such as playing time and what the coach wants. NBA players credit Mike D'Antoni for being such a great offensive coach in part because he gives them unlimited freedom to shoot open shots without fear of getting benched should they miss. The players call it liberating offensively to play under him.

It's not a perfect example, but I often point to Jimmer. His first four years in the NBA while he was with Sacramento he shot 36%, 42%, 47%, and 48% from 3. But then he got traded to Chicago and his 3 point shooting dipped back to 36% from 3. The year after he was with New Orleans and it fell all the way to 19%. Did Jimmer forget how to shoot 3s? No, because when he went to China he shot over 40% from 3 for the next 3 years. There's a lot of factors at play, but you could see it in Jimmer's eyes that he was scraping for playing time, and it affected his shooting confidence.

My concern with Pope is that he so analytically driven that he micromanages his players shot selection. Rudi Williams went off against Utah this past season, and took a number of midrange shots en route to 26 points IIRC. The next 5 games or so not only did he not score double digits, I think he barely even attempted any shots. It's hard to shoot in rhythm and with confidence if you're worried about coach yelling at you in film sessions or making you run extra laps if it's not the "right" shot. And it's hard to play instinctually if you're having to think extra hard about whether or not you're doing things exactly the way coach wants.