Second year proving to be fruitful for Bighorns coach David Arseneault Jr.

Determining whether or not a season is a success in the NBA D-League can be difficult to gauge. Merely looking at a team’s record can be misleading due to underlying strategies and goals each specific team may have.

The Reno Bighorns — affiliate for the Sacramento Kings — made quite the splash last season hiring a relatively unknown first-time coach in David Arseneault Jr. from NCAA Division III Grinnell College. Fear of the unknown is an innate feeling for many people and that was the overriding sentiment around the hire. It was abrupt. It was brash. Some would argue it turned out to be wildly successful, even given the team’s 20-30 record last season.

If you aren’t familiar, Grinnell runs an offense dubbed The System, which can be best described as absolute chaos. The scheme is designed to get shots up rapid-fire on offense, while enforcing a press-style defense to speed up opponents and create turnovers. It’s like Mike D’Antoni’s offense on steroids.

Seeing as the Kings have sort of been like that drunk uncle at your family’s annual Christmas party for the last couple years, some simply dismissed it as another crazy ploy for headlines. If that was the plan, it worked — Arseneault and the Bighorns were the talk of the D-League almost immediately, as Brady Heslip became a household name by knocking down 28-footers with regularity. Though the team wasn’t winning much, they were constantly being talked about and for a minor league team that kind of publicity is priceless.

In the process, though, they found something special. To the coaching staff’s credit, they adapted The System as the season went on by morphing it into a much more pro-style offense. The results weren’t seen immediately, as the team missed the playoffs, but the Kings saw something in Arseneault and his innovative thought process and decided to renew his coaching contract with the Bighorns for the 2015-16 season.

Smart move.

While the Bighorns struggled to win games in Arseneault’s inaugural season at the helm, they led the league in NBA call ups with seven. When U&M spoke to the Bighorns coach earlier this week, he delved into the importance of that stat.

“It gave our style of play credibility for these guys,” Arseneault said. “Players want to know they are getting themselves into the right spot and now players are recognizing the opportunity they have [in Reno].”

The players who earned call ups were Jordan Hamilton, Quincy Miller, David Wear, Sim Bhullar and David Stockton. The latter two are back in the NBADL this season — although Bhullar was traded to the Raptors 905 — and the first three all signed lucrative deals overseas after being let go by their NBA clubs. Those call ups bring immense value to an offense that was much maligned at its inception in this league.

Coming into the 2015-16 season, Arseneault felt the need to make some changes to the coaching staff. He brought in assistant coach Matt Chalupa (and now I’m hungry) along with highly regarding coaching commodity Gene Cross to be his right hand men. When asked about these additions, Arseneault opined: “Coach Cross has been fantastic. He’s a previous head coach in this league with a wealth of knowledge and he’s really helped employ our new defensive strategies and schemes, which has helped us so much on that end. I actually played a season with Matt Chalupa at Grinnell, so he knows the offensive principles inside and out. Having guys around that you know  you can trust helps so much.”

Look, the Bighorns are still running and gunning, but gone are the days of scoring 174 points in non-overtime game. Their season high so far this year is 143 in a win against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Arseneault credits Cross’ defense and film study for their changes this year.

“Our pace this year is really dictated by our defense, and that’s been vital for us,” he told U&M. “We were able to really hone in on shots we want from watching film. This year there’s an emphasis on better shots and not just quicker shots like last season. I like to instill confidence in my guys. This is probably one of the only places a player might get chewed out for not shooting.”

While the numbers are still rather gaudy, the stats bear the proof of Arseneault’s goal this year. They also cause us to reminisce over one of the great’s this game has provided, as John Wooden’s “be quick, but don’t hurry” quote immediately comes to mind.

While it’s easy to gush over what the front office and coaching staff has improved upon in Arseneault’s second season, he still defers credit to the players anytime he’s asked about success of his schemes. In fact, he lit up when asked. “Majority — if not all — the credit goes to them, honestly. They bought in. They came in open-minded and they trusted the fact that they can improve here and get to where they want to be. It really is a testament to them and their work ethic”.

As fans, we tend to focus on players and the opportunities they receive, but rest assured that these coaches are doing all they can to prove their worth to the NBA as well. While it’s not as publicized as player success, many NBA coaches, player development staff, and even front office staff, made their start in the NBA D-League — the improvements and growth by coaches is being scouted by NBA, too.

There’s still plenty of season left for the Bighorns but they are on pace to notch 32 wins, which would assuredly earn them a playoff berth. There are a lot of factors that could derail that current pace, but Reno now has a new system in place that preaches straight from the mouth of a legend of the game — and to no one’s surprise, it’s working.