Hawks coach Matt Flinn eyes big picture in tough NBL initiation

Head coach Matt Flinn was no different. The Hawks had just been blown out by 31 points on the road in New Zealand to drop to 1-4 on the season. Perth - who'd slapped them by 27 points two weeks earlier - were waiting back in Wollongong.

Airport lounges can be a pretty lonely place for coaches under those circumstances but Flinn found some company in the 685-game NBA veteran.

"After you have bad losses people tend to scatter, it's just natural people don't want to talk and things like that," Flinn said.

"We had two bad losses, Perth and then New Zealand, and the only guy to come and talk to me both times when it was still raw was Aaron Brooks.

"That night he sat down and told me 'coach, I've been coached by some of the best coaches in the world. I've also been coached by some of the worst'.

"It sounded ominous. I said 'oh shit where do I sit?' He said 'aaah.... probably somewhere in the middle'. I said 'Yep. I'll take that'."

He recalls the exchange with a laugh a couple of months on. Of course Brooks is no longer at the club after tearing his achilles two nights later in a brave loss to Perth, but Flinn still refers back to the rest of that conversation as he continues to navigate the toughest of NBL head-coaching initiations.

"We spoke about a lot that night and he told me a story about back when he was with Chicago with Derrick Rose," Flinn said.

"It was all fundamental footwork, slides, one-on-one defence - the absolute bacis. He said 'this is the best player on the world and he's out there doing one-on-zero slides'. That stuck with me.

"It's something Gordie [McLeod] was really good at it. It sounds like basic coaching but it's easy to get caught up in other things. The fundamentals are most perishable if you don't work on them all the time.

"I've made some errors but if you ask me how I've dealt with the injuries and any distractions with LaMelo or anything else, I really just keep it between the lines and focus on the basics."

That focus has only become sharper since losing Brooks to injury early in a testing first season - one in which the arrival of projected No.1 Draft pick LaMelo Ball would bring a scrutiny fiercer than that felt by any of his 10 predecessors.

Ball was merely being pitched as a "possible" top 10 pick when he arrived. A stellar campaign, including a couple of triple-doubles, now has him odds-on to go top of next year's Draft.

It's also seemingly put him at even-money to depart for the US before the current NBL season is out. It remains to be seen but what's been a huge boost for the NBL, and an unmitigated success for Ball himself, has seen plenty wonder aloud whether it's something a rookie coach could've done without.

It's a perverse irony that the name that's heaped so much pressure and scrutiny on the club now features on a lengthy injury list at the mid-point of the season. Flinn is loath to make excuses, but his side's current campaign simply can't be discussed without them.

Brooks was an MVP candidate before his season was halted in a moment. Fellow import Josh Boone has rarely been at full fitness this season, missing the Hawks last two games through injury, while Sam Froling has also dealt with a long-term ankle injury.

The seemingly unbreakable body of 39-year-old Dave Andersen has also shown some ware over the last month while Ball's also been out of action with a foot injury.

The club's search for import replacements, or lack thereof in the eyes of critics, was also a difficult one subject to external pressures.

At a time when the gap between rich and poor clubs has never been wider, it's a reminder that the Hawks need everything to go right.

"I really don't want to make excuses but most teams campaigns are affected by the health of their roster," Flinn said.

"We were really starting to get AB in shape and he was buying into stuff off the floor so I was devastated when he went down. I had a good import ready to go and that fell over and we had a few good performances on the back of that, Melo ended up getting some more time and his two triple-doubles.

"I was really buoyed by that, not just his individual performances, the guys playing supporting roles. Ultimately the pressure came to bring people in and that's the path we went down... but you can't replace a guy like Aaron Brooks.

"Things have got to really go right and everything's got to fall into place for us to have real success. It'd be fair to say a lot of our [title] hopes went down with him."

The headaches that didn't abate over the festive season, with injury replacement import Billy Preston this week moved on after just three games following training no shows.

It reads like a list of hurdles a coach may face over several years in the top job, not merely their first. Flinn said from day one that the year wouldn't without its challenges but he admits he's probably got a tad more than he bargained for.

"That's probably fair to say," Flinn said.

"We had some challenges, certainly. I've had great support from coaches in the league who message me. One of them said 'I've never dealt with all of this in 20 years of coaching and you've dealt with it in your first year'.

"It's been tough at times but we've got a catch-cry we call 'next play' and I've just tried to worry about each day at a time.

"I've really tried to nurture the mental side of some of our guys, older and younger, and look into to concept of mindset. A lot of people talk about it in sport but it's really about having either a fixed or a growth mindset.

"I'm constantly evaluating myself and what I can do better but I can honestly say I've never had a doubt that I can do this.

"If you look at the win-loss column it might not reflect that, but the learning curve I'd had in the last four months has been ridiculous and it's going to hold me in good stead for the future.

"I already know I'm a better coach now. If you put the Matt Flinn now into the seat at the start of September...it's chalk and cheese."

And that's where the smile really returns because, after two years' worth of turmoil in the space of three months, the latter half of the season hold's simple pleasures - specifically, giving the likes of Emmett Naar, Sunday Dech and Angus Glover every chance to flourish.

"The whole mantra for this year has been developing young talent," Flinn said.

"Melo's been the figurehead but we've got some custodians behind him in Sunday, Emmett and obviously Gus [Glover] who are all signed next year. Sam Froling's [deal is] three years.

"None of his would be here without opportunity. I wouldn't be here without the opportunity I've been given, these young guys are going to get theres' and I'm really excited by it.

"I'm really excited to be able to, justifiably, give these kids a good rock-solid chance to develop for next year. It's a similar philosophy to the one Brendan Joyce took when he had Mat Campbell and Glenn Saville in 97-98 and came last.

"Those two guys got a significant amount of time way before their time and that boded well for those two guys and ultimately the club. That's what I'm trying to do this year."

It's a noble desire, bit it's not one that indicates the Hawks aren't chasing W's over the remainder of the year. He might be eyeing the bigger picture, but Flinn insists near enough simply isn't good enough in one of the world's top professional leagues.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we've been in every game because we haven't," Flinn said.

"For the most part we've fought hard but, at this level, it's not really good enough. If you're in those games and fighting hard you've got to learn how to win.

"I want to beat every team in the league. That's the first thing. The other things is we want to be the ultimate spoilers, particularly when we play these big boys - Perth, Melbourne, Sydney.

"The way the Phoenix have launched their campaign I consider them one of the big boys. Obviously New Zealand have become a bit of a bogey team for us s we've got them at home again.

"We're just going to really shorten the focus now, we've got a huge run coming up. We've got Phoenix away [on Saturday] and then we've got the Kings at home on New Years' Eve so that's the short-term focus."