Basketball: Fast Five Plus, Numbers that Matter

Michael Lewis' Moneyball altered baseball landscapes forever as did Dean Oliver's Basketball on Paper, which predated Moneyball. 

Some numbers need calculation. Others stand alone without manipulation. One calculation and four "combinations" elevate our chance of success. 

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1. EFG %  As Einstein derived  E = mc , so basketball calculus bestows Effective Field Goal percentage: 

Vary the two and three point percentage to see the combined impact. Here's a link to an EFG% calculator. 

Golden State is thirtieth. 

2. 10-80-10  In Above the Line, Urban Meyer explains the ability rank according to percent, the top ten, the middle eighty, and the bottom ten. He required top ten percenters to bring a middling player with them to workouts, seeking to elevate more of the middle class into elite status. 

3. 90-10. Zak Boisvert changed his thinking on the proportion of information and emotion he brings to coaching. He says that jumping up and down like a madman isn't making his team better. The details we share to create small edges define us. 

4. 80-20 (Pareto Principle). The Pareto Principle informs us to spend the bulk of time and effort on the most important solutions. Wikipedia shares, "It has been inferred the Pareto principle applies to athletic training, where roughly 20% of the exercises and habits have 80% of the impact and the trainee should not focus so much on a varied training." We know that high intensity interval training (Tabata Method) produces similar gains in aerobic fitness to much higher volume of cardio. 

5. 3-7-2. Every defensive possession matters. Three-seven-two means getting three consecutive stops, seven times per half in each half. As Darren Hardy reminds us in The Compound Effect, "winners are trackers." 

Brad Stevens observation above. 

6. 95. Billy Donovan reminds players about the ninety-five percent of the game that you play without the ball. 


Lagniappe: We form first impressions quickly and sometimes haphazardly. 

Lagniappe 2: Young players struggle with a myriad of concepts. Restate them in a variety of ways. 

- Defense needs five guys defending at all times. "The ball scores." Just because your guy didn't score doesn't mean you played team defense. 

- "Load to the ball." Get the offense outnumbered. 

- "Defend one and one-half players." 1.5 means embracing help and recover. 

Make the offense execute the "hard things" of paint touches and ball reversal. 

Basketball: JEOPARDY, "Famous Coaches Quotes"

My previous JEOPARDY exposition brought a tremendous response (just kidding). So let's give it another go. Get those competitive juices going. Some of our readers have played for these coaches! 

They aren't the greatest, the most famous, or the most important quotes ever from basketball coaches. But they often speak volumes about the game and the coach. And most of these coaches are household names (well, in our houses, anyway). 

Click here to play COACHING QUOTES JEOPARDY? Press "start" to play and remember, your answer must be in the form of a question. 

What's a good score? I doubt Ken Jennings could get half of these. 

Lagniappe: "Used" dribble, full denial drill. 

Friday 1-3-1... One Drill, Three Ideas, One Set Play (Episode 6) Including Ball Screen Defense

The line we heard most as high school players was, "the ball is gold." Restated, it's take care of the ball, value the ball, "don't waste this possession." Proper concepts never go out of style. 

Turnover differential is one of Dean Oliver's modified "Four Factors" along with field goal percentage, rebounding differential, and free throw attempts. 

Earlier this week, Zak Boisvert emphasized the distinction between decision-related turnovers and skill-related turnovers. Great players thrive in space. Mediocre players get exposed even more in traffic. "Don't play in the traffic." 

Drill. Pitino "Quarters" or "168" a demanding shooting, conditioning drill. 

This drill has 7 radians with shots from three levels, valued at 3, 2, and 1 points. Each quarter has a maximum of 42 points. Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier was a "Quarters" warrior. 

Concepts. Quin Snyder says that inability to defend the pick-and-roll asks for a coaching change. I'm not going to discuss side pick-and-roll defense here. Preach simplicity at the lower levels. Be good at a few coverages instead of mediocre at many. 

1. Get everyone on the same page. A team doesn't need to know half-a-dozen or more defensive coverages but needs an understanding of several to become proficient. They need communication...the coverage...and the protection. 

2. The first "types" of high pick-and-roll coverage are what Mike Krzyzewski calls "the fake trap" (hedge, show) and the trap. Trap when you want to force the ball out of the ball handler or exploit a weak ball handler. I think "fake trap" describes well the base coverage to prevent ballhandler penetration. 




Coach Huber explains, demonstrates, and shows the protection as well. 

If we have the size and athleticism, switching ball screens is an alternative. That's never been a luxury for us. 

3. With young players, few are accomplished pick-and-roll players and fewer are capable of defeating "under" or "through" coverages (where the guard goes under the ball screen or "between" the screener and the screener defender). 

