I watched a segment on ESPN's Global View on the NBA with Coaches Carlos Morales and Alvaro Martin who breakdown something significant from the week past in the NBA. They were talking about the Los Angeles Lakers and how so far this season they have become one of the best defensive teams in the NBA so far. They talked about how the Celtics crushed them with their overload style defense and how the Lakers adopted that same style of defense this year. To the Lakers credit, I don't think they are simply imitators of the Celtics, the Lakers actually ran it last year in the playoffs against the Nuggets in the first round.

The main difference so far this season is that the Lakers are running their overload defense all game every game. I took some clips from last nights game against the Houston Rockets, in their key 3rd quarter run. The first clip is just a great defensive recovery by Kobe, which is what allows the Lakers to be successful in their tilting defense. The next 2 clips show how they bring one player over to the strong side to zone it up. Watch closely:




The Tilt:

The setup is quite simple. Here, Pao Gasol is the strong-side helper. He leaves his man to go to the vacant strong-side block to take away the wing pass. All 5 defenders work in unison. When the offense drives into the lane, they all collapse, when the ball is passed out, the closest defender closes out and the rest of the players rotate.



Take Away the Wing Drive:

The whole reason for this defense is to take away the primary threat in today's game, that is the wing penetration. Instead of allowing the drive and trying to force baseline, the idea is to take it away altogether. The offense will then try to reverse the ball around the 3-point line. But because the Lakers have great athletes, they will recover by the time the ball gets to the wide open man. The only way you can beat the tilt and get the open shot is to fire the pass directly to that open man, which requires a Steve Nash or Jason Kidd,


Summary:

The Lakers can run this kind of defense because they have players like Kobe Bryant who can recover quickly and still block the shot. They can afford to gamble on leaving 1 player open knowing that they can still recover in time. In other words, this defense won't work for every team. Now, the big weakness here is rebounding. Because of all the rotations, you lose your block out responsibility. So like zone defense rules, you have to block out an area, which isn't as effect as blocking out a man. That is to say, you will give up more offensive rebounds using this defense, but obviously Coach Phil Jackson and his staff feel that is one area they are willing to concede if they stop the ball.

For a new M2M defense video, check out Mark Fox's DVD on Building a M2M Defense. I like his idea of emphasizing taking charges. This fits well with the tilting the floor concept if your help-side defenders are going to contribute, they need to step up and take some charges. Talk hoops strategy at the X's and O's Basketball Forum with other great coaches from around the world.

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From Friday night, I took in the first half of the exhibition game between Kentucky and Ouachita Baptist. It was just a preseason game, but if the first half was any indication, the Wildcats could be in some trouble for the season ahead.

Turnovers are one thing to have. But when they come from the most basics of fundamentals, you have to wonder what these players have been doing the past couple of weeks in practice, indeed what they've done to even get to a big time D1 program like Kentucky. Here are just 4 or 5 of the 20 first half turnovers by Kentucky,




It's the Little Things:

What you'll notice about all those turnovers is that they weren't structural or tactical, they came from the smallest of things. A extra forearm shove, leaving your feet to pass, not getting enough on the pass, and forgetting that on a spot inbounds, you're not allowed to run the baseline,



In other words, it wasn't anything in the design of Billy Gillispie's 4-out 1-in offense or press break, it was just their general lack of focus and attention by the players themselves. Now credit Gillispie for putting in the halftime adjustments necessary to come out and out run Baptist out the gym, but the mere fact that the players came out and had such a lack of focus and getting into foul trouble early shows a lack of preparedness.

Summary:

It's just one game, and Kentucky did thoroughly thump their first opponent of the preseason in University of Missouri-St. Louis. But the lack of consistency in running their primary half-court offense is definitely disconcerting. The plus side for the Wildcats is that their half-court man defense was solid. Gillispie has his players playing a very aggressive man defense denying 1 pass away. The big question is whether they can get it together on offense in time for conference play to start.

If you want to know more about how Kentucky develops their man defense, check out Billy Gillispie's DVD on his In Your Face Defensive Drills. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum to talk hoops with other coaches.

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Caught the Phoenix Suns game against the Chicago Bulls last night. I read a lot of stuff recently that called for the decline of the Suns due to the changes Terry Porter has made and the change from their old 7 seconds or less offense under Mike D'Antoni. Though the Suns got pasted in this game (due to not having Shaq and Nash resting after playing 4 games in 5 nights), I think the Suns are still a force to be reckoned with.

