Post Slides: Player Development

Making Ball Reversals Work for You

Spacing is a critical part of successful offense, and clean ball reversals are important to put pressure on the defense as they transition from help position to ballside defense. Sometimes watching the NCAA Tournament helps me spot trends in play since there is such a heavy concentration of games, and this weekend I started to pay attention to how teams reversed the ball.

There are really only a few ways to effectively and safely reverse the ball, and they are dependent on how you space your offense. One of the surest signs of a team lacking offensive confidence and rhythym is long or weak ball reversals, especially those that travel from wing to wing.

I generally prefer to reverse the ball through a player at the point. If the defense is trying to keep the ball out of lane - and they should be - then I want to pressure the defender to stop that ballhandler at the point from attacking the rim in either direction. The point reversal also allows for safe passing distances when passing to either wing. One of the things I love to have my teams do against the zone is to do fake a ball reversal and pass back to the origin, which is safer and more effective with a pass that goes through the top of the key. Lastly, a disciplined defensive team will be forced to adjust positioning twice during a ball reversal like this, which can wear them down faster and open up opportunities for mistakes. An undisciplined or tired defense may try to adjust to the ball reversal ahead of the pass, which opens up opportunities to drive, hit cutters, or create passing lanes to post players.

All this isn't to say that a offensive formation with two wing players and an open point can't be effective. It just takes an awareness of the defensive help positions and a focus on clean, sharp passes. One of the ways you can force the helpside defense to back off from the ball reversal passing lane is to attack the key off the dribble regularly. In fact, a dribble attack to the middle with a kickout is a very effective ball reversal with multiple scoring options for the pass receiver.

There are few things more frustrating than a backwards pass or a weak reversal getting stolen in stride for a layup. Get your spacing right, force the defense to defend the paint and respect your dribble attack, and ball reversals can help your offense hum.

Tangled: WatchESPN, Cable, and Streaming Technology

A departure from a usual topic here at Smarter Basketball, but after attempting to watch the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl from the WatchESPN iPad app I had a few things to say. If you aren't aware, ESPN had problems with their servers, causing users to be unable to watch the first half of the FSU-Oregon game on New Years Day. Which means anyone without cable television access (traveling, staying with friends or family without cable, or just having problems with the TV) missed a very entertaining first half. Service was restored at halftime, but to say that it was a clean and reliable broadcast would be inaccurate.

I consume a significant amount online content. I use the WatchESPN app when I can for convenience (and because in a one TV household when the kids like to play Disney Infinity and Skylanders it creates some usage issues), read blogs on a variety of topics related to sports and video games, follow and watch the LCS (League of Legends Championship Series), consume almost all my television shows through internet means, and listen to multiple sports, gaming, and coaching podcasts. 

So it bothers me on a night when ESPN could have anticipated a record showing in the WatchESPN app that they would have been prepared. Streaming technology is new compared to television, but it is not new. Riot Games (the creating studio and organization that manages the LCS) has been producing high quality and reliable streams through TwitchTV for more than 3 years. Major League Gaming (MLG) has been running live events simulcast over internet streams for years as well. Last year the viewer numbers were higher for the LCS championship match than the 2014 Rose Bowl. So how can a company as large as ESPN get this wrong?

First, let’s try to figure out the motivation for broadcasting this game on ESPN instead of ABC. Since these platforms offer identical broadcast capabilities (seeing as they are both owned by Disney) it seems that the decision must be business based, rather than for practicality. ABC is available as an over-the-air station, so it does not require a cable subscription. ESPN is behind a cable paywall that frequently includes quite a few channels. It surprises me that companies still try this ploy, ‘Without cable, you can’t watch the big game!!!’ This is bad marketing, and really only serves to tick consumers off.

Ultimately, this attitude leads me to believe that ESPN simply doesn't take internet streaming as seriously as it should. This technology could be a huge asset and selling point for ESPN, but instead there is bad press resulting in the problems associated with the Rose Bowl broadcast. In fact, that criticism is not restricted to the first half blackout. Complaints have continued regarding freezes in the stream, audio & video sync issues, and regional blackouts. 

In 2015 HBO will starting offering subscriptions for HBO GO to consumers without cable television. It is a major win for consumers who no longer want to pay for 15 channels when they use 5. In fact, I suspect that HBO was the biggest domino consumers could have wished for. The cable company had a staggering number of non-paying users, and I am willing to bet ESPN is in the same boat. They need to take a serious look at going the way of HBO and offering stand alone subscriptions.

ESPN has a service that could be a powerhouse in the broadcast world. They need to make sure their infrastructure is sound and start offering a reliable internet broadcast available through stand alone subscription. The first domino has fallen, it seems only a matter of time before the rest follow.

Recommended Reading: David and Goliath

This is definitely an idea I should have had earlier, but I’m glad it popped into my head this morning anyway. As a coach and teacher, some of the most interesting books are on human psychology. Of course basketball books can be great too. This is our first ‘Recommended Reading’ post, but it certainly won’t be the last.

I just finished David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. It is an excellent book, another in Gladwell’s series of excellent books. At first glance it seems to be about how underdogs overcome the odds to claim victory, which would have obvious value to us as coaches when facing superior opponents. The true content of the book is that what can be perceived as disadvantages are sometimes anything but, and how success can be derived from those disadvantages.

There is a portion of the book dedicated to basketball, and many of you will be familiar with its story. It centers on how underdogs can use the press defense against superior opponents to try and tilt the odds in their favor. This idea, at least in coaching circles I am in, has gained plenty of traction in theory – but many coaches still fail to use it in practice. The difficulty of conditioning and teaching a team to press non-stop is pretty daunting.

