Beautiful Basketball for the New Year: Getting Basket Cuts

Be efficient. Efficient plays get high points per possession. Basket cuts for layups meet those criteria. First, a "beautiful basketball" video example of urgent cutting. 

Watch video and save plays in a file. Steal from everywhere. 

 1. Tufts clear backdoor (via former coach Carla Berube, now at Princeton)

2. State tournament, Iverson action (video below)

"Basketball is a game of separation." 

3. Open a gap, set a side PnR, and target a corner cut

4. Stack Jam (Wisconsin) opens a three for the 2 or a hard cut for an interior score against the zone. 

5. Triangle PnR, low back cut

6. Defense reads anticipated DHO and offense basket cuts

The threat of "penetrate and perimeter pass" opens up other opportunities. 

Lagniappe (something extra). More of the same. 

Lagniappe 2. A textbook example of short roll passing. 

Basketball: Battier and Coach K Discuss "Next Play"

Coach K's MasterClass covers a lot of territory. His conversation with Shane Battier reveals a key concept, "Next play." That allows us to stay relevant, regardless of our phase of life. 

My notes from Chapter 10

Battier emphasizes a need for vulnerability. We don't always have the answer. "I don't know" and "what's the right answer?" If we are around people we trust, we can be vulnerable.

When someone says, "I know it all. I have all the answers," immediately distrust their honesty and trustworthiness. We know better. 

When I taught medicine to students and nurses, I explained two of the best answers:

"I don't know." That prompts us to find someone who does ("look for the helpers"), to look it up, and to confront our limitations. It reminded me of the 'five answers' plebes learn at Annapolis:

• "Yes, sir."
• "No, sir."
• "Aye, aye, sir."
• "Right away, sir."
• "I don't know but I'll find out, sir." 

"That's a good idea, we should do that." Situations are not always clear or binary, heads or tails, black or white.

"Next play" reminds us to refocus, energize ourselves and teammates, and shut out distractions. The answers aren't in the stands with family, classmates, or girlfriend.

"Next play" implies the importance of execution, "win this possession." Each play "process impacts results." 

"Next play" tells players, "concentrate on the game not the officials." 

"Next play" demands that we trust teammates and that we be a reliable teammate. 

"Next play" requires that "we do what is right, for the right reasons, right now."

Summary on NEXT PLAY: 

• Be vulnerable among trusted coworkers.
• "I don't know but I'll find out." 
• Refocus, energize self and teammates.
• "Win this possession."
• Focus on the game not the officials. 
• Be a reliable, trusted teammate.
• Live integrity, doing the right thing at all times. 

Lagniappe (something extra). 1-4 high (four across) into elevator screen 3. Apply it as horns. 

This would easily transfer to a SLOB. Put 3 as the inbounder and have 1 come off of a zipper cut to get the ball in. Then, initiate the action and have 3 come around and through the elevator doors. 

Lagniappe 2. Teach players to learn what they don't know and revise.

 

Regular Reminders to Young Players

The road is long. One regular theme is not overestimating young players' "professionalism" and game understanding.

1. "Be a punch first team." Excellence can't be a sometime approach. There's no on-off switch. When teams aren't ready to play, holes get dug that are hard to escape. 

2. Win in space. Spacing isn't optional. The ball is magnetic, attracting all players, including offense. "Magnetism" compromises spacing. "." Traffic is bad for an offense and shrinking space is good defense. 

3. Basketball at a glance 

• What's the player and ball movement? 
• What's the proximity of defenders to the ball? "Color on color..."

4. Attend to details. Coach Wooden didn't say, "Little things make big things happen" for no reason. 

5. Cliches share truth. 

• Space and time matter. On time and on target passing count. 
• Get separation with change of pace and change of direction. 
• Cut urgently. Lazy cutting doesn't get separation. 

6. Turnovers kill time - a player's minutes and a coach's longevity. Live-ball turnovers translate to offensive high points per possession. 

7. "Fouls negate hustle." Discipline determines destiny. 

8. "Four ways to score." If you intend to be a scorer, execute a plan for scoring at all three levels (as appropriate to your size), getting o-boards, free throws, and transition scores. 

9. "Win the 95." 95 percent of the time if you're not the point guard, you don't have the ball. Impact the game without the ball. 

10.Impact winning. Your play speaks for itself. 

