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

Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we looked at the Hook Ghost Screen and its effectivenss in attacking a switch and combating defensive steers. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Practice Design and Drill Structure

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Attacking the Switch in Secondary Actions, Co-Creating Stories, and Elevated Horns Actions. {SG Deep Dive}

🎥 Hudl Spotlight: Connecting film, analytics, playlists, and FastModel data to improve assist rate.

🥇 Best of the Week: Iverson Loop & "Bad Spacing" Pops​

👀 Podcast Guest Recommendations: Someone in your network a great potential guest? Let us know HERE!​

Designing for Transfer

At the highest levels of the game, the challenge is rarely a lack of information.

NBA, pro, and college staffs have more film, data, scouts, actions, coverages, and player development ideas than ever before. The separator is often something different:

How well can those ideas be taught, practiced, transferred, and adapted when the game gets fast, physical, and unpredictable?

A concept can look great on film. A coverage can make sense in a meeting. A skill can be clean in an individual workout. But the real test is whether players can recognize the cue, make the decision, and execute the solution when the defense changes, the spacing shifts, and the possession gets messy.

That is why practice design matters.

This week, we’re revisiting a few SG+ pieces that live in that space — Drew Dunlop’s work on ecological design and player development, Zach Guthrie’s rethinking of the warm-up as a decision-making environment, and our own Play It Down breakdowns.

Together, they point toward a larger question:

How do we design environments that help players not just learn the concept, but own it when the game demands it?

What You’ll Learn

• How better practice design can help players transfer concepts into live, unpredictable possessions
• Why decision-making, variability, and representative problems matter in player development
• How coaches can use structures like 4v4 Build Down and Play It Downs to connect tactics, skill work, and scout prep

​Drew Dunlop: Designing for Transfer {🔒}

One of the presentations that got us talking the most at our 2nd Annual Slappin’ Glass SoCal Coaches Summit was Drew Dunlop’s demonstration of ecological design in both player and concept development.

At the center of the idea is a simple but important shift: instead of asking players to rehearse scripted solutions, design environments where they have to solve realistic problems.

That means the goal is not simply to make workouts look more “game-like.” It is to create learning environments where players are constantly perceiving, deciding, adapting, and solving the types of problems they’ll actually face in games.

The same ideas also shaped our collaboration with Drew on Modern Game Truths, a skill development series built around the movements, decisions, and game problems that show up most often in live play. The larger question throughout the series was how coaches can better connect individual development to the spacing, timing, physical demands, and decisions of the way their team actually plays.

​Rethinking the Warm Up {🔒}

That same theme shows up in team preparation.

Another popular presentation from the SoCal Summit came from South Bay Lakers head coach Zach Guthrie, who shared how he has reimagined warmups as a way to prepare players for action while also training quick mental transitions.

In the G League, where practice time is limited and rosters can change quickly, warmups can’t just be routine movement. Guthrie’s approach turns that time into a mini-practice, using game actions, opponent coverages, and real-time decisions to help players sharpen their reads before tip-off.

At the center of that approach is his 4v4 Build Down drill, which creates multiple decision-making opportunities, forces players to constantly re-space, and allows coaches to shape the defense in scout-specific ways.

This drill is valuable for a number of reasons:
​
1. It creates multiple decision-making opportunities for players, with coaches able to adjust their defense in scout-specific ways to prepare for that night’s opponent.

2. It provides more “touch points” at game speed, giving players valuable reps in different spots on the floor.

3. It forces players to constantly re-space as teammates rotate off, reinforcing the idea that spacing is dynamic rather than static.

4. It builds both tactical and technical awareness by placing players in an adaptable environment that challenges them to adjust and improve in real time.

​Play It Downs {🔒}

We’ve also explored this same idea inside SG+ through our own Play It Down breakdowns.

Rather than teaching an action in isolation, Play It Downs allow coaches to layer offensive concepts through changing situations, asking players to re-space, reorganize, and attack the next advantage as the possession evolves.

The drill can be used for ball screen offense, off-ball screening actions, split cuts, turnouts, scout preparation, or any concept you want players to better understand in context.

The value is that players are not just running the action. They are learning how the action connects to the next decision.

The Common Thread

The common thread in all of this is transfer.

Whether it’s Drew Dunlop designing environments that help players solve game problems, Zach Guthrie turning warmups into decision-making reps, or Play It Downs creating layered, competitive possessions, the goal is the same:

Help players carry the ideas we value into the parts of the game we can’t fully control.

At the highest levels, that is often where the margins live. Not just in having the right concept, coverage, or development plan, but in building the environments where players can recognize cues, adapt to changing pictures, and execute under pressure.

