When Andrew Bogut announced his retirement, it seemed obvious that coaching could well be in his future.
It was a sentiment that just made too much sense. Over Bogut's entire playing career, he was lauded for his supreme basketball IQ; emerging as one of the best passing big-men in the sport's history and anchoring elite defences with his awareness on that end of the floor.
Bogut was coached by a wide array of renowned figures during his career - from Rick Majerus, to Scott Skiles, and Steve Kerr - but the last person he played for, Will Weaver, had a particularly unique style that he appreciated.
"He just thinks outside the box," Bogut told ESPN of Weaver. "How can we better something fantastic and make it elite?"
Bogut played under Weaver during a season with the Sydney Kings that would end up being each man's last with the franchise. Bogut, 36, would announce his retirement after the 2019-20 NBL campaign, while Weaver went on to become an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets.
Bogut's stance on Weaver's coaching style is nuanced: they didn't agree on everything, but some ideas his then-head coach implemented were notable enough for the centre to file away in his mind for future use. One of those tactics was Weaver's approach to watching film.
"His whole thing was: we'd still watch film in the locker room sometimes; we'd watch the last game, good or bad, still do our scouts pregame in the locker room," Bogut said.
"But, we'd record all practice sessions, and there'd be a screen set up in the corner of the gym somewhere. As soon as something happens, and a guy's like, 'I don't really understand what you mean,' [we'd go] straight to the film. Sometimes there'd be a team; five clips: this is how we want to run our flow, this is five great clips. Or, this is how a flow should look like - this is horses--- - watch five of them.
"It was great, because you're not sitting there long enough to get cold, and it's just about bang, bang, bang; plant it in your mind, you've seen it now, don't run to this spot when this happens, and then you can go and do it again. I loved it, and I've made a mental note of that if I one day coach, that that's my setup. I loved that... all of those things, I make mental notes of that, if I one day coach, I will have that in my basket."
Bogut, famously a firebrand, wasn't afraid to point out where he disagreed with Weaver's approach; most notably, he pointed out what he said was his former head coach's overreliance on analytics.
"He's very big on analytics, so as we saw, [it was] to the point of frustration sometimes for me, because we used to muck a lot," Bogut said.
"We used to pick on a guy that was a 20 percent three-point shooter. For us, it was Shawn Long. During the course of the season, he was in the high 20s; against us, he shot like 60 [percent]. But, Will's thing was: I don't care if he goes three-of-three, just let him, because it's gonna take away from [Chris] Goulding. We wanna dare him to shoot 'em.
"But, after, when he's like one-for-one, two-for-two... I'm looking at the bench like, damn, let me get out of the hole and put some pressure on him. [Will] was like, nah, the percentages will play out."
There was a widely-discussed instance of this sentiment during all of last season's match-ups between the Kings and Perth Wildcats. The Kings opted to play a 'drops' defence against Bryce Cotton when the two-time MVP was coming off on-balls, because the analytics indicated that was an effective defensive strategy. It largely is in the NBL, but Cotton showed to be quite effective against that coverage.
"Bryce is smart, because he draws a lot of fouls out of the drops, because [of] the guard chasing; he just stops on a dime and gets fouled," Bogut explained.
"But then, the problem is, for our team defence and what we did, there were times when I thought we should've changed it, where Will was hung a bit more hard-headed with that, just because of strictly analytics, numbers, like, it's gonna sway our way. Where I thought I'd be probably 80-20, whereas he was 100 percent."
The discourse between Bogut and Weaver didn't always lead to consensus, but it was productive, and the big-man constantly had those types of exchanges with the Kings' brass. As the team looked to complete their roster for the 2019-20 season, and with a hamstrung budget, they had their eye on an undersized power forward who had just played a season in the Belgian league.
Bogut didn't know who Jae'Sean Tate was: "Who is he? What is he?" Bogut asked the Kings' management.
Tate was described as 6'4 forward with a big motor, and a guy who plays bigger than he is.
"So, straight away, I was like: Draymond Green, kind of," Bogut said.
"I found out that he was the captain of Ohio State when he was there... so I was like, that's a big thing. You're basically the guy winning all their hustle stats if you're the captain, you're the guy doing all the right things. So, I'm like, that's really good; we need a guy like that, that's not gonna come in and think he's the man, [and] is gonna be happy to play a role, might not play a lot, and he exceeded expectations."
Tate emerged as one of the best, most consistent players in the NBL, averaging 16.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, while shooting just under 40 percent from behind the three-point line. His play was so impressive that the Golden State Warriors went back and forth with Bogut - who won a title with the franchise - about whether it was worth bringing in his frontcourt partner on a 10-day contract.
"Towards the end of that NBL season, Golden State were gonna bring him in for a 10-day," Bogut said.
"They were kicking the tires with me. I said, man, you'll love him, bring him in. He's awesome. And then everything kind of s--- the bed with Covid... then he ended up picking up that deal in Houston. And even there, I didn't think he'd be starting. I thought he'd be a spark guy, maybe a 10-15 on the roster, maybe a little bit of G-League, maybe not, but he's done a fantastic job.
"And, with the way the game's going, it kind of makes sense, right? He's a three-four, plays above his size, and he shot the three-ball a lot better than I thought he would. He was streaky here in the NBL, and you could tell sometimes he wasn't as confident with it, but man, he's shooting the ball really well, knocking down one or two a game... and does a lot of good things for 'em."
Bogut's countless experiences across his basketball career have undoubtedly prepared him for whenever he decides to begin coaching, but his time with the Kings provided some invaluable perspective. From Weaver's coaching style and strategies, to how to judge a player who was perceived as an undersized, non-shooting big-man, Bogut's career in Sydney played a role in continuing to shape an already-curious basketball mind. And there's a good chance Bogut will be a more effective coach because of it.