is ‘I want to win.’ It’s totally different, because when I hate to lose, you have to right these motivations. From this you can build something.” – Andrea Trinchieri
One of the podcast’s most downloaded episodes of all time with Italian Pro Coach, Andrea Trinchieri. Coach Trinichieri is truly a one of a kind coach and one of the most interesting listens we’ve had. In this episode we explore building a team identity, the balance of innovation and simplicity, and discuss real ways to build trust and stats that matter during a highly entertaining segment of “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”
Chapters
0:00 Building a Team Identity in Basketball
11:51 Competitiveness’s Impact on Practice Development
17:23 Simplicity vs Complexity in Offense/Defense
29:58 Developing Players’ Purpose and Mental Focus
35:55 Defensive Strategies and Rebounding Tactics
Transcript
Andrea Trinchieri: 0:00
Of course you want to have a winning mentality. Of course you won’t have good habits, the culture, of course. But how to get to this point? I don’t like general stuff. Ah, we have winning mentality. What is winning mentality? For you, a winning mentality is I hate to lose, and for you, winning mentality is I want to win. It’s totally different, because when I hate to lose, you have to write these motivations. From this you can build something.
Dan Krikorian: 0:32
Hi, I’m Dan Krikorian and I’m Patrick Carney, and welcome to Slappin’ Glass exploring basketball’s best ideas, strategies and coaches from around the world. Today, we are replaying one of our favorite and most popular episodes of all time, where we also received one of our highest compliments. Questions were not boring the one and only Andreatrin Keri. In this fantastic conversation, coach Trin Keri shares his thoughts on building and establishing a team identity, innovation versus simplicity, and we talk building trust and stats that truly matter during the always fun start, sub or sit. It’s the holiday season and nothing says I love you to a coach in your life like giving them access to a deep dive breakdown on drop coverage, foot angles in Spain, space creating slot cuts in the G League or post-flair to pin down action in the Czech Republic. Help your coaching loved ones sleep better this season with a gift card to SGTV. Give any amount that can be applied toward a single video or half or full year membership to SG Plus, a platform coaches are calling the best for high level coaching anywhere. Visit tvslappingglasscom or sign up for our newsletter at Slappingglasscom to find out more. Today and now, please enjoy our conversation with Coach Andreatrin Keri. Coach, thank you very much for making the time for us, for really excited to talk to you.
Andrea Trinchieri: 2:12
I like these things. Whenever I can, I listen to podcasts. You did some good stuff, you had some good stuff, so I always say why not? Maybe I can give you something or maybe I can take something from you. It’s always both ways.
Dan Krikorian: 2:29
Absolutely Well. Thank you for that, and we look forward to definitely learning something from you. And so we wanted to start with the overall concept of building a team identity and ways that you start to build the identity of the team.
Andrea Trinchieri: 2:44
Especially early on in the preseason, there is a huge difference between building the identity of a team, like in the NBA, or in a team with a lot of returning players, or building the identity with 10, 8, 9, 11. I have 11 new players and the concept and the approach to this topic is totally different. When you have a lot of returning players, when you have a franchise that is there and players are, let’s say, coming back, you have a core. You can decide, let’s say right away after the season ended, how you’re going to do the things. The upcoming season Because at least you have the perception of who you have what they’re going to do won’t be a lot of surprises. There is always a surprise, even with the returning players. But this is the second topic. When you have a new team, you don’t know. You write on a list the thing that you are not willing to compromise with about mentality, but the other part of the paper is blank, it’s white, and you learn from your players what will be. Of course, you don’t say, okay, our mentality is to be sloppy, okay, this is no, but there are teams that need that. You work to build the right mentality with the chip on their shoulders. They are teams that need to be pushed. You let them grow and mature by themselves and you just give boundaries. For me it’s I’m making a comparison it’s like when you go to an open-air market, okay, and you have 10 people coming at dinner but you don’t know the menu. So you go there, you see what there is to buy what vegetables, what meat, what fish and then, when you understand what is the main course, you go to buy side stuff, like you want curry, you want chili, you want things that can boost your main course. Then you come home and you put together a recipe, but before you have the piece of meat in your hand or the pizza or the fish, and then you choose what you’re gonna put with this. You don’t know. So of course you want to have a winning mentality. Of course you want to have good habits, the culture, of course, the right culture. But how to get to this point? I don’t like general stuff. Ah, we have to have a winning mentality. What is winning mentality? For you, a winning mentality is something so I hate to lose, and for you, winning mentality is I want to win. It’s totally different, because when I hate to lose, you have to ride these motivations. From this you can build something. So I don’t like general stuff. I believe that basketball is going to a very situational game, a very situational approach, so every person is different. Every player needs your help to find a niche. Okay, the boundaries are the organization, how you want to play, but also how you want to play. We lost five big guys in the free agency and we want to post up. I’m making a stupid example, but the coaches that has only one system are struggling now. Adaptation is a great talent.
