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

Welcome to all the new subscribers this week, it's great to have you as part of the community! Those interested in getting access to every piece of content in this newsletter (plus thousands of hours more) can join SG Plus HERE. ​

Today at a Glance:

🏀 SGTV: Coby Karl's "5-Out Flow Offense" with the Delaware Blue Coats​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Justin Potts​

🥇 Best of the Week: Serbia NT & Zenit​

📋 Coaches Corner: Practice Design Replay now on SGTV!

​

Let's dive in..

---

Coby Karl's "5-Out Flow Motion"

Delware Blue Coats Head Coach, Coby Karl, has been around great basketball as a player, coach, and coach's son (George Karl) for years, as his playing/coaching career has taken him across the globe and spanned levels from the NBA, Europe, and college. So, it's no surprise to see his Blue Coats running a highly effective "5-Out Flow" Offense that nicely mixes simple cuts with DHO's, PNR's, and DDM (Dribble Drive Motion) concepts.

When diving into Coach Karl's offense, one of the first things that stands out is its simplicity and adaptability. Within their Flow they have the ability to play to multiple actions including 1) Off-ball screening, 2) High Post Split Cuts and DHOs, or 3) Attacking through a ballscreen with Side Screens or Flow "Rub Screens". What we'll highlight below is how the the Blue Coats' multifaceted offense is all triggered by a simple, space clearing Slot Cut initiating by a "Dribble At" by the PG...

​

The Value of the "Dribble At" Cut

As shown above, this initial space clearing cut is triggered when the PG dribbles at the opposite slot man. Thus, for the purposes of this breakdown we'll use the term, "Dribble At" Cut when referencing that action. Even if the Dribble At Cut doesn't lead to a backdoor scoring opportunity like shown above (which it mostly does not), the value of creating space via the slot cut to begin the offense is that it unlocks a world of possibilities and potential advantages for the Blue Coats as they begin their Flow Offense.

Advantage #1 - Driving the Elbow

After the Dribble Act Cut, the Blue Coats often enter the offense with their PG following right behind that first cut into a DHO with the offensive man in the corner. This is where the Blue Coats incorporate subtle elements of Dribble Drive Motion Offenses as the PG passes and follows with a "Brush Cut" and the lifting corner player looks to turn the corner and attack the elbow, which has been cleared out via the Dribble At...

Zooming In: The Blue Coats are able to generate both a backdoor look as well as a penetrating drive all within the first few seconds of the offense. The sneaky part of this action that makes it difficult to guard (and something that'll come up within other actions too) is that the first cut turns that cutter's defender into the "low tag" or help during the oncoming drive. Referencing the GIF above, the Blue Coats do a great job of diving their Elbow Man on the drive, forcing that bottom Tag to stay home and honor that dive should the Defensive Big stunt at all at the ball. Again, as can be seen above, if the drive to the rim or the Diver isn't open, the initial "Dribble At" cutter often is as they space to the opposite corner.

Advantage #2 - Open Catching Area

As the Blue Coats build to more advanced actions beyond the backdoor look or the Elbow Drive, the other advantage created by the Dribble At Cut is that it clears the Elbow and creates a nice "Catching Area" for their 5-Man to receive the pass before flowing into their cutting and screening action...

Zooming In: From this catch, the Blue Coats then can flow into a variety of low/high splits, "Gets" and "Wraps", similar to what we broke down with Coach Josh Schertz and his "5 Out" Offense with Indiana State, as well as Coach John Alesi, and the Princeton "Point Series" they run at Baruch.

Zooming In 2.0: With any offense that is trying to play through an Elbow Catch, having space for that Offensive Big to flash into to receive a pass can make that entry pass harder for the Defensive Big to deny and chop up the rhythm of the offense. Flashing to catch at the Elbow also creates momentum for that Big before they flow into some type of DHO, Keep, or Throw Ahead action.

This week's breakdown also includes how the Blue Coats use this cut to flow into:

• Secondary Actions - Split Cuts, DHO's, and 2-Man Games
• 2nd Cut Opportunities - Moving the Low Tag and Attacking with 2nd Cuts
• Ballscreen Actions - Pick and Pop and Pick and Roll Spacings
• Special ATO's for Shooters

To learn more about Coach Karl's "5-Out Flow Offense" here is today's newest video on SGTV...