There are more lessons than that in this book though, and plenty of ideas that had my brain working overtime. The stories of individuals who use their disadvantages or disabilities to rise high is incredible, and it gave me so much to think about in terms of how we help our players grow as individuals. I have met so many athletes that could have benefited from advice derived from the lessons learned in this book that I really wish I had read it earlier in my career.

I consider this book a must-read for coaches. All three parts of the book; The Advantages of Disadvantages, The Theory of Desirable Difficulty, and The Limits of Power, have powerful messages that can translate to our job as leaders and mentors. I hope you get a chance to read it soon, and good luck this season, especially to our first year coaches.

Monday Matchup - Defense Ends With a Rebound

We've all been there before, watching our teams execute energetic and inspired defense for 25 seconds. The clouds part, angels sing, and the basketball gods are smiling down upon you as your opponent throws up an off-balance shot. Then the feeling collapses on itself like a black hole, sucking the energy and joy from your team as your opponent grabs an offensive rebound, and you have to do it all over again.

Rebounding is a tricky skill to teach, a difficult skill to master, and an easy skill to forget. Failing to practice rebounding is not an option though, and in today's post we will look into ways of improving your team rebounding. It is important to focus on 3 aspects: Culture, Concepts, and Skills.

Fast Break Friday: Training Perimeter Reactions

This is the first Fast Break Friday where we will cover offensive concepts. Every Friday there will be a new post covering concepts, player development, and specific practice drill or techniques. One of the coaching skills that was the focus of my attention recently is building drills that train and teach skills or reactions on the court. Before we get into the specific topic of today - training perimeter decisions, we should discuss the concepts of translating something we want to see on the court into a practice drill that effectively helps the player learn. Going online to write down some drills is fine, but building your own drills is rewarding and usually more effective if you are trying to teach a specific skill.

All offensive reactions can be broken into 'If A, the B' situations. For example, if in shooting range, then shoot. Now, you can add as many qualifiers to the first part, but the fewer there are the more quickly your players will learn. This is the basic foundation to any drill (excluding hustle drills). The method behind this madness is another simple tenet - if you want creative, thoughtful players, you need to free their minds from the simple decisions and turn them into automatic reactions.

So what do we want our players to do when they receive the ball along the perimeter? Training decisions requires at least that the player can receive the pass cleanly and quickly face up to the basketball as a threat. After that, it is time to train reactions.

First, the defense attempts a steal and misses. When this happens I train my players to attack. When starting out, we might just have a single power dribble jump shot or a basket drive. Over time we train the whole attack, practicing our reaction to different help defenders, like a corner kick out or an interior dish.

Second the defense performs a closeout, high and hard. This is another simple read, and the player reaction is the same as our first situation - we attack the basket. Teach whatever footwork you want, but players must attack the rim when defenders close out hard and high

Thirdly the defense performs a closeout, low and slow. If the offensive player is in shooting range this is a shot read.

These habits are easy to train in two or three player groups where the players rotate through offense, defense, and passer.

I'm leaving passing out of this for the time being because you don't want to cloud the primary skill intended for training with too many things at once. Remember, quicker reactions free our players from thinking about everything, there just are not enough seconds in the span of a possession for deep thoughts.

When planning on teaching skills like this I also suggest you don't teach them all in the same day. If you want to create habits, you must continue to provide the read over and over and over again. Once you are satisfied that the reaction is reliable, you can layer decision making situations behind I outlined earlier.

If you are interested in reading more about habit formation I suggest The Power of Habit. It is an excellent book and many of my ideas about drill creation for skills development are a combination of my experience with the Read and React Offense and what I learned about habit formation from the book.

Quick Hitter - NBA Finals

I had to write a quick post here about the NBA Finals after watching Miami win Game 2. Just a few interesting notes:

1. Miami (read: Spoelstra) did a great job adjusting to the pick and roll in Game 2. It looked different and felt different, and it didn't click until Doug Collins made a post game comment about how they mixed more than one type of technique to defend it, going under, hedging, and doubling. Without game tape to review I suspect their decision was based on a combination of Miami personnel and Spurs personnel, which made adjustments for San Antonio difficult. Bosh was much better defensively in Game 2, and while I thought Wade was still weak, it looked like Miami took advantage of the players who were working hard in Game 1 (Chalmers, James, Birdman, etc.) to up the pressure when they were on the floor together. Cool stuff, interested to see what happens in Game 3 when the Spurs look at the game film.

2. The Spurs are going to have to deal with James guarding Parker at the end of the game. It's a great strategy for Miami, and it forces Ginobli to run the Spurs offense. Ginobli is a dynamic, creative, and exciting player. Unfortunately, he also has some bad habits (jump pass anyone?) and is simply not as cool under pressure as Parker. Parker makes better decisions with crucial possessions, and Miami knows it. That doesn't mean Ginobli is a liability - he's an exceptional player as Game 1 proved - but it looks like he's more effective when Parker is a threat and Miami's defense is stretched thin, providing the passing lanes he likes so much. When Parker is guarded by James, it just looks like the floor gets smaller.

3. If the Spurs get aa solid contribution from Leonard, Miami is in trouble. Leonard has been battling foul trouble all series, and he continues to be the Spurs best answer for guarding James. Miami won Game 2 by two points, after the Spurs missed 4 consecutive free throws, and when Leonard spent barely any time guarding James. I think with a better game from Leonard San Antonio is already up 2-0 in the series. Miami deserves some credit here, but Leonard needs to stay on the floor.

4. The Spurs offense is terrifying when it clicks, and I wonder if Miami will have the energy to disrupt it for the entire series, although maybe they only need to disrupt it four out of seven attempts.