Offense

This post was written by John Carrier and originally posted on his Coaching Basketball Blog

Lately I’ve been reading bits and pieces of Stuff Good Players Should Know by Dick Devenzio. It’s a great book and I would encourage you all to get it. This is especially true if you are a coach who really strives to be a teacher of the game. As a preview, you can read some of the notes from an old blog post by Eric Musselman.

One of the things that Coach Devenzio talks about in his book is the idea that defensive pressure in basketball is only an illusion. Think about what a novel concept that really is! How many times have you seen players (and even coaches) panic when a team presses, traps, or just plays hard pressure man? It happens all the time and costs teams victories on a regular basis.

So what is pressure in basketball? It’s not like football where pressure can mean bodily injury. It’s more of a mindset that leads the team being pressured to panic. If you don’t panic however, now what? You will find that good teams relax when they are pressured. When you relax you are able to see more clearly and actually put the team that is pressuring at a disadvantage by playing smart, principled basketball.

It’s easy enough to preach to our players that they need to handle pressure, but we know talking a good game means nothing. How do you teach it then!? I was blessed this spring to work with a great group of athletes out at St. Croix Prep High School in Stillwater (MN). Our main focus for the development sessions focused on basketball IQ and understanding the game. They play in a conference and a section with teams that love to trap and pressure so we decided that we would spend some time teaching them how to handle that pressure. The following is what worked for us as we increased their ability to handle pressure.

• Sold the Idea that Pressure is a Myth
  • This may have been the biggest, and hardest piece. They need to understand that pressure doesn’t matter. We even went as simple as having a defender pressure them while they just stood there. This made them realize that the defender wasn’t going to do anything to them – they were just waving their hands, not swords. Once they got used to the idea that being pressured wasn’t going to result in loss of limb or life, the rest was much easier. They started to relax and see the action much better.
  • The more comfortable they are with pressure (the less scared) the less pressure affects their ability to make decisions.
  • In order to be comfortable they need to experience pressure over and over again for this to happen. It’s like riding a roller coaster, the first time might be scary but by the second or third ride it isn’t nearly as bad. So we had them ride the roller coaster quite often during our session and experience hta tpressure.

•  Taught Them How to Handle Pressure
  • As always, it’s important to teach the game.
  • What we did was showed them basic concepts to use when being pressured:
    • Backcut when denied
    • Cut at two speeds in two directions to get open
    • Don’t make the same cut to get open each time
    • GO-GO: get open or get out
    • Take your space on the catch – DO NOT go backwards
      • When you catch against pressure, take a tep forward, rip through hard, and take your space.
      • Makes it easier to pivot and pass as well as see the floor
      • This might be the most important one.
    • Eyes up
    • Pivot hard and rip hard with big elbows\
    • Don’t hold the ball above your head
    • Stay low and strong
    • Rip to the hip
    • Rip below the knees and above the head, not across the belly button
    • Take a deep breath and slow down
    • Take a five second call over a live ball turnover – just be patient

• • Drills should be a progression where you learn the technique first and then do it under pressure.
    • For example, you work on catching and ripping
  •  After learning technique drills should simulate game situations
  • After technique, drills should incorporate more pressure than you see in games with pieces such as extra defenders.

• Drilled Them on Technique
  • Used a number of simple drills to teach the mechanics of how to handle pressure.
    • Staying low, ripping and pivoting, taking space, etc.

• Let Them Learn in Small Sided Games
  • If you have not read Brian McCormick yet, do so now. He is huge on small sided teaching games and he is onto something, they work!
  • Small sided games are games of 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or 4 on 4 that emphasize the skill you are working on while still playing.
    • So in the game you would emphasize being strong with the ball in this case.
  • Small sided games are great teaching tools because they put players in game like situations and allows players to teach themselves through experience.
  • You can create rules to overload the small sided game to make it harder than a real game. 
    • Example – 2 on 2 no dribble allows the defense to pressure and deny harder than in a game, also no dribbling forces players to be strong with the ball.

• • 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or even 4 on 4 allows players more touches than a typical 5 on 5 game.
  • Small sided games allow players to apply the skill in a game situation and work on truly learning the skill in a trial and error environment.

 Drills and Progressions

The following is an example of a drill progression that we use to teach toughness with the ball. I believe in progressions because in my experience (although limited) progressions yield a better understanding of the skill. Players learn to apply it faster as opposed to just drilling it. For me a progression starts with a skeleton drill (no defense) to work on the technical aspects of the skill, then we add defense to a drill, then we make the drill game like, and then we play a small sided game. Sometimes the last two steps are blended into 1. Also, as the year goes on we spend less time with the drill and more time on small sided games.

