Rogers, a former first-round pick who played three seasons as a power forward, thinks of himself as a second set of eyes for Bzdelik. And he keeps his attention on the action. He used to take notes, he said, but he found that he would invariably miss something important and be in no position to help players asking for feedback.

“So I just take mental notes,” he said. “I want to be sure that if something happens, I’m seeing the entire floor.”

DEVAN BLAIR, offensive strategy/video coordinator

D’Antoni has a database of nearly 100 plays based on six sets that he can run out of timeouts. They are known as “ATOs,” for “after timeouts.” For years, D’Antoni would more or less pick one on the fly and hope for the best.

But over breakfast one day this season, D’Antoni had the idea to have his staff select a few before the game even starts.

The bulk of that process is in the hands of Blair, who gives Gunning a list of 25 to 30 ATOs based on the opponent. In a pregame meeting, Gunning will discuss them with Blair and D’Antoni before they settle on 15 — a menu for the night ahead.

D’Antoni and Gunning tuck printed copies in their coat pockets. Blair keeps his on an iPad. He sits directly behind Gunning so they can communicate. During the regular season, Blair said, the Rockets ran successful ATOs more than 70 percent of the time, meaning they were able to get the type of look they wanted, even if they did not necessarily score.

Blair, the youngest member of the bench staff, will offer occasional reminders to players during timeouts. But he was chastened earlier this season when he gave the first-year forward Gary Clark a bad bit of instruction that led to a snafu.