Lokomotiv: Stretch 5

Foto: Euroleague.net

Definitely, the use of this "stretch 5" strategy has been one of the reasons for Lokomotiv Kuban to make it all the way to Berlin. It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments will be made to fight it in the Final Four.

We saw different ways to get advantages through Anthony Randoph during the play off against F.C. Barcelona, let’s take a look at some of them:

Pretty basic, when all five Lokomotiv players are placed beyond the three point line, creating so many three point threats, there is a lot of room to drive and it is kind of risky to help on penetrations. If Randolph’s defender helps, the opportunity is right there for the kick out pass. Once he gets the ball, the right decision making will end up with shots, penetrations against close outs, or extra passes to beat defensive rotations.

Side screen situations: We are used to “fours” popping after setting ball screens. Not so much to “fives” having that shooting range. Loko often clears the corner and short corner for Randolph to pop to that area. Another shooting threat will be usually placed one pass away from the ball (weak side elbow, three point line on top) making helps on the ball screen situation even harder. 

More side screen, now looking for weak side actions: When Randolph's defender doesn’t help, the weak side defenders need to give a hand on the ball screen defense. Movement without the ball is the key now. Weak side cuts are extremely dangerous for the defense. As we see in the second clip, the skip pass is also used to punish defensive rotations.

Middle screen situations: Randoph’s pop creates a superiority right after the ball is passed. Quick shot or pass against defensive rotation. If the defenders hesitate or are late… the dagger will fly.

Finally, one of the sets they run to free Randolph for a wide open shot, with a hand off followed by an off ball screen. Once again, he will decide either to shoot, drive, give an extra pass against rotations or run the set all the way and play one more hand off / side screen. As we see in the last clip, even if the execution is not perfect (they don't play the initial hand off, don't set the small - big off ball screen) the  key idea remains the same, Randolph wide open and taking care of business. 

The Final Four starts tomorrow, let's get ready for some of the best basketball moments of the year.

CSKA Switching

Photo: Euroleague.net

I won’t pretend to explain a defensive game plan because not having enough information about it, but I can show you some details of CSKA’s defense during the third play off game against Red Star. If you want to get a deeper understanding, my advice is to analyze those three games to find out how it works.

There’s an old saying in basketball “the best man to man defense looks like a zone and the best zone defense looks like a man to man”. That could be the idea behind the defense we saw in the mentioned game. We can argue about the way we call it (switching man to man, flexible zone, mutant defense) but there’s no need to go crazy about it. 

In my opinion, CSKA has the personnel to try this kind of switching defense. Their physicality and size allow them to go for it not giving up a lot of advantages to their rivals. But there’s another idea we should keep in mind. The defense’s “first stone” is not the switching, but the 1 on 1 and team communication. Bigs need to make efforts to guard smalls and smalls need to be really aggressive, as they will find themselves in a quick mismatch situation quite often. Then, the focus to switch or rotate when needed is also a must.

Also, the scouting work matters, Red Star use very often “horns” situations, as well as quick side screens. This switching defense may create problems and definitely slow down the rhythm of the offense. 

Some of the rules they appear to be following:

They place a “big” on top of their defense (Kurbanov, Nichols)

They switch high ball screens avoiding an advantage for the “roll man”, and try to keep a small guarding the ball after the first switch. 

Continuous attention to the ball’s position and players’ movements

Be aware of cuts, to follow and/or rotate, trying to stay in the same lines. "Smalls" defending outside spaces, "bigs" close to the basket.

Sag off from your man when the ball goes inside

If the mismatch finally happens: FIGHT IT. No easy penetration, no uncontested shots, no easy passes inside (defender in front) Off ball activity.

Let’s take a look: 

ACB Final Games 1 & 2: Review

While we wait for the third game of the finals, let's take a look at what happened in the first two, and let's try to find out if Barcelona can find arguments to avoid the 3-0.

It's clear that Real Madrid was (one more time) a well oiled scoring machine in game 2. But, it is also true that their defensive activity was better than in the first game. You can't isolate one side of the game and consider it the only reason why a game is won or lost. But a quick first look at both games box scores show that FCB scored 40 points at halftime in game 1, and 32 in game 2. Of course we would need possession data to get better accuracy, but as a sign it is interesting.

Let's take a look at some details we saw during the first two games of the Final:

FCB found some good looks in low post for their bigs

and also for DeShaun Thomas, who is being their main option at the beginning of the games:

Here we see how he attracts the defense and finds Lampe beyond the three point line.

