Exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches around the world

Happy Sunday! We hope you all enjoy Game 7 of the NBA Finals tonight!

ICYMI: Last week, we revisited Olympiacos offensive strategy to counter the "under "in the PNR. Read the full newsletter HERE.

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This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Modern Game Truths - Perception & Scanning​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Tiago Splitter {Paris Basketball & Portland Trailblazers}

📢 Hudl + FastModel

🥇 Best of the Week: Iverson Loop & Penetration Automatics​

📚 Interesting Reads: Bad Advice, Great Strategy, and 24 Principles of Leadership

Let's dive in...

Perception & Scanning

Decision Complexity, Tracking Capacity, Spatial Awareness, Perception Speed...these are a few of the topics we discussed a few weeks ago on the podcast with S2 Cognition co-founder Scott Wylie {🎧} about measuring players' cognitive capacities and the components of decision-making. That podcast is one of many interesting conversations we continue to seek out about how coaches can continue to push the edges of effectively training players given what we now understand about the science of learning, decision making, and skill adaptation. In today’s game, true "skill" is arguably the ability of a player to consistently make the right decision in a dynamic, ever-changing environment. When a player can routinely access the correct decision, we can then focus on developing their technical abilities to improve execution and efficiency. But the depth of a player’s "bag" is meaningless if they aren’t given the context or environments to understand when and why to use those tools.

That’s why, in today’s next installment in the highly popular Modern Game Truths Series collaboration with The Pro Lane, we’re focusing on one critical aspect of decision-making: Perception Speed—and the role it plays in helping athletes read the game, understand their environment, and apply their technical skills with purpose.

*Note: Perception Speed can be defined as how fast an athlete processes visual details in their line of sight. Basketball is full of sudden visual changes in and around a player's vision, and the better they are at seeing and adapting to these changes the better the chances of a good decision being made. (Per our conversation with S2)

Modern Game Truths Series - About the Project

A quick recap, in our collaborative Modern Game Truths {🔒} series with Drew Dunlop and Jake Grossman of The Pro Lane, the objective is to stimulate thought and foster ideas on practical training methods that bridge the gap between the controlled training environment and the dynamic game environment, highlighting the skills, movements, and decisions that occur most frequently in a game and help stitch skills and systems together.

This series explores ways to prepare athletes for the unpredictable and chaotic nature of basketball, creating environments that reflect the challenges presented in the game itself.

Perception & Decision Making

To open today's training series, we begin by priming the athlete with quick, situationally driven decision-making drills. The goal being to place them in game-like scenarios they’ll frequently encounter, challenging them to scan the defensive rotations and make the correct pass based on the defense's reaction.

Zooming In: We illustrate this drill concept in today's video using a Shake PNR, where the ballhandler is tasked with either hitting the roller or finding the corner. We also apply it through a wing stampede catch (as shown above), requiring the ballhandler to read the help rotation and decide between delivering to the dunker or skipping to the corner.

Zooming In 2.0: Another favorite drill component we like to layer in whenever possible is adding a second action after the primary task- i.e., once the ballhandler makes the correct pass, they must immediately re-space and prepare for the next task. This often takes the form of a shooting challenge, with or without a contest. In the pursuit of getting more "reps out of the rep," the player is pushed to quickly shift focus and adopt a “play after the play” mindset, completing a varied, game-like shooting action to finish the repetition.

What we value about this warm-up activity is its ability to quickly and consistently engage players with the types of situational decisions they'll face in live play. The reps are simple in structure, but each presents a fresh challenge that requires players to use their vision to scan and process the unfolding action in real time. These situations can also be easily tailored to fit the demands of your offensive system, emphasizing familiar spacing, actions, or positional concepts.

Perception & Finishing

We don’t know about you, but we’re a bit worn out watching players blindly default to the Euro Step in every finishing situation. Instead of emphasizing a long list of technical finishes, our focus today is on context-driven finishing—guided by spacing, timing, angles, and the defender’s positioning, not habit. When players learn to properly perceive the space afforded by the defense, they often arrive at cleaner, simpler scoring solutions.

Forced or low-percentage shots are usually the result of attacking into poor spacing. So, in today’s drills, we focused heavily on blind starts with varied spacing, designed to sharpen players’ perceptual skills unlocking their ability to quickly locate and attack open space with purpose at the rim.

Zooming In: Demonstrated in this “1v3 Turn & Find Finishing” drill, the player is tasked with scanning the floor immediately upon the turn and quickly identifying where the open space is to attack for a finish. Each rep presents a unique challenge due to the constantly shifting defensive positioning, but the consistent demand remains: find the space and finish, drawing from a wide range of solutions based on what the defense allows.

As mentioned earlier, perception speed plays a major role in shot selection. Players today are arguably more technically skilled than ever, but challenges arise when their focus narrows solely to beating their individual defender. In their effort to win the 1v1, they often fail to scan beyond the matchup and recognize the help or space. This leads to situations where a player makes a strong move to create an advantage, only to drive directly into confined space with a waiting help defender and no exit strategy in place.

To address this challenge, we use a “1v3 Drive the Gap” drill. The setup gives the offensive player a slight advantage to start off the dribble, shifting the focus away from simply beating their defender and toward reading the second line of defense. The goal is to train players to look beyond the initial matchup and find scoring solutions as the help arrives...

