Bad Plays May Go Unrecognized

"Necessity is the mother of invention." And mistakes are the father of defeat. 

Spacing. Spacing opens driving and passing lanes, draws defenders away from the basket, and limits double teams. Bad spacing makes offensive life difficult, favoring bad shots, double teams, and turnovers. Generally, NBA spacing is elite...but not always (below). 

Remind players not to clog a driver's lane and "never cut to an occupied post." 

Standing. If "movement kills defenses" then standing elevates them. 

Or more accurately, "sit by me." 

Shot turnovers. Non-ROB shots are not in RANGE, not OPEN, and not BALANCED. Equate poor shots with turnovers. And situationally inappropriate shots can be even worse. Bad shots lower EFG%, points per possession, and winning percentage. 

Good players take bad shots, too. They become better by reducing them. 

Passing /receiving. Passing sums VDE - vision, decision, and execution. Bad passes are obvious but less evident are quality passes inadvertently or intentionally not made. Cut the subtle turnover of the receiver with stone hands or not shortening the pass, not stepping to the pass. 

Rebounding. Two major unseen fails of rebounding are missed blockouts and lack of toughness, showing up as disengaged rebounding and "alligator arms." 

Never rest on defense. Bad transition defense reminds me of "The Family Circus" or "guilty dogs." Who did that? "Ida Know." 

Ball containment. Some defenders are turnstiles. Others play "dead man's defense" six feet under the ball. Play disruptive defense not disturbing defense. 

Lack of help/rotation. "My guy didn't score." The ball scores. Help, rotate, and recover. 

Left, proper loading to the ball (Helpside I) not in a "no help" position (x2). Right, cover 1.5 (yours and half of another player). Impact every possession. Take screenshots during possessions to see who is shrinking the court and who is lost.

Failure to contest shots. Unchallenged shots and fouling enhance your campaign for bench duty. Fouling three-point shots make you as popular as ants at a picnic.

Bad fouls. Bad fouls come in many flavors - fouling bad shots, bad shooters, and my favorite, the "double down," turning a turnover into a turnover and a frustration foul. 

Time bandits. Players, learn about using tempo to shorten or lengthen the game. Use time, our constant companion, as an ally. Don't give opponents extra chances by ignoring the clock and situation. Doug Brotherton's even, odd, zero system for out of bounds plays is genius.  

"One bad play - bad play. Two bad plays - bad player. Three bad plays - bad coaching."

Summary: Reduce the bad plays

• Lost in space?
• Stand by me.
• Shot turnovers
• Passing VDE failure
• Whiffs and "alligator arms"
• "Dead man's defense"
• Helplessness
• "Doubling down" on mistakes

Lagniappe. Challenge ourselves to think better every day. Invest in our process to think better. 

Basketball: Possession Enders - an "Under Thought" Concept

Pete Newell explained, "get more and better shots than our opponents." I say, "get more and better possessions than our opponents." "Finishing" possessions by scoring is how we're "taught." That is necessary but not sufficient. Basketball is possession and possessions. Don't leave "money on the table" with poor possessions. 

As a child, I used a shortcut system to measure baseball productivity... runs plus RBI minus homers. Guerrero, Jr.'s 109 lead Devers' 108 and Ohtani's 31 homers produce 96 runs. 

Winners have more winning possessions. In team sport, individual excellence shares a tension with team achievement. Exceptional players "win possessions." Impact possessions beyond expected amounts. 

Symmetry balances success and failure. A charge taken reverses a charge committed. Made shots offset missed ones.

Possession enders omit valued contributions like assists, hockey assists, offensive rebounds, blocks, and great cuts or screens that facilitate a won possession. But it's a "back of the envelope" system. 

The Milwaukee Bucks lead the postseason in contested shots which we can't easily measure. "Forced shots" or "missed blockouts" are silent killers. They end badly. 

It's easy to measure positives but harder to define possession stoppers. A missed layup (without an offensive rebound) is a negative possession ender as much as a travel, fumble, or errant pass. Failure to help may go unseen. 

An edge of the system records "positive" contributions, offset by the limitation of not recognizing actions that benefit teammates. Another advantages measures both offensive and defensive production. 

"Win this possession." 

