Isaiah Wright: 20 Years In The NBA

In this episode, Coach Isaiah Wright (Utah Jazz strength and conditioning coach) joins the show on NBA Draft Day to discuss the behind-the-scenes role of performance staff during the draft process. He shares insights into evaluating prospects through in-house testing, combining data with hands-on observation, and understanding athletes beyond just physical metrics.

Wright reflects on his journey from a teenage team attendant to an NBA performance coach, highlighting how the league has evolved from basic training setups to highly individualized, data-driven approaches. He emphasizes the importance of movement quality, addressing asymmetries, and developing well-rounded athletes—especially as many young players now specialize early and lack foundational movement skills.

The conversation also explores differences between U.S. and international player development, the growing role of technology (balanced with coaching intuition), and the need for long-term athlete development rather than quick fixes. Overall, the episode offers a deep look into modern NBA performance training and the challenges of optimizing athletes in a demanding, fast-paced environment.

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Coach Isaiah Wright, how are we doing on this fine  Wednesday? Hey Gabe, how are we doing buddy? I'm

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doing great. Appreciate you hopping on and we're  honored that you're joining us on a big day in

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the NBA. We got NBA draft day. So, thanks for  making the time. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of work

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over the last year and then specifically, you  know, the last month and a half for us with all

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the guys coming out to see us and working out.  So, it all leads up to tonight and we'll we'll

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see where we land and and who we get. I feel like  a lot of times we talk about the season, inseason

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maintenance, offseason training, things like that.  I don't think we usually talk a lot about what

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it's like being a strength conditioning coach  on draft night. So maybe can you give us some

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insight into like what your routine is for today?  What's going on? What do you have, you know,

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workouts? What's happening? Yeah. So, you know, I  think I think it's changed a little bit. You know,

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a few years ago when staffs weren't as large,  then I would be kind of in the war room just

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available with measurements and things like that.  And then as the stats gotten bigger, you know,

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we have our director of performance who pretty  much is in there and he has everything that we've

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compiled over the last, you know, two months and  he's got all of his sheets out ready to answer any

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questions that might come up and uh he's sort of  our representative for our team and I get to sit

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back in the weight room and get a little workout  in and uh watch the show happen. I'm picturing

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you with your clipboard saying like, is it 69  or 67? Which one is it, coach? Yeah. Yeah. No,

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I think you know back then it was like when I  first started, you know, it was more we didn't

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have as much of like an in-house database. We  didn't have sort of the tech available and so a

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lot of it was printing out the Excel sheets and  and you know having our list with notes and and

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different things that we've kind of compiled and  now it's all all in one place. they've been going

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over everything for a long time and so they're,  you know, front office has everything that we

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need, but then also we have our rep there just to  make sure if there's any questions that pop up,

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then then he's available to answer. And uh it's  it's fun for us now. It's a little less stressful.

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I don't have to uh sit in a room with all the big  wigs. I get to hang out with my colleagues and and

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kind of, you know, watch watch where everything  lands. Okay. Okay. Well, um, what what which

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pick do you have this year? So, right now we have  five and then we have a later first round pick at

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21 and then we've got a couple second round picks.  So, we're going to be hopefully active tonight and

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um, you know, I think uh, we've done our homework.  Yeah, that's awesome. I love that we're doing this

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episode. It's so unique to be able to do this  episode on this day and have it recorded prior

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and probably published after. So anyway, we  really appreciate your time and and thank you

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so much. And just one more question on that. So,  um I know we had a chance to see each other at

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the NBA combine the last few years. Tell me like  what has this process been like from a strength

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conditioning standpoint leading up to this? You  have your players that are now kind of on break

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from the season, but now you're bringing in  this fresh batch of of young talent, people

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you're considering, players you're considering  drafting. Like what kind of work are you putting

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in right now to prepare for this? Yeah, so it's  it's extensive. you know, we we have now our set,

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let's say, tests and things like that from uh  the ones that we do at the combine, but as well

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as in-house testing. And so, a lot of that is six  guys come in at a time, and we pretty much start

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with them right off the bat. We'll recollect any  measurements, fill in any gaps that we may have,

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and then we'll add to our our data set by  adding in any of the in-house testing and

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things like that. And the biggest thing for me is  really getting an opportunity to see these guys

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one-on-one. You know, we met them at the combine  and now it's a chance to maybe explore their

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personalities a little bit, see how they've either  improved or, you know, areas that we were maybe

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concerned about or, you know, had some follow-up  ideas about. We get to dive into that a little bit

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deeper. So, it it's nice. You get to experience  a little bit of one-on-one time with them.

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uh learn a little bit more about their background,  their training background, things that they've

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been exposed to at their previous colleges or  international coaches and things like that.

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And so we get to kind of dive deeper into who they  are as a person. Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing

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all that. And you mentioned in-house testing and I  think we're going to have the opportunity later in

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this conversation to talk more about testing and  uh data and really what has changed over the years

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um during you know your time in the NBA as  a strength conditioning coach. But I would

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love to kind of go back to your early days in the  NBA because you have somewhat of a unique story

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relative to many others. My understanding is you  started in 2005, correct? As a team attendant. Is

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that right? Yeah. Yeah. So I was uh 16 years  old back then and uh upwards that was almost

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20 years ago now starting this off season and I  was fortunate enough to get on with the equipment

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staff. I was the only rookie team attendant at  the time. So there was a lot of duties that fell

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on me in terms of just kind of the busy work doing  towels, doing water, those things. It was fun cuz

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I got a front row seat to Kevin Durant's first  game. You know, that's the one that stands out

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in particular. guys, you know, uh that that pretty  much have kind of come and gone in the league and

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got to see a firsthand experience of just what it  all was like, you know, back then and and getting

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to kind of learn a lot more about the NBA and  and at the time we hosted one of the only summer

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leagues. It was called the Rocky Mountain Review.  So, that was kind of fun because none of this was

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all televised at the time. I think they started  maybe televising it towards my second or third

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year. But it was fun because you you you know I  dove right in and and just got to get my hands wet

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with uh any tasks that they had for me and and uh  I really enjoyed the process even at the time of

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being 16. I was like this is amazing. You know I  get to see these professional athletes up close.

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I get to look at different, you know, approaches  from different teams and just how big of a is.

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That's so cool. And I think early on, right? So,  you started 2005. I think you had a pretty epic

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playoff series around then, right? With maybe two  Golden State, right? Like the Golden State one and

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Utah. Was that like 07? Yeah, that was 2007. So,  that the Baron the Baron Davis led Warriors. So,

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yeah. What was it? There was the big dunk I think  that Darren Davis had on Andre Kolinko, but that

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was the I believe team, you know, so that was kind  of cool to see them. They had a few other bigname

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guys, but yeah, they upset Dallas Mavericks in the  first round. We ended up we ended up beating Tracy

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McGrady and Yaoing in the first round. So, some of  our players were Carlos Boozer, Darren Williams,

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Ronnie Brewer, Meto Kurr, some of these guys  that um such a great team. It was a really

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great team. You know, the best thing I think was  I was still a little bit younger to understand,

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but they they loved playing for each other. It  was a really great group in terms of led by,

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you know, legendary coach Jerry Sloan. So,  I got to see that up close and personal.

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And so it was fun to it was sort of fun to to be  part of that but also be on the outskirts. No,

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no question. I mean I remember watching that  series. I remember watching that donk. That was

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like a really memorable thing. Now I think you got  them in the series though. So well I think yeah we

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ended up winning that but I definitely think uh  I we asked our equipment manager I'll probably

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get shamed by some colleagues for this but I  remember asking my equipment manager. I was like,

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"Can you," you know, I think it was game four  or game five back in Golden State and they,

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every fan had, you know, it was like a clapper,  but it was a fold up picture of Baron Davis

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dunking on Andre from earlier on and I was  like, "Any chance you can get one of those?"

