George is joined by NBA G-league Coach of the Year Vitor Galvani to explore the balance between player development and winning, the differences between coaching youth…
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In this episode, George is joined by NBA G-league Coach of the Year Vitor Galvani to explore the balance between player development and winning, the differences between coaching youth and professional athletes, and how creating decision-rich environments can accelerate learning. Vitor shares insights from his work developing young talent in Brazil and building culture with the NBA's G-League Mexico City Capitanes, highlighting the importance of experimentation, accountability, and empowering players to grow through experience.
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This transcript follows the original English audio.
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Welcome to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. On today's show, we have a very special guest, Víctor Galvani. Víctor is a coach who is quietly shifting the way the game is taught and played. He's just come off his debut head coaching season with the Mexico City Capitanes, where he Helped the squad to a first-ever playoff appearance and a stellar 24-12 record.
But he's also the reigning NBA G League Coach of the Year. Coach, welcome to the show.
It's a pleasure to be here. I've been hearing and listening to you guys for quite a while and all the work, the great work that Alex Sarama has been putting out and cheering for him now in Portland. I hope he does a great job out there.
But yeah, hopefully I can share some knowledge and then share it with the guests, with the people that normally listen to this.
Absolutely. And the first question I have for you is, you know, you just come off G League Coach of the Year, got the playoff berth. You did it with the 3rd slowest pace and the 2nd most pick and rolls. And it wasn't just a one-time thing with the Capitanes.
You've done this before with your older team, Piñeros, in the NBB. What are some principles of play that help make this a recipe of success for you?
I don't want to say it's my identity as a coach. I like to say I like to adapt with the players that I have. And both in Pinheiros and also in Capitanes, it was similar experiences where we got to learn with failing at the beginning of the season.
And I try to, at the beginning of the season with both teams, I try to play at a faster pace and see how we would do with that. And in both situations, it was very similar at the beginning that that was leading to maybe not the best shot selection, not the best decision-making a lot of times from our players.
And with such a short period of training camp, I had to adapt. And as we like to say in Brazil, I had to change the tires while the car was rolling. This was the way to adapt. And I think like I've heard this from multiple successful coaches that The best coaches, they will only teach what the players can learn.
And in both of these experiences, I felt like the team got to shoot better and got to make better decisions with a slower pace and playing quote unquote more FIBA basketball, calling sets and then just basically putting them into actions where they could be successful.
You said early on, you know, they were making bad decisions, turning the ball over. What did you do to help them make better decisions and get better shots?
That's the secret sauce, you know, for all of us coaches is how we can put— a lot of coaches talk about how we can put players where they can succeed. But I think also, again, the best coaches, they put the players in a situation where you won't show really the deficiencies of some players.
And I feel like once they get to a senior level, to a professional level, Of course, there's the development that we did a lot, and I was very fortunate to have the staff that I had around me trying to help out those players develop in some areas of the game.
But it wasn't, hey, if this guy never played pick and roll and now I want him to be the primary ball handler, it wasn't like that. It was more, hey, what does this guy bring to us? What is he good at and what he isn't?
And how can I put him in a situation where it's going to shine like what he's really good at? Regarding the decision-making and turnovers, the, like the practical answer would be a lot of video sessions that we did with us was a huge component of our player development.
We used it daily in group sessions, in small individual video sessions, small group sessions. So that was like the primary way we, in which we helped them out in the development part. And then we transferred that to the court. We did play a lot in our practices, outside of games, playing against coaches, coaches putting some sort of constraints in the drills that we were applying.
So it was a lot of live stuff, sometimes players on players, sometimes players on coaches, but as much as possible forcing them to make decisions and really try to align that with what they saw earlier in our video sessions.
Oh, that's amazing. And also what I hear you say there is As a coach, you always have to adapt to the player's skills. So you obviously in Pinheiros now with the Capitanes, you've had players that are good in the pick and roll. So, okay, we're going to create this offense where they can get a lot of possessions with the ball in their hands and creating for their bigs, playing in 4-on-3 advantage situations.
