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

Happy Sunday! Lots to dive into today.

ICYMI: Last week, we detailed a scout-specific defensive strategy to gap off reluctant, low-volume shooting Point Guards in favor of walling off the paint and plugging gaps during off ball action. Read the full breakdown HERE.

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This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Hook DHO - Punishing the Deny​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Mike DeGeorge {Cal Poly SLO}

📢 Dr. Dish: $2,000 off plus FREE Shipping​

🥇 Best of the Week: 4 Out Chase & Backdoor Cuts​

Let's dive in...

The Hook DHO

*Thank you to SG Contributor, Ben Ostrow, for his help with today's breakdown.

It’s time for our semi-annual DHO conversation. Here at Slappin’ Glass HQ, we’re all in on the nuances of a good DHO—handoff vs. pitch ahead, clever timing, twisting angles, footwork, and more. And you should see some of the new things the kids are doing with DHO's these days...

While many coaches love the "pitch ahead" for its ability to blur the lines between a handoff and a ballscreen, opponents, unfortunately, get a vote too. Between denials and top locks, the pitch ahead isn’t always an option, and sometimes teams just need to play the good old-fashioned DHO.

That said, there are several techniques to combat denials and create advantageous actions.

Punishing the "Deny & Under"

Not the headliner today, but a worthy opening act. One form of a DHO denial comes from the big on the ball, pressuring the perimeter and stabbing at the ball {🔒} during the exchange to disrupt timing and spacing...

Zooming In: When executed properly, this stab forces the exchange well outside any real scoring area, giving the on-ball defender a chance to shoot under the big and recover to neutral.

The Remedy: With this pressure, it becomes tough for the big to pitch ahead or adjust the screen to prevent the under. To punish this coverage, the big can drop the ball off and reverse pivot {🔒}, neutralizing the defender’s stab and clearing a path for the shooter to run under for a clean shot.

Zooming In: As shown above, dropping the ball off and reverse pivoting relieves pressure and creates space for the shooter.

Punishing the "Drop & Deny"

Another common coverage against the DHO is dropping the big off into the paint {🔒} while tasking the perimeter defender to deny or chase hard over the top to in an effort to blow up the action. With the safety of their big man in the paint, the perimeter defender can afford to be ultra aggressive, as shown below…

Zooming In: When faced with this aggression, simply completing the exchange can seem like a victory, often requiring a “song and dance” between the big and wing just to hand the ball off with no advantage created.

The Remedy: With little pressure on the big at the perimeter, let the perimeter defender feel accomplished in blowing up the initial handoff, then dribble under and hook back into another...

Zooming In: Shooters often face heavy perimeter pressure designed to run them off the three-point line and into the waiting big at the rim. By using this aggressiveness against the defense,and taking advantage of the space created by the dropped big, the offensive big can dribble under the initial exchange, creating both space and an angle to hook back into a second handoff.

This is another distinction we appreciate about the Hook DHO, the downhill angle it creates for the receiver on the catch. A common challenge with most DHOs, regardless of the defense, is generating angles that allow the receiver to attack downhill (North/South) or toward the rim off the exchange. Too often, the handoff carries the offensive player toward the sideline or half court (East/West), pulling their momentum away from the rim and either compromising a shooting opportunity off the catch or requiring at least two dribbles to get back to the paint.

In the past, we have highlighted how crafty receivers utilize an "Inside-Hand Push Dribble" {🔒} coming off the exchange to combat this dilemma and get themselves square to the rim...

This is a situation where the Hook DHO truly thrives, not only punishing the denial but also flipping the angle of the handoff so the receiver can catch squared to the rim and attack immediately downhill on their first dribble...

Zooming In: As shown above, a secondary benefit of this "Hook DHO", is that it often opens a passing window and gap for the big to Short Roll into. This of course opens up a brand new can of worms for the defense as well.

As always, it’s the details that make all the difference, and understanding these nuances keeps the offense one step ahead of the defense. By understanding the various techniques at our disposal, like the hook DHO and effective countermeasures against denials, coaches can create cleaner paths to the rim and better scoring opportunities. To continue our look into the Hook DHO, view the full breakdown now on SGTV!

Together with Dr. Dish

🚨This month only, Slappin’ Glass subscribers can get an exclusive $2,000 off plus FREE shipping on their purchase of a Dr. Dish CT+, All-Star+, or Rebel+. Hurry to secure your savings before 6/30 or while supplies last!​

Slappin' Glass Podcast

We sat down this week with the Head Coach of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Mike DeGeorge. Coach DeGeorge has risen from D3, to D2, to D1 Head Coach and joins the show to discuss his thoughts on Process Driven Analytics, early "Hit Aheads", Pace of Play, and discusses training decision making, and program alignment during the always fun "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

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Together with Hudl

If you’ve used FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit before, you should know: they’re now part of the Hudl family. That means tighter integrations with Sportscode, access to Instat data, and a cleaner workflow across your whole program. It’s everything you’ve come to expect from Fastmodel—just better connected. Learn more about what Hudl and Fastmodel are building together! Subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

Tactical

📺 4 Out Chase - Flare • 77​

"A look at attacking the high tag in the ballscreen by running the 4-man off a flare and back into a double ballscreen."

✚ Pair With: Flaring the 4-man to the rim before bringing him back out off a veer screen from the 5-man.

🔒 SG Plus Content: For a more closer look into Coach Sito Alonso's offense, we broke down his playbook with Ucam Murcia.

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📺 Step Up Backdoor - Punishing the "Steer"​

"A look at how to exploit a defender’s tendency to play off their front foot when attempting to"'steer" ballscreens with a well-timed backdoor cut."

✚ Pair With: How the Peel Switch can be an effective tool for defending backdoor cuts.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown of the Loop, or Last Spacing Step-Up.

Interesting Reads

📚 Rigorous Thinking: No Lazy Thinking​

It’s hard, if not near impossible, to learn how to think strategically by reading a book. Understanding a concept in theory is not the same as understanding it in practice. This is why managers must make the time to engage in conversation with their direct reports. Not just conversation about status updates and project management—but deeper conversations about upcoming decisions, challenges your team is facing, and detailed feedback on work output. This is how you unlock the power of hands on, on-the-job learning.

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📚 Nothing Good Gets Away​

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

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📚 This is Why You Exist​

I’ve studied a lot of leaders. Read their stories, watched their interviews, and worked with them up close. Nearly all of them went through a phase when it seemed like everything was breaking at once. Markets collapsing. Key people quitting. Competitors outmaneuvering them. Public failure. Private doubt. What set them apart wasn’t that they avoided those moments. It’s that they expected them. They didn’t see adversity as an interruption. They saw it as part of the job.

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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