Patrick Carney: 6:09
Coach, within the situational approach, I’m really curious how you get the player buy-in, especially when you’re going to ask. I mean, you obviously want to play to their strengths, but you will at certain points ask for them to sacrifice, but then you also need them to play hard. So how do you get that balance of maybe taking things away, taking minutes away, but still getting the buy-in?
Andrea Trinchieri: 6:31
You need them to play hard, but sometimes they don’t. This shit happens, right. My point is before being a player, you are a person and you carry with yourself a full bag of stuff expectations, strength, flaws, fears so I use precision to understand who I am in front. I have a frame and I don’t have the colors of my painting and I will choose the color of the painting while I’m learning every day. So somebody needs great discipline. There are players that need we do like this because this will give us the win. Some other ones. Why I have to do like this? Because for them, the first priority is to feel good. And then and you have players like this there the society is self-oriented. Okay, this stuff, this created monsters and we are monsters too. I’m not judging, so everything is self-oriented what I, what is around me, what I can do for myself. So you would not change at 25, 26, 30 years old person. You have to cope, but you can. Through learning your personnel, you can learn them and through this you can find a way to push them to be efficient for your team and being efficient from themselves, because, at the end of the day, if the team wins, every player is going to be successful, they’re going to have a better contract, better team or whatever. Now nobody wants a 20 point guy that can score and his team has a losing record. Nobody trust them. Now you can scout players so well. You don’t want the losing effort. Coach doesn’t want this, so it’s complicated To me. First thing is to understand who I am in front.
Dan Krikorian: 8:32
Coach kind of bouncing off of that, especially here early in preseason, while you’re figuring out the personalities of your team. How much of this preseason and this building process you’re in now is you infusing your identity into this new group versus you learning from the players you have, in kind of adapting an identity or a personality to the new players.
Andrea Trinchieri: 8:55
It’s both ways I like the word infusing. I’m like stone on the drop on the rock Break. This you know every day, every day. But sometimes you cannot ignore the signals coming from the other side, because there is a huge difference between hearing and listening. Most of the players are able to hear Not every player is able to listen, but not because he is bad, just because that in that specific moment of his career he’s not ready, maybe, to take all the information to giving, because he’s coming from a basketball was less structured. Making a stupid example, he’s fearing for his season because he sees a lot of competition, so he’s blocked by the fear. So it’s always something that to take care is how you deliver a message and if the message goes through. So I would love to put all my players in the cocoon pool with all the basketball thing that we have to do, but it doesn’t work. You need time and many things I do in preseason then I throw in the garbage because maybe was not the right thing, maybe the fit was not perfect or just the player didn’t like it. No, players are sending you nonverbal messages. So you put the playbook and the play five side. They never call it. You have to think about why they never call it, because maybe they don’t like it, or maybe they don’t feel comfortable, and maybe you thought that that play was the winning play for the season, so you put the play in the garbage.
Patrick Carney: 10:44
Coach, I’d like to ask you about the role competitiveness plays, but competitiveness in within practice, and how you look at competitiveness and kind of weigh it in terms of how you want to teach the guys and also use it, so that you’re using it in a way that it pushes the guys in the right direction, where you want the team to go.
