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Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! Glad to have you as part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last week, we provided film context to much of the rotations and strategies discussed on our podcast with Coach Walter De Raffaele about his 3-2 Match Up Zone. View the breakdown HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Joventut Badalona - Late Game "Last" PNR Spacing

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Owen Eastwood

🥇Best of the Week: Empty Side Stack PNR & Dribble Throwbacks

Let's dive in...

Short Roll Attacks - "Last" Spacing

Whether it's on the podcast, when watching film, or in casual conversations with coaches, we enjoy exploring how teams utilize familiar actions, screens, or spacing techniques to put their best players in advantageous situations in the last few minutes of a close game.

Enter the Spanish Club, Joventut Badalona, who enjoyed the services of one of the more skilled decision makers in the international game at the center position, Ante Tomic. In the closing moments of a tight game, Joventut used a consistent approach to get Tomic catches on the short roll, capitalizing on his capability to not only score in the "high paint" but also effectively pass out of it.

Working backwards with this goal in mind, Joventut Badalona had to address two key elements:

How would they provide spacing around the ball screen in which the defense would be challenged to plug the short roll window?
How would they attack different defensive PNR coverages to ensure the ball could still reach the short roll with an advantage? {🔒 SG Plus Newsletter}

"Last" Spacing

To best stress the defense and open up space for Tomic to operate in the high paint, Joventut used their "Last" spacing behind the ball screen. They achieved this by flattening the defense with corners filled and positioning their other "big" in the dunker spot, tasked with shadowing the ballhandler...

This spacing almost completely eliminates the defense's ability to plug the high paint with a defender without putting themselves in a comprised situation . So, as long as the reverse angled ball screen could engage Tomic's defender, Joventut could generate opportunities for him to catch the ball in the short roll and make plays.

Zooming In: As mentioned, not only does this spacing aid Joventut in getting the ball to the short roll, but it also puts the defense in serious coverage issues once the ball gets there. As shown above, if the "low tagging" big steps up to help, the onus is put on the corner defender to "Crack Back." However, it's a tall task to ask said defender to go from the strong-side corner and then "Crack Back" on the pass to the short roll.

If the weak-side corner collapses in to pick up the short roll, it's either a skip from the PG, or a direct kick out from Tomic for a corner 3...

Zooming In: Central to Tomic's success in executing in the short roll, and covered in Today's video breakdown, is his ability to play off of two feet in the high paint.

Alternate "Last Spacing" Set-Ups

This "last spacing" alignment can be found by using a variety of set-ups as well. Whereas Joventut prefers a more static start prior to the action, other teams, especially when playing with two bigs, are finding ways to cut themselves into this spacing. One such example is Manresa "Slide Cutting" {🔒} from the corner into "Last" spacing...

Or, an international favorite of "Looping" {🔒} the big into the "Last" spacing off a prior empty corner ballscreen/DHO exchange...

Inverted Spacing

To keep teams off balance, and twist the knife a little deeper, Joventut can mix up the personnel in the "last spacing" positions...

Joventut often spaces one of their non-shooting or bigger guards in the dunker position, further complicating the defensive help...

Zooming In: As shown above, when a guard is left to defend that short roll catch from the dunker spot it leaves little to no size/length at the rim, allowing Tomic an easier finish or drop off pass to the dunker.

With no rim protection, not only is Tomic's life made easier, but the ball handler is also able drive to the rim with less fear of a shot blocker. This becomes especially evident as coverages shift more towards a "quick show" in an attempt to recover the defensive big back to Tomic.

Attacking Coverages

Joventut's success hinged on their ability to read and respond to varying defensive coverages, ensuring that the spacing they meticulously crafted was indeed effective in allowing Tomic to thrive in the short roll and make impactful plays.

To learn more on how Joventut attacked various coverages with this "last spacing", including the Switch, Weak and Drop Coverage become an SG Plus Member now to view the full breakdown now on SGTV!

