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

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 highlighted Barcelona's use of the pitch back to attack perimeter mismatches with their shooters. View the full breakdown HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🚨 Gonzalo Rodriguez Training Camp and Season Mentorship FINAL DAYS! 🚨

🔒 SG Plus Content: Walter De Raffaele - 3-2 Match Up Zone

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Walter De Raffaele

🥇Best of the Week: Trail 3's & Horns Stack

Let's dive in...

Last Chance! Applications close tomorrow, Monday August 14th!

We are excited to announce two exciting new mentorship opportunities for SG Plus Members with Obradoiro Assistant Coach, Gonzalo Rodriguez! After a highly success first program with Coach Rodriguez this past May, we're happy to offer two different mentorship opportunities this upcoming season:

A 5-week small group "Training Camp" Mentorship (August 22 - September 19) and/or
A 7-month Season-Long program (October - May)

Coach Rodriguez has over 30 years of experience as a coach and more than a decade in Spain's top division, the ACB. For a better understanding of the program and what it will entail, view a sneak peek into last sessions program HERE.

To learn more about each program become a member below and join NBA, Euroleague, International, NCAA, and High School coaches from over 60 countries around the world...

Join SG Plus!

Space is limited and preference will be given on a "first come, first serve" basis. Applications close August 14th.

3-2 Zone Strategies

This week on the podcast, we were joined by Italian Pro Coach, Walter De Raffaele, where we had the opportunity to explore his 3-2 zone philosophy and strategies for defending problem areas within the coverage, ballscreen attacks, and aiding weak defenders. As Coach De Raffaele alludes to in our conversation, he likes to play "strange" by using this zone to switch to man and thwart initial actions or ballscreens. This approach continually keeps the offense off balance and can force it to stagnate into 1v1 situations. So, for this week's breakdown, we decided to dive into his film to help contextualize many of the ideas we discussed during our conversation.

Defending the High Post & Corners

Especially within a 3-2 zone, the High Post and Corners are two catch areas that are often soft spots within the coverage. Primarily because the ball is getting behind the three top defenders, allowing the offense to puncture the zone and create advantageous matchups for the offense.

However, in the case of the high post catch, more often than not, the receiver is not the greatest playmaker (as seen in the NBA playoffs with the East's struggles against Miami). So, instead of dealing with zone rotations, bumps and collapsing down to the rim, Coach De Raffaele opts to immediately switch to a man-to-man matchup on the high post catch, forcing the opponent to create offense from there...

Zooming In: With the defense fanning out to match up, rather than collapsing down to protect the rim in traditional zone spots, the offense stagnates, and the high post is forced to play 1v1 with help ready to dig in from behind.

The way teams decide to defend the corners within the 3-2 is an interesting case study. With the two bottom bigs tasked to cover more ground along the baseline, smart offenses will place advantageous matchups in the corners to exploit their lack of foot speed and mobility on rotations or closeouts. For Coach De Raffaele, the simple fix when the ball goes to the corner on the 4-man side was to again immediately jump into man defense. Definitely a personnel-based decision, Coach De Raffaele believed he had enough mobility at the 4 position to contain any potential corner mismatch they would be conceding.

Zooming In: The value of switching from zone to man and the confusion it can create is evident in these corner catches. Offenses tend to become passive against zone coverages, so even with a perimeter mismatch, more often than not, the corner man does not catch to immediately attack. Now, when you add the defense matching up after the catch to take away passing outlets, the ballhandler can be forced to play 1v1 against a set defender, with little to no offensive movement.

5-Man Bump Outs

When faced with the traditional, heavy-footed 5-Man going out to the corners, Coach De Raffaele was not comfortable with this matchup and opted to protect his centers rather than isolating them. He'd solve this issue by sending the wing down to the corner and bumping the 5-Man back to the rim, morphing the zone into a temporary 2-3 look...

Gaining its shape back as the ball is passed around the perimeter...

Defending Middle Ballscreens

Covered in today's video breakdown are a few different ballscreen actions and how Coach De Raffaele decides to defend each action. All of these actions ultimately end in man-to-man defense, but what's interesting is the decisions on who helps on the screen and when to switch, either prior to or immediately after the screen.

