Playing Through the Trail: SE Melbourne Playbook
Bringing Up the Rear
Welcome to our “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, where we explore basketball’s best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world.
Today’s edition will cover:
Slappin’ Glass Plus: Lotteries, Swag, and next week’s launch
Playing Through the Trail: A Deep-Dive into SE Melbourne’s Offense
Ivan Rudez: Inside the Episode
Best Sets of the Week
Watch | Read | Quote
Let’s dive in…
Slappin’ Glass Plus… Lotteries, Swag, and Next Week’s Launch
We’re a week away from the launch of Slappin’ Glas Plus, our coaching platform and community. We’ve been releasing details of the platform the last few weeks, and have a couple more for today. Before those fun announcements, a couple quick FAQ’s we’ve been getting from coaches…
FAQ’s
When can I register?
Sign-ups for SG Plus will open at 7am PST (U.S) next Sunday, May 16th.
Where can I register?
There will be two places you can find links to register. We will be emailing a link in this newsletter next weekend, and there will also be a link on our newly revamped website slappinglass.com.
What’s the price?
Full Year: $249.90
6 Months: $149.90
Can I register my whole staff?
Yes! Please contact us at info@slappinglass.com for information/pricing for your program.
Where can I see all that’s included in SG Plus?
Here’s a link to last weekend’s newsletter with many of the details
In short, members get access to: Slappin’ Glass TV, the Premium “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, the private “Coaches Corner” community, once a month Clinics or Q & A’s, and more…
Early Bird Discounts
For the first two weeks after launch (May 16th - May 30th), we’re excited to offer a 15% discount on all Full Year subscriptions.
and lastly…
The Founding 50 - “Thank You Gift Bag”
On top of the 15% Discount, for the first 50 coaches who sign up for the Full Year Slappin’ Glass Plus membership we’ve also put together some extra “Thank Yous” which will include:
Entry into a lottery for a FREE Jeff Van Gundy MasterGroup Session
We will draw 5 names for this small-group session.
We will follow up with the winners with more details about date/time and the topics that’ll be covered.
A FREE Slappin’ Glass T-Shirt or Coffee Mug! Your choice!
A FREE 30-Day Trial of Instat (the video software we use for all our film), where you’ll get access to all Euroleague, NBA, National Teams, and NCAA film for a month.
Thank you all for the support. We’re looking forward to next weekend.
Playing Through the Trail
* This deep-dive, strategic breakdown section of the Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter will continue to be free until May 30th, after which it will only be available to Slappin’ Glass Plus members. A lite-version of the SNM will still be available and sent to non-members.
Over the last month we’ve enjoyed watching Coach Simon Mitchell’s SE Melbourne Phoenix club in Australia’s NBL, and how effectively they utilized their “Trail Man” as an entry point into their half-court offense.
Whether the Trail is a 4 or a 5, SE Melbourne does a fantastic job of tailoring their secondary break actions for the Trailer to be either a screener, scorer, playmaker, or passer within their secondary break.
Below we’ll zero in on three ways the Trail is used:
Trail as a Decision Maker/Creator
Trail as a On-Ball Screener
Trail as an Off-Ball Screener
Trail as a Decision Maker/Creator
One of the great luxuries as a coach, besides having a built in excuse to always be in sweatpants, is having a 4 or 5 who is a good decision maker. With the rise of more “5-Out” or “4-Out 1-In” offenses around the world, these types of players are the grease that makes this type of offense fire on all cylinders.
SE Melbourne has great 4-men who can pass, shoot, and drive, making these actions particularly difficult to defend.
Let’s start with the “Get Action” in transition…
{ “Get Action” Options with Trail }
We’ve covered the “Get Action” in past newsletters and podcasts, but this “Pass and Follow” action is particularly difficult to guard when it’s run with great pace. Here’s a look at how SE Melbourne initiates this action through their Trail, starting with a DHO on the Wing…
*Zooming In: Coaches familiar with “Pistol Action” will see the strong similarities in what SE Melbourne is running here. The speed and pace of the “DHO to GET” makes it almost impossible for the defense to dictate anything in the PNR following the GET. Looking closer at the GIF above, the defender who’s eventually guarding the ball in the PNR has to navigate through a 1) Switch of the DHO, 2) Sprint Under the GET Handoff, 3) Try and connect with the ballhandler to go OVER the Re-Screen, then 4) Finish rotating or recovering back to their man… all within a few seconds. This GIF is a great example of how Pace and quickly connecting actions within an offense puts the defense on their heels and the offense in the driver’s seat.
Speaking of Pace and connecting actions, another advantage of running a GET through the Trail and having defenders sprinting around the court rather than sitting in gaps, is that it opens up the opportunity for the Trail to Fake the GET handoff and attack downhill for a finish…
Or… if an attack downhill is not available for the Trailer, they can flow right into another DHO with the Guard elevating from the corner…
*Zooming In: The last two GIF’s illustrate the benefit of having a good decision-maker in the Trail spot. It’s both an art and a skill for players to be able to decipher when to “Keep” the GET and attack or turn it down and flow into another action (the DHO).
*Zooming In 2.0: The detail to really focus on in the above two actions is the difficult situation the defender in the corner (after the initial Guard to Guard DHO) is in. The quick “DHO to Get” action makes that defender a “single-tag” help defender during the GET, meaning they would need to “bump” or tag the Trail man if the Trail actually gave the handoff to the Guard and rolled to the rim. Because of that threat, they’re usually a step closer toward the rim as the Tag, when the Trail fakes the GET handoff, that corner defender is often a half step behind the guard elevating for the 2nd handoff. The offense can then play out of that advantage.