Summary: 

• Winning possessions have possession enders. 
• Possession enders occur on both sides of the ball. 
• Possession enders are valuable but limited.
• Symmetry balances offensive and defensive success.
• "Get more and better possessions than opponents."
• "Possession enders" emphasizes winning possessions. 
• Teach players that the key unit of game play is the possession.

Lagniappe. Mason Waters is a young coach with a bright future. He's knowledgeable, insightful, organized, and presents well. Follow him on various platforms. 

Master Coaching: Notes from Belichick and Saban

HBO Sports examined the friendship and methods of Bill Belichick (BB) and Nick Saban. Here are my notes.

Belichick and Saban meet annually for an annual football conversation. HBO recorded the 2019 narrative.

"...when you get to the top of the mountain, you become the mountain because everyone's shooting at you." - Saban

"But there's another thirty teams in the NFL that I never hear from...I'm an AND and BUT guy...whatever comes behind BUT isn't good." - Saban

"The combine...it's a show." - Saban

"It's a piece of the puzzle..." - Belichick 

"With Nick, his father was a perfectionist..."

"...get players to play with discipline, pay attention to detail, play the right way, with effort..." - Saban 

"My dad...he was just fair...he made 'em better and he cared about 'em." - BB

"We won the game...why do we have to do this? Because it wasn't right." - Saban

"The biggest thing I learned in college was how to solve problems and how to think." -BB

"It's not really about what you want but what you're willing to do to get it." - Saban

"This isn't about a computer...we can't tackle." - BB

"They are teachers...passing on their defensive knowledge to their quarterbacks." 

"Nick was the first coach I hired and the best coach I hired." - BB

Their three-word philosophy emerged (with Belichick and Saban) coaching the Browns, "do your job." 

"It's hard to do your job if you don't know what your job is." - Mike Lombardi  Don't assume that people know what to do. 

The Browns went from last to first in the NFL on defense (points allowed) in four years. 

"We had a lot of suffering to get to where we were." - Saban

"Coaches...have to be willing to buy in and do things the way we do here." - Saban

"Be ready to play but don't be surprised if you don't play." - BB

"Who cares how many likes you get from 2000 people you don't know...it's the 53 guys in the locker room that matter." - BB

"If you run the last one faster than you ran the other five, what's holding you back? Your talent is your nemesis." - Saban

"Talent is maximized by effective teaching." - Narrator

"Nobody motivates the tiger...but people we need to motivate them." - Saban

"High achievers don't like mediocre people and mediocre people don't like high achievers." - Saban

"Good players can't overcome bad coaching." - BB

"You never want to let your team down (as a coach)..." - BB

"I don't like to ever walk in a room and feel like we didn't give our guys a chance to be successful." - Saban

"It's amazing to me how people respond better when things go poorly...survival is more human nature than to be special good." - Saban 

"When he's talking to the media, it's another chance to get the message to the players." - Ernie Adams (special assistant)

"Players and staff expect attention to detail in every aspect of the game." - Narrator

"When Nick Saban's team is up by 52 with eight seconds left, mental mistakes are still unacceptable." - Narrator

"I study their schemes because if it's good enough for Nick, it's probably good enough for me." - BB

"Everything's important; it all matters." - BB

Summary

• "You become the mountain." 
• "Learn how to solve problems and think."
• "Do your job."
• "Don't assume people know what to do." 
• "Your talent is your nemesis." 
• "Nobody motivates the tiger." 
• "Expect attention to detail." 
• "Everything's important."

Lagniappe. "Sustainability." Dave Smart discusses the ability to play harder for longer. In "The Coach's Guide to Teaching," Doug Lemov informs attention similarly, the ability to maintain unbroken focus. Better attentiveness during practice can translate to better focus during games. 

Lagniappe 2. There are so many ways to defend the side pick-and-roll. This video shows the trap and x-out to cover the pop. We don't have the acumen at our level to protect this way. 

If this didn't open for you, here's the link

 

 

What Is "Good Basketball" ? A Look Inside the Concepts and Numbers

"Entertain me with good basketball." What's good offensive basketball? 

High offensive efficiency informs good offense. Possessions equals field goals attempted - offensive rebounds + turnovers + (0.4 x free throws attempted). Points per possessions equals total points/total possessions. 

In Dean Smith's 1999 book, Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense, he considered good college offense as above 0.85 points per possession, although he didn't use the same calculus. 