Andrea Trinchieri: 11:04
Dangerous question. My personal idea is that I don’t see anything negative coming from competitors, but it should be fair. I always make example to my players to. So you have a young player and in the same spot, same position, you have a veteran and you want them to compete for the spot to raise the level of the team. So if you play, let’s say, five on five, where the veteran will destroy the young player, he knows everything, he knows the moment, the read, how to do it, when to do it, why don’t do that? And you’re going to lose the young player. So you need to have a competitiveness that is efficient for the development of the team. For example, I believe that we can do everything through five on five. Trills are not competitive. I don’t like that. My players play drills. I like that we play like they’re going to play in the game. So basically, I try to structure my practice with everything coming from five on five with different topics Offense, defense, special situation. This depends on that screen that you can put everything. You can coach the whole season through five on five, and I don’t like to call fouls and I don’t want my assistant to call fouls in practice. So basically, we play without calling fouls. I just call when the foul is very, very clear or when the foul it’s coming from a lazy defense. I explain this to the player day one and I don’t accept complaints because I’m not a referee and I’m a terrible referee because my priority is not to be a referee, my priority is to coach my team. So through that I raise the level of physical competition in practice and there are players that have struggles. They really struggle on this because contact, contact, contact. You know some players are not used to play like this, especially a young player. So you need to take this in consideration. So you need to find also the right mix between playing set offense, five on five court where the contacts are 10 times more than transition, early offense or whatever, where the contact are less and a young player can feel a little bit more comfortable because he can use his athleticism without thinking. You know it’s a very big topic. So I know shortcuts about being competitive in practice, but should be fair and the coach should be very alert on the fair stuff.
Patrick Carney: 13:39
Is there ever a time where maybe you want to teach a concept in five on five? Is there ever time, after you’ve done teaching, that you walked away and is like, hey, that was really competitive, the guys worked hard, but maybe we lost track of the concept we were trying to teach for the development?
Andrea Trinchieri: 13:54
Wow, that’s a great thing. It happens every day.
Patrick Carney: 13:57
Okay, yeah.
Andrea Trinchieri: 14:00
Now, when you have competitiveness, you have less control on the development of what you’re looking tactically, let’s say, because a lot of competitiveness, a lot of contact, a lot of aggressiveness disrupts the offense. For example, maybe you want to run that thing and you are not able to run it. But I can turn the things towards you and say we have to be able to do what we are supposed to do under any circumstances. But there is always a but. If I see that I didn’t fulfill the task of the practice the day after, I will do breakdowns. Three on zero, three on three, I love three on three. Breakdowns, four on four Everything works. When you do offense, everything works. The spacing is amazing. You miss a player, it’s easy. So when I need to reinforce a concept and install something, I downgrade from five to five to some breakdowns. The only thing I cannot buy is time. So I have 90 games. The practices are very important. So whatever I do in practice, from the first drill, warm up on it, it’s related to the topic of the day. I cannot skip one thing. So if I have to play against ice defense, all my warm up shooting and it will be true against this, so like this I win sometimes, but this thing that you said is very true. I don’t see that as a problem until you don’t control the thing. I had to develop something but the practice was so energetic, so competitive, that we develop something else the day after. I have to reinforce the concept, maybe with less competitiveness, but still playing to win the three on three. I want to build the right habits that everything you do on the court has a consequence, good or bad. So there’s no, you are bad in positioning on defense, you receive a layoff on an end off. It’s a consequence. That’s that mini game of seven points, because next time I want Red Alert about that situation that cost us the previous game.
Dan Krikorian: 16:10
Coach within the competitiveness, how much of it do you think is stemming from you, your competitiveness as a coach? That kind of gets instilled in every part of the practice, versus maybe, the players you have that are competitive by nature, or the design of the drill itself, keeping score, making sure it’s fair. That really adds to making it a great competitive practice.
Andrea Trinchieri: 16:31
Guys, you’re rolling good questions there. All good questions, bro. I’ll tell you this to push myself. I always say there’s no bad players. There are bad coaches when you build a practice. So as a coach, I feel responsible of what I pick, how I pick it, when I pick it, how I run the thing in order to have the best practice possible. Many times it happens that you have a bad practice also because you chose the wrong moment to propose one thing, how you reacted to some mistake. You install one thing too late in the practice and the team was not ready to follow you because they were tired. I’m very competitive. My players know this. At the same time, it’s a mix. It’s not enough to have a competitive coach. You need competitive players. It’s 50-50.