Lagniappe (something extra). 

Jay Bilas's Toughness ESPN article. Print and save. 

Lagniappe 2. "Every day is player development day." 

Thoughts on Defending the 5 Out/Spread Offenses

I've always used 'shell drill' in various iterations as team defense training. If I coach again, I'd replace it with 5 - out defense. Here's why.

• Spacing is offense, shrinking space is defense. 
• It teaches 'man' principles such as stopping give-and-go plays, back cuts, and defending both the ball and 'weak'/help side. 
• It demands ball containment. 
• It requires off-ball defense and defending screens.
• It's competitive. 
• It's important, relevant, and TRUE (to what appears in games). 

Defensive efforts:

1) Jump to the ball, stop give-and-go

2) Off ball - decide switch, go through or go under (don't lock and trail away in my opinion)

3) Defend DHO (deny and go under, see video)

4) Defend backcut 

5) Defend high ball screen

6) Defend slip 

7) Defend direct drive (ball containment)

8) Defend drive and kick 

Are we developing 'stoppers' and rim protectors? The Warriors contained the elite Mavericks offense. How? 

1) Make the star player work harder (extended defense) and use more shot clock.

2) Protect the basket with a rim protector.

3) Make lower percentage shooters get the three-point shots above the break (longer shots).

4) Make direct drives harder with help.

5) Peel switching to diminish offensive 'time and space'.

6) 3-2 zone 

7) Box-and-1 (covered boxes and elbows, help on drives)
8) Change the matchups (if applicable)

Lagniappe. "Movement kills defenses." Screening doesn't have to be complex to work.  

Lagniappe 2. Young players should watch more video and extract lessons. There's initial spacing, advantage creation, and execution. 

First, a still picture. What's next? 

• Will Jaylen Brown (7, top) basket cut? 
• Will D.White (9) come off a stagger (Smart, Tatum) and curl?
• Something else? 

"Great offense is multiple actions." 

Advantage comes off player and ball movement. 

• Draw 2
• Pass to force help and rotation.
• "One more" creates long closeout and open corner 3. 

Orthodoxy for Coaches - Five Examples

"Desperate times require desperate measures."

Remember "technique beats tactics." There won't be many strategies that outperform technique. Some are studied, some not so much. 

1. Hack-a-Shaq 

Intentionally fouling a bad free throw shooter might have additional benefit at lower levels, inhabited by more bad free throw shooters. Also, at team fouls 7-8-9 in high school, it's one-and-one. Of course, we won't have data for our level so it's seat of our pants decisions. Coach Spins analyzed it at the NBA level (below). 

I've never done this at the middle school level, because I think it's a form of unsportsmanlike play for youth ball.  

2. Offense-defense substitution. 

In offense-defense, substitute in better offensive players during offensive possessions and better defenders when on defense. We won't have enough timeouts or play stoppages to do that regularly. It worked ONE TIME for me as an assistant. Down 17 at the half, the coach asked me to take over. I changed defenses between full and half-court and went offense-defense as possible. We tied the game in regulation. 

I didn't think the minutes were well-distributed and got more minutes in overtime for the kids whom I felt I shortchanged. Yes, we lost by two, but we made our point, to compete as worthy opponents. 

3. Fouling up three, late (e.g. within ten seconds to play).

Is this unorthodox? Not really. The point is to make an opponent sink three free throws instead of a "lucky" three. 

4. Stall ball. 

In a preseason tournament without a shot clock, we faced an opponent who played a 2-3 zone for the first 29 minutes. We played 'man' defense for the entire game. With three minutes remaining, up eight, I told the team to hold the ball out and force them to come out of their zone. The other coach went bananas, screaming "play the game." After over a minute, he sent his team out. 

5. "Experimental defense." 

I was coaching the local girls' high school team in a summer 'tournament' at Boston College. We had solid players with high basketball IQs. To start the second half, I explained the three-quarter 2-2-1 press. I gave them simple rules (no middle advancement, force sideline traps, "back if broken") and promised them it would work. They forced turnovers three of the first four possessions and the opponent took a timeout. I told the girls that execution was everything and we returned to 'man' defense. 

Summary:

• Hack-a-Shaq
• Offense-defense substitutions
• Foul up three late
• Stall ball
• Experimental defense

Lagniappe. Close out and other defensive drills.

