Cool. I'm fine with what you said - was just a tad worried that maybe something had happened.
Two things you said...
What Japan NT really needs is a third big so I can run Yasujiro at SF. and we can move our traditional SFs to SG.
What vision of that do you have for Japan's future? If you see Yasujiro at SF, who's the other big at PF/C? With the risk of sounding a bit conceited, I'm assuming it's K-Mat... what about the other young bigs - Wakatsuki & Kishita?
The motivating part, im not with that. You want an NT player, train him, then hound the NT manager. That's basically how it works everywhere else.
I don't think that's necessarily the truth in other small nations. I know when I coached the Welsh U21 team (quite a bit of difference) I absolutely had to hound owners. Reverse has been the truth with Tim - I'm building him... and every season trying to entice the HK NT manager into taking him on!
I guess my point is, if a player isn't taking the direction you desire, perhaps you should be taking it up with their owner...
Just a thought.
http://with-malice.com/ - The half-crazed ramblings of a Lakers fanatic in Japan