Slappin' Glass Newsletter: Go Big or Go Home
We ain't afraid of no ghosts...
Welcome to our “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, where we explore some of the best ideas, strategies, and coaches throughout the world of basketball, wherever they may be.
Today we’ll cover:
“3-Out 2-In” PNR Offensive Concepts from Mega Soccerbet in Serbia
How teams are using “Ghost” screens, especially on mismatches
Inside the great offensive mind of Iceland Head Coach, Craig Pedersen
Best Sets of the Week (is you like Hammer Action you’re in luck)
Great content from around the web
Let’s dive in…
Go Big or Go Home
Over the last month we’ve covered a ton of “5-Out” and “4-Out 1-In” PNR Motion Offenses, from full breakdowns of Moncho Fernandez, Martin Schiller, and Igor Kokoskov to Diego Ocampo and Elliot Steinmetz , there are so many great teams/coaches utilizing PNR and Motion concepts with their 4/5 men on the perimeter because of their skill-sets.
So we had fun this week looking at Coach Vlada Jovanovic and his club, Mega Soccerbet in Serbia, who play two traditional bigs within their PNR motion. Here’s a look at a few of their concepts within the offense.
Concept #1: “Dunker Shadow”
To maintain proper spacing during Middle PNR’s, Mega adheres to the “Dunker Shadow” principal in which the Big in the “Dunker Spot” will always shadow the ball handler during the PNR. The benefit of this action is that it keeps the opposite lane open for the “Screening Big” to roll into while putting the “Dunker Spot” defender in a 2 on 1 situation with his man being a direct threat to “duck-in” or for a “drop-off” pass as well. Keeping the “Dunker Big” so low along the baseline also makes any help from a perimeter defender difficult. That’s a lot of words, here’s the action in a Nifty Giphy…
Concept #2: “Elbow Release”
On Side PNR action, the Big not setting the On-Ball will flash/release to the opposite elbow. This release has a few advantages:
It pulls the “Elbow Big’s” man from the basket, opening up a roll for the “Screening Big”.
Sets up the traditional “High Low” look if the ball is passed to the “Elbow Big”.
Flows right into a quick “Step-Up Screen” or “DHO” with the middle guard.
Puts the “Elbow Big” in great offensive rebounding position if the ball is shot by the guard or “Rolling Big”.
Makes the Side PNR difficult to Trap/Hedge as the “Elbow Big” is in great position to flash toward the ball and play through the advantage.
Concept #3: “45 Cut to the 2-Man Side”
As Mega flows through their action, anytime a Big finds themselves in the “45 Spot” on the 2-man side of the PNR they will “45 Cut” to the rim. This cut removes their defender from helping at the “Nail”, puts them in great offensive rebounding position, and sets them up to either stay in the “Dunker Spot”, or “Release to the Elbow” depending on what their partner does (Pop/Roll).
For the full detailed breakdown, you can get it on SGTV here.
We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts
We’ve had a great time collaborating on various basketball topics with Memphis assistant coach, Cody Toppert, since our podcast with him a couple months ago. This week we looked at the trend of using “Ghost Screens” (Slip Screens) to create confusion for the two defenders involved in the action.
Ghost Screen Concept #1: “Ghost the Mismatch”
Really love this more recent trend of sending another offensive playmaking guard to set a “Ghost Screen” on a big who is guarding a mismatch (we’ll explain).
Some quick background… Once a defensive big has switched onto a playmaking guard (think Jokic guarding Steph Curry) offenses will often isolate that mismatch and attack (often through “Boomerang” action or just a straight ISO). As defenses evolve and become smarter at guarding this situation, “late clock doubles”, “switching to zone”, or simply loading up in the paint and forcing a contested three over the top of the big, have become more prominent.
Enter… “Ghost the Mismatch” action. Here, the offense will not just space and let the guard ISO, but will send another playmaking player towards the mismatch and set a “Ghost Screen”.
The theory behind this action is that a defensive big man is likely not comfortable navigating through a potential “PNR situation” as he/she’s guarding the ball, let alone the confusion that comes from a “Ghost Screen” where defenses have to really communicate if another switch should or should not occur (“No Screen No Scheme”).
Offensively, this action can create a lane for the ballhandler to attack downhill, open up the offensive “Ghost screener” on the pop, allow the ballhander to shoot an open three, or create another difficult situation for the mismatched big to guard as the ballhandler gets rid of the ball and flows immediately into ANOTHER screening or split action.
Wow.
Here’s the GIPHY… we probably could’ve just shown this earlier…
Ghost Screen Concept #2: “Ghost the PNR”
A more traditional action to combat a team that is either switching or “Hard Hedging” on-ball screens. Having traditional bigs “ghost” PNR actions can really put an aggressive defense on their heels and open up lanes for guards to attack during the brief moments of confusion.
For the full clips of these actions, you can get them HERE and HERE.
Craig Pedersen Insights
Coach Craig Pedersen, Head Coach of Iceland’s National Team, is one of the most respected coaches in the international game and we were really fortunate he took the time to share insights on so many topics in our most recent Slappin’ Glass Podcast.
Among the many topics we discussed, some main areas of focus were:
Creating Advantages with Non-Shooters
Practice Planning and Using Assistant Coaches
And had a blast during our “Overrated/Underrated” segment, topics include:
The Famous Icelandic Hot Dog
Traditional Side PNR
Changing Defenses ATO
Jump Stops
Flare Screens
And more…
Connor Harr gave a great recap of this episode on his newsletter, which is HERE.
Thanks for the continued support of the podcast. We were fortunate to have it climb into the Top 40 Basketball Podcasts on Apple Podcasts this past week… so thank you to all who listen and share it. We’d always appreciate a rating and review on Apple to continue to help it grow. If you have a second, you can leave one HERE. Thanks!
Next week on the podcast we’ve got a former NBA Head Coach talking all sorts of X’s and O’s. Can’t wait!
Best Sets of the Week
So much good stuff around the world of basketball, but here’s a few of our favorites:
1) { Pedro Martinez - BAXI Manresa False Shuffle } We loved all the motion in this set that eventually leads to the offense being able to attack the closeout for a jumper.
2) { UC Irvine - "Shooter's Choice" Series } Coach Russell Turner has done a fantastic job building the UC Irvine program into a consistent title contender in the Big West and tough NCAA Tournament out over the passed few years. Here’s a nice “Shooter’s Choice” series they ran for their former guard from England, Luke Nelson, who currently plays in Germany’s top league, the BBL.
3) { Hammer Time } We had a couple different posts looking at some nice “Hammer” variations, here they are…
{ Extra Credit } A little extra credit “food for thought”… we loved this concept of “jumping into a zone” in the middle of a set from Pablo Laso and Real Madrid…
Food For Thought
Ryan Pannone and Alex Sarama gave a great presentation on PNR Concepts for Mike de Kraker’s “November Talks” series.
This is one of the best articles we’ve read on “Next Defense” from Austrian National Team assistant, Stefan Grassegger.
Thanks to Wagner assistant coach, Bobby Jordan, for the heads up on this great article on Stan Van Gundy and building culture with the Pelicans.
One of our Slappin’ Glass members released a brand new music single this past Friday…
As always, thanks for the support. If you found the newsletter valuable we’d appreciate a share… you can do that here…
Have a great week coaching,
Dan and Pat
Please feel free to reach out anytime here: slappinglass1024@gmail.com