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

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! Glad to have you as part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last week we highlighted the Utah Jazz and Coach Will Hardy using the Flare Screen to attack in transition, play positionless basketball, and connect actions. View the full breakdown HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🚨 Gonzalo Rodriguez Training Camp and Season Mentorship

🔒 SG Plus Content: Attacking the Switch - "Drive the Big" Pitchback

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Johnny Tauer {St. Thomas}

🥇Best of the Week: Attacking Unders & Nail Help

Let's dive in...

Last Chance! Early Bird pricing ends August 7th!

We are excited to announce two exciting new mentorship opportunities for SG Plus Members with Obradoiro Assistant Coach, Gonzalo Rodriguez! After a highly success first program with Coach Rodriguez this past May, we're happy to offer two different mentorship opportunities this upcoming season:

A 5-week small group "Training Camp" Mentorship (August 22 - September 19) and/or
A 7-month Season-Long program (October - May)

Coach Rodriguez has over 30 years of experience as a coach and more than a decade in Spain's top division, the ACB. For a better understanding of the program and what it will entail, view a sneak peek into last sessions program HERE.

To learn more about each program, including our early bird pricing, become a member below and join NBA, Euroleague, International, NCAA, and High School coaches from over 60 countries around the world...

Join SG Plus

Space is limited and preference will be given on a "first come, first serve" basis. Applications close August 14th.

"Drive the Big" Pitchback

More often than not, late-game and late-season success can hinge on the ability of an offense to generate quality shots against the switch. Not only are teams becoming incredibly adept at switching and protecting their mismatches (see Barcelona's Switch and Shrink), but Bigs themselves are also increasingly better prepared in undertaking their task against the perimeter isolation 🔒...

In past newsletters we've explored several strategies teams have deployed to avoid stagnate, iso 1v1s such as 1) punishing the weakside help or 2) forcing Bigs to defend another action post switch. 🔒 Today, we will focus on an improved wrinkle to a current strategy that offenses are using, especially when the ballhandler receiving the switch is a shooter...

Zooming In: With a dominant shooter involved in the ball screen, Barcelona found a tremendous amount of success by having the ball handler/shooter get off the ball in order to receive it immediately back from a teammate driving at the Big and pitching it back.

Taking advantage of the Bigs' natural tendency to sink in off the ball and their unfamiliarity in defending off-ball perimeter-oriented actions, Barcelona routinely generated quality 3-point attempts while playing within the strengths of their players.

Optimizing Space

As mentioned, driving the big to attack through a pitch is an upgraded wrinkle to another, and still effective, strategy of solely driving at the big. What we appreciate about incorporating the pitch is the easy nature of the pass and its ability to eliminate any possibility of stunts off the corner or from the 2nd help...

Zooming In: As shown above, the drive serves its purpose of attracting help from the Big. However, with the shooter holding his position or sometimes even drifting on the penetration, the second help can be brought into play.

However, with the pitch, one can notice all the empty space vacated behind the penetration...

Therefore, running behind the drive to receive the pitch ensures that the action remains 2v2.

To learn much more on how Barcelona optimizes space within this strategy, along with:

Penetration Angles: DHO vs. Pitch
Barcelona's Zipper execution
Flaring the mismatch
Timing of the Pitchback

View the breakdown now on SGTV!

Together with Hudl

We're proud to partner with one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, Hudl! Every play, every stat, every breakdown. On their own, they’re essential. But all together, they’re undeniable. Hudl recently introduced their newest product, Hudl Instat – a new advanced data platform that integrates with Sportscode and every Hudl product you rely on to create an all-in-one data powerhouse. Hudl Instat’s advanced tagging and next-level stat reports help you develop your team – and its global film library helps you find the missing piece to get the most out of every second of film. Visit hudl.com/slappinglass to learn more.

Slappin' Glass Podcast

"You know, when we ask players, kids at camp, do coaches favor players? And they all say 'no' because they want to say the politically correct thing. Yes, we absolutely do. We favor the good listeners, we favor the hard workers, we favor the guys that are coachable, we favor the guys that shoot well, pass well. Yes, we absolutely play favorites. And so getting kids to understand, at some level, if you're not getting what you want on a team, figuring out now 'what does your coach want?' Because I say that to our players all the time 'you want better things in life. Give your boss what he or she wants.'" - Johnny Tauer

We had a fantastic time on the podcast this week as we were joined by University of St. Thomas Head Coach, Johnny Tauer. As you'll hear in the episode, Coach Tauer is a high level thinker about all things on an off the court and we dove into topics on:

The transition from D3 to D1, and what wins at both levels (St. Thomas was forced out of their conference in D3 and joined D1 the next season)
Turnovers...how to limit and track them
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
And we talk "over eager parents" and teaching Split Cuts during the always fun "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Johnny Tauer here...

Listen Now!

Tactical

📺 FC Barcelona - Ghost • DHO

"A clever counter to punish a defender determined to go under the ghost screen or any ballscreen, dribble the PG directly into a DHO."

✚ Pair With: FC Barcelona's end of quarter Ghost Flare Pin 5.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Olympiacos' Under Attack in the Ballscreen.

📺 Anadolu Efes - Isolation Slide Cuts

"Efes punish the nail help behind a middle third isolation by cutting the corner and drifting the wing."

✚ Pair With: Out of the two guard front, Baruch College will free the nail for an isolation using the same cuts.

🔒SG Plus Content: Our "Inside the Set" with Baruch College John Alesi on Teaching the Point Series.

Interesting Reads

📚 How to Do Great Work

"One of the biggest misconceptions about new ideas is about the ratio of question to answer in their composition. People think big ideas are answers, but often the real insight was in the question.

Part of the reason we underrate questions is the way they're used in schools. In schools they tend to exist only briefly before being answered, like unstable particles. But a really good question can be much more than that. A really good question is a partial discovery."

📚 A Commitment is Different from a Goal – Here’s Why that Matters

“Goals are specific, measurable and time-bound objectives that a person aims to achieve. They provide direction and purpose for your actions and decisions. On the other hand, commitments refer to your attachment or determination to reach a goal. You can think of goals as a precondition to making a commitment. Another way of putting it is that a goal is something that you want to do. A commitment supports that goal and is something you have to do.”

📚 Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration

"What’s needed is a psychological approach. When I analyzed sustained collaborations in a wide range of industries, I found that they were marked by common mental attitudes: widespread respect for colleagues’ contributions, openness to experimenting with others’ ideas, and sensitivity to how one’s actions may affect both colleagues’ work and the mission’s outcome. Yet these attitudes are rare."

Quote of the Week

“Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life.” - Hunter S Thompson

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

Slappin' Glass

🏀 Attacking the Switch - "Drive the Big" Pitchback