There’s a reason coaches and athletes tend to speak in clichés.
The particular brand of non-speak we’re all used to – to take it one day at a time, give it 110 percent, and the Good Lord willin’ – is used for a reason. It protects teams, players, coaches, organizations, sponsors – even an athlete’s own sanity after being asked the same questions over and over again throughout the years. Athletes and coaches are conditioned to spew banal, formulaic sentences just as much as we, the public, are conditioned to hear it.
Which why Denver Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw, in a way, is so refreshing. Shaw’s not afraid to speak his mind – whether routinely calling out his players for a lack of effort, pointing out his team’s limitations or lack of star power, or most recently, openly questioning whether or not his roster is tanking on purpose.
As someone who spends way too much time thinking about the Nuggets, I love his honesty. Shaw isn’t afraid to call it like he sees it, which makes him one of the few people in the NBA – and around sports in general – who’s willing to go out on a limb and not revert back to politically correct mumbo-jumbo.
But again, there’s a reason so many athletes and coaches revert back to clichés – it’s safe. Shaw’s outspokenness during his time in Denver has been anything but, and it’s cost him.
It started poorly, as the great Jeff Morton of DenverStiffs.com points out here, when Shaw called George Karl’s system (one that had won 57 games the previous year, which Shaw will be lucky to win during his whole tenure in Denver) “cute”. His comments continued to make waves in his first season when he highlighted forward Kenneth Faried’s deficiencies publically and repeatedly, leading to reports of tension between him and his young forward. And it culminated last week, when he wondered whether his own team was tanking. That might be the first time a coach has publically stated he suspects his team is losing on purpose instead of defending their competitiveness; heck, even the 76ers of last season’s tankapalooza gave the media the usually dance about coming to play every single night, even as the ran out a roster guaranteed to wind up at the top of the lottery.
And after publically questioning his team’s desire, well, what did he expect to happen?
Did anyone really think with Shaw’s comments recently that the team was going to rally around him?
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsCO) February 4, 2015
That’s without getting into the miscommunication with Andre Miller last year, the many times he’s questioned his team’s level of effort and professionalism, or the general uncertainty that occurs every time the Nuggets try to run an offensive set (all of which Morton touches on in the link above).
Earlier in the season, after a particularly dismal performance, Shaw mentioned that he’d bench his entire frontcourt if he could. When Faried was asked about it postgame, he offered only a surprised look and a “no comment”. It’s that easy to undermine a relationship, and incidents like that tell us all we need to know about communication within the locker room. Stuff like that is why Shaw has repeatedly had to have meetings, individually and with the team as a whole, to clear the air.
As a disciple of Phil Jackson – who was never shy about blasting a player to the media – Shaw knows the power that talking to the media can have. Athletes, whether they admit it or not, hear that stuff.
But Jackson publically called people out while he was accumulating enough rings to fill up both hands. He had credibility, and therefore the support of the locker room. Players knew that if you followed the Zen Master, chances are you were going to wind up with a ring. Shaw, as a head coach, hasn’t won anything yet. Neither have the Nuggets under him. Players need to believe their coach is going to put them in the best position to succeed. Probably more important in today’s world; players needs to trust that a coach is going to have his back and make him look good.
None of that trust is evident in the way the Nuggets currently operate. To be fair, some of Shaw’s comments absolutely ring true and he’s called himself out a number of times. But it’s gotten to the point now where the relationship between players and head coach seems toxic, even if Shaw is the only one willing to talk about it.
As a member of the media horde, I find Shaw’s honesty wonderful, refreshing – and it makes my job a whole hell of a lot easier. If more athletes and coaches were like him, the NBA would be a lot more fun.
But I also wonder if the Nuggets wouldn’t be a better team had Shaw had been a little less forthcoming and just stuck to clichés.
Zach Marburger is a staff writer for Mile High Sports. He can be reached via email at zmarburger@milehighsports.com or on Twitter @BurchBurger.