From Assistant Coach at BBL to Head Coach in the G-League: Martin Schiller will train the farm team of Utah Jazz. In an interview, the 35-year-old talks about his new challenge. You can find more basketball news on Basketball. com.
basketball. de: You played your first game last Monday as head coach of the Salt Lake City Stars in the G-League, a league that is also a bit experimental: with currently four referees or the coaching challenge. How were your first impressions of the Preseason match? What surprised you?
Martin Schiller: There are more time-outs, I have to internalize that first. Each team has seven time-outs, which expire after certain times and which can only be taken at certain times. The timeouts also have different lengths. There is still a time out, which brings the ball forward – but it is not a real time out. A big change is the four times twelve minutes, the whole is much longer. That’s a difference that you quickly notice. There are several small things – which I have already learned theoretically, but need to apply in practice. Otherwise, it’s other players. They are younger players than in the BBL, but not mandatory. There are players who are 26 and have already played overseas. And there are rookies who have no idea yet, roughly speaking. It is a structure of a team that is very inhomogeneous. It’s got to be put together somehow. This is an exciting thing. And then you have guys who are there or who are not there, so you have to come down and play to play. Tony Bradley and I have a rookie from North Carolina, who was not at the training camp but who is coming to the games. And he will have to play 24 to 30 minutes in the games – that’s a clear guideline.
basketball. de: You are talking about specifications: How much do you depend on adopting the philosophy and tactics of jazz?
Schiller: I’m already free, as far as I can interpret it myself. But basically, we do what jazz does – and that’s a good thing. That’s a really cool style and a good ball we’re playing. I was in the Jazz training camp all the time – from beginning to end, in every meeting. I’m lucky to be in the cabin at home games. I’m getting very close. You gave me a good chance to learn the system.
basketball. de: How often do you communicate with the coaching staff of Jazz?
Schiller: A lot. Every two days, no doubt. The players with “two-way contracts” and those who are turned over from jazz to the stars have co-trainers of jazz who are responsible for them. I am in contact with Head Coach Quin Snyder and Alex Jensen.
basketball. de: In which points do you see the biggest difference between the USA and Europe, NBA-Farmteam and BBL-Club?
Schiller: The quality of the players is the decisive factor. It’s very professional, everything is well positioned. My staff is good, I have a lot of people: I’m very well positioned even from BBL’s point of view. But there’s not as much money as in BBL. It’s a construction project. Everyone is there to learn and improve: co-trainers, head coaches, intern, all of them. The budget is not quite so high. But the number of people is good. Apart from that, everything around it is super organized. I think it’s a combination of college and professional basketball. The players all live in apartments, but are driven back and forth in a bus from the interns to the training and back, because the players have no car at all. Few people have money. The balancing act is that you have a few players who have a little more. My Point Guard Nate Wolters, who played at Red Star Belgrade last year, already has a little money and his own car. That is, you’re trying to bring them all together a little bit: a horde of people who are very inhomogeneous. There’s a big difference.
basketball. de: Jeff Van Gundy has coached Team USA consisting of G-League players at the AmeriCup this summer. In a podcast with Zach Lowe, he said that the G-League coaches have to be admired – because none of the players actually wanted to be in the league. To what extent do you see it as a challenge to work with such players?
Schiller: This is a huge challenge. It’s not like this:”You’re the team and now eight months together,” but more like this:”Here’s the team, and in three weeks’ time it’s going to be completely different, and in four weeks’ time it’s going to be different”. That’s not easy. But we’d have to talk to each other again in four weeks.
basketball. de: Let’s go back to: How did the contact to the stars come about?
Schiller: That came from nowhere. The stars were looking for a head coach, relatively late. I had an offer from Ludwigsburg to extend. I would have liked to have done the same thing. Ludwigsburg was a great and successful time. It was fun working with John Patrick. But then the offer came from the stars. The contact came about through Alex Jensen, who brought my name into play. Then there was a telephone interview with ten candidates. Three people were flown in from there. I worked in the pre-draft mini-camp, there were interviews on the spot. And then I got the job. It was a relatively long process.
basketball. de: Jensen was co-trainer of the DBB team at the EM 2015. Did you already talk about Utah and the G-League back then?
Schiller: No, not at all. We went to war together, I always call it, in real competitions. You can tell very quickly who is who and how. We simply worked together a lot and intensively. That was it, actually.
basketball. de: Independent of the stars. To what extent did you think about changing to the head coach position during the off-season? What situations could you have imagined?
Schiller: That was absolutely an issue. There are ways that are logical. In the first division in Germany it is not easy. I was the last candidate for a BBL team, but I didn’t get the job. Some might not dare to come over as a co-trainer, who did not yet have the experience of a head coach. There are different scenarios: second division, smaller foreign countries. I was worried about everything. But in the end, there has to be a job, and someone has to offer you a job. I’ve been quite frank about it. With the G-League, that was quick. I’m here to coach. It’s all different, I realize that. It is not “normal” in the sense of what we know in Europe. But it’s still coaching, though, basketball. I can put 50 games under my belt in one season. That’s a good thing, I can get better that way.
basketball. de: In the past season, there were two occasions for you to become head coach: in the fifth quarter-final play-off against Ulm, when John Patrick took two technical fouls. And in the Cup-Quali, when you coached the whole game and were the first team to defeat Ulm. Have these experiences in you aroused even more the need to become a head coach?
Schiller: Absolutely. These experiences must have pushed again. But I’ve been with the BBL co-trainer for seven years, and then it’s normal to think about what else you can do – as a challenge. Life is too short not to develop. It’s nothing more and nothing less. I’ve always wanted to do that, that’s always been my goal. And now I have a chance.
Page 1: Schiller on the curious road to Utah and old friends
Page 2: Schiller on his new responsibilities, the G-League and his goals