I didn't realize the Bayhawks were an expansion team this past year. He did an incredible job and sounds like someone that will be a successful head coach down the road.
Josh Longstaff Named 2 Ways & 10 Days G League Coach Of The Year
Longstaff has led expansion Erie BayHawks to record wins and a possible playoff berthPhoto Credit: Erie BayHawks
This award is typically pretty straightforward based on previous years. If your team wins the most games, you’ll likely be named coach of the year. It happened with Scott Morrison (2015), Dan Craig (2016), and Jerry Stackhouse (2017).
But let’s throw conventional wisdom out the window when it comes to Josh Longstaff and the Erie BayHawks. After a slow start where the team got off to a 0–4 start, and at one point was 7–13 before they turned their season around.
Since, they have been 19–9 with a pair of games remaining on their schedule to earn a winning record (26–22) with a good shot at making the postseason (I swear I’m not trying to jinx them).
Let’s remember that the BayHawks are an expansion team, after the Orlando Magic purchased the previous BayHawks franchise and moved them to Lakeland, FL and dubbed them the Magic as well.
So, what does that entail? Building a team from scratch, developing a culture, and finding success all in a single season.
Looking back at previous years, expansion teams typically do not fare well in their inaugural seasons. In fact, dating back to the 2007–08 season, no expansion team has ever made the postseason in their first year of existence.
Here’s the records for the most recent expansion teams:
Delaware 87ers (2013–14): 12–38
Westchester Knicks (2014–15): 10–40
Raptors 905 (2015–16): 23–27
Windy City Bulls (2016–17): 23–27
Greensboro Swarm (2016–17): 19–31
Long Island Nets (2016–17): 17–33
Otherwise the equivalent of a .344 winning percentage on average. So to not only have a winning season, and possibly make the playoffs is unprecedented and should be recognized.
When he was younger, Longstaff always dreamed of making it to the Association.
“I always wanted to be in the NBA, like play,” Longstaff said. “Growing up I believed it, I believed it and nobody was ever going to tell me that I was this 5-foot-8 guy from Portland, Maine that couldn’t.”
That path to the NBA didn’t have a trajectory, only that it was going to happen for him. But way back when Longstaff earned his first head coaching gig at 24 years old, he wasn’t sure if it would be a full-time career he would pursue.
Coaching Gorham High School’s varsity boys basketball team out of his hometown of Portland, ME was the opportunity he needed to pursue a new career. One that would take him from his then day job in sales to eventually working for NBA teams.
Through his own admission Longstaff admits he had no idea about the products he sold as a salesman for contractor building supplies like siding, windows or doors, or even medical supplies for veterinarian offices.
Picture a slimmer, Chris Farley-esque Longstaff pitching products like the former did in the movie Tommy Boy with sheer charisma while earning how to build relationships with customer. That was the selling point according to Longstaff.
“My boss would look at me and say, ‘You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?’ And I’d say, ‘but I got a sale’,” laughed Longstaff. “I just had to figure out how do I win these people over and get them to want to buy from me. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I had to figure out how to build relationships, get them to trust me and see hey this guy cares about me and my business.”
That ability to earn trust in such a short span is a characteristic that has lent itself to success for Longstaff and the Erie BayHawks. There’s no real offseason to develop relationships in the G League. You meet with a majority of the team just weeks before the season begins and there’s no chance to look in the rear view mirror.
Coming into the season however, the expectations were modest for an expansion team as Longstaff looked to secure more optimistic goals that would lead to greater successes as opposed to shooting straight for the moon.
“Just try to create an environment that promotes growth for the staff and the players, that’s the environment that the Hawks have, that’s the enivironment in OKC,” Longstaff said. ‘The goal was for the players to get better, for us to get better and see where it takes us.”
Slow start aside, the team prevailed down the stretch and are aiming to close out the season on a high note (possibly) with a playoff berth. But it all started with developing and implementing a culture to work with, one that couldn’t have happened without BayHawks General Manager Malik Rose.
“It’s funny because he was a great player, celebrated, decorated with two championships but we believe in the same thing. We believe the players come first, we want to give them everything first class,” Longstaff said.
That includes the facilities, of which were not the cleanest when the team went to make their debut this season in Erie, PA. So, instead of complaining about it, Rose took matters into his own hands according to Longstaff.
“The first home game of the season we walked into our arena that day and that morning the arena was kind of a mess and he leaves and comes back a half-an-hour later and he starts scrubbing the floors, the toilets, the showers he cleaned everything for three hours,” Longstaff said. “Headphones on, dripping sweat…the humility, the selflessness. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to help his staff, and help his players develop a culture.”
All to make sure his team had facilities they deserved and to make sure the season started on a positive note, win or lose.
“He works so hard. That’s the number one thing and he cares. Working for somebody who cares so much just makes you want to work a little harder for a guy like that,” Longstaff said of Rose. “He travels here all the time from Atlanta back here to Erie. We’re completely on the same page. Having a guy like that it’s kind of a blessing to learn from him.”
In a data-driven, analytics filled league like the NBA, culture really can’t be quantified. Though doubts did creep in about his process early on in the season, staying the course is the ultimate answer when implementing one’s strategies according to Longstaff.
“That’s part of the challenge that we talked about,” Longstaff said. “Sticking to what you believe in and what you believe can produce. I think for sure establishing it and how early we did establish we lost a lot of close games including three buzzer beaters. The question becomes, how do we get them to keep fighting every single day and get them to do it.
“To try to get better everyday is the message to keep promoting and growing our environment that promotes growth.”
To take his career to the next level after spending several years with the Thunder and the Knicks, Longstaff knew this was the plunge he needed to take in order to gain experience.
“I was able to be a video coordinator, I was able to do player development, I was an assistant coach, and it was almost like, how can I keep grinding and become a head coach, organize a practice, manage a staff, game plan, game management, all of that stuff was something if I want to be and NBA head coach someday that’s something I just need to do,” Longstaff said, calling his personal growth this season “exponential”.
Yet despite the early-season challenges, staying the course and developing that culture was the ultimate goal for Longstaff and his team. The support from not only his players, his staff, but also the parent club was key in the team’s success this season.
“We wanted to do it the way the Hawks do and the way Coach (Budenholzer) does it,” Longstaff said. “They’ve always been successful and it’s proven.”
NBAGleagueAtlanta HawksErie BayhawksJosh Longstaff
4/14/2018 8:30 PM