Talent Development with James Duncan

Written by Matt McQuade for Kings Media

 

The life of an assistant coach is often a thankless one.

These guys don’t get any fanfare. You rarely see them in the media. Most times the average fan doesn’t even know what they do, outside sitting next to the head coach at games.

But ask any of those head coaches about the importance of their assistants, and they’ll tell you that they simply can’t do their job without them.

Whether it be helping to run practice, devising strategy, coming up with alternatives if a game plan isn’t successful on the night or even just the simple yet important job of keeping tabs on things like fouls and how many timeouts are left in a half – and that’s just a very small sample size of what they do – an assistant coach provides enormous value and support to their team.

Then there’s the deeper role that some assistants play behind the scenes – individual player development.

Where the head coach has the primary responsibility of leading his team to wins – and hopefully championships – there are those key assistants tasked with helping players take their skills to the next level.

Such is the role performed by Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings Assistant Coach James Duncan, who over the past couple of seasons has done a ton of work in helping to prepare two players for the next stage of their professional basketball life.

Those players – Jae’Sean Tate and Didi Louzada – have now reached the ultimate level of the sport, the NBA, and it’s safe to say neither would have progressed as far as they did without the input and guidance of Coach Duncan, whose efforts have positioned the Kings in the best possible light as a destination club for talented players with an eye on reaching the greatest competition in the world.

“That was crucial from the get-go coming in here to want to be a destination club that players want to come to and get better,” said Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings CEO Chris Pongrass.

“Understandably, we’re not the NBA, but we feel like we’re the second-best league in the world and if can have players that want to play here for one, two or three years and then make that jump to the NBA, we want to be a vessel for them to do that.”

“I think JD has been the crux of that vision where he’s got a clear player development background and a great relationship with a lot of players and coaches and the front office.”

“His ability to develop high-level talent to get better is unmatched. He worked very closely with Jae’Sean and Didi and with guys in our current roster who are making that jump. It’s really been exciting to see those guys succeed and for James to really hang his hat on that and say that he played a huge part in their development.”

For a guy who has done so much to help two players take the next step in reaching the NBA, it’s interesting to note that Coach Duncan’s journey to get to this point actually has very little to do with basketball in the United States.

Canadian by birth, he played college basketball at Brock University in Ontario and professional basketball in the German Bundesliga before becoming a coach in 2005. For the past 16 years, he has been an assistant coach in Germany, Belgium, Taiwan and Japan, coaching players like current Milwaukee Bucks forward PJ Tucker, before joining the staff of newly-minted Sydney Kings head coach Will Weaver in 2019.

“As I was thinking about my career, I was looking at the NBA, and obviously as a coach or player you have these ambitions to get to that level,” Coach Duncan said.

“I had been offered a head coaching job in Japan, and then I met Will Weaver. I started to talk to Will, and I agreed with a lot of his coaching style and a lot of his thoughts in player development, plus I saw it as an opportunity to get into the NBA.”

“So, I jumped at the opportunity to work with him and the Kings; work with Chris Pongrass and Paul Smith and Luc Longley.”

“They said they were looking at Jae’Sean Tate, so I started doing some research on him, then they brought in Didi Louzada, who was drafted by the (New Orleans) Pelicans, so I saw a great opportunity to open up some doors down the road if I did some pretty good work, and things have kind of gone in that direction.”

Coach Weaver brought James on board because he had an appreciation of his basketball intellect and formidable work ethic, and he quickly became a highly regarded member of the team, spending hours each day on individual development with a particular focus on import forward Jae’Sean Tate, who signed with the purple and gold and the NBL primarily because he saw it as his best chance of reaching his ultimate goal, the NBA.

And through the NBL20 season, it became increasingly clear that Tate was a guy who had the talent and ability to get to the next level. But he still needed a lot of work. James Duncan helped Jae’Sean get to a point in his career where he’s now starting in the NBA in what has been an outstanding rookie campaign, and he has even been talked about in some circles as a contender for NBA Rookie of the Year.

“Will and I put a plan of attack together around JT about how we can get opportunities to open up for him,” Coach Duncan said.

“The biggest thing was his shooting, and then working on some weaknesses of his, which I addressed at the beginning.”

“For example, JT said he could finish with his left hand and didn’t have to worry about his right, but I told him that when we played Perth, they will have scouted him, so he needed to be able to finish with his right. The idea was let’s work on that now so that when we potentially get to the Finals, he’ll have less weaknesses that they can exploit.”

“In practices, I wouldn’t let him finish with his left. I put constraints on him right away which was difficult for him at first, but he started to understand the importance of that and started finishing with his right hand in games, which made it difficult for other teams to scout him.”

“Then, we just started him to shoot the ball, and not just stretching it out to the three-point line, we wanted to be shooting from deep all over the court so we could stretch the defence. Every single day we wanted him to focus on his form, his balance and his footwork, before practice, after practice, and sometimes when practice wasn’t on, we’d get into the gym and work on those aspects.”

