Creating consistent behaviours focus for Weaver

Whether his team is making or missing shots, whether their opposition is on fire or struggling, or whatever is happening, Will Weaver's messaging remains the same for the Brisbane Bullets which is what he hopes in turn builds consistent behaviour.

That's why Weaver's response was similar across Round 8 in the NBL, whether it was following the tremendous 15-point win at home against the Perth Wildcats on Wednesday night or the 28-point loss on the road to Melbourne United on Saturday night.

Obviously Weaver's ultimate vision is to create a successful team, but what his big picture is about is creating consistent behaviours and having those messages remain true no matter the circumstances, and being as prepared as possible for whatever games can throw at you.

So when speaking after Saturday night's loss to Melbourne, Weaver knows that his strength isn’t giving one of those great, big motivational speeches in a timeout or at half-time to try and have his players ready to run through a brick wall for him – but with that adrenaline potentially not lasting long.

Instead, what Weaver focuses on is a consistent message and doing his best to arm his players with the knowledge of what is expected from them out on the floor, which if they can go and provide constantly, more often than not will lead to good things.

"There are surely better coaches out there that could give an impassioned speech that everybody would respond to, it's just not me," Weaver said.

"What I do is I try to model what I've seen be successful, which is focusing on what's next and it's hard sometimes because you have a human care for your players, but when we practice one of the early things I have to explain to our guys is that when a guy goes down, we move to the other end and continue.

"That's the way the sport is organised and we have a system in place for supporting that guy and making sure he's OK and getting him back in action the next play, next practice or next year.

"But whatever that is, we have to practice being good at moving on to the next thing and so in truth how we handled that situation (Jaylin Williams injury) because that's how we've prepared ourselves to be able to cope with whatever the game throws at you."

What is key for Weaver in the messaging he provides to his Bullets players is that they need to have the faith in what they are doing on a regular basis where they don't get thrown off when things start going especially well – or poorly.

That means in the most simple terms, provided you are taking the right shots, don't suddenly get over confident if a couple drop and don't get downcast should you miss a couple.

The same goes for if you find yourselves up by 20 points, don't go and start playing out of the system that got you there, and if you are down 20, still try and focus on what you were supposed to be doing and don't be put off by the scoreboard.

Weaver is realistic to know that as people, the emotions will always come into play at some point, and as a coach that is no different for him, but his eyes are always on the big picture and being especially happy for players grasping their chances like Mawot Mag is.

"We're all human beings and we all suffer from the same cognitive biases around what the last three outcomes have been, and it feeling like momentum or it feeling like a trend," Weaver said.

"Very often you go back and watch the film, and you're like, oh yeah that dude made two hard shots in a row and the crowd went crazy, and it felt like an avalanche or vice versa.

"You get a wide open shot, you miss it, and everybody's head drops for a second so I don't put a ton of stock into if we're great in the first or we struggle in another part, what I look for is if our behaviours are consistent and is our approach within the bounds of the patterns that we've established as a group that work best for us.

"In the third quarter in particular (against Melbourne), there was a minute there where it looked like it was about to go out to 30 and these guys clawed their ass off to get it back to eight or 10 so that tells you everything about how these guys are wired.

"This guy (Mag) is particularly emblematic of never say die and he makes a shot, he misses a shot, he turns it over, he has an assist and he's just full speed all the time.

"That's why he's been such a huge part of our team since he joined us and why I was really excited for him to get to play back here in Melbourne."

Weaver always knew that he would love coaching captain Mitch Norton. They had already known each other from time with the Australian Boomers and Weaver was fully aware what he was capable of when he was coaching the Sydney Kings and Norton was at the Perth Wildcats.

And Norton is capable of being a lockdown, pressure defender, he's capable of running the point and doing all the gritty things a team needs, but what Weaver wants to do for his 406-game captain is let him play with some offensive freedom.

That saw him having 26 points and six assists across those two games last week and Weaver wants to see plenty more of it.

"Norto's been fantastic and clearly, we took advantage of the opportunity to get a little bit of rest at the end of this game," Weaver said.

"You talk about gassing out, we had a breathing seminar in one of our timeouts against Perth for Mitch Norton because of just how full out he goes, the way he is always communicating, giving me great ideas and reinforcing what needs to happen next.

"I am so excited to see this version of Mitch Norton that I got to see with the Boomers many years ago, but in the NBL. He's always so willing to do the hard, dirty work stuff that sometimes he doesn't get to rock out and be the version of himself that he was in this game."