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And I actually have that signed by Baron Davis at  my house. Oh, that's cool. That's super cool. All

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right. Well, good. Nice to go down me, you know,  NBA memory lane. And so, I'm curious, you know,

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you started as a team attendant, but then made  that transition into strength conditioning. So,

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what was the inspiration for making that leap  into strength conditioning? Well, I think at

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the time in high school when I was working for the  Jazz, then we had a really great sports medicine

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program. It was sort of like a rudimentary  athletic training program. And I just thought,

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wow, there's actually kind of a career in this  or at least maybe a path between my experience

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working with the team, but then also this hands-on  experience that I got in high school. I think I

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wanted to kind of follow that path a little bit  and over time it transitioned from more athletic

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training to more strength and conditioning side.  At the time there was there was really only two

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trainers and one strength coach. Staffs weren't  very big and and I thought you know this might

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be something that I wanted to do. And then after  observing the trainers a lot it was like I don't

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really want to work with broken athletes or or  injured athletes. I'd prefer to work with the

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more the performance side and how to get these  guys better. And so it just kind of led me down

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asking more questions. I started I started to ask  our equipment manager who kind of put us where we

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needed to be during game times. I started asking  him like, "Hey, can I work the visitor locker room

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a little bit more or work on the visitor side just  so I could learn more about different teams?" And

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it really fueled my ambitions to kind of head down  this path. and I realized, you know, they were

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doing a lot of work with minimal equipment and and  it was just something that really intrigued me.

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Yeah, that's so cool. And like like I mentioned  earlier on, a really unique way to kind of break

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into the field of strength conditioning. And  you've had a front row seat to how the MBA

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has really evolved over the years from this older  school approach in the maybe early 2000s, late 90s

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to a highly data driven individualized strategy  that we see today. So can you kind of compare and

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contrast what you've seen in the earlier days  until to what you're experiencing now? Yeah,

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I think I mean I think with any field the biggest  difference is just technology availability. I

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think you know when I first started I think maybe  we had a a 15t x 15 ft room with minimal equipment

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to prepare the guys for the game. And it was  it was whatever you could find in the hallways

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on the road and things like that. Now it's so  much more about we have a wait room space that's

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designated. we have equipment that's mandated.  So that's a big that's a big difference is just

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the equipment availability, space availability  and and technology. And I think back then it was

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a lot more of, you know, let's say um I think the  training level of where the players were was a lot

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more traditional strength conditioning, whereas  now I think a lot of guys are used to getting

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table work done and working with physiootherapists  and working with PTs and things like that. And

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so some of the changes from that would be, you  know, a lot more heavier lifts and traditional

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lifts on game days. now whereas back then I  think it was sort of like oh we can't really

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lift heavy it's game day we can't do this and now  that more research is out there and and realizing

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you know the preparation that goes into a game  and the demands on a game have to do the heavy

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lifting you have to do some sort of priming you  have to do something throughout the game day to

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prep you for the demands of the sport and I think  that's just kind of the difference the information

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that we have now is so much better in terms of  preparing these guys to go out there and perform

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form. It's funny because it feels like some of  that existed with some organizations, right?

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Yeah. Like you have the Alver the Alver Mill like  Alver Mill would be like, "Yeah, like Isaiah,

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you got it right." Absolutely. And I think and I  think, you know, case by case across the board, I

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wouldn't say, you know, nobody lifted on game days  and stuff like that. It was just more, you know,

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this guy likes to do it, so that's what we're  going to do. or this athlete is used to doing it.

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So I think now it's more we know that it works for  everybody. We know that we have to do some sort of

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preparation work and so it's more of a systematic  approach, right? I think when I first started,

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I observed, you know, one thing that I remember  observing in the visiting locker room was like

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Kobe. He had his his his team and it was I'm going  to do this prep work with Judy and then I'm going

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to do this prep work and I'm going to go see the  athletic trainer and then I'm going to lift before

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the game. I think those guys had their routines  down and had things dialed in. Whereas before it's

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sort of an, you know, they they came with what  they, you know, knew worked for their bodies,

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whereas now we're teaching these guys new ways to  get their bodies prepared, you know, and I think

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that might be a little bit of a difference is is  now it's more you have to do something before the

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game. You know, we talk to a lot of our athletes  about why we're doing it and and what, you know,

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activation exercises or what lifts we might be  doing before the game and try to inform them on,

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you know, what how they're going to see the  benefits. Yeah. You mentioned having some

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mandated equipment and there's a lot of things I  actually want to dive into um what you're saying,

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but you mentioned that now you have some mandated  equipment. It seems like to me on the outside

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looking in, there's also a lot more collaboration  amongst NBA strength and conditioning coaches. I

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know you guys have the association. You guys  do a great job with that. So, it seems like

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across the board, there's more communication  between organizations too and colleagues. Um,

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can you for someone who's listening in who maybe  is curious what this mandated equipment is in

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your facilities, can you maybe shine some light on  that? Yeah. So, I I want to say maybe about 8 to

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10 years ago. I remember doing a uh like a single  leg Bulgarian on a folding chair my first year and

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it was in a dirty hallway. The guys couldn't get  on the ground. It was just with I traveled with

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two giant husky crates that were full of medicine  balls and different things because there was just

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no standard set. and the NBSCA has done a good  job of working together with the league and the

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players association in terms of we have to have  some sort of consistency. You know, I think we're

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going to be training on the road a lot. We're  going to be getting a lot of our main lifts during

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game days. And so to to better, you know, level  the playing field, we have to come up with some

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sort of list. And so I think our association's  done a good job of kind of leading that charge.

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and we've gotten the support from the NBA and the  PA of course, but it starts with two sets of power

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blocks, you know, just some sort of consistency  where we know we're going to have some weight and

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and some medicine balls and physio balls and bands  and things like that. And now, you know, the last

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2 to 3 years, we've even pressed it forward to  you have to have a designated actual space where

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it's clean, where it's going to be maintained,  where we have, you know, the guys able to get

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and it's private, you know, where we where we can  actually prepare and plan these lifts knowing that

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we're going to have certain equipment. And we're  we're definitely afforded the opportunity just by

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talking to different colleagues and things like  that of of maybe getting ahead of it knowing that

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we might need something specific and and reaching  out to them and saying, "Hey, is this possible to

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get this in the weight room? We know it's not on,  you know, the list of mandated things." And a lot

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of times most of the colleagues try to help each  other out because we understand that we're all

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in the same position. We're all trying to prepare  our athletes the best we can. And so having some

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sort of standard is really great because we  just can prepare so much more for them. Yeah,

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absolutely. And kind of what stood out to me from  what you were saying earlier was teaching and the

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education side. Have you seen a big difference  between people entering the league in the mid

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2000s to younger players who are now entering the  league between like how much educating and maybe

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handholding, but I'm going to really say educating  you've had to do with these young players.

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Yeah, I think, you know, the interesting thing is  they're all very well-versed with like the latest

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tech. Um, and and so, you know, getting a guy  to jump on force plates back then probably was

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a bigger deal, right? Is this going to be used  against me for contract reasons? Is this going

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to be, you know, shared with the front office?  And and now everybody kind of knows, no, this

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is just something we can do to help monitor, you  know, different changes and movement patterns and

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things like that. And so a lot of the education  comes from behind. They've seen it, but they just

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don't really know what we do with it, right? And  so I think with some of these younger players,

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they're they're they're excited about what are  we doing that's specific to me? What are we doing

00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:02.160
that can really help me and my development? And so  we try to use some of the different things that we

00:17:02.160 --> 00:17:08.800
may have available for them to to show them this  is what we're doing with it. It's not going to be

00:17:08.800 --> 00:17:14.480
held against you. It's not but participation and  the more that you you buy into what we're doing,

00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:19.120
the more information we can share with you and  the better we can develop our plan to, you know,

00:17:19.120 --> 00:17:24.640
progress you further along in your career. And,  you know, in terms of that education piece,

00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:30.880
you know, they're coming in with a background of  different styles of strength conditioning and and

00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:35.200
different types of lifts that they may be exposed  to. you know, we're all basketball. They're

00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:39.840
all basketball players and we're all basketball  strength coaches. So, there are some similarities,

00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:44.800
but also at the same time, different approaches  and different things that they may have seen,

00:17:44.800 --> 00:17:51.920
we try to educate them on just, you know, what  what can we do to help them. Sounds to me like the

00:17:51.920 --> 00:18:00.080
change from more general training, team oriented  style of training into what is now a modern day,

00:18:00.080 --> 00:18:05.440
this is kind of all about individualization now.  Yeah. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. I think you

00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:11.200
nailed it. I think you nailed it. I think they're  so used to maybe in the college setting. Okay. I'm

00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:17.280
in group A because I'm a junior or senior, right?  And that means that I am going to be working out

00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:23.440
with these guys. And and we try to do more of an  approach where it's like they may all be in the

00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:28.560
weight room at the same time, but there are three  to four different things that are specific to you.

