NBAtv Training Camp series

So far, I've watched two episodes.

New Jersey Nets, 60 min.
Denver Nuggets, 150 min.

Lawrence Frank is the oddest looking NBA coach this side of Jeff Gundy. Frank is like 5 foot, 8 inches, 135 pounds, and he's standing next to these mega NBA players, 6++ foot tall, 200 pounds athletes.

Frank is very technical with his practices. All X's and O's. The look on the faces of Nets players is a mixture of boredom and confusion.

Frank barks out orders to his players to position themselves in an exact formation. He's trying to teach principles on defensive pressure, but it's not really getting through to the players. They obligingly go along with Frank, but they aren't really listening to him. He's a nice guy though, and he just goes along with the droning instructions.

Now to the Denver Nuggets practices, under George Karl.

Karl is way too fat. I mean, he's really over weight. He is a very jovial man, the Santa Claus of NBA coaches.

I hope Karl knows what he's doing and don't go too easy on his players. I got the feeling that the Nuggets were running the asylum and Karl is really there as a sort of chaperon for them. He's just there to be their friend and sometimes coach.

A.I. and Melo do not set very good examples. In the beginning of practice, A.I. and Melo are cracking jokes and having bigs smiles on their faces while going through their stretches.

As soon as Karl blows his whistle and start practice, A.I. & Melo immediately put on their bored to death look. They definitely were not listening to a word of what Karl was talking, which is kinda understandable. Karl started the session by moaning about the need to focus on Defense. As soon as his practice begins, it's clear that Karl is not too sure about how to teach defense.

He tries his best to teach his team how to defend pick and roll. He tells his 4 offensive players to set picks and basically run pick and rolls. Guess what happens? The offensive team can't even run one pick and roll play after a couple of tries.

Karl doesn't get angry or upset. He acts like he hasn't even noticed.

Karl gets creative and lets his guys play a little 5 on 4. At first, it sounds like a really fun idea, but neither team really plays with any real intensity. When your two biggest stars are Melo and A.I. , you don't want to look uncool by trying real hard.