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

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new members from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we examined Anadolu Efes’ transition offense featuring a rim-running 4-man turning the rim seal into a Spain ballscreen. Read the full newsletter HERE.

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This Week at a Glance:

📺 SGTV: Punishing the Hedge - Slip Out Hook Screen​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Rhett Soliday {Vanguard University}

📢 Dr. Dish & Hudl Instat

🥇 Best of the Week: Ricky Screens & Gaggle Screening​

Let's dive in...

Slip Out Hook Screen

Over the course of this season, one thing has stood out: more teams than ever are aggressively defending the ballscreen, especially using the "Hedge and Plug" {🔒} coverage. With opponents now routinely facing some form of a hedge, we’ve been paying close attention to how teams are choosing to attack it, whether through clever screening techniques or innovative ballscreen concepts.

Today’s breakdown covers both, focusing on a coordinated offensive action designed specifically to punish the hedge.

Slip Out Hook Screen

In this “Slip Out Hook Screen,” the offense starts by running a decoy step-up/reverse ballscreen to bait the big defender into hedging, afterwhich, the screener immediately slips out and sprints from elbow to elbow, setting up a second "hook" ballscreen on the throwback pass to the guard lifting behind in the opposite slot. Here's an example...

Spacing

Due to the coordinated nature of this action, we often see it deployed as part of a designed set, with entries crafted to space the intended ballhandler in the slot behind the first decoy screen so they can attack into the short side of the floor off the "hook" screen. AEK Athens, shown above, uses this action to great effect, often flowing from a stagger away-to-pitch back, or "touch," option in order to get the correct spacing before triggering the “Slip Out Hook Screen”.

Why it's Effective?

Why coordinate this complex action? We recently examined the use of a "flip screen" {🔒} as a way to punish defenses that hedge aggressively...

...Due to the flip screen’s unpredictable nature, the on-ball defender is often left trying to force the ball into a screen that never comes, making it a potent way to set up "rejects" {🔒} for speedy guards.

Even if a team isn't hedging, and merely wanting to switch or "drop" on the ballscreen, flipping the screen can still cause confusion for the defenders and open up driving lanes for the ballhandler. We looked at this a ton in our past breakdown of Ben McCollum's offensive principles {🔒}...

While the above benefits of the "flip screen" are many, it often involves a ballhandler with a live dribble making a patient, coordinated read with their big. The "Slip Out Hook Screen" differs slightly in that it allows the guard to make a play off the catch in more of a "stampede-like" action...

Zooming In: Some additional benefits of this "hook" screen are 1) due to the fact that many teams try and plug the nail during the normal step-up screen spacing, the offensive big has a great angle to actually set a solid screen on that top defender during the "hook" since that guard is pulled in so far, and 2) the misdirection of this action almost guarantees that the defending big will be late and sprinting into a sort of "drop" coverage look during the "hook" screen, allowing the offensive guard the space and time to make a play downhill.

This action likely won’t replace a team's foundational ballscreen concepts, but as a well-timed wrinkle, it can free a playmaker in space against a vulnerable coverage. Its value lies in the ability to manipulate the defense into doing exactly what the offense intends—baiting the hedge, timing the second screen, and turning the defense’s own coverage rules against them. To see this coordinated ballscreen effort in action, SG+ Members can now view the full breakdown on SGTV!

Together with Dr. Dish

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

We sat down this week with the HC of D2 Vanguard University, Rhett Soliday! The former NAIA Coach of the Year after winning the 2014 National Championship brings a wealth of knowledge to the show as we dive into Coach Soliday's philosophy on winning with smaller guards, defending all 94 feet of the floor, and discusses BLOB tactics along with "teachable moments" as a coach during the always entertaining "Start, Sub, or Sit?! segment.

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Together with Hudl

If you’ve used FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit before, you should know: they’re now part of the Hudl family. That means tighter integrations with Sportscode, access to Instat data, and a cleaner workflow across your whole program. It’s everything you’ve come to expect from Fastmodel—just better connected. Learn more about what Hudl and Fastmodel are building together! Subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

Tactical

📺 Iverson Entry - Ricky Screen Variations

"A few subtle variations of the Ricky screen out of the Iverson entry."

✚ Pair With: A BLOB set designed to bring a shooter back to the ball off the "Ricky" screen simultaneously as the ballhandler attacks off the side PNR.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Tuomas Iisalo's Iverson Keep spacing and execution.

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📺 SLOB & BLOB - Gaggle Screening​

"Czech club ERA Nymburk using Gaggles at the elbow to generate unpredictability and defensive confusion."

✚ Pair With: The skip pass to attack the low help behind the high split screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our "Film Room" session with St. Louis HC Josh Schertz on Gaggle Screening.

Interesting Reads

📚 What I Wish Someone Had Told Me​

8. Outcomes are what count; don’t let good process excuse bad results.

9. Spend more time recruiting. Take risks on high-potential people with a fast rate of improvement. Look for evidence of getting stuff done in addition to intelligence.

10. Superstars are even more valuable than they seem, but you have to evaluate people on their net impact on the performance of the organization.

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📚 Anthony Edwards and the Journey From Imitation to Innovation​

There are the parts of Edwards’s image that leap off the screen. His irrepressible charisma—not just telling Obama that he better recognize that Ant is “the truth” but that the rest of “d’boys” on the U.S. Olympic team “know.” How the fifth-year pro is able to take televised showmanship and strip it down to the point where viewers start to wonder whether he’s aware of the camera rolling or simply doesn’t care. The pearly smile and the icy earlobes and the buoyant charm.

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📚 Extraordinary Composure Under Extraordinary Pressure​

But things will go wrong. You’ll make a great effort and still fall short. You’ll face moments where your emotions flare and your plans fall apart.

What matters most is how you respond.

Again and again and again.

Excellence does not mean control. It does not mean perfection

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

We're proud to partner with the leading Sports Travel company in the basketball world, Beyond Sports! Follow the link above to learn more about why more than 600 universities have trusted Beyond Sports for their team's foreign trips. Let them know Slappin' Glass sent you!

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