With all the work that Coach Duncan was doing with Jae’Sean, particularly with his shooting mechanics and getting him comfortable with catch and shoot actions, it was vital that he get complete buy-in from Will Weaver, something that he was very thankful for.

“Will’s openness to Jae’Sean shooting the ball was huge,” Coach Duncan said.

“It’s easy for me to sit there and say “look man, when you’re open, catch and shoot without hesitation.” But it’s a different level when the head coach is saying the exact same thing.”

“It meant that JT doesn’t have to worry about makes or misses. If he misses, he’s not getting pulled out of the game; it’s a good shot and Will has your back. Then there’s me sitting there saying that’s a great shot, don’t worry about it, move on to the next play.”

Didi Louzada was another guy who Coach Duncan worked with extensively. The second-round draft pick of the Atlanta Hawks in 2019 had his rights traded to the New Orleans Pelicans and came to Australia via the NBL’s Next Stars program.

Obviously blessed with next-level physical gifts, the young Brazilian swingman nonetheless was still relatively raw when he arrived in Sydney and needed a lot of focused coaching to help him develop into a productive NBA player.

“Didi was going into a situation where there are a lot of stars on the Pelicans,” Coach Duncan said.

“You’re not going to have those opportunities where you can dribble the ball; you’re going to be in the corner waiting for a kickout shot, catch and shoot, and if a team closes out to you, you either drive and finish or drive, kick and relocate.”

“And you have to be able to play great defence. That was our A, B and C plan from the time he arrived in Sydney, added to his learning English.”

“We wanted him to be able to play lockdown defence, as we saw in his last three games of the regular season for the Pelicans, where he was able to pick up Luka Doncic and play defence like we expected him to play.”

“The big thing about Didi is about staying healthy. If he can stay healthy, and continue to build up his rhythm and his confidence, which I’m sure they are going to do with the Pelicans, hopefully he’ll have a long NBA career.”

Ultimately, every player is different when it comes to player development. But consistency in the approach is paramount. And Coach Duncan has a strong philosophy built on trust, honesty, analysis of strengths and weaknesses, and even just good old-fashioned listening.

“I feel like if you create an environment for these guys where they can learn, put in the work and then get opportunities in the game; where their teammates and coaches are supporting them, they’re able to get there,” Coach Duncan said.

“You have to build a level of trust at the beginning with all these guys. You really have to be authentic with them and tell them how you see it.”

“You also have to stop and just listen. There are times when people just want to talk instead of just listening to what the player is seeing and how the player is feeling. Sometimes, you might not have an answer for them right away and you shouldn’t have an answer for them right away. You should maybe let it swirl around your head a bit, then come back the next day or two days later with an answer.”

“I think players respect that, because you’ve taken the time to really think about something and come back with some proof of what your answer is – you can then start to build on that.”

“Once that happens, and they start to see results in practice and games, then you’ve got them, so they get a little bit excited about the stuff you’re working on, and they’re eager.”

“But then, it’s all about balance. Once you get them, they’re excited and they want to be on the floor all the time, but there needs to be a balance between on-court and off-court stuff; things like relaxing and taking care of your body. There’s a work/life balance there as well.”

The other issue is of course that players need to want to be coached. They need to want to improve and understand what it takes to get to the next level. In short, they need to be good people in an environment where they will be challenged on a daily basis.

“Fundamentally, a big factor in the development of players is the character of the individual,” Coach Duncan affirms.

“It’s about quality people wanting to improve. And putting actions behind that, not just words.”

“We’ve been fortunate as a program to have some great guys come in and want to do the work to get better and succeed.”

At the end of the day, fans are interested in wins and losses. That’s the nature of professional sport. But in an increasingly competitive marketplace for basketball talent around the world, it’s becoming clear that in order to attract the best possible players to your program, especially in a smaller country like Australia, you’ve got to have a point of difference.

It can’t just be about dollars, although that’s obviously one component. Having the ability to develop a player to the point where in one or two seasons he or she can make the leap to the NBA and WNBA is huge with players and their agents. And as Chris Pongrass attests, the work that James Duncan has undertaken over the last couple of seasons is vitally important to his role in negotiating with the kind of talent that is necessary to building a championship-level squad.

“Players getting excited to play for coaches is one thing, but for them to see tangible results, to actually see that in such a short period of time that you’ve been able to help develop these guys, makes my job a lot easier,” Chris said.

“I mean you look at where Jae’Sean has gone, from being a relatively unknown commodity in NBA circles – yes he’s played in Summer League and was on the fringe, but coming here and being as successful as he was, then making it to the NBA and starting in the NBA; I don’t think anyone was doubting him in that goal but for it to come so quickly, we’re all so encouraged by that.”

“Players see that and want to come to be coached by James and the other coaches that we’ve put together here over the last couple of years.”

He may not be in the limelight, but James Duncan is doing a heck of job for the purple and gold.

The Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings are lucky to have him.

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