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

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

ICYMI: Last week, we highlighted a weakside switching scheme to protect your bigs against pops in the Drop coverage. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: 4 Man Drags & Rim Seals​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Jumping on the Pickup, "Total Basketball", and Finding Flow | A Coaches’ Mailbag on Modern Advantages​

📣 Hudl Analyst Academy!

🥇 Best of the Week: Oklahoma St. & Deceptive Screens​

📚 Interesting Reads: Where Wisdom Takes Root

Lets dive in...

4 Man Drag Screens

One of the fastest growing trends in the game today is the 5 man sealing out the rim defender {🔒} on penetration, turning downhill drives into immediate advantages at the rim. Most commonly, this shows up from 4 out alignments, with a post player stationed in the dunker spot and the seal occurring off a downhill drive.

Before diving in, here’s what this breakdown will help clarify as you think about creating consistent rim pressure and converting penetration into efficient offense:

What You’ll Learn

• How the 5 man rim seal turns downhill drives into immediate advantages, even without traditional post scoring or spacing
• Why 4 man drag screens discourage early switches and shift coverage responsibility to X5, opening driving gaps
• How blurring single vs double drag forces defensive indecision and creates high-value rim finishes through slips and seals

When this dunker seal works at its best, guards are rewarded with uncontested layups. While the initial burden of beating a primary defender still rests with the ballhandler, everything that follows becomes the responsibility of the 5 man, clearing space much like a pulling offensive lineman in American football.

Zooming In: This technique also gives real offensive value to post players who may lack more traditional skill sets. If you’re playing a 5 who doesn’t have the shooting or perimeter ability to space the floor and isn’t a consistent finisher as a dump-off option, that player can still impact the possession by sealing. Even when undersized, the element of surprise favors the offense, as the seal is not a 50–50 physical contest like a neutral rebound.

If you can reliably generate a seal with your 5 man on drives, the next question becomes:

How can we create downhill penetration for our guards?

Enter the 4 man drag screen.

Using The Drag

Drag screens, especially those set by the 4 man, present a unique challenge for the defense and are an effective way to generate middle penetration that can be finished with a rim seal.

Because of the 4 man’s size and skill set, defenses are often reluctant to switch so early in the possession and concede a size mismatch, while also being wary of the pop threat behind the screen. As a result, defenses often attempt to remove the 4 man from the action by minimizing their responsibility on the ball and instead rely on the 5 man to support the drive and plug penetration. With X4 having minimal impact on the ball, the ballhandler, with the right aggression, should have opportunities to attack downhill.

Recognizing that X5 will be supporting the drag coverage, the 5 man must be prepared to slip out or dive behind the matchup, sealing X5 out of the play and their ability to protect the rim.

Zooming In: With the 4 man setting the drag, defenses are primarily concerned with the pop and often give less attention to the ballhandler. That imbalance is a key feature of this structure, consistently creating downhill driving opportunities for the guard.

One benefit of this early offense is that it doesn’t require the 5 man to sprint down the floor and establish position early. They can trail the play and remain available for a traditional double drag ("77") if needed. Once they recognize that the guard has gained an initial advantage, they can continue the run, arrive on time, and establish the seal.

Blurring The Lines

Is it a single or double drag?
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The answer: ...Yes?
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​One of the benefits of this action is how it blurs the line between a single and double drag, challenging a defense’s coverage principles. If it’s treated as a single drag with a 4 man, defenses may turn to a "Jam and Under" {🔒} coverage to protect against the pop. If it’s diagnosed as a double drag, defenses, as discussed, are likely to load help from the second screener’s defender, in this case X5.

Within that ambiguity, the 5 man has agency to flow into setting the second ballscreen if no advantage is created off the first. Even against defenses committed to going under the drag, an early slip or dive to the rim creates a valuable double gap for the guard to be aggressive and get downhill.

Win the Race

With the expectation that defenses will often play under a drag set by the 4 man, it’s important for the guard to attack with aggression. The guard should anticipate the under and look to beat the defender down the lane.

The 4 setting the drag can seek legal contact when possible, and while a confident jam can make that difficult, setting the screen at a lower angle becomes increasingly important when the under is expected.

Driving The Short Show

Another coverage solution defenses can use is the "short show", providing some presence on the ball while still staying connected to the 4 man to guard against the pick and pop.

Again, the guard must be aggressive, turning the corner and getting downhill, understanding that the show is more deterrence than true blockade. But the problem remains. If the short show coverage relies on X5 to support the penetration, positioning in the gap leaves them vulnerable to the 5 man slipping underneath and sealing them out at the rim.