Zooming In: Another layer we add to this setup to challenge shot selection is a one-pass outlet option. If no clean scoring opportunity emerges on the first side, the player can kick out and immediately play a short, 4-second 1v1 from the block. We introduce scoring values to encourage players to embrace the challenge on the first side and explore a range of finishing solutions, while also discouraging them from routinely forcing low-quality shots.

By designing drills that sharpen perception speed and rewards purposeful decision-making, we aim to develop players who don’t just see the game, but truly read it. This ability to process what’s unfolding on the court—to recognize spacing, timing, and defensive positioning—allows players to make smarter choices and unlock cleaner, higher-percentage scoring opportunities. It’s in that understanding where skill gains meaning and impact.

​SG+ Members can now view today’s complete Modern Game Truths' "Perception and Scanning" series on SGTV!

Together with Dr. Dish

🚨This month only, Slappin’ Glass subscribers can get an exclusive $2,000 off plus FREE shipping on their purchase of a Dr. Dish CT+, All-Star+, or Rebel+. Hurry to secure your savings before 6/30 or while supplies last!​

Slappin' Glass Podcast

🎙 Slappin’ Glass Podcast with Tiago Splitter

This week’s conversation with newly hired Portland Trailblazer Assistant Coach, Tiago Splitter, offered a clear lens into how one of the EuroLeague’s most exciting coaches built a system rooted in pace, simplicity, and clarity. This season, Splitter's Paris team played with unmatched tempo and purpose, and his thoughts on teaching, planning, and decision-making were both pragmatic and nuanced.

Here are three takeaways from our conversation that resonated:

1. Simplicity Drives Speed​
Splitter’s team plays with high pace—not just in transition, but within possessions. Their system is built around daily repetition of simple spacing and screening reads (Iverson, drag, ghost, flip). Practice drills are capped at 6 minutes to maintain pace and urgency.

By reducing cognitive load, players make quicker decisions and maintain rhythm through possessions.

2. Fit the System to the Player​
Splitter outlined how Paris adapted the same offensive framework to two very different PGs:

• TJ Shorts (non-shooter): Emphasis on re-screens, jail reads, and bigs creating space with physicality
• Nadir Hifi (deep shooter): Used flips, slips, and pre-screens to manipulate hedges

He builds menu-based learning, allowing players to choose actions based on coverage—but it’s drilled daily with 2-on-0, 3-on-0, and scripted reads.

3. Emotion + Clarity in Decision-Making​
As a first-year head coach, Splitter spoke candidly about managing doubt, fatigue, and adjustments over a long season.

After a 10-game win streak followed by a skid, he focused on keeping players connected through film, honesty, and communication. He also credited Spurs influence for his commitment to 0.5 basketball and role clarity.

To hear the entire conversation with Coach Splitter, listen on the link below...

Together with Hudl

Whether you’re in-season, prepping for summer workouts, or deep in the portal scouting, Hudl’s ecosystem has you covered. With FastModel tools now fully integrated, your plays, scouts, film, and recruiting all live in one place. That means better collaboration, cleaner workflows, and more time actually coaching.

​Learn more about Hudl and Fastmodel or subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

Tactical

📺 Iverson Loop - DHO • RIP Screen​

"A clever continuation on the Iverson Loop, transitioning into a DHO followed up with a RIP Screen."

✚ Pair With: Bilbao looping the Iverson cutter into a pin down to generate a post seal for the screening big.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown of Lithuanian club Lietkabelis' Iverson Loop series.

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📺 Penetration Automatics - Post • Dunker Spacing​

"Dunker spot spacing automatics around the post-up, designed to punish both the rim protector and the crack back defender."

✚ Pair With: A few additional penetration scenarios and how the big can continue to create space.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown of Joventut Badalona's clever use of the dunker spot in short roll situations with Ante Tomic.

Interesting Reads

📚 What Makes a Strategy Great​

Great strategies accomplish this with the following characteristics:

• Simple: Reshapes complexity to be manageable and actionable.
• Candid: Dares to spotlight the most difficult truths.
• Decisive: Asserts clear decisions and accepts their consequences.
• Leveraged: Magnifies strengths into durable competitive advantage.
• Asymmetric: Defeats uncertainty with higher upside than downside.
• Futuristic: Solves for the long-term.

Without these qualities, the so-called “strategy” is at best a plan; at worst, it’s wishful thinking masquerading as “vision.”

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📚 24 Leadership Principles From The Greatest Business, Military, Political and Sports Leaders​

A Leader Has a Guiding Philosophy. Football coach Bill Walsh took the 49ers from the worst team in the league to Super Bowl champions in just three years thanks to his “Standard of Performance” philosophy. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is known for his “Win Forever” philosophy—the winning mindset he aims to instill in his staff and players. The great coach John Wooden had his “Pyramid of Success” philosophy. These philosophies and frameworks are critical as they codify the principles and rules by which a team will make decisions and operate on a day-to-day basis.

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📚 Very Bad Advice​

Forecast with precision, certainty, and confidence.

Maximize for immediate applause over long-term reputation.

Value the appearance of looking busy.

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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