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

Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we released our "Film Room" session with Coach Charles Klask on the details of "connected switching." Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Handwork & Jump on the Pickup - Hedge & Plug Defense​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: SG Deep Dive on Hedge & Plug Solutions, Learning Frameworks, and European Film​

🔑 The Practice Lab: Slices of the Game​

🥇 Best of the Week: Iverson 5 Out​

Hedge & Plug Jumps

We all know the rule: don’t leave your feet on defense.

Most of the time, it is good advice. But are there moments when jumping is actually the right play?

In a previous breakdown, we explored the concept of "jumping on the pickup" {🔒} when defending the ballscreen, demonstrated by New Mexico a couple of years ago. We looked at how it took away the ballhandler’s most common first passes while creating opportunities for deflections and steals. Later, on a Slappin' Glass deep dive podcast, we discussed that one of the more interesting points about the jump on the pickup is how it could be adapted to all different types of ballscreen coverages.

Today, we’re looking at the application of the "jump on the pickup" within Hedge and Plug {🔒}. As Hedge and Plug becomes more common, particularly in Europe, teams are adding small details like this to sharpen the coverage and take it from solid to disruptive.

Patient Plugging

In Hedge and Plug, the screen defender impacts the ball with a hedge. Unlike a traditional hedge coverage, the on-ball defender is not racing over the screen to immediately recover. Instead, they momentarily switch onto the screener, plugging the short roll before returning to the ball.

It is within this window, after controlling the roller but before fully re-engaging the ball, that the defender can strengthen the coverage with a well-timed jump.

Zooming In: Once the hedge forces a pickup, especially well beyond the three-point line, there is less urgency for the plug defender to recover to the ball. Without a live dribble, the ballhandler is no longer an immediate scoring threat.

The defender can instead use that extra moment to disrupt the pass most likely to break the coverage.

Everybody Jump

The plug defender is not the only player involved.

One of the most difficult passes to manage against Hedge and Plug is the direct skip to the corner. If completed cleanly, it can trigger an X-out and force the defense into rotation.

The teams featured in this breakdown use the positioning and handwork of the top defender on the two-player side to change that pass before it is thrown. The goal is not always a steal. Sometimes forcing the ball to spend an extra second in the air is enough to save the possession.

Protecting the Next Pass

The offense’s first pass out of the hedge does not end the coverage.

Many teams will advance the ball before looking back to the roller, attempting to create a cleaner passing window on the second side. The defense must anticipate that next read rather than simply reacting to the first pass.

The full breakdown examines how defenders exchange responsibilities and use a second jump to protect the roll without opening the rest of the floor.

A Second Effort From the Plug

The plug defender’s responsibility can also continue after the ball has been advanced.

Rather than immediately racing back to their matchup, they can remain connected to the shell and influence the next pass. The timing and positioning behind that second effort are where the coverage becomes particularly interesting.

The common thread is not jumping for the sake of activity. It is identifying the offense’s most dangerous next pass and using timing, positioning, and handwork to take it away.

The complete SGTV breakdown includes the film, positioning details, and responsibilities behind each jump.

🔐 Become an SG+ member to unlock the full newsletter and video breakdown, along with complete access to the SGTV library.

SLICES OF THE GAME

Thoughts from Drew Dunlop

I never set out to write a book. Much like I never set out to open a gym, this project grew from a desire to give back to a game that has given me so much—and to pass on early what I had to learn late.

​Slices of the Game is officially available.

The story of how it came together feels fitting for this newsletter. It includes plenty of mistakes, doubt, adjustments, and figuring things out along the way.

How It Started

Last September, I was asked to present at the Slappin’ Glass SoCal Summit. A few months before the event, I began organizing years of notes, experiments, and lessons from the gym.

I didn’t know exactly what the presentation would become. I just wanted to make it as valuable as possible.

I was anxious to share it, but I also knew that feeling uncomfortable was probably the exact reason I needed to do it. The response and conversations afterward changed the trajectory of the project.

The next day, on my flight home, I opened my notes and started outlining a book.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, but something about it felt like it had to be done.

Sometimes you choose your projects. And sometimes, the projects choose you.

The Wrong Turn

Once I committed to writing the book, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I reached out to authors, asked about their routines, and tried to work the way they worked.

I carved out blocks of “deep work.” I sat at my desk. I tried to create the perfect conditions.

And I was utterly unproductive.

The size of the idea felt paralyzing. The amount of work ahead felt overwhelming. I had never done anything like this before, and an inner voice kept asking:

Why would anyone listen to you?

Looking back, my mistake wasn’t asking others how they worked. It was assuming their way had to become my way.

The Re-Route

Had I stopped there, this book would not exist.

My biggest adjustment was realizing I needed to approach the project in a way that fit how I actually think and work. Yes, I was a beginner, but maybe that could be an advantage. I didn’t have years of assumptions about how a book had to be written.

I travel often for work, which gives me small windows of time everywhere. Flights, Uber rides, hotel rooms, and empty arenas before games all became places to write. At home, it meant early mornings, late nights, and gaps between sessions at the gym.

I created one simple rule:

If I had five minutes or more, I wrote.

Sometimes that meant writing a single paragraph on my phone. I listened back to sections using Speechify and edited them while walking laps or dribbling a basketball.