As always, it’s not what drill you do it’s how you do it and what you  teach and emphasize within the drill.

Rip Throughs (Skeleton drill)This may be the most boring drill, but I always tell the players that if they go hard that we will do the drill for 2-3 minutes tops. If they don’t go hard we will do it all day.

Players move out around the floor, spin the ball out, catch it with two hands and two feet. Right as they catch they rip forward to take their space. Then they rip 3-4 more times hard with big elbows. They should rip to the hip. As they rip the ball should go below their knees or above their head. Once they are done they spin out and repeat.

Boss Drill (With defense)
Now we add some defense to the situation. In this drill you partner up with one ball. The defense starts with the ball about 2 feet from the offense. The defense throws the ball to the offense and comes up and really gets into them – hacking at the ball, pressuring them body to body,  and slapping their arms to try and force them to lose the ball. The offense can’t dribble and rips through hard with big elbows and tries to keep the defender off for 5 rip and pivots. Make sure we are emphasizing proper footwork in this drill. Players don’t try to hurt each other, but the drill should be overly aggressive with no fouls – making it harder than the game. If you can keep the ball against this type of pressure, whatever you get in a game. Unless, of course, it’s on the road and the coaches brother is the official! Even then you have prepared for the situation with this drill.

2 on 2 10 Pass Drill (With defense and closer to a game)
In this drill we now introduce something else to worry about outside of being strong with the ball. In this drill we add passing and moving to the equation. The drills has one ball with groups of four – 2 defense and 2 offense.

The offense has an entire 1/2 court (or 1/4 if you want to make it harder) to move around and they have to successfully complete 10 passes in a row. The offense cannot dribble or shoot. This means the defense pressures really close on the ball and denies the players off the ball hard. If they dribble or turn it over they have 10 pushups. If they successfully complete 10 passes the defense has 10 pushups. Defense and offense switch each time. This drill is great because again it puts your playres in a situation that is harder than a game, the offense now has to work harder to get open, make better passes, and still be strong with the ball on the catch while being mauled.

3 on 3 (or 4 on 4) No Dribble
Now we add in the small sided game. Players play 3 on 3 and try to score but cannot dribble the ball. Again, this creates a situation that is harder than the game.  Also another rule for the game is that if they are not strong with the ball it’s an automatic turnover. It is an automatic turnover if a player catches and doesn’t rip forward to take space take space, if they don’t rip and pivot, if they hold the ball over their head, or if they don’t rip to the hip. On a turnover the offense goes out and a the defense goes to offense.

Play the game to a set number of points or for a set time. You can also play it cutthroat style with 3-4 teams on one court. There is a dribble allowance if the player catches the ball cutting to the hoop and has to take a dribble to finish the layup (either that or you get some crazy – no game like shots).

As you can see, this is where the learning takes place. It’s easy for players to remember to use the skill in a drill where that’s all they have to focus on, but now they have to handle defensive pressure, other players cutting and moving, trying to score, trying to make passes, etc. If they can remember to be strong with the ball here they are going to have a better chance of doing it in a game. There is a much higher probability of carry over because in small sided games they are building habits.

 In Closing

Handling pressure is much more mental than physical. I’ve seen 5-5, spindly, weak players handle pressure better than 6-6 wings who weigh 230. It’s more about training their minds to do the little things (take space, big elbows, rip and pivot) than it is training their bodies. Hopefully the ideas above, although a little jumbled, will help you work with your players on better handling pressure. The more you can do drills and games that make it harder than the real game, the better your players will be. Lastly, teaching in a progression such as the one above is the very best way for players to learn how to be tough with the ball.

This post contains three videos with Coach Bob Knight showing some of his ideas for attacking man to man defense.

Make sure your sound is on as you watch.

All videos are You Tube videos.

Make sure that you are on a server that allows You Tube access.

An idea for a 3 in offense.