​

---

We are proud partners with InStat Basket, their platform has been a tremendous aid in producing our weekly breakdowns and this newsletter. With InStat we get access to their complete catalog of NBA, Euroleague, NCAA, WNBA, and International film. Coaches at every level can use InStat to prepare for opponents, self-scout, and develop players for the next level. Visit InStat now to learn more and take your program to the next level.

​

---

Slappin' Glass Podcast

It's been a little while since we've gone in-depth with a Coach who's deeply committed to pressing and trapping for 40 minutes, so it was a ton of fun to welcome Montclair State Head Coach, Justin Potts, to the podcast this week to share his thoughts on the topic. Known for his uptempo, fullcourt style of play on both the offensive and defensive ends, Coach Potts explored a variety of topics with us this week including:

• "The Art of Pressing": As mentioned, we discussed all things pressing including the philosophy, reads, gray areas, and late-game considerations along with many of the tactical teaching points that Coach Potts uses to teach. Coach Potts also gives insight as to when and why he prefers to use the different fronts of a press.
• Teaching the "Peel Switch": Baked into our conversation about pressing, we also discuss how Coach Potts prefers to teach and use a "Peel Switch". Some nice pointers here on a subject we've touched on a few times recently.
• "Start, Sub, or Sit"?!: During the always fun segment we pick Coach Potts' brain on 5-Out Offense, how trust can be broken between a player and coach, building relationships, and best ways to recap a game with your staff.

You can listen to the entire great interview from Coach Potts here...

Listen Now!

​

---

---

​

Tactical

📺 Serbian NT - Double Stack Screen​

"Serbia rolls Nikola Jokic into the post off of TWO stack screens, with a RIP screen on the weakside or the ability to play the "T" game on the 2nd Side."

✚ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on the Playbook of Coach,Sergio Scariolo, with the Spanish NT.

​

📺 Zenit - BLOB Stack Twirl​

"Out of the Stack Formation, the shooter will backscreen the big who curls directly into a screen for the shooter to pop back to the top of the key."

✚ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on Xavi Pascual's 1-5 PnR Switch to Peel Back.

​

Interesting Reads

📚 One of Basketball’s Most Accurate Shots is a Father-Daughter Production​

"And though statistics have shown Elena to be the greatest free throw shooter in basketball history and the league’s first player to reach the holy grail of 50-40-90 percentages from the field, behind the three-point arc and from the free throw line in a season, Ernie still gets the occasional call from his only client when she wants to correct her mechanics."

​

📚 Revisiting the 10,000 Hour Rule...Was it Ever True?​

"Great coaches make good money for a reason. They are able to devise practice regimes, analyze performance and provide critical feedback to their students. The student often can’t evaluate their performance due to a lack of experience and objectivity. The student may complete an hour of practice on a Kung Fu form, as an example, but without proper coaching they might not realize that their left foot should have been one inch further to the left than it actually was, affecting balance and power during the form."

​

📚 Things Need to Change in Youth Sports​

"While I think there are a handful of high schoolers that should be entitled to making NIL money, we need to be careful to not let it seep into the younger ages. Youth sports are supposed to be fun, a time to grow, and compete with no other motives in mind. All of the problems we’re seeing are going to drive up costs — paying refs more, higher costs for AAU tournaments, more expensive trainers, etc."

​

---

​

The Coaches Corner is a private coaching platform that SG Plus members get access to when they join. It's filled with tons of extra content and all of our past newsletters and videos, as well as open forum threads and discussions started by member coaches on all kinds of coaching/leadership topics.

​
​📺 August "Practice Design" Roundtable now on SGTV!

Honored to be joined by SG Plus Members of all levels last week (NBA, College, International) to discuss Practice Design and Ecological Constraints. Topics included:

• Effective Constraints
• Time Constraints vs Scoring Constraints
• Competition vs Teaching in Practice
• Coaching Interventions
• And much more

Special thanks to Coach Liam Flynn for kicking off the conversation with a short presentation on evolution of Coaching Methodology. (CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO!)

​

---

Quote of the Week

​

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com