 

Basketball: Don't Bury The Metaphorical Hatchet

"I think I was happiest as a lawyer as a young associate. I hated doing all the 'grunt work' but there was always the promise of tomorrow." - Milton Bombay, Boston Legal 

Growth demands learning. Is it better to be vulnerable or validated?

   

It depends...on which helps pull another rabbit from another hat. 

Coaches have escalating goals - good practices, improved play, winning games, winning seasons, league titles, championships. What if we knew which tools aid ultimate goals at the expense of lower ones? 

Celebrate bad early losses to preempt painful late ones. Choose one:

• Undefeated regular season, win three playoff games with sectional game one point loss at the buzzer
• Regular season losses dispensing lessons leading to sectional title

Some teams win too many noncompetitive games and lose out on learning to win close games. Sacrifice lesser losses for bigger wins. "I missed the rabbit but bagged the deer." A weak schedule can bite us. 

 

Mean losses justify end wins. 

Don't bury the metaphorical hatchet. Use it to cut dead limbs or sculpt beauty from ugliness.

It's easy to reject pain. Comforting. But we have to exorcise self-destructive behaviors defining defeat. How? 

"No pain, no gain." 

• Lack of knowledge - teach and study 
• Lack of experience - "I didn't know that could happen." 
• Lack of conditioning - condition within practice, with the ball
• Lack of effort - reassign minutes to higher motor players
• Lack of judgment - practice and study video (? study practice video)
• Lack of belief or acceptance - "what happened didn't happen" 

With proper analysis and correction, improved performance should follow although to what degree variable. 

Develop a process. 

- What problem or problems caused us to lose? "NFL Monday"

- Share and discuss those problems.

- Retrain players (easier said than done). 

- Measure the response (e.g. turnovers, bad fouls, bad shots, bad decisions, transition scores allowed, etc.)

Lagniappe. Must see video from Basketball Immersion... why? It helps us offensively with concepts or defensively because most teams use spread offenses in some format or another. 

Maybe the best way to study would be to go to youtubetrimmer.com and break out some of the actions you like (see below). 

Lagniappe 2. Diagram from Auburn "Flex Like" set starting as 1-3-1

 

Basketball: Have Recurrent Themes. Presumed Guilty

Learn from history. Adopt this theme: Never assume players know what to do. To assume is to make 'an ass of you and me."

Who among us has not experienced painful losses because of misunderstandings or miscommunications? 

Share bad losses. As a prep coach leading by a point with a few ticks remaining, Red saw his inbounder throw a behind-the-back pass under their own basket. It was stolen and converted into the winning basket. WHO would throw such a pass in such a situation? 

Great players can make mistakes, too. 

Explicitly explain the how and why. Seventh grade girls leading by one against an undefeated team, five seconds left, SLOB. My thinking:

1. Make scoring hard for the opponent.

2. Do not foul.

3. Don't turn the ball over at midcourt or in the backcourt. 

4. Expect defense to switch everything (good coaching). 

5. Get our best inbounder and receiver. 

6. Make our worst case a held ball (lost possession) 80 feet from the basket with a couple of seconds left. 

The play starts and the defense switches. The opponent gets a held ball with two seconds left in the deep corner. They take a timeout but cannot advance the length of the court and score. We played "not to lose" by making the opponent winning highly unlikely. 

Don't give games away. Leading close and late, it's harder for opponents to beat us than for us to beat ourselves. Don't beat ourselves with bad decisions, bad execution, bad shots, and bad fouls. 

Create situations. "This is what we do here." 

• PRACTICE situational basketball. Regularly. 
• Get and give feedback. 
• Traffic in specifics. 

Vary the score...leading, trailing, tied. 

Vary the time...a few seconds to a minute. 

Vary the situation (with or without the ball, with or without timeouts). 

Vary the location (e.g. BOB, SLOB, frontcourt, backcourt, either baseline.)

We can't prepare for everything with a few hours per week practice. So prepare for a handful. 

Tie score, with the ball, inside ten seconds, BOB or SLOB. 

Leading by 3 without the ball, inside ten seconds. Foul or not. 

Leading by 2, inside 30 seconds with the ball. Offensive delay game.

Trailing by 2, inside 30 seconds w/o the ball. Defensive delay game.

Trailing by 2, inside 5 seconds, shooting one free throw. 

Present players with the situation, presume no timeouts, and ask them what they might choose and why.