If they're trapping, attacking downhill, if it's a soft coverage, things like that. I'm curious, your team was awesome to watch. And I'm curious, how do you teach the re-trigger? Because, you know, they get into a pick and roll, swing it to the second side, still no advantage created, but you're still flowing through actions and you're seeing that more and more now, teams getting too quickly into a trigger.
I'm curious, how did you teach that?
So for us, it was really trying to be very advocate towards attacking closeouts, trying to make that little advantage turning into a big advantage. keep the dominoes falling, as we like to say. So for us, it was really that ability and how can I first put myself in the right passing window so that the guard running the ball screen can find me.
And if it's there and I don't have a shot immediately, of course, we're always trying to think shot first, but if it's not there, if I created a closeout, I would always tell our guys is a closeout is advantage. So how can we keep the advantage flowing.
We didn't want to stop the— I don't have the shot, now bring the ball out and now I do something. So that was the mainly re-trigger that we did. Now, if that wasn't available, a lot of times we would be running goal screens, guard-to-guards.
It didn't happen a lot because I felt both our guards, our bigs, and our wings did a great job creating that initial advantage in pick and rolling and keeping that. But once we did, we were just very confident, I want to say, towards the end of the possessions to finish out with a good shot.
I think if you are to look at Synergy, last time I checked, we were top of the league in points per possession in the last 4 seconds of the clock. So because our players knew that a shot is about to go up, we didn't create, let's quote the quote unquote, the best shot, you know, the spray out 3 or the lob or at the rim.
All of that, but we know that the shot is coming. So the player also felt confident that he could make it. That was the right time to really get into his bag and get into his skillset to try to create a shot either for himself or for a teammate.
No, absolutely. Is there any part of you that looks at that? And, you know, because coaches, we always want to get better, you know, like you said, best shot selection last 4 seconds. You know, you had a, I think the 4th best record, but we're always like, how can we get better?
Do you ever look at that and say, well, how can we not even get to the last 4 seconds of the shot clock and think about what can we do to get better before that?
Like I said, at the beginning of the season, I was really trying to emphasize creating the advantages quickly, but maybe bad coaching on my part was I let it be understood that we were trying to get a shot quick. And it wasn't exactly like that.
It was just that we were trying to look for the best shot in the 24 seconds of the possession that we were That we are awarded every possession that we have. So at the beginning, we were shooting early, but not efficient shots. So I told the guys, hey, we want to get into this action as early as possible.
And we talk about like the advantage line that we want, the finish line that we wanted, which was basically like, if you are to draw from corner to corner, like we want to create a shot or like that would be a good shot for us early in the clock.
So either at the rim or Corner 3s. But if that wasn't available, we still gotta keep finding and not settle so that we can create the best shot because we always felt that with either our sets or our transition flow offense, if we were just to move the defense enough, the advantage would be there.
So in both my last few years as a coach in professional rankings, it kind of led to the same thing. Like we were always looking for the best shot and I didn't mind, to be honest, shooting at the last 5 seconds because we knew that that shot was coming up eventually.
So that's why we shot such a good percentage. And we also had a terminology that we use at the end of the possessions because the whole team was like, oh, it's under 5. And then we called something, the whole bench called something, and now we know, hey, now is my time.
So also that gave our guys a lot more confidence to also shoot. No shots at the end of the clock.
No, I love that. I think you see so much now, you know, the players taking quick early shots that are contested. Whereas to your point, even if it's at the rim, it could be a highly contested shot, or if it's a corner 3, it can be contested.
So why take those when you have more time to look for better shots? You know, I think it's great. And I also think that'll become more and more popular now as well, because, you know, why bail the defense out? Right.
A point also that was super crucial for us, like transition defense wins and loses you games in the G League. And also then not only the transition defense, but how much effort you put into your half-court defense. We started seeing that a lot of that was transferring from one side of the floor to the other side.
Meaning if I felt a part of the offense, and I think we're all basketball players and We got into basketball because it's a team sport and we like to be involved. I don't want to be the guy that just, you know, stands in the corner, never do anything.
