Real good entry on San Antonio Spurs defensive principles.

Bruce Bowen

Chances are, if you’re a regular reader of this blog you have a pretty good idea of what the San Antonio Spurs like to do, and avoid, on the defensive end of the floor.

But from time-to-time, I find it helpful to review things to keep them fresh in my head. And seeing as it’s mid-August and the NBA is on vacation, I thought we’d take a look at a couple of the bedrock principles of the Spurs’ defense.

Force guards away from the middle of the floor
It’s easy to boil it down to this: when the ball-handler gets to the middle and into the lane, bad things happen. This is because the offensive player has options. And the basic premises of defense are to limit the number of ways the offense can score and make it as hard as possible for them to do that.

When opposing guards get into the lane, they cause damage. They get good looks at the basket, find open teammates and draw fouls. A ball-handler in the middle of the lane usually has a better look at the basket than when forced towards the sideline or baseline. Additionally, he probably got past the defender guarding him en route to the lane. This means other defenders will have to rotate over to help on the ball-handler, leaving other offensive players open if the ball-handler can find them with a good pass.

In the play diagrammed below, Steve Nash got to the lane against the Spurs defense late in Game 2 of the teams’ Western Conference Semifinal series. The Suns had a eight point lead with about a minute left in the game. It’s a pretty significant advantage that late in the game, but not insurmountable. On the play, Nash used a pick at the top of the 3-point arc from Amar’e Stoudemire to get by George Hill and into the lane.

When Nash got into the lane, he had Hill on his right hip and a decent look at the basket. Almost every Spur on the floor had at least one foot in the lane and none were farther than two feet away.

Nash kicked the ball out to Jason Richardson, who blew past Manu Ginobili. Manu was a step outside the lane helping on Nash’s penetration and tried to closeout on Richardson, but Richardson got by him and hit the jumper at the elbow to finish off the game.

But it wasn’t all bad defensively against the Suns. Earlier in that same game, George Hill had a great defensive possession against Nash. The Suns point guard dribbled to the left wing and looked to get the ball in the post to Stoudemire, who was fronted by DeJuan Blair. Blair did a good job fronting Stoudemire, as he’s learned to do, and Nash was unable to get the ball in the post.

After determining he couldn’t get an entry pass into Stoudemire, Nash gave George Hill a quick shoulder fake toward the middle and went baseline. Hill stayed with Nash the whole time and rode him toward the baseline without needing help defense to come and stop the ball. Nash tried to find a teammate but stepped on the baseline before he got a pass off and turned the ball over.

Notice in the video of the play, Hill’s footwork. His body is angled with his back to the middle to encourage Nash to go baseline.

Do not give up the corner 3-pointer, otherwise you face the wrath of Coach Pop
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich’s next hard-and-fast rule on defense is to prevent the opponent from getting a corner 3. Coach Pop believes that the corner 3 is one of the most effective shots in basketball, which is why the Spurs look for so many corner 3′s on offense and try to prevent all of them on defense.

Luckily for Spurs fans, but not so much for me, it’s hard to find a video clip of San Antonio rotating improperly and allowing an open corner 3. However, Eddy Rivera from Magic Basketball had a great post this week about the 2/5 (or shooting guard and center) pick and roll play that Orlando uses. In that post, he had a video where the Atlanta Hawks make a rotation that would make Coach Pop’s blood boil.

Vince Carter brought the ball up-court for Orlando and Marcin Gortat came up to set a pick on Marvin Williams, who’s guarding Carter. Carter rubbed off the pick and attacked the basket. From the corner, Joe Johnson of the Hawks rotated over to stop Carter’s progress to the basket.

In doing so, Johnson left Mickael Pietrus, a 38% 3-point shooter last season, open in the corner. Carter takes the shot himself – because he’s Vince Carter – and makes it, but Pietrus would’ve been a good option.

Had the Spurs been the defensive team on this play, there would’ve been an immediate timeout called and, chances are, the guy who left Pietrus open wouldn’t have emerged from the huddle. You may remember last year a situation in which when San Antonio played the Detroit Pistons, Tony Parker allowed a 3-pointer from Rodney Stuckey and a spat between Parker and Coach Pop occurred. Parker was taken out of the game as a punishment.