00:18:28.560 --> 00:18:32.960
you know, at the end of the day, you're all  basketball players and we need to train,

00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:38.240
but but we have to figure out what works well  for them as well. You know, I think a lot of

00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:43.200
times there might be, you know, I've I've talked  to different players and they have one strength

00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:51.520
coach for the 20 guys that are on the basketball  team. So guys, unless they're the top one or two,

00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:56.720
might not be getting the attention to detail  that that we're trying to dive into and and we're

00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:02.640
trying to provide for them. Um, and I think at  the same side too, you know, we're a younger team,

00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:08.480
so part of what we're trying to do too is try  to get them to work together and and, you know,

00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:12.720
push each other from that perspective, push each  other on development and things like that. So,

00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:18.880
we do have a lot of group group workouts where  it might be all the rookies coming in at once and

00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:23.520
we're just doing a lot of the fundamentals,  you know, things that they may have either

00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:28.960
glossed over or been afforded the ability to  to to skip over because their athletic ability

00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:33.760
is just such a high standard. It's funny.  I was just I literally this morning had the

00:19:33.760 --> 00:19:38.240
same exact conversation with an athlete I was  working with, um, a basketball athlete talking

00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:42.240
about what it was like being a collegiate  strength conditioning coach. And of course,

00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:45.840
you want to have all this individualization, and  we work our hardest to do that. But with that,

00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:51.280
we also have the constraints of a schedule and  hours and weight room availability, and you really

00:19:51.280 --> 00:19:56.640
do your best to individualize it as much as you  can within these constraints that you have. So,

00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:00.960
it's just funny that that kind of resurfaced, and  we're having this conversation now. My question

00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:08.240
to you is, you've been around now for like 20  years. So I feel like the athletes that were

00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:14.640
around in the early 2000s and before that came  up playing a lot of sports like the multisport

00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:20.480
athlete Bo Jackson's like Deion Sanders like  that was very prevalent and then AAOU really

00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:25.680
picked up in the early 2000s and that became a  driving force in basketball development and at

00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:31.200
least speaking from my own experience when I  was at in the college um setting I saw a lot

00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:36.240
of athletes that weren't really great movers you  know that were basketball athletes. And I know

00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:40.320
I can speak for college strength and condition  coaches. When we get new recruits, 18-year-olds,

00:20:40.320 --> 00:20:45.040
a lot of them aren't the best movers. Some of  that can be attributed to, sure, the individual,

00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:50.560
but they didn't really play multiple sports.  They played AAU all year round. Basketball,

00:20:50.560 --> 00:20:54.880
basketball, basketball. And now I feel like, you  know, the scale is tipping back the other way and

00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:00.320
that we're starting to see the world, high school  people encourage multisport athletes again. So

00:21:00.320 --> 00:21:04.000
I'm just curious, have you noticed anything over  the years? Have you seen this arc of like people

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.720
coming into you at the level that you're at in  terms of quality of movement or performance?

00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:14.400
Anything related to that? Yeah, you I mean you  nailed it spot on. We actually administer sort

00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:20.480
of a sports specialization questionnaire as part  of our pre-draft process just to understand, okay,

00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:26.160
this guy played soccer or this guy did baseball  or and there's certain physical attributes that

00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:30.960
come with playing those sports and when did they  stop? You know, was it right before high school?

00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:36.640
Was it during high school? So, what level of of,  you know, experience at those different sports do

00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:45.280
they have? And to you, you you nailed it. I think  we, you know, basketball athletes physically have

00:21:45.280 --> 00:21:50.720
different attributes than other sport athletes,  right? Generally taller, longer levers,

00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:55.920
things like that, right? And so most of them  have somewhat been pigeonholed where it's like,

00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:01.840
oh hey, you have to put all your chips in this  basket because you are 6'8 and and sometimes

00:22:01.840 --> 00:22:06.800
that might not necessarily be the decision that  they wanted to make at the time, but that's just

00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:12.560
sort of the path that was chosen for them and  that they decided to head down. And so we start

00:22:12.560 --> 00:22:16.960
to see a little bit of a pendulum swing, I'd  say, these last couple three to four seasons,

00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:23.520
just with the understanding that playing the same  sport year round is not going to make you a better

00:22:23.520 --> 00:22:30.240
mover. It's not going to make you a more efficient  athlete. And so I think the trade-off becomes,

00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:36.560
you know, the the difficult part about that is  the trade-off is a lot of these AAOU teams and

00:22:36.560 --> 00:22:41.120
competitive competition teams, they won't let you  play other sports year round. So you have to kind

00:22:41.120 --> 00:22:48.000
of commit to playing with this team otherwise you  aren't on that team. And so we we definitely have

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:54.000
seen a little bit of a pendulum swing, but it  our sport being the nature that it is of just,

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:59.760
you know, taller, bigger guys. Most of them do  have some sort of sport specialization, you know,

00:22:59.760 --> 00:23:07.280
once they're maybe 14 years and on because I think  just just due to where they are at physically at

00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:12.240
that time, you know, most of the guys kind of  decide, hey, basketball is the best route to make

00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:18.480
it to the next level of college or where wherever  your goals may be. So we we are facing that like

00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:26.320
they are we just had all of our young guys in for  the last six weeks and most of it was very basic

00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:31.440
like how do we make you a better athlete, right?  Because you can do all of these things with a

00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:36.240
basketball in your hands but you can't skip rope  for 20 seconds and you can't hop over, you know,

00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:42.000
and you your change of direction is is really  non-efficient and somewhat scary. And that's

00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.640
the that's the thing that we're trying to teach  them is, you know, they've sort of skipped those

00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:53.520
steps in terms of cheer, athleticism, development.  And so we're trying to dive into great, you're a

00:23:53.520 --> 00:23:59.840
really great basketball player. We believe that if  we make you a better all overall, you know, better

00:23:59.840 --> 00:24:07.360
robust athlete, it will translate on the court.  Yeah. No question. No question. I mean, I I think

00:24:07.360 --> 00:24:13.120
um I had a somewhat of an eye openening experience  when I was at Texas. A lot of the kids that were

00:24:13.120 --> 00:24:16.960
recruited in state, they all played football,  no matter what sport they were playing. Now,

00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.440
if they were a baseball player, they played  football. If they were a basketball player,

00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:24.000
they played football. And some of them ran track,  you know, and we had an athlete, Kerwin Roach,

00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:28.560
who I think there's like a video of him taking a  sticker and slapping on the top of the backboard,

00:24:28.560 --> 00:24:33.360
you know, like he basically could clear  a vertac, you know, a vert jump. Um,

00:24:33.360 --> 00:24:38.000
and it just got me thinking, you know, it got  me thinking and and we've heard so much over

00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:42.240
the years about these Bojacks and type people and  I feel like that really really went away. But I I

00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:46.480
can see I I work with high school athletes now. I  have conversations with high school sport coaches

00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:51.040
that has kind of made a resurgence and I know the  in the NFL during the Super Bowl every year they

00:24:51.040 --> 00:24:54.160
always put the rosters out of who played multiple  sports and there's always some article that comes

00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.480
out which is super cool and and nice to see. I'm  curious to know with the influx of more European

00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:05.920
basketball players, is there any difference that  you've seen culturally from lifting weights and

00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:12.480
performance to those that you see with American  athletes? Yeah, I think that's a huge topic

00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.000
internally for us and and as well as what why  the league is trying to expand where it is and

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:26.240
and you look at the last what is it six MVPs have  been non US-born players, right? And I think the