Sometimes that's what you have to do and that's your role, but I want to be a part of it. You know, I want to touch the rock. I want to be able to move it around. I want to say we all want to be involved in one way or the other.
So we saw that once we used the clock, quote unquote, and we were moving the ball around and multiple hands were touching it. Our effort level on the other end, which I would say it's where we really sustained us throughout the season, was on defense.
Our effort level there was greater. So as we saw more and more, like, and we started even showing clips, hey, this guy, I won't mention names, but hey, John, I'll create a fake name here. Hey, John, look at Steve effort here. Look at Steve offensive possession.
He doesn't touch it. Now let's look at the next possession and look, Joan, because you shot that early shot, look at how Steve is guarding the ball and he's giving up a blow-by or he's not being as disruptive or he's not pressing the ball as we would like to.
So Joan, pass the ball to Steve and make him feel a part of the offense. And that's something that was a learning for us and how much one side of the ball really affects the other.
Let's open that up a little bit because you have had a lot of experience coaching youth basketball. As well, you actually coached, you won gold with Brazil under-18 team a few years back now. I'm curious, I was going to ask you more about how you manage new players coming in, but I'm also curious how you build the culture so quickly.
You spoke about there now, like holding players to a certain standard on both offense so that it transitions to defense, getting others involved. What other things do you do to make sure that culture is there so everyone's playing for each other, max effort?
Well, it's a lot of understanding where you are. So with the Brazilian national team, some things like playing hard is already a part of the culture, you know, like it's part of what is going to bring you to the national team. And the next part is what's going to let you stay in the national team and not get cut.
So like that playing hard aspect on both sides of the ball was something that it was something we didn't need to coach as much as other instances that I had, as other professional coaching experience I have had in my life. But it was more of an understanding, like how consistently we can be with that.
Because I think one of the biggest keys for our success with the youth national team was the tagging up concept. We were not reluctant to shoot a lot of 3s. Of course, we were looking for the best 3s because we knew we were going to have 4 guys crashing top shoulder, all of that.
And then we always, always created more and more possessions than the other team. And basketball is either a game of how effective you can be and how much more possessions you can have. If you can win both, you're always winning the game, but you need to at least win one to have to put you in a position.
And with the national team, it was just that. It was really trying to have more shots than the other team. And the tagging up was a major part of it, which then leads to what I was saying earlier about the playing hard consistently factor, because if you don't, then tagging up is not going to work.
If you're watching the guy shoot and don't do nothing like that, multiple actions that you need to play at a high level, the tag really requires that to be effective.
What can you share, Galvani, about how you taught the tagging up to both, you know, the younger kid, maybe, maybe, I don't know if you've even tried it when you coach the youth teams. I know this is, you know, Probably a decade ago now when you were working at, I think it was Joinville, if I got the name right.
But what did you do when you were coaching these concepts? You know, some players pick it up, other players don't pick it up so quickly. What kind of small-sided games or drills do you go to to really make sure that the players learn quickly?
Well, basically every drill was a tag-up drill. Every drill that there was a shot was a tag-up drill. So whether we were warming up with, I don't know, combo work, Shooting drills, one guy shot and the other 2 guys decked up, and that could be 3-on-0.
Normally we would put defense, but that's one of the ways we did it. If we were to run 5-on-0, the guy shoots, all the 4 guys, like, they have to have a foot inside the paint once the ball hits the rim. But like I said, we like to play a lot live games, and the constraint I would put is if you make a shot, And all the other 4 guys did not tag up, then that shot didn't count.
So if I made a 3 and like one of our guys was, I don't know, just watching the ball go in and didn't tag up, so that shot doesn't count anything. So that was one of the biggest ways that we got them to really do it at a consistent basis.
Yeah. And I had a conversation with an old coach of mine. He's like, we're all right, we're teaching tagging up, but we're also teaching something that goes against what Perhaps these players have been taught their whole lives playing basketball, which is you shoot, you get back on defense.
Whereas now it's like you shoot, you go forward. So sometimes it's not even about learning a new concept. You're also having to erase the old concept. And I've always found that that was, for me, very challenging because to your point, it has to be every drill.
