The Big Idea

A Q&A with G-League Coach, Lucas Monroe

Lucas Monroe is the Video Coordinator and Player Development Coach for the Capital City GoGo of the NBA G-League. In that role, Lucas works with players during the week as part of the coaching staff under Head Coach Cody Toppert. During games, Lucas tracks the game video in real-time to make sure it accurately records player performance metrics and provides split-second input for officiating challenges on the court. The position requires a wide range of skills, including a deep understanding of the game, the ability to master and tweak the performance tracking technology, and the interpersonal skills to interact with front office, coaching, and team members. A native of Philadelphia, Lucas played D1 basketball at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time captain and named Academic All-Ivy. He played a graduate year at Drexel, where he led the team in field goal percentage as a starter. He has a BA from Penn and a Master’s in Sports Administration from Drexel.

Q: You are a former college basketball player at both Penn and Drexel. How do you think that has helped you in this specific role, transitioning into this role, and everything that comes along with it? 

A: It's been extremely helpful. You don't necessarily have to have a playing background, but having one is really helpful because you're working with guys at the highest level. A lot of these guys have been in the NBA at one point or another, whether on a 10-day, two-way, or standard contract, whatever the case may be. They like knowing that I've played against half our players, to be honest. I'm putting them through workouts, so having a relatively high playing background at the D-1 level, and them knowing that I can play, gives me an added level of respect. I’m not just some guy who watched some YouTube videos. 

In terms of understanding what I'm doing as both a video coordinator and player development coach, I was in the gym a lot, so I know kind of what it looks like to work at a high level. The philosophy of being in the gym and understanding what game-like reps, shots, and drills look like is super important in terms of the video stuff. What was pretty new to me was mostly related to coding. I'm a mid-20s, young person, so I know how to use the technology, but I wasn't necessarily going and getting into the nitty-gritty of it. Understanding how to pull clips from there and mesh them all together was all new. Then during the games, I'm live coding, so I had to learn how to do all of that. All of that has just been continuous improvement, getting better at each aspect consistently. I think I've worked extremely hard to get better at it, and that goes to my playing background. I'm used to just being a gym rat, so I think that hard work has transferred over.

Q: So, how does your role break down into the two areas of video coordinator and player development in terms of expertise? Do you think they require synonymous knowledge or mentalities outside of the coding or on-court framework?

A: There’s definitely a lot of overlap. For one, I use the video for player development purposes. And two, the playing skills and experience help me understand certain things to look for on film. For example, I do the halftime edit. So the coaches will give me certain clips that they may want, but me having an understanding of the flow of the game, understanding the kind of scouts we have, and what we're looking for going into the game. Throughout that, I'm also pulling my own clips, figuring out what the most important clips are that we have to show. They might give me 12 clips, but we're only going to show five or six. So what are the most important ones? Part of that is having an experienced basketball background. You know what would resonate more, whether it’s this clip or this clip. I’m doing that while also live coding the game at the same time. So having a playing background is super helpful, not just for the player development that I do, but for video as well, and understanding what’s important. 

The coaches might give me random assignments too, like if they are looking to focus on defense, they might say, “Hey, I need, I need 10 really good clips of Josh Hart crashing the glass, offensive rebounding.” Now, I could just go on there and randomly find 10 offensive rebounds by Josh Hart, but understanding what it's supposed to look like on the court from the player's perspective and then understanding what our offensive rebounding principles are, I need to find 10 specific ones that are relatable to our guys. Even little things like that, when they need me to pull certain clips, if you don't have a basketball background, you might not get it. They might give you a pretty general assignment, but you just have to understand the actual specifics they might be looking for. 

Q: Are there any skills that you didn't have or that you were surprised were asked of you when you started?

A:  One of the biggest areas of growth I’ve had would be problem-solving. Because of the smaller staff size in the G-League, I essentially function as an assistant coach, so you need to solve things without the head coach. It's different than the NBA, where there are 10 assistant coaches, six video coordinators, and player development guys. We only have four assistant coaches, me, and our head coach. 

When the staff isn’t as large, one of your most important jobs is to put out as many small fires as possible. I like to think of it as our head coach puts out the forest fires, and you put out the backyard, trash can fires. I think problem-solving and then being proactive about random things that could pose an issue for us are huge. So even things that seem insignificant, like printing out game cards for scouting reports, little things like that, to where I don't have to come to him and ask him all these questions while he’s trying to prepare for a game, where he's got 100 other things worried about. Being a problem solver and then just being proactive about potential problems, and hopefully catching them before they arise, has been a huge, huge skill to have. 

Q: What would you say has been the hardest part of the learning curve that you've faced so far?

A: I'd say one of the biggest ones is… You can be wrong once, but once you know how to do it the right way, you have to do it the right way every time. One of the other challenges was just being more confident in myself and understanding my own skills. I remember my first day on the job, like my first full day, I was put in a drill with Jordan Poole. That can be intimidating. He’s an NBA Champion caliber player, and he might ask me a technical question, and I have to be confident enough in myself to answer him without him questioning it. Having the confidence to tell a guy, “Hey, this is what I want this to look like. This is why. Let's do this.” And if he does something wrong, “No, it needs to look like this for this specific reason.” The balance between being confident in myself and understanding that these guys are also the best in the world at what they do has been something I’m way more confident in now. Learning that human interaction component and being able to lead from that perspective has been a great piece of growth for me.

