In San Antonio, Duncan continued refining the bank shot. “My office was always close to the court during my 12 years in San Antonio,” former Sixers head coach and longtime Spurs assistant Brett Brown wrote in a text message. “I was in the practice facility at many different hours during this period. Often either early in the morning, or very late at night, you could hear somebody in the gym with the shooting gun.” Brown arrived in San Antonio in 2002. The next season, the first for which the NBA has data available on attempts off the glass (defined as bank jump shots and bank hook shots, but not layups), Duncan canned 70.3 percent of the 111 bank shots he attempted, a ridiculous rate. Between 2003 and 2016, he’d connect on bank shots 60.4 percent of the time.
Brett Brown Rumors
Duncan would often field the ball just outside the paint on the left side of the court, spin open, and size up his defender. “The thing that stood out to me was his footwork,” said Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, who spent 17 seasons as a Spurs assistant. “When people crowded him, he had the basic rocker step jab series that gave him his space to shoot,” Brett Brown wrote, referring to the jab steps Duncan could unleash from the face-up position. “And if you try to take it away,” Pau Gasol said, “he would rip it through the middle, where he was lethal, either with the right-handed drive or the hook shot over the left shoulder. So you’d kind of be hoping he’d go left, but you couldn’t open up too much because then he could also finish strong that way. So it was a variety of options, and he was surrounded by other Hall of Famers and was a willing passer.”
“I really enjoyed learning,” he said. “Working with Brett really helped me to shape the way I viewed basketball and the way we built our program, because if you have been around Brett, you know he thinks different. And that really helped me a ton.”
Noah Levick: Shake Milton isn’t sure how he’d compare Brett Brown and Doc Rivers but said both coaches are “great.” “Coach Rivers, he gives me a little freedom, lets me play. He’s on me, he teaches. It’s been fun, I’ve learned a lot. I’m glad I’m in a spot where I can continue to grow.”
In the middle of October, Brett Brown stepped down as head coach of the Australian Boomers, leaving a gaping hole less than 12 months out from the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics. Basketball Australia’s preference is a man who held the position before, Brian Goorjian, sources told ESPN, but the selection process remains an arduous one because of the stakeholders involved — namely the Boomers’ NBA core, which includes Baynes.
Brett Brown steps down as Boomers' Olympic Games coach
Brett Brown won’t coach the Boomers at next year’s rescheduled Olympics if they go ahead, the former Philadelphia 76ers’ mentor saying he can’t commit due to uncertainty around his professional future. Former Boomers coach Brown had been roped for an Olympic cameo to replace Andrej Lemanis, who stood down after the side narrowly missed a medal at last year’s World Cup.
It was hoped Brown’s connection with Australia’s impressive list of NBA products would be the missing link to lead them to a maiden medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The coronavirus pandemic intervened though, the Games now slated for 2021 and Brown since losing his job at the NBA franchise headed by Australia’s star man Ben Simmons, who had indicated his desire to play in 2020.
