I spent the past three days in the Baltimore-Washington DC area watching basketball at the She Got Game Classic and at the National Hoop Fest at Dematha High School. Identifying and evaluating prospects for ProspectsNation.com and OntheRadarHoops.com was my primary objective. However, there are many basketball ideas outside of evaluation that struck a cord in my mind. Most dealt with coaching and Xs & Os.
Westtown High School did a great job of setting screens for Duke commit Cam Reddish away from the basketball. He is a 6-8 small forward that can do it all. He can shoot the 3 off the catch or the dribble. He is also super effective at getting into the lane and scoring over and around opponents.
What became apparent late in the game is that their opponent, Georgetown Prep, was locked into making life tough for Reddish. They locked into him or forcing him to fade cut when the down screen was set at the arc.
A good counter for getting your primary scorer the ball when the defense has locked in him/her away from the ball is to give your scorer the ball and let him initiate the offense. Let him make the entry pass, allow him to set a screen and then set a screen for him. This will make the defense work a little harder and prevent them from just locking in for a 3-5 second window.
This reminds me of a half-court set that I pulled from the New Orleans Pelicans from 2014. They ran it with Austin Rivers as the lead handler.
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WING BALL SCREENS
A Wing ball screen with the screener’s shoulders pointed to the corner is a good angle for a roll. When the handler drives it at an ‘upward’ angle, this puts pressure on the defense to ‘help’ up the floor – especially if the handler is a good shooter. Plus the screener now has a great angle to roll quickly to the rim.
A wing ball screen with the screeners’s shoulders pointed towards the halfline corner or a downward angle, creates a better pick and pop angle. This puts the screener’s defender in a bind to defend a handler dribbling downhill. A pop to the 3pt arc would create a nice passing angle.
Running the Scissor Action
The scissor action at the 3pt line is an easy screen to switch. This is because the screener is not a threat to slip to the rim. The cutter is cutting into the trajectory of the where the slip would come from. Unless you are running the scissor action to create this switch and then post the cutter, it is not one of my favorite actions.
Zone Offense vs. 2-3 zone
Get a corner cut by your point guard from the top of the key. Pin in the bottom forward and then flash from the opposite side to the high post area. This is an overload set, but especially effective because you put a lot of stress on the middle man of the zone. The high post jumper or the hi-lo to the screener should be open. The defensive adjustment would be to push over the backside guard to defend.
Offensive Rebounding
Take into consideration the risk-reward of offensive rebounding. Long rebounds off of perimeter jumpers are easy gateways for fast breaks for your opponent. While every team needs extra possessions, fast break points can create momentum especially in the post season. It is something you have to talk to your team about early in the season. Corner 3’s with a point guard are especially tricky when your wings are so accustomed to tracking rebounds.
Full Court Pressing
This is the time of year where every coach and team thinks they are a pressing team. This usually changes by January. The biggest reasons why teams give up points in full court pressing is a lack of discipline rotating on the back side. Covering down to the back side block is the simplest adjustment coaches can make to take away easy lay-ups. Perhaps that will keep teams in their pressing game plan a little longer before a coach throws in the towel and drops back into a zone.
Foul trouble is also a big reason why team’s stop pressing. Learning how to play without fouling is perhaps the most important defensive skill to obtain.
Archbishop Wood Offense
This team’s offense was a wonder to watch. Clearly these young women had practiced this system for years. Even perhaps as young as grade school. It is the Princeton offense in it’s purest form. But I chose to just write down some of the actions that would be easily translated into sets for other coaches. Here are some:
- Pass and get a flare screen
- Feed post & cut off of it
- Dribble out of the post and fill the post with a wing cut/flash (from the top of the key, from the weakside or the strongside wing)
- Feed post, fet flare screen
- Dribble out of the post, slip a screen from the top (after the area has been vacated by the dribbling handler)
- Dribble at action (backdoors)
- Pass wing to the top, low post flashes to the elbow
- Back cut and fill the top from behind
Perhaps I’ll diagram all of these one day, but for now I hope the notes inspire something for you.
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