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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 journeyed back through all of the content you may have missed in the last few months. You can review it all HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: "Hedge & Plug" PNR Defense

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Ben Resner {Greensboro Swarm}

🥇Best of the Week: Deceptive Twirl Screens & Blind DHOs

Let's dive in...

Hedge, Plug & Play

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Einstein

One of the prevailing PNR defensive philosophies, especially at the higher levels, is using multiple coverages throughout a game to help keep savvy offenses and guards off balance. This multiple coverage philosophy has obviously been used to great effect with some of the best defensive teams in the world, but today we'll take an interesting look into a championship level team who mastered and heavily relied on only ONE PNR coverage on their way to a Champions League Title, Telekom Bonn. Coach Tuomas Iisalo (the now newly hired HC of Paris Basketball) utilized a defensive scheme that aggressively hedged out on the ballhandler, regardless of personnel or location, with the on-ball defender veering off the ball to plug the passing lane to the short roll...

With each added coverage a team plays, practice, film, and game-time must be spent to make it a reliable option. This season, Bonn elected to master this one coverage in order to help dictate the actions the offense could play through and ones that they became familiar seeing over and over again.

If you turned on any game that Bonn played this past season, it is immediately apparent the relentless effort and energy they bring to the court. As mentioned, part of this can be attributed to the familiarity and comfort built into executing a single coverage. With no confusion about which coverage they were in, their mindset remained constant. By reducing variability and the need for excessive thinking, the players were able to move and react at a high level.

That being said, there are several nuances to the coverage that contributed to its uniqueness and effectiveness that we'll dive into below.

Plugging the Short Roll

With any aggressive PNR coverage the two most glaring concerns are the 1) short roll catch and 2) the corners. Temporarily putting two on the ball opens up opportunities for the big to play in the short roll and attack the defense 4v3, usually with a corner cut...

Bonn solved this problem by relying solely on the big in the hedge to impact the ball, while the on ball defender was tasked with plugging the passing lane to the roll...

Zooming In: Rather than chasing the ball over the screen in an effort to re-attach to the ballhandler, the on-ball defender veers directly into the passing lane, acting more like a Free Safety or Middle Linebacker in reading the ballhandler's intentions. This approach not only helps prevent the short roll or any pocket pass but also aids the big in his recovery back to the roller. As demonstrated above, the guard continues to sit in the passing lane after the big's hedge, leaving only a long lob pass available to the roller that the big should be able to recover to (yes, there's backside tagging taking place too, which we'll get to).

Sitting so long in the passing lane does open up the possibility for "Dribble Up" 3's by the ballhandler, however this was a shot the defense was willing to concede so long as it was met with a good contest by that plugging guard...

Zooming In: For the most part, this is simply not a shot opponents shoot at a high enough rate to consistently punish the coverage. No pass, Dribble Up 3's are not exactly what coaches are scheming up on their whiteboards late at night.

Pick Up Points

What's especially unique about Coach Iisalo's coverage is how they intertwine "Tagging Up"(offensive rebounding philosophy) and their pick-up points. Bonn constructed their defense by tagging up and applying pressure in the backcourt. Which, in theory, should also effectively force any initial PNR out higher in the front court. However, once an opponent crossed half court, Bonn released their backcourt pressure and dropped off to defend around the 3-point line...

Zooming In: Bonn essentially wanted to keep everything compact behind the screen. Understanding that their coverage would put them in rotations, it was to their benefit to force the screening action closer to the 3-point line, shrinking the space they would need to cover.

Zooming In 2.0: Shown above, you can see how the defender backs off the ball and drops to the 3-pt line, moving the screen from being set around the logo down to the 3-pt line, shortening the amount of space he has to plug in the short roll.

Corner Closeouts

As alluded to earlier, another vulnerability of this coverage are the corners. Bonn would pull in to compact the floor behind the ball screen, often tagging the long roll with the corner man on the two-side, leaving the corners momentarily open off either the skip pass or extra pass. This defensive approach made them susceptible to corner 3-point attempts by teams that moved the ball quickly out of the PNR.

Referring back to their effort and energy built from familiarity of the actions they would see, Bonn flew out at the corners to run opponents off the line and force them to play closeout basketball. Usually, by the time the ball reached the corner their defensive big had made his way back to the basket in order to provide rim protection on penetrations...

Zooming In: Above, you can see the next layer and rotations of this coverage taking place as well. Bonn made the effort every time to closeout with their feet on the 3-pt line. This was a demand of the coverage. That hard closeout would often lead to the the above mentioned rim contest by the big, but then also force the opposite corner to crack down into the legs of the rolling big while the initial "plugger" would be ready to closeout to the first backside skip.

Bonn's defensive approach was effective in limiting the options available to opponents, making it difficult for teams to find easy, high-percentage scoring opportunities and forcing them to play to second and third actions all game long.

For much more on this coverage including:

Defending slips & rescreens
Defending stack screens
Defending pick n pops {SG Plus Newsletter}

become an SG Plus Member 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

"I think the most important thing we can do is help people understand themselves and then be themselves. Sometimes you may have people who are acting out as a vocal leader when they're not modeling the behaviors, and we don't want that either. So it's not just about being vocal. I think a lot of times and this is coaches, this is players...just because someone's loud, just because someone's saying words, doesn't mean that their trustworthy, doesn't mean their dependable, doesn't mean that their actions are backing the words they're saying. Monty Williams had a great thing that with the Sun's. 'well done is better than well said.' And people say the words, not understanding that. It's not about the words. You have to do the things that you're saying." - Ben Resner

We were happy to be joined on the podcast this week in what turned out to be one of our favorite conversations so far this summer with Greensboro Swarm Assistant Coach, Ben Resner! The G-League is a unique level to coach due to the nature of the league, so we thoroughly enjoyed diving into Coach Resner's thoughts on:

Lineup and Rotation considerations and in-game decisions
Playing through unbalanced lineups
And we talk Unique DHO's and Locker Room Leadership during the always fun "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Ben Resner here...

Listen Now!

Tactical

📺 UConn - Horns Flare • Stagger Twirl

"Off their Horns Flare entry, UConn runs their shooter up and away off a stagger screen to bring him back to the ball off a stagger twirl at the top of the arc."

✚ Pair With: Rytas Vilnius using the Stagger Twirl off the Ghost Flare.

🔒 SG Plus Content: UConn's Swing Thru & Diamond series.

📺 Utah Jazz - Double Pop • Blind DHO

"Utah Jazz's Double Pop Variation involving the second player in the pop sprinting directly into a blind DHO with the corner player."

✚ Pair With: Nova Southeastern's Snug DHOs.

🔒SG Plus Content: The Art of the DHO, adjusting and opening the DHO.

Interesting Reads

📚 Rich and Anonymous

"I once spoke to a group of NBA rookies. The topic was how to avoid the tragedy of athletes who make a fortune in their 20s and are bankrupt by age 30.

One player mentioned something I thought was so important. He said most outsiders think athletes go broke because they spent their money on jewelry and cars. Sometimes that’s true, but the most common cause is social debt."

📚 How to Build Trust So It’s Ready When Your Team Needs It

"Benevolence is the quality of being well-meaning and the degree to which you have others’ interests at heart. Benevolent people care about others. The more a teammate can demonstrate the motivation to serve others or the team, the greater trust is built."

📚 The Making of an Expert

"So what does correlate with success? One thing emerges very clearly from Bloom’s work: All the superb performers he investigated had practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years."

Quote of the Week

“Unusual success cannot lie in doing the obvious.” — Howard Marks

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

Slappin' Glass

🏀 Stopping the Short Roll: The "Hedge & Plug" PNR Defense