Lagniappe (something extra).  Become more professional. From today's Boston Globe (Adam Himmelsbach):

Nesmith’s frustration about his role with the Celtics was often visible. But Nesmith, who has emerged as a starter for the Pacers and is averaging 9 points on 37.9 percent 3-point shooting, said he learned valuable lessons during his Celtics tenure.

“Just the little things, every single day,” he said. “Not so much on the floor. It’s really off the floor, how they prepare and how they approach the game. Somebody like, for example, Al [Horford]. I watched Al come in every single day and do the same routine, no matter how he felt, whether it was an off day or a practice day. Stuff like that are things I was able to take.”

Basketball: Considered, Have We Thought About This...and That? Quiz the Players!

 "I don't have the time to consider all the things I have to consider." - Denny Crane, Boston Legal

Quiz our players. That's a culture of "performance-focused, feedback-rich" (The Heart of Coaching) coaching. Be sure we know everyone is on the same page? 

Here are some questions worth considering:

1. What are our primary pick-and-roll defenses? Whoever names one, ask to explain it. 

2. Who goes to the offensive glass? Two or three?

3. What is your assignment in defensive transition? When you're in the game, will you be going to the boards or getting back in conversion? 

4. What are our defensive transition priorities? 

• Protect the basket.
  
• Stop the ball. 
• Sprint back engaged to neutralize advantage. 

5. Call a timeout in practice. Diagram a play. Hand out pencil/paper and ask players to draw the play. 

6. Show how and where to set screens.

7. Explain options for reading screens.

 

8. Explain some choices for defending off-ball screens (e.g. switch, jam, through, under).

9. Explain why screening is NOT scut work. Screening is opportunity - 'the screener is the second cutter', the screener can pop to open spots to shoot or drive, and the screener can slip.  

10.On a three-on-two break as the ballhandler, what are your priorities? E.g. attack if not well-defended, pull defense away from your best shooter, pass on time and on target when advantage presents. 

Practically, we can ask an astonishingly number of 'choice' questions. 

Lagniappe. "Something old, something new..." Study old and new ideas. 

Although theory changes, practicing an old offense can work. 

Basketball: Make Life Harder for Offenses

What defensive "musts" keep coaches awake at night? Oblige that insomnia. Here are five: 

1. Ball containment

2. Pick-and-roll

3. Long closeouts

4. Transition 

5. Basket cuts

How can we satisfy our need for sleep? 

Containing the ball starts with a stopper mentality. 

• Defense begins with ball pressure and containment. 
• No direct drives. 
• Each coach decides whether to force weak hand. 

Pick-and-roll. 

• Get everyone on the same page. 
• Teach and excel at what you know, e.g. show (fake trap), drop, or trap coverage
• Work the coverage and trust the protection

Long closeouts. 

• Limit long closeouts with better ball pressure to make skip passes and ball reversal harder.
• Get more athletic (offseason training)

Transition. 

• Assign 2 or 3 to the glass
• Beat opponent to half-court, fully engaged
• Stop the ball, protect the basket. 

Limit basket cuts.

• Jump to the ball to stop front cuts.
• Teach your preferred technique to deny back cuts. 

Lagniappe. Improvement of the game goes through individual improvement. 

Notes from Coach K (MasterClass) Plus Extras (Christmas Bonus)

The latest MasterClass shares recently retired Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski on leadership.

Here are notes from his lecture on communication:

"Communication has to be taught...verbally and in other ways."

"Communication...is the lifeblood of the team." 

"Unless you are talking, you do not bring everyone together." 

"Giving instruction while the activity is going on."

"If a player is not talking to a teammate...he is talking to himself... thinking...has to coordinate what he is doing with what we are doing." 

"You let other people in." 

Coach K takes input from staff during the game (as opposed to during timeouts). 

During staff meetings he often says, "what do you think?"

To players, "what do you hear me saying?" 

Use multiple techniques = analogies, stories, humor, self-effacing stuff

"Create an environment that's conducive to communication..."

"You have to be vulnerable...and transparent...not a heavy load all the time."

"What are the rules of your meeting? Are they thinking of what we're talking about?" NO PHONES. 

"Discipline means that you're going to get the most out of a situation you're in." 

"If you find yourself saying the same thing over and over and it's not being done...can you deliver it differently...it's not resonating." 

