What I’m Listening to: The Ryen Rusillo Podcast
There are unending podcasts you can listen to, we all know that. But few live up to the consistent high-level production and content from Ryen Rusillo and The Ringer team. As a scout, you are always learning, always looking for insights and nuggets and Ryen provides them regularly through his interviews and his own experiences.
Ryen Rusillo with Scott Pioli
“It’s not the best 53, it’s the right 53. You have to pay attention to the chemistry.”
Part of them developing and becoming good players and good draft picks wasn’t just the pick… we had enough guys in the locker room who were selfless leaders. The guys who go… if you’re better, I’m better. It’s about drafting a good player. Drafting the right player. And making sure there is a system in place.
People say, ‘It’s business, it’s not personal. I’ve always had a problem with that saying. Because personal business is extremely personal. It doesn’t get more personal than that. When you’re talking about someone’s finances, that’s personal.’
Ryen Rusillo with Theo Epstein
“What’d you learn from that?” - RR
“I wish I’d just shut up about it. I wish I had just done it, not titled it, and just done it. If it bombed, …”
The lesson is: if you’re going to fail differently, but you’re going to announce to everyone you’re doing something differently and then you fail… it’s way worse than just failing normally like everyone else.
Use discretion. You don’t have to say everything out loud. Choose your narrative wisely to give yourself optionality through the course of the season.
Ryen Rusillo with Jeff Van Gundy
“Everyone talks in basketball circles how they want to emulate what San Antonio’s done or what Miami has done. But both of those organizations are committed to continuity in the coaching position. That doesn’t mean you’ll never have a bad stretch or bad year but you don’t automatically pinpoint the blame on a Coach. The Coaching stability allows Erik to have coaching confidence and a conviction… he’s not coaching for his job on each and every possession. That allows him to really do whatever he feels is best in that moment, in that season. They’ve established a baseline of standards and habits they can always fall back on despite what their roster might look like in any particular year. Because of those two things, they have the habits, the standards, the continuity, he’s able to try and diversify and do more things like zone defense, playing differently on offense. They have more ways to win than a lot of teams.
Ryen Rusillo with Daniel Jeremiah
San Francisco – they’ve been bad at it (some picks, Lance) but they also play for the NFC Championship, so what do you want? How do you look at what is a very successful organization that’s had some bad hits recently… - RR
I think what it says is that it is probably harder to build a culture than it is to draft good players. If you look at their success, they’ve won through the culture they’ve built, the philosophy they have. That’s sustained some misses in the draft. – DJ
What’s the goal of bragging about a farm system if your team never wins in the majors. It’s about winning. …San Fran has built a machine. – DJ
‘He’s a tough kid…’ no, what are the examples? I need stories, examples of what that looks like so I can go back and have something to take back to my bosses and coaches and help sell this guy why he fits… sometimes they can’t give you anything and you know that’s how you know you’re getting the company line. Sometimes, you hear something and wow, that guy is wired differently… - RR
What I’m Reading: Atomic Habits
There are a handful of books that I recommend to everyone and that I refer to consistently, Atomic Habits is one of them. I’m constantly reading, listening to podcasts, trying to learn and grow… but it’s only occasionally that I’ll find something that switches the trajectory of where I’m headed or how I’m going there. Atomic Habits does that. It gives sound principles on how to make small changes that lead to big ones. There are a lot of books out there on habits, but I have not found one that compares to Atomic Habits.
"Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become."
"Improving by 1% isn’t particularly notable, sometimes it isn’t even noticeable, but it can be far more meaningful – especially in the long run."
"A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a different destination."
One of the key things I learned and implemented from James was on Habit Stacking. You can find a blog from him on Habit Stacking here.
What I’m Watching: Quarterback
As you can tell, I love learning about basketball and scouting through the lens of other sports, particularly football. In Quarterback, the daily lives of Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota are followed. As a former NBA Video Coordinator, one scene in Quarterback jumped out at me…
Mahomes calls out to his teammates, “They don’t know I watch tape. I got tape, brother. I got tape.”
Again, the parallel of sports. One of the things people ask me often is, “What surprises you about NBA players?” A frequent answer I give is how intelligent they are. And this goes especially for Point Guards (or in football, Quarterbacks). They not only have to know their position but every position on the court / field and every option and read off of every play. The things that separate elite athletes are often their minds. And those at the top of their game… they got tape.
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