Innovative Defenses, Finnish Playbook, and Best Sets
A Defense Within A Defense Within A...
Welcome to the our “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, where we explore some of the best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world of basketball. Today’s edition will cover:
“Switching Defenses Mid-Possession”
A look at teams going from “Man to Zone” or “Zone to Man” on certain indicators in the middle of a possession.
Finland National Team Playbook
Slappin’ Glass Podcast with Coach Josh King insights
Best Sets of the Week
“What We’re Reading” and “Teams We’re Watching”
Let’s dive in…
A Defensive Inception
Coaches have long looked for ways to deceive opponents by disguising defensive coverages and overall gameplans. From “Triangle and 2’s”, “Box and 1’s” “Matchup Zones” and plenty more, a well-timed alternate defense can really throw the offense a curveball.
Recently, we’ve seen more teams use a strategy of entirely switching a base coverage “Mid-Possession”. Teams have been seen going from “Man to Zone”, or “Zone to Man” based on different indicators from the offense.
This strategy can have a paralyzing effect on the offense as they’re unsure whether they’re playing against a man, zone, or both. A, confusing and layered “Defensive Inception” of sorts that DiCaprio would be proud of.
Here are a few of the strategies being used…
1. { Switching from “Zone to Man” }
Boston College - Zone to Man on a High Post Catch
Coach Jim Christian of Boston College found success with this tactic in large stretches against Rhode Island.
*How it Works: BC begins the possession in a somewhat normal looking 1-2-2 Zone. Once the ball reaches the High Post BC will immediately “Match Up” with the nearest offensive player and stay in Man the rest of the possession.
*Why It’s Effective: Most Zone Offenses are designed to have one of their bigs flash to the High Post. In a normal 1-2-2 Zone Defense, one of the bottom two bigs will flash and match with the Offensive big at the High Post anyway, so this matchup system doesn’t necessarily cause any mismatches for the defense once the ball is caught.
Secondly, Zone Offenses normally rely more on effective spacing and ball movement to punish the defense, rather than running intricate cutting and screening actions like a Man Offense (there are exceptions of course). So, when the Offensive Big catches the ball at the High Post and the defense matches up, the Offense commonly becomes stagnant as the offensive players fill into space. Early offensive possessions against this defensive tactic often show the Offensive Big being forced to attack 1 v. 1 from the High Post and take contested/inefficient two’s… a shot coaches like Jim Christian are willing to live with.
* How to Attack the Strategy: Besides Head Coaches turning and yelling at their assistants mid-game asking “Why didn’t we work on attacking this at practice”?…and the assistants whispering nervously to each other and passing the buck until they mutually agree the student managers are to blame…there are many ways to effectively combat this defense.
One strategy Rhode Island ended up having success with, is simply running their Man Offense against the Zone. The movement, cutting, and screening of a normal Man Offense is much harder for the match-up zone to deal with.
Second…Offenses can flash a Guard to the High Post to force a Mismatch within the Zone. Flashing a Guard while ducking one or both bigs to the block or short-corner flips the advantage of the Zone.
Third…a common offensive alignment against a Matchup Zone in general is the “Baseline Runner”, with two Offensive Bigs screening along the baseline for a Shooter/Playmaker. This action essentially forces the Defense to have to match up while also providing great space and driving lanes for the top 2 offensive guards to attack AS WELL AS duck-in opportunities for the bigs at the bottom of the defense.
Here’s BC’s Zone to Man clip in FULL.
Reyer Venezia - Zone to Man on 2nd Pass
Another “Zone to Man” tactic used one used from time to time by Coach Walter De Raffaele and Reyer Venezia, where they will is switch from Zone to Man on the 2nd pass of a possession.
In this strategy the Zone focuses on the ball NOT getting to the High Post so they can match up on the 2nd perimeter pass.
*Why it’s Effective: Much like the BC strategy above, the 2nd perimeter pass is often an easy matchup for the defense. Packing in the zone for two passes and then switching to a man also helps eat up a good amount of shot clock and the offense is often forced to run limited action instead of having time for more intricate play designs that are harder for the defense guard.
*How to Attack the Strategy: Similar to the attacking strategies mentioned above, teams can simply run their Man Offense knowing that the Zone will shift to a man anyway. This can simplify the decision making process for the offense.