As teams move into the offseason, it’s worth asking:

Are our practices giving players the right problems to solve?
Are our drills creating decisions or simply repetitions?
Does our player development work connect back to how we want to play?
Are we helping players own concepts, or just run them?

These are the types of questions we’re excited to keep exploring inside SG+.

More coming soon!

🔐 For more on the Practice Design and Drill Structure, become an SG+ member to unlock the rest of this newsletter, the full breakdown, and access to our entire film library.

Together with NABC

If you’re a basketball coach, you belong in the NABC community!

The NABC is the leading professional development and advocacy organization for coaches, serving over 5,000 members across all levels of basketball.

Why join? Members gain access to the NABC Convention and regional clinics, exclusive awards and mentoring opportunities, valuable discounts, and a voice in shaping the future of basketball.

If you're serious about growing as a coach and staying connected to the game’s biggest conversations, this is where you belong.

Become a member today and make your impact as a Guardian of the Game. Learn more HERE.

🎙Attacking the Switch in Secondary Actions, Co-Creating Stories, and Elevated Horns Actions {SG Deep Dive}

In this week’s Slappin’ Glass Deep Dive, we go deeper into one of the most important offensive conversations in the modern game: how to attack switching defenses.

As switching continues to become a preferred solution for defenses at every level, offenses can no longer rely only on simply “getting the matchup” and hoping the possession solves itself. The best teams are finding ways to create the switch, organize spacing around it, and attack before the defense can load up, scram out, or triple switch its way back to neutral.

In this episode, we explore the details behind turning a switch into a real advantage. From immediate mismatch attacks and early seals, to stampedes, clears, flares, pitches, short rolls, and corner skips, the conversation focuses on how offenses can punish the defense without becoming stagnant or predictable.

We also discuss the importance of storytelling in teaching offense. The best concepts are not just a list of actions, but a way to help players understand the problem, recognize the advantage, and play with clarity inside the possession.

For coaches looking to better understand modern spacing, mismatch creation, and late-clock problem solving, this Deep Dive offers a detailed look at how top teams are attacking one of basketball’s most common defensive answers.

What You’ll Learn:

1. How to attack switching defenses with more than just isolation​
   We explore ways to punish switches through seals, stampedes, clears, flares, pitches, and short-roll solutions.
2. Why timing matters after the switch happens​
   The offense has a small window before the defense can load up, scram out, or triple switch back to neutral.
3. How storytelling helps players understand offensive concepts​
   The best teaching connects the action to the problem it solves, giving players more clarity and confidence inside the possession.

Listen to the entire episode below...

Together with Hudl

Hudl helps basketball staffs turn film into better decisions.

By connecting Sportscode, Hudl Instat, and Fastmodel tools like FastDraw, FastScout, and FastRecruit, Hudl brings video, scouting, recruiting, and game planning into one seamless workflow. Less time managing tools. More clarity in preparation, teaching, and evaluation, built for how college and professional programs actually operate.

For a deeper look at how these tools can support a program’s workflow, we broke down how we used the Hudl suite to connect film, analytics, player playlists, and FastModel data around one season-long point of emphasis: improving assist rate. You can watch the full breakdown HERE.

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

Tactical

📺 Iverson Loop - Peja​

"Looping the Iverson cutter directly into a Peja action."

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

✚ SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Lithuanian Club BC Lietkabelis' Iverson Loop series.

🔒 Horns Entry • Spanoulis - "Bad Spacing" Pops​

"Creating bad space to open up great space. By bunching up three players in the corner offense can maximize space for the pop ballscreen."

🔒 Pair With: More sharp set design from Ibon Navarro, using a turnout entry to flow into an elbow catch, then screening a shooter to the ball while sending the big to the rim.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdowns into Coach Navarro's Arrive Offense and Turnout Design for the top player.

Interesting Reads

📚 The Most Radical Act in an Age of Outrage is to Play​

Once you understand that play is foundational, the next step becomes surprisingly simple: weave small acts of playfulness back into daily life. Laugh daily, move your body, and learn a skill that engages both hands and mind. Turn off the noise long enough to hear your own thoughts. Invite someone to play, even if it feels awkward at first. Protect your autonomy the way previous generations protected their liberties.

📚 How American Dads Became the Parents Their Fathers Never Were​

Compared to their parents, Millennial fathers have roughly tripled the amount of time they spend with kids. The new American dad is more present and more exhausted—but also, more satisfied with life.

📚 "Nothing" is the Secret to Structuring Your Work​

This is how many people work: they start with a mess, work terribly hard while adding to the mess, then lose oversight and get frustrated. The harder they work, the worse it gets.

But there's a simple solution, and it's probably the opposite of what you'd expect. The secret isn't better organization systems, more folders, or color-coded labels. The secret is starting with nothing.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com