00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:34.320
biggest difference is not only are they maybe more  physically prepared or more trained, let's just

00:25:34.320 --> 00:25:42.560
say I maybe can't make that jump or assumption,  but I think the biggest difference is they are so

00:25:42.560 --> 00:25:50.560
used to having the bare bones, so used to having  to do, you know, different sports, having to work

00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:57.520
out in gyms that really are what we would all  not up to quality. And I think what some of

00:25:57.520 --> 00:26:03.520
that drives and fuels some of these international  athletes a little bit more knowing that like, wow,

00:26:03.520 --> 00:26:07.760
we're afforded this opportunity with all these  different facilities and all these different

00:26:07.760 --> 00:26:13.360
practitioners, we have to use them, you know, and  it's sort of it's sort of one of those trade-offs

00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:20.720
where the US guys at AAOU and things like that,  they may, you know, we don't put a larger emphasis

00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:26.560
on training and and things like that. And so the  training age that that we see the international

00:26:26.560 --> 00:26:32.640
guys come at is much higher level than some of the  US guys. And I think I mentioned it earlier a lot

00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:39.680
of US-born basketball players kind of got to skip  steps because their skill set was so so strong,

00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:45.920
right? And so inversely uh the skill set might  not be there for the international players but

00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.360
the athleticism is and the the development that  they have as a foundation is much stronger.

00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:56.720
So then when you provide them with the skill  coaches and the different facilities and and

00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:02.320
practitioners that we have, they really tend to  excel and utilize those. Yeah. And you mentioned

00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:06.720
six MVPs in a row, which is pretty amazing. And  it's, you know, I think great for the league,

00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:09.840
but I've heard anecdotally, I don't know if  there's any truth to this at all, so I just

00:27:09.840 --> 00:27:16.960
want to be clear of that. Um, yeah. I I've heard  that European athletes when they throw a ball like

00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:21.920
a baseball or football, it looks terrible. I mean,  but but they'll kick anything and it looks very

00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:26.720
fluid and nice. Whereas Americans, I'm sure when  we try to juggle a soccer ball or kick something,

00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.400
it looks ridiculous to them, but we can, you know,  everyone can drop back and throw, you know, 20

00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:36.320
yard pass. Is that right? Yeah. No, that's that's  fair. A couple years ago when I was working under

00:27:36.320 --> 00:27:41.760
uh Coach Snyder, we had a few different we  we had a few different international players

00:27:41.760 --> 00:27:47.120
and so as part of our warm-ups, you know, we'd  sometimes throw football out there, throw some

00:27:47.120 --> 00:27:51.680
soccer balls and just kind of have fun with it  a little bit. But yeah, you nailed it. I think,

00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:57.760
you know, we are so used to I I think the  difference may be the coordination utilized

00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:04.000
in in soccer and and football internationally  speaking. They they have tremendous footwork.

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:09.520
They're they're they have tremendous ability for  body control, body awareness, spatial awareness,

00:28:09.520 --> 00:28:16.160
propriception. So those some of those foundational  attributes really translate well when you try to

00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:23.440
fine-tune them versus this person can throw a  football 60 yards but he can't you know he can't

00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:28.640
juggle a soccer ball as you said where it's like  well you footwork is huge in basketball you know

00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:33.760
so you would think that that would be inversely  but I think it just goes to show that we have a

00:28:33.760 --> 00:28:41.360
lot of areas in terms of the US we have a lot of  areas that we can still improve by by just making

00:28:41.360 --> 00:28:46.080
them get uncomfortable. You know, I think that's  one thing that I try to address with our athletes

00:28:46.080 --> 00:28:52.000
is like if you're uncomfortable doing these  types of movements or juggling a soccer ball,

00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:58.640
as you mentioned, chances are if you, you know,  have to be forced into some of those movements on

00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:03.680
the court, that's where we get a little nervous  and things like that. That's where your body,

00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:08.720
you know, might be trying to do something that  it's not physically able to do versus, you know,

00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:14.560
the international guys, they it's a lot more free  flow of the game, too. Them growing up, it's a lot

00:29:14.560 --> 00:29:20.800
more, you know, free flow of youth development  in internationally. I think they let them play

00:29:20.800 --> 00:29:26.560
a little bit more. Whereas sometimes you'll go  to uh an AAOU game and they're running plays

00:29:26.560 --> 00:29:31.840
and they're 10, 11 years old and it's like they  have no business running plays. they need to be

00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:37.680
just going out there and exploring movements and  being exposed to different stimulus and reacting

00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:43.600
and things like that. And so I think we've become  so rigid with our approach here in the US of like

00:29:43.600 --> 00:29:48.400
you have to do this and then you hire you know  if you're 10 11 years old you hire a development

00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:54.400
coach and you're going to you're going from your  basketball practice to your individual development

00:29:54.400 --> 00:30:00.000
to your instead of just letting them grow as  human beings letting them grow from the human you

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:06.000
know from the human kinetic chain like just just  allowing that to naturally happen. And then later

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.600
on in life we can kind of once we reach that top  peak then we sort of refine those skills. So we've

00:30:11.600 --> 00:30:18.320
have it I believe we sort of have it inverse.  Yeah, I completely agree. And you mentioned areas

00:30:18.320 --> 00:30:24.800
of improvement. So my question to you is across  the MBA or you can speak for yourself in your own

00:30:24.800 --> 00:30:30.720
practice. What do you see as areas of improvement  as you move forward in the performance world in

00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:34.720
the MBA or working with this population? Like is  there something that you're trying to get better

00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.920
at? right now. Is there something you see across  the league where I'm like, I think we can be a

00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:41.680
little bit better in this area. I know everyone's  really driven to always improve and always evolve.

00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:46.400
Is there an area to you that's that, you know,  you're thinking of um or that you've been

00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:52.240
working hard on or you identified as an area of  improvement? Yeah, I I think we've touched on it

00:30:52.240 --> 00:31:00.880
a couple times, but just movement efficiency and  movement efficacy and and just how each guy as

00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:07.360
as they interact with the ground and what they're  doing is so important, right? And what I mean by

00:31:07.360 --> 00:31:13.440
that is is they're so used to taking this amount  of jump shots, this amount of right-hand dribbles,

00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:19.360
and and it's so structured. And so putting them  into different positions where they have to think

00:31:19.360 --> 00:31:25.360
where their motor patterns might be different  where where we can really let's say explore a

00:31:25.360 --> 00:31:32.240
three-dimensional approach to to just what they  do out there as athletes is really important. You

00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:39.520
know, I think spending time doing things like, you  know, I think doing things like bear call series

00:31:39.520 --> 00:31:44.000
or or things like that, getting them on, you know,  ground series and things like that. We've explored

00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:49.520
that a little bit where it's like they've never  done that before. Whereas, you know, maybe 10, 15

00:31:49.520 --> 00:31:54.160
years ago, you played football, so you pushed up  off the ground. You were used to doing different

00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:59.280
things. You got knocked down on the ground. And  so, you just your body learned to adapt to those

00:31:59.280 --> 00:32:04.560
different types of things. I think we've been so  rigid in you have to get this amount of shots up,

00:32:04.560 --> 00:32:11.920
you have to get these these moves down. And so  we're not really um you know, we're not really

00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:18.640
making them a robust athlete by only exposing them  to certain types of movement that are specific to

00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:24.960
basketball. And so we always kind of look at what  does this guy do when we do a hip turn series,

00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:30.160
you know, does he have any knee drive? Is it  all pushing off from the ankle joint? you know,

00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:35.600
is like like where where can we improve on some of  those things that we're going to see on the court?