"Under" and "through" coverages provide opportunities for the ballhandler to get open perimeter shots but take away the drive. 

We had an exceptional post player with pick-and-roll skills the past few seasons. Teams generally switched out of "man" to take the PnR away. 

Set Play. "Switching everything" or have the dynamic post player?  

Down screen into swing and seal can take advantage of mismatches or post players who can create space by sealing. 

Lagniappe: Slide (below) from Peter Lonergan in Coaches Clinic.

In practice, we set the rules...dribbles, space, advantage-disadvantage, time and score...

Coaching Reboot: Applying Six Disciplines of Thomas Keller

Zak Boisvert recently emphasized specialization and referenced Master Chef Thomas Keller. Keller operates "The French Laundry," a Michelin 3-Star restaurant. He masters "precision cooking" with exact quantities, tools of refinement, and cook times. He's also a sports fan. For example, if he calls for a new "baseball," he's asking for a clean towel. 

He learned the discipline starting as a dishwasher in his mother's restaurant. His six principles work well for business and coaching. 

Organization. Keller learned interdependence in a restaurant, as the bar and service depend on availability of glassware, dishes and silverware. 

Coaching organization includes multiple facets:
- Building a system that works through people, strategy, and operations
- Practice planning 
- Use of technology (video, Internet, analytics)

 Doing the "grunt work" counts at every level. 

Efficiency. Keller knew that he needed a schedule to get the work done on time and done right. Dirty glasses and silverware mean unhappy guests or no service at all.

Efficiency demands time and resource management. 
- High tempo operations are a must. Time never gets recaptured. No lines, laps, lectures
- Maximize use of limited resources combining offense, defense, conditioning. 
- Define a balance among individual skill building, part (small-sided games), and whole

Critical Feedback. Keller wants to know not about the 84 happy guests that night, but what went wrong for the one unhappy guest. 

Promote a "performance-focused, feedback-rich" environment for competitive advantage. 
- Excellent players want to be coached. They thrive on Kaizen, continuous improvement. 
- "Coaching is not criticism." 
- Consider "sandwiching" corrections within praise. "You're working hard AND you can help better guarding "one and a half." Your toughness will pull you through." 

Repetition. Making a memorable boiled egg or Hollandaise requires repetition. The chef's toque with a hundred folds represents skill at cooking eggs a hundred ways. 

Repetition means not 500 shots but a perfect shot 500 times. 
- "Repetitions make reputations."
- Coach Wooden preached EDIR5...explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition times 5
- Repetition requires the will to to UNREQUIRED WORK. 

Continuing Medical Education requires a hundred hours over a two-year cycle. I use the New England Journal of Medicine Knowledge Plus program. This is where I am over the past nine months. It combines repetition and ritual (habits). 

Rituals. Keller starts each day with a pair of hard-boiled eggs, cooked precisely four minutes and finished with a dollop of olive oil and salt. 

Define winning habits. "We make our habits and our habits make us." 
- Win the morning with your ritual. Publishing this blog is one of mine, as is MasterClass, and mindfulness (Headspace). 
- Zak Boisvert suggests we devote regular time to film study. 
- In Atomic Habits James Clear lays out a plan to harden good habits and disqualify bad ones. He lays out his workout gear in advance and triggers it by closing his computer at a specific time. 

Teamwork. Keller's restaurants thrive with sous-chefs, cooks, servers, and environmental service. 

While the magic in the work, greatness follows teamwork. 
- Coach Wooden said, "Happiness begins where selfishness ends."
- The best players are the best by making their teammates better. 
- We become the teammate we choose to be. We make the magic happen. 

Lagniappe: recently I got the best "dough rise" (proofing) making cinnamon rolls. What was different? "It's alive." Yeast is alive. This time I used the "tool of refinement" of a candy thermometer, adding the yeast to the water and warm milk only when it had cooled to 110 degrees. The dough tripled in size over ninety minutes. 

The culture we foster, words we use, and principles we share are our tools of refinement along with conditioning, drills, and time. 

Lagniappe 2: 

Basketball: In a Brave New World, Inspire, Imagine, and Advance

"Campaigning is about promising; governing is about achievement." - The West Wing

Be enthusiastic about our culture, the why and how we do it every day. Sustained achievement follows disciplined process. 

Lecturers inform but teachers inspire. The best lecture I attended was at Boston City Hospital, as a medical student, about drug abuse. Visiting professor Dr. Faith Fitzgerald (1980) recounted her many experiences in San Francisco caring for patients, including details about the tattoos common in addicts. She explained how she often saw "cross" tattoos on the wrist, "spider web" tattoos in the antecubital fossa (inside the elbow) and track marks and "skin pops" left by needles (below). 