If you are interested in finding out more about the DVD that this video sample came from, click here: Bob Knight: Advanced Tactics & Techniques for Man-to-Man Offense

Triangle Drill

If you are interested in finding out more about the DVD that this video sample came from, click here: Bob Knight: Advanced Tactics & Techniques for Man-to-Man Offense

No Dribble Drill Philosophy

If you want to learn more about the DVD that this sample came from, click here: Advantage/Disadvantage Drills and Motion Offense Drills & Skills

If you want to learn more about the DVD that this sample came from, click here: Advantage/Disadvantage Drills and Motion Offense Drills & Skills

No Dribble Drill

If you want to learn more about the DVD that this sample came from, click here: Essential Drills for Building a Championship Program

If you want to learn more about the DVD that this sample came from, click here: Essential Drills for Building a Championship Program

This article was written by Kyle Ohman and originally posted on his site, BasketballHQ.

I hope you can take some points from this article to help with your offensive play.

1. Ball Reversals

• Make the Defense Move
  • The more times the ball goes from side to side, the more the defense must rotate and closeout.
  • Be down ready on the back side as the ball is swung to you.
  • Attack closeouts that are too close, and shoot the ball when the defense closes out short with hands down.
• Don’t Catch and Hold the Ball
  • Be thinking one play ahead and be decisive with your moves.
  • Don’t waste your dribbles. Either drive the closeout, shoot, or move the ball.

2. Player Movement

• Don’t Stand
  • Players that stand are easy to guard and force one on one offense.
  • Sometimes you may need to space, but most of the time you should always be moving.
• Hard Cuts
  • Read your defender and make the appropriate cut.
    • Back cut
    • Face cut
  • Make decisive cuts.
  • Set up your defender before cutting.
  • Slow to fast.
  • Look to score on every cut.
  • Your cut may open up a scoring chance for a teammate.

3. Screens

• Set GREAT Legal Screens
  • Use screens to help get other teammates open.
  • Must head hunt on screens.
  • Never screen and stand.
  • Read the defense and offensive player using the screen to determine whether you should roll or space after you set the screen.
  • Slip the screen if you are being overplayed.
• Use Screens to Get Open
  • Set up your defender before using a screen. EVERY TIME.
  • Read your defender when using the screen and then make the appropriate cut.
    • Curl cut
    • Straight cut
    • Fade cut
    • Pro cut
• On the Same Page
  • The player using the screen and the player(s) setting the screen must work together.
  • Must have great timing and spacing when executing a screen.
• Hand Offs
  • Use hand offs similar to ball screens to help teammates get open.
  • If your defender is cheating the hand off, fake it and then make a move.

Resources: Game Situation Hand Off Shooting Drill, Game Situation Pick & Pop Shooting Drill

4. Penetration

• Drive and Kick
  • Great penetration forces the defense to suck in and help, which opens up the kick out pass.
  • Get your shoulders to the basket before making the kick out pass.
    • This sells that you are attacking the basket and makes the defense sink in.
  • Receiver needs to be down ready to either shoot, drive, or swing the ball. Don’t catch and hold!
    • If you catch and hold, the defense can recover and the ball movement is dead.
• Stay Under Control
  • Don’t leave your feet and open yourself up to charges and wild passes.
  • Don’t over penetrate into trouble.
    • If you get too deep into the defense, there are too many hands to deflect your pass.

Resources: Two Ball Drive and Kick Shooting Drill

5. Passing Angles

• Receiver Needs to Create Passing Lanes
  • Don’t stand and watch on penetration.
  • Either slide up or down to create a great passing lane.
  • A great time to move is once your defender turns their head to watch the ball.
  • Find the passers eyes, especially when the ball goes into the post.
• Down Ready
  • Don’t catch the ball standing straight up and down.
  • Anticipate what you are going to do with the ball by how the defender is guarding you; shoot, drive, or swing pass.

Resources: Game Situation Post Skip Pass Shooting Drill

6. Inside Out

• Post Play
  • Get the ball into the post and then look for kick outs when the defense helps.
  • Find the post players eyes and create passing lanes by moving up or down.
  • Hard cuts on the weak side will be open with a great post passer.
• Pass Fakes
  • Being unselfish opens up opportunities for pass fakes and keeps.
  • Works great for hand offs in the high post area.
  • Must sell the pass.
  • Use your body to shield the ball from the view of the defender.

Resources: Game Situation Post Entry Relocate Shooting Drill

7. Designed Plays

• Executing Offense
  • Use set plays to help establish ball movement and player movement.
  • It can be a set play or a motion offense.
• Read the Defense
  • Don’t be a robot to the play.
  • If the defense is cheating the play than make them pay.

