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

Happy 4th of July Weekend! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, our latest Deep Dive conversation on attacking Hedge & Plug coverage, looking at rejects, short-roll angles, micro-closeouts, Gortat screens, and the next layer of boomerang re-screens. We also dropped a new round of Practice Lab videos, continuing to build out a practical menu of ideas coaches can steal, shape, and bring to the floor. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SGTV: Offensive Intelligence Report {April-June}

🧪 The Practice Lab: Selling Lies

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Francesco Tabellini​

📚 Interesting Reads: Perfect the Pivot

Offensive Intelligence Report

Each quarter, we take a look at the SGTV videos coaches kept coming back to.

Not just the newest releases, but the concepts that continued to get watched, shared, and revisited.

The goal is simple: use the library to better understand what problems coaches are working through, and what parts of the game are demanding more attention.

This quarter, a few themes kept showing up: earlier offense, higher initiations, more purposeful screening, and cleaner answers against switches, hedges, and extended pressure.

Below is this quarter’s Offensive Intelligence Report — a look at the concepts coaches spent the most time with, organized into Early Offense/Transition Concepts and Ballscreen Concepts.

For SG Plus members, the full breakdowns, newsletters, and bonus videos are all linked inside.

For free subscribers, this is a snapshot of what coaches are studying inside SGTV, and a preview of the type of film, teaching points, and tactical connections added to the library each week.

Let’s dive in.

Early/Transition Offense Actions & Concepts

🥇 Opening the Rebound

A subtle rebounding technique to create early vision, cleaner outlet angles, and immediate pace.

The larger idea: transition offense does not always start with the outlet pass. It can start with how the rebound is secured, opened, and turned into early information.

Read the free newsletter: Rebound to Run​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, along with connected ideas on defensive rebounding philosophy, throw-ahead short corner catches, and early baseline pressure.

🥈 High Slot Pitch & Slip

An early offense trigger using the high slot pitch to flow into a step-up screen before the defense is fully organized.

The larger idea: offenses are finding ways to move from spacing into advantage-building before the coverage has a chance to settle.

Read for free: High Slot Pitch & Slip

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, related clips on high slot spacing, downhill catches, and Shaka Smart’s use of similar spacing concepts at Marquette.

🥉 Blur Drags & Veer Screens

A look at how blur drag screens help offenses stay in attack mode when a clean early drag angle is hard to find.

The larger idea: early offense is becoming less dependent on perfect drag-screen spacing and more dependent on timing, pace, and the screener’s ability to adjust on the move.

Read for free: When the Drag Gets Blurry​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, including the footwork of elite “slippers” and how screeners control pace when entering and exiting the screening area.

Honorable Mention: Double Drag Slips + Corner Exit Screen Spacing

Pairing double drag screens with a baseline exit screen to create rim pressure, stretch help, and open space, especially for multiple-big lineups.

The larger idea: early offense is becoming more layered. The first action creates the stress, but the second action often decides whether the advantage becomes a real shot.

Read for free: The Exit Screen that Changes Everything​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, along with related clips on angled ballscreens, early 4-man drag screens, and 5-man rim seals.

Ballscreen Concepts & Offense

🥇 Attacking a Switch — NABC Convention Presentation 2026

Our NABC Final Four presentation focused on some of the most effective European trends for attacking switches: attacking directly, flowing into secondary actions, and preventing the triple switch.

The larger idea: the best switch attacks are not always about hunting the mismatch. They are often about keeping the defense from getting comfortable inside the switch.

Read for free: Attacking a Switch​

Inside SG Plus: members can watch the full NABC presentation and explore the full archive of Deep Dive strategies on attacking switches.

🥈 Hook Ghost Screen

A screening strategy used to attack switches, combat defensive steers, and create quick separation inside the guard-to-guard two-man game.

The larger idea: offenses are using more deception inside simple two-man actions to punish defenses that want to switch, steer, or flatten the ball.

