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

Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the new subscribers this week! It's great to have you as part of the community!

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Today at a Glance:

🏀 Deep Dive Breakdown: "Inside the Set" with John Alesi - Princeton "Point Series"​

🎤 Inside the Episode: David McLaughlin​

🥇 Best of the Week: Fan Cutting, UCLA to Post Seal, and Creating Lanes​

🔥 June Roundtable Clinic: Rikki Broadmore on June 29th​

🎰 Viva Las Vegas: Pro Scout School - Special Deal!​

• We're excited to partner with and be attending Pure Sweat's Pro Scout School this July 11th and 12th during the NBA Summer League! Slappin' Glass subscribers can get $125 off the entry price by clicking the banner below...

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Let's dive in...

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Inside the Set - Teaching the Princeton "Point Series"

Baruch College MBB Head Coach, John Alesi, is coming off a terrific 20 win season in which he and his staff led the Bearcats to a CUNYAC Conference Tournament Championship and NCAA DIII Tournament appearance.

Coach Alesi joined us in the film room this week for another edition of "Inside the Set", where we sat down and dove into the film to detail one of the actions the Bearcats had success playing out of this season, the Princeton "Point Series"...

Why the "Point Series"?

As discussed in the breakdown, this past season Coach Alesi was looking to move away from the predictability of being a predominately ballscreen heavy offense, which at times had the tendency of stagnating Baruch by only seeking out ballscreens. Thus, he turned to the Point Series as a way to increase their offense's variability through cutting, passing, and a variety of reads. The Point Series was used not only as an option to score but additionally as a way to soften the defense before playing out of their Flow concepts.

Throughout the film Coach Alesi shares with us many of the teaching points they stressed in finding success this season with the Point Series, and below are a few of the ways Baruch both attacked and used the "45" or Wing Cut in the Point Series to create immediate and secondary scoring opportunities....

Space Clearing and Rim Attacking Cutting

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Teaching Point #1 - Stationary Cutting

The Princeton Point Series offers a large variety of options, so you'll want to watch the breakdown to hear Coach Alesi walk through the main ones, but, within all the actions a teaching point we found interesting was the us of "Stationary Cutting", especially from the weakside wing and corner backdoor cuts when the "Elbow Man" reverses the floor. Coach Alesi stresses with his players the importance of getting to their spots early and being stationary prior to any cut to...

1. Achieve proper spacing prior to the Elbow Man's decision and,
2. Get the wing/corner defenders stationary as well, rather than having the defender be on the move and stay on the move. Baruch looked to attack a flat-footed defender who's natural tendency is relax for a split-second before the cut...

Teaching Point #2 - Cutting on the Bounce

With the ability of the Elbow Man to play to either side from the elbow, this offense has to be wary of untimely cutting. One of the benefits of the Point Series is that it raises all players out of the post and onto the perimeter at the start, leaving plenty of space for both scoring and space clearing backcuts to the rim. If a player cuts too early though, the Elbow Man has less of an angle for the pass, or, the cutting player risks cutting into action when the Elbow Man plays to the other side.

In this sense, Coach Alesi discusses that it's better to make the mistake of being late rather than early on a cut and teaches the bounce as the trigger for the backdoor cut. As shown above, only when the Elbow Man dribbles at the weakside does the wing make his backdoor cut.

A bit of further detail on throwing these backdoor passes, Baruch stresses one hard dribble by the Elbow Man to get to the elbow before throwing the backdoor directly down the lane line...

As mentioned above, by stopping at the elbow for the pass, the offense gives themselves the space to more readily punish overplays. Beyond the initial backdoor options available in the Point Series, where this action can really sink its teeth into a defense is through the secondary advantages it creates after the initial cut. Below is a nice clip showing a space clearing wing cut followed by a second backdoor cut on the same side...

Zooming In: In the clip above are nice displays of the teaching points of "Late, Stationary Cutting", "Cutting on the Bounce", and "Stopping at the Elbow" by the Elbow Man.

Teaching Point #3 - Play off the Shot

Whether attacking to the strong or weakside within the Point Series, Coach Alesi teaches his players to catch with the intention to shoot. After the "45/Wing" cut, it's important for the lifting offensive player to "square up" and think shot first. This concept (utilized to great extent with programs like Villanova as well) helps the ballhandler avoid playing blind into the upcoming PNR or DHO, which opens up 1) the option to explore a quick reject to the baseline after the wing cut and lift...

And 2), creates a better screening angle for the Elbow Man after the throw ahead pass should Baruch decide to play off the Wing PNR.

