Friday, May 22, 2015

Spain's U16 Iverson Set

I'm always fascinated by how teams get their scorers the ball in space to attack. The Iverson set is always a good way to get your scorer the ball and ready to attack. In their 2013 European Championships semi-final game against Italy I watched Spain run the Iverson look with an interesting twist. Instead of running the under wing all the way through, the under wing stopped and screened for the opposite big on the backside elbow. See the video below.











Thursday, May 21, 2015

Italy 4 Out Secondary Actions

Tonight I stumbled onto a gem of a game. It is a a European U16 Championship Semi Final game between Italy and Spain from 2013. Spain ran some really great sets (that I will post here sometime) and Italy ran some of the best 4 out I've ever seen. I am sure I will post that over time here as well. If you want to see the full game it is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmb1jT3UE4o

Within their motion, I noticed they were running an interesting, yet simple, secondary series which I will diagram that action below. I really liked the introductory flex type action and what they ran out of it.

The action started out with a reversal and the post setting a back/flex screen for the wing on the guard's side. After running that action they ran two different looks.

The first option they ran was to have the post step out and catch the ball. The point then ran off the post and got a dribble hand off and attacked the paint.



They would also quickly swing the ball back to the guard. If they did the guard would get an immediate down hill ball screen from the big. 





A third action they ran, aside from the back screen, was a point to wing dribble at and back cut. As the wing back cut, the post rose. The ball was passed to the post on the elbow. As the post caught it the back side guard dove and the back side wing filled. The point passed to the backside wing filling the guard spot then down screened the ball side wing who back cut.



I am sure as I watch the game more I'll pick out more great secondary actions. These are simple, but very effective. I really like the movement and offensive opportunities they create!


Friday, May 15, 2015

Broken Window Theory and Your Team

I've read a lot of Malcolm Gladwell. The guy's got some pretty good research that I feel is important for coaches. In his book The Tipping Point Gladwell talks about the "Broken Window Theory". The Broken Window Theory was introduced in 1982 by Wilson and Kelling. The basis of the theory is that if a building has a broken window it shows that no one cares. Because no one cares more people break more windows. Pretty soon because the windows are broken people start to graffiti the building, break into it, etc. That will then lead to the same thing happening to the buildings around it until an entire neighborhood is ruined.

This idea was put to the test in the 1980s to clean up the New York City Subways. The Subway system was a haven for crime from graffiti and fare jumpers to muggings and beatings. What law enforcement did to clean it up was start with arresting and charging every fare jumper and constantly cleaning all the graffiti, instead of the muggings and murders. Some people wondered why - why waste time on "trivial" stuff like fare jumping and graffiti? But then something amazing happened - crime took a nose dive. Part of the reason was in arresting the fare jumpers they were getting people with weapons and intent to commit bigger crimes. By constantly cleaning up graffiti they were proving they had pride for the subways.  But more importantly it sent the message that the subway was important and they weren't going to stand for anything. It got people thinking: "If they are this mad about fare jumping, what are they going to do to us?"

Great story, but what does this have to do with coaching? Well, a lot I think. As a coach I think it's important to identify and fix your "broken windows". What are the small, almost unnoticeable, things that are leading to bigger problems? You might not even notice them until you examine the situation. What things are you letting slide that are encouraging players to have bigger issues? It could be with players or parents. Either way, it's definitely worth examining and fixing before they become real problems.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

David Blatt and What People Think "Coaching" Is

I loved the David Blatt hire by the Cavs and I still do. I really think that the guy can coach. I also think he fell into an unfortunate trap of unbelievable expectations and a tough situation for a first year NBA coach. If he'd taken over a middle of the road NBA team he would have had a much easier transition - and probably have done a lot better.

But this post is not to defend David Blatt. He's a big boy and he can handle it himself. This post is to talk about his recent comments on coaching and how people perceive "coaching". For insight into what people think "coaching" is, we need to look no further than Blatt's defense of himself this week:

Well....yeah... Obviously Blatt has received a fair dose of criticism and a flood of memes. While this statement makes me laugh I think it's an accurate insight to how many people perceive coaching. If you were to survey the layperson who watches basketball, they likely believe that the game is dictated by game coaching and that coaches really are making 150-200 critical decisions in the course of a game. Kind of like when you play NBA 2K at home and control the player's ever move. Why do I think that? Look at all the coaches in the NBA who are getting fired - especially over what happens in games - obviously someone thinks that their game time decisions are costing their team's wins. 

This is a big problem that I believe coaches face. The truths of coaching I have found are:
  1. Players win games on game day.
  2. Coaches win games in practice. 


My point being that coaching is not about the "game day decisions", as I believe a small percentage of games each year are won and lost on those - as important as they may be. Good or bad coaching happens every day in practice with the tactics and habits that you engrain there. It's about making a few big decisions on how you are going to run your team and then executing them in practice. Practice is the teaching and the game day is the test.