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ICYMI: Last week, we released our Offensive Intelligence Report of the previous quarter. View the report HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Defending Tough Actions - The Details of Connected Switching​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Matt Jones​

🔑 The Practice Lab: Brick, Takeaway, Tinker

🥇 Best of the Week: Gut Stagger Screen & Finland​

Switching Tough Actions

Switching defenses are here to stay. Today, we’re excited to release our latest Film Room session on SGTV with longtime NBA assistant, who won an NBA title with the Denver Nuggets in 2023, Charles Klask. Coach Klask approaches the coverage with a level of detail that often gets overlooked.

“Just switch it” can become a catch-all solution, one used to simplify the game plan, reduce mental load, or save practice time. But executing it at an elite level requires just as much technique, discipline, and connectivity as any other coverage.

Switching can also be viewed as passive or conservative. That is not how Coach Klask sees it. With the right force, physicality, and communication, the coverage can disrupt timing, deny touches, and take teams out of their preferred actions.

That does not mean switching everything. The decision still depends on the action, its location on the floor, and the personnel involved. A switch against a shooter should not look the same as one against a downhill driver, and non-threatening “fluff” far from the basket does not always require a coverage change.

Coach Klask’s Film Room explores those layers and offers practical takeaways that can sharpen how you teach and use the coverage within your own defensive structure. One of his clearest teaching cues is “touch it, talk it, take it”: create contact, communicate the direction, and take the new matchup with force.

The actions below are not a recap of the full presentation. Instead, they offer a closer look at several offensive concepts designed to stress the switch and the details that allow the defense to stay aggressive without over-helping.

Drive The Wake

In the Film Room, Coach Klask discusses how teams can use the switch to counter one of the growing concepts in the game, "Drive the Wake."

If you have been a member of Slappin' Glass for any period of time, first of all, we appreciate you! And secondly, you know we love the concept of "driving the wake." You can see examples of us detailing the concept HERE {🔒}. You can also hear Assistant Coach for the NBA Champion NY Knicks, TJ Saint, discussed it in depth on the podcast HERE.
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​As a quick recap, driving the wake refers to the ballhandler attacking back toward the switching defender’s original position and into the space created behind the screener rolling down the lane.

Zooming In: Driving the wake attacks two natural vulnerabilities of the switch. First, the defender taking the ball must move laterally to get square and is often arriving from a wide angle, creating an opportunity for the ballhandler to use that momentum against them and attack back behind the switch. Second, because the defense expects the switch to neutralize the action, the other defenders are often less inclined to shrink the floor around the roll, leaving a gap directly behind the roller for the ballhandler to attack.

The screener also has a clear opportunity to seal or "Gortat" the switch defender, and when done effectively you'll see clean layups against the switch.

The Switching Counter - The "Unswitch"

Protecting against the “drive the wake” attack requires more than simply exchanging matchups. As Coach Klask points out, it demands force, physicality, and connectivity.

The defender taking the ball must control the ballhandler’s path, while the ballhandler’s original defender uses early contact to maintain leverage against the roller. When both defenders work together, the defense can absorb the initial action and remain ready to react if the ballhandler attacks back into the space behind the roll.

Zooming In: A major theme throughout Coach Klask’s Film Room is the emphasis on “switching up," impacting the ballhandler at the point of the switch with enough force to turn them away from the basket. This takes away the quick turn of the corner while almost inviting the ballhandler to drive the wake.

Anticipating that drive, the ballhandler’s original defender drops early and initiates contact with the roller, preventing the roller from sealing them on the wrong side. By maintaining that leverage, the defense can switch back, or “unswitch,” as the drive develops and return to the original matchups.

Inside the Full Film Room

Drive the Wake is only one of the problems Coach Klask addresses. In the full session, he also breaks down:

• How to “bookend” a 77 Smoke Screen while keeping the 5’s defender at home
• Switching off the ball to deny Zoom actions before the handoff develops
• Using ball pressure and line switches when the offense disguises the handoff
• Scram switches and other ways to clean up size mismatches
• Recognizing when an action is threatening and when it is simply “fluff”
• Connecting multiple switches and coverage calls within the same possession

The larger takeaway is not simply that switching can neutralize an action. When executed with force and connectivity, it can dictate who handles the ball, where they are allowed to go, and which player must finish the possession.