Aspire to make every presentation, every practice a MasterClass. What's sticky that gives players an edge? I listened again to Sam Jackson's presentation on auditioning. "The most important objective is to make a lasting impression so that the casting director wants to follow your character out of the room. Remember that you’re an actor and this is a “look-at-me” business, so make them look at you—keeping in mind, of course, the given circumstances of the scene and character. Be your best self." This is true trying out for a team, a job introduction, or a school interview. Be memorable. 

Define yourself.

Scott Frost defines Coaching

➖Make a connection
➖Know what you’re talking about
➖Communicate clearly to your team

📽 Youtube via afjacque pic.twitter.com/sby3zLy9ob

— CoachTube.com (@thecoachtube) May 26, 2020

Scott Frost imprints three elements of coaching - connection, competence, and communication. 

Get players reading. Coach George Raveling is a prolific reader. Kevin Eastman reads two hours a day. "The difference between who we are today and whom we become in five years are the people we meet and the books we read." 

Some of my favorites...

1) Reread excellent books and abandon a bad read. 
2) Use the author's passion and prose to better our own. 
3) Matt Haig says every book is about "someone searching for something."

Get everyone thinking. Warren Buffett's partner, Charlie Munger, is one of the great thinkers of our time. He shares:

"To get what you want, deserve what you want. Trust, success, and admiration are earned."

Learn to love and admire the right people, alive or dead.
Acquiring wisdom is a moral duty as well as a practical one. 
Learn to fluency the big multidisciplinary ideas of the world and use them regularly.
Learn to think through problems backwards as well as forward. 
Be reliable. Unreliability can cancel out the other virtues.
Get rid of self-serving bias, envy, resentment, and self-pity. 
Work with and under people you admire, and avoid the inverse when at all possible.
Learn to maintain your objectivity, especially when it’s hardest.
Use setbacks in life as an opportunity to become a bigger and better person. Don’t wallow.
In your own life what you want is a seamless web of deserved trust.

Grow wise by listening to people wiser than we. 

Summary:

Lecturers inform but teachers inspire.
Make every presentation a MasterClass.
Define yourself through connection, competence, and communication.
Get people reading.
Get people thinking. 

Lagniappe: The Checklist Manifesto is not Atul Gawande's most well-known book (Being Mortal is), but offers a process used in construction, aviation, investing, restaurants, medicine, and more. 

What might belong on NBA checklists for resumption? 

This forms a monumental challenge for everyone involved. It can work if all commit to making it work because of the money at stake. "The money nerve" is the most sensitive in the body. Touch it and everybody jumps. 

If I were an NBA mogul, I'd pledge to maintain the same conditions as those demanded of players, coaches, and staff during the restart through conclusion of the season. Nassim Taleb would call that Skin in the Game. 



Distractions mean defeat during games but diversion during downtime. 

Lagniappe 2: Kaizen (Small Steps) versus Innovation (from One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer, Ph.D.

"Kaizen and innovation are the two major strategies people use to create change. Where innovation demands shocking and radical reform, all kaizen asks is that you take small, comfortable step toward improvement." 

Lagniappe 3: If you could lunch with anyone, living or dead, whom would you choose? What benefit, knowledge, or wisdom would you hope to gain? 

Basketball Clinic Notes: Zak Boisvert (Phenomenal)

Zak Boisvert (PickandPop.net) is a great sharer. Here are notes taken from his Coaching Clinics presentation (and he's wearing his Red Sox cap). No matter how well we coach, find better ideas. Edit, edit, edit. Zak's presentation is magnificent and humbling. 

He starts by reminding us to inspire our players! That reminds me of the "Ration" sisters...Aspi, Inspi, Prepa, and Perspi...Preparation and Perspiration are the big sisters and Aspiration and Inspiration are the fun sisters. 

Build a system of study. 

He advises studying film of practice (even if you are using an iPad on a stand at one end)...film is the "truth machine." 

Specialize. Thomas Keller's Michelin 3-star restaurant with a one-page menu is an American Standard. I've watched three Keller MasterClass series...and Keller is a huge sports fan. 

Add value over emotion. Jumping up and down as a madman adds little. 

Don't overfocus on tactics over skills. Skill wins.

Discusses PnR passing WHIP PASS (I'd call it "against the grain" passing). He believes that "every ball screen you're trying to hit the roll man." The roll man is your "Cheat Sheet"...if the help stops your roller, then that defender's guy will be open. 

His book collage... I love "Gridiron Genius."

"Culture isn't what you put on the wall, it's what you do every day."

West Point is an "Incubator of Excellence." 

Machiavelli - End of practice. 8 guys, 4 on 4, game to 11 by 2's and 3's. Top four are done. Remaining four go 2 on 2 to 7. Winners done. Then it's one on one NOT to be the loser of the day. Winning has value. 

