IT'S a brand new challenge for Brian Shaw to handle top high school talents as he NBA G League select team head coach.
Good thing for him, and for Kai Sotto, the 54-year-old mentor is experienced when it comes to dealing with young centers from his playing days and even as an assistant coach in the NBA.
"One of the things I had the fortune of is coaching a lot of big guys, especially when they were really young," he said in an online media availability on Thursday.
"Kai is young, and a lot of times when you grow that fast in such a young age, it takes a little bit more time to get your body and your strength and get a foundation to catch up with you."
Shaw was in his first year as an assistant to Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2005 when 18-year-old rookie Andrew Bynum came to the team.
"One of the players I’ve coached, he was at the time the youngest player to ever come into the NBA, was Andrew Bynum with the Lakers. He was a young big guy who eventually became very, very good, but it didn’t happen overnight," said Shaw.
It wasn't a smooth road for Bynum as he had to pay his dues before earning his spot in Jackson's rotation.
When the Lakers made three straight Finals appearances from 2008 to 2010, Bynum was already the team's starting center and was a key contributor in their back-to-back title runs in 2009 and 2010.
His best statistical season, however, came in 2012 when he averaged 18.7 points on 56-percent field goal shooting, to go with 11.8 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, and 1.4 assists. That's when Bynum made his lone All-Star appearance and earned his spot in the All-NBA Second Team.
That kind of progression is what Shaw wants for Sotto.
"I think if Kai puts in the work, I think he has the aptitude to play the game," said the mentor, who also worked as an assistant with the Indiana Pacers before he was named as the head coach for the Denver Nuggets from 2013 to 2015.
"Obviously he’s got to spend a lot of time in the weight room getting stronger with our strength and conditioning coach. But he has high basketball IQ and I think he has a good skill set as well. It’s just a matter of putting in that work every day, during games, putting everything at game speed. Once he does everything in game speed, I think he’ll just naturally get better because he has the drive to get there."
And who knows, it might not take long for Sotto to develop his game the same way Bynum did.
"I think with the work we’d be putting in every day, some of the things I’ll be able to share with him and chart his progress like I did with a young Andrew Bynum or a young Pau Gasol. I even played with Shaq (O'Neal) when he was young and they got better and better as time went on. So I don’t see how it’ll be any different with Kai," he said.
"Like you said, he doesn’t aspire to the play in the G League, he wants to play in the NBA."
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