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 highlighted a subtle rebounding technique that creates early vision, cleaner outlet angles, and immediate pace. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Hook Ghost Screens - Retriggers & Switch Attack​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Rusty Earnshaw {Performance Coach}

🥇 Best of the Week: Pop Entry Turnout & BLOB Screen the Screener​

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

Hook Ghost Screen

As coaches, we are constantly trying to put out fires on and off the court. And when it comes to solving problems against quality defenses, we often feel like we can only attack one issue at a time.

But what if there was a technique that could combat three of the most common problems offenses face?

1. Retriggering an action late in the clock
2. Attacking the switch
3. Dealing with physical defenders steering away screeners

Well, you're in luck!

This week inside SG+, we’re looking at the Hook Ghost Screen, a combination of two modern basketball techniques that, when paired together, can create space, cause confusion, and produce quality shots in a hurry within the framework of a two-man game.

On its own, the hook screen is already growing in popularity because of the way it forces the screening defender to guard more of the floor. Instead of setting the screen from a predictable location, the screener can shallow cut underneath the ball before hooking back into the action, creating a much tougher defensive path to navigate.

Now add the ghost.

The defense prepares for the screen, starts to chase the hook, and then suddenly the screener is gone. That quick layer of deception can blur the responsibilities of both the on-ball defender and the screening defender, especially when the coverage is built around switching or physically steering the screener out of the action.

And that is where the Hook Ghost Screen becomes more than just a clever two-man game wrinkle.

It becomes a way to stretch the defense horizontally, stress the switch, and use the defense’s own physicality against them.

Inside the full SG+ breakdown, we take a deeper look at:

• How the Hook Ghost Screen stretches the defense across both outer thirds of the floor.
• Why layering the hook and ghost can turn a simple switch into a “switch under stress.”
• How to use a defense’s physical steer against them to create separation.

The best offenses in the world are finding ways to turn small advantages into major ones. One way they do that is by layering consecutive actions in rapid succession, forcing the defense to solve one problem before immediately presenting them with another.

The Hook Ghost Screen is a perfect example.

🔐 For more on the Hook Ghost Screen, 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.

🎙Rusty Earnshaw on Leadership Mindsets, "The Invisibles", and Mastering Tough Conversations

In this episode of the Slappin’ Glass Podcast, we sit down with performance coach and leadership expert Rusty Earnshaw to explore the evolving role of the modern coach, from tactician to culture architect. The conversation dives into the concept of multiple mindsets, and how great coaches constantly shift between teaching, challenging, and competing environments, while also navigating emotional, tactical, and relational demands.

Rusty unpacks how elite coaches create shared language and mental models within teams, aligning both staff and players around clear expectations while still allowing for individual growth. He also introduces practical frameworks for leadership, including how to balance player ownership with authority, and how to build environments that produce better learners, not just better players.

The episode goes deep into one of the most critical and often overlooked coaching skills: having tough conversations. From assuming positive intent and creating safe spaces, to knowing when to act or when to pause, Rusty provides actionable strategies to handle the thousands of micro-interactions that ultimately define team culture.

Throughout the conversation, a central theme emerges: the best coaches don’t separate culture and tactics, they connect them. By simplifying communication, storytelling, and decision-making, they create clarity under pressure and unlock performance where it matters most.

🧠 What You’ll Learn

• How to apply multiple coaching mindsets (learn, challenge, win) within a single practice or season
• Why shared language and mental models are essential for alignment across players and staff
• A practical framework for deciding when to keep coaching a player vs. when to let go (Energy, Resources, Accountability)
• How to design team culture through four key questions: Who are we? Why are we here? How will we play? How will we win?
• Why the best coaches focus on creating great learners, not just executing systems
• How to recognize and respond to the “invisibles” (trust, confidence, connection) within a team
• A step-by-step approach to restorative conversations and building trust through communication
• Why assuming positive intent is the foundation of all successful tough conversations
• How to improve as a coach through feedback loops, reflection, and seeing through the player’s lens
• Why blending storytelling, simplicity, and tactics leads to better decision-making under pressure

Listen to the entire episode below...

Together with Hudl

Hudl Powers Every Possession

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. Free to enroll!

​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

📺 Pop Entry Turnout - Weakside Hammer​

"A layered turnout set that adds a hammer screen on the curl of the turnout."

✚ Pair With: A well-executed set starting from the Turnout, incorporating a step-up screen pop, to create an empty-side isolation for a pin down screen.

✚ SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on defending the pop and protecting the dropped big with weakside switching.

🔒 BLOB Screen the Screener - False Motion • Weak Exit​

"Masking the “Screen the Screener” action with deceptive false motion beforehand."

🔒 Pair With: A great variation of the difficulty in defending "Screen the Screener" actions occurring under the rim, adding another backscreen for the second screener.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown of the effectiveness of Flex offense in sideline out-of-bounds situations.

Interesting Reads

📚 How to Hire People Who are Better Than You​

Much better is: Would you learn from this person? Would others at the company learn? In my experience this is not only true of every great executive, but it’s so clearly true that you can tell from the interview. You can tell, because it’s already happened. They’ve already said something you didn’t know, that piqued your interest. You checked it afterwards, and you feel down rabbit holes you never new existed. But they did, and this candidate already knew about them. That’s the signal.

📚 Why Rest Alone Doesn’t Restore Energy​

...3. Autonomic reset. If you’ve been under stress, simply stopping what you’re doing isn’t enough. You can take a break but still feel tense or distracted. Practices that increase parasympathetic activity, such as slow breathing, meditation, or chatting with people who feel safe, can help move your body out of a high-alert state — allowing you to actually unwind.

4. Creative break. Sometimes the fastest way to feel more energized is not to step away from everything but to do something you care about. Activities that feel interesting or purposeful can bring your energy back by reengaging your attention and motivation in a meaningful way.

📚 Tim Cook’s Impeccable Timing​

...We believe in the simple, not the complex...

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change...

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com