National Coach Grades Basketball Teams
Following the Bermuda Basketball Elite Draft, Bermuda National Coach Roderick Spenser graded the draft picks, providing insight into the teams. His review follows below.
Team 1 – Warriors [Sponsor: Robin Hood]
GM: Paul King / Arthur / Natasha
Head Coach: Troy Pitcher
Asst. Coach/Player: Pushkin Douglas
Two nick names for this team.. “By Committee” or “Delegation”. This is because they didn’t draft a named point guard or true five man and will take care of those rolls by committee. They did draft a team that deep with hybrid position players, those who play out of position well and/or can fill a few rolls. The trick will be finding a rotation that takes advantage of their depth without taking players out of rhythm. Lowe, Holland and Middleton are proven from the outside and Junior will get them extra shots with his offensive rebounding.
This is a tricky team to grade and a lot of pressure will be on Coach Pitcher to find the right mix and patch the weakness of transition defense and take advantage of his offensive rebounding.
How I would play this team: Put my 3 or 4 man on Lowe man to man and play the rest in a sagging man.. They will always have a player on the court not looking to score and I would use his defender as a rover..
Potential Starting lineup: Lowe, Middleton, Lee, Holland, Warner
Grade: B
Team 2 – HURRICANES [Fort Knox Bermuda Ltd]
GM: Troy Symonds
Head Coach: Cecil Hendrickson
Asst. Coach/Player: Derrick Hendrickson
Coach Hendrickson rolled the dice a few times building this team. Protecting Lowe a few short months off surgery to repair a torn meniscus and trading away Lamb for Stevens, I think Lamb’s tempo of play is closer aligned to the other players on the team than Steven’s, a defense for offense move.
Picking up Bushner with their first pick will be key to their success. I look for this team to play a very European type of game, drive and kick.. Coach Hendrickson filled all the positions on the floor and has backup’s but will need to keep close watch on their tempo of play. I think he will start the fewest protected players of any team and will win games in a variety of ways but must control the ball. Building through the draft.
How I would play this team: Keep the ball out of Bushners hands and pressure the others, this hopefully would cause Stephens to try and do more and take away from their offensive balance and team play. I would warn my players that if we do this everyone must rebound.
Potential Starting lineup: Thompson, Stephens, Bushner, O’Connor, Minors
Grade: B+
Team 3 – Pros [Sponsor: ???]
GM:
Head Coach:
Asst. Coach/Player: Graham Robinson
Great rebounding team who will be aggressive and scrappy. They have more than enough scoring, size and the often missed basketball IQ. Getting a player like Davis so late in the draft was a steal.
This team also will need to pay special attention to their transition defense. They have a few players that can get caught up below the foul line together making the court longer to defend.
Finding shots and defending in the half court will be their strength and the space between the two 3pt lines their weakness.
How I would play this team: Force Warner to dribble lots. Rebound and run hard at them. Warner trying to attack will put pressure on them to cover for him and make them venerable to be run at.
Potential Starting lineup: Jones, St.Leger, Robinson, Davis, Warner
Grade: B+
Team 4 – Blue Birds [Sponsor: Young Men's Social Club]
GM:
Head Coach: Craig Outerbridge
Asst. Coach: Dion Bean
Run and Gun. There is No lack of guard play and speed on this team and I would expect them to score 70% or more of their points in transition and early offense shots.
Their strength is also their biggest weakness. While they can defend a select team on the outside they will struggle on the inside defensively.
With Crumpler, Smith and Riley on defense Protect the ball they will all be looking to create TO’s even if they are in a zone.
I expect them to play Crumpler as a “stretch four” this will allow them to release everyone. If you can space them with good shooting, throw it inside as often as possible and look to get this in foul trouble.
But turn the ball over and pay with 2 or 3.
How I would play this team: Lots of ball reversal, attack the rim and throw ball in the post. Easton, Crumpler, Riley and Smith all like to go after the ball and block shots. My plan would be to use that and make a living on the FT line.. It’s also harder for them to run when we shot FT’s.
Potential Starting lineup: Crumpler, Smith, Riley, Cedenio, Easton
Grade: B+
Team 5 – Storm [Sea Venture Overseas Shipping]
GM:
Head Coach:
Asst. Coach/Player: Steven Simons
Unlike team 2 who built through the draft Simmons dealt away his first 2 picks for Vets.
As the saying goes “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it”
Simons has gone with a team of players he has played with in the past. They should be the most cohesive unit on day one.
If this team has a good turnout every night they will be a tough match up for most teams but they are not without their holes.
Their first two picks in the draft and getting Hurdle with the 38th pick are very key pickups for their success.
They will start the most of their protected players than the other teams but look for Smith to help all over, Noseworthy to help allot at the 1 and Hurdle to play a big role [no pun intended]
Strength will be team play and experience while they might struggle from the outside from time to time if S.Simons is off or unavailable.
How I would play this team: 4 man on J.Simons and he can’t help off, sagging man behind him with focus on defending the rim and rebounding. If S.Simons is in attack mode we would look for the counter attack like we did with team 3
Potential Starting lineup: Robain, J.Simon, S.Simons, Jackson, Lamb lll
Grade: A-
Team 6 – Lions [Trinity Sound]
GM: Lynwood Richardson/Jaymo Durham
Head Coach: Paul Wilson
Asst. Coach: Reggie Tolosa
I’m very interested to see how Coach Wilson will merge these players into a team. There are some very interesting parts here and he will need to put the puzzle together.
Tolosa is a skilled player who likes to work inside the 3pt line the same can be said about D. Butterfield both are scorers but not true shooters and like to attack.
Lugo has been knocking down shots for many many years now and I don’t see him slowing up now. Smith and Dunn will handle the ball and they have a ton of rebounders.
They will need to focus on team play but might struggle with balance. They seem to have a glut of players that are more comfortable inside 15ft, slashing, posting, mid-range.
Space will be limited and lots of ball movement will be critical.
How I would play this team: The point zone would be a great D vs this team if you have it. If not your focus needs to be defending 15ft and in.. if you’re the help side defender don’t wait get out and help keep them out the paint.
Potential Starting lineup: Tolosa, D. Butterfield, Lugo, A. Butterfield, S. Smith
Grade: B-
As national team Coach I would like say that there are allot of young players and not so young players that are in the ECL and who have the potential but have not yet broken into the National team ranks. Work on your game and get better every game. While your resting someone is working hard to get better.
One of my quotes I use with the National team. “Sometimes what your Do speaks so loud I can’t hear what you Say!”
And one lesson:
To have a good offense there are only 4 times you should dribble the ball.
- To get the ball up the court [when a pass isn’t available]
- To attack the rim
- To get out of trouble
- To make a better passing angle
If your dribbling the ball and Not doing one of these, You are hurting your team’s offense