You have to stay on them so they really learn. And that was a challenge for us before.
And also to have one of your assistants yelling out tag every time a shot goes up. It really helps. It really, really helps. We were talking about our friend Gabriel Millian. He did such a great job being that voice for us in the Under-19 World Cup.
He was our assistant at that time and every single shot he was yelling and he started working on that in practice also. So just having one of your assistants being that voice also, it's a great reminder for the players to really tag up at a high level.
Yeah. Quick feedback like that. I'm curious, moving on a little bit, what are some of the things that most helped you this past season in the G League, or even when you were assistant there as well, but that you took here from the NBB, Novo Basquete Brasil?
I think like, it's just going back to my first point is the adaptability with the players you have. That's something that I said in my interview process with Capitanes, and it's something I learned because it was something that I learned with Pinheiros. There is no right or wrong way to play basketball.
There's good execution or bad execution, good shots or bad shots, and You see some teams that play at such a high pace and they are able to take great shots and have a high offensive rating. But you also see teams that play at such a slow pace and have pretty much the same offensive rating.
If you are to look for teams as an example, like Tenerife that has our guard Marcelinho Huertas, or Iowa this past year with Ben McCollum being their head coach, like they played the slowest pace, but you're going to see their offensive rating and it's like on top of the league.
So there's no right or wrong way. And that's what I took from the NBB to the G League. You really have to adapt. In both of these instances, that led to us playing at a slower pace than the league average, but it still led us to have successful seasons.
If one day I have a team that I feel like we can play up and down and press, I will do that if that's what is best for them. I will do that. Just a matter of figuring out what is best for your players to have a team that where you can succeed in.
Yeah, absolutely. You have to be adaptable as a coach in your environment and you have to fit around the players and their strengths because it doesn't, it doesn't make sense any other way. You did a lot of youth coaching. I know you were on another podcast recently and you spoke about how that helped you today.
Can you talk about some of the key distinctions between coaching youth And professional players, and maybe like, what can coaches take away from coaching the two?
I think like throughout my time working with youth and I worked from under 12 all the way to under 19, under 20. I think like at those early stages, 12, 13, 14, you're really trying to get the player to fall in love with the game.
So like they gotta have fun basically. And it's not fun to sit in the corner and not touch the ball. So they gotta have fun. They gotta feel like they're part of the team. I don't remember what coach said it, but there's nothing more fun than getting better.
And once they see the development, once they see the shot that they were not making, now they're making, the layup that they were doing, they couldn't do, and now they're doing, like, that's what is fun for them. So I see a lot of times, like, these youth coaches, they're trying to put a repetition system where they have the kid just working on the same motion over and over and over and over again.
And that's not really funny, you know, like, that's dribbling the ball 100 times on one side, 100 times on the other. With the other hand, it's not that fun. But now if you can get them to like teaching the game through games and teaching like fundamental through games, I think like that's a key for the kid to then fall in love with the game.
Because at 15, 16, 17, that's when I feel like kids will be more in tune and more accepting to, hey, now let me, let me take 200 shots this day, or let me Do this dribbling drill because there are some mechanical aspects of the game that I think you do need a lot of repetition.
But if you start out with that, then I don't necessarily think that that's the best way. I think it's first fall in love with the game and then put in the time to get the mechanical part of your game that it's not the best and to be better.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think what's the purpose of youth basketball? It's To keep the players coming back. It's not to win the championship this year. It's like, no, let's keep them coming back so they can continue to have fun and continue to get better.
Because if they stop coming, well, they can't learn.
Exactly. And I also like, from a position style of play, like what I would do with the seniors is the completely opposite of what I would do if I were to go back to working with under 15, under 16, whatever that age is, like in the youth.
I would really, really try to put them in every situation possible. A lot of people say that, oh, you must play 5 out and must have the big facing the basket at all times. And that's true, but also you can have the guard posting up and you can have the big posting up and you can have a lot of different rotations, like within the style of play.
So I would have just as much as possible put them in every scenario. I have like today you're seeing in NBA, the other Game 1 Spurs versus The Thunder, how many guard-to-guard screens were there? And that was something that was not so prevalent in the game not so many years ago.