First practice, Shane Battier addressed the team unprompted. Coach K thought he couldn't do better. Coach asked him to talk before every practice. "You have to teach communication in your workplace...that was one of the reasons we won the whole thing."

Lagniappe. Dribbling drill...compact. Could do in your basement. 

In this sequence of Triangle Ball Handling watch how the players handle the ball compact, have their head on a swivel, and change directions. After the triangle is complete,They finish off their repetition with an explosive inside out. #basketball pic.twitter.com/AFmfmdsboI

— Billy Clapper Basketball (@BillyClapperBCB) December 24, 2022

Lagniappe 2. A different type of horns set that I think Coach K would like because it would remind him of the Duke "Elbow series." 

Merry Christmas

"What's the Right Question?" - A Christmas Story

Author Matt Haig wrote that every story is about "someone searching for something." Each basketball season informs a journey with a panoply of possibilities. Teams with mediocre talent, leadership, and coaching have different destinies than talented, well-coached clubs. The former believe the 'we're good' lie and the latter prove it. 

Fire emerges at the intersection of fuel, heat, and oxygen. Analogically, players are the fuel, competition is heat, and coaching is oxygen.   

And each day coaches consider "what's the right question?" 

1. What's our fuel? 

• "Every day is player development day." The magic comes from blended size, athleticism, and skill. Meatloaf sang it well, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad." 
• Development grows explosiveness, skill, and resilience. 
• Development teaches players to become their own coaches. The players learn to ask, "how am I getting better today?" 
• Great players hunger for coaching. 
• Great players drag others upward with them. 

2. Where's the heat? 

• "Need to succeed." It's hard to admit our inner desires yet realize that 'big things come from little things."  
• Turn up the heat with better habits, Atomic Habits. "When you focus on tiny increments instead, each small success motivates you to achieve other successes."
• Never allow the heat to dissipate. Clear advises about building habits, "don't miss twice." Don't miss two workouts in a row.

3. How do we give dreams oxygen? 

• Positive thinking drives positive lives.
• Positivity makes us smarter (per Black Swan group CEO Chris Voss).
• Find mentors. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." 
• Read. Study. Learn how to learn. 
• Become a copycat. Study greatness. Find stories and lives to power your dreams, like Tolstoy's tale of meeting barbarians and their request. Told via historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. 

“‘But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest gen­eral and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know some­thing about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would con­ceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man.’"

Merry Christmas. 

Lagniappe (something extra). 

"Do the right thing. It's that simple. Do the right thing when the right thing is not popular. Do the right thing when no one else is around. Do the right thing when temptation tells you otherwise. Do the right thing all the time." - Nick Saban, in How Good Do You Want to Be 

Explain It to Me Like I’m Five Years Old (Print and Save Edition)

Set expectations that are simple, measurable, repeatable. 

• Ask players what it takes to win. 
• Go around the room for answers. 
• Write them down. 
• Make these the starting point for a team promise or 'contract'.

Explain it to me like I'm five years old. 

• Do these to win. 
• Doing these makes our identity. 
• "This is who we are." It’s not rocket science.

We do not give games away. 

Play harder (than our opponents). "Win this possession; then win the next one." 

Don’t turn the ball over. We can't score without the ball. "Value the ball" or "take care of the ball." The ball is gold. Counting turnovers and informing our middle school girls reduced giveaways. #Accountability

Don’t take low quality shots. Tell me what that means. "You're 1 for 19 on the season shooting threes." Tell me what that means for the team. "It's not YOUR shot, it's OUR shot." 

"No easy baskets." Don’t allow layups and open 3s. Get stops. Stops make runs. 

Beat the press. Pass and cut and catch under control.  

Share the ball. There is no my turn. "The ball has energy." 

Bother shots without fouling. "Fouls cancel hustle." 

Rebound and talk at both ends of the court. "It's your ball."

Be tough. Never quit. Ask players to share how YOU are going to be tough on the court. "Toughness is a skill."

Summary (Ten Rules)

We do not give games away. 

Play harder (than our opponents)

Don’t turn the ball over

Don’t take low quality shots.  

"No easy baskets."

Beat the press. 

Share the ball. 

Bother shots without fouling. 

Rebound and talk 

Be tough.

Lagniappe (something extra). 

“For $28M, is it worth it to be right?”

