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In years past, getting advice from the man affectionately called “No Chill Gil” might have been seen as a risky move. However, retirement has seemingly given Gil a little chill in his older age as he hosted the Los Angeles Lakers’ Josh Hart on his latest podcast episode. While it wasn’t too long ago that he was breaking into Nick Young’s house and messing with his son, Arenas is a bit more willing to kick back dish out quality advice these days.
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Lakers’ Josh Hart Frustrated With Role, Gets Advice From Gilbert Arenas
(Segment starts at 19 minutes)
While the entire podcast is worth a listen, Hart specifically talks about the struggles of being a young player in the league who is trying to improve but being forced to constantly shift roles. Specifically, Hart cited the addition of LeBron James as a driving factor in why he felt his offseason preparation didn’t get him properly ready for the year.
“I trained for what I thought was going to be my role and then we got ‘Bron and then it was like my summer work was just like… ‘alright’. You go in thinking you’re going to take more of a role being a playmaker or decisionmaker to being just a shooter or something. So now, that’s the biggest thing for me, we just got a new coach, I talked to him and I’m gonna talk to him again and I’m gonna be like ‘what do you think my role is going to be?’.”
Tony Bland, a former top recruit in his own right, struggled when he got to college at Syracuse and was forced out of his natural position. He passed along a bit of advice to Gilbert that Agent Zero took to heart and would go on to share with Hart.
“He told me, ‘Whatever your game is, do your game. Play your style.’ What ends up happening is coaches don’t know what they want. They have an idea, but they really don’t know what they want. You have to show them. So if you say, ‘Coach, what’s my role?’ he’ll give you a role but it might not fit you. He doesn’t even know your style, he doesn’t know your game, he doesn’t know your antics, he doesn’t know none of it!”
Josh Hart 2019-20 Season Preview
After battling injuries throughout the 2018-19 season, Hart struggled to keep up with some of the more athletic guards in the NBA. However, Hart is an extremely smart defender and with a clean bill of health and another year of offseason work, should help round out his otherwise fantastic defensive game.
From an offensive standpoint, Hart, as Arenas said, simply needs to play to his strengths. Hart is naturally a good three-point shooter and a willing passer, things that the Lakers offense desperately needs. Hart can still fill his role while shouldering a bit more responsibility, if anything, LeBron would likely welcome any lightening to his notoriously heavy workload.
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