00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:40.560
Lateral movement. Everybody talks about, oh, he's  an efficient lateral mover. Well, okay, he might

00:32:40.560 --> 00:32:45.920
be good for one step, but what happens when you  have to do one step to a a drop to taking a charge

00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:51.200
or taking a bump and then closing out, right?  That's that's a series of four to five different

00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:55.840
types of movements that a lot of times they  haven't ever been exposed to whether or not they

00:32:55.840 --> 00:33:00.880
were in college or not. they they might have been  the the best athlete, so it was just super easy

00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:07.200
for them. Now they're up against other athletes  of their caliber and the speed and you know the

00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:13.200
the the forces that demand on their body they're  not able to withhold because they just haven't

00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:19.680
had that foundation for so long. So for me, one of  the biggest things is when we get our young guys,

00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:25.040
we try to see how do they move, how can we make  that more efficient, how can we make that safer,

00:33:25.040 --> 00:33:31.280
but also let's explore what you're not good at and  we have to work on those areas. So I imagine you

00:33:31.280 --> 00:33:37.280
rely a lot on your coaching eye, right? Uh what  you see in front of you, but my question to you

00:33:37.280 --> 00:33:41.760
would be, how are you measuring all this, right?  How are you measuring your success? What KPIs

00:33:41.760 --> 00:33:49.120
are important for you guys as you assess movement  quality, movement efficiency? Yeah, I think that's

00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:54.080
the difficult part, right? Is is it is a lot of  the coaching eye and I think I've been afforded

00:33:54.080 --> 00:34:00.160
the opportunity. I've got a great staff where, you  know, it might sound abnormal for some performance

00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:05.600
directors, but I hired a strength coach where  his background is track and field and football

00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:11.680
and then another strength and conditioning coach  where his background is basketball and football.

00:34:11.680 --> 00:34:17.120
And it's like, how can we we figure out what's the  things that we're looking for? as you mentioned,

00:34:17.120 --> 00:34:25.040
KPIs with all of our tech that we have, but at the  end of the day, I'm utilizing their background and

00:34:25.040 --> 00:34:31.920
what they've seen from a a coach's eye to help  us inform maybe what direction and what things

00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:38.720
we need to test them on. And I think if we had  a 3D laboratory with cameras everywhere and and

00:34:38.720 --> 00:34:43.600
force plates everywhere, it would be much easier  to put them in these different types of movement

00:34:43.600 --> 00:34:49.440
patterns. I think unfortunately most NBA teams are  not afforded that opportunity. We have, you know,

00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:54.400
our our two force plates in the ground and and we  have our jumps and things like that. And you can

00:34:54.400 --> 00:35:00.560
take away some really great stuff from that, but  I think the quality of of the feedback that we're

00:35:00.560 --> 00:35:06.560
trying to vi provide for the player really does  come from just the experience of our coaches and

00:35:06.560 --> 00:35:12.000
what they're used to seeing and and and we have to  kind of continue to run with it. It's definitely

00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:17.760
a difficult topic because if you ask most of  my colleagues around the league, everybody's

00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:22.800
everybody's doing the latest and greatest  stuff, but I think, you know, in true fashion,

00:35:22.800 --> 00:35:29.040
we all are really utilizing our coach's eyes and  we're not really leaning on the tech as much to

00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:33.680
see how these guys are developing. Obviously, we  can we can put them through our battery of tests

00:35:33.680 --> 00:35:38.000
and use time as a measurement and things like  that and try to come up with movement profiles

00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:43.440
from that perspective, but a lot of it too is is  working with the onc court development coaches,

00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:49.600
right? What do you want to see from them? Are they  bad at getting over screens? Are they bad at um

00:35:49.600 --> 00:35:54.400
you know, setting up pick and rolls, hip switches,  things like that? Things that we can actually

00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:59.440
really work on on a consistent basis. Because the  other matter of the fact is is you know you might

00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:05.280
go on a road trip for two two weeks two and a half  weeks and you can't lean on just your your battery

00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:11.200
of tests that you have available at home. You have  to utilize the coach's feedback. You have to, you

00:36:11.200 --> 00:36:16.960
know, lean on a lot of video. I mean, we do a lot  of video. When guys are doing different things,

00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:21.920
I'll just film them and I'll I won't look at it  until maybe two months later and then all of a

00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:26.800
sudden I'll see them do it again and I'll film  it and we'll put a timeline and overlap next

00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:32.240
to it and we'll try to break that down on look how  much lower you are in position here. Look how much

00:36:32.240 --> 00:36:37.840
quicker you are at switching your hips and getting  up and over that screen and try to get some more

00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:44.960
buy in from that perspective. Absolutely. This  theme comes up a lot which is and it usually

00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.920
comes up when we talk about collaboration with  the actual sport coaches which is deconstructing

00:36:49.920 --> 00:36:54.160
movement. You know so many times a sport coach  will say he needs to do this he needs to do

00:36:54.160 --> 00:36:59.440
this. It's like okay let's break down what that  actually is. Is it a series of movements like

00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:05.760
you said? Is it pick and roll footwork on the  defensive side sliding into a you know taking a

00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:10.640
charge position? Something like that. So I think  yeah deconstructing movement and maybe defining

00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:15.440
movement like getting on the same page in terms  of terminology with the sport coaches that's a big

00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:22.400
one right it's huge yeah that I I think you you  said it best is what are we all looking for and

00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:27.200
what are and are we using the same terms right  because you know they said oh he might need to

00:37:27.200 --> 00:37:32.800
he needs to be a better lateral mover well on the  force plates he's generating this amount of force

00:37:32.800 --> 00:37:39.360
but it's not translating on the court okay so then  what then what comes Next, is it body positioning?

00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:45.200
Is it physicality? You know, is it something that  is really not measurable? Is it is it is it their

00:37:45.200 --> 00:37:51.200
tenacity to get over the screen that's going to  make them a better mover? Right? And so trying to

00:37:51.200 --> 00:37:58.640
figure out what they want to see, what we want to  see, and then marrying the two is very difficult.

00:37:58.640 --> 00:38:04.080
But I think that's what comes with time in  terms of working with different staffs is is our

00:38:04.080 --> 00:38:11.840
ability to speak the same language as them is very  important. And our ability to also tell them right

00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:18.400
now that's not measurable. And so we have to we  have to either film it, look at it rep after rep.

00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:25.200
have to um maybe figure out a different way to  quantify it but also look at the quality of of

00:38:25.200 --> 00:38:30.560
just what they're doing because so much of what  they you know I remember a couple years back it

00:38:30.560 --> 00:38:36.080
was one of those where it's like James Harden had  this step back that nobody could guard right and

00:38:36.080 --> 00:38:43.040
and and all of a sudden he shot 56% from three  or whatever it was what did he do that was so

00:38:43.040 --> 00:38:49.120
much better it he attacked harder downhill and got  a bigger bump was it his decel acceleration. And

00:38:49.120 --> 00:38:56.240
so just trying to figure out where our athletes  are on that spectrum and and just really try to

00:38:56.240 --> 00:39:01.200
work with the coaches on what they want to see  is is the the difficult part, right? And is it

00:39:01.200 --> 00:39:06.400
an information processing thing? Is it a technical  or tactical thing? Right? Is this a tactical issue

00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:10.160
where it's like our force plate readings show  that he has the ability to do this? We've seen

00:39:10.160 --> 00:39:18.480
him actually do this on the court. So, he actually  is able to do this, but is he processing the

00:39:18.480 --> 00:39:23.600
information that's needed throughout the context  of the game to actually perform this movement over

00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:28.080
and over and over again? Right. I love that you  brought that up because one of the things that our

00:39:28.080 --> 00:39:36.160
performance science uh director, Barnett Frank,  he is all about dual task and and triask, right?

00:39:36.160 --> 00:39:40.960
So while we're doing these types of movements  or even conditioning and things like that,

00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:46.480
we're trying to throw different stimulus at them.  So that way their processing speed is quicker,

00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:51.280
their ability to make decisions uh are are  quicker, their ability to put themselves

00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:57.360
in position that they know that they can generate  the most force from, right? And I think that comes

00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:03.360
with we call it like the skill acquisition, right?  like how how quickly are they able to take what we

00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:08.720
want them to do from an X's and O standpoint and  display it from a physical standpoint and some

00:40:08.720 --> 00:40:15.360
guys just unfortunately kind of what we talked  about earlier from their rigid development that's

00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:20.320
a slower process and that's going to take more  time versus maybe what we talked about earlier

00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:25.120
the international players they've they've been  afforded those opportunities to put be put in

00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:31.200
those situations so it's more about the X's and  O's and less about the the skill acquisition,

00:40:31.200 --> 00:40:34.880
right? I mean, if you watch an NBA game, it's  always fun to watch the offense, right? It's

00:40:34.880 --> 00:40:40.400
fun to watch who's dribbling the ball and who's  maybe open. And if you watch an NBA game or a

00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:46.400
basketball game, what do you notice on defense?  Like, yeah, their heads are always moving,

00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:50.400
right? Always, always moving. And the really,  really great ones, Nicole Jokic, right? Like

00:40:50.400 --> 00:40:54.080
he kind of knows LeBron James, they know where  these people are supposed to be on the floor.