Instead, the way the Spurs defend that play is to rotate help defenders from the other side of the floor. Johnson would stay on Pietrus, denying the pass to him, and Jamal Crawford, guarding Jameer Nelson in the opposite corner, would’ve rotated over to stop the ball. Because Nelson in the corner is still a decent pass for Carter to make, Josh Smith, guarding Rashard Lewis near the top of the key, would’ve slid down to prevent a pass to Nelson in the corner.

Lewis, a good 3-point shooter, is open near the top of the key, but for Carter to make that pass he would have to stop and turn. That would enable any defender, whether it’s Josh Smith or someone else, time to recover and prevent Lewis from getting a good shot.

The video below, from Game 1 of the Spurs-Suns series, shows San Antonio denying a corner 3 opportunity. Steve Nash beats Tony Parker off the dribble and Richard Jefferson, defending Grant Hill in the corner, doesn’t flinch. As Nash drives in his direction, Jefferson inches closer to Hill. Instead, you can see the help defense come from Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Antonio McDyess fulfills his duty to cover Ginobili’s man in the opposite corner. Nash ends up dribbling the ball out of bounds.

From everyone I have spoken to this event was one of the best coaching resource tools they have ever been to.  People continue to rave about the University of Florida Coaches Clinic that Coach Donovan and his staff put on every year (sadly, I have not attended either – that will change next year).  These two coaching resources must be “Top 5″ for coaching growth and development.

If you attended either of these events (or others) and can provide information and feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.

Post a comment and I’ll share it with everyone.

COACHING U LIVE 2010

Above is a link to 70+ pages of notes provided to a friend of mine by:

Adam Cohen - University of Southern California

I don’t personally know either of these guys, but they did a tremendous job detailing the information provided by Coaching U LIVE. On first impressions, these are two young, detail oriented guys who “get it.”

Thanks for sharing with all of us.

Notice the diagrams provided by FastDraw.

CLICK HERE for .pdf of FastDraw play

Easily the BEST play/drill diagramming tool available.  Nothing else compares to it.  Combined with FastScout it is no wonder 28 of the 30 NBA teams (nearly 900 college and close to 10,000 high school and youth coaches) use it for their scouting, drill and play diagramming needs.

Purchase it below.

FastDraw

]]> http://www.allbasketballreview.com/coaching-u-live-2010/feed 0 http://www.allbasketballreview.com/knee-friendly-landings-reduce-force-by-56-percent http://www.allbasketballreview.com/knee-friendly-landings-reduce-force-by-56-percent#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:24:52 +0000 Jeff http://www.allbasketballreview.com/?p=3567

Julius Erving

From the latest sports science and fitness research by Dan Peterson and theorignalPGC.

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are a common and debilitating problem, especially for female athletes. A new study from UC Davis shows that changes in training can reduce shear forces on knee joints and could help cut the risk of developing ACL tears.

“We focused on an easy intervention, and we were amazed that we could reduce shear load in 100 percent of the volunteers,” said David Hawkins, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at UC Davis. Hawkins conducted the study at the UC Davis Human Performance Laboratory with graduate student Casey Myers.

The anterior cruciate ligament lies in the middle of the knee and provides stability to the joint. Most ACL injuries do not involve a collision between players or a noticeably bad landing, said Sandy Simpson, UC Davis women’s basketball coach.

“It almost always happens coming down from a rebound, catching a pass or on a jump-stop lay-up,” Simpson said. “It doesn’t have to be a big jump.”

Hawkins and Myers worked with 14 female basketball players from UC Davis and local high schools. They fitted them with instruments and used digital cameras to measure their movements and muscle activity, and calculated the forces acting on their knee joints as they practiced a jump-stop movement, similar to a basketball drill.

First, they recorded the athletes making their normal movement. Then they instructed them in a modified technique: Jumping higher to land more steeply; landing on their toes; and bending their knees more deeply before taking off again.

After learning the new technique, all 14 volunteers were able to reduce the force

Dee Brown

passed up to the knee joint through the leg bone (the tibial shear force) by an average of 56 percent. At the same time, the athletes in the study actually jumped an inch higher than before, without losing speed.

Hawkins recommends warm-ups that exercise the knee and focusing on landing on the toes and balls of the feet. The study does not definitively prove that these techniques will reduce ACL injuries, Hawkins said: that would require a full clinical trial and follow-up. But the anecdotal evidence suggests that high tibial shear forces are associated with blown knees.

