Slappin Glass Newsletter: Ode to the 45
Clearing a path forward...
Welcome to our “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, where we consolidate the best ideas, strategies, and X’s and O’s we’ve seen throughout the week.
This week we sat down with one of the best young coaches in Europe, paid tribute to the power of the “45 cut”, detailed the actions and concepts of one of the top “5-Out” Offenses in the world, and talked a lot about “shells”.
Let’s dive in.
The Power of the 45
One of the best things about the Miami Heat’s success and run to the NBA Finals was the attention it brought to their fantastic use of off-ball cutting. There are many other cutting actions we’ll get to in future newsletters, but the past few months we have enjoyed studying how some of the best NBA, European, and NCAA teams utilize variations of the “45 Cut” within their offenses to create space and advantages. This week we did an entire Twitter thread on this concept, and will go deeper on it here.
(For a look at the 10+ breakdowns of the Miami Heat offensive concepts, you find them here in an NBA Finals Primer we put together.)
Like most things in basketball, there’s different terminology depending on the coach, country, and program, but here we’ll refer to a cut to the rim coming from a player at the wing or lane-line extended as a “45”. Here’s of the ways teams utilize this cut both during and before a PnR.
PnR towards the 2-Player Side: As shown below, when the PnR is going towards the side of the floor with 2 players occupying the wing/45 and the corner, this cut can be used for a backdoor opportunity or as a way to take away the first helper at the nail.
“Pop and Burn” or “Cut the Stunt” Action: Another way the 45 is used, is in what Ryan Pannone in our podcast with him called “Cutting the Stunt” or “Pop and Burn”. In this action, the PnR is going AWAY from the 2-man side towards the 1-man side. As the big pops, the guard in the 45 behind the action will rim cut, creating space for the big to pop into AND remove the first help defender at the nail. Here’s a great clip of William and Mary as well as Rasta Vectha showing this cut in action as well as Valencia Basket using it this past week in one of their latest games.
Pre-PnR “False Motion” 45 Cut: Using the 45 cut within “False Motion” before the main action is another clever way teams employ this cut. It’s so effective in this setting as it often distorts the defenses’ natural rotations and can create confusion as to who should be helping or “tagging” during PnR responsibilities. Here’s a clip of Coach Schiller utilizing this with BC Zalgiris to great effect.
“Cutter into Shooter” Action: Besides clearing space and moving the help, another way this “45 cut” is used effectively, is in turning the “cutter into a shooter” by immediately putting the cutter’s defender into another action directly after the cut. In this creative “Rip'/Replace” action, you’ll see how the 45 cut puts the defender in a bind, as they are caught between becoming the first helper at the same time the “cutter turned shooter” is sprinting off a downscreen.
There are many other ways to utilize this cut within an offense, but your coffee is getting cold, so let’s move on.
If you want the PDF’s of these actions, you can get them all right here.
5-Out Offensive Concepts and Actions
This week on YouTube we dove into the great offensive mind of the Head Coach of Basket Zaragoza, Diego Ocampo. In this breakdown we looked at the concepts, reads, strategies, and advantages that the various actions within their offense creates.
Pablo Laso BLOB Series
For some extra credit, we also did a breakdown of the unique BLOB series that Pablo Laso has run the last few years with Real Madrid. The staggered box alignment is great for spacing and running multiple actions out of.
Slappin’ Glass Podcast
Coach Daniel Sokolovsky, assistant with the Chemnitz Niners in Germany’s top professional division, the BBL, joined us on the podcast this week. Coach Sokolovsky has been called one of the best up and coming coaches in the European game and at a young age has already worked in three of the top leagues in Europe (Russia, Israel, and Germany).
Coach Sokolovsky is beyond his years when it comes to his wisdom and approach to coaching and leading, and we really dove deep on some modern defensive strategies as well. We covered: implementing a defensive scheme from the ground up, the differences in style of play between countries, teaching closeouts, building trust and credibility, responding to failure, and more.
Coach Sokolovsky is the latest in a list of fantastic coaches we’ve been fortunate to have on the podcast. Each episode stands out on their own and are filled with great coaching insights from an X’s and O’s and leadership standpoint.
People Helping People
We really appreciate all the support and for helping this content find other coaches who would find it valuable. We’d love it if you could pass this newsletter along. You can do so here… thank you!
Sets of the Week
Here are some of the best sets we enjoyed breaking down this week…
{Igor Kokoskov - Sets for a Stretch 4} Yes, we’re big fans of Coach Kokoskov, as are many… here’s some absolute gems from a current game against CSKA in which he is able to get some great looks for his stretch 4 man.
{Craig Pedersen - Iceland DHO Flare} In the Kokoskov clip above we mention the great “Iceland” action that Fenerbahce runs. Well, here’s a clip of the Iceland National Team running that action to perfection.
{ LeBron James vs. Duncan Robinson Chess Match } Congratulations to the NBA champion Lakers. Before the series was over, we looked at the dynamic chess match being played in the LeBron vs. Robinson/Herro PnR.
{Fran Fraschilla and Moncho Fernandez} During our podcast with Coach Fraschilla, he talked about how great Obradoiro coach, Moncho Fernandez, is at teaching the “Short-Angle PnR.” This was a fun mashup of the two great coaches.
Food for Thought
From around the world of basketball, leadership, and beyond:
Many members/subscribers of the Slappin’ Glass Newsletter produce fantastic content. Today we encourage you to check out the work of Pascual Muers, Kyle Brown, Jack Fleming, Connor Harr, and Francesco Nanni. There are tons more out there and we will try and highlight and share as much as we can. If you run a Blog, Twitter, YouTube, Newsletter or Podcast, please share it with us so we can check it out and potentially share with the rest of the community. slappinglass1024@gmail.com
Thanks for reading, have a great week coaching, and thank you for supporting what we do.
Dan and Pat