Whether defenses choose to switch, go under, or short show, the common thread remains the same. Any coverage that minimizes X4’s involvement on the ball and relies on X5 to support penetration creates a tension point at the rim. The moment help commits to the drive, the seal becomes available.

To see how all of this translates from concept to execution, SG+ Members can view the complete breakdown now on SGTV!

January Mailbag

Got a coaching question? Ask us.

Our Monthly Mailbag on YouTube is your chance to bring real coaching questions directly into the Slappin’ Glass conversation.

Each month, we select and break down questions from coaches across the game—covering tactics, team concepts, leadership, podcast topics, and anything else you want us to dig into.

📩 Submit your Mailbag questions HERE, and keep an eye out for the next Mailbag episode dropping soon on YouTube.

Together with Hudl

Built for coaches who want clarity, not complexity.

If you’re already using tools like Instat or Sportscode, you know how powerful they can be. Hudl Academy is designed to help coaches get more out of the technology they already have, and confidently add what they don’t.

The Hudl Analyst Academy walks coaches through Instat, Sportscode, and the broader Hudl ecosystem, with clear, practical instruction on film workflow, tagging, breakdowns, and analysis that actually translate to winning.

​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.

🎙 Jumping on the Pickup, "Total Basketball", and Finding Flow | A Coaches’ Mailbag on Modern Advantages

What were the ideas from 2025 that coaches couldn’t stop thinking about—the ones that kept showing up in practice plans, film sessions, and staff rooms?

In this Slappin’ Glass Mailbag Episode, we revisit the most compelling concepts covered by Slappin' Glass in 2025 as well as questions sent in by coaches around the world, unpacking how modern teams are creating advantages on both sides of the ball—and why the best programs are increasingly focused on flow, disruption, and continuity rather than isolated actions.

The conversation begins with a deep dive into “jumping on the pickup” in pick-and-roll defense—a subtle but powerful technique for shrinking passing windows, generating deflections, and creating turnovers without abandoning base coverage. From there, the discussion expands into broader defensive trends around smart aggression, including selective hitting, late-clock doubles, ATO disruption, and how elite teams steal possessions without gambling.

Offensively, the group explores the growing influence of Total Basketball—a philosophy rooted in eliminating pauses between offense and defense, tagging up on the glass, arriving “already playing” in the half court, and flowing seamlessly from one advantage to the next. Coaches will hear how leading programs are emphasizing shape over spacing, simplifying actions to increase pace, and using familiar structures to unlock better decision-making under pressure.

Beyond tactics, this episode also weaves in insights from some of our most impactful off-court and analytics conversations of the year, including:

• Guiding teams into flow states
• Measuring and developing decision-making
• Understanding kill shots, runs, and game-swing moments
• Using analytics that actually help during games—not just on Twitter

This mailbag isn’t about trends for trend’s sake. It’s about how elite coaches are thinking, teaching, and designing environments that allow players to play faster, freer, and more connected—and what those ideas suggest about where the game is heading next.

🎥 This episode is also available on YouTube, with embedded video clips that bring the concepts to life.

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Tactical

📺 Oklahoma St. Base Entry - Turnout • Corner Exchange • Ram​

"Multiple actions Oklahoma State can generate from a single base entry."

✚ Pair With: Arizona stacking multiple actions out of the stagger entry.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Swarthmore College and University of Tennessee’s use of the McKillop Motion Offense.

📺 Pin Down Screening - Fake Step Up • Pin Down​

"A deceptive false step up screen designed to loosen up the defense before executing the pin down screen."

✚ Pair With: Tenerife executing a false three man game in order to mask the intended empty-side pin down screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on how passers can attack pin down screen stunts.

Interesting Reads

📚 How to Lead from the Liminal Space Where Wisdom Takes Root​

A leader who has faced their own breaking is a leader who can hold space for others to break and not rush them toward a fix.

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📚 How to Be More Agentic​

The idea of finding real edges, as contrasted with “eking out wins by grinding harder than everyone,” first clicked for me when I started playing poker. Poker in the modern era is an extraordinarily competitive game, and even 8 years ago pros were spending nearly as much time studying as they were playing, using solver models to seek out tiny mathematical advantages.

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📚 The Power of Priorities: Why Less is More​

In transformations, people feel that everything is urgent, making it hard to say no to anything. Teams don’t know where to focus—and nothing changes.

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com

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