The long beard and calm manner can be deceiving, but Assistant Coach Francesco Nanni, born in ’94, is one of the most promising young coaches in Serie A Unipol. Having arrived in Trieste a year ago and already with the reputation of a “man-for-promotion”, he is a fundamental point of connection between the two basketball souls – Italian and American – which coexist, at the moment with great profit, in the Julian capital.
Before sitting alongside Coach Christian on the red and white bench he had achieved promotion from Serie A2 also with Scafati, after which he chose to leave the team during the current season following the dismissal of Coach Rossi, to take care of player development in the United States and Northern Europe.
”In my opinion, for a coach the context in which he works and the opportunities it offers are much more important than the category. From the first conversations I had with Michael and Jamion I understood that I could grow a lot on a personal and professional level, in a company that was itself preparing to make a leap in quality. Obviously when you accept a challenge there are no certainties: my objectives and that of Pallacanestro Trieste are not limited to the promotion obtained, but that was certainly a nice culmination in the first season of this journey” begins Coach Nanni.
If for the thirty-year-old originally from Forlì the choice to move to Trieste was a bet and an investment in himself, the same can be said of the club: with the debutant Coach Christian at the helm everyone expected a couple of veterans at his side , while instead the first choice to support him fell on Francesco.
“Perhaps my experiences abroad had a bearing on the company’s decision. As for me, I can say that I am very open-minded: I like watching basketball from all over the world – NBA, Euroleague, Australia etc. – and try not so much to passively copy but to understand if there is something good that I can apply.”
An approach that went well with the way of operating that he found within the company: “Here no one does something in a certain way just because it has always been done that way; we always try to ask ourselves why we make certain choices and if there is a way to improve. Obviously this brings risks and we are not infallible, but we are not afraid to be unconventional and we constantly question ourselves about what we do. I’m not just talking about the pitch, where I hope it was already seen last season, but also about life and relationships in the gym and in the locker room which are a stimulating part of our job.”
One of the differences in terms of the uses and customs of the bench, if we want to define them that way, is the division of work between the assistants: normally, there is a first and a second assistant who divide the preparation and field duties as if it were an assembly line in which, in the end, the elements ready to be assembled are brought to the coach.
Jamion Christian’s staff, however, has an American-style organization in which Nanni and Taccetti deal with attack and defense, while Nick Schlitzer dedicates himself to player development.
“I am Offensive Coordinator, I mainly deal with the attack” explains Francesco, “and this is a working model that I personally appreciate: it eliminates the hierarchy between first and second assistant by making both responsible. During the week our work is carried out in synergy, there is continuous discussion between all the staff because the two phases of the game are extremely linked to each other and dependent on each other; the advantage, in my opinion, is the clarity that players have in knowing who to turn to for any doubts or advice.”
Having the person in charge of the offensive phase in our hands, could we avoid talking about Colbey Ross’ 30-point performance in the Treviso derby and the next match against Varese, the team that has the best attack in the championship on a quantitative level? Maybe yes, given that Coach Nanni had already been under pressure for over ten minutes, but as he didn’t raise any objections we kept him for a little longer.
“In Serie A everyone is a great player, the difference lies in being able to put them in the spaces and situations where they perform best, and sometimes it comes down to details such as the angle or the timing of a pick’n’roll. We have a lot of quality in the guard department, many players capable of creating opportunities for themselves and others: we must be good at finding balance without losing aggression, knowing that at this level it is important to look for the most attackable target among the defenders and opponents and the hottest man on offense.”
“One of the main problems in facing a team with an extremely high pace like Varese is simulating their attack during work during the week: we need to know what we will be facing; it’s clear that slowing them down is difficult, they’ll take a lot of shots in the first eight seconds of the action and what we’ll have to be good at is influencing these shots by taking away the easiest solutions. On the other hand, we must not get distorted, because we too have a pace at which we want to play and a certain type of shots that we look for.”