I’ve come to think of myself as a kinetic thinker. The more I move, the more ideas seem to connect. Instead of forcing myself into someone else’s ideal writing environment, I built a process around my own.

​Dr. Gio Valiante (🎙️), one of the world’s leading performance psychologists, has a phrase that stuck with me:

“There is an everydayness to excellence.”

That became the process. Good, bad, tired, frustrated, or inspired—if I had more than five minutes, I wrote.

Paragraph by paragraph, flight by flight, and walk by walk, the book took shape. From organizing the first notes to finishing the manuscript, the process took fourteen months.

The Goal

The goal of Slices of the Game was never to tell coaches the way to train. It was to offer a way to think about training design.

I wanted to cut through dense research and jargon and translate ideas from skill acquisition into something coaches could use in the gym—regardless of their offensive or defensive system.

Coaches are already experts on their players, their systems, their leagues, and their environments. They don’t need someone telling them to throw away everything they already do.

They need ideas they can evaluate, adapt, experiment with, and plug into what they already do well.

That is also the vision behind The Practice Lab {🔒}. Not a blueprint to copy, but a menu to pull from. Find an idea, make it your own, test it with your players, and keep learning from what happens next.

That is what I hope Slices of the Game becomes: a bridge from research to reps.

A resource that helps coaches ask better questions, design better environments, and find their own way.

The last fourteen months reinforced something I believe more than ever: you don’t need the entire path mapped out before you begin.

Sometimes you just need five minutes.

Start. Adjust. Keep going.

You might be surprised by what is waiting on the other side.

Slices of the Game is available now.

🎁 SG+ members can also download Slices of the Game: Where to Start {🔒}, a practical guide built to help coaches begin applying the book’s larger ideas.

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.

🎙7 Lessons from the SG Deep Dive

In this SG Deep Dive, we examine how offenses are attacking the Hedge-and-Plug pick-and-Roll coverage that continues to spread throughout European and modern basketball. Here are 7 lessons from the conversation:

1. Attack the Transition Between Jobs: The plug defender is most vulnerable when shifting from protecting the roll back to guarding the ball. The offense should attack that change of responsibility before the defender can rebuild their stance and ball pressure.
2. Stretch the Relationship Between the Hedge and the Plug: Holding the big, widening the dribble, or rejecting the coverage increases the distance between the two defenders responsible for the action. That can open the short roll, expose the plug defender’s recovery, or force the backside to declare who owns the roll.
3. The Screener’s Second Action May Matter More Than the First: The first screen triggers the coverage. The Gortat, seal, rescreen, or uphill return is often the action that creates the actual advantage.
4. Use Rescreens to Change the Coverage: A boomerang screen can make it difficult for the big to hedge a second time. What began as Hedge and Plug may become a drop, switch, or late show against a ball handler prepared to attack it.
5. Create Forced Rotations, Not Prepared Rotations: The traditional pass-out and second pass may activate the exact rotation the defense has drilled. The better solution creates an advantage inside the two-player action and forces the other three defenders to solve something they were not already expecting.
6. Defensive Technique Must Account for the Next Movement: A plug defender can get wide and square enough to remove the short roll, but that same stance may leave them unable to recover to the ball. The technique cannot only solve the first responsibility.
7. Coverage Fluency Expands the Defense’s Risk Budget: Once the positioning and rotations are automatic, defenders can jump on pickups, stunt at the next pass, and take calculated risks without breaking the coverage behind them.

📺 Deep Dives Discussed in this Episode include:

1. ​Tuomas Iisalo - Hedge and Plug Defense​
2. ​"Reject the Hedge and Gortat" - Beating the Hedge and Plug​
3. ​Hedge and Plug Defense - Handwork and "Jumps on the Pickup"​

Listen to the full conversation, including favorite podcast takeaways, along with favorite International teams to watch this summer now on the Slappin’ Glass Podcast.

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

📺 Iverson Entry - 5 Out • Shuffle​

"Executing a shuffle action for their 4 man out of the Iverson Entry."

🔒 Pair With: Another Iverson entry, popping the 5-man out to set up a shooter slipping the rip screen and chasing into the handoff.​

🔒 Pair With: One of Zalgiris favorite action this year, popping the 4-man out of the Iverson Entry to create dynamic spread ballscreen.

🔒 SG Plus Deep Dive: A few of our favorite European actions from the Iverson Keep and Iverson Loop series.

Interesting Reads

📚 12 Big Takeaways From NBA Summer League​

Audacious passing is an underrated fun part of Summer League and De Larrea delivered it in spades. It's not just the vision, it was the ability to pass guys into the openings. Wherever the ball needed to go, he made sure he worked to get in there, and that's a good sign for Dallas.

📚 How to Manage Multiple Interests (Without Spreading Yourself Thin)​

Buffett once said that “the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything,” and this 5/25 method sure aligns with this belief.

📚 It’s About Being, Not Having​

When you want to learn how to do something yourself, most people won’t understand. They’ll assume the only reason we do anything is to get it done, and doing it yourself is not the most efficient way.

But that’s forgetting about the joy of learning and doing.

Yes, it may take longer. Yes, it may be inefficient. Yes, it may even cost you millions of dollars in lost opportunities because your business is growing slower because you’re insisting on doing something yourself.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, Eric, and Drew

info@slappinglass.com