Dan Krikorian: 17:23
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Patrick Carney: 18:33
The next topic is the simplicity versus complexity in your offense and just your methodology for how you can evaluate your team and realize I have a team that can be more complex, run more action or a team that’s more simple, and how you find the success.
Andrea Trinchieri: 18:50
I don’t know if I find success. I look for that, but we will see. The point is that I would say that I’m a little complicated complex, but there is a reason. I believe that I would love to play with five plays and let my players paint the masterpiece, but this happens when the players stay together five, six years. Now, every year you have a new team, new goals. It’s very difficult. So, as a coach, I feel that I have to give them a backbone that covers as much option as we can. Plus, if you consider that you don’t have a lot of time to practice, if you have a very extended playbook, you cover also the deep ends, because your team already saw in practice some things that they’re going to face. So to me it’s a win-win situation. Having a playbook of 200 things will help you also in defense. Some players would like to commit suicide after the precision because they come to me and I don’t know one of our plays. I forgot all my plays. No worries, now everything is blurry. In 10 days you will see the things a different way. It happens every year. It’s very true that less is more. Don’t take me wrong. But can we all do less is more, I don’t know. I was speaking with Joe Dumars about the pistons when he was a player and I loved how Chuck Daley was running that team. That was a little bit complicated coach and I asked him what are you running on offense? Oh, the coaches had some options but we had eight plays and Chuck was telling me these eight plays should be perfection, but they knew how to play. Many young players now don’t know how to play. I would love to play a written react, but I have to teach them and extend playbook so they can know more information about reading and reacting. So I would love to be less complicated, but I don’t believe I can coach, as defenses have gotten potentially more complicated, we’re switching and funneling or zones.
Dan Krikorian: 21:04
Do you feel like when you have a younger team or a newer team, you would add, maybe say more sets or actions, or you would just teach different options based off your base things to help them understand?
Andrea Trinchieri: 21:15
I believe that when you build, we’re talking about the process, right. So I would always prefer to start from two polar opposite. I would say, from trap to switch. Let’s say that are two polar opposite about philosophy. You know, like this, I teach my team to move together and think together and play together on defense. Then from this opposite, you can go towards the middle, let’s say, containing defense. When you go trap, you expose your team to rotations okay and open shots and you need a lot of energy to cover it. I believe in preseason is something that every coach should do because you learn faster, okay. Then switching is something that you have to do because it’s modern basketball and you have to switch. But my question is what if you don’t have a team that can switch? Are you still going to do it? Because not every team can switch, such as with if I have a big guy that cannot hold the guards, why I should switch? So I see that all the biggest problem is when you do two defense, that two defensive system that collides what I mean. So whatever you do pushing the ball to the screen, on the ball screen, for example you can do it’s just a different level of aggressiveness for the big Trap hedge soft show high flat, low flat. Containing For the rest of the team doesn’t change a lot. The movement are maybe quicker when you trap, but are all part of the same family. I divide defense that forced the ball to the screen and defense that denied the ball from the screen. Okay, so I would love to be able to have defense that can force the ball to the screen and defense that can deny. But the different is what the other three players are doing on ball screen. So when you force to the screen, you have a certain rotation. When you deny the screen, you have a lot of more weak side the nail you have the player on nail, you have the player under the rim and if they have shooters, the rotations are complicated. So I believe you can do everything. I always start from two polar opposite, that is, switching and trapping, and then I downgrade, trying to teach my team other things, and this is not so complicated. I believe you can do it. Then, when it comes to channel the ball, then to be really effective and don’t receive trees, that is the only thing you don’t want from your defense. Now let’s be straight. If you receive a layup, it’s better than if you receive an open tree, sure, the game change doesn’t change. On layups, the game change on trees. This is everywhere in the NBA, in Europe, in Euroleague, how you make a run Two trees. I never saw a team making a run with layups. They make a layup. The coach is, wow, you receive a layup rotation, but the game doesn’t change on that. This is my personal feeling. Maybe I’m crazy.
Patrick Carney: 24:24
Coach, you kind of started to hit on a little bit, but around the pick and roll game and then also this idea of this perfect goal of everyone being read and react, but the cutting, cutting in the game, it seems to be hard to teach, or how do you develop good cutters? So my question to you is is cutting rules versus read based?
