Life in the NBA Development League is everything David
Arseneault Jr. thought it would be.
“I’m having a blast,” the coach of the Reno Bighorns told me
Monday night. “The level of athleticism and basketball skill I see every day is
just incredible. To watch our System at full speed, with these guys going full
speed, and to see how much ground they cover …”
He trailed off a bit there.
“I’m having a great time. It’s so much different that
Division III, in the middle of Iowa at Grinnell College, that I really don’t
know how to explain the difference.”
So far, so good for perhaps the grandest of experiments with
the frenetically fast-paced style of basketball created by Arseneault’s father,
David Sr., at aforementioned NCAA D-III Grinnell College more than 20 years
ago. The younger Arseneault helped run the basketball program at the school in
the five years since he graduated and no longer was eligible to be the team’s
point guard.
His hiring by the Sacramento Kings to coach their affiliate
in Reno turned some heads, but that hardly compares to the buzz about the
Bighorns (8-7) through their first 15 games.
Consider:
- They average 141.3 points
- They average 19 3-pointers on 50 attempts
- Eight of the current 10 players on the roster average double figures
- They reached a season high in points during Saturday night's 174-169 victory over the Los Angeles D-Fenders, a game in which the D-Fenders scored a D-League record 98 points in the first half
- They gave up a D-League record 175 points to Los Angeles on Dec. 20, a game in which the D-Fenders scored 56 points in the first quarter, also a record
The exploits of Reno guard Brady Heslip deserves a few paragraphs of their own.
He leads the league with 27.7 points per game and is shooting 50 percent from
beyond the arc. Oh, and that’s on an average of about 14 attempts, too, so he is incredibly
accurate at a high volume.
How to quantify his shooting so far? Well, since the NBA
adopted the 3-point line for the 1979-80 season, a player has made at least 10
shots from behind the line in 20 games. Heslip has done so three times this
season in 13 games, and his total of 13 against Idaho on Nov. 29 is one more
than the NBA record that Kobe Bryant shares with Donyell Marshall.
Again, all this has come 13 games into his professional
career.
“He’s got a special gift,” Arseneault said of Heslip. “I’ve
still yet to see any two of his shots look different, whether he’s coming off a
screen, or shooting off the dribble, or in transition. His release of the ball
is the same.
“When he’s shooting after practice, he will keep backing up
until he’s almost at halfcourt, and his form doesn’t change at all. It’s
unbelievable.”
Anytime a player puts up crazy numbers in The System – no
matter if it’s Heslip making 13 3s or Grinnell’s Jack Taylor scoring 138 points
in a single game – there is a backlash against this style of play. Arseneault
isn’t worried about that; his only concern is doing what he can to help Heslip
get to the next level.
“I think he’s making my System look good, and I think I’m
helping him look good,” Arseneault said. “He’s a darn good right wing in our
System, but if scouts say they want to see him handle the ball more, then what
I can try to do is put him in positions on the floor where he’s got to handle
the ball.”
Perhaps the biggest drawback with coaching in the D-League
is that Arseneault doesn’t know from day to day who might be available for his
team’s next game; Heslip flirted with leaving for a team in Turkey as recently
as last week. And as Arseneault spoke to me Monday night, about 24 hours prior to Reno’s
home game against the Austin Spurs, he wasn’t certain he would have Heslip, or
Quincy Miller, or any of the other players on his roster for that one.
That’s because NBA teams have the added option of a 10-day
contract, which became available Monday, so callups can happen at any moment.
That will leave Arseneault particularly anxious on a four-game road trip
beginning Thursday night at the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
“It’s eye-opening,” Arseneault said. “There’s just so many
variables, so many moving parts, and that’s what makes it difficult. It keeps
you on your toes, and keeps me thinking, trying to be creative in what we do
with our lineups and our plans. Ultimately, it will help me as a coach.”
The Bighorns will play the upcoming road games in a span of
six days, leaving Rio Grande and heading to Oklahoma City before a trip to
Austin, Texas. The final game is in Fort Wayne, Ind., before returning to Reno
for a home game against the Westchester Knicks.
And unlike NBA teams, those in the D-League travel using
commercial airlines, which can be tricky.
“The trips certainly are tough for a lot of guys, like our
center, Sim Bhullar, who is 7-feet-4 and weighs about 350 pounds,” Arseneault
said. “It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of time. We are losing hours any time
we head east from Reno.
“The second battle is we’ll only be traveling with 10 guys.
So unless we get a player assigned from Sacramento, those are the only guys
we’ll have to at our disposal. That makes it interesting, too.”
For now, Arseneault likes what he sees on his roster,
including recent additions Quincy Miller and Jordan Hamilton, both of whom have
NBA experience. Obviously, they want to get back up there as soon as possible,
with Heslip and others simply looking for their first opportunity.
“When you add two guys as talented as Quincy and Jordan,
that dominoes to other people who now aren’t getting quite as many looks or
even guys who were playing and they’re not even on our roster,” Arseneault
said. “There’s a fine line between getting talented guys and trying to validate
our team chemistry.
“Some of these guys, their careers are on the line, and
sometimes they might think, or they’ve been told, the best way to get noticed
is to score as much as possible. That’s not actually the case. We’ve tried to
help them realize that the ones getting called up are from winning teams, so we
have to move the ball.”
Another player who has flourished in The System is forward David
Wear, twin brother of Travis, who currently plays for the New York Knicks. David
Wear was in training camp with the Kings and assigned to Reno when he was cut.
At UCLA, where he and his brother transferred after one
season at North Carolina, David Wear was a solid post player not relied upon
for much scoring. He averaged 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds as a senior for the
Bruins, and showed good shooting range by making 23-of-53 from the 3-point
line.
David Wear has improved on that with the Bighorns. In 13
games (he missed two with turf toe), he is averaging 18.2 points and 7.2
rebounds while making 45 percent of his
3s. And that’s on 98 attempts.
Coincidentally, he’s made 44 3-pointers and 44 2-pointers,
which just might make him the most statistically perfect System player on the
roster.
“He told me he hasn’t felt like this since he was in high
school,” Arseneault said. “In college, he always was sort of a glue guy who
wasn’t known for looking for his shot. I’ve asked him to step up his scoring
and that’s given him the opportunity to do this.
“I’m a firm believer that about 75-to-90 percent of shooting
is mental. He has confidence in his abilities. He’s a big part of what we’re
doing, not to mention he’s just a great guy who is a complete gentleman, a real
professional.”
As can be expected, Arseneault has kept in touch with his
father, speaking daily about what he has already seen and what he wants to see.
Grinnell is off to its usual high-scoring start, leading all college teams with
an average of 118 points through 11 games.
And while he misses working daily with the players at
Grinnell, the younger Arseneault plans to enjoy his challenge in Reno.
“I miss the kids,” Arseneault said. “I wasn’t looking to get
away from Grinnell, and I wouldn’t have left if I couldn’t have been a part of
something that still encouraged experimenting and doing things differently. I
still pinch myself that I’m able to do that here.
“I think it’s good for my development. I know the program at
Grinnell is in great hands, and I know I can always go back."
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