UNC

______ shots for                              _______ points

______ times to foul line for             _______ points

______ loss of ball                           _______ points (zero)

______ total possessions for           _______ points

total points / total possessions = average points per possessions (Smith's formula yielded lower numbers)

Smith's formula (2021 Baylor Championship game) = 

67 shots for 70 points

18 free throws for 16 points

09 turnovers 

94 possessions for 86 points (86/94 = 0.91 points/possession)

Contemporary formula (can vary)

86 points

+67 FGs attempted

-16 Offensive rebounds 

+09 turnovers

+07 (0.4 x 18 FTs)

________________

67 possessions for 86 points = 1.28 points/possession

Baylor shot and rebounded well and took care of the ball to generate high points per possession.  

2021 National champion Baylor and runner-up Gonzaga led in offensive efficiency. 

What favors higher points per possession? Let's return to the formula: 

Possessions equals field goals attempted - offensive rebounds + turnovers + (0.4 x free throws attempted). 

• Get more field goals attempted by reducing turnovers
• Take better shots (increases shooting percentage)
• Shoot better (improve skill, increase percentage of shots by better shooters)
• Pass better - "quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass." 
• Get types of shots favoring higher points per possessions (e.g. cutting versus isolation)

"There is a clear relationship between assists per 100 possessions, and field goal accuracy overall. Generally, higher assist/100 means that the team shoots a higher field goal percentage."

Scoring off cutting is among the most efficient but least utilized. In 2020, "The Miami Heat led the league in frequency of cuts at 9.4 percent during the regular season and scored 1.31 points per possession on them...During the regular season, the league average PPP was 1.28 off cuts compared to the 1.11 in transition, 1.01 off spot-ups and 0.91 in isolation."

Two quotes from the HBO documentary, "Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching" resonate. 

"It's not just about what you want, but what you're willing to do to get it." - Nick Saban

"The reason we lost the game was... "we can't tackle." - Bill Belichick (Be good at what it's vital to be good at.) 

Offensive efficiency isn't random but developed. Mastery of the necessary separates elite teams, players, and coaches from others. 

Lagniappe. We talk about elite players as "possession enders" which can mean either scoring, rebounding, or defense getting steals or forcing turnovers. I look forward to this series of posts. 

NBA spacing. 

Basketball: Culture Wars

"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson 

We all know great culture when we see it...shared energy, shared vision, shared experience. I've seen winning teams with mediocre culture, but they didn't strike me as happy. As a player or as a coach, we're truly blessed with great shared experience. 

Sean McDermott challenged the Buffalo Bills, "That’s what it gets back to in terms of earning the right to win. How we meet, how we talk, how we work out, how we practice when we do practice, how we play – that’s the standard we’re trying to get to every day.”

What is culture? For me, "it's how we do what we do." The key word is we. 

Some associate slogans with culture, but a great slogan doesn't make a great culture. Wooden's UCLA Bruins had a great run but I don't associate a unifying slogan but a unified approach, the Pyramid of Success. The Patriots over two decades earned six championships with the mantra of "do your job." UNC Women's soccer promotes, "Excellence is our only agenda." The 2008 Celtics had "UBUNTU." Every season, every team, every culture is unique. 

A catchy slogan doesn't guarantee anything. 

I coach middle school girls, complex people at a complex age in a complex time. Girls can be collaborative, cliquish, or churlish. Over two decades I'm nowhere near having all the answers. But I'm working the culture wars every day. 

Here are a few suggestions: 

Build better habits for each player and each team. Apply James Clear's quote:

Be positive. "Negative thinking yields negative results." We coach to teach and to help young people become the best version of themselves. 

Greet each player by name at the beginning of practice. Each of us values our individuality and recognition. 

Clarify the shared vision. With middle schoolers, the philosophy was "teamwork, improvement, and accountability." Winning hasn't been the top priority. Winning is a byproduct of as many people as possible doing the right things as often as possible. 

Be punctual. Young players depend on parents to be on time. But we don't. Start and finish practice on time. Respect everyone's time. 

Focus. At Ohio State, Urban Meyer emphasized "crossing the red line." When you cross the red line onto the field, be ready to go. 

Work at efficiency. Economics examines competition for scarce resources; practice time is scarce. Accelerate the tempo into and between activities. We can't have a three minute water break in a ninety minute practice. 