So why not at that young age put your guards to screen the big and let the big make a decision? So that's what I would do if I were to come back. And that's different from what I do when I work with our senior team, because at that point, a lot of times they are what they are and you're just trying to adapt and change a little bit here, a little bit there.
This, he's a good pick and roll player, but does he have the floater off? He only has the floater off 2 feet. Can I add the off 1 or can I add the late decision with the floater? So it's more in detail with something that he already does.
Whereas in youth, I would just let them really experiment screening, off-ball screening, isoing, low post, so that they can really understand the game, a lot of different positions.
I think one of the main reasons for that, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is just the time. You know, when you're working with the senior team, you just don't have so much time. They come in, it's a short window. Youth teams, you got a whole season.
Sometimes you're lucky as a coach and you get them for 2, 3, 4 years. I'm curious, you've obviously, I think your track record, the thing that stands out to me most about your track record is just the amount of praise you get for helping young players develop into pros.
I'm curious, how do you help young players prepare for the next step in their careers?
I think the best way to really prepare them to, from working youth and playing youth and then going through the senior system is really the first thing I always tell the players that were coming up through Pinheiros or when I was working in Corinthians is first you gotta be able to guard your yard.
Like if you go up to practice with the senior team once and now every player is trying to attack you, like you're not gonna have a lot of practice and a lot of reps with them. So First of all, just guard your yard.
Be able to stay in front of the guy. Be able to communicate off the ball. So I think like that's the entrance to playing with the senior team. Now after that is really what is going to be my role to get in the door and to stay out there offensively while also working on what I want my role to be in three four years.
So for example, we had a kid. Pedro Pastra in Pinheiros, where he got in there and he went through every phase. First, he couldn't keep his man in front. And so he really like, and I hold him accountable so that he could do a better job in that.
Developing physically, of course, is a part of being able to play defense at a senior level. So he also developed that part of it. And on offensively, he was mainly a spot-up player. Whereas this year he's playing a little bit more with the ball.
He's playing a little bit more. Creating actions and creating advantages. I mean, creating assists either for himself or creating shots for himself or for others. But all that came because he was also working on that while we had our season. And then in the offseason, that's something that it was really an emphasis, even for him to go back to play at his age level, to really have the reps trying out, hey, how can I play with the ball in my hand more, a little bit more?
Can I shoot the step back? How is this going to transfer to a higher level? So I think like that's the biggest key. A lot of players sometimes once they go to the senior team and they're 18, 19, they're put into a box and they think that that's going to be it.
I think ideally he would be put into a box because again, you don't want him to put him in a position where he's going to fail too much that disrupt the flow of the team. But also, how can I work? Because he's still 19, like he still has years to improve and stuff to add to his game.
So how can I still work on those other elements? And so that in 4, 5 years, he can be a better version of himself. And putting him through our youth teams program really did— was such a good job. I'm talking specifically about one player, but I could say a lot of examples of players like that, that they started with a small role and they kept working to have a bigger role in 3, 4 years.
Yeah, it's like what I'm hearing you say is like give them this one very specific thing that they can work on. And then once they do that, we can start building and putting more and more, I guess, pressure or more goals for them because you don't want to overload them where now they're losing confidence.
They're making too many mistakes in practice as well. I want to get your advice. You've done a great job of building that team culture. You turn on any last season, any Mexico City game, and it's very specific the way your team plays. You know, you can, oh, that's definitely Capitanes basketball right there.
I'm just curious, how do you, you know, you're a Brazilian coach, you're in Mexico, you play in an American league with an international roster. So many people from different places. What advice would you give to coaches that are trying to build an identity and culture regardless of the individual differences on the team?
Well, it's really understand where you are and take advantage of the culture of where you are. To give the example first of how we worked in Pinheiros and how we ran the season over there, a lot of times you understand the culture by asking your general manager or your director or whoever's on top of you.
And I remember asking our director at Pinheiros, like, do you want us to be more of a development team or do you want us to win? And his answer was both.
I was like, oh, okay.