🔐 SG+ Members can now watch the complete Film Room with Coach Charles Klask now on SGTV!

The Learning Loop

Thoughts from Drew Dunlop in building The Practice Lab

One Brick. One Takeaway. One Tinker.

A mentor once told me, “The day you stop learning is the day it’s time to retire.”

That has stuck with me.

The goal of this space is to show more of what actually goes into building the work.

Not just the clean clips or finished thoughts, but the misses, adjustments, failed assumptions, and small details that help move an idea forward.

Brick

This week, I was trying to get players to play off two feet more often, use bumps to create separation, and rely on fakes and footwork instead of always trying to outrun defenders.

My first instinct was simple: make two-foot finishes worth more points.

It worked… sort of.

Players started hunting the scoring system instead of reading the defender. Some forced unnecessary gathers. Others passed up better solutions because they were chasing bonus points.

So we made one small adjustment.

Instead of giving the offense a built-in advantage, the offensive and defensive players started even. The possession became live the moment the offensive player ripped the ball away.

That small change shifted everything.

Now players had to earn the advantage first.

Once they had it, bumps, carving angles, two-foot gathers, and manipulating the defender became real solutions instead of prescribed ones.

Those behaviors showed up because the possession demanded them, not because the scoring system rewarded them.

Sometimes changing the start of the possession is more powerful than changing the rules.

Takeaway

This is the part I’m still sorting through.

I want to encourage exploration by rewarding certain solutions. But I don’t want players abandoning the things they’re already good at just because I attached extra points to something else.

That balance gets harder with experienced players.

Veteran players usually know who they are, what their role is, and which solutions they trust in games.

My job isn’t to replace those solutions.

It’s to expand their menu while still letting them decide when to act and how to act.

This was a good reminder that coaching isn’t always about adding more constraints.

Sometimes it’s about creating a better starting point and then getting out of the way.

Tinker

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about workout structure.

Not necessarily changing the drills, but changing how much value we get from each rep.

What if a possession didn’t end after one action?

Could players play multiple offensive possessions before earning a validation shot worth the points they accumulated?

Could a drive into a finish immediately flow into reading a pin-down?

Could we chain complementary actions so players solve multiple game problems before resetting?

I’m getting more interested in building workouts as sequences, not one-off drills.

If decision density matters, maybe action density does too.

The goal isn’t to cram more into the workout.

It’s to build workouts where every possession has a little more game inside of it.

Together with the 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.

🎙11 Lessons from Matt Jones on Shooting Feel, Coaching Voice, and Re-Triggering Offense

This week’s conversation with International Pro Coach Matt Jones International covered three areas coaches are constantly working through: how to develop better shooters, how to communicate with more clarity, and how to help players play with freedom without losing structure. Here are some of the biggest takeaway from the episode:

