DENVER– Many Nuggets fans may not know that current Head Coach Brian Shaw once considered leaving the sidelines of the NBA to join the analysis team at ESPN.
When asked about Shaw’s decision to stay on the Pacers coaching staff, head coach Frank Vogel expressed his pleasure in Shaw’s decision.
“I told him that we were doing some special things, and I knew he wanted to to be a head coach,” Vogel said.
Sure enough, Shaw got his call to the head-seat, after the Nuggets dismissed reigning NBA Coach of the Year George Karl.
Shaw acknowledged that he mimics many of his coaching decisions off of the styles of Vogel, and of his previous superior, NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson.
“Frank Vogel is a great coach, he comes from a video coordinating background so he believes in watching a lot of video and that was different for me. I was coming from Los Angeles to Indiana,” Shaw said.
Shaw admitted that he has implemented many of Vogel’s coaching tendencies into the Nuggets’ game preparations.
“We had to come in (in Indiana) everyday and get 20 minutes every day of watching videos. Just watching
how we organized practices every day and getting prepared for games I learned from him,” Shaw said.
As Shaw addressed, Vogel is vigorously attentive to video of former NBA games. Vogel couldn’t help but acknowledge that he sees many of his Pacers’ tendencies working within the Nuggets present-game.
“A lot. They pay attention to the defensive end, they grind you, they’re physical, they do look to push the tempo still, they’ve kept the right parts from what they’ve done in the past,” Vogel said.
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