Andrea Trinchieri: 24:45
You have to be logic. Okay, more rules you give to your players, more predictable you’re going to be. Yeah, so, okay, we all love cutting. But what if you are a non-shooter? Okay, and your man stays in the paint waiting helping on the others because you are not a respectable shooter, okay, cutting is still the right option. Not in that case. Yeah, maybe screening, maybe screening, maybe something else, I don’t know, but maybe finding a different spacing. And because we are going towards basketball where non-shooters are becoming like a panda. You don’t want them because you have to keep them in a safe place, but you don’t want them with you. It’s very difficult to arrange and adjust an offense when you have a non-shooter. His man is always helping. Yeah, let’s think about Philadelphia with Ben Simmuss. He’s a hell of a player. You know that’s size, that playmaking, but where to put him it’s difficult. So I base my cutting on shooter school. Okay, best, shooter stays or shooter cuts, but with a cut that will open the shooter. So, 45 cuts, why to cut? If my man is waiting for me in the paint? I have to cut to make the other player, the shooter’s defender, commit so I can open the shooter.
Patrick Carney: 26:11
Okay, if the non-shooter is at the 45 and the cutter is at the baseline, where would the shooter just kind of dive to the dunker spot then to create the opening?
Andrea Trinchieri: 26:21
He should cut and most probably he has two options. Or he cuts to receive the ball over the rim at the end of his cut, okay. Or when he cuts, the extra defender has to cover him and you have a shooter there. So this opens somebody else. Or, instead of cutting at 45, I want a more banana cut, so he will find and screen the third defender, the defender of the other shooter.
Patrick Carney: 26:49
Okay.
Andrea Trinchieri: 26:49
But if you go straight to screen they will scramble right.
Patrick Carney: 26:53
Yeah.
Andrea Trinchieri: 26:53
So they will switch and you need a very quick shooter to punish it. The goal is maintain aggressiveness, individual aggressiveness, going in a place where towards the dunker spot is the direction where every player can make a shot. And you may find there the body of the second defender and you screen him. I follow, okay. Or sometimes I always say, when you cannot do anything, screen your man. Yeah, because, for example, I’m cutting, my man is waiting, I screen him and the corner lifts very aggressively. I believe he can have two steps of separation and they cannot rotate, they cannot do an ex-rotation. The most complicated thing is to convince a player. It is not a good shooter to work for the team. This is the toughest thing because every player and I understand why I cannot shoot and I hate to say to one player you cannot shoot and I would never say it. I always say my generation was raised. Okay, when after a practice you got beaten by an older player, physically, go in the weight room to become stronger. If you are tired, go in the park and jog. If you don’t make shots, make 500 shots every day. At least you’re going to build the right mentality. So on one side, you convince a shooter to do something else. On the other, you say if you are open, shoot the ball, but earn that shot, showing to everybody that you are working on your shot. It’s always a mix between ex-synos and human beings, but it’s better to have four shooters at the end of the game. Yes, if you can. Yeah.
Dan Krikorian: 28:42
Coach, we want to transition to a segment we call start, sub or sit, and so we’ll give you three basketball topics and you’ll choose which one to start, which one you would sub and which one you would sit, and we’ll have a little fun discussion. This first topic is on building trust with your players. So start, sub or sit. These three different scenarios First one would be small pre or post practice interactions on the floor, Maybe a minute or two before practice or after. The second option is an official sit down meeting in your office. Bring a player in, sit and talk. Or the third option is something off the court, Say sharing a meal together or I know you like to cook so something outside of basketball to build trust.
