David Thorpe could, should and probably will write volumes about what he has learned about basketball.

At the core of it all is the idea of "royal jelly."

That is the stuff that they give the baby bees that makes them turn into queens. It's powerful stuff that is at the core of what he believes about the power of coaching in hoops. On the NBA Today podcast, Thorpe really gets into what that royal jelly is and how it works.

The way he tells it there are some players (LeBron James, Kevin Durant) who will succeed no matter what their environment. Some other players simply aren't cut out for the NBA.

But in between are most of the players we talk about every day. He says all kinds of guys (James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Udonis Haslem, JaVale McGee, Tyreke Evans etc.) could be amazing with the right setting, the right coaching, the right inspiration and trust. Without the "royal jelly," they could all be far less valuable, or even out of the league.

The" royal jelly" approach to the game is almost the exact opposite of the idea that a player is what he is, and that is that, and there is nothing anybody can do about it.