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Happy Sunday and thank you for reading! We hope your seasons are going well as we get closer to playoff time.

Today at a Glance:

🏀 "No Man is an Island" - JL Bourg's "Single Side Tag" PNR Coverages

🎤 Inside the Episode: Paul Westhead, the "Guru of Go"

🥇 Best of the Week

😃 Coaches Corner: Bobby Jordan Q&A!

Before we start, we're excited to have recently partnered with one of the leaders in live event ticketing...SeatGeek! You can now use the code SLAPPINGLASS to receive $20 off your first purchase through SeatGeek.

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Ok, let's dive in...

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JL Bourg's "Single Side Tags"

(Thanks to our new friends at SeatGeek for making this week's deep-dive newsletter available to everyone on the free newsletter as well. If you'd like to receive breakdowns like below every Sunday, along with access to over 450 breakdown videos, a private coaching community and much more, you can become a member of SG Plus.) 🏀

Last week we looked at the backside coverage of JL Bourg's terrific PNR rotations, specifically nerding out on the rules, responsibilities, and stunts of the two "High and Low I" defenders when the PNR is going away from the two player side. For reference, here's an example from last week...

This week we're running it back with JL Bourg, this time looking at their backside "single side tag" PNR responsibilities created when the ball is going toward the 2 player side.

"Single Side Tag" - Reads and Responsibilities

#1 - "Early Bump/Touch N' Go"

Much like last week, where JL Bourg would sink the two backside defenders to the midline to tag the short/long roller, they'll adhere to the same "Early Bump" or "Touch N' Go" principle with the "single side tag" as well. Here's a look...

Zooming In: Why is this important? For starters, it makes any pass to the roller much more difficult because of the congestion in the lane. As shown above, JL Bourg frequently uses a "Hedge" on the ballhandler so it's important to both have coverage on the dangerous roll to the rim while also buying time for their Defensive Big to recover back into the play after hedging.

Zooming In 2.0: An important teaching point when sinking in as a "single side tag" is that the defender cannot get caught too far inside the roller while the ballhandler still has the ball in the middle of the floor. This is the "decision area" of the coverage where the "single side tag" must both take away a quick pass to the roller AND be ready to closeout on the "Shake" action should the ballhandler throw the ball back to the offensive player rising out of the corner.

Zooming In 3.0: Besides creating congestion on any quick pass to the roller while also being ready to closeout on the "Shake" pass, the other reason this sinking by the "single side tag" is so important is that it puts the defender in great position to take away a pass to the roller after a "throw ahead pass" by the offense.

This leads us to the next "single side tag" read/responsibility...

#2 - "Throw Aheads" - Tag and Recover or Switch

As we've looked into before, one of the best ways to attack a "Hedging" PNR Coverage is with quick "throw ahead" passes to create a numbers advantage and closeout situations for the defense. With JL Bourg, when it comes to minimizing the threat of the "throw ahead", they'll make sure to have their "single side tag" cover the roller on the pass until the Defensive Big is able to recover back into the play...

If the offense is able to move the ball a little quicker than shown in the GIF above and tries to find the "shake" player via a skip pass, JL Bourg can "triple switch" that action and switch the "single side tag" defender out to another perimeter player on the skip...

#3 - "Stunt the Skips"

Speaking of skips, a subtle yet deeply important part of the recovery process after Hedging out on the PNR is a defense's ability to take away the most dangerous straight-line passes by both the ballhandler in the PNR as well as the player receiving the "throw ahead pass". Let us explain through the magic of GIFs...

First, here's a look at how JL Bourg stunts and gets a steal on an attempting throwback skip pass after the "throw ahead pass"...

Second, here's JL Bourg stunting and again getting a steal as the ballhandler attempts to skip the ball ahead to the same-side corner...

Zooming In: These stunts, though unlikely to create turnovers most of the time, do allow JL Bourg to remain aggressive with their Hedging while also allowing the "single side tag" to do their job of tagging and recovering off the roll man.

Empty Corner PNR's?

