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

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Today at a Glance:

🏀 Inside the Set with Martin Schiller - Empty Side Pick n Pop

🥇 Best of the Week

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Xavier Silas​

And more!

Let's dive in...

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Inside the Set - Martin Schiller

We are excited to launch a brand new "film-room-meets-podcast" series on SGTV this week called "Inside the Set"! We've long been interested in exploring not just "what" coaches do, but the deeper layers of the "why's", "when's" and "how's." With "Inside the Set" we get a chance to do just that, as we sit with a coach and pick apart all the subtle details of a couple of their favorite offensive sets or actions.

We couldn't have asked for a better guest to kick off this series than former Euroleague Head Coach, Martin Schiller (be sure to check out Coach Schiller's fantastic podcast interview with us back in January too)! This week, in Part 1 of a two-part series with Coach Schiller we broke down one of his favorite Pick and Pop Empty Side Ballscreen actions he ran with Zalgiris while in the Euroleague.

Here's a quick look at the opening part of the set...

After discussing the initial nuts and bolts of the set, we then dive into details like:

• Starting with Uneven Iverson Stagger Screens: Coach Schiller details why he likes to start this set with an uneven staggered "Iverson-ish" screen for the eventual ballhandler, rather than a normal "Iverson" alignment with the screens being set straight across the Free Throw lines.
• Catching and Spacing Areas: After the intial screens to free the ballhandler, we discuss the preferred catching area for the ballhandler as well as the spacings for the other three players not involved in the play. Coach Schiller also discusses why each player spaces to where they do and the decisions they should be ready to make on any drive or throw ahead pass.
• Using the Set Against a Switch, Hedge, or Drop Coverage: Coach Schiller gives his thoughts on running this set against different types of defensive ballscreen coverages, and the considerations he gives to personnel when deciding if/when to run it against those coverages.
• Dunker Spot Decisions: We talk about Coach Schiller's decision to space his 5 Man to the Dunker Spot away from the ballscreen, instead of keeping him at the opposite elbow to potentially flow into a Step-Up Screen for the PG, a very popular action all around Europe. Beyond that decision, we also hear how Coach Schiller teaches the Big in the Dunker Spot to move and re-space depending on where the drive may come from out of the PNR.
• Ways to Rep the Actions: We discuss how Coach Schiller reps this action in practice, including his preference to play 2 v. 2 during pre-practice.
• And one of our favorite parts of the episode, was hearing how Coach Schiller teaches the 4-Man to either "Stick or Slip" the Empty Ballscreen...

This exciting new series (plus almost 500 more videos) is available on SGTV for members of SG Plus today! You can view a short preview HERE.​

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For additional content, we also broke down Coach Schiller's Best Sets & Actions with BC Zalgiris.

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Tactical

📺 Veer Gut Screen - Zipper Entry​

"Using the veer screen out of the zipper entry to spring a shooting 4 free and/or create a high low seal for the screener."

✚Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on 12 Modern Ways to Attack the Tag​

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📺 Screening Angles - Swing & Slip​

"With awareness on screening angles & generating pace in the half court, slip out of bad screening angles to put pressure on the rim & open up a gaps."

✚Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on Coach Eric Olen's Flow Offense with UCSD. Highlighting how they generate pace through the angles of their screens, their offensive concepts and how they play through the pick n pop.

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📺 UC San Diego - Pin the Cut Thru (from Tucker and Thorson)​

"When a shooter cuts thru & the D stays to tag... great time to Pin in"

✚ Pair With: Our conversation with UC San Diego HC, Eric Olen, on teaching these pin screens on cuts.

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Interesting Reads

📚 The Lessons of Jay Wright, the Anti-Coach​

“We're not complex in what we do X-and-O-wise,” he tells me. “But we do spend a lot of time on how we react mentally to every situation.” The idea isn't to draw up lots of plays but instead to give his guys the confidence and the freedom to make plays. And here is where Wright's psychological approach feels unique. While just about every coach in America rallies his or her players with motivational verses or tries to summon an inner-dwelling Tony Robbins, Wright wants his players to feel as if they're in control on the floor, admonishing them to play with a “free mind.”

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📚 Jurgen Klopp - A Master of Appreciation, Charisma, and Motivation ​

"Jürgen Klopp combines many qualities of a good manager. He is insanely charismatic, but doesn't take himself too seriously, puts his players in the foreground and makes them better as a result."

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📚 Einstein Wasn’t a “Lone Genius” After All​

"Einstein’s 1905 achievements were no doubt momentous, but they didn’t occur in a vacuum. Quite to the contrary, Einstein benefitted from friends, colleagues, teachers and mentors, the collaborative efforts of his first wife (whose contributions will likely never be fully known), and the input of many others during this time. His papers didn’t come out of nowhere, but rather built upon earlier ideas of Planck, Lorentz, FitzGerald, Thomson, Heaviside, Hasenöhrl, and Poincaré."

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Inside the Episode

The Slappin' Glass Podcast is proudly sponsored by Practice Planner Live and Instat. Find out more in this newsletter about special offers from both companies for podcast listeners.

We were joined on the podcast this week by former Pro and now Assistant Coach with the G-League's Motor City Cruise, Xavier Silas. Motor City enjoyed a successful season in the G-League and this was a fun and insightful conversation that explored a variety of topics. One of our favorites was about the transition from being a player to a coach, and earning respect with players once you're on the other side. Here's a great quote from the podcast...

In addition to our conversation about the player-to-coach career transition, we also dove into the areas of:

• Maintaining Offensive Advantages: This was a fun discussion as Coach Silas detailed the variety of ways he tries to teach players to continue moving and working to keep an advantage once one has been created. We work through pace of play, PNR movements, dribble drive drifts and concepts, and dunker spot decisions.
• What Analytics Do Players Need to Know?: Within our conversation about players transitioning to coaching, Coach Silas walked us through his thoughts on the role that analytics play in player development, teaching shot selection, understanding advantages, and establishing roles. Additionally, Coach Silas was generous enough to share with us his study on the Value of the Follow Through, available in the Coaches Corner.
• Pace of Play: We explored how Pace and quickly transitioning from defense to offensive actions factors into creating advantages and teaching players to play for great shots.
• "Start, Sub, or Sit?!": Coach Silas was a great sport taking on a ton of questions from us as we pestered him about Paint Touches, Disrupting Great PNR Teams, and more.

You can listen to the entire episode with Coach Silas here...

Listen to Coach Silas!

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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