I took 2 clips from the first half of their pick and roll offense. I really like what they're set with 3 players. Depending on how the defense plays them, there are alot of options in the 3-man PNR, especially with the 3rd, offside player. Watch these 2 sequences,




1-4 low PNR:

Setup from the 1-4 low set. Nash and Stoudamire run the high PNR. X4 (Joakim Noah) gets turned around trying to step up on the help defense on the rolling Stoudamire. O5 (Robin Lopez) sneaks in behind and get the pass for the dunk,


3-man Stagger PNR:

This is a nice stagger screen set PNR. Both Stoudamire and Amundson set stack screens. Nash goes right off the screen, Stoudamire reverse pivots to receive the pass from Nash. Amundson rolls down towards the basket. X5 and X1 chase Nash, X4 rotates to take Stoudamire, who's got O4??

Stoudamire uses a touch pass to get the ball down to Amundson for the easy put back,


Summary:

I think the Suns offense is going to be fine, contrary to what others think. The real key will be their defense. Everyone knows that you can't win on offense alone, and that was what was wrong with D'Antoni's philosophy, he didn't believe in defense. While this lower scoring offense may struggle to get them in a top 4 position for the playoffs, a retooled defense will allow them to go all the way. I think they're making progress defensively, but they will need much more to get to the same level as the Spurs.

For a great overall skill development video, take a look at Kevin Eastman's DVD on Skill Development for Inside and Perimeter Players. Coach Eastman is currently an assistant for the NBA Champion Boston Celtics. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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More exhibition action from the college basketball scene, this time between the University of Washington Huskies and the Div2 Western Washington University. UW won easily but I think what was great to watch was a return to the kind of run and gun guard-oriented offense that we've missed the past couple of seasons.

The Huskies will score, early and often this season, that is certain. They have a whole lineup of quick, sharp-shooting guards that can score in bunches. Combine that with the size and height of veterans like Jon Brockman, and the Huskies could be an early favorite for the PAC-10 Championship. Watch some great early offense clips from last night's game,




Numbers Advantage:

Early offense is very simple. It's all about numbers. You create that numbers advantage by simply out-running your opponent. It's just a matter a hustle. Part of it is talent and ability of course, but the other is attitude and practice. Here, you can see that the Huskies have a 5v2 advantage,


Backpick for 3-pointer:

This is just great instinctual basketball. O1 brings the ball up on the left wing. O3 is the trailer on the right wing. O4 sets an area screen. O1 passes to O3 who has room to take a dribble forward then unload a 3-pointer,


Summary:

With the upcoming college basketball season gearing up, one of the teams that is looking forward to a resurgence are the Washington Huskies. After a couple of under-performing seasons with no NCAA tournament appearance, especially the one with Spencer Hawes 2 seasons ago, the Huskies are looking like the Husky teams of old with super-guards Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy. This year's crop features a nice combination of rookies like Isaiah Thomas and Elston Turner along with veterans like Jon Brockman and Quincy Pontdexter. One thing is clear, the Huskies are going to be very exciting to watch again.

If you like UW basketball, then you'll probably want to check out Lorenzo Romar's DVD on Finishing in Transition. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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Can you feel it? College basketball is right around the corner. I definitely prefer the college and to some respect, the high school game, over pros, because there's more strategy involved. In the pros, the players are just too good, so it's more about chemistry.

Yesterday I caught the second half between UMASS and a small school called Dowling. There is a lot of hype about UMASS because of their new assistant coach, Vance Walberg, creator of the dribble drive motion offense. Dowling played a 2-3 zone most of the way and it definitely frustrated the Minutemen late in the game with UMASS winning 91-87, only 4 points. The Minutemen tried to beat the zone with the 3-ball but went 2-11 on 3-pointers in the 2nd half, but finished a decent 36% from 3-point land overall (buoyed by a solid 1st half 3-point shooting). Watch some clips I took,




The Minutemen didn't run the dribble drive motion offense against the zone, from the clip you see that they ran a 2-1-2 with the '1' at the high post. But they certainly did try to drive into the zone at times and had problems.

