Basketball Friday: 1-3-1 Drill, Concepts, Play

With contemporary basketball analytics-driven, what teaching belongs in your arsenal? With younger players, relying on three-point shooting is a fool's errand. 

Find mid-range and basket-attack solutions. 

Drill Attack off the catch. 



Coach Rick Pitino shares drills for attacking off the catch (@ 1:45 seconds)

• Show and go (into mid-range)... "a great shot fake is a shot not taken"
• Jab and drive
• Jab and mid-range 

3 Concepts A little birdie (Twitter) told us...

1. Space and create advantage. @John_Leonzo

Anatomy of a good offensive possession

1. Arrive spaced
2. Create an advantage
3. Use the advantage
4. Transfer the advantage if help comes

Few teams do this as well as the Jazz, as they provided a masterclass in advantage offense last night pic.twitter.com/LQ13zxsyNI

— John Leonzo (@John_Leonzo) August 20, 2020

2. Find edges with switching or isos against poor ball containment. @brianmccormick

Switching defenses give up a small advantage (mismatch) & dare you to use the SA because it believes it can prevent you from creating a big advantage (by forcing help).

Iso-ing works when offense > defense (can’t contain 1v1). Otherwise, lack of player & ball movement helps D.

— Brian McCormick, PhD (@brianmccormick) August 20, 2020

Create advantages against switching by screening. This is one of our favorites, with "corner rip" actions with sequential screens. (15 second clip). We adapt it as a SLOB ("Golden State")




3. Extend your range to improve your team spacing.  @CoachTsimon

So you want to play basketball at the highest levels...

Get in the gym and shoot, then shoot, and shoot and shoot some more. Then, do that a lot every day.

You need to be good in a lot of areas of the game but modern team offense is about shooting and the spacing it creates.

— Todd Simon (@CoachTsimon) August 20, 2020

Bonus defensive clip: "Pulling the chair" (23 seconds)



Offensive players may try "bully ball" in the post, backing the defender down. Defenders release their pressure "pulling the chair" leading to traveling and turnovers. 

Play Celtics ATO 



"Great offense is multiple actions." Wing entry, brush screen into pindown into a 3. 

Lagniappe: NBA Playoff Lessons (average clip length 6 seconds)

"Movement kills defenses."



The pick-and-roll isn't finished but a good rebound and better cut by Anunoby...into a contested dunk. Anunoby saw his defender lose vision. 



A Nets pick-and-roll doubled with Allen on the short roll hitting Luwawu-Cabarrot for a corner 3. 




Another Nets PnR with a perfect pocket pass to the much-improved Jarrett Allen for the finish.