There are a lot of factors by which LA Loop won the first 2 games at the Drew League. As you noticed, LA Loop got some new players to overcome last season’s weak point. But, I think the biggest factor is that LA Loop has a great assistant coach who can direct the team to do the right thing at the right situation.
image: Yahoo! News
Coach Leo Balayon has been a college assistant coach in LA since 2009. He specializes in player development and he trains overseas professional players and the NCAA Division 1 players. Coach Leo also conducts player evaluation and training for some professional teams overseas.
He trains players with a strong passion to help their successful career either in the NBA or abroad; “it’s all about giving players the help that I didn’t get when I was playing overseas.”
Coach Leo was introduced to LA Loop owner, Ryosuke “Yo” Nozawa by his friend and an assistant coach at LA Loop, Julio Lopez. Coach Leo and Yo hit it off because they have many things in common in helping young players. Yo liked coach Leo’s systems when he watched a Pro-Am league game that coach Leo was coaching. And then, Yo invited coach Leo to coach LA Loop in the Drew League.
“I really love our players in the Loop right now.” I asked coach Leo what the strong points of LA Loop are.
“They are extremely coachable. We don’t have any superstars on the team but we have some good leaders like Billy Knight.” Coach Leo thinks highly of a well-experienced player who was chosen as the Week 2’s Player of the Week in the Drew League; Billy Knight.
“I think our first game he really helped the other players buy into what we were trying to do as a coaching staff. I know he just scored a lot of points in our second game, but I think his true value is the support he gives us coaches.”
Coach Leo also mentioned that every single player is a valuable contributor and has talents to help LA Loop. Some players can play the perimeter and the post. Some players have great attitudes in defense like Kris Lawrie.
On the other hand, coach Leo identified few things that LA Loop can improve on.
“For one thing, we have to do a better job at playing team defense.” As a performance coach at LA Loop, Yuta Imada said, coach Leo instructed only one thing in the second game. Team defense.
Actually, LA Loop could have won the first 2 games easily if players played better in defense. In the both games, LA Loop had a lead enough to win, but they let opposing teams catch up the lead.
“We have specific principles in our defensive game plan that we need every player to understand better and buy into. It’s actually very simple but it’s not something that many coaches preach.” Coach Leo continued how players can improve team defense, “playing defense for LA Loop needs to be treated like a family affair. We need to support and trust one another.” He strongly mentioned that LA Loop will grow as a team.
Coach Leo concluded, “All the other teams in the league are great and we respect each on the them but I love our guys. Whether we win or lose, our guys make the whole experience enjoyable for our coaching staff.”
I’m looking forward to see LA Loop will be getting stronger as a team under coach Leo. Thank you for joining LA Loop!
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