Offense

Submitted by Rick Torbett of Better Basketball

Are you ready for the shift that’s happening in coaching? Do you know the one key that is developing many of the top offenses in the country? Hint: It’s not more creative set plays.

The NBA community is in a fight. It’s a struggle against an enemy that almost everyone has fought at one time or the other: TRADITION. And there’s no better place to read about this battle than right here on the Celtics Blog.

TRADITION says the coach should call the plays from the sideline – just like good ol’ American Football! The players should execute the play and the contest should go to the coach with the best plays and the players who can best execute.

Yeah, right – if you’re playing basketball in 1918 instead of 2018!

This enemy (TRADITION) carries a lot of pressure with it: peer pressure, media pressure, fan pressure, etc. “This is how we’ve always done things; this is the lens through which we understand basketball, so don’t rock the boat, Coach!”

But the skills and athleticism of the players have evolved in my lifetime. Defenses have evolved so much that rules like “3 seconds on defense” had to be created. These changes have created a dilemma in the hearts and minds of the new generation of coaches. These Neo-Coaches (for lack of a better term) can sense that TRADITION is not getting the most out of the BEST BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN THE WORLD!

The Neo-Coach might be thinking:

“Why would I take the highest skilled players with the highest basketball I.Q. and force them to be little robots who carry out my micro-managed possessions in the form of Set Plays? The game is fast and quick; decisions must be made and changed in a split-second based on multiple defensive factors. Shouldn’t I be able to get MORE if I allow the players to make the moment-by-moment decisions while I (the coach) GUIDE them based on our strengths and weaknesses?”

The short answer is “Yes!” (This is why I developed the Read & React Offense)

But, Enemy #2 will raise its ugly head in the NBA: Player Buy-In. Players have to provide the effort and must acquire a “Next Action” attitude when playing Read & React.

In the article, Coach Stevens elaborates:

“We have to play harder on offense. You have to run to your spots in transition, you have to screen, you have to cut. You can’t just watch, you can’t just pound the ball. You have to move with a purpose.”

This new flow that players need to learn can completely transform your offense and it’s amazing to see how much more effort your players will put forth when they are able to play with the flow of the game.

Quote from the article:

“Stevens’ read-and-react offense is predicated on players taking advantage of every decision that a defense makes. With or without Kyrie, those little moments where a player sets a screen or decides to zig instead of zag make a cumulative difference.”

That’s an understatement! The cumulative difference the Read & React makes for our Tribe of coaches at Better Basketball is an extra 20 points per game above what they’ve been scoring! That makes it WELL worth the battle!

If you’re that new breed of coach, hang in there! I have even more guidance via the The Read & React Offense headed your way!

And guess what? They aren’t the only team running a Read & React system. Teams like the Denver Nuggets have transformed their offense with it.

St. Louis Men’s Assistant Zak Boisvert has assembled some of the ways to attack defensive switches.

Coach Boisvert has posted several videos of some of the better schemes he has seen.

His YouTube channel is: Zak Boisvert You Tube Channel

The voice-over that you hear is Coach Boisvert

 

 

Concepts to Attack Switching Defenses

 

 

Army Men’s Assistant Zak Boisvert has assembled some of the ways that the Golden State attacks defensive switches.

Coach Boisvert has posted several videos of some of the better schemes he has seen. His You Tube channel is: Zak Boisvert You Tube Channel

The voice-over that you hear is Coach Boisvert.

 

Sets and Actions to Attack Switching Defenses

Notes from the video appear below.

 

This post was written by Bob Starkey and shared on his Basketball Coaching Blog, HoopThoughts

Editor’s Note #1 from Brian. When this article was originally posted, the Warriors were one of the top teams in the league. In 2019-2020, they have the worst winning percentage. I don’t believe we should or shouldn’t adopt ideas for our programs just because of where we get them. If counting passes is something you feel will help your ball movement, teamwork, and lessen dribbling, then you should consider if or how you can adapt it to your team.

Editor’s Note #2 from Brian.  I am not saying that every college and high school team should set 300 passes per game as your standard for passing like one of the premier NBA teams does. I am offering this as a resource to think about ways to improve the ball movement for your team.  Maybe in a 50 possession high school game, you can set 200 passes as a goal.  If you do like this idea, you will need to determine the number of passes that is right for your program.

There was an outstanding article in the USA Today this week written by Sam Amick on the value of passing the ball for Golden State and it’s incredible value to the culture of the Warriors.  You can (and should) read the entire article here.

I’ve long spoke about how you play being a big part of your culture.  Your system of play and it’s level of execution says a lot about who you are as a coach and in turn your team as a unit.