8. Unselfish Plays

• Extra Pass
  • Turn down an okay shot for a great shot.
  • This type of play will be contagious and lead to better shots for everyone.
• Set Up Teammates
  • Make a move with the specific desire to set up another teammate for an easy shot.
  • Not just the point guards responsibility.
• Celebrate Winning Plays
  • Get excited when a teammate makes an unselfish play.
  • It must be all about the team.

This post contains some of my takeaways from Bob Starkey’s series “Thoughts on Half Court Offense.” He posts almost every day on his Hoop Thoughts Blog. Sometimes it is just a short quote or thought and sometimes it is a detailed series like this one. Whatever it is, it is always worth taking a look at.

You can read his entire series on half court offense at this link: Thoughts on Half Court Offense

Do you have a method of flowing into half-court offense out of your fast break? Out of your press offense? Out of your special situations? Do you practice flowing? We are big believers in that all half-court offense in the whole method should be concluded with at least one conversion. This allows the work you need to execute how you will flow as well as work on your transition defense.

Do you chart your half-court offense? Or do you just chart your offense overall? Of course you can look at the stat sheet after a game and see that you shot 46% from the floor, shot 18 free throws and turned it over 14 times. But what was your stat line in just half-court offense? If you eliminated transition, press offense and special situations then what did your team shoot from the floor? How many free throws? How many turnovers?

Be careful not to fall into a lull by just reading overall stats. You might play a team that is poor in transition so your stats get padded by your fast break but your half-court offense was not efficient.

Certainly there are coaches out there with the philosophy that “we are fast break team” and they well may be excellent in transition. But here are some numbers to think about that come from a book by Bob Liguori titled “Building A Championship Offense.” I’ll preface these numbers by letting you know the book is more than a decade old so the numbers he gives could be outdated — but I’ll follow that up with my thoughts afterwards. In Bob’s book he found the following:

Regardless of your desire to run, remember 3 keys:

1. Seventy-five percent of all field goals come in half-court situations

2. The better your opponent, the lesser number of transition opportunities.

3. Transition baskets decrease on the road.

I think those numbers hold close today. I also strongly believe that those numbers hold true in post-season basketball. Players may be a little more hesitent to run — at least early in a play-off game — not wanting to make mistakes. As you advance in the playoffs, you will obviously play better teams and part of them being better will most always include good transition defense. Even coaches tend to get a little more conservative in the post-season.

As you go through the season, and you are scouting or just watching a game on television, pay attention to some of these trends. After reading Bob’s book, I’ve found that in the majority of most “big games” (games played by two excellent teams), scoring is almost always down. Of course part of this is because of good defensive play…but that again goes to the need to execute in the half-court against good defensive teams.

If you want to be consistently effective in offense…if you want to advance in post-season play…work daily to become a good half-court offensive team.

Today we are going to talk about components of good half-court offense and hopefully give you some things to consider when your are putting together your offensive system of play. The components, or characteristics of good half-court offense are certainly debatable based on your philosophy but ever successful half-court offense will have their own particular elements in which they will base their play around.

I have always believe in the importance of getting to the free throw line. Again, this is my philosophy and that does not make it right or wrong. If getting to the free throw line is part of what you want your offense to be, than that will guide you to answer a few other questions along the way. Earlier this year I blogged about getting to the free throw line — it’s importance and considerations for getting there. You can read that post at:

http://goo.gl/DBB7T

Components of Good Half Court Offense

1. Spacing
Chuck Daly said it best, “Spacing of offense and offense is spacing.” Regardless of whether you run motion, continuity, patterns or quick hitters you should include elements of spacing. Obviously in regard to quick hitters you may not have good spacing in the beginning but it should be part of the flow of your offense. So much good stuff comes about because of spacing including the ability to feed the post, drive to the basket, and open up penetrating cuts. It helps neutralize the help of the defense as well as spread the defense to put more pressure on them.

2. Initial Alignment
Regardless of what you are doing offensively, how you initially begin in your set should be of importance. The placement of the players can first distort the defense as well as help you maximize your entry options. Just because you run Triple Post doesn’t mean if you have to start in the basic set that most teams do. Take a look at your personal and take advantage of your own team with the alignment.

3. Entry Options
All offenses need the ability to have the ball entered. Obviously on of the more common entry passes is the guard-to-wing. Give thought to how you are going to enter the ball to get your offense started — no matter why type of offense you run. And of course, you should have Entry Option #1, Entry Option #2 and Entry Option #3. Regardless of how important your initial entry option is, you must be prepared for it to not being open. I once read where pilots have to file a flight plan and that than they are to create a back up plan. Do the same with your entries.

