SM: You know I took Zach out of the game in Philly, because for three possessions in a row he couldn’t get the ball. Now, he was the point guard, right? But he just walked out there. What about setting your man up? What about taking two hard steps away, then stepping into your guy, holding off, then burst! You would think that’s just natural. But who coached him? I don’t know his high school coach. I don’t know his AAU coach. I know who his college coach was, but he didn’t start or play but 18 minutes a game in college.

People think that learning is easy. But if it is not a habit — OK, you watch Kyrie Irving. Every time he goes to get the ball, he steps into his guy and then breaks off — every time. That’s all he knows. It is a habit. I learned it when I started going to basketball camp. But back then, that was professional coaches at those camps, high school and college coaches teaching us. It wasn’t some guy that owned a car wash and had some money and decided he was going to start an AAU team and he was gonna be the coach because he read a book or he watched basketball, and thinking he can coach. No, I had professional coaches.

So, we’re trying to teach him and others about spacing; about timing; when to cut; finishing your cut

MP: Shot selection.

SM: Shot selection. Passing. Did you see that pass last night? switched Jameer Nelson on to G . Zach was at the top of the key. What pass do you throw, with Jameer Nelson at 5-9 and Gorgui at 6-11? He threw him a bounce pass. Not only a bounce pass, but he tried to throw a pass as though it is going to spin back to G miraculously. And I’m sitting there thinking, this is an NBA player. This is the 13th pick in the draft. And Gorgui has a 5-9 guard on him who is 34 years old . And our second-year point guard tries to throw him a bounce pass, instead of just throw it up there toward the basket.

Now people will say, “He should know that.” Well, we can’t take for granted that he does, because he showed last night that he don’t. So we have to teach everything. If we forget one thing, it bites us in the ass. If we forget telling our guy not to walk up but to step in and now break and get open, then we don’t get open.

We have to teach them how to set a proper screen at the right angle. We put in something today and the difference is the angle of the screen. I’m saying, “Now why would you set a screen that way when we want are trying to get to go the other way?” And they looked at me, so I said, “OK, let me show you how to set the screen.”

These are things that veteran teams just take for granted. We have to teach all of that. So, OK, people think, “Well you told them.” But how long does it take to break bad habits, habits that you have had ever since you started playing basketball? You can’t just do it by telling them once. If no one has ever taught you how to set a proper screen, I have got to show you Monday, I have got to show you Tuesday, I got to show you Wednesday, on tape Thursday, on tape Friday — until it becomes second nature.

So how long does it take? For every guy it is different. The great ones, like KG — . Man, KG just picked it up. Other guys, it takes a while. But that is the difference between winning and losing. That is the difference between you being able to get down here with your first dribble instead of your third dribble. It makes all the difference.

MP: Time wasted.

SM: Not just avoiding time wasted, but creating gaps and seams.

MP: I know it is only 35, 36 games into the season, but do you feel like they are picking up these fundamentals or do you feel like they are static right now?

SM: Not static, but it is like some guys learn at a different pace. I understand your question. Think about where G has come from. But I have coached G hard this year. G has made tremendous strides. Look at Bazz, how he is starting to move the ball. You’ve seen Bazz play — eyes on that rim all the time. But you can’t play like that . You have got to learn to play with others. But if you look at Bazz the last few games, he is moving the basketball.

MP: And his shot selection is a lot better, including squaring up for those corner threes.

SM: Getting a lot better, yes. And so now when he’s driving, instead of shooting floaters over those 7-2 guys, he’s doing this . Because that is a bad shot against those big guys. You may make one or two out of 10, but that is a 20 percent shot. We want to get you to where you have a 50 to 60 to 70 percent chance of scoring when we move the ball.

So when you look at G and Bazz, they’re getting it. Look at Andrew Wiggins, the progression that he is making, and look at Karl . Well Zach, everybody learns at a different pace. But now we’re also asking Zach to play a position he has never played before. So everybody picks up things at a different pace.

MP: The thing about Zach, you wanted him to be a two-guard in training camp and it quickly didn’t work out very well. Then later into this season, you again created space for him at the two-guard by cutting K-Mart’s minutes and again it didn’t work well. But when I look at Zach’s game, it seems like his natural skill set and progression are much better suited for shooting guard than point guard. He doesn’t have enough court vision or share-the-ball mentality to play the point.

SM: I agree, but when you look at him at the two-guard, look who he has got to guard. Tomorrow, J.R. Smith: 6-6, 230 . And the list goes on and on.

MP: I know. Frequent mismatches defensively.

SM: And so Zach hasn’t figured out that if you are going to give up size, he ain’t figured out how to use his speed. My thing used to be that if you are bigger than me and you are going to beat me up, I am going to run you until your tongue falls out of your mouth. But if you ask Zach right now — and you ask most second-year players — what is the best thing that you do? They can’t tell you.

Zach right now is just trying to play. When you start playing and thinking, that’s when you’ve got something, when you can do both. As long as you are just playing, you are just out there. And when I say playing and thinking, I am saying doing it without being hesitant. You are just reading as you go.

We are trying to teach Zach certain things that I just knew. I never worried about you guarding me if I was going to down-screen. Because I am going to set you up. I don’t care how shitty the screen is, I am going to make you run into that screen. I am going to take you where I want to take you and make you run into that screen. And then I’m going to come off. Now when I come off, and you are locking and trailing behind, now what is my next read? The big guy. Is he going to step out, or allow me to curl, and if I curl is he going to bump? Is the guy in the lane going to try and shoot the gap? But see, I processed all of that like that , whereas Zach still does this —

I told him today, when we were practicing. We’re running a play. He catches the ball. He does this and then he does that . I said “Zach … ”

MP: Don’t dribble.

SM: And he said, “Coach, I didn’t do that.” And I said, “Zach, do you think I would blow this whistle and say you just dribbled the ball before you passed it if it didn’t happen? You went from a live dribble, where you still have all your options, to doing this . Now what if that guy you are passing to is not open? you have already predetermined that you are passing the ball. What if he is not open? You’re my point guard, you just picked the ball up and now you are stuck. Rather than catching it, ripping it, being a triple threat, so that if a guy comes open, boom! Now if he isn’t open, you can come back off the screen with your dribble. But you just killed everything we are trying to do on this play because of that one dribble.

Now we are talking with Zach and working with Zach about this over and over.

MP: It seems as if he always goes into that dribble even when he catches the ball open behind the three point line.

SM: Thank you for watching. He’ll be wide open for a three …

MP: a catch-and-shoot three, where his accuracy is much better?

SM: A catch-and-shoot. And then he’ll do this , dribble towards the guy.

MP: after an unnecessary up fake …

SM: dribble closer to the guy and get to a contested shot.

MP: Often a long fade-away two pointer.

SM: And when you ask him — during a timeout, I’ll say, “Zach, why didn’t you shoot the ball?” He’ll say, “I didn’t feel like I was in rhythm or ready to shoot.” But then you dribbled into the defense and took a bad shot. “Was that a bad shot?” See, he doesn’t even realize that he dribbled and then did that. It is so ingrained in him from AAU, and we are trying to break him of that habit.

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2016/01/qa-sam-mitchell-weighs-zach-lavine-andrew-wiggins-and-wolves-season-so-far