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 recapped our July Coaches Roundtable, sharing key takeaways and insight from our conversation including High Split Cuts, Random Screening, and more. Read the full newsletter HERE.

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This Week at a Glance:

👀 SG SoCal Coaches Summit Returns! Exclusive sign up for SG+ Members only.

📺 SGTV: Trapping the Post - Double from the Top​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Luca Banchi { Efes and Latvia NT}

📢 Hudl FastModel & Dr. Dish

🥇 Best of the Week: Top Flares & Elevated Screens​

🚨 Coaches Corner: August Roundtable Announcement!

📚 Interesting Reads: Resilience, Unique Traits of Introverts, and IU Indy Basketball

Let's dive in...

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Top-Down Traps

Wide Open Spaces... that ideal, optimal place where players experience the freedom to create and explore advantages on offense with minimal fear of pesky helpside defenders infringing on their vibe. Whatever feelings these wide open spaces inspire for an offense...confidence, calmness, unity, etc...today we're going to explore the opposite of those and the panic that sneaky, trapping defenses can invoke...

In this week's newest Deep Dive we turn our attention back to "Post Trapping Schemes", taking a closer look at doubling a dominant post player or mismatch from the top, middle defender. Earlier in the offseason, we highlighted the defensive strategy of doubling the post player off the cut of the entry passer {🔒} Here's a quick look at that...

Zooming In: In this previously highlighted strategy, rather than blindly following a cutter to the opposite side of the floor and conceding space for a dominant big to operate, defenses can choose to jump the post with a trap as the cutter clears.

When it comes to slowing down talented scorers at any position, making them uncomfortable and varying the coverage are always strong starting points. While the most common approach is to bring help from the baseline side, we want to continue to explore and elevate the less frequently used tools coaches have at their disposal—top-side traps included.

Setting The Scene: One factor that makes various post trapping schemes effective is the consistent shape many offenses take on a post entry: a near-side wing, with either a trips alignment on the backside or a fifth player occupying the dunker spot, flanked by two perimeter spacers. In either weakside alignment, a team trapping from the top can reliably expect to have a player at the elbow, two passes away and well-positioned to execute the trap, while keeping two defenders behind the action ready to rotate and support.

Zooming In: The advantage of the top trap begins with the short distance the trapping defender must cover, allowing for precise timing on the double (more on this to come). Positioned two passes away, this defender is already in help position near the elbow, usually just two hard strides from engaging the double. This distance is typically less than what a guard would have to cover coming from the opposite baseline in the more common doubling schemes many teams use today.

Zooming In 2.0: Top trapping also allows the primary defender to play more straight up on the ball. While it’s important to avoid being beaten baseline, as it would seriously undermine the trap’s effectiveness, most post players prefer to work toward the middle of the floor, even if it’s not to their dominant hand. As the trap unfolds, the on-ball defender can anticipate the common counter move of spinning away from the trap and adjust accordingly.

A key consideration with this trapping scheme is the timing of when to send the double. Any skilled post player will scan the floor as soon as they catch the ball. While doubling on the cut benefits from the surprise element, and trapping from the baseline takes advantage of the post’s blind spot, sending a double from the top occurs right in the post player’s line of sight. If the defense traps too early, the post player has time and comfort to pass out as the double arrives, forcing the trapper into a difficult two-way closeout and putting stress on the rotations behind. To optimize this scheme’s effectiveness, the defense must be acutely aware of their timing, baiting the post player into initiating their move before springing the trap into action.

Ready...Aim...Fire (On The Dribble)

To maintain the element of surprise, the trap is most effective when triggered on the post player’s first dribble. Sending the trap too early, before the initial bounce, gives the post too many escape options: pivoting away, stepping through, making a quick release pass, or using an escape dribble to the short corner. On the catch, post players worth doubling are adept at keeping their heads up, scanning the floor, and reading defenders. But the moment they start dribbling, that level of awareness drops significantly, making it the perfect time to spring the trap.

Zooming In: All but the most skilled interior players will drop their heads and lose vision of the court on the dribble (as shown above), limiting their ability to read and respond to help. With their momentum carrying them toward the middle, few bigs are comfortable enough to begin attacking, absorb the trap, then retreat-dribble to the short corner. Nor are they adept enough with the dribble to see the double coming and fire a pass out of the dribble. More often than not, a well-timed trap mid-dribble forces an immediate pickup, followed by either a spin back to the baseline or a risky jump pass under duress.

Splitting Two

Ultimately, putting two on the ball means zoning up on the backside with two defenders responsible for three. But the angle of the double team and the weakside alignment make this task much more manageable. Because the post-up occurs so low on the block, and with the post player’s back to the basket, their field of vision narrows significantly, along with their passing windows. This positioning advantage allows the defense to rotate with greater anticipation and less risk.