Share terminology. Terminology promotes accuracy and efficiency. For Michelin 3-star chef Thomas Keller, a "baseball" is a clean towel. Keep practice rolling with "spacing" or "movement." Brian McCormick says, "no lines, no laps, no lectures." 

Give and get feedback. Walt Whitman said, "Be curious not judgmental." Ask players what they liked or disliked and why. Find productive activities that they enjoy, too. 

"Scoopus?" Get more data. What I think is going on with the girls isn't necessary what IS going on. We're in a small part of their world. Remember the cliquish and churlish things. 

Create space between 'reaction' and 'response.' 

Reaction is ego, "I taught you better." Think it through before saying what we want to say. Hold fire. 

Summary:

• "Basketball is sharing."
• Be positive. 
• Clarify the shared vision.
• Accelerate the tempo.
• Share terminology.
• Scoopus

Lagniappe. Great players often leave signatures.

Basketball: What's on Your Resume "To Do" List?

Thinking about applying for a basketball coaching job? What boxes should you check at a minimum?

Relationship building. Relationships cross the full spectrum among administration, coaches, coach-player, and community. "It takes a village." Proven technical and tactical knowledge are a given, but the ability to lead demands the will to serve. Players should know your full investment in their personal and professional growth.

How we meet, counsel, support, and correct players matters every day. Use "speaking greatness" (Rod Olson) and different levels of communication (Del Harris's five levels are conversation, instruction, correction, encouragement, and "Go nuts.")  

Stephen M.R. Covey's cartoon of character and competence is telling. "We are a building a program not a statue." 

Stephen M.R. Covey's cartoon of character and competence is telling. "We are a building a program not a statue." 

Skill development. Dave Smart says, "every day is skill development day." Skill development augments recruiting. "The magic is in the work." Relationships alone won't get players to climb the mountain of ending possessions. The ability to rebound, score, and assist without turnovers and get stops separates the extraordinary from the good player. 

How do players warm up? Do they use Jay Wright's "Get 50" or Steph Curry's warmup radians or do they have any plan at all? Are they facile with Tates Locke "Box Drills" and the Paul Pierce wing series? Do they grow their shooting with "Pitino Quarters" or "Championship 37" or 251?

Make five from each spot to warmup. 

Game play (small-sided games, SSG) encompasses theory and practice. Brazil came to power in soccer paralleling futsal play. Futsal, soccer small-sided games in reduced pitch size, resulted in more physiologic (e.g. heart rate), physical action, and technical (skilled touches) demands. 

Researchers studied Australian basketball players and found dramatic differences in the same factors with 2-on-2, half-court play versus 4-on-4 full court play. 

SSGs check more boxes. Each of us decides what SSGs work for us. I've shared Aaron Fernandez's brilliant SSG lecture here. 

I'm partial to his "Sideways" game. 

I also favor 3 vs 3 play (at each end with a coach) inside the split. Start play from different configurations and allow players to improvise. The split serves as "out of bounds" and mimics hard helpside defense. 

Tactics. How do we teach players the 'beautiful symmetry' of the game, the capacity to get quality shots or to force one bad shot? What's our plan to get edges using the "Four Factors" including reducing fouling? Do our players have options for early offense to produce basket attack and transition threes? Do we have alternative defenses when we struggle with ball containment? 

Personal development. Inspiring personal growth is a major challenge for coaches. Mindfulness enhances focus even from the level of elementary-aged children. Atomic Habits (James Clear) separate the most exceptional achievers as shown in Tim Ferriss' Tools of Titans. 

We legitimately ask "what's your routine to win the day" and as Coach Saban says, "are you spending your time or investing it?"

Summary: Looking to showcase yourself? Separate yourself through -

• Relationship building
• Skill development
• Game play with small-sided games
• Tactical knowledge
• Personal development

Lagniappe (something extra). It's a simple game but not easy.

Organizational competence

Threshing

Basketball Friday: Giving Better Feedback Plus Drills and Set Play

Be "performance-focused, feedback-rich" to create sustainable competitive advantage (Thomas Crane, The Heart of Coaching). Excellent players thrive on coaching, including correction. 

Principles. Improve feedback. 

1. Self assess. Coach Wooden said that teaching is the difference between what is taught and what is learned. Write down 'the worst things you've seen in coaching' and share them so it doesn't happen again. Those run the gamut from behavioral (abuse of players) to tactical decision-making. 