What if there is no Double or Single Tag defender and the offense instead puts JL Bourg in an "Empty Corner PNR'"? To handle this action which is popular in the "Euro Continuity Ballscreen" offense JL Bourg will use the bottom helpside defender from the three player side to cover any roll to the rim. After helping on the roll, this defender will also take any "45 cut" to the rim once the ball is swung to the second side and the offense begins their flow...

We've really enjoyed diving into JL Bourg's terrific PNR coverages the past two weeks, and here is this week's Part 2 highlighting much more on the "Single Side Tag" and guarding the "Euro Continuity" offense...

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Inside the Episode

We were excited to be joined on the podcast this week by former NBA, WNBA, and NCAA Head Coach, the "Guru of Go"...Paul Westhead. Coach Westhead is well known as an NBA Champion, WNBA Champion, and creator of "The System", the ultra fast break/trapping scheme. In this week's episode we dove into a variety of topics with Coach Westhead including:

• "The System" - We discuss the philosophy, building blocks, competitive advantages, and weak spots of "The System". Coach Westhead thoroughly examines a unique system and style of play that led to much success for him in his career and has influenced many programs in the modern game.
• "Start, Sub, or Sit"?! - During this always fun segment we discuss Coach Westhead's stops in the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA, the Flex and Princeton Offenses, and navigating the most important parts of interviewing for a Head Coaching position.

You can listen to the entire episode with Coach Westhead here...

Listen to Paul Westhead!

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Tactical

📺 Raoul Korner - Post Progressions​

"Congrats to Coach Korner on his 250th win with Medi Bayreuth! 👏👏 👏 We had the pleasure to talk with Coach Korner recently & discuss teaching post patience by building in a clear order of operations on the catch."

➕ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on European Post Offense. A look at how clubs are spacing and creating advantages around the Post.

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📺 Moncho Fernandez - Weakside Flares against the Switch​

"Obradoiro attacked Barcelona switching defense by using the post mismatch to set up weakside flares on the skip. Creating a long closeout to attack thru & 2nd skip opportunities."

➕ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on Barcelona's Switch n Shrink PnR Defense & How to Attack the Switch.

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📺 Memphis Grizzlies - Away & Stagger Actions​

"The Memphis Grizzlies are playing as good as basketball as anyone in NBA this season. Slappin' Glass Contributor & Coach, Rob Gardiner highlight how they seamlessly react & stack actions out of their Away & Stagger entries."

➕ Pair With: Our Deep Dive Breakdown on the Stagger Away Entry, all the actions & variations teams are running out of the entry.

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📺 Florian Flabb - Stevens SLOB Screen the Screener​

"Coach Flabb of the German 2nd Division Pro B runs a late game Screen the Screener SLOB, sending the cross screen away for the skip pass catch."

➕ Pair With: Manresa and Tenerife running the Stevens SLOB with variations.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Big Skills ​

"It’s tempting to want to find the one big skill that will set you apart. But most incredible things come from compounding, and compounding isn’t intuitive because the incremental inputs are never exciting on their own."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with former NFL Executive, Mike Lombardi, on the types of skills needed to become a Head Coach.

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📚 Udonis Haslem - The Gatekeeper of the Miami Heat Culture​

"Once you come in, you gotta fall in line. And I’m the person you gotta see. And I take that seriously. There’s an expectation here and a standard. For me, that’s always been about everybody else. What do I get outta this? 20 years. If I can get 20 years it’ll be an amazing career for a kid that no one thought would play in the league. All my sacrifices, everything I’ve given, the only thing I’ve asked for is to try to get to 20. I wanna give that to myself, and I wanted to give it to my father."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with former NBA Head Coach and ESPN Analyst, Jeff Van Gundy, on how great leadership permeates through an organization.

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📚 Inside the Camp, and the Mind, of the Greatest Marathon Runner of All Time​

"He has a thing about celebrating, Kipchoge. Sees it as something sinister, something dangerous, a self-indulgent act that might derail his mindset, make him think, somewhere in his subconscious, that he has arrived, the inference being he has nowhere left to go."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with WNBA's All-Time assist leader, Sue Bird, on the the keeping focus on the skills and traits that matter most in a career.

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Thanks for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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