Also, to try and force a mismatch, the Offense can also start a Big at the High Post, make one pass to a perimeter guard, then have the High Post Big step out to the perimeter for the 2nd pass knowing the defense will match up. The offense can then run a variety of actions to take advantage of the mismatch.
Here’s the entire Reyer Venezia clip in FULL.
2. { Switching from “Man to Zone” }
The other option in this “Mid-Possession Switch” strategy is switching from Man INTO a Zone.
Here are a couple ways we’ve seen this…
“Man to Zone” on a Post Catch
Coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius used this last year with Zalgiris, where the defense would fall into a 2-3 Zone on a post catch…
“Man to Zone” on 2nd DHO
And… in similar fashion, Coach Pablo Laso of Real Madrid has slipped into a 2-3 Zone during the 2nd DHO of a particular set of an opponent.
* Why it’s Effective: Both of these concepts are great at “standing a team up” offensively and taking them out of their normal “offensive reads” for at least a few seconds, buying the defense time to load up and prepare for a late shot clock isolation or PNR. These strategies also provide coverage for any mismatches that may have been created in the earlier part of the possession.
*How to Attack the Strategy: “Play through the Gray” is a termed used to teach players to continue playing through a potentially confusing (“gray”) situation, and to not let the offense or the ball die just because the defense throws something new at them. In these particular scenarios, offenses who continue to run their normal actions while the defense is switching to a zone can take ADVANTAGE of a defense not fully in sync and prepared to rotate like normal.
Here are the full clips of the “2-3 Zone on a Post Catch” from Zalgiris, as well as the “2-3 Zone on 2nd DHO” from Real Madrid.
If you’ve seen other great strategies to attack these types of defenses please feel free to let us know… slappinglass1024@gmail.com
Finland National Team Playbook
We’ve enjoyed watching many of the National Teams play over the past month during some of the EuroBasket Qualifiers. A team that has really stuck out is the Finnish National Team coach by Henrik Dettmann. We put this full breakdown together of their tremendous playbook.
Get the Free PDF’s of this playbook HERE.
Slappin’ Glass Podcast with Josh King
We’ve had the opportunity to sit down with some of the best young coaches in Europe like Daniel Sokolovsky of the Chemnitz Niners and the newly hired Head Coach of BC Nevėžis-Optibet in Lithuania, David Gale. Like both Daniel and David, Coach Josh King of MHP RIESEN in Germany’s BBL came highly recommended for the podcast for his deep knowledge of both the American and European game.
Coach King did not disappoint as we explored areas of disruptive defense, masking offensive actions, training differences in the U.S and Europe, “Overrated/Underrated?!”, creating value as a coach, and much more.
Like all our guests on the show we really appreciated Coach King opening up and digging pretty deep on some tactical and technical topics.
Get the full episode HERE.
*We appreciate the support of the podcast and would love a rating and review to help it continue to grow. You can do that HERE. Thank you!
Best Sets of the Week
Here are some of our favorite sets we saw this week…
1. { ASVEL - Double Drag to Weave } Really liked this action by Coach Parker, especially adding the Weave after the Double Drag…
2. { CSKA - Mike James Handoff } An especially difficult action to guard with a dynamic guard like Mike James from CSKA.
3. { FC Barcelona - Zipper/Step Up/Veer Action } Josh King spoke about his love of the “Veer” action in our “Overrated/Underrated?!” segment of the podcast this week. Here’s a great use of the “Veer Screen” from Coach Jasikevičius…
{ Extra Credit - NCAA/Europe Crossover } We enjoy putting together “Crossovers”, or great actions run in different parts of the world. Here’s the “Side Weave Series” being run with Ulm in Germany’s BBL and UNLV in Sin City.
What We’re Reading & Watching
What We Enjoyed Reading:
Teams We’ve Enjoyed Watching this Week:
Swarthmore College (NCAA D3)
Ratiopharm Ulm (Germany/BBL)
Wagner (NCAA D1)
Colorado School of Mines (NCAA D2)
Türk Telekom B.K. (Turkey/Champions League)
Thank you for reading and for the support. If you are enjoying the newsletter we always appreciate a share…
Have a great week coaching,
Dan and Pat
Tools We Use
We are excited to partner with InStat, which we have been using for Video, Analytics, Scouting, and Shot Charts, as well as access the Euroleague, NBA, and NCAA games.
Slappin’ Glass Newsletter subscribers can get 10% off the InStat software.
If interested, email us at slappinglass1024@gmail.com for more information.