Read for free: Hook Line and Ghost​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, along with connected ideas on hook screens, dummy flip screens, and Hook DHO counters.

🥉 Extended Screening Concepts

A look at how offenses are using extended screening actions to punish high pickup points, create defensive confusion, and build early advantages higher on the floor.

The larger idea: teams are not waiting to start offense near the three-point line. They are initiating earlier, higher, and with more force.

Read for free: When the Ballscreen Starts at Half Court​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, along with related concepts from our Total Basketball Deep Dive and examples from Pedro Martinez and Valencia.

Honorable Mention: Reject the Hedge & Gortat

A look at how offenses are countering Hedge & Plug coverage by attacking the guard’s release to plug the short roll.

Through the late reject, dribble back, and Gortat screen, the ballhandler can drive the wake of the roller and punish the recovery.

The larger idea: when defenses ask the on-ball defender to disengage and plug the short roll, offenses are finding ways to attack that brief moment of separation.

Read for free: When the Plug Becomes the Problem​

Inside SG Plus: members can study the full video breakdown, along with our YouTube Deep Dive on attacking Hedge & Plug and connected clips on rejects, boomerang re-screens, Gortat screens, and the micro-closeout.

Want the Full Breakdowns?

This report is only a snapshot.

Inside SG Plus, members get the full SGTV library, weekly Deep Dive breakdowns, the full newsletter archive, Practice Lab videos, Film Room sessions, and connected teaching clips around the concepts above.

If you’re looking to study where the game is moving, and how the best coaches and teams are solving the problems showing up across the floor , you can join SG Plus below.

Stay tuned next week as we’re joined in the Film Room by NBA coach Charles Klask for a session on defensive switching techniques and concepts.

Thank you all for your continued support. If you have questions or want to discuss any of these breakdowns with us, reach out anytime at info@slappinglass.com.

The Learning Loop

Thoughts from Drew Dunlop in building The Practice Lab

One Brick. One Takeaway. One Tinker.

A mentor once told me, “The day you stop learning is the day it’s time to retire.”

That has stuck with me.

So each week, I’ll use this space to share three things:

One Brick: something I missed, messed up, or had to work through.
​One Takeaway: a lesson learned or belief reinforced.
​One Tinker: something I’m still trying to better understand, teach, or design.

The idea is simple: show more of the work behind the work.

Not just the clean clips or finished thoughts, but the misses, adjustments, failed assumptions, and small details that helped move an idea forward.

Brick

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about deception.

Every possession is a conversation. The ballhandler is trying to move the defender. The defender is trying to read what’s real and what isn’t.

That makes the ability to sell the wrong thing incredibly valuable.

We often hear “eyes sell lies,” but I think we can simplify it even further:

Sell lies.

Your eyes can sell lies. Your feet can sell lies. The ball can sell lies. Your pace, shoulders, positioning, and movement can all invite a defender to solve the wrong problem.

The best players in the world aren’t just skilled. They know how to make defenders believe one thing is coming, then punish them for it.

Years ago, I watched a presentation from Joe Boylan {🎧}, now an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks, where he discussed the idea of “space save.” Instead of attacking the space you actually want right away, can you first convince the defender you’re driving toward the crowd, then reroute at the last second into the open lane?

You preserve the space you want by first making it look unimportant.

That idea came back to me this week while working with a player who will have the ball in his hands much more next season.

The question wasn’t, “How do we add more moves?”

It was, “How do we do more with less?”

How can we create advantages through deception instead of always relying on more dribbles, more moves, and more energy?

The first thing that came to mind was something Gilbert Arenas has talked about: elite pull-up shooters make their drives look like pull-ups, and their pull-ups look like drives.

So we started there.

Initially, we worked on-air, experimenting with live-dribble jabs, footwork, eyes, shoulders, and ball positioning to disguise his intentions before pulling up from three.

It helped.

But it didn’t really click until we added a defender.

