Coach Carter and Day Two of Lakers Practice

Have any of you watched the movie Coach Carter?  I found it to be an entertaining basketball film.  What I liked the most was how the coach disciplined his team and ran his practices.  If you’re five minutes early, you’re on time.  If you’re on time, you’re late.  When players broke the rules, they did countless push-ups and sit ups.  When they ran practices, they played defensive schemes named after the coach’s ex-girlfriends and ran.  After they ran, they ran some more.  After they ran some more, they would finish with more running.

The Lakers have done that with the past two practices.

Byron Scott is setting a similar tone with the current Laker team.  We’re not used to this level of running and defense being ran so much in training camp.  Phil Jackson, Mike Brown, and Mike D’Antoni all had different philosophies about getting ready for the season, but Byron Scott is sticking to his theme.

They’re going to play hard on defense.  They are going to be well-conditioned players.

Day two of practices ended with more suicides.

Kobe Bryant is pushing the theme onto the team.

The team is responding well.  It should not be a surprise when Wesley Johnson is able to out-quick, out-speed, out-run, or out-jump the Laker team during a few drills.

More importantly, Julius Randle is responding to the team culture.  He struggled with conditioning during the Vegas Pro League.  This doesn’t seem to be an issue any more.

Byron Scott has followed through with his word.  The team will run.  The team will play defense.  This builds a foundation of culture for a team, one where Byron Scott wants to give the Lakers a championship mindset.  A great foundation is built on hard work and grit.  Often, it’s dirty.  In the long run, a great foundation holds large houses for decades.  Byron Scott, is trying to build a foundation for a temple, a temple of championships.