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Happy Sunday and welcome all the new subscribers! We appreciate your support of what we do!!

ICYMI: Last weekend we looked at the Shuffle Cut Offense, focusing in on a few base entries and actions from which one can build the offense out of. View the free video breakdown HERE. And if you haven't heard Coach Mark Alabakov's podcast discussing these actions and more, Listen HERE.

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Today at a Glance:

📺 SG Plus Exclusive Content: Preventing the Pocket Pass - Real Madrid's High Collapse​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Stephanie White {Connecticut Sun}

🥇Best of the Week: ​​Late Game ATOs​

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Let's dive in...

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Real Madrid's High Collapse

In today's Deep Dive we're going to look at how Real Madrid tries to solve one of the more threatening passes against their drop coverage...the "short roll pocket pass."

When it comes to PnR Coverages, there's a variety of great schemes that teams use to handle "long rolling" Bigs once they've gotten beneath the Free Throw Line including "Low Man Tagging", "Triple Switching", "Drop Coverage-Stunt and Recover", "Late Veer Switching" and more...

There's also a number of ways that a defense will cover a Big who is Popping rather than rolling to the rim. Though both the rim roll and the pop are difficult to consistently fend with, the "short roll" can be just as, if not more dangerous for a defense to handle (depending on the player) because it puts the ball right into the heart of the floor with multiple options available.

Whether that short rolling big is an athletic rim attacker who can catch the pocket pass and take advantage of an open lane...

...Or is a savvy distributor and can find backside shooters for catch-and-shoot threes...

This timely pocket pass around the Free Throw line can cause major problems for a defense, making it all the more important to dissuade that pass from getting there.

Enter Real Madrid's "High Collapse", which, put simply, is their way of sinking the "high" defender in from the 2-player side to clog the short roll passing lane before recovering back to the perimeter. Here's a look...

This stunt from the "High I" defender is not something that is particularly new, but the details and reasons that Real Madrid uses it, as well as when they'll go away from it are worth looking into.

Protecting Size at the Rim

As we discussed on the podcast with former Real Madrid Coach, Pablo Laso, the strength of Center, Walter Tavares, lies in keeping him at the rim. The deeper the ball handler can get or the closer to the rim the defense can force the action, the better it is because Tavares' size can dominate the limited space available. Opponents are well aware of this fact, hence the use of the pocket pass to find solutions in space and puncture the defense. Therefore, in order to protect Tavares or any big in a Drop Coverage, as he corrals the ball handler, Real Madrid slides over the top defender to collapse the pocket and deter the pass. The best case being a steal...

The high collapse eases Tavares' burden of keeping everything in front on the drop coverage, knowing that the pocket pass is being defended by his teammates. With the pocket pass taken away the onus is put on the ball handler to either kick the ball out or continue driving into the strength of Tavares' drop coverage. If the decision is made to continue attacking deeper, Real Madrid will not overcommit on the help by shrinking in the low man. Trusting Tavares' ability to protect the rim and the recovering defender, the low man will more or less stay fanned out, forcing the offense to find solutions 2v2.

Zooming In: As shown above, as the roller moves on past the high collapse, the low man will remain fanned out. Recognizing that the big has ball and man in front, the defense will live with whatever contested 2 the offense takes or makes.

To learn more about Real Madrid's High Collapse and how they cover up the one weak spot within their drop coverage in order to funnel everything towards Tavares at the rim, including:

• Avoiding 2-Way Closeouts
• "X" Out Rotations
• Collapsing from the Single Side
• Handwork by the Big

Become an SG Plus Member for exclusive access to this breakdown and all others!

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Slappin' Glass subscribers can try Hoopsalytics for free with your own team’s games, and save 25% on any purchase by using the discount code on the page https://hoopsalytics.com/glass/​

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

Newly hired Head Coach of the Connecticut Sun, Stephanie White, joined us on the podcast this week in what was a terrific conversation surrounding a ton of relevant topics. Coach White has experience as both a high level player (Purdue and WNBA), college coach (Vanderbilt), and WNBA, as well as current work as a broadcaster, so she's got a ton of wisdom to impart. In this conversation we discuss:

• Becoming a Better Late-Game Coach: We open the show with a 25 minute conversation on all the ways Coach White is thinking about becoming a better coach down the stretch. In this segment we talk about special situations, what to do during practice, and how to stay calm and communicate in late-game timeouts.
• Teaching the "Why" and Player Buy-In: During one of our "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" questions we ask Coach White about the best ways to obtain player buy-in when you're on the court. Coach White dives into her philosophy of communicating the "why" behind everything they do, as well as other points that help players see a coach's vision.
• PNR Screening Angles: During "SSS" we also explore how Coach White prefers to teach her bigs to be better screeners, as well as the synergy with the ballhandler. Some great thoughts in here about locations, angles, and more.

Listen to the entire conversation with Stephanie White here...

Listen Now!

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Tactical

📺 Late Clock Ghost ATOs​

"Two late clock ATOs initiating with a Ghost Screen to create confusion and combat the switch prior to their primary action."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Santa Cruz Warrior HC Seth Cooper on ATOs.

✚ SG Plus Content: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on The Ghost Flare & Defending the Ghost Screen.

📺 Veer to Elevator Screen​

"One of our favorite masking actions to set up the elevator screen."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with former NBA Assistant Coach Gordie Chiesa on Half Court Execution.

✚ SG Plus Content: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on exit screening a shooter within Eric Olen's Flow Offense.

📺 Estonia NT - Single Flip Decoy Flare the 4​

"A late game set using the threat of a shooter coming off of multiple screening options to flare screen a shooting big."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Estonia HC Jukka Toijala on winning with less talent.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Inside the NBA’s Great Generation War​

"Not so long ago, retired NBA stars could put on a suit, go on ESPN, and lay into the next generation of young players with little pushback. And then something shifted: The younger guys hopped on their podcasts and Instagrams and started to fire back. Alex Wong takes us inside the seismic rift between the old talking heads and a new generation of brand-savvy, terminally online stars."

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📚 The Luckier You Are The Nicer You Should Be​

"Nothing too good or too bad stays that way forever, because great times plant the seeds of their own destruction through complacency and leverage, and bad times plant the seeds of their own turnaround through opportunity and panic-driven problem-solving."

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📚 Why Success Doesn’t Lead to Satisfaction​

"...but that pleasure is short lived, as our brains are hardwired to also seek balance from extreme emotional states. That leaves us with an empty longing to repeat whatever experience brought us that pleasure in the first place. This ostensibly addictive cycle throws our “enoughness” barometers completely out of whack, preventing us from being able to objectively gauge if what we’ve achieved is, in fact, satisfying. That’s why, although most of us intuitively know that happiness isn’t realized from the pursuit of money, status, or fame, we can’t stop ourselves from trying."

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Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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