But what does winning And then he explained, hey, we would like us to finish top 8 in the league. We were fortunate that we finished in 5th spot and we had the youngest roster in the league at the time. So I think I was able to understand that.
And now how can I apply that into practical day-to-day work? So he wants to win, so I got to make my drills competitive, but I also need to develop this player. So there's a player development area. How can I put him into small-sided games while still competing?
So all of that was something that we were figuring out as the season went along. And a lot of times it meant this young kid got in the game and he made a couple mistakes in a row. I gotta leave him out there to see if he can correct himself.
Sometimes it meant, hey, I need to take him out so that he can see it from the bench and I can talk to him. And then I put him back out there, but just really trusting that in the long run, the player is going to be able to figure out How to impact the game if you just give them an opportunity to make some mistakes along the way.
And going back to Pedro, which was a big case for success for us, at the beginning of the season, he would step on the floor and I would joke with him, like the scoreboard, whoever's keeping score would already put 4 points to the player he was guarding because it's going to be 2 easy layups.
Where by the end of the season, we were playing Franca, he was guarding the opposite team's best player. And then he was being physical, and he learned how to be physical. So if I took him out at the beginning of the season every time he got scored on, we wouldn't have the same Pedro we had at the end of the season.
So that's again only one specific example, but there were a lot more that I could mention. But now going to Capitanes, for them, Capitanes really try to embrace the Latin American community, even from the way we sign our players and the way our bonus are structured, where we can only give more bonus to Latino descendants and players.
So my whole thing there was, what does being Latino mean? And the best thing I could come out is Latin players, Latin people, they like to do stuff together. They like to go to lunch together. They like to go to dinner together. They like to watch movies.
They like to go partying. So they like to do stuff together. So that was my message to the team. Let's embrace our community in the way that we play. So like I was saying previously, sharing the ball on offense was something that was aligned with our culture, with what the Capitanes team meant.
Being disruptive on, I think, like on the defensive side, if you talk about being unselfish and playing as a team, it's really putting yourself out there to be disruptive, to pressure the ball, to play with multiple efforts. So that's a way for us to play together on the defensive side.
I was very fortunate that I had the players that we had because they really embraced that culture. Of course, having the Latinos that we had in our team really helped, but also the Americans that were within our team, they understood that quickly. They had a good time together.
I had more than one experience where I would see the players going out together. I would see the players going out to eat, going out to park. Or just playing video games together. Whereas I understand that that's maybe not the case for some other teams in the G.
Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of players, I think that's every coach's dream is like to have their players socialize off the court as well. Because essentially it's like you're almost, you're doing, you're getting double the amount of work in, in terms of culture building when they're not with you.
So, you know, for sure. Galvani, I want to thank you for your time, man. I have one more question and then I'll let you get out of here. It's our transformative tip question. We ask every coach this question. And if you could give one piece of advice to coaches that would instantly improve their practice environments, what would that be?
I would put my players into as much situations where they can make decisions, which is kind of common sense a lot of times. But if I come out of practice and I look at a player, if I were to look at, have a camera only on one player, And film him throughout the whole practice, and then I watch that film.
I would want him to have—I don't know what's the good number—but a lot of decisions throughout the whole practice, you know, and decisions on and off the ball, decisions if I should pass, if what layup should I use, what what cutting should I use, how should I cut or not, and then really try to emphasize that through games, through the games approach because the.
1-on-0, 2-on-0 aspect, 5-on-0 spacing, respacing. I think that's great for initial learning, but once they got that, they really need to be in a situation where they can make decisions. So that would be my tip is really how could I maximize the amount of decisions?
If the player is just standing in line for, I don't know, 5, 6 reps, then that's already not good enough. So how can I put him into more and more and more reps throughout the practice session? Because I think that in the long run is definitely going to make him a better basketball player.
More touches, more decisions, you just get better. Galvani, thank you so much once again, man. It's been great.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Like I said at the beginning, I've been a fan of your guys' work. I like to adopt a lot of the drills that you guys show on social media and try to have them in our practice sessions.
So keep sharing the game, and it's a big pleasure to be a part of it.
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