Attacking ICE Coverage: A Primer
You Heat Up the Ice Cubes
Welcome to our Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter, where we explore the best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world of basketball.
*You are reading the Premium edition of the Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter, which will be available for free to all subscribers until May 30th, after which it’ll only be sent to members of Slappin’ Glass Plus. We will still be sending a lite-version of the SNM to non-members.
Today’s edition will cover:
The Opening Week of SG Plus
Attacking Ice Coverage: A Primer
Mike Lombardi: Inside the Episode
Best Set of the Week
Watch | Read | Quote
Let’s dive in…
Opening Weekend: Slappin’ Glass Plus
A very big thank you to all the coaches across the world who signed up during the opening week of SG Plus. Your support will help us continue to do what we do and provide the best quality content we can. You all have a very special place with us.
We had coaches and staffs from 15 different countries sign up this week, and we can’t wait to continue building a place where coaches from all backgrounds, levels and philosophies gather to learn and connect.
We are currently offering a 15% discount until next Sunday on all Full-Year Subscriptions.
We have also signed up multiple staffs this week as well. If you’re interested in staff rates please email us at info@slappinglass.com.
For more information on all that’s included in SG Plus and to sign up with the 15% discount, you can visit here…
Attacking ICE Coverage: A Primer
Over the past few months we’ve been keeping an eye on the variety of ways that teams across different levels of basketball are effectively attacking ICE Coverage, especially on the outer thirds of the floor. For a quick reference, ICE Coverage is a defensive scheme where the defense will attempt to keep the ball on one side of the floor and force it down toward the baseline. This is characterized by the on-ball defender changing the angle of their stance to not allow the ballhandler to go over the top of the screen while the defensive big drops into containment, often with their shoulders square to the ballhandler (there are a variety of different player depths, angles, and recovery schemes that defenses use to ICE a Side Ballscreen, but that’s for another newsletter).
Before going into How offenses attack ICE Coverage, here’s a few reasons Why defenses might use the coverage, especially on the outer thirds:
ICE Coverage keeps the PNR a “2-Man” game on one side of the floor. If done well, limited help or rotation is needed from backside defenders. Those helpside defenders will often be stunting in gaps, but not needing to fully rotate like in a Hedge Coverage and Rotation.
ICE Coverage offers great Rim Protection. By keeping the Defensive Big in a drop, the defense can keep a bigger defender or shot blocker hanging around the rim longer to combat a drive or lob.
ICE Coverage helps slow/lazy bigs. The bankers on our men’s league team have been accidentally, and non-effectively Icing PNR’s for years. But, when you pay for the team’s uniforms and first round of post-game cervezas you can play “stand and point” PNR Coverage all you want. In a real game, Icing the PNR allows a slow-footed or under-motivated Big to potentially remain on the floor and still be effective defensively. Though if they’re both slow AND under-motivated they likely won’t be on the floor much unless their mom is your booster club president.
ICE Coverage can force late-clock, contested twos. In a late-clock situation, Icing the ball down toward the baseline can force the offense into a tough, mid-range two. Depending on the situation, this may be the shot the defense is willing to give up.
Beating ICE: Strongside & Weakside Strategies
Now we’ll take a look at some of the ways that teams will attack the ICE Coverage on both the Strongside and the Weakside, starting with the Strongside…
{ Strongside Attack} Tandem Spacing & Pocket Passes
One of the simplest and “non-tricky” ways to attack side ICE Coverage is for the ballhandler and rim roller to understand how to punish the coverage with proper “tandem spacing.” In this action, the ballhandler will simply accept the open path toward the baseline that the ICE Coverage provides, while the Offensive Big rolls in tandem with the ball. Here’s the Jazz running this well…
*Zooming In: The art of this action is in the ballhandler’s understanding of how to manipulate the dropping Big into a 2 v. 1 scenario. The rolling big and the attacking guard want to stay more or less “on a line” as the guard probes toward the baseline, so the ballhandler has the option to either attack the rim or throw the pocket pass/lob to the rolling big.
This “cat and mouse” game with proper spacing can also pull in a third defender from the helpside, and the offense can then start playing through the dominos on the kickout/closeout…
If the guard attacks downhill too quickly before their big can start their roll, he/she makes the dropping defensive big’s decision much easier as they no longer have to guard a 2 v. 1, but simply contest a shot at the rim…
If you’ve got a LeBron James or Kevin Durant-type at your level, or your attacking a defensive big in foul trouble, this may be fine, but it does leave the offense with only one option.
Pocket Passes
The other reason for the offense to keep good tandem spacing when attacking ICE Coverage on the Strongside, is that it opens up the option for the “Short Roll” pocket pass to the big. From there, there’s all sorts of good things that can happen. One of our favorites is the backside Corner Cut on the pocket pass…
Our breakdown video below shows more actions out of this Short Roll “Pocket Pass” option.
{Strongside Attack} Flip the Screen
In the examples above, the offense isn’t concerned about using the screen at all, but rather playing through the open lane the defense is offering. If the offense does want to use the screen, then the Big can “Flip the Screen” at the last second for the ballhandler to use…
*Zooming In: Why do this? By flipping the screen the offense is able to get the guard into the middle of the floor as a playmaker rather then the Big like in the “Pocket Pass” scenarios. There are numerous reasons why this may be more advantageous for the offense, a couple are:
This action can provide a nice pocket for the guard to shoot a 10-15ft. jumper. Chris Paul is a master at this.
It forces the Defensive Big to contest the shot, thus leaving the Offensive Big a free roll to the rim for offensive rebounding opportunities, or at a minimum, a rebounding advantage over a guard trying to box them out on the “crack/veer back” switch.