Q: What sorts of careers come from this role down the line? Do many people in similar roles head into the front office or coaching?

A: It's a mix of both. Our GM of the Washington Wizards, Will Dawkins, started out in my role, many years ago, with the Oklahoma City Thunder. My head coach, Cody Toppert, started in my role as well. So you can go from this role to a head coach or assistant. Even our former GoGo GM Amber Nichols, who now does scouting with the Wizards, started in a similar role. So there are the paths are all kinds of different paths. Some people start in the NBA, and then they move down, like they might be a video coordinator in the NBA and move down to an assistant coaching job in the G-League. So it's not a straight line, especially with the G-League and NBA, it's very up and down.

Q: Is there a goal for where this role might take you specifically? 

A: It’s hard to say with 100%, but the goal right now is to coach like. I love being on the court and interacting with the players, so I think a coaching role, or just continuing to move up in this kind of player development space, is great for that. I love doing the video stuff too. The other avenue would be front office or potentially scouting, which are also intriguing, but I think right now, with where I'm at in my life, being able to be on the court and be with the players and put them through workouts is what I'm best suited for. Going forward, I'd love to just progress in that, and hopefully transition to the NBA, either in a similar role or as an NBA assistant coach, would be amazing.

Q: Lastly, what is one piece of advice you’d have for someone looking to start in your role?

A: It's a job where, if you're fortunate enough to get your foot in the door, people are waiting on the other side of that door to come to take your job from you if you don’t properly take advantage of it. You can never just be content with just doing your job, there’s always going to be an opportunity and a need to exceed expectations. I might be exhausted, but the Wizards need me to come help with a shoot-around, and I have to be there. You want to be around as much as possible, and you just don't want to be satisfied with just doing a good enough job. You’ve got to put your head down and keep going because as soon as you become content and relax, there are people who would gladly outwork you. There are literally 1000s of people itching to get one of these jobs, so if you're lucky enough to get in, you can’t be satisfied with anything except being the best at what you're doing.

Business

Eventification: Silly Word for a Smart Move

Finding creative ways to engage fans beyond games can lead to higher engagement and new revenue sources

Eventification is an evolving word to describe turning a mechanical or internal process into a fan-facing event. The best example is the NFL draft. It was just a behind-the-scenes business meeting for decades. It was first televised in the 80’s as an afterthought and is now a 3-day event that draws higher ratings than a typical World Series or NBA playoff game. Following that example, teams, leagues, and agents can uncover opportunities to attract and engage fans by looking at their operations from a fan’s perspective to uncover untapped opportunities.

Here are a few starter ideas to inspire eventification thinking:

Move-In Day

Cleaning out the lockers at season’s end is a sad day for just about every team that didn’t win a championship. But move-in day is full of optimism for the season ahead. Let kids into the locker room to leave notes of encouragement to their favorite players or form a tunnel of cheering fans to welcome the players to their digs before the start of the season. Combine that with a tour of the facilities, and you have a brand new annual welcome event.

Taste of the Stadium

The days of reheated hot dogs are over as stadiums work to outdo each other with high-end and novelty offerings. Give fans a literal and figurative taste of the stadium experience by hosting a sampling of the newest team cuisine. You can even let attendees vote on potential new offerings to gauge potential demand. As part of the experience, give fans an inside look at the premium dining venues in the stadium.

Player Workout

For a player-based spin on this idea, build appreciation for the work it takes to be a professional athlete by posting a player’s typical strength or cardio workout. Host a session at a workout facility of choice for fans to see how they measure up to the professional level. 

Use your creativity to shape the things you already do to generate a unique fan experience.

By The Numbers

Numbers That Jumped Off the Page

3- The Denver Nuggets' shocking decision to fire championship-winning coach Michael Malone means only 3 NBA coaches remain who were hired before 2020. Job security in the NBA coaching ranks is about as stable as a rookie's jump shot!

$3 Million- Star player JT Toppin is returning to Texas Tech and is expected to make more than $3 million in NIL deals. Is it only a matter of time before a lottery pick chooses NIL over the NBA?

18.1 Million- CBS may have missed out on Duke in the finals, but Monday night's Florida-Houston NCAA championship game still delivered the highest men's basketball ratings in six years, with 18.1 million tuning in. Cinderellas may be fun, but #1 seeds have the good fortune of keeping people’s eyes on them even as the clock strikes midnight.

$318 Billion- The stock market reaction to global Trump tariffs has chopped $318 billion in value from sports stocks in just one week. That's nearly 10% of the sector's value, proving that not even sports are immune to economic policy curveballs.

Pulse Check

Last week, we asked Beyond the Sideline readers, “Which of these leagues is most likely to still be around in 5 years?” Here’s what they thought.

Do you have a topic you want us to cover, a survey question you'd like us to ask, or any news you'd like to share? Let us know at [email protected].