1. Watch before you fix. Matt starts by rebounding and watching. No quick diagnosis. No rush to correct. See what repeats, see what changes, and see what the shot actually looks like in person before touching it.
2. The first question is what can be removed. If a shooter has nine moving parts, they need nine things to go right. Matt’s eye goes first to wasted movement: where the ball gets delayed, where the wrist loses tension, and where the shot adds work it does not need.
3. The catch is already shooting. A player can be late before the shot starts. If the catch kills the wrist, rhythm, or timing, the rest of the shot is spent trying to recover.
4. Show the palm early. Matt wants the passer to see the shooter’s palm. Simple cue, real purpose: receive the ball with the wrist loaded instead of catching on top and rebuilding the shot.
5. Game shooting needs a volume knob. A contest, a bad pass, a different pickup, a longer shot, a new footwork pattern — all of it matters. But Matt adds one layer at a time, then watches where the shot starts to lose the teaching point.
6. The player’s feel can become the cue. Matt listens for the words players use after a rep: loose, tight, easy, rushed, heavy, balanced. The best cue is often hiding inside the player’s own description.
7. “More arc” is not coaching. It may be right, but it is not enough. Matt’s “platter” cue gives the player a picture: get underneath the ball and push up, not out.
8. Analytics should sharpen the conversation. If the numbers and the player’s feel do not match, that gap is the work. Is it the catch? The footwork? The shot type? The volume? The pressure? The number starts the question. It does not answer it.
9. Terminology is culture. “Play hard” is not enough. Players need to know what it looks like. The best terminology gives the team a shared picture, not just a slogan.
10. You find your voice by using it. Camps, workouts, stations, youth teams — they all count. Coaching voice is not found in theory. It is built through reps.
11. The next action is the hard part. Matt picked re-triggers as the toughest part of teaching conceptual offense. Players know how to run A to B to C. The challenge is what happens when B is gone. His cleanest line: if you have the ball, you are the point guard. Not by position. By responsibility.

Listen to the full conversation with Matt Jones now on Slappin’ Glass.

Together with Hudl

Hudl helps basketball staffs turn film into better decisions.

By connecting Sportscode, Hudl Instat, and Fastmodel tools like FastDraw, FastScout, and FastRecruit, Hudl brings video, scouting, recruiting, and game planning into one seamless workflow. Less time managing tools. More clarity in preparation, teaching, and evaluation, built for how college and professional programs actually operate.

For a deeper look at how these tools can support a program’s workflow, we broke down how we used the Hudl suite to connect film, analytics, player playlists, and FastModel data around one season-long point of emphasis: improving assist rate. You can watch the full breakdown HERE.

​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

📺 Double Ballscreen - Gut Stagger Screen​

"A double drag into a stagger gut screen with spacing to create a single side shake off the curl."

✚ Pair With: A deceptive empty corner Spain PNR with a corner exit screen, initiated through a gut stagger screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: The trade-offs defenses face when guarding early 4 man drag screens, and how smart offenses are weaponizing the action with a 5 man rim seal for easy layups.

🔒 Finland - Burn Through • Turnout or Backscreen​

"A layered 5-Out spacing set that uses a burn cut to flow the shooter into a turnout or backscreen option."

🔒 Pair With: Twisting the Get handoff back towards the full side of the floor to play a DHO with the 4-man.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Building early baseline pressure with throw-ahead short corner catches in transition, freeing the rim for cutting and off ball screening actions.

Interesting Reads

📚 Jalen Brunson Springs Eternal​

And that is all well and good, but it’s Brunson’s attitude that hits the hardest. The attitude is the reason he looked at the Knicks’ long history of futility and said, “Sign me up.” He has the demeanor of a man who has seen the future and likes it. On the court, he is equipped with state-of-the-art anti-rattling technology. He gets cinematic in the clutch, turns any arena he enters into a house of arcing daggers. He will jitterbug into a defense’s brain, send them into hallucinatory tantrums, and pull up with a left hand that specializes in slamming doors. He’s not scared to look, and he’s not shook. This is the Rock of Manhattan. The Poisemaster in Chief. He’s unflappable. I promise you can’t flap him.

📚 The Business Model of Colleges Is Broken. It’s About to Get Worse​

Finally, colleges need to be far more transparent about value. Students and families are skeptical about broad claims about the lifetime earnings premium of a degree, especially when outcomes can vary widely across institutions and majors. Families want to know what graduates earn by program, how much debt they take on, whether internships are built into the experience, and how the institution will help them get a job. In the past, colleges could say, “trust us”. Increasingly, students are saying, “show us.”

📚 5 Ingredients of a Dream Job​

It’s a cliché to say that “money can’t buy happiness,” but better pay is often people’s top priority when looking for a new job. When people are asked what would most improve the quality of their lives, the most common answer is “more money.” Which side is right?

As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle. After reviewing the best studies we could find on this question, we found that money does make you happy, but only a little.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, Eric, and Drew

info@slappinglass.com