Hawkins and Myers shared their findings with Simpson and other UC Davis women’s basketball and soccer coaches, as well as with local youth soccer coaches.  The research was published online Aug. 3 in the Journal of Biomechanics.

Simpson said that the team had tried implementing some changes during last year’s preseason, but had found it difficult to continue the focus once the full regular season began. In live play, athletes quickly slip back to learned habits and “muscle memory” takes over, he noted. More intensive off-court training and practice would be needed to change those habits, he said.

“We will be talking about this again this season,” Simpson said. Implementing the techniques in youth leagues, while children are still learning how to move, might have the most impact, he said.From The latest sports science and fitness research by Dan Peterson on theoriginalPGC

By HARVEY ARATON

When Marni Jaffer was about to deliver her husband’s eulogy to a crowd of 300-plus mourners, she noticed a familiar face rising above the others in the back of the funeral chapel. She had never met the man, but she recognized him from her television screen.

It was David Lee, formerly of theKnicks.

David Lee with Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni. Despite being sent to Golden State, Lee attended the funeral of a Garden security official.

“I thought it was wonderful that he came,” Jaffer said. “And it also struck me how he stayed in the back, paying his respects quietly, not wanting to have people say, ‘Oh, it’s David Lee,’ and intrude on my husband’s moment.”

The funeral for Scott Jaffer, a longtime N.B.A. security official whose primary post was Madison Square Garden,was held July 11. Lee had been in St. Louis, his hometown, after being dealt by the Knicks to the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade transaction that was announced soon after LeBron James’s all-about-me ESPN extravaganza.

Expected back in New York the next week for a basketball camp, Lee was stunned to hear that Jaffer, 63, had died.

“The guy took care of our security stuff, drug testing, things like that,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “He couldn’t do enough for us, joked with us every night, and it turned out he had cancer for three years and not one of us knew about it.”

After five years in New York, Lee had one final act of hustle on behalf of the Knicks, flying into town on Saturday night and getting in his car Sunday morning for a one hour drive to Airmont, N.Y., from his apartment on Manhattan’s West Side.

He knew much of the Knicks’ basketball staff would be working at the summer league in Las Vegas and he wanted to make sure that the team — given its extreme state of transition — would be represented.

The same team, of course, that could not wait to replace him with its latest high-end acquisition, Amar’e Stoudemire.

When word circulated through the Knicks’ organization that Lee had attended Scott Jaffer’s funeral, few people could have been surprised. In February, after the death of Dick McGuire, a beloved Knicks organizational lifer, Lee was the only player to attend the funeral.

Weeks later, when the franchise celebrated the 40th anniversary of its 1970 championship team with a halftime ceremony, Lee was the lone Knick to come out of the locker room to watch from courtside.

Despite playing what he called “my worst game of the season” that night against Milwaukee, Lee chose to savor long conversations with Willis Reed and Bill Bradley, who told him that he had many of the qualities that they associated with their teams of four decades past.

“That was pretty amazing to me,” said Lee, who at that point clung to the hope of remaining in New York. By July, it was more wishful thinking.

“People talk about how much they want good citizens, guys who are committed to an organization and a city,” said Mark Bartelstein, Lee’s agent.

“At the end of the day, it is what it is, the hypocrisy of the whole world of sports.”

The case of Lee, the Knicks’ best and most popular player, should also put into context the allegations of disloyalty against James when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers. Organizations do what they think is best for them, too, without having to say they’re sorry.

The departure of Lee became a footnote to the free-agent fallout generated by the decisions of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to make Miami their collaborative playground. “He averaged 20 points and almost 12 rebounds, and it got swept under the rug,” Bartelstein said.

Timing is everything, and Lee’s was not good from the day he arrived in New York as the 30th and final first-round draft pick in 2005.

“The biggest regret was not having a chance to be part of a stable, winning team,” he said. “Forty-nine players and three coaches have come and gone. That’s not to blame anyone, but those were the facts.”

The overwhelming N.B.A. consensus is that Stoudemire is a stronger, more dynamic player than Lee, who improved every year — especially his jump shot — but has made one All-Star team and has never appeared in a playoff game. Even Lee noted that the Knicks, who gave Stoudemire a five-year deal worth nearly $100 million, had to make a statement after two years of readying themselves for a bid on James.