In the second game, Real played more aggressive to stop these options, with quick defensive reactions, with good team work collapsing the paint, more contact, and even using some fouls. Good overall defensive focus, which helped setting the tone of the game, as we can see:

I wrote about mismatch situations some weeks ago. They are becoming more and more important. In the first game we saw how both Real and Barça scored off the mismatch.

In the second, Real Madrid bled Barcelona with these situations, specially during the first two quarters. Even when they decided not to exploit the first advantage they just created, they ended up scoring (opposite side, Carroll's pull up jumper)

Also, they have been getting stops against mismatches in a regular basis during these two games. As I mentioned before, using their fouls wisely helps setting the defensive level. Another example of individual commitment and team work.

Focusing on the offensive face now, we've seen FCB scoring inside, and this will be important for the "blaugrana" team. As important or more will be to diminish Real's inside points.

Which won't be easy because Real's outside threats are huge, but FCB should try to find their way on  defense. In the first two games we saw some good actions, along with some others not so good or plain bad. Real Madrid is punishing almost every single mistake (one on one, help side, defensive rebounds) 

Both teams will try to find as many wide open shots as possible. As we saw in the first game and in one of the last clips from the second one, three point shots coming off offensive rebounds are a good "easy" points source:

FCB will be looking for reasons to be optimistic, one should be Doellman and Hezonja's spacing in ball screen situations. They are creating a good amount of opportunities, both players are shooting well and will probably be confident in the third game. 

Let's hope to see a very good third game, and may the best team win!

Final Four 2015: Cool Goudelock Down

Photo: Euroleague.net

A lot has been said about Real Madrid's offense in the semifinal against Fenerbahce. Not so much about some defensive details during that game. It is clear that their offense was flowing big time, the ball movement was great, they shared it the right way, the quality of the passing absolutely delicious… But they did some good things on the other half of the court too.

Let's take a look at how they cut Andrew Goudelock's rhythm during the first two quarters of the game. But first one more example about something we've been talking about lately, numbers. You can check Goudelock's points and immediately think that he was dominant (34 minutes, 26 points, 9/11 2PT, 2/6 3PT) But, if you want to dig a little bit more, you will find out how at the end of the second quarter, he had 6 points (2/3 2PT, 0/4 3PT) while his team was trailing by 20 (55-35) and the game was really far from where Fenerbahce would have wanted at that moment…

From the outside, and not knowing first hand what was Real's game plan, it looks like they paid good attention on Goudelock, probably the best 1x1 player in the competition. Let's take a look at some clips:

In the first video, we can see Fenerbahce playing one of their most frequently used sets. They set a down screen and then they play a hand off pass. Not only the player guarding Goudelock is committed to the task in hand, but also the other players are really aggressive. Real gave up some other options while trying to decrease Goudelock's production, which is normal when you focus in one player.

I was talking about cooperation to stop Goudelock before. In the next video we see that team work again. Two clips in which we can see up to three of Real's players (and in the first clip, a fourth giving a hand too) guarding Goudelock in the same play. Yes, he scores in the second one, but every effort counts and they keep making his life a little bit harder with their defense.

More examples, hand off and ball screen situations. We see how the screener's defender is aggressive to stop Goudelock. Aggressive hedging, and again, it is clear that they rather prefer other players to have the scoring opportunities. Help side defenders work against those other options, trying to avoid the easy shot, forcing some drives, rotating…

The last clip might seem naïve, but it is not. A "no helping" policy is advisable when facing some players. It appears Real Madrid decided to use that strategy with Goudelock. There were some actions where helping would have been a right move in a normal situation, but the defender decided not to. Take a look at the next clip.

So let me ask for your opinion: Was Goudelock's defense a success?

P.S.: You can check all of Goudelock's first half actions, here.

Final Four 2015: Teodosic

Photo: Euroleague.net

There has been some controversy around Teodosic's performance in the semifinal between Olympiacos and CSKA.

I've said this before and it won't be the last time, we, the people, try to find an explanation for victories and defeats, so it is quite normal to hear "this player lost the game" "this player won the game" or "that turnover was the key" and also "the missed three point shots were decisive"... The use of some statistics, or taking a couple of isolated actions appear to be enough to find that explanation we need to feel "we know" what happened and why.

From a coach's point of view, and we have many different examples, the performance of your team rely on many different aspects