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

Happy Sunday and welcome all the new subscribers! We appreciate your support of what we do!!

ICYMI: Last weekend we looked at Shaka Smart's "High Slot Spacing" within Marquette's Flow Offense and the advantages derived from it. Get caught up HERE.

Today at a Glance:

📺 SG Plus Exclusive Content: Tuomas Iisalo's Iverson Step Up - Spacing & Execution​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Pablo Laso {Real Madrid}​

🥇Best of the Week: ​​Empty Side Stacks & Post Split Twirls​

🎤 We had the this week pleasure of joining Jamion Christian on his "Last Call" podcast. Together we discussed creating content, what interests us this season and of course Xs & Os. Check out our interview HERE.

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Let's dive in..

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Telekom Bonn- Pick Your Poison

Building off of last weekend's newsletter on Marquette's offensive spacing and the role it plays in their efficiency, we travel across the pond this week to look at the unique spacing of one of our favorite's (and former podcast guests), Coach Tuomas Iisalo, and his club, Telekom Bonn. Currently sitting 2nd in the German League and into the Basketball Champions League Round of 16, Coach Iisalo once again has his offense humming along...

...these numbers are due in no short part to their terrific offensive spacing and Bonn's comfortability in flowing from action to action within their alignments no matter the defensive strategy. To best exemplify their spacing at work we have chosen to drill down into one of their base sets, the "Iverson Step Up", and hone in how they space around the empty side ballscreen. This spacing allows them to leverage the speed of their PG and routinely create paint penetration and kick out 3s.

Iverson Entry - No Wasted Motion

Besides the great spacing, another staple of a Coach Iisalo offense is their efficiency in moving with purpose to create advantages as early as possible within the possession. This is best demonstrated by the bigs staggering their screening angles on the initial Iverson Entry to force more "overs" (defender chasing over the top of a screen). This tricky staggering of screens makes it very dangerous for a defender to go under, as they would be well below the FT line and leave the guard open for a catch and shoot three, and chasing over both can create a downhill catch for the wing to turn the corner. Here's a look at that chase over the top and Bonn's immediate reaction to it...

Zooming In: By starting near the logo and having the 4 & 5 stagger the screens the wing can catch the ball at an angle to take his momentum towards the rim. This small detail puts the wing in better position to attack downhill rather than creating a catch taking him to the sideline (like seen most often in Iverson Entries).

Empty Side Spacing

After the initial Iverson Cut, Bonn will then flow into an empty side ballscreen with their 4. Bonn optimizes their "3 away" spacing around this PnR action by putting a player 1) in the "deep middle third", 2) at the elbow, and 3) in the opposite corner. This alignment helps clear the nail for penetration into the paint while also putting those players in position to immediately punish any help should their defender's attempt to plug the lane. Here's a look at the corner-man's defender helping on the drive over the top leading to a standstill three...

Zooming In: As shown above, if the spacing is effective in clearing the nail than most of the help is pulled above the FT Line leaving the lone corner defender on an island to help. As we saw with Marquette's offense last week, Bonn is able to create direct line passes to the corner for high value spot up 3s.

Downsizing

When Bonn really wants to make the defense's life difficult they will downsize and move their shooting 4 into the 5 position...

Zooming In: To account for the strengths of their shooting lineup, the "5" will space out beyond the elbow to the 3-pt line, ready to punish the big's help with a catch and shoot 3.

Zooming In 2.0: Spacing the PG to the jump logo creates the skip pass necessary for the ballhandler coming off the ballscreen to find the open shooter without needing to grab the paint to find the pass.

Telekom Bonn is a fun team to watch, and this Iverson Entry spacing is just one of the many ways they look to create advantages to play out of. This week's Deep Dive also looks at other parts of the Iverson Entry including:

• Elbow Dives
• Deep Middle 3rd Spacing & Step Up Screens
• Switch Spacing
• Pop and Burn Cuts
• Veer Screen variation
• Mobile 4s & Ghost Screens
• Cutting the PG & 2nd Side Empties

Today's video breakdown available exclusively for SG Plus Members...

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Slappin' Glass subscribers can try Hoopsalytics for free with your own team’s games, and save 25% on any purchase by using the discount code on the page https://hoopsalytics.com/glass/​

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

It was another fantastic week on the podcast as we were joined by former Real Madrid Head Coach, Pablo Laso! Coach Laso is widely considered one of the best coaches in the game and we had a blast diving into a variety of subjects including:

• Managing a Deep and Talented Roster: Coach Laso has had the good fortune of coaching some of the best and deepest rosters in the game, which doesn't come without its struggles. In the first part of our conversation we explore how Coach Laso managed playing time, egos, rotations, and tactical decisions during his tenure.
• Attacking Shot-Blocking Bigs in the PnR: Coach Laso coached one of the best shot-blocking bigs in the European game, Edy Tavares, and during "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" we picked his brain on some of the PnR actions that would give a great shot-blocker trouble.
• Running Great "Floppy" Action: During "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" we also dove into Coach Laso's thoughts on running great "Floppy" Action. He is well known for using the baseline screening set as a base entry to begin his offense, so we picked his brain on how he taught and thought about using the action.

Listen to the entire conversation with Pablo Laso here...

Listen Now!

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Tactical

📺 Phoenix Suns - Angled Pop Empty Side Stack ​

"Popping the 5 Man out of the angled screen into an empty side stack screen."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Oral Roberts HC Paul Mills on playing off the pop.

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📺 Unicaja - Post Splits Twirl Screen 4​

“In Unicaja's Copa Del Rey win over Barcelona they created 4 crucial buckets in crunch time off the post split screens."

✚ Pair With: Sito Alonso's Post Split actions for a Shooter.

✚ SG Plus Exclusive: Our Video Breakdown on Creative Low Post Actions.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Risk and Regret​

"Regrets are a dangerous liability because their final costs are often hidden for years or decades. And decisions that are easiest in the short run are often the most costly in the long run."

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📚 This Changes Everything: A Curious Way to Lead​

"Start with curiosity. Curiosity helps us understand others. And nothing builds trust faster than seeing people for their strengths. Curiosity also helps us bring awareness to our own reactions and lets us shift those."

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📚 Failure is a Lousy Teacher​

"We generally don’t learn more from failure than success. In cases where there is value in mistakes, failure is followed quickly by success, rather than prolonged struggle. The reason is simple math."

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Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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