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

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! We're excited to have you as part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last week, we looked at newly hired Kentucky HC, Mark Pope, and his Delay spacing with two bigs. View the newsletter HERE. Congrats to recent podcast guest Jason Hart on joining Coach Pope's staff at Kentucky too.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Nikola Mirotic - Early Transition High Seals​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Practical Thoughts on Ecological Design, Representative Environments, and the CLA​

🥇Best of the Week: Horns Slip Outs & End of Quarter Sets​

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Let's dive in...

Early Transition Rim Runs - High Seals

As modern offenses have evolved to feature "5-Out and/or 4-Out-1-In" alignments to maximize space, coupled with a preference for perimeter players to be interchangeable and less reliant on "traditional" positions, so to has the role of the "4-Man" to accommodate this evolution. Now, more than ever, forwards find themselves in a wide variety of "perimeter situations" on both ends of the court.

With the game valuing perimeter skills and tasking forwards/4-Men to play on the perimeter, conversely, on the other end, they are defending on the perimeter more than ever, often, above the "break" (break in the three point line).

Defending ISO's after a switch, or being involved in PNR's and DHO's presents a unique opportunity for these forward to be the first ones out on a break and use their combination of size and speed to pressure their opponent's transition defense with seals at the rim. Perhaps, no one is doing this better and taking advantage of this opportunity more than Nikola Mirotic.

Fran Fraschilla has a great term about the "unknown runner", or a big who runs the floor so hard that they open up all types of opportunities in transition regardless if it's for them. Today's deep dive will look at how Mirotic' teammates "know" he is always hard rim running and actively looking to feed him on early seals.

Sprinting Underneath

What's unique and impressive about Nikola Mirotic's seals are that instead of attempting to get a deep paint seal with his back to the basket, he sprints ahead and then stops to slide underneath the defender as soon as possible. Mirotic's goal is to seal the defender on the high side and receive a lob over the top, creating an immediate, uncontested scoring opportunity...

Once Mirotic is underneath his matchup, he holds his seal, maintaining space between himself and the rim, thus creating a "catch area" for the ballhandler to throw the ball over the top into.

A quick aside: In every situation shown today and something that is vital to Mirotic's seal success, is having a point guard readily willing to push the pace and throw the pass. These seals have a time limit, as the defense will establish themselves and close the "catch area" Mirotic has created after a few seconds. So, while today we are looking specifically at Mirotic's technique in sealing and creating these opportunities, it would all be for naught if his point guards were not willing or capable of throwing the early transition lob pass. I mean, this is a dime...

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In today's basketball landscape, the role of the "4-Man" has undergone a significant transformation, with forwards finding themselves in diverse perimeter situations on both ends of the court. Nikola Mirotic exemplifies this evolution, capitalizing on perimeter play and open rims to create opportunistic scoring chances for himself through the high seal. Additionally, in the context of switching defense, while bigs are challenged to defend above the break, the switch does offer opportunities for them to flip the mismatch with a hard transition push and seal at the rim.

For much more on Mirotic' rim running and early seals after a switch, become an SG Plus Member for complete video access...

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

In this special episode we were joined by Coach Drew Dunlop to look back on the learnings and practical takeaways from the month of January's podcasts, which covered the areas of Learning Environments, Ecological Design, Feedback, Training vs. Trusting Mindsets, and much more. We discuss our thoughts and trials with different elements of each, along with ideas for the future.

Listen to the entire conversation here...

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.

Tactical

📺 Mornar Bar - Horns Slip Outs​

"Mornar Bar slipping their 4-Man out to the perimeter after an initial guard-to-guard Ghost Screen."

✚ Pair With: Mornar Bar's "UCLA Twist • Ram Flare"

🔒SG Plus Content: Mornar Bar's playbook design with Coach Pavićević

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📺 Tenerife - End of Quarter​

"An End-of-Quarter quick strike for a shooter lifting into a DHO with the ballhandler coming off the ballscreen."

✚ Pair With: Using Slip Outs and Ghost Screens to confuse late-clock switching.

🔒SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on the Ghost Flare late-clock retrigger.

Interesting Reads

📚 Just Respect the Essence​

"The purpose —the victory— and the information —the rules, the teammates, the opponents— bring out the essence, the most important thing, what the sport is."

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📚 Growth Without Goals​

"I think 'accomplishments' are traps. Accomplishments, by their very definition, exist only in the past or future—which are not even real things. Pride is the worst of the seven sins and it is closely related to past and future accomplishments."
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📚 An Interesting Thread...

​For those who are 55+, if you could go back and re-live your 30s/40s again -- young kids, demanding career, stretched thin -- how would you change how you spent your time and attention, and why?​

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Join the conversation, gain insights from others, check up on previous newsletters and help your fellow peers! As we use this community of coaches to make ourselves and our teams better, get caught up on some of the latest conversations in the Coaches Corner. If you have not already joined the Coaches Corner, please check your initial welcome email for the invitation. Can't find it? Feel free to reach out to us, and we will promptly resend the invite.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

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Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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