“People might say, why did they pay Amar’e $100 million?” Lee said. “Well, if LeBron had come, then you’d have to say that he would have been worth $500 million.”

But James did not come, which raises a fair question: if the Knicks do not land Carmelo Anthony or another star within the next two seasons, will Stoudemire — for a lot more money — be as much of a committed company man as Lee?

Not Lee’s problem anymore. Out West, he will play his natural position, power forward, alongside a defensive-minded center, Andris Biedrins, for the first time. He will run a million pick-and-rolls with the Warriors’ talented young guards Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis.

With the Warriors changing ownership, from Chris Cohan to the Boston Celtics minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment chief executive Peter Guber, Lee is convinced it is a team on the rise.

“I don’t look at us at rebuilding,” he said. “We have a young nucleus in place.”

This week, Lee is trying to play his way onto the United States team — against Stoudemire, who is also in the mix — that will compete in the world championships beginning Aug. 28 in Turkey. If he makes it, Lee will be back in the Garden next month for an exhibition game against France.

Walking the streets of Manhattan last week was a gratifying experience, he said. “I’ve heard this a lot — ‘we’re sorry to see you go,’ ” Lee said.

Marni Jaffer said that if her husband could have chosen one Knicks player to attend his funeral, he would have picked David Lee.

“Scott played basketball when he was younger,” she said. “He knew the game and he loved David Lee, talked about him all the time. He was a big fan.”

He was not alone, but now Lee, a Warrior, has moved on, all in the name of progress.

A nice variation of the “Zipper” set into a Pick & Roll from the Boston Celtics, game 6 vs. the Lakers.

Line-up was: 1 – Rondo, 2 – Allen, 3 – Pierce, 4 – Garnett and 5 – Wallace.

The pre-action is nice… it forced LA into 2 G – G switches.  It put Rondo coming off a Garnett P&R in the middle of the floor (with his defender off a switch) and Ray Allen spotted up in the corner.

Allen wasn’t shooting the ball very well, but this was nice – Rondo got to the rim or had the throw back to Garnett several times.

]]> http://www.allbasketballreview.com/play-of-the-day-nba-finals/feed 2 http://www.allbasketballreview.com/monica-wright-vs-ryan-gomes-h-o-r-s-e http://www.allbasketballreview.com/monica-wright-vs-ryan-gomes-h-o-r-s-e#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:31:16 +0000 Jeff http://www.allbasketballreview.com/?p=3406 This is fun…

Monica Wright

Monica Wright playing Ryan Gomes is H-O-R-S-E.

http://www.sikids.com/Horse

Moni has to learn to talk the talk and walk the walk!

2010 NBA Finals Schedule

The following is the schedule for the NBA Finals, which will begin tonight!  (Thursday, June 3:)

This is no exception.  Follow Coach Starkey, if you don’t already.

The Ultimate Coaches Clinic

The Ultimate Coaches’ Clinic:  Jeff Van Gundy

Jeff Van Gundy

In 2008, Pat Williams, the GM of the Orlando Magic and a tremendous motivational speaker put out a book, “The Ultimate Coaches’ Clinic.” It is a fascinating book because of the style Pat utilized. He surveyed over 1000 coaches and administrators for insights to what is important to successfully do their job. From time to time I will share a few but it is a great book to own and I highly recommend it. Here are some thoughts from Jeff Van Gundy:

• The players don’t care if you are short or tall, black or white, a former player or not, all they care about is whether you can help them.
• When I was 29 and an assistant with the Knicks, Pat Rileytold me I could be a head coach in the NBA. Then Pat said, “Remember these four things, and you can lead anyone:”
……Competence—know your stuff.
……Sincerity
……Reliability
……Trustworthiness
• John Wooden and Dean Smith were right. Focus on the process and not the result. That is how you get better. The more you talk about winning, the less winning you do.
• Don’t accept in victory what you won’t accept in defeat. You can’t overlook mistakes when you win a game, because they will come back to haunt you later.

Kevin Durant

During the time away, I read an article in the USA Today on The Oklahome City Thunder and Kevin Durant, Durant drives Thunderous resurgence in Oklahoma City.