*Zooming OUT: There’s all sorts of great Reverse Angle/Flipped Screens being set by teams in the NBA playoffs, but you won’t often see a defense Icing the Reverse Screen late in a game because of the two points above. Not to go too far down a “Crunch Time” analytics wormhole here, but the value of the mid-range jump shot goes way up in late game scenarios where ANY basket is valuable; so teams will often attempt to switch or Hedge that Reverse screen to try and prevent a player like Harden, Curry, or Chris Paul from snaking the screen and operating out of the middle of the floor.
{Strongside Attack}- Pop & Go or Get
Besides using the Rolling Big against the Ice Coverage as a Long and Short Roller, there are also some great options when the Big Pops. Two actions we’ll highlight here are the “Go’s” and “Gets”.
Starting with the “Go”, instead of attacking downhill on the ballscreen, the ballhandler will instead throw it to the Big on a Pop and immediately “Go” or back-cut to the basket.
If the defender isn’t “top-locking” or playing on the high-side like above, then the guard can immediately flow into a “Get” handoff with the Big…
*Zooming In: The “Go” is a great read to build into any Ice attack, and the Get is so effective because it allows the Guard to get over the top and into the middle, much like the “Flipping the Screen” scenario above. So, if a team is looking to attack the Ice coverage by getting their ballhandler into the middle of the floor, then you’ll see more Flip Screens and “Pop and Gets.”
There are more Strongside actions covered in our full breakdown video below.
{Weakside Attack} Pop & Reverse Actions
If an offense wants to punish Ice Coverage with more movement then shown above, then moving the ball to the weakside presents a ton of ways to do that. One of the best ways to attack Ice Coverage on the Weakside is by Popping the Offensive Big and then flowing into a variety of actions from there.
Pop and Burn
The first one we’ll visit is an old friend here on the newsletter the “Pop and Burn”, where the weakside player at the Wing or Slot will “Burn Cut” to the rim and remove any help at the nail…
If the Popping Big isn’t a shooter (or even if they are), playing through the Guard rising up from the corner after the Burn Cut is another tough action to guard…
*Zooming In: A couple details to note in the above GIFS… the Burn Cut is highly effective if it’s one or two players “Burn Cutting”. The first GIF shows the “Pop and Burn” from a “4-Corner PNR” alignment. The second GIF shows an action flowing out of your normal Euro Ballscreen Continuity and “Burn Cutting” both the Slot Big and the Wing Guard. Both actions take advantage of the Defensive Big sitting in Ice/Drop coverage and unable to get out to the perimeter in time to disrupt a shot or an attacking guard over the top.
DHO’s, Running Slips, & Throw Aheads
If the offense elects not to Burn Cut the player in the Wing spot on the Pop, they can still flow directly into a DHO or “Running Slip” Side Ballscreen. Here’s the “Running Slip”…
And here’s the flow into the DHO…
Lastly, the offense can elect not to play through the Popping Big and “Throw Ahead” to the Guard on the opposite wing; then run the same “Running Slip” or Side Ballscreen action…
*Zooming In: These are all great actions, but it’s worth reflecting again on Why a team runs any of these against Ice Coverage? If you take a look back at the three GIFs in this section you’ll see that in all situations the offense is able to get the ballhandler going downhill in the middle third of the floor with his defender chasing over the top of the screen. This forces help and rotations from the rest of the defense, and, reflecting back to the beginning of this whole breakdown, some of the main reasons a team will use ICE Coverage is to try and keep the ball pinned on a side of the floor in a 2 v. 2 game.
For all of the actions and a deeper look effective ways to Attack the ICE Coverage, here is our full breakdown video out today on Slappin’ Glass TV…
Mike Lombardi: Inside the Episode
We had the opportunity this week to sit down with one of the brightest and most sought-after minds in the realm of high-level leadership in sports, former NFL Executive and coach under Bill Belichick, Mike Lombardi.
In a jam-packed 40 minute episode we covered a ton of interesting areas of leadership and program management including:
What the best leaders do when they don’t know the answers to tough problems?
What processes and mental models coaches need to think about when working through uncertainty.
Tough Practices and the Role of Good Habits
What Belichick and Bill Parcells did so well when it came to practices and habit formation in an organization.
Staff Dynamics - Hiring, Firing, and Sticky Situations
How to have the hard conversations and the type of culture that needs to be in place to navigate tough situations.
“Start, Sub, Sit?!”
We get serious about Mr. Miyagi, Gordon Bombay, Selfish Players, Humor in Coaching, and more.
The best investment Mike’s made in his career
It’s a highly valuable interview from Mike Lombardi on the things that matter when it comes to winning, culture, and keeping your job. Here’s the episode…
Best Sets of the Week
Some of the best we saw from the weeks that was, including a collaboration with Coach Cody Toppert, Steph Curry, Brose Bamberg (Germany) and Chemnitz (Germany).
Watch | Read | Quote
Watch:
Sue Bird (Seattle Storm)
Juan Toscano-Anderson (Golden State Warriors)
Kyle Hines (Olimpia Milano)
Read:
From Morgan Housel: The Optimal Amount of Hassle
From CBS Sports: The NBA’s Positional Misfits
From LinkedIn: What Pirates Teach Us About Leadership
Quote:
"There is a place, right on the edge of your ability, where you learn best and fastest. It's called the sweet spot... The underlying pattern is the same: Seek out ways to stretch yourself. Play on the edges of your competence." -- Daniel Coyle
Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this newsletter we’d appreciate a share with other like-minded coaches. You can do that here…
Have a great week coaching,
Dan and Pat