Andrea Trinchieri: 29:32
I cannot answer to you because there are players that needs to go in the office. There are players that I call at my place and I cook a very good Italian dinner with a very good bottle of wine and maybe even a cigar. That are players that I try to don’t overwhelm with my request, with quick chat before, maybe with three, five clips, or after the practice. So all three works perfectly. It depends on who you have in front. There are players that are seeking attention, like there are women that are seeking attention. There are men that are seeking attention, that are relative. They are seeking attention. It’s not a sin, it’s part of the life. So when you have a player that is seeking attention, if you do this informal, maybe even at your home, he will feel he’s opening the door of his house. And I do open to my players. I do this very often and I don’t see anything wrong. That can happen. Some of them will feel great, some of them will be a little one trust or why he’s calling me here. But some players just want to have a basketball relation and want to be guided in basketball. So a quick chat, one minute 30 seconds, five minutes before the practice. So I make this example I always come to the practice and I pick two, three players and I ask them players that I’m trying to develop. And I ask them what is your goal for today? Oh, coach, to have a good practice. I said not enough, this is good for everybody. What is your personal goal? To go hard? And I say no, this is too general. Again, everybody wants to go hard. And then no more idea, no more things to say. So I said you have to have a purpose every day, otherwise you are not going to explore all your potential. And he’s staring at me like a deer with big eyes. I said the purpose is maybe today you come and you make all passes on Piccaro with the left hand, because maybe next team is going to force you to the left I’m throwing things on the table. Or maybe you want to work on your step back and you shape your offense through this. I don’t say you take 50 step backs, but you build and it’s the purpose. And you know they are yes, yes, yes, yes. From that, you have first to teach them how to have a purpose. Some other players that are need you know when they’re fucking the scoreboard? Okay, you can call them. And they obviously said what do you want to do? Are we going to go to the world a whole season? What do you want to do? I don’t believe anymore in the system where you go to the person. We do like this because I said it that we have to do like this. My age, when my father was saying to me something. I will never take in consideration how he was saying the things. I will focus only on what he’s saying Now. If you don’t deliver the message in the way the person in front of you is expecting you to deliver the message, the message won’t go through. It won’t go through. So I like your game, but I do all three things every day.
Dan Krikorian: 32:47
You’re not the first coach to start all the options, so don’t worry, it happens quite often.
Patrick Carney: 32:51
Okay, coach, quickly, when you were talking about encouraging your players to set goals for practice, how are you dealing with mistakes and allowing them to happen, versus when they’re a detriment and getting on to them?
Andrea Trinchieri: 33:04
If there is a categorizing mistakes, the mistake that we are fighting, that I’m fighting very hard is the mental mistakes unforced mistake or mistakes that are coming from poor concentration, poor focus, sloppy day, not having a target, just want to survive. I don’t want my players to survive. I want my players to go and use their time. I always say to young players today you had a bad practice. You know that this practice you’re never going to get it back in your life. You wasted one opportunity. Think how many opportunities in a career you will waste. So it’s so important that they understand that the only way they have to get better is through practice and through doing things. So if a player makes five turnovers because he’s trying to pass the ball with the left, I’m good with that. I will maybe be more demanding to the others to help him, because if he doesn’t pass the ball so good, we have to be open better so we can play with his flaws. It’s always a team game. It’s not tennis, it’s not forehand, backhand smash. So if a player has less in one area, somebody else can have more in that area. So I’m passing the ball slow with the left because my left hand is not good. So all the teams should know that we have to be better in timing, better in getting open, getting better screens to give him more time. Like this, you encourage one player and you show that the whole team should care about him. It’s a mental thing, so I just cannot stand mental mistakes. I am very bad with players that come to practice and they just want to sweat. I don’t give a damn if they just want to sweat. I want their brain sweats. I want their tired mentally out there, because this is the only way to be better being adversity and finding solution. This is the life.
Dan Krikorian: 35:07
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Patrick Carney: 35:55
All right, Coach, our next one. We’re going back to actually, the non-shooter situation, but this time you’re defending a non-shooter, and so your preference for how you want to defend a non-shooter who’s caught it on the perimeter have the defender continue to gap him, have the defender pressure him or have the defender pick him up on the first dribble.
Andrea Trinchieri: 36:17
I let him alone the whole game. Okay, and if he makes one, I’m happy. You know why? Because I’m going to take another one and he’s going to take the ball out of the hands of a better shooter. So my first thing is gap. Second thing is no, there’s no second and third For me it’s not logical.
Patrick Carney: 36:41
Are you worried at all about, then secondary actions, that if they get it and he goes into a handoff or right into another screen and that your guy is too deep or with the gap, how are you then counteracting that?