Zooming In: In the GIF above, Baruch is playing out of a different option in the Point Series, "Zoom Action", where the wing sets a Pin Down for the corner instead of rim cutting, and the Elbow Man gives a handoff instead of a throw ahead pass (more on "Zoom Action" in a recent "Inside the Set" with Euroleague HC, Martin Schiller). That said, the same "Shot First" concept applies, where the offensive player coming off the Zoom Action uses the threat of the shot to freeze the defender and gain the advantage.

In today's breakdown we dive further into Coach Alesi's thoughts on the Princeton Point Series and using well-timed cuts and specific spots on the floor to create advantages. Other discussions and film segments include:

• The Value of the "False Action Weave"
• Specific Catch and Point Entry Areas
• Holding the 5 Man
• Attacking the Under
• The "Elbow Man Keep"
• The "Wing to Point Entry"
• An Elbow Isolation Set
• And more

We hope you enjoy today's newest "Inside the Set" breakdown with Baruch College Head Coach, John Alesi, available on SGTV...

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Inside the Episode

It was a terrific week on the podcast as we were joined by Dartmouth MBB Head Coach, David McLaughlin! As heard on the podcast, Coach McLaughlin is a terrific teacher and thinker about the game and we dove headfirst into a number of intriguing topics including:

• Shot Quality Data and Shot Selection: One of our favorite conversations on the podcast this year as Coach McLaughlin shares how his thoughts have changed over the years when it comes to Shot Quality Data. We discuss his current system and how he then shares that system with his team to help simplify and improve real-world conversations with players about shot selection.
• Offensive "Exit" and "Entry" Actions: There's tons of content about half court sets, transition concepts, and end of clock actions, but what are the ways coaches can help tie all of those segments together? Coach McLaughlin dives into his thoughts on teaching these "in between" parts of an offense and how coaches can think about bridging them into their main flow.
• "Start, Sub, or Sit?!": During this always fun segment we explore the areas of "Pillars of Culture", Doubling the Post, Finishing Through Contact, and much more.

You can listen to the entire terrific episode with Coach McLaughlin here...

Listen Now!

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Tactical

📺 ASVEL Villeurbanne - PG UCLA Post Seal​

"Tremendous attention to detail by ASVEL's PGs in sealing after the UCLA screen. Finding the body of their defender, sealing him high & letting the pass fall before releasing from the seal."

✚ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on TJ Parker's playbook with ASVEL.

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📺 Reggio Emilia - Creating a Lane​

"Reggio Emilia creates an attacking lane for their PG with a Stagger Ballscreen to force the over & a Hostage Screen to clear the defense."

✚ Pair With: Last weekend's Breakdown on Reggio Emilia's Playbook.

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📺 Baruch College - Fan/Slide Cutting​

“Baruch opens up the nail for attacks or kick ahead 3s & backdoors by cutting the corner and drifting the slot."

✚ Pair With: Our recent Deep Dive Breakdown on Defending the Slide Cuts.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Inside the Relationship that Unleashed Steph Curry's Greatness​

“It's the kind of speech he had to learn to give -- the kind of speech his players have taught him to give, over time. You see, the biggest change in basketball has less to do with the game itself than with the culture in which it's played and the kids who play it. They're different, McKillop says, because anxiety is such a reality in their lives -- because they require greater sensitivity and greater attention to the balance between love and discipline. ‘You have to be careful about what you say to them,’ he says. ‘You have to give them reassurance. The things that you experienced as a player back at Holy Trinity could never happen today.’”

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📚 What Leaders Can Learn from Formula 1 Pit Crews​

"I love this story because it shows us a simple but powerful way to get unstuck when we’re faced with impossible problems. Best practices in our own industry will only get us so far. (And they will only put us on par with everyone else.) But best practices in an adjacent industry can teach us heuristics that help us break through in our own industry."

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📚 Assured Misery​

"The problem is that when you are keenly aware of your own struggles but blind to others’, it’s easy to assume you’re missing some skill or secret that others have. It’s a sure path to feeling inadequate. Everyone’s dealing with problems they don’t advertise, at least until you get to know them well. Keep that in mind and you become less envious and more forgiving – to yourself and others."

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Join the conversation, gain insights from others, and help your fellow peers! As we use the off season to make ourselves and our teams better, get caught up on some of the latest conversations in the Coaches Corner here...

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🚨 Rikki Broadmore - Wednesday, June 29th​

This Wednesday we are excited to be joined by one of the best player development coaches in Europe...Rikki Broadmore! Coach Broadmore will present on some of his development philosophies, his "SYNC" program, and more, followed by a Q&A. This will be terrific.

When: June 29th @ 1 PM (PST) / 10 PM (CEST)

Interested coaches can attend this month's Clinic by signing up HERE. A Zoom link will be sent the day before.

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📋 Reggio Emilia PDFs Uploaded

The Reggio Emilia PDFs from last week's playbook deep-dive are now available for download on SGTV for SG Plus members.

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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