As we’ve seen, the skip pass should be nearly impossible, or at best, a fool’s bet, as the post player will need to thread it through four hands in the trap and past the low man at the rim to reach the intended target.

With the strongside wing staying home on their matchup, the post is left with the one pass the defense is prepared for—the kickout to the top. In the same vein as our recent X-Out breakdown {🔒}, positioning is everything. The split defender behind the trap, anticipating this pass, anchors themselves at the elbow parallel to the sideline, where they can effectively control two. From that spot, they shorten closeouts, can disrupt extra passes, and put themselves in prime position to hunt deflections or even better...

Absorbing Cuts

With the ball close to the rim and the protection zoning up on the weakside, the toughest part of this coverage is tracking cutters. The last defender on the weakside is responsible for protecting the rim behind the trap, sliding over to cover any dive cuts from the perimeter. This task becomes easier when the offense spaces a big in the weakside dunker spot, naturally positioning the next-largest defender to patrol the paint.

However, modern spacing often puts four perimeter players around the post, making the task harder as the last line of defense frequently falls to a guard. While capable, guards are usually less physically equipped to hold position and struggle to get their bodies in front of the rim early enough to absorb cuts.

Zooming In: Guards or smaller defenders in the last spot often hover outside the paint, anticipating a skip pass or preparing for an X-out and scramble instead of planting themselves inside. This limits their ability to disrupt cuts.

When trapping from the top, defenses can expect a steady stream of cuts from above. These come from the trap spot or take the form of a burn cut designed to remove the split help. Because of this, the coverage requires the split defender to maintain position and not drop with the cut, trusting the last defender to use physicality to stop the cut at the rim.

In the end, the top-side post trap is less about constant pressure and more about well-timed disruption—baiting the post into movement, striking on the dribble, and trusting the rotations behind to turn a moment of panic into a defensive win.

For much more on this effective post doubling strategy, SG+ members can now enjoy this week's newest deep dive on SGTV...

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Together with Dr. Dish

Slappin’ Glass subscribers get ready to score back to school savings with Dr. Dish! Unlock $2,000 off the Dr. Dish CT+ to prepare your team for the upcoming season, plus an additional bonus discount when you mention the Slappin’ Glass Podcast. Score these savings before August 31st!

Slappin' Glass Podcast

🏀 Top 3 Takeaways from Luca Banchi on the Slappin’ Glass Podcast

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In this week’s episode, Anadolu Efes and Latvia National Team Head Coach, Luca Banchi, shares a masterclass on building offensive flow, empowering decision-makers, and thriving under tight time constraints. From redefining “fundamentals” to crafting spacing rules that survive broken plays, Banchi offers hard-earned wisdom for coaches at every level.

1. “Decision-making is a new fundamental.”​
Coach Banchi believes modern players must be empowered to read and react rather than simply execute plays.

2. Flow and spacing beat rigid sets.​
At the highest levels, defenses disrupt actions quickly — so offense must keep flowing.

3. Time is the coach’s biggest enemy.​
With national teams and EuroLeague schedules, efficiency in communication and practice is critical.

For much more from Coach Banchi, listen to the full episode here...

Together with Hudl

Hudl Powers Every Possession

If you’re already using tools like FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit—you know how essential they are to your workflows. And now that they’re fully part of the Hudl ecosystem, they’re more powerful than ever. From film and play diagrams to scouting reports and custom recruiting boards, everything flows together. One system. Built for high-performance programs.

​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

📺 5 Out Offense - Top Flare​

"A quick hitting flare screen against the nail help in the 5 Out alignment."

✚ Pair With: Flaring the inbound passer off the short corner entry pass.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Utah Jazz Head Coach Will Hardy's use of the Top Flare.​

🎧 Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Coach Will Hardy!

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📺 Elevated Stagger Screens - Gortat Screen​

"Create a lane for their PG to get to the rim using a High Staggered Ballscreen and the Gortat Screen."

✚ Pair With: Creating overs and tag confusion through the use of two elevated T-Screens or Flat Screens.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on removing rim protection with a well-timed seal on dribble penetration.

Interesting Reads & Stuff

📚 Conflicting Skill Sets​

Trusting your gut means there are true things that you can’t articulate. Being skeptical of your biases means knowing that you confidently articulate things that aren’t true.

Being contrarian requires taking a stance most people don’t agree with. Being reasonable requires realizing that most people, as a group, are smarter than you.

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📚 There's No Such Thing As a Fresh Start​

The reason this is so liberating, for anyone with even a hint of perfectionism, is that it means you get to give up on the exhausting struggle to take charge of your life, so as to steer it in a new direction. You get to abandon all hope of one day finding the perfect time management system – or perfect relationship, job, neighborhood, etcetera – and relax back into the inescapable chaos and muddle of the one you have.

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📚 How I Practice What I Do​

2. Much of my writing time is devoted to laying out points of view which are not my own. I recommend this for most of you.

3. I do serious reading every day.

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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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