Basketball: Problem Solving Applied to Transition Defense

Coaches teach problem solving. Do it better. 

David Cottrell in Tuesday Morning Coaching presents a framework for problem solving. It has broad application. 

1. What is the problem as you see it?
2. What is its impact? 
3. What is our desired "end state?"
4. Why does the problem exist? 
5. What are a range of possible solutions? 

Let's examine a common basketball problem and thresh it through this prism. 

"We are allowing too many points in transition." 

1. Transition opportunities are often high quality with limited "contest." Teams should set a low threshold for acceptable points in transition (e.g. three hoops per game). 

2. Many games are decided by six or fewer points (two possessions). Allowing easy baskets is one way to beat yourself. 

3. The "end state" is to protect the basket, force the extra pass, and allow the team to set its defense by disallowing "early clock" open shots.

4. Poor transition can result from poor effort, poor awareness, misunderstanding of assignments (how many to the glass, who gets back?), and from turnovers setting up transition. Coaching contributions can be lack of emphasis and lack of practice. (see Coach Stevens' notes in Lagniappe)

5. Kevin Eastman says, "do it better (technique), do it harder (effort), change personnel." Change could also mean an emphasis on turnover reduction that trigger the running game. 

Lagniappe: Advantage-Disadvantage Transition Drill (Andrej Lemanis)

Most of us have used this drill or variation (5 v 4) to simulate transition defense. 

Lagniappe 2: Brad Stevens Defensive Notes

Our absolutes:

• Sprinting not running (beat your guy to half court)
• Protect the basket 
• Stop the ball to allow defense to get back

Lagniappe 3: FIBA Transition Clinic (Andrej Lemanis) - "Communication is a skill." 

"Adjust all your rules to your team...anybody has anybody." 

Lagniappe 4: Statistical anomaly and win. 

The Celtics went 40/23/56 (10 missed free throws) and scored four points in the final five minutes but escaped with a win. 

Basketball: Recent Blog Clinical Pearls and Teaching Points

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” -Vince Lombardi

Coaching is connection. We engage other people to elevate their performance on and off the court. When Amos Alonzo Stagg was asked about his team, he said, "I'll let you know in twenty years." 

Here are a few basketball and leadership points from recent posts AND drafts. It takes awhile for ideas to be threshed out. 

1. Kevin Eastman's Why the Best Are the Best shares 25 words informing excellence, including URGENCY. He begins, "The best of the best understand the importance of the now - this possession, this repetition, this drill, this report, this action, this phone call."

2. Quarterback layups (snatch and go). 

Players love this competitive drill. The defender holds the ball, one hand above and below. The offensive player snatches and attacks the rim against the defender. The best players, even sixth grade girls, score on one dribble. It's competitive; it's physical. 

3. Moral Leadership for a Divided Age shares biographies of impactful lives, including William Wilberforce. "Outwork your adversaries" as did the British abolitionist. "The magic is in the work." Human nature compels us to seek comfort and find complacency. "Good is the enemy of great." The exceptional person finds the will to do more, to become more.

4. Etorre Messina shares insights at a CoachingULive seminar. Big picture is whether priorities align with actions (e.g. value spacing yet see scrimmage with bad spacing). Details matter only if big picture works. If you have no gas in your car, fixing the mirrors makes no difference. Defensively...Messina asks, "is the (color) defense arriving close to the arrival of the ball?" When it is, result the offense gets pushed away from the basket. 

5. How do we build our offense? Find offense that create separation for your finishers. Force opponents to defend hard-to-defend actions. 

6. Rebound from ROCK BOTTOM. "It's not how many times you get hit; it's about how many times you get up." The Astros rebuilt from three consecutive last place league finishes to win the World Series in 2017. Lance Armstrong recovered from advanced testicular cancer to win the Tour de France, albeit in a sport fraught with cheating. The 2008 Celtics captured Banner 17 after having their second-worst season.

7. From observations on tryouts, Be That Guy. Your tryout is your signature. There is no such thing as a 50-50 ball. Run every drill as though it's your last chance. Sometimes it is.

8. From Knight Teaching...

Take away what the offense wants. 
- Make the offense uncomfortable.
- Challenge the passing lanes.
- Contest shots with the hand on the ball (not the face)
- Deny second shots. 

9. From Celtics-Raptors observations by Brian Scalabrine. "If you're going to switch, you've gotta to switch up, high, and to the body." Switching means more than exchanging assignments. It requires sustaining pressure. The Celtics didn't do that enough.

10. Quin Snyder says that pick-and-roll defense often decides whether you keep your job. He emphasizes the VALUE of GETTING BACK early as a NO MIDDLE team. "Clarity is the most important thing."

11. Overcome failure. Use a three-step program to overcome failure: 

Begin the day: How can I improve today? Be specific. (What will I read, do, study?)
Close of business: WILT. What I learned today. 
Before bedtime: Appreciation trio (3 things I'm grateful for today) of Shawn Achor. Use a 21-day program of appreciation using three unique items daily.

12. All scoring types of plays are not created equal. 

13. Defensive mistakes.

-Play in a stance. Play low. Low man wins. 
-Get back on defense. Failed transition D equals defending nobody. Be back engaged.
-See the ball. "The ball scores." If you don't see the ball, you cannot help. 
-Communicate. "Silent teams lose." We have to practice this more....lots more. 

-Pressure the ball. "Don't back down." No dead man's defense (six feet under).

14. Consider using a practice template to design workouts. 

Have great ideas, drills, culture builders. Share them to grow the game. 

Shiny Objects - Love and Beauty

"Technique beats tactics." - Gregg Popovich

"Shiny objects" distract us from both the big picture and the fine details in our lives. Staying focused "in the moment" separates excellence from ordinary. 

There's even a "shiny object syndrome" (SOS), a disease of distractions. 

We're all distracted; we have to be. The noise in the bushes on the savannah could kill you. But we need to distinguish the signal from the noise. In Monday Morning Leadership, David Cottrell emphasizes, "the main thing is the main thing." Shiny objects divert our eyes from the main thing. 

Are we focused on our big picture? Coaching sixth grade girls this year, I focus at least 2/3rds of practice time on fundamentals and far less on tactics. My (wishful thinking) model is Larisa Preobrazhenskaya, legendary Russian tennis coach. I tell players "form makes function." Larisa eloquently says, "The secret to coaching is love and beauty. Love and respect for the children -- because each one of them is different -- and beauty of movement. If a forehand or a backhand looks beautiful, then it is likely to be more effective." 



Beauty of movement. Spacing and movement (of players and ball). 
Getting young players to focus presents a challenge. Better attention translates to better students, better thinking, and better players.  

Specifics: 


1. Lion Mind - cultivate the Lion Mind not the Dog Mind. (Mindfulness enhances attention.)
2. Preach "Play in the moment". Be here now. Master this drill. Earn your skill. Win this possession. 
3. The "Time Out" drill. Pause practice for two minutes. Use thirty seconds to diagram a new play. Then hand out index cards and pens and ask every player to reproduce it. I hate the results. To master the game you must master yourself. 

Lagniappe: 

Train Station (BOB)... "There will always be another train."