Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce recently sat down with Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Amid their discussion, Lloyd told a story of patience with his rookie players.
Guiding players through a rookie season in the NBA can be a tall order for any coach, but Pierce, a former player development coach with the Cavs, says he doesn't get frustrated with their mistakes. Instead, he tries to instill confidence in their game.
“T.J. McConnell asked me his rookie year, he said LP do you ever get (mad) when we (mess) up on defense?” Pierce told Vivlamore. “I was like, Why, why would I get (mad) at a rookie playing in an NBA game for the first time messing up on defense against Kyrie (Irving)?”
“The example I used with him is wait until you play CP (Chris Paul),” Pierce added. “I guarantee he is going to post you up when he sees you coming into the game and he’s going to get you a foul. He posted him up. T.J. gets right into him and puts his hand out and CP (makes an under move with the ball) and gets a foul. He takes his mouthpiece out, puts his head down and comes to the bench and says ‘You told me.’”
The Hawks finished the 2018-19 regular season with a disappointing 29-53 overall record (12th in the Eastern Conference standings). Pierce knows his young players had their fair share of mishaps and shortcomings, but he says it's their effort that matters most.
“There are certain things you just don’t know (as a young player),” Pierce said in closing. “I knew it (last season). That’s the whole year. Game 1 we played at New York. Game 20 you are playing at Golden State for the first time and Game 30 you are playing Russell Westbrook for the first time. You are still playing these guys for the first time. I don’t care if it’s your 30th game. It’s not frustrating. The only frustration that really exists is the lack of effort. The mistakes, we are going to make mistakes any way, year one, year 10. That’s the challenge, despite the mistakes, despite the inefficiencies we might have, you can control effort. You can bring effort. I’m OK with mistakes. That’s not an issue. We are all going to make mistakes … but lack of effort is where you get frustrated.”
Pierce is a 43-year-old native of San Jose, California. He was named head coach of the Hawks last year (May 11), shortly after Mike Budenholzer decided to part ways with the team. Hopefully, under Pierce's direction, Atlanta will be back in the playoffs sooner rather than later.
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