Illustrated in another, less wordy way, faking the GET handoff and flowing right into another action is similar to an “RPO” (Run-Pass Option) or “Play Action” in American football, where the QB faking a handoff to the RB then pulling it back to pass can catch a defense temporarily frozen and out of position…
{ “Brush Screen” Options with Trail }
Another set of options that SE Melbourne runs well through their Trail-Man stems from an initial “Brush Screen”. Instead of initiating action from a WingDHO like the section above, in this situation the Guard will swing the ball to the Trail and flow immediately into a “Brush Screen” (not really a “set screen”, but meant more to interfere with the defender’s guarding path and open a lane to attack into).
Like all great offenses, if the initial downhill attack isn’t available for the Trail-Man, they will flow directly into some nice “Weave to Reverse Ballscreen” action…
And lastly…for the Backdoor Junkie lurking in all of us, SE Melbourne throws in a nice little wrinkle out of this Weave Action to take advantage of an over-aggressive Defensive Big getting ready to Hedge or Switch the Reverse Screen…
*Zooming Out: Like the “Get Action” above, these “Brush Screen” options put the Trail-Man in a position to be a decision/playmaker. It’s worth mentioning again how important it is for the Trail to flow quickly from action to action to help compound small advantages for the offense.
Our breakdown video below also shows more actions with the Trail in a decision-making spot.
Trail as an On-Ball Screener
Another nice set of actions from SE Melbourne are born from the Trail sprinting into an On-Ball Screen rather than receiving a “Get” or “Reversal” from the Guard. Referring to the “DHO to Get Action” above, SE Melbourne will also flow into a side ballscreen at times rather than play through the GET.
Two nice variations they run from this alignment are “Weakside Pins” and “ZOOM Action.”
{ “Weakside Pins & “ZOOM” Action }
To open up opportunities on both sides of the floor for either a roll to the rim or a shot, SE Melbourne can flow into a Pin Down screen with their non-Trailing Big while the Trail sets an On-Ball Screen…
*Zooming In: In this section of the video below you’ll see traces of “Floppy” or “Blocker Mover” action within this movement. As shown, the ballhandler isn’t necessarily coming off the Side On-Ball to play the PNR game (nor is the Trail really trying to set the On-Ball), but is looking to center the ball and better his passing angle for the shooter coming off the Pin. Other variations of this set are shown in the video.
The other great movement SE Melbourne incorporates into the Trail as a screener option, is flowing directly into “ZOOM” action (Pindown Screen followed by a DHO) after hitting the opposite Big at the Elbow…
*Zooming In: Referring back to the Football RPO section above, this Zoom action is, again, really effective at attacking that same corner defender (guarding #4). Watch above how the defender relaxes and disconnects from his matchup for a split-second as the ball moves away from him toward the weakside, only to have it come right back to the same side, where he then has to fight through a Zoom Action. SE Melbourne expertly utilizes misdirection concepts in a ton of their offensive sets.
Trail as an Off-Ball Screener
The last option we’ll highlight from SE Melbourne, is how they’ll use their Trail-Man as an Off-Ball screener when flowing into the half court. This action is mostly used when their 5-man is in the Trail spot and the 4 has spaced to a corner up the floor.
{ Away Screens & Pitchbacks }
A simple but effective action they’ll run is a quick “Away Screen” for a guard on the opposite wing…
And… if that guard can’t get downhill or find airspace for a shot, then they can “pitch” the ball back to the PG and come off another “Veer Screen” from the Big…
*Zooming In: Like the “Zoom” action above, there’s some nice misdirection elements baked into these two actions. The suddenness of the quick “Away Screen” or the “Veer Screen” after the Pitchback can open enough of a shooting or attacking gap for the offense to play from.
For a complete look at SE Melbourne’s fantastic offensive playbook, here’s today’s breakdown…
And here are the PDF’s of the SE Melbourne’s Playbook…
Ivan Rudez: Inside the Episode
Our around-the-world travels on the Slappin’ Glass Podcast led us this week to the highly respected Croatian Professional Coach, Ivan Rudez. A fantastic teacher, thinker, and communicator of the game, Coach Rudez has had stops as the Head Coach of the Slovakia Men’s National Team, as well as with clubs in top leagues in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Coach Rudez and explore his thoughts and experiences on:
The Three Frontiers of Coaching
How coaches can develop their skills in dealing with Players, Management, and Media, and why it’s so important to do so.
Building Better Passers
How to teach footwork, hand-placement, and pivoting to youth and pros
Post Passing
Strategies and thoughts on passing out of the post
“Overrated/Underrated?!”
We returned to this always fun segment and asked about:
“The Process of Writing a Book” (Coach Rudez has written a basketball methodology book)
“Going Under Ballscreens”
“Losing Seasons”
“Changing Defenses ATO”
Here’s the link to listen to the entire episode with Coach Rudez…
Best Sets of the Week
Some of the best we saw in the week that was, including CSKA (Russia), Milan (Italy), Stew Morrill (Utah St), Andorra (Spain), Adelaide (Australia) and a defensive trend from several Euroleague teams.
Watch | Read | Quote
Teams we enjoyed watching:
Hartford (NCAA D1)
Arkansas (NCAA D1)
San Pablo Burgos (ACB)
Read:
From Ben Horowitz: Nobody Cares, Just Coach Your Team
From The Ringer: Tyrese Haliburton: I Take Everything in My Life as Motivation
From Seth Godin: Three Types of Kindness
Quote:
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” -Lin Yutang
Thank you for your time. If you enjoy this newsletter we’d really appreciate a share. You can do that here…
Have a great week coaching,
Dan and Pat