"Basketball is a game of cutting and passing."
Passing makes beautiful basketball. Passing triples happiness, for the passer, the scorer, and the coach. Many great teams, the 1986 Celtics, Showtime Lakers, and Spurs' Dynasty radiated unselfishness through passing.
Everyone becomes the quarterback owning vision, decisions, and execution.
Willing passers and cutters operate with balletic grace and timing.
- Great passing is on time and on target.
- The passer delivers away from the defender mindful of help defenders.
- Great passers have an array of passes.
- There's a long and a short to it. Long - look ahead. Short - "shorten the pass."
- A cutter must know the passer sees her. Cuts in blind spots are worthless.
Passing principles cross time.
- Wayne Gretzky said, "you have to skate to where the puck is going."
- Dean Smith preached "acknowledging" the passer.
- Pete Carril taught, "the quality of the shot relates to the quality of the shot."
- “Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute” – Bill Russell
- "Win the battles of rebounds and assists, win most games." - Sonny Lane
Consider the hitting and pitching analogy. Hitting is timing and pitching disrupts time. Offense is spacing and timing and defense corrupts space and timing.
Teach passers the Michelle Obama principle, "If they go low, we go high." But if are hands are up, never throw through hands.
Passers learn deception...to look off defenders, look-away passes, and tap passes.
Lagniappe: Sport is becoming information-derived business.
Lagniappe 2:
Compilation of plays involving a boomerang action. A boomerang is a pass and pass right back action. The possible advantage of a boomerang is that the defender covering the ball relaxes on the pass. https://t.co/EpB6Yu1b5f
— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) November 10, 2020
UCONN Boomerang. Everything worked better with Breanna Stewart at the 5.
Lagniappe 4: "One More" Catch and Swing is 2020 basketball