4. Counters
This is especially important if you are running patterned or continuity offenses. As someone who enjoys the defensive side of the game, I take great pride in “disrupting” an opponent’s offense. Teams that run patterns and continuity all have a specific pass and particular receiver to keep the offense going. From the defensive standpoint, we would work hard to take the particular pass or reciever away fromt he offense. If the team has a counter for when that is denied, than they can continue to attack offensively. It is always easy to spot a team that may not rely on counters. You can see their need to hit the high post player at the top of the key to reverse the ball and when it is denied, she will step a step higher…and then a step higher — working hard to get open just to keep the offensive alive.

5. Flow
If you are running a patterned or quick hitting offense, what are you going to “flow” into when it is over? If you have a shot clock to work with, you must be very effective at flowing into something to be successful in your half-court offense. Certainly some teams can and do pull the back out and yell “set it up” or call another play. If I could again refer back to my defensive philosophy, the offense setting up means our defense gets to reset as well. We tell our defense that anytime the offense pulls the ball back and yells “set-up” that we should take that as a sign that we have succeeded defensively. If you are going to flow into motion or a continuity, make sure you work on it in practice. And if you are going to pull it back out and call another play, you should work on that as well.

6. Paint Presence
This is certainly open to debate but I strongly believe that successful half-court teams are great at getting paint touches. Now please understand that this doesn’t necessarily have to be all low post feeds. But good offense knows how to score inside — even if they are primarily a 3-point shooting team. Maybe you don’t have a big team or an effective scorer at your post position. Ever tried posting up a guard? It is a very difficult thing for a defense to handle. Paint touches can also come from dribble penetration or flashes into the post. Very few things put more pressure on a defense than a team that can get the ball to the paint. I listened to Mike Krzyzewski a few back at a clinic talk about how Duke has worked hard to incorporate a 3-point shooter attack — and if you’ve watched them play you can certainly you can see the effect of the 3-point shot. Last year Duke was 34th in the nation with over 20 3-pointers a game. Yet they also managed to average 22 free throw attempts a game. It because they like to utilize dribble penetration or post feeds to set up their 3’s. At LSU, we refered to these as “Paint Touch 3’s” — you get the 3 (usually a little more open do to defensive collapse to the paint) while also pressuring the defense with the paint touch.

7. Shot Selection
This is again open to interpretation and philosophy but what I do think is important that you have it definded for your players individually and for your team as a unit. The whole goal of good offense is simply stated: get a good shot each time down the court. It is up to you to define what constitutes a good shot for your team. Do not leave it open to the imagination of your players. Be specific and make sure you are constantly reviewing with your team the type of shot you are expecting.

8. Valuing the Ball
All good offense is also about possession. Good offensive teams take care of the ball. A big part of this will be your ability to emphasize that to your team on a daily basis through practice, skill development and video. But you can also aid it by the structure of your offense. While at LSU, dribble usage was a big part of our offensive philsophy and here is how we viewed it: http://bit.ly/nTkmn4. Again, this does not have to be your set of principles, but make sure you team understands what you expect. The same holds true in passing. By having some design thoughts on when, where, how and who to pass it, you can help your offense to better maintain possession of the basketball.

9. Floor Balance
This is a simple concept that some coaches don’t give a great deal of thought to — but it can great effect your team. There are two major thoughts in having good floor balance. The first if making sure that you have good board coverage. This obviously can be enhanced by having a set philosophy on shot selection — it is easier to rebound when you have a good idea of who is going to shoot and when and where they will shoot it. But having good floor balance can put your best offensive rebounders at the best spots on the floor to attack the glass. The other component of floor balance is defensive. Good floor balance certainly benefits your transition defense.

10. Ball Reversal
This is another one that could be question by a few coaches with various philosophies but I think a good half-court offense must be able to effectively reverse the basketball. The better the defense, the more difficult it will be to score on a first-side entry pass. Good defensive teams simply won’t allow it. So you have to work on options to reverse the basketball and how you will attack from that — especially with the thought that some defenses will work hard to prevent the ball reversal action.

In his book “Building A Championship Offense,” Bob Ligouri studied offense in great detail and came to this conclusion: “The most effective 1 on 1 situations came as a result of an off-the-ball screen and cut. One on one moves were much more efficient after 3 to 4 passes and 1 to 2 court reversals.”