The first part of that piece is practice.  The make up and execution of practice impacts players and how they feel about playing and their level of belief in how prepared they are going into a game.  On the collegiate level, recruiting often comes down in part of how a team plays.  On the professional level, free-agents will at times gravitate to a style of play.

In an era that becomes increasingly difficult to promote team play, to have one of the best teams in the NBA base their success on number of passes gives all of us coaches hope.

A few excerpts include the following:

“Ball movement will forever be superior.”

-Shaun Livingston

Ever since Kerr made the move from TNT analyst to the Warriors bench, when he saw the glaring lack of ball movement in that final season under former coach Mark Jackson and told the team’s ownership how he would fix it, this has been their ethos. So much so, in fact, that it all started with a magic number: 300.

Pass the ball at least that many times during the course of a game, he told them, and the offense will hum. For Kerr, who won five titles while playing for San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and then-Chicago coach Phil Jackson, these were the lessons learned that he had to pass on.

“If you have shooting — if you have great shooting — then the more ball movement the better, because you have guys coming off screens and … you want to make the defense have to defend for long stretches rather than just one pass and a shot,” Kerr explained to USA TODAY Sports recently. “So we looked at the passing totals, and … (300) was a really key number for us.

“I just said I want the ball to move. That’s always how I’ve seen the game, and if you have Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) on your team and the ball is moving, it’s fairly obvious that it’s going to be hard to defend. So we just kind of came up with that number.”

Amick backed his story up with the following facts:

◄After ranking last in passes per game (243.8) during the regular season before Kerr’s hiring and finishing 12th in offensive rating despite already having three of their four current All-Stars in Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, they have had the league’s best offense in three of the past four seasons while finishing second in offensive rating once. During that span, the Warriors’ passes-per-game mark has ranged from 306.6 to 323.5.

◄The Warriors’ only two losses this postseason have come in the only games in which they passed the ball fewer than 300 times (256 against San Antonio in Game 4 of the first round; 295 against New Orleans in Game 3 of the second round). In all, they lead all playoff teams in passing (323.2; Rockets 15th at 227.5).

◄Green and Curry have been first and second among the Warriors, respectively, in passes made for the past three regular seasons.

As Green is quick to point out, passing alone is not enough. The Warriors at their best are like a basketball version of the Blue Angels, with players darting to and fro while stopping only briefly to set a few screens along the way. But when you combine the movement with the passing and some of the best scorers the game has ever seen, then push the tempo, it’s the kind of thing even Kerr couldn’t have dreamt of when he put this program into place.

These two PowerPoint outlines were submitted by Coach John Kimble.

Building Blocks for Your Man to Man Offense

This is a 4 slide PowerPoint. You can advance the slide by clicking in the frame. There is no sound with the presentation. There is also a download link below the presentation.

Multi-Phase Offensive System

This is a 2 slide PowerPoint. You can advance the slide by clicking in the frame.

There is no sound with the presentation. There is also a download link below the presentation.

 

 

This press attack was contributed to the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library by Rory Hamilton of Norman North High School.

This is what Coach Hamilton had to say about the press attack.

Press Break Alignment is with 3 man taking ball out-of-bounds and the 1 and 2 are at the elbows. The post players 4 and 5 are at half court. We use 4-up press break vs. any on the ball zone presses (1-2-2, 1-2-1-1, etc).

It starts with our ball side post flashing to the FT line extended to receive a pass. On the catch, our point guard 1 screens away for the 2. After screening for the 2 the 1 sits in the middle of the floor and the inbounder steps in for ball reversal. Again the concepts are the same as we look to attack sideline, middle, and a throw over.

On ball reversal back to the inbounder our press break slides are : middle flashes sideline and the sideline flashes middle. The 4 man sprints wide and looks to space the floor and be a deep threat.

If the ball is passed middle, the receiver immediately looks to pass it opposite for a potential (2 vs. 1) against the defense.

Press Break Alignment is with 3 man taking ball out of bounds and the 1 and 2 are al the elbows.

The post players 4 and 5 are at half court. We use 4-up press break vs. any “on the ball” zone presses (1-2-2, 1-2-1-1, etc).

It starts with our ball side post flashing to the FT line extended to receive a pass. On the catch, our point guard 1 screens away for the 2.

 

 

After screening for the 2 the 1 sits in the middle of the floor and the inbounder steps in for ball reversal.

Again the concepts are the same as we look to attack sideline, middle, and a throw over.

 

 

 

Ball is reversed back to the inbounder.

 

 

 

 

 

Middle flashes sideline and the sideline flashes middle.

 

 

 

 

 

The 4 man sprints wide and looks to space the floor and be a deep threat.