2. Stay on task. If we're emphasizing ball movement and the players start to 'get it' and we interrupt play to talk about screening or helpside defense, we're sabotaging ourselves. Focus on focus. 

3. Watch accurately. If we give feedback and the player ignores the advice (e.g. shot selection), did we not see it or not reinforce it? Lemov says, "perceptive challenges are for coaches, too." 

We have the capacity not to see what is in front of us. 

Anticipate what can go right or wrong and how that will look. 

4. Asking questions per se doesn't fix anything. Ask better questions like "what could we do differently to improve our process and chance of success?"

5. Write down observations during practice/games to give accurate feedback (the Belichick pencil behind the ear). We forget mental notes.

• Do your job.
• Be attentive.
• Pay attention to details.
• The team comes first. 

Love him or hate him. Steal his best. 

6. Be specific. "That's awful" isn't coaching. "ROB shots" (range, open, balanced), "get 7s" (quality of shot 7/10 or higher), or "it's not your shot, it's our shot." 

7. Don't take it personally. Players will struggle. Our job is helping them to overcome mistakes. But my coach always told us, "if I stop yelling, it's because I've lost you."

8. Create safe spaces. "Making a mistake here at practice doesn't cost us anything AND let's fix it by doing this." 

9. "Roger Bannister" it. Emphasize what is possible. Nobody had broken the 4 minute mile until Roger Bannister shattered the psychological barrier. Within weeks, another runner ran a sub-four minute mile. 

10. Shared vision. Actions align or don't with shared vision. Poor shot selection or lack of effort in transition defense clearly don't align with excellence. Build consensus on shared vision and identity. Inform players how teamwork, effort, and choices reflect those ideals. 

Drill. 

One on one dribble and closeout. 

Two ball layups. "Basketball is a game of cutting, passing, and finishing." 

Set play. 

1-4 high, DHO elbow PnR 

Lagniappe. Select and master a few core moves. Repeat and repeat. Get phone video to assess progress. Add a defender and repeat. (There's an excess of traveling in the video but the concepts apply.)

Lagniappe 2. Make better decisions by analyzing process and by looking for mistakes. 

How Can We Teach Better? (The Coach's Guide to Teaching)

Remember. Better practice helps information retrieval. Turn theory into practice. That's part of the message from Doug Lemov's The Coach's Guide to Teaching. 

1. 'Working memory' has limited capacity. 

2. Overload degrades performance. 

3. Aim for simplicity and clarity to achieve learning not memorization. 

"Every student is important." 

Lemov says, "You have to prove that you can make them better and that you're vested in making them better." 

Believing that problem solving is generally applicable is a canard. Solving a basketball problem won't teach us to fix cars because most problem solving is domain specific. 

"You can't make the right decision unless you're looking at the right things (perception)." For example, great hitters are reading arm angle and hip motion of the pitcher. They have 0.4 seconds for the pitch to arrive and it requires 0.6 seconds to generate a conscious thought. Unconscious information impacts perception. 

"Expertise is finding the signal amidst the noise." 

Experienced players know to attack the front hand/front foot. Nobody taught us that fifty years ago but middle schoolers get that teaching today. 

For example, at the front of the 2-2-1 trap, our job was to deny the middle, forcing to the side to set up a trap. When the trap goes to the other side, deny the middle. 

Key techniques for information retrieval. 

• Multiple exposures. Tell them; tell them again; tell them you told them.
• Spaced repetition. We learn material better over time versus "cramming" for a test. 
• Self-testing. Ask yourself, "what's the enduring lesson?" 
• Writing it down manually helps. 
• Testing. 

Coach Knight allegedly took a 'timeout' at practice and diagrammed a play. He then handed out paper and pencil and told players to diagram it. How would our players do? Disappointing.

Imagine we teach 'defending' a backscreen. 

Regardless of our methods, some elements are common:

• Communication (Early, loud, often)
• CARE (concentration, anticipation, reaction, execution)
• Awareness
• Practice of specific technique ("this is how we do it.")

Coaches are passionate about domain-specific knowledge. If we teach something 'controversial' many coaches will turn us off. 

Lagniappe. Video for trapping ball screens. Get everyone on the same page about when and how.