Together with Hudl

We're proud to partner with one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, Hudl! Every play, every stat, every breakdown. On their own, they’re essential. But all together, they’re undeniable. Hudl recently introduced their newest product, Hudl Instat – a new advanced data platform that integrates with Sportscode and every Hudl product you rely on to create an all-in-one data powerhouse. Hudl Instat’s advanced tagging and next-level stat reports help you develop your team – and its global film library helps you find the missing piece to get the most out of every second of film. Visit hudl.com/slappinglass to learn more.

Slappin' Glass Podcast

"When there are parts of this organism of a team that's sick, unhappy, are taking a lot of energy away. It just affects everybody. We are all connected with each other. One of the principles of my work absolutely is that well-being is not a siloed topic we should be thinking about. Well-being is energy. We need everybody to feel well in order to have the most energy they can have in order to achieve the optimal performance, and so part of well-being isn't just your emotional state as an individual or your physical well-being, it's also the social setting. When people come into an environment which is toxic, they're not well, it affects their well-being and it massively reduces their energy." - Owen Eastwood

Owen Eastwood is one of the world's leading high-performance coaches, as well as best-selling author of the book "Belonging", which decodes the ancient rules of togetherness and group dynamics, and he joined us on the podcast this week to dive deeper into his work. In what turned out to be one of our favorite conversations so far this year, we explored the areas of:

The "Silent Dance" of power, hierarchies, and cliques that form on all teams
Alpha Personalities and how to manage them
And we discuss Vision Statements and Decreasing Performance Anxiety during "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Owen Eastwood here...

Listen Now!

Tactical

📺 Spain NT - Stagger • Toss • Stack

"Spain uses the stagger toss back to clear a side and loop the passer behind the chase step up screen for the stack pick."

✚ Pair With: Spanish NT Head Coach, Sergio Scariolo's, use of the Empty Side Stack Ballscreen & Gaziantep using the Iverson Entry to set up the screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Sergio Scariolo's Olympic Playbook with Spain { 2021 }

📺 Attacking a Zone - Dribble Throwback

"An effective zone concept to take advantage of the moment the zone passes the dribble off to the next defender, replacing the spot vacated by the ballhandler for a throwback."

✚ Pair With: Reading the Elbow Dive against a 3-2 Zone.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our recent breakdowns on the 3-2 "Monster" Zone. More to come next week!

Interesting Reads

📚 The NBA’s New CBA Changes the Game for Rebuilding Teams

"Zoom out, and you can see how the ripple effects of all this extend well beyond the rebuilding set. The fact that teams like Houston, Detroit, and San Antonio are stocking up on veteran role players could squeeze the market for those players’ services over time and reshape the NBA’s middle class. It was already difficult for teams with a single young superstar to decide when to ramp up their winning efforts, but effectively putting a spending requirement on those teams could shift their priorities—not to mention their timelines."

📚 My 8 Best Techniques for Evaluating Character

"7. If they cheat at small things, they will cheat at big things."

📚 How to Be Successful

"Most people overestimate risk and underestimate reward. Taking risks is important because it’s impossible to be right all the time—you have to try many things and adapt quickly as you learn more."

Join the conversation, gain insights from others, and help your fellow peers! As we offer SG Plus Members a community of coaches to make ourselves and our teams better, view some of the latest conversations in the Coaches Corner below.

📋 Resources to Develop your Youth Coaches

Coach Larson shares...

"youthbasketballdevelopment.com is a free membership website made for volunteer youth basketball coaches. It is a good resource for the volunteer youth parents that coach in your program."

Quote of the Week

"It's essential to work on something you're deeply interested in. Interest will drive you to work harder than mere diligence ever could. The three most powerful motives are curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive. Sometimes they converge, and that combination is the most powerful of all."- Paul Graham

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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Slappin' Glass

🏀 Joventut's Late Game "Last" PNR Concepts