“Most players do just enough to not get in trouble, but not enough to make a difference.”

I heard the legendary coach Jim Crutchfield say that at a coaches clinic when I was an assistant for the Boston Celtics. It was an honest, if not slightly depressing, commentary on a coach’s biggest challenge. How do you demand more from your players than they are willing to demand from themselves?

I had just finished reading The MVP Machine, a book that focuses on a small Seattle company named Driveline Baseball and their founder, Kyle Boddy. Kyle had discovered how to use data and technology to help players develop better than they ever had before and was single handedly changing the face of Major League Baseball.

I kept wondering how we could do the same thing in basketball. With all the resources available in the NBA, there had to be a better way to teach players to pass, dribble and most importantly shoot. We had the most talented athletes in the world, but I knew Jim Crutchfield was right. They were all capable of more if I could just find the right way to demand it of them.

That was 2019. Over the next 5 years I became borderline obsessed with finding a better way to teach shooting (my wife and kids will vehemently attest to that). I was fortunate to work for two amazing organizations and head coaches who supported and believed in my ability to help our players improve.  Because of the trust I had built with my players, they were surprisingly open to trying out some of my new ideas. At least most of the time…

The EZ Rim is the product of that 5 year journey. Without saying a word, it demands all the little things coaches have begged players to do for years.

• “Shoot with more arc.”

• “Don’t miss short.”

• “Use the top half of the backboard on lay ups and bank shots.”

• “Move on to the next play.”

These demands are so implicit that practice doesn’t really feel like practice. The misses don’t feel as bad, so players are able to maintain their confidence as they teach themselves what a “perfect” shot feels like. 

Shooting is hard. Coaching is even harder. But both can be a lot easier with EZ RIM.