I never knew Durant was like that, not at all.  I assumed he was another young, ego guy.  My apologies.  The article continues to help convince me that it is more and more about “Who is on the bus,” as the Good to Great book by Jim Collins says.  (*Good to Great is a fantastic book to use as a team reading.  If you do it, email me at ideas@allbasketballreview.com and I will send you the team follow up questions I used with our team after they read it.  It went really well for us.)

Enjoy the article…

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin Durant shakes his head in disbelief at the thought of his name in the MVP conversation.

“It’s surreal to me,” the third-year OklahomaCity Thunder forward says.

“Growing up, I never thought I could be the best player in my area, let alone make it to college and be one of the best players there. I never thought I could make it to the NBA. … Players like me come a dime a dozen is basically what I was thinking.”

Durant, at 21 the youngest to lead the NBA in scoring average (30.1 points), is a major reason for the Thunder’s turnaround from 23 wins in 2008-09 after relocating from Seattle (where they were the SuperSonics) to 50.

“Guys don’t have egos,” Durant said. “Everybody came in like that from Day One. It wasn’t about I and me. It was about us and team. I have faith in that.”

The Thunder face the defending champion Los Angeles Lakersin the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Game 2 is Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET).

The matchup features the old guard, Kobe Bryant, vs. the new forward, Durant. The Lakers won the season series 3-1, but the Thunder won the last meeting 91-75 on March 26.

Humility and selflessness are two cornerstones of Oklahoma City’s success, and it begins with general manager Sam Presti, 33, the executive hired by the SuperSonics in 2007.

Presti came in with a bold vision to reshape the organization. He sought hardworking, high-character, low-maintenance athletes who love to play and sacrifice individual achievements for team success.

Presti is determined to populate not only his roster but his organization with high-character individuals, including the team chef and practice facility janitor. Presti interviews everyone hired.

“We again really try to focus on the things that are important to our organization and our ability to build a team that can be sustainable,” he says.

And he has had the discipline to stick with his plan even in the midst of last season’s 3-29 start.

“You’re not entitled to anything. You have to go through the process, and there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Presti says. “How you respond to the successes and the adversities are important to your ability to sustain it.”

Strong values — resiliency in the face of adversity especially — resonate with the people of Oklahoma City and the state.

“The spoiled superstar brat wouldn’t get far in Oklahoma City,” Mayor Mick Cornett says. “We’re very value-conscious. Our city was settled in a land run. Those 10,000 people were desperate for a better life.”

Cornett says the Thunder have helped revamp the city’s image, which previously was branded with tornadoes and the 1995 bombing.

Coincidentally, Cornett says, it took Hurricane Katrina for people to realize basketball could be a success. While temporarily displaced, the New Orleans Hornets played two seasons here.

“This city knows tragedy,” Cornett says. “We turned around and helped another community that needed help. Oklahoma City would have never been on the top of anyone’s relocation list.”

The Thunder average 17,995 fans in 18,203-capacity Ford Center, and the atmosphere sometimes resembles a college game’s. Fans don’t sit until the Thunder score, and one side of the arena will chant “O” and the other side “Thunder.”

Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys football dominate, but, Cornett says, “College allegiances split us. The Thunder are the one thing everyone can root for.”

Smart GM work plus luck

Presti looks like he just stepped out of a Banana Republic ad, and he has a résumé that is just as polished: education and basketball at Emerson College in Boston, a Rhodes Scholar nomination, a front office job in 2000 with the San Antonio Spurs.

Presti drafted Durant during his first year with Seattle but also began with unpopular decisions, trading fan favorite Ray Allen to the Boston Celtics for draft pick Jeff Green (who has turned into a valuable component) and trading Rashard Lewis for what amounted to three first-round draft picks while creating salary-cap space.

He drafted point guard Russell Westbrook and reserve big man Serge Ibaka in 2008 and guard James Harden in 2009, traded for defender Thabo Sefolosha and signed center Nenad Krstic.

Presti has built a young team. Not one regular has more than six years of NBA experience, and no starter is older than 26.

Listening to Presti is like attending a business leadership seminar. He has his aphorisms: “We looked at development as a process and not an event.”

Thunder coach Scott Brooks says Presti is an incredible thinker, and Durant says he is a genius. Those are labels Presti declines. “The credit goes to the players and certainly the coaches for working with them,” he says.

