Hawks first assistant coach Morgan Maskell (left) can't put a finger on it but he's always had a passion for basketball from an early age. Photo / Paul Taylor
Does everything really boil down to defence in a basketball league when push comes to shove with the playoffs beckoning?
What about the relevance of the "players of the week" during the season?
For that matter, how do the "indexes of success" stack up in the scheme of things?
Enter Taylor Corporation Hawks first assistant coach Morgan Maskell who has the laborious task of trying to find some substance in cliches sprinkled liberally throughout the Sal's National Basketball League (NBL) season.
Maskell meticulously jots down defining moments on every team, every player, every referee, every venue and, for what it's worth, probably every courtside tantrum.
"I'm just trying to watch every single game. I'm trying to take notes on every single team, player, runs," says the 25-year-old before they host 2 Cheap Cars Supercity Rangers from Auckland in a 5pm tip off in week eight of the NBL today.
The career coach tries to be the go-to man at the drop of the hat when the Hawks make calls on any NBL player, rattling out relevant data to help make a difference at the height of battle.
He believes coach Zico Coronel and second assistant Kaine Hokianga have combined well to do a great job so far.
"We'd like to have a better record at this stage of the season and that's reflected in the strength of our schedule [but] what I think we're trying to put together will take time as well."
Maskell is in his rookie NBL season and is under no illusions about how much he has to learn.
"I just want to make sure I'm putting in the work — firstly for the team, for Zico and then for myself."
It excites him, when he looks around the NBL landscape, to find anyone as young as him coaching at that level.
"I don't take that for granted. I certainly want to keep putting in that work which is just a small part of a big journey to come.
"I'm a very proud Kiwi so maybe, one day, a few decades on, I'll get to coach the Tall Blacks. For now though, I'm very grateful to Zico and all my other mentors who have come before him for the opportunities."
Someone of the ilk of Cigna Wellington Saints point guard Shea Ili is gifted and a worthy specimen of the human race but he believes the Hawks are confident to beat any team in the league on any given day.
If the Jarrod Kenny-captained Hawks do the right things in the remaining last eight games, Maskell says they will be where they believe they can be.
Seven of their 10 games have so far been on the road and all against the top three oppositions — three against defending champions and leaders Saints, and two each against second-placed Mike Pero Nelson Giants and third-placed SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks.
It's fair to assume the Hawks are in for a less torrid time against the Rangers (three times), the Taranaki Mountainairs (twice) and the fourth-placed Wheeler Motorhouse Canterbury Rams (twice). All the games, bar one each away to Rangers and Rams, are at the PG Arena. (Positions of top four teams may have changed overnight).
However, a tick in the box against the opposition doesn't equate to complacency.
"We can't take anything for granted. We just need to make sure we're locked in and do what we're supposed to do."
Maskell sees pros and cons to having a predominantly home-court run at the book-end of the season. His reasoning primarily centres around not having the top-three intensity if they make the playoffs because players harking back to weeks one to seven can be a challenge.
Nevertheless, he rounds it off as a league where teams have to play against everyone. The ideal scenario, of course, is for the Hawks to have won every game.
"At the end of the day draws are draws and you've just got to win games [which] I think we're capable of."
The coaching stable has seen the fifth-placed Hawks at their best (competitive against the Saints and beating the Giants in Nelson) and at their worst (the two floggings at the hands of the Sharks and Giants).
"So we've seen that if we can be fairly competitive we can win games but we've also seen that if we don't bring it, so to speak, we have to be on point all the time otherwise, against those teams, you don't come out with the outcome you want."
The Jeff Green-coached Rangers broke a nine-match winless streak last week with a 93-86 victory over the Airs in New Plymouth.
A cursory glance at the visitors reveals quality players in the mould of veteran point guard Lindsay Tait, Marcel Jones and former New Zealand Breakers brawler Dillon Boucher.
Throw in Dominque Kelman-Poto's 26 points and Clay Wilson's 22 from the last round and their last place on the ladder starts looking a little ominous.
That experience isn't lost on the Hawks. Maskell doesn't expect the hosts to slip on any banana skins but is mindful they have been competitive, even against the top contenders.
"They were leading against the Wellington Saints, with a minute to go, in Wellington," he says, revealing they have seen videotaped footage of every Rangers game as well as one live.
No doubt, it'll be the players who will have to do the job on the court.
"Marcel has a lot of ability and probably a pretty challenging puzzle but, again, what I think it all comes down to for us is to figure out our own stuff," he says.
Maskell believes if the Hawks adhere to the blueprint with some precision then it won't matter who is in front of them.
The 50 per cent (five wins/five losses), he reckons, is something the Hawks see as a flaw in their constitution and not something the oppositions have imposed on them because of some sense of superiority.
Similarly he doesn't believe the Hawks, as individuals, lose sleep over missing out on the weekly NBL gongs.
If anything, Maskell says the absence of such players only accentuates the systems they employ to embrace and enhance the worth of a collective approach.
"We've got all of our starters around similar points per game. We play a very team-orientated style with a lot of ball and player movements so when we get that right it becomes a very fun environment to play in.
"That means we're not all standing around watching while one of our players scores 30 [points] so, you know, our averages can take a hit but we play team basketball."
He attributes that vibrant environment to the dexterity of Coronel and the players.
The former Rangitoto College (Auckland) student took up coaching in the first year after he finished high school.
The Auckland University double degree (commerce, majoring in finance, and science and sports science) graduate has always had a penchant for helping in basketball, especially at youth level.
"I was beaming with pride [yesterday] when I heard one of the players I've had since he started playing, was named in the Tall Blacks squad," he said of guard Kruz Perrot-Hunt, of Rosmini College.
National coach Paul Henare named Perrot-Hunt in an extended squad of 20 to assemble in Wellington for a four-day camp, ahead of a 12-player roster to be named for the Fiba World Cup qualifiers in Rotorua (v Hong Kong, June 28) and Auckland (v China, July 1).
Hawks players Kenny, Dion Prewster and Ethan Rusbatch also are in the squad. So is former Hawks guard Alonzo Burton, of Napier, who captains the Airs.
Maskell finds it difficult to put a finger on it but he feels his passion and involvement with basketball was a calling of sorts.
"It's something I'm really, really good at and something I really enjoy. It's something I found, at a pretty young age, that I'm passionate about."
He recalls watching basketball on TV2 when Boucher, playing for Waikato Pistons, left an indelible impression on him as a youngster when they won the NBL.
"On Saturday I get to coach against Dillon Boucher. I don't take that for granted ... it's reflective of the pretty amazing career that he had as a true legend of the game in New Zealand so I have real respect for him."
Maskell was named New Zealand under-15 boys' head coach recently after deputising for Coronel in the past two years.
For the bloke who has coached myriad age-group teams in Auckland as well as the Breakers franchise, to lead the boys to an Oceania tournament in Papua New Guinea from December 2-8 will be another stepping stone to bigger things.
Rotorua Boys' won with a last-play penalty after their prop reached for the ball in a scrum, sealing victory over Hastings Boys' with a clutch final kick.