The only cue I gave him was:

“Make it look like you’re going to drive, but make it different every time.”

Immediately, everything changed.

Without me scripting the solution, he started finding his own.

Different tempos. Different shoulder fakes. Different pickups.

He wasn’t rehearsing moves anymore.

He was moving the defender to create the shot he wanted.

Takeaway

Less is more.

Sometimes the best coaching intervention isn’t another drill.

It’s creating the right situation and giving the player a clear intention.

Years ago, I would have bet I had one of the biggest drill libraries in the world. I was constantly searching for the next addition.

The longer I coach, the more I realize the drill usually isn’t the difference.

Clarity is.

Intent is.

When players understand the problem they’re trying to solve, they often find better solutions than anything I could have scripted beforehand.

Tinker

This idea doesn’t stop on offense.

If ballhandlers can sell lies, defenders can too.

I watched a great segment this week about Davion Mitchell and how he guards some of the league’s best lead guards. Rather than simply reacting, he disrupts rhythm by lunging, shifting, and showing movements that force the ballhandler to respond to him (​🔒​See our breakdown on Alberto Diaz and his elite ability and techniques to impact the ball defensively)​

He’s selling lies too.

That has me thinking more about how we develop individual defenders.

Team defensive systems and coverages will always require detail and precision, but there’s real value in helping players learn how to guard their yard: how to disturb rhythm, take away comfort, manipulate space, and make the ballhandler solve problems they didn’t want to solve.

That’s something I want to keep exploring.

Because the more I study the game, the more convinced I become that basketball isn’t just about executing skills.

It’s about influencing decisions.

Together with 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.

🎙 Francesco Tabellini on Playing Relentless, Tagging Up Killers, and Attacking the Hedge & Plug

This week, as part of our "SG Classics" series, we replayed one of our most popular and thoughtful conersations of all time with former Paris and Nymburk Head Coach, Francesco Tabellini, for a deep dive into the ideas behind his team’s relentless style of play.

Throughout the conversation, Coach Tabellini detailed how Nymburk tries to “cancel the pauses” in the game — the small conversion moments between offense and defense, defense and offense, rebounds, outlets, tags, cuts, and ballscreen coverages. The conversation touched on transition pace, cutting, shot freedom, tagging up, and the Hedge & Plug coverage that has become a growing defensive tool across Europe.

In our post-interview recap, we pulled out three bigger coaching ideas from the conversation:

• “Canceling the pauses” was the thread running through the episode. Whether it was the first three steps in transition, tagging up after shots, cutting on drives, or heating up the ball in Hedge & Plug, Nymburk’s identity is built around removing the dead space between actions.
• Activity can solve problems before precision does. Tabellini kept coming back to the value of players moving, cutting, tagging, deciding, and staying involved. The goal is not to eliminate mistakes, but to build a team active enough to fix them.
• Tagging up is more than offensive rebounding. In the recap, we discussed how it can become a bridge between offense and defense, a safety net for shooters, and a way to immediately pressure the next phase of the possession — as long as players stay connected and do not leave the tag too early.

Listen to the entire conversation here...

Together with Hudl

Teaching Through Film

Film is one of the best teaching tools in basketball…if it’s clear and easy to use. With Sportscode and FastDraw, Hudl helps coaches turn video into teachable moments, pairing clips with concepts players can actually understand. Instead of wasting time jumping between systems, coaches can focus on teaching, learning, and development. Hudl makes film a better extension of how you coach.

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.

Interesting Reads

📚 9 Rules for Living an Excellent Life in a Chaotic World​

7. “Do not worry about being the best. Worry about being the best at getting better. The best is ephemeral; you either get it or you don’t, and then what? But being the best at getting better is a path of mastery that lasts a lifetime.”

📚 Perfect the Pivot​

The best stories unfold one chapter, sometimes even just one line, at a time. So instead of perfecting the plan, perfect the pivot.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, Eric, and Drew

info@slappinglass.com