I very much believe this to be true. In fact, one of my offensive mantras is that “everything is more effective off ball reversal.” I think you could take any offensive action and then work it into ball reversal and it will be more difficult for the defense because they must handle that action after a closeout. It will also often give better opportunities because of the ballside action being slow to get to help or not getting to help at all.

11. Patience
This could coincide with Ball Reversal and again philosophically some coaches might not agree with it making the list of elements necessary for a good half court offense. But again, we need to look at our half-court offense being effective against the best that we will play against and good defensive teams will make sure you don’t score early in a possession. The art with being effective while being patient is maintaining aggressiveness. Patient is not complacent. Patient is now slow. We talk to our teams along the lines of being “aggressively patient.”

I don’t think a coach has to demand that his offense is always patient but she/he needs to coach them so that they understand what patience means to her/his philosophy and be able to execute that when necessary.

Roy Williams thinks patience in offense is important because the longer you aggressively run your offense the more likely the defense will have a breakdown. In fact, good offensive patience could be defined as running your offense aggressively until you can take advantage of a defense breakdown.

Do you have a way to communicate patience? At LSU, we would hold up five fingers to indicate that we must have at least five passes before shooting a jump shot. We would also hold up a fist to indicate that the ball must touch the paint once before a jump shot. To maintain aggressiveness, we would always let our team that they could take a lay-up at any time. Regardless of what we called, if we have a drive to the rim or a cutter to the rim, the restriction is off.

This post was written by Texas A & M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey and posted on his blog Hoop Thoughts. He shares his thoughts on all topics related to coaching and updates the blog frequently. It is definitely worth your while to check it out.

What’s Your Paint Game

Bob Starkey, Texas A & M

For the large majority of us, we are well into the beginning of the off-season. A major part of the off-season for the best of coaches is a thorough review of their system of play. As I view the NBA plays-offs, my question to us is this: WHAT’S YOUR PAINT GAME?

I’m a strong believer that championships are won in the paint. This speaks to both offensive and defensive philosophies.

In 2011, the Miami Heat lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs dominated the paint and the Heat settled for jump shots far too many times. In that off-season, LeBron James called up Hakeem Olaguwon and asked him if he would work with him that summer on his paint game. You have to give great credit to LJ for first recognizing what he need to work on to improve his game and then for not hesitating to ask for help — those are the two marks of a great player.

Too many coaches think that a “Paint Game” means isolating a big post on the block and working the ball inside. And if you have a big that certainly is a good thing to do. But just because you don’t have a big doesn’t mean you don’t have a paint game. Here are some ways to get the ball to the paint:

1. Low Post Play: develop your post players — regardless of size — to post, seal, move without the ball and to finish.

2. Transition Offense: beat the defense to the paint before they get there.

3. Dribble Penetration: being able to put the ball on the floor and drive it to the paint has become increasingly popular with so many teams utilizing the Dribble Drive Offense.

4. Flash Game: flash players into the paint for a touch…this can be post players or perimeter players.

5. Post Up Guards: you may not have a big but if your posts can step away and shoot you can post up your guards inside.

6. Offensive Rebounding: working and emphasizing offensive rebounding above and beyond what other teams might do is another way to create a paint game.

We are not suggesting that you abandon your offensive system but having a paint game allows you a chance to score and draw fouls on the opposition when the mid-range or 3-point shooting has gone cold. Some people point to the fact that Duke and Mike Kryzewski has become great proponents of the 3-point shot. Watch how many of them come off of a paint touch — either dribble penetration or post feed to a fan pass. The “Paint Touch 3” is a great way of setting up a good three point shooter while still pressuring the defense to play interior defense.

Part of having a solid paint game on offense is understanding defenses and how they are played today. We all know the Chuck Daly mantra of “Spacing if offense and offense is spacing.” Well, the same can be true of defense. While offense is looking to spread the defense, defenses are now looking to shrink the floor — getting and sitting in gaps.

Even the best low post players have a difficult time of getting a good look off of the same side entry pass in offensive play. Two keys that will be beneficial include:

1. Reversing the basketball. While at LSU, with Sylvia Fowles dominating the inside, we would tell her to start opposite the ball in our motion offense and reverse the ball to her side forcing the defense to go from help to ball and ball to help.

2. Occupy the helpside. Movement away from where you want to enter the paint with the ball is critical. Making defenders guard two things at once will help you to get the ball to the paint more efficiently. Another one of our basic concepts is for players to “cut to create help.” If we are cutting hard and correctly, we have a chance to draw a helpside defender which creates more space for drives or post feeds.