2-3 Zone versus Dribble Drive Motion Offense:

Just wanted to point out the obvious of why driving into the heart of a packed in 2-3 zone. As you see, the UMASS guard starts out by beating the first defender using the dribble,

The UMASS guard tries a hop step into a jump stop, but surrounded by 5 defenders, the ball is stripped,


Summary:

Obviously, it's still early. One exhibition game doesn't define a season, but certainly there's a cause for concern there. There was a poster on the forum asking about how best to defend against the dribble drive motion and I answered that the 2-3 zone or packline worked well. It forces DDM teams to try to beat you over the top and punish them for trying to drive into traffic.

For more info on the 2-3 zone defense, take a look at Wayne Morgan's DVD on the the 2-3 Zone. Coach Morgan used to be the head coach at Iowa State and former longtime assistant to 2-3 zone guru and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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As many of you, I'm still recovering from post-election hangover. It's one of those moments where 20 years from now everyone will want to recall the day when... Anyways, don't want to get all political. I took the opportunity today to watch some recorded stuff I had from Euroleague in October and this one game was a great one between Avellino and Olympiacos. Avellino features guard Travis Best and Olympiacos made the big splash in the summer signing Josh Childress.

A short but important clip I want to show. Rebounding is such an underrated and underemphasized skill. IMO, it's one of the great equalizers. If your team can outrebound your opponents every game, you should end up with more shots which means that even if you're not a high-percentage offense, you should still be able to score more than your opponents. I love here how Travis Best demonstrates great court awareness, boxing out the big guy and out-working him for the rebound, watch:




Find Hit Get:

It's really as simple as that, Find-Hit-Get. Hustling back on transition defense, the ball goes up and Best instinctually finds the nearest opponent, boxes him out, then gets the ball,



Great stuff, I love it when guards rebound down, it always leads to good offense the other way which is what happens after the rebound on the drive and kick 3 pointer.

Summary:

I watch kids all the time, and a lot of times they'll be really lazy. They'll just watch the ball go up hit the rim, then hope someone else gets the rebound. The fast break doesn't start until 'one of you' gets the rebound first. There was a kid I coached last year that was relentless in rebounding both offense and defense. I'd say, we won at least 3 or 4 games just on his rebounding alone, bailed us out when our offense was absolutely atrocious.

Anyways, for a brand new video on rebounding drills, take a look at Dino Gaudio's DVD on Winning the War on the Boards. Coach Gaudio is the head coach at Wake Forest replacing the late Skip Prosser. As always, please check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops and exchange notes and ideas.

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This is from Sunday night with the Knicks hosting the Bucks. When Coach Mike D'Antoni left the Suns to go coach the Knicks, I wondered what kind of offense they would play right from the outset. The current Knicks don't have the same makeup as the run and gun Suns so I wondered if D'Antoni might compromise his principles and coach the players that he has.

I have only watched 1 Knick game so far, so in taking that into consideration, I might be making some gross over-generalizations. But from what I saw, the Knicks of 2008/09 are in for a rough ride. I took some clips of their 7 seconds or less offense from the first half, here are some of the lowlights,




Not real pretty, 3 bad turnovers in the first quarter of play. What I wanted to do is to show the contrast between how the Suns run the Spread PNR and how the Knicks are attempting to run it. We'll start first with the Suns,

Suns Spread PNR:

Steve Nash is really the key that runs their PNR (no suprise there). Having a dynamic go get it forward like Amare Stoudamire is the other key. After the PNR is set, see how Nash gets into the middle of the floor, he keeps his dribble alive and he doesn't panic by jumping in the air, or throwing the ball into traffic, he's probing, reading the defense. Amare cuts to the basket, and Bell comes up to replace,

All 5 guys are spaced nicely, look how spread they are. On the defensive switch, Amare jumps over his shorter defender and Nash finds him for the alley-oop,


Knicks Attempt at Spread PNR:

Couple of lowlights. After the PNR, watch as Crawford makes the cardinal sin of jumping into the air before he knows what he wants to do with the ball,

Here Duhon makes a bounce pass right into 2 defenders,


Summary:

I'm a firm believer in whatever system you run has to fit the players you have. The Spread PNR, requires that you have the kind of point guard that can read the defense and make smart instinctual decisions. The Knicks lack that at the moment, they have a bunch of scoring point guards that only have 1 thing on their mind, score. That is going to be a problem. It will be interesting to see how long D'Antoni stays with this, knowing Knick fans, they aren't the patient type.

For the best video on the spread PNR offense, take a look at Billy Donovan's DVD on the Spread Offense. Coach Donovan used it to win back-to-back national championships at Florida. As always, please check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops and exchange notes and ideas.

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