00:40:54.080 --> 00:40:57.760
They've seen enough film. They they've watched  the game and they know the tendencies of people.

00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:02.400
If you watch defense, it's moving while turning  your head over and over and over again and being

00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:06.640
able to process information as you go. So, super  cool and and glad we hit on that. You mentioned

00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:12.080
earlier among the movement efficiency, among the  quality, you also have these battery of tests. Can

00:41:12.080 --> 00:41:17.360
you expand on your battery of tests for us? What  are your go-to assessments when you have these

00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:23.120
batch of athletes come in for the first time of  the year uh come in for the first time that year?

00:41:23.120 --> 00:41:29.760
And then how often are you revisiting these tests?  Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, some of that obviously is

00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:34.720
probably consistent across the league. I would  start with the biomechanics project that's being

00:41:34.720 --> 00:41:41.280
led up by the NBA, right? So, last year is the the  first year that we were a beta team. We we had the

00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:48.560
NBA come in and and help us add some new tech  to our our sports science lab. And some of it,

00:41:48.560 --> 00:41:53.840
I think they decided on is just your standard  hands-on hips counter movement jump, right? And

00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:58.960
then also with that, a drop jump. And then we want  to dive into maybe a single leg countermovement

00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:03.920
jump. I think it's, you know, really important to  get those types of things and and those movement

00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:09.840
patterns. That's been, you know, across the  league sort of decided that consistently if we

00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:15.280
watch those over time, that might be the only  four tests that we're able to get these guys

00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:21.920
to do and complete consistently. Um, and they're  trying to shoot for four times a year, you know,

00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:28.240
I believe is what the standard is. We do a we do  a lot more testing than that, right? We probably

00:42:28.240 --> 00:42:33.040
have some of our young guys, just for instance, we  have our our young guys jump on the force plates

00:42:33.040 --> 00:42:38.000
every game day. So, some of the players that  are veterans on our team that might be a little

00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:45.200
adverse to um adjust how often we're testing, we  might be able to get them on the force plates,

00:42:45.200 --> 00:42:51.360
you know, that that five to six times in a  season. Hopefully, you know, once every once

00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:57.840
every month. Um, but the young guys, we get them  every single day or every game day. And a lot of

00:42:57.840 --> 00:43:04.800
what we're looking at is just um, you know, what's  their readiness look like from that perspective?

00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:11.040
What kind of um, you know, outputs are we seeing?  What what you know, what kind of if we're working

00:43:11.040 --> 00:43:16.480
on specific specific movements and things like  that, is it getting better? Is it getting worse?

00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:22.640
and and hopefully that will help guide our our  training program. You know, knowing that the

00:43:22.640 --> 00:43:27.760
biggest thing, I'll be honest with you, that we  see is giant asymmetries from left to right limb,

00:43:27.760 --> 00:43:34.720
right? A lot of these guys just due to the same  movement patterns we're looking at uh could be 15

00:43:34.720 --> 00:43:41.440
plus% asymmetry on just a standard countermovement  jump. Right. So, to your point, is that a is that

00:43:41.440 --> 00:43:49.040
a a strength a true strength deficit from one limb  to another? is that a compensatory pattern that

00:43:49.040 --> 00:43:55.040
we're seeing up the chain. So, a lot of it when  they first come on to uh you know our group is

00:43:55.040 --> 00:43:59.920
let's try to mitigate that a little bit, right?  Make sure that they're in some normative day

00:43:59.920 --> 00:44:04.480
um some norms where we feel comfortable, things  like that. But then also at the same time,

00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:08.640
these are million-dollar athletes. We're not going  to pull somebody out because we see something on

00:44:08.640 --> 00:44:14.560
on a hands-on hit force plate jump. So, I think  that's really important. Some of the other stuff

00:44:14.560 --> 00:44:20.160
that we're doing just inhouse is some lower body  strength assessments. You know, mid thigh pull,

00:44:20.160 --> 00:44:26.160
a belt squat, things like that. I think it's  really important to look at, you know, are we

00:44:26.160 --> 00:44:32.080
improving from that perspective. You know, I know  a lot of teams use some different tech where we're

00:44:32.080 --> 00:44:37.520
looking at specific joint angles based on those  asymmetries that you've seen on force plates,

00:44:37.520 --> 00:44:42.560
right? So, it's like, okay, we know there's a  deficit here. We know their injury history is A,

00:44:42.560 --> 00:44:47.520
B, and C. we have to address this because  at some point in time in an 82 game season,

00:44:47.520 --> 00:44:52.400
this is going to be the weakest link in the chain.  So, how do we address that specifically? And so,

00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:59.520
we do a lot of maraging range of motion numbers  to metric testing on a specific limb or specific

00:44:59.520 --> 00:45:04.880
joint movements. Then, we try to get them into the  movement pattern. How does that work once they're

00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:11.120
actually moving? And are we still seeing the same  type of theme? And if not, okay, then why? because

00:45:11.120 --> 00:45:16.960
we know there's a strength deficit here or a  range deficit, then it has to be some sort of of,

00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:22.720
you know, movement deficiency that they're  not able to put in put, you know, display out

00:45:22.720 --> 00:45:28.960
there and perform out there or a velocity deficit,  right? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and

00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:35.600
I think that's the hard part too is um these guys  are really fast and these guys are really really,

00:45:35.600 --> 00:45:41.120
you know, good at doing certain things. all of  a sudden you put a demand through, you know,

00:45:41.120 --> 00:45:46.640
a certain joint or or a certain movement and all  of a sudden you can tease that out a little bit,

00:45:46.640 --> 00:45:52.720
right? And one of your pieces that we utilized a  lot for a long time, you know, within the squat

00:45:52.720 --> 00:46:00.720
rack was just trying to figure out, you know,  where where are they at on a on an unloaded squat,

00:46:00.720 --> 00:46:05.360
you know, with full effort and things like that.  And then all of a sudden, okay, we add a little

00:46:05.360 --> 00:46:10.240
bit of weight to them. What does that look like?  does, you know, does that change the pattern?

00:46:10.240 --> 00:46:15.520
Things like that. Where are rotational where does  rotation come into to play, right? Because it's

00:46:15.520 --> 00:46:20.800
just it's a 3D dimensional sport. We have to  figure out that we have to address that. And

00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:26.640
I think there's a lot of different things to look  at. And the the difficult part is is finding that

00:46:26.640 --> 00:46:32.960
consistency to test it and figuring out, you know,  what what can we tr truly tease out in a season

00:46:32.960 --> 00:46:37.680
and what do we need to kind of table for the off  season. Mhm. And it sounds like you have these

00:46:37.680 --> 00:46:41.440
more global tests, right? You have a test like a  force plate jump, which obviously there's a strong

00:46:41.440 --> 00:46:45.040
correlation to basketball and the movements that  are required in basketball. But then I like what

00:46:45.040 --> 00:46:52.800
you said where you now dig deeper a little more  locally like at certain joints. Um maybe based

00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:58.400
off injury history based off of that test. Okay,  we know the right side has this 15%, you know,

00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:02.160
deficiency or asymmetry between the left side.  Let's dig a little bit deeper locally on this

00:47:02.160 --> 00:47:08.000
right side. Is it ankle? Is it knee? Is it hip?  Is it something that's more up the chain and then

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:13.200
address it locally and then come back and see if  we had changed things more globally, right? Did we

00:47:13.200 --> 00:47:19.120
have that actual adaptation occur? And did that  adaptation make any changes? Did that transfer

00:47:19.120 --> 00:47:25.280
into this more global test that we value? Yeah.  And then and that's the thing that I would say is

00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:31.600
the the slowest process is trying to tease that  out, right? Because at the end of the day, like

00:47:31.600 --> 00:47:36.880
I said earlier, you're not pulling them from the  court because you see something. And so therefore,

00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:44.320
chances are, whatever compensatory patterns or  whatever, you know, specific deficiency might be

00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:49.760
there, they're going to go back out to the court  and jam it up again. And so it's up to us to make

00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:55.440
it consistent in terms of the treatments that  we're providing, in terms of the stimulus that

00:47:55.440 --> 00:48:00.240
we're providing to try to tease that out over a  season. And it's really difficult when they're

00:48:00.240 --> 00:48:06.240
playing 82 games and practicing. I mean, that that  would be something that I think most people even

00:48:06.240 --> 00:48:12.000
in in college or other professional settings run  into is at the end of the day, we have to play

00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:18.000
the sport that we are there to play. And so,  how can we how can we play the long game here,

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:22.400
right? I think that's the hard thing is we want  to see these results quick. We want to see these

00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:27.840
results to make us feel better as practitioners,  but the reality is this might be over a career.