The defensive strategy we particularly enjoy is how his teams defended the middle ballscreen on the top man, in which the strong side wing defender will show on the screen to impact the ball and aid the top man getting through...

Zooming In: To successfully execute the wing's show on the ball, the low big behind has to be prepared to stunt up on throw-ahead passes, while also being cautious not to give up the extra pass to the corner.

Meanwhile, the opposite low big picked up the roller, and the defense finished out the possession in man to man.

If the PNR was directing the ballhandler away from the 2-man side, the defense could adopt for a more aggressive coverage by hard hedging or even trapping the ball...

Zooming In: With the strong side 45 spot empty, the wing can adopt a more aggressive coverage, knowing that the low big behind him is not responsible for defending two players (yes, some great offense above too).

Solving Mismatches

All of this zone-to-man switching is excellent and can truly perplex an offense. However, when studying Coach De Raffaele's teams, what truly contributed to their success and the effectiveness of their coverages was their skill in resolving the mismatches they generated after transitioning into man-to-man defense. As Coach De Raffaele addresses in the podcast, after transitioning into man defense, he would continue to switch 1 through 5. Therefore, even the most well-executed defensive possessions would often result in troubling mismatches. So having and preparing different strategies to solve mismatches mid possession is imperative.

To view the different tactics Coach Walter De Raffaele's players used to solve these mismatches, plus:

Defending outer 3rd ballscreens
Defending step up screens
Peel switches & triple switches

View the full video 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

It's also an important part of our job that you need to be able to manage (losing). You need to be able to answer, especially after losing games. But what I think is important, when you come back on the court, is the face that you show to your players after this game. And I'm a coach that tries really to analyze situations. The most difficult thing is that when you pass through this period, it's important that you understand why and how you lost this kind of game. - Walter De Raffaele

We had the chance to sit down this week with one of the best minds in the International game when it comes to Zones and playing unique defense, Walter De Raffaele! Coach De Raffaele has found success at various levels of professional basketball and shed light on a number of his ideas including:

The Philosophy, Rules, and Teaching Points of the 3-2 Zone
Princeton-Based Set Designs
"Real Coaching Growth"
And much more

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Walter De Raffaele here...

Listen Now!

Tactical

📺 Valencia - Backcourt Screens • Trail 3's

"Due to the defense's reluctance to switch early in the shot clock, the big is forced to contain the PG in space, which allows the screener to step into a trail 3-pointer."

✚ Pair With: Valencia's BLOB for their stretch 5.

🔒 SG Plus Content: The Art of the Pick n Pop with Ben McCollum.

📺 Mornar Bar - Horns RIP • Stack Screen

"Mornar Bar executing the spanish PnR out of a horns stack alignment."

✚ Pair With: Mornar Bar's UCLA Twist Special.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Mornar Bar's 2020 Offensive Playbook with Coach Mihailo Pavićević.

Interesting Reads

📚 A Few Stories About Big Decisions

"Most decisions aren’t made on a spreadsheet, where you just add up the numbers and a rational answer pops out. There’s a human element that’s hard to quantify, hard to explain, and can seem detached from the original goal, yet carries the most influence."

📚 What Was Playing for Gene Keady Like? 'Rip You and Tell You You are OK in Same Sentence.'

“He had the uncanny ability to rip you and tell you that you are OK in the same sentence,” Painter said early this week. “I’m a big believer that you need to feel good about yourself (to perform well). He was great at that. He had a really good knack of relating to people and knowing how to get the best out of them. He’s a genuine person more than anything else. The way he looks in competition might seem like he’s a mean guy or a tough guy. But he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.”

📚 Bill Belichick Stays on the Move in His 24th Season Coaching the Patriots

"We have this idea that your physical health and mind are somehow separate, but they are parts of the same process. It accounts for these dynamic people always moving around. There’s that dynamism in their personality to go along with it. [Movement] is my favorite prescription to recommend for people.”

Quote of the Week

"...That is the dilemma in which life has placed us. We must choose between a life that is thin and narrow, uncreative and mechanical, with the assurance that even if it is not very exciting it will not be intolerably painful; and a life in which the increase in its fullness and creativeness brings a vast increase in delight, but also in pain and hurt.” - John Macmurray

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

Slappin' Glass

🏀 The 3-2 Matchup Zone: A Primer