This story from Nick Saban >>>

pic.twitter.com/Ant2MD0wvc

— Drew Maddux (@DrewMaddux) December 21, 2022

Mike Lombardi on the Difference Between Good and Bad Coaches and More

Former Patriots' assistant Mike Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius discusses leadership. He pulls no punches. 

Preview:

- Do we have a well-constructed philosophy and structure?

- Can we teach it? 

- Are we effective communicators getting buy-in? 

- Can we objectively analyze our performance? 

Selected notes: 

"There's a fine line between learning and working..."

"Football...similar to chess...requires study of prior games that have been played."

"In football (playing) you see one side of the game...you have to learn both sides." 

"You don't want to be old-fashioned in the League." 

***"Coaching is leadership." Great coaches have at least three of four.

1) Management of attention (Philosophy and Structure)

2) Management of meaning (The Explanation clearly and concisely)

3) Management of trust (Consistency within the organization)

4) Management of self (Self-critical of mistakes and lack of effectiveness)

We could restate at PLAN, TEACH, TRUST, REFLECT and divide the first two items as 'system structure' and the latter two as inter/intra-personal. 

If you don't have a clear system (philosophy) sustaining leadership will be difficulty. 

You can play third base on any team and the positions are the same. Playing offensive line varies from team to team. 

"A philosophy should transcend time...standards, beliefs, and principles must be time-tested."

"There's a difference between CHANGE and MODIFY."

Search for players by what you want and need. "Scouting is about eliminating players." Eliminate ones that don't fit what you do. 

Groupthink means "nobody's thinking." 

"Why would you get away from something that's been successful?" but things change (advent of the computer age)

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." - General Eric Shinseki 

"This is what we're going to do to win this game..."

Don't overinvest on what happened last week...

Questions on Mondays:

1) Why did you win?

2) Why did you lose? (Stop doing those things.) 

Understand how you want to play...and implement...

"What is urgent and what is important?"

Lagniappe (something extra). 

If you’re playing freshman and think you should be playing JV, go out and dominate in the freshman game

If you’re playing JV and think you should be playing varsity, go out and dominate in the JV game

Instead of telling everyone you should be playing up, go prove it.

— Anthony Pugh (@Anthony_Pugh2) December 20, 2022

Lagniappe 2. How is our player and ball movement? 

Coaches, here’s two ways to attack the 2/3!

Bigger Brad Stevens Butler breakdown coming soon, stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/s2drndzVr1

— Better Basketball (@BtrBasketball) December 21, 2022

New Dozen Short Video Lessons

Every game informs lessons. Like the chessboard, unique spacing and multiple players create a panoply of possibilities. Readers seem to enjoy the annotated short clips, so off we go. 

1. Play the two-man game. Run the pick-and-roll and options, give-and-go, and even high post roll down. It's important to space well to limit available help.  

2. Practice makes perfect. Work on footwork and handwork. Blocking a right-handed shooter with the left hand reduces the chance of fouling...and avoid swatting down. 

3. "America's Play." You've all seen it. Screen the ball-side BOB defender for the corner three. 

4. "Pick your poison." Many team want to 'draw 2' and pass for open perimeter shots. A future opponent, St. Mary's is one. In addition to ball containment, defense can consider 'stunting' at the driver and recovering quickly to the shooter. 

5. Rejecting the wing ball screen. The ballhandler 'reads' that her defender is preoccupied with the 'area' screen. We worked to build skill to score on one dribble from the spacing line, which I believe creates better separation. Reminder that "eyes make layups" targeting the square. 

6. "Seeing the game." With the baseline drive, cutters should consider the '45 cut' (diagonal cut) for an easy bounce pass and finish.

 

7. BOB Options Galore. STS (screen-the-screener, postup, cross-screens, baseline overload)

8. NFL Monday morning video reflects on "why did we win or lose?" Scoring is less frequent in the NFL but the principles are the same to detect mistakes and errors. Be great at a few things including transition D off made baskets.  

9. Defensive pressure favors screens and backcuts. The offense recognizes this but can't finish. 

10. Opportunity is fleeting. Maybe a shorter guard feels as though she can't make the pass against the hard front. 

11. Size helps a passer see over the defense to deliver an assist. 

12. I prefer the roller to "open" to the ball to avoid losing sight of the ball. I think the connection was a just a shade off.