2 Min FTs. Everyone shoots one-and-one around the baskets. Miss two FTs in a row, clock is reset to 2:00. If any group misses consecutive one-and-one...reset. 

Mikans. Build the weak hand. First make ten, then make eight without hitting the rim 

ODO. (Later in presentation)

Siege. Continuous 2 on 1. Couldn't explain without film.

Butt Ball. Both offense and defense face the rim. Offense has ball pressed into the defenders back. As ball is released, go one-on-one. Finishing drill. Army was one of the top finishing teams in the country. 

Reminds me of "Get 7s" - evaluate every shot. Made a big jump by improving shot quality. Better shot quality is always Ahab's White Whale for me...hard to hunt down. 

"Be process driven." 

"There's a big difference between playing well offensively and shooting well."

"How healthy were our possessions (offensive and defensive)?"

Can't have worthless possessions...

"Live ball turnovers bleed into your defense."

Skill versus decision-based turnovers...

Decision-based issues like illegal screens, driving into traffic are different than skill-based but both need mitigation...this also teaches me, how impactful (points/possession allowed) were our extended defense (press), man-to-man, zone, combinations? 

We finish each practice with ODO with special situations (BOB, SLOB, FTs, half-court set, etc.)

"Glory of 5-on-5" - play more (I can't do justice to the presentation). 

Get 3 stops per inning. How many points can you get before 9 outs (stops). After 2 stops, the offense goes to a SLOB or BOB. Competitive. 

Score over ten possessions for each team. "Automates" analytics. Even if you win, you need at least 1.1 points/possession (11 points, 10 possessions). At Army they run. 

Shot quality scoring plus actual scoring. 

Reinforces offensive efficiency. Makes teams play purposefully, urgently. 

4-on-4 with (e.g.) DHO start with assigned defensive coverage from next opponent...

3 teams...offense, defense, waiting (if you don't score, offense goes off)

I consider this a "clip and save" piece because of the quality of Zak's presentation. Remember, "the coach is the keeper of the story." 

Summary:

- Inspire.
- Study film. 
- Read better books.
- To paraphrase Pop, "technique beats tactics."
- Specialize...be great at what you do.
- Process, process, process.
- Constantly find better shots.
- All turnovers are not the same (decision v skill)
- Finish better with finishing drills (Mikans, Butt ball)
- There are a lot of "greatest drills ever" (e.g. ODO)
- Machiavelli (Loser of the Day...ouch)
- Points/possession drill. 
- Shot spectrum game (analogous to Dean Smith's "Shot quality scoring" scrimmages

Basketball: Build a Campaign

"You gotta make a little sacrifice..." Excellent teams succeed through shared sacrifice. 
Exceptional programs build upon ideas and momentum. Consider the advertising world of one-offs versus campaigns.




There aren't many "campaigns" around today, Geico and the Dean Winters "Mayhem" Allstate ads are a couple. 

I imagine campaigns built around protective equipment. Dating? New sports uniforms?  Progressive is starting a campaign around "Zoom" meetings. 

How do we implement a system without offseason team activities? Communication to build trust and loyalty becomes elusive without offseason workouts. 

1. Bodyweight exercises 

2. Body control 



3. Aerobic conditioning (split two sets of five minutes, pick your favorites)



4. "Footwork, balance, maneuvering speed." Find a dance video for 4 minutes. 


5. Now you're ready for the ball. 



Become a finisher. 

Play JEOPARDY! 

Middle School Hoop Jeopardy Jeopardy Template https://t.co/OZq6GffOC9

— Ron Sen, MD (@rsen01) May 25, 2020

With ever-limited practice time, fashioning a mindset and culture and installing basic defenses, offense (transition, sets, zone, special situations) becomes a formidable task. 

Being a worthy opponent, skill development, and a framework for players to take forward into high school competition are more important than winning 8th grade games. 

Can we build our ad campaign on a single sheet of paper or a mood board? 

From the top left: 

1. Simplify. We get good shots. We allow one bad shot. 2. We get good shots. We allow one bad shot. We play hard. 
3. "The game honors toughness" both physical and mental. 
4. Be positive. Share, Invest your time don't spend it. 
5. "The ball is gold." Value the ball. 
6. The center of the Pyramid of Success - condition, skill, togetherness. 
7. The game is symmetrical. What you want to do, take away on defense. 
8. Know your role and be a star in your role. 
9. When we do all those things, great memories happen (center). 

Lagniappe: via@Coach_DeMarco

GET BETTER 🏀 PLAY of the WEEK
Celtics 🚨 Horns Backdoor

Love this set and the wrinkles off it the Celtics use to get easy scoring opportunities!#GetBetterEveryDay pic.twitter.com/gezhGB1HVK

— Coach DeMarco, EdD (@Coach_DeMarco) May 24, 2020