In Brooks, Presti found a coach able to carry out the franchise’s plan on the court: defense and rebounding come first. A 10-year NBA journeyman, Brooks, 44, was named interim coach when the Thunder fired P.J. Carlesimoafter a 1-12 start last season. It didn’t get much better under Brooks right away.

“When you go through adversity with somebody like we did last year going through a tough year, him being an interim coach, you learn a lot about people,” Presti says.

Presti discovered the players listened and responded to Brooks. From Dec. 30 until the end of last season, the Thunder were 20-30.

“Of course you’re going to get frustrated about losses. It’s about coming in every day and not letting the losses affect how hard you work,” Durant says.

Durant sees Presti’s vision. So does Brooks.

Stats bear out priorities

This season, the Thunder rank in the top 10 in rebounding, fast-break points and steals and 11th out of 30 in points allowed.

“You can have great players, but if they don’t want to be coached, what are you going to do?” Brooks says. “You’re going to be frustrated as a coach and you’re going to be frustrated as a team because your better players don’t want to be coached. Our better players want to be coached every day, and that’s not everywhere.”

The Thunder wanted Green to be a more complete player and less of a scorer. They asked Westbrook to come back a better decision-maker. His turnovers are lower, his assists higher. Sefolosha was told he didn’t need to score and was often asked to guard the best perimeter scorer.

“It’s funny that a group of young guys have bought into it so quickly,” Durant says.

It starts with Durant, the face of the franchise. Brooks needed more from Durant — more points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots. Durant delivered with better numbers this season. But it’s his scoring that has overwhelmed opponents.

Lithe at 6-9, 230, Durant is difficult to defend. He scores inside and out, in transition and in halfcourt sets with his soft shot. He also converts at the foul line. No one has taken more free throws than Durant (10.2 a game), and he makes 90%.

From Dec. 22 to Feb. 23, Durant scored 25 or more points in 29 consecutive games, a feat not even last year’s MVP, LeBron James, or Bryant has accomplished. He also led the league with 47 30-plus point games.

The future holds many opportunities. The Thunder are under the salary cap this year and next and have money to re-sign players including Durant, who will make $6 million next season.

But Presti is quick to say, “We don’t have all the answers” and cites luck. He might not have all the answers, but he has some, and he is right about luck.

Where would the Thunder be had the Portland Trail Blazers selected Durant instead of oft-injured center Greg Oden? Oklahoma City has been relatively injury-free. The Thunder started the same lineup 76 times this season.

As baseball executive Branch Rickey once said, luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

Some Offensive Thoughts From Kevin Eastman

I’m always looking for nuances that help explain things. I like finding patterns and see how to apply them for added advantage. From some notes that I received a little while ago, here are some interesting “truisms” courtesy of Kevin Eastman, the Assistant Coach for the Boston Celtics

TRUISM # 1: There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns. 

Our players have to understand that the hardest thing to do defensively is to close out — to be running out at a player from the help position. Having said that, we need to understand that an advantage our offense must look to create is to get the defense to close out as often as possible; we want the ball to be reversed from side to side. With our team I can tell you that our scoring proficiency goes up as the number of passes and ball reversals goes up. Of course we have a shot clock that forces us to shoot the ball quicker, but we still would like a minimum of 3 passes as we then know the ball is getting reversed. When we only throw 1 or 2 passes we find that it is very easy for the defense to load up to the ball

TRUISM # 2: The closer you run your offense to the basket, the more physical your screens can be.

We have found that the officials are more apt to let contact go when it is closer to the basket as they are used to seeing more contact down there as opposed to out by the 3 point line. We feel that is why the flex action is allowed to get away with some physical baseline and pin down screens, and why we have to be careful when setting a back screen out by the 3 point line. So give some thought to having some part of your offensive system where you run your stuff closer to the rim.

TRUISM # 3: The faster the ball moves, the closer the defenders stay to their man.

We have found that when we move the ball a little faster, the defensive players are more concerned with staying up with their man and tend to not jump to the ball and get in help position. We also feel that that leaves us with more room to drive it as the defenders are out of position just enough to allow us to get a good driving angle on them. I would say if you do not have a good scoring post man, you should look to move the ball a little faster at times and create driving opportunities. If you do have a good post man you would want to slow it down and give the post man a good look.