Andrea Trinchieri: 36:54
First of all, whenever you have a clear choice as a coach defensive choice you have to be ready to raise the hand it’s all me in this corner. Otherwise you’re going to lose the trust of the players, okay, so second thing, we should be have in the system how to guard the handoff by yourself, without the help. And, let’s say, one time can happen that we are late and we receive a bucket. Next time should not happen, because if we are gaping, we know that we have to be by ourselves. We cannot go through. So basically, if you have I’m playing off you and you go handoff, the guard should do it by himself, trying to deny and force, and the only thing is you should look at his force in to drive towards the gap player. It’s all about being organic.
Dan Krikorian: 37:45
Coach, does it change your philosophy at all on that If, let’s say, the non shooter is a terrific passer, like they just can really pick you apart passing like would you want more pressure or does it stay the same for you? This makes a difference.
Andrea Trinchieri: 37:57
Okay, because good passers are really rare. In this case I would do something different. I will try to be aggressive, tough, but whenever he drives and whenever he calls the help, I don’t want to help. So I want that he beats me with floaters, with jumpers, not with tennis assists.
Dan Krikorian: 38:22
Coach, this next start subset is if you could be next year the best team in the Euro league in this statistical category, which one would you take? So start sub sit the best team with the best rebounding margin, the best rebounding team, Team with the best turnover margin takes care of the ball the best, or the team with the best free throw margin? It’s to the line the most hands down rebound?
Andrea Trinchieri: 38:51
Okay, hands down, then Turnovers, and then pretros. Hands down rebound. If you grab rebound, you win games. Hands down coach.
Dan Krikorian: 39:02
My fault, then, is going back now to our identity piece in the beginning and instilling this preseason. How are you actively instilling that rebounding identity, say right now in the preseason?
Andrea Trinchieri: 39:13
one of my favorite Dijon sport is build belly chick Okay. It gives you so simple answers that To very complicated questions, I love him. Every time he opens his mouth it’s he’s a legend, okay. So one time I’m ten years ago he won another Super Bowl. I saw the press conference and or some an interview later, how you could coach, how you can make your place playing so tough. It was mumble, mumble, mumble and said you better sign tough players If you want to rebound. You need bodies, you need athletes, you need players that have the predisposition to go through rebound. They are guards that are able to have five, six rebounds the whole career. You need to have one or two of these for sure. Even a Six three player can have five, six rebound because he’s chasing the ball. So I don’t believe you can practice a lot about this. I don’t, or maybe you can, but maybe in high school, not playing 90 games. And the other thing is for sure you need to have a system that covers you in specific situation, like when you are rotating, when you have a mismatch and All this thing.
Dan Krikorian: 40:26
You need players that wants to rebound you just sent something really interesting about a system on a, on a mismatch or when you’re rotating for rebounding. Could you just go a little deeper on like a potential system you would have on a rebound like that?
Andrea Trinchieri: 40:38
Okay, but I don’t know if this is usable in NBA. So, basically, how you’re gonna be punished on a mismatch that the big guy Will push the small guy under the rim where there’s no rebound, okay, so the big guy is going forward against contact. So the only thing you can do is involve the third guy that is usually a guard or a wing, coming Behind his action, to go to tip the ball From the hands of the big guy. So you can ask your guard and books out, books out. But when you have, you know, difference of size, okay, and of weight, you cannot expect more. So I believe you need to have a team with sense of urgency, to have an extra player to rotate, going, jumping free and not with content, because the big guy is fighting and he will grab rebound on his strength more on his leaping ability. So I want to counter this with a wing or a guard coming from behind, jumping over his back, without looking for a contact to tip the ball. Make sense, yes, make sense. Okay, it makes sense, I’m happy.
Patrick Carney: 41:53
Are you telling them to tip the ball to any area in Specific, or just to simply get your hand on the ball? Keep it alive.
Andrea Trinchieri: 42:01
Usually you have to build the things step by step. Okay, first, to me it’s enough to see my players going to tip the ball. Then, when you install this habit, you can teach them. Before you jump. Give a look. Usually the opposite elbow will be open, because when there’s a switching in a shot, they have mismatching the transition. So they’re always players running back earlier, Because if you don’t grab the rebound, usually you have the leak out, because maybe the big guy is contesting the shot of the guard and he leaks out. So maybe if you tip the ball towards the area where the shot comes from, you have an advantage. But this is not PlayStation, this is human beings. I’m happy with my players going to tip the ball.
