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Welcome to the Slappin' Glass Newsletter, exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world. We appreciate your support.

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Today's edition covers:

• Ucam Murcia Playbook: "Post Action" Spotlight
• Inside the Episode: Tuomas Iisalo
• Best of the Week
• Fran Fraschilla Live Q&A!

Let's dive in...

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Murcia's "Post Action Options"

(You are reading the long-read breakdown provided every Sunday for members of SG Plus. Thank you to our partners at InStat for making this available to all coaches on the free newsletter this week as well. See the bottom of this newsletter for more information on the special discount offer on InStat's video platform for Slappin' Glass subscribers.)

This week we turned our focus back to Spain's ACB, where Ucam Murcia Head Coach, Sito Alonso, has his squad in the Top 5 in the league early in the season. Like so many of the the teams in the ACB, Murcia's playbook is filled with great ball/body movement, masking actions, and crafty variations.

We broke down much of Murcia's playbook in this week's newest video on SGTV, and below we'll spotlight an area of their offense they run particularly well, their Post Action Options.

The Value of an Inverted Offense

One point that has been made over and over again from the world of analytics, is the low value of a Post Up on offense. While that may be true when looking at hundreds of possessions over the course of a season, a Post Up becomes much more valuable when it's used as a spot on the floor in which to facilitate an offense from. (It also becomes much more valuable in late-game situations, but that is for another newsletter).

Murcia uses a mixture of splits, slips, quick cuts, and rescreens in order to keep the defense occupied while they patiently search for an opportunity. Here are some key building blocks...

Building Block #1 - Screening for Shooters

One of the main reasons Murcia's Post Action is so dangerous, is due, in part, by the fact that they have tremendous shooters they're constantly looking to spring open through RIPs, flares and pin screens. Their commitment to screen and rescreen for shooters puts tremendous pressure on the defense and often forces them into situations where they are in a full sprint trying to chase their man off of multiple screens...

Zooming In: One of the biggest benefits of facilitating offense from the Post, and it's something we recently spoke with Stan Van Gundy about, is the fact that it's awkward and unusual for the defense to try and guard action when the ball is behind them on a Post Catch. In almost every other area of the game the defense is able to play with the ball in front of them on the perimeter, making it easier to navigate through the variety of actions a team may run. But on a Post Catch, with the ball beneath the defenders line of vision, the offense can run their actions knowing the defense won't ever have a clear vision of where the ball is.

Building off that concept, adding any type of cutting/screening action to a Post Catch has added benefits including:

• Less cluttered "One on One" opportunities for the Post - With a defense scrambling to guard cutters and screening action, their is less likelihood of help defenders sitting in a gap ready to double or dig down on a Post when he/she begins to operate.
• More Dangerous Backcuts - With the Post often off the block and the offense moving the Helpside through cuts and screens, the rim remains dangerously vulnerable for the defense on quick slips or backcuts. And, in general, backdoor pass coming from a Post to a perimeter cutter can be easier to throw then the more typical "Princeton beating UCLA" backdoor pass coming from farther out on the perimeter (yes...it depends on the players involved).
• Creates great opportunities for Post "Grenade" Action - With a defense scrambling and on their heels, another opportunity the offense has at their disposal is the ability to flow directly into some type of Post DHO ("Grenade"). As you'll sometimes see, when shooters are flying off flares and pins the offense can further build on the tiny separations by bringing the ball to them on a DHO and playing through some type of switch or late help advantage.

Building Block #2 - Finding Shooters After Slips and Rejects

As mentioned above, with the ball in the Post and defenses knowing Murcia will be actively screening for shooters, Murcia will look to take advantage of a scrambling defense by putting constant pressure on the rim through slips and rejects. This rim pressure opens up another way for Murcia to find their shooters on a Post kick-out pass. First, here's a couple "Quick Slips" before a backside pass...

And here's a kick-out to a shooter after an opposite elbow "Split Action" Reject (a Murcia "Post Action" staple), in which the backdoor draws two defenders to the rim...

Zooming In: Another small added benefit to these types of three point shots, is that they are coming from shooters stepping into a three. Much like the highly valuable three point attempt coming after an offensive rebound, these post kick-out threes often allow a shooter to step into a comfortable and balanced attempt.

Building Block #3 - "Make Them Pay for the Overplay"

Again, referencing the points above, Murcia's action puts the defense in a vulnerable situation where there is little to no rim protection on an backdoor cut. And since Murcia is so good with screening for their shooters, they can then take advantage on and "overplay" by the defense and punish them with a quick strike backdoor cut...

And here's another...

And it's not just the Guards that do a great job of slipping an overplay, but their 4's and 5's who are screening for the shooters are also adept at slipping to the rim should their defender fall asleep or get caught up trying to stunt or help on a shooter flying off a screen...

Zooming In: A final detail worth noting, is how patient the Post is on the catch. This is obviously high-level action, but Murcia's posts do a great job of reading and letting the action take place as they peak over their inside shoulder. Once the action clears they can begin going to work 1 v. 1 if need be.

Building Block #4- Space on a Mismatch or Paint Catch

Like all good teams, Murcia also has a curveball they can throw at the defense. Whether they get a mismatch in the post, a deep paint catch, a double team, or they just decide to make a call and switch things up, Murcia can also run a more traditional "Opposite Dunker Dive" with Perimeter Spacing as well...