00:48:27.840 --> 00:48:32.960
This might be over a fiveyear period. This  might be a year. This and so just trying to be

00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:39.840
realistic about where our goals are and trying to  remind the athlete that this is monotonous work,

00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:45.680
but in the end hopefully we will start to see you  trending in the right direction. Yeah, I like what

00:48:45.680 --> 00:48:49.280
you said there. Hopefully, because you're like, we  think that this is this is our best educated guess

00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:52.240
at the end of the day. Like we really don't know  what's going to happen. But I also like how you

00:48:52.240 --> 00:48:56.880
said that even if you identify these asymmetries,  it's not panic button. It's, hey, you still got to

00:48:56.880 --> 00:49:00.480
go play your sport and we're going to do what  we can to make sure this doesn't balloon into

00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:05.120
something bigger and this causes an injury, but  we're going to slowly chip away at this asymmetry

00:49:05.120 --> 00:49:08.880
when we have the time, when we're able to get in  and work with you. And I can totally appreciate

00:49:08.880 --> 00:49:14.240
that with the 82 game schedule being on the road  that it's not always so easy to do that. And it

00:49:14.240 --> 00:49:17.600
brings up this point which we talked about earlier  which is like it's really important that you have

00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:22.560
the resources when you're on the road from other  organizations to all work together you know to

00:49:22.560 --> 00:49:27.200
keep everybody healthy number one you know and  to make sure there's a good product on the court.

00:49:27.200 --> 00:49:34.080
Yeah. And and that's the thing too is um you  know I think I think earlier in my career I was

00:49:34.080 --> 00:49:40.240
like super protective of my athletes meaning  meaning you know um thinking that they would

00:49:40.240 --> 00:49:46.080
be there forever right and the reality is players  are trading teams players are you know coming and

00:49:46.080 --> 00:49:52.480
going. And so one thing that I try to to just  relay to them that helps with the buyin is is

00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:58.560
let's just add I believe adding this to your tool  belt will help you for your career. Do I want you

00:49:58.560 --> 00:50:03.040
to stay here with the Jazz forever? Absolutely.  I think you're a great person. I think you're

00:50:03.040 --> 00:50:08.800
you know an incredible basketball player, but the  chances of that happening are are very unlikely.

00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:15.120
So while while you're here, how about we add this  to your tool belt? And then inversely, if it's a

00:50:15.120 --> 00:50:20.960
veteran, one of the best things that I think I  can do is just learn from them. What did you do

00:50:20.960 --> 00:50:25.600
that worked? What did you know, chances are I know  their strength coach? So, I'm going to reach out

00:50:25.600 --> 00:50:30.160
to them and say, you know, what did this guy like  to do? What didn't he like to do? How can how can

00:50:30.160 --> 00:50:35.440
I tease that out from our program? But also, you  know, one of the first steps if we sign a free

00:50:35.440 --> 00:50:40.640
agent or or somebody that's been around the league  is is really try to obtain as much information

00:50:40.640 --> 00:50:44.880
about them before they even step foot in the  building from prior coaches and things like that.

00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:50.880
And then also letting them know that I'm not going  to shove anything down their throat that they

00:50:50.880 --> 00:50:55.840
don't want, but also at the same time, chances are  there is something that we can add to your tool

00:50:55.840 --> 00:51:01.200
belt. And then that way at the end of your long,  you know, I want everybody to I want everybody

00:51:01.200 --> 00:51:07.120
to play 10 plus years in the league, even more,  right? That would be a huge goal for each of my

00:51:07.120 --> 00:51:12.880
athletes that come through our door. And and so  the ability for us to maybe help them in whatever

00:51:12.880 --> 00:51:18.320
manner that's that's what our goals are is to just  try to add something to their tool belt that they

00:51:18.320 --> 00:51:22.560
might not have had before. Oh, that's awesome.  That's great. And a lot of great nuggets in there

00:51:22.560 --> 00:51:26.240
and I really appreciate it. I know it's draft  day, so I know you're a busy guy today and and

00:51:26.240 --> 00:51:30.160
don't have too much more time for us. I just have  a few quick questions that are more fun questions

00:51:30.160 --> 00:51:35.200
for you as we wrap up this conversation. Sound  good? Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, quick

00:51:35.200 --> 00:51:41.360
question. Favorite piece of Keiser equipment.  I really love the functional trainer. Um our I

00:51:41.360 --> 00:51:48.160
think it's versatile. I think the biggest thing is  is we got to share a locker room, wait room with

00:51:48.160 --> 00:51:53.680
the hockey team now. And so just how they use it  and what they're looking for, things like that,

00:51:53.680 --> 00:51:59.680
I think is really important. But we've always kind  of had one or two of those in our facilities and

00:51:59.680 --> 00:52:05.520
and especially now the user interface and some  of the updates that you guys have have done like

00:52:05.520 --> 00:52:10.560
the athletes really want to see the bars right  away, right? And so I had some of your functional

00:52:10.560 --> 00:52:15.280
trainers before and and you know we're looking  for the numbers and maybe the players don't

00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:19.600
really know what to look for. But when you  have that instantaneous feedback that the it

00:52:19.600 --> 00:52:25.120
really helps the buyin from the user perspective,  you know, they can just kind of we're done with

00:52:25.120 --> 00:52:29.520
the set. Boom. What did it look like? Was there a  fatigue there? You know, what did that look like?

00:52:29.520 --> 00:52:35.200
And so I think it's, you know, one of one of the  things that we would utilize the most. Awesome.

00:52:35.200 --> 00:52:38.640
Um I always ask people this because I'm always  curious. You know, I'm a big foodie. What's your

00:52:38.640 --> 00:52:45.280
favorite food spot in Salt Lake City? Favorite  food spot is Manoli's. So, it's this great It's

00:52:45.280 --> 00:52:50.800
this Greek restaurant. It's got probably 20 tables  in there. It's a little smaller, but the quality

00:52:50.800 --> 00:52:56.320
is amazing. I've gotten to know the the owner of  the restaurant over the, you know, maybe the last

00:52:56.320 --> 00:53:02.000
5 to 10 years. He started as a caterer and now  he's opened this beautiful restaurant. He flies

00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:07.840
in most of his stuff from from Greece and from  some of the vendors that he has back at home.

00:53:07.840 --> 00:53:12.640
So you can get it's like where else can you get  octopus in Salt Lake City that I'm going to trust.

00:53:12.640 --> 00:53:17.840
You know, it's got to be at Manoli's and just they  they make homemade desserts. So every time it's

00:53:17.840 --> 00:53:22.720
sort of a special occasion for my wife and I to go  there. But that's by far my favorite restaurant.