Dan Krikorian: 42:50
Do you make a distinction? Offensive and defensive rebounding as far as your preference of you know what you put a lot of time into.
Andrea Trinchieri: 42:57
With the rebounding margin, there are two different things of the same family. Defensive rebounding is a concentration, positioning, desire, sacrifice. Offensive rebound is a system. You have to decide who goes when it goes, and I Believe the corner crash is something very important and I relate this to my detransition. So the fancy rebounding there’s not a lot of tactics. Offensive rebounding there is a lot of tactics. So the best way to not receive a fast break is to apply pressure on offensive rebound because you want a team To don’t get a clean rebound, to make a clean, quick pitch, a head pass. You know. So, like this, you know if they have to jump and you are on them, you will slow down the first Two, three seconds of the fast break. So it’s two totally different topics of the same family with the offensive Rebounding.
Patrick Carney: 44:00
Have you given thought then to sending five guys the offensive rebound if, like you said, the benefit that’s gonna curtail their fast break, or do you have sort of a limit?
Andrea Trinchieri: 44:08
I thought about that. But then I Understood that you cannot fool the players. So, from a philosophical standpoint, wow, we send five players for the rebounds, but then maybe you send a Five, eleven guards and rebound. How many opportunities will have to get the rebound? I believe that I always say to my player too much is equal to nothing. I prefer to have three players to go for offensive rebound and to have the desire to spin off the first obstacle. If you have players that when there is a box out they spin off that, whatever direction, you’re gonna put so much stress to the defensive box out and you’re gonna get a lot of boards. So let’s go with three, sometimes with four, but with five. Yeah, you know, maybe when the point guard is there he misses layup, he can grab his own rebound, but you cannot make a system on that.
Dan Krikorian: 45:06
Coach, you are off the start subset hot seat. So thanks for playing that game with us. That was a lot of fun. Before we close, we got one more question for you today, but before we do, thank you very much for your time today. This was a lot of fun, my pleasure.
Andrea Trinchieri: 45:20
You were very good guys, thank you. Questions were not boring. It’s important that you never know. Yes, that’s right. Believe me, you never know.
Dan Krikorian: 45:30
Well, thank you. So we appreciate that and you’re welcome back anytime. So to close here, you’ve had a great career thus far and much ahead of you. It’s never enough.
Andrea Trinchieri: 45:42
And what happened yesterday is already forgotten.
Dan Krikorian: 45:44
Wondering at this point what you feel is one of the best investments that you’ve made in your career.
Andrea Trinchieri: 45:51
There is not only one. First of all, if you want to be a successful coach, you need to work on yourself. You can’t be only good in basketball. You need to be open-minded. You need to be able to talk with your players and Win their trust about different topics. You should know where a player come from, what the history of his family, what the history of the city we come from. You need to be International, so you should know how you live, how you live in Slovenia, how you live in Serbia, how you live in Italy, how you live in America, because every player has different roots. You need to try to be the smartest person that you can, trying to understand who you have in front. I made investment in my time. I sacrifice my free time for going to see NBA. You really, when I was not at that level, I watch thousand of game precision. There’s no day that I don’t watch a game. Not every game is interesting, but every game can show you something. And To coach in Europe, you need to speak languages, because you have to deliver a message. If you know more languages, it’s easier to deliver a message. If you want to reach the top, you have to be ready to suffer. So firm. It’s a very general thing, but you have to be ready to suffer Losses, to suffer that you have to give up on something, that you have to put yourself Not at the first place, that you have to check your ego every day, because if you have a big ego in your place, as a big ego, we have a problem. So there are days that you have to have a ego, but you cannot just go there. I’m the boss here because I don’t believe you can run the show Just with the fist. You know you hit the table and I’m the boss and we do the thing like you. It can work, but we’ll not last you. At the end of the day, you need that. The players want to play for you. Even if you can be super demanding, you destroy them because they’re making mistake. You are on them every day. Tough love, whatever, but if they don’t want to play for you, ciao, my boy.