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

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! Today is the 200th straight Sunday of the newsletter!

ICYMI: Last week, we released Part 1 of our "Film Room" session with Coach TJ Saint on "Cluster" Spacing in the angled ballscreen and the Dribble Point offense. Read the breakdown and watch the video HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: TJ Saint - Euro Spacing, Driving the Wake, and Playing Small​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Dylan Murphy {Osceola Magic}

🥇Best of the Week: SLOB Zippers & Horns 4​

📣 Las Vegas Social Tuesday, July 16th!

We'll be back again at the NBA Summer League hosting another great Coaches Social this Tuesday, July 16th! As an SG Plus member you get an invite! Secure your spot at the event by joining SG Plus now...

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Let's dive in...

Euro Spacing & Driving the Wake

We are back this week with Part 2 of our "Film Room" session with the G League's Birmingham Squadron Head Coach, TJ Saint. Last week's Part 1 is already one of the most viewed videos of the year and is absolutely packed with great insight from Coach Saint. In today's session, we will complete our discussion of his actions and spacing concepts within the Dribble Point offense before turning our focus to offensive strategies when playing small. So let's run it back...

We pick up our conversation by continuing to look at the various calls Coach Saint uses to layer actions into the offense, such as the pin away "Touch" call...

Zooming In: "Touch" is a call for a pin down to the next available player behind either the hand-off or PNR.

With the "Touch" call, Coach Saint emphasizes that it is not necessarily for the player receiving the screen to come off and shoot a 3. Instead, he preaches turning the corner off the pin down to convert them, essentially, into PNRs, with the screener rolling in behind the curl. This strategy benefits players who may not excel at setting up a PNR but can leverage their shooting ability to get defenders chasing, allowing them to curl into the paint to hunt for high-percentage shots at the rim or kick-out 3's.

*Bonus: For more on how to put "non-PNR" players in ballscreen-type actions like "Gets", view our breakdown HERE {🔒}.

Middle Ballscreen Spacing

When using a middle ballscreen within their Dribble Point offense Coach Saint utilizes different spacing concepts based on floor balance to stress the defense. When running a ball screen to the loaded side of the floor (two in front with one player behind the ball screen), Coach Saint deploys "I" Spacing. In this setup, the two players in front of the ball cluster below the free-throw line to clear the nail, allowing the ballhandler to achieve deeper penetration off the ballscreen...

Zooming In: The intent of this spacing is to generate a single-side tag. By positioning the two players in front of the ball along the baseline, space is created for the ballhandler to break the paint. This should draw the big defender to the ball and force the lone weakside defender to make a decision: either pull in to tag the roll or stay with the lifted player (shown above). We talked in Part 1 about the "lifted spacing" Coach Saint enjoys using, and you can see here how that concept makes it extremely difficult on that backside defender to have any affect on the roller without fear of a throwback three.

However, when the spacing is flipped and the ballhandler is attacking away from the loaded side, Coach Saint opts to hold the lone strong-side player at the 45 spot rather than spacing them to the corner (Euro Spacing). Why? As the ballhandler attacks off the screen, this positioning often draws the elbow defender in towards the ball. Meanwhile, the player at the 45 drifts to the corner on the help, creating a long closeout and potential opportunities for a corner 3. Subtle, but good stuff...

Playing Small

Due to injuries, call-ups, and the nature of the G League, Coach Saint was forced to play small at several points during the season. Fortunately, this led to several interesting actions and concepts that Coach Saint shared with us, detailing his efforts to create advantages and find ways to break the paint. The majority of these centered around attacking cross-matches or bigs through "Go" catches and confusing the switch using pitches rather than DHOs.

Zooming In: A pitch is a murky action designed to create defensive confusion. It blurs the lines between a hand-off, a ball screen, and a pass. This ambiguity can lead to defensive lapses as the two defenders try to determine whether a switch is needed or not.

By continually transitioning from one pitch/slip to another, Coach Saint was searching for even the smallest crack in the defense to break the paint and get to advantage basketball.

Drive the Wake

Another concept Coach Saint detailed in today's video, is another interesting strategy to combat switching, called "Driving the Wake". For a brief moment after a switch, the previous on-ball defender often loses vision while chasing after their new match up. This creates a momentary gap for the ballhandler to cross back over into and attack...

Like Part 1, today's Part 2 "Film Room" Session with Coach Saint is packed with additional thoughts and insights into the "why's and how's" of all these actions, along with how they were pieced together to flow naturally as either sets, calls, or "play after the play" actions.

For much more, please enjoy this week's newest breakdown on SGTV...

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

We sat down this week with the Head Coach of the G-League's Osceola Magic, Dylan Murphy! In this highly interesting conversation we dive into Coach Murphy's thoughts on coaching meetings, including "Rumbles", moving big rocks, embracing the gray, and explore winning the PNR battle, and Plato and Aristotle during a highly entertaining "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Listen to the entire conversation here...

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Tactical

📺 Lithuania - SLOB Zipper • Slip Corner​

"Lithuania slipping the 4-Man out of the step up screen to the corner, creating confusion on the ball and setting up the PG filling behind for the 1-5 angled screen."

✚ Pair With: The Warriors & Lithuanian NT Horns Twist Flex​

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our Defensive Breakdown on Weaking the Middle Step Up back into the Next Help.

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📺 Virtus Bologna - Horns 4 •Rips • Veer​

"Always appreciate adding a veer screen to an action, either to generate a three-pointer or to break into the paint with a defender chasing the curl."

✚ Pair With: Quin Snyder's Horns 4 Zoom to a Corner Pin​

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our Defensive Breakdown on Stunting off the Pass & offensive strategies to Punish the Stunt.

Interesting Reads

📚 Can Steve Kerr Make a Star-Studded Team USA Work Like a Dream?​

“He’s extremely collaborative,” Brown said. “Not just with his staff but with his players, too. He gives them ownership of the process. And if a player or a group of players has ownership in any process that you’re going through, they’re going to give it that much more to make it work.”

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📚 Emotions, Body Language and a Photo of ‘Defeat’: How Gareth Southgate Turned England’s Euro 2024 Campaign Around​

“There was a danger. But, I was determined to confront it. We’ve just drawn against Denmark, they’re on two points, we’re on four, they’re celebrating with their fans, we’re on our knees.”

The players were told: “We don’t want to see that body language again, we don’t want to see that feeling of defeat.”

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📚 The Two Types of Knowledge: The Max Planck/Chauffeur Test​

"Real knowledge comes when people do the work. On the other hand, we have the people who don’t do the work — they pretend. While they’ve learned to put on a good show, they lack understanding. They can’t answer questions that don’t rely on memorization. They can’t explain things without using jargon or vague terms. They have no idea how things interact. They can’t predict the consequences."
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Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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