00:53:22.720 --> 00:53:26.320
I love it. Next time you're in Chicago when you  guys come play the Bulls. I'm nearby. Let's go

00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:30.560
get some good Greek food. We got a ton of that in  Chicago. So Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. Right by the

00:53:30.560 --> 00:53:37.560
United Center, too. So it's great. On that note,  favorite NBA city to travel to and why? [Music]

00:53:38.560 --> 00:53:44.800
Uh, it's changed over the years. I think being  from Salt Lake City and being a Utah guy,

00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:50.880
I'm used to smaller cities and and not so much  busy of of, you know, the lifestyle and stuff,

00:53:50.880 --> 00:53:56.160
but I love Toronto. I think, you know, some of  the different cultures that are represented there,

00:53:56.160 --> 00:54:01.840
I think is amazing. I think, you know, it's a  beautiful city. It's it's, you know, it's just

00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:06.640
slowly become one of my favorites. I feel like if  there's any type of food that I'm have a craving

00:54:06.640 --> 00:54:11.440
for or something like that, like you can find it  in Toronto. I think everybody's really, you know,

00:54:11.440 --> 00:54:17.200
the people of Canada are great and and that area  specifically. So, right now it's Toronto, but it

00:54:17.200 --> 00:54:22.160
always changes. Yeah, we we need to get a team  back in Seattle. I think that would be awesome.

00:54:22.160 --> 00:54:27.360
We yeah, we actually we had a preseason game  there two years ago and I hadn't been to

00:54:27.360 --> 00:54:34.400
Seattle in probably 15 years and uh I think  you know it was fun to just kind of see how

00:54:34.400 --> 00:54:41.200
many fans showed up. I think they are dying  for a a team to return there and then not to

00:54:41.200 --> 00:54:47.280
mention you know the fan base that that the the  NFL and the MLS have up there with the Sounders

00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:51.520
and the Seahawks. Like it's it's due time to  hopefully get a team up there. They need to

00:54:51.520 --> 00:54:57.120
have the Sonics need to come back for sure. Super  passionate fan base. Absolutely. Um, okay, last

00:54:57.120 --> 00:55:06.880
question. Favorite player you've gotten to watch  from the opposing bench. That is a tough one.

00:55:06.880 --> 00:55:13.120
Dirk Noitzky. Really? Oh, that might sound  That might sound It's hard. That's a It's

00:55:13.120 --> 00:55:17.680
a tough question. I know. I saved the hard for  last. That is tough. I'm going to go with Durk.

00:55:17.680 --> 00:55:26.640
And the and the reason being the reason being  is to me he had fun. He figured out ways to,

00:55:26.640 --> 00:55:33.360
you know, craft his his abilities, but also, you  know, there's a there's a moment that stands out

00:55:33.360 --> 00:55:39.120
that maybe this skewed my view, but I remember  being a team attendant and I never really was

00:55:39.120 --> 00:55:45.440
like in awe of anybody, you know? I never really  felt starruck when I was 16, 17. I mean, it was I

00:55:45.440 --> 00:55:50.480
was there for a job and that's what I was there  for. But I remember one time he walked out and

00:55:50.480 --> 00:55:56.880
um for whatever reason I just didn't realize, God,  he's so big and his shot and just, you know, the

00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:03.360
way that he moved was so be, you know, it was just  really like he was he he to me really struck me

00:56:03.360 --> 00:56:11.200
as somewhat of a a a unicorn of the time. And so  I remember he walked out and for whatever reason

00:56:11.200 --> 00:56:16.800
I just was staring at him kind of almost like  staring through him and he stops at the free throw

00:56:16.800 --> 00:56:23.600
line and he goes, "Hey buddy." And uh and and kind  of totally put me on the spot and ever since then,

00:56:23.600 --> 00:56:28.080
you know, I would I would see him in the locker  room and he's just a great guy. You know, I think

00:56:28.080 --> 00:56:33.440
overall too he his if you ask anybody within that  organization, there's a reason why they want to

00:56:33.440 --> 00:56:38.800
keep him around and and why he keeps close to  Dallas Mavericks is because he's a real he's

00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:46.160
a great personality. He's a leader by example. He  is committed to the people that he works with and

00:56:46.160 --> 00:56:50.720
I know that the staff that have worked with him  said that he's just a real incredible guy. So,

00:56:50.720 --> 00:56:54.560
I I'll go with Durk right now. That's a great  answer. I love that one. I wasn't expecting Durk,

00:56:54.560 --> 00:57:01.440
but I mean, talk about European skill. um ahead of  its time. So yeah. Yeah, he just I think more than

00:57:01.440 --> 00:57:06.080
anything maybe that's what it was was just he's  somewhat of a unicorn where he was ahead of his

00:57:06.080 --> 00:57:10.640
time. Now we have, you know, we're afforded to  see all these different international players,

00:57:10.640 --> 00:57:15.040
but definitely at the time, you know, he was  he was one of the first where I got to see

00:57:15.040 --> 00:57:20.640
up close and personal and it was like, wow, no  wonder he's as as successful as he is because he

00:57:20.640 --> 00:57:25.680
just has an incredible approach to everything.  growing up a lifelong Bulls fan. Um, you know,

00:57:25.680 --> 00:57:28.800
we had Derrick Rose here. I obviously got to see  him in person a lot, but every time you got to

00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:32.480
see Derrick Rose in person, it was like such  a treat, you know, and this city too is like

00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:37.520
dying for an athlete like that. And that was super  cool. One other one I saw this year, um, went to

00:57:37.520 --> 00:57:44.160
Bull Spurs this year. I had to go see Wimayama. Oh  my god. Like, right. I I felt like I was watching

00:57:44.160 --> 00:57:49.040
a different sport, you know, when whenever he  had the ball and that was super cool. So, um,

00:57:49.040 --> 00:57:52.240
really amazing to just see the different talent  across the league right now. I think it's a really

00:57:52.240 --> 00:57:58.640
exciting time. So, it's um yeah, very exciting  time and it's only getting better. Um you know,

00:57:58.640 --> 00:58:05.200
and and and to your point, when you see when you  get an opportunity to see some of these athletes

00:58:05.200 --> 00:58:11.200
up close and you realize just how big they are,  but just how skilled they are, I think that's

00:58:11.200 --> 00:58:18.400
what even wows me even more is just, you know,  when Minyama, he moves like a guard and he's

00:58:18.400 --> 00:58:23.520
bigger than anybody else. that's that is unique  in its own, but then not to mention, you know,

00:58:23.520 --> 00:58:27.920
just his approach to the game and his approach  to taking care of his body as a professional is

00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:32.400
is something admirable as well. I don't remember  the last time I've been around sports a long time,

00:58:32.400 --> 00:58:36.960
right? The days of being like in awe  or jaw-dropped by an athlete, you know,

00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:41.360
those that was a long time ago and now I I saw him  in person this year and I was kind of like, wow,

00:58:41.360 --> 00:58:46.800
this is truly incredible. And then you go see him  like playing chess in New York, you know, with the

00:58:46.800 --> 00:58:52.320
everyday people in in the park. So, I was like,  "This is a cool cool athlete." You know, I think

00:58:52.320 --> 00:58:59.440
I think you said it. I love I love when we get  to see the human side of of our athletes, right?

00:58:59.440 --> 00:59:04.640
And I think sometimes they haven't been afforded  that opportunity to share that with everybody. So,

00:59:04.640 --> 00:59:08.880
I'm hoping, you know, with this generation,  they all have great personalities. They all

00:59:08.880 --> 00:59:14.080
have great backgrounds. And so, it's fun when we  get to, you know, with social media and stuff, we

00:59:14.080 --> 00:59:19.360
get to see another side of them. Yeah. Yeah. Very  cool. Well, Isaiah Wright of the Utah Jazz, thank

00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:23.520
you so much for joining me today and chopping  it up on the Keiser Human Performance podcast.

00:59:23.520 --> 00:59:26.960
If you're listening in today and want to stay  up to date on Isaiah, you can connect with him

00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:32.720
on LinkedIn. And make sure to give him a follow  at Coach Wright. Wright is with a W1. On behalf

00:59:32.720 --> 00:59:37.600
of Keiser, wishing you and the Jazz a wonderful  and very fortunate NBA draft night and the best

00:59:37.600 --> 00:59:43.760
of luck next season and beyond. Thank you so much.  Thank you so much, Gabe. I appreciate you, buddy.