Coach Sito Alonso and Murcia have been quite an enjoyable team to watch thus far in the ACB, and you can watch much more of their playbook, as well as get the PDF's to their Offensive Sets in this week's full breakdown on SGTV or view a small teaser here...

*For an even deeper dive into great actions to run out of the Post, check out over 20 minutes of them in this "European Post Action" video from a few months back.

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Inside the Episode

"Most of it is dictated by understanding what type of advantage we're dealing with. This is something that came from soccer and positional play, that you can have a numerical advantage, you can have a qualitative advantage, or you can have a positional advantage. We've translated them into... you can have numbers, the second one is, 'do you have a matchup that works for you?', and then the last one is the action."

This week we were joined on the podcast by on of our favorite coaches in Europe, the Head Coach of Telekom Baskets Bonn, Tuomas Iisalo. Coach Iisalo's teams brings a unique, detailed, and disciplined style of play to the floor and we were happy to explore a variety of interesting topics with him including...

• Building a Playbook: From preseason study and planning, to first week practices, implementation, midseason adjustments, and more, we dove into the interesting topic of structuring and building out a playbook. Coach Iisalo discussed how he starts a season, when he installs plays, and building out actions from similar alignments.
• Understanding Advantages: Coach Iisalo talked about his theory of building and maintaining advantages and how he helps his players understand when and how to use them. He also dives into the different types of advantages a team can create and how they work on recognizing them.
• Functional Units: No two PNR's or 2-Man Games are the same, and Coach Iisalo discussed how he thinks about pairing certain members of his team together in those situations, as well as how they work with them in a practice setting. So, for example... pairing a Post who can Pop with a Guard who can really attack the rim to put pressure on the defense in both directions at the same time.
• How Bonn Practices: Coach Iisalo was kind enough to go into detail explaining what a typical practice may look like from beginning to end, including stretching, breakdowns, drills, and practice philosophy.
• Teaching "Closeout" Decisions: We spoke about the different ways that Coach Iisalo teaches "Closeout Decisions" and the types of actions they look to play from once a closeout is created. A terrific segment from Coach Iisalo on how to reverse engineer an offense.

"Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

We had a lot of fun and some great conversations during the "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" segment with Coach Iisalo, where (off the cuff) we gave him three choices on a topic and ask him to Start one, Sub one, and Sit one. Here were the Topics and Choices, you can listen to the episode to hear Coach Iisalo's choices and explanations...

• Topic #1 - "Tough to Teach" - Most Difficult Concept to Teach Players When it Comes to Handling Pressure
  • Choices:
    • Inbounding the Ball Against Pressure
    • Making Late-Game Free Throws
    • Handling a Trap
• Topic #2 - "Using Non-Shooters on the Perimeter"
  • Choices
    • As a Screener
    • As a Cutter
    • As a Facilitator of a 2nd Action
• Topic #3 - "Actions for the Inbounder on a SLOB"
  • Choices
    • An immediate rim/45 cut for the inbounder
    • Setting a Flare for the inbounder
    • Sending the inbounder of an immediate DHO ( Tangent: Why Coach Iisalo prefers to avoid DHOs )
• Topic #4 - "Unconventional Leaders"
  • Choices
    • A Rookie Starter
    • The 7th or 8th Man
    • A Veteran Bench Player

To listen to all of Coach Iisalo's "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" answers, as well as his tactical thoughts on all above, here is this week's newest episode...

Listen to Coach Iisalo

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Tactical

📺 Xavi Pascual - Elbow Weave​

"Zenit HC Xavi Pascual executes a weave into a ballscreen out of the elbow entry."

➕ Pair With: Our collaborative Deep-Dive Breakdown of Xavi Pascual's "BLOB" Series with the "The Baskethead" Channel. (They provide great content and are worth a follow!)

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📺 Sergio Hernandez - Pressuring the Inbounds​

"Coach Hernandez has long been known for his team's ability to create havoc for teams trying to inbound the ball."

➕ Pair With: A look at FC Barcelona's "Situational Defense" last season against Fenerbache.

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📺 Decision Making on Defense - Pedro Calles​

"A great tweet and breakdown by Coach Gabo Loaiza showing great decision making and late clock aggressiveness from the Hamburg Towers."

➕ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with St. Thomas Aquinas Head Coach, Tobin Anderson, on full court pressure and teaching "grey areas."

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Interesting Reads

📚 What I Will Do Next Time as CEO​

"I will be a vulnerable and transparent leader. I enjoy being vulnerable as a leader. I feel more seen, more confident and more honest when I’m truly being myself."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, on learning to place players/coaches in areas of strength.

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📚 Steph Curry's Repeatable Magic​

"'You better buckle up,' Kevin Harlan advised after Stephen Curry made his second 3-pointer in 32 seconds, which was also his fourth triple of the opening quarter against the Clippers on Thursday. “'This feels different.'”

➕ Pair With: Our "Crunch Time" Film Room Session with Stan Van Gundy discussing and diving into video examples of how he tried to guard Steph Curry.

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📚 Derek Sivers: How to Live ​

"Ideas are worth almost nothing. Execution is everything. The world is filled with ideas, yet so few take action and make them happen. Better to be filled with action than ideas. Best of all to be the owner. Own and control 100% of whatever you create."

➕ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Regis University Head Coach, Brady Bergeson, on peer leadership, mentorship, and associating with great people along your coaching journey.

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We are excited to be hosting ESPN's Fran Fraschilla for our monthly Live Q&A with SG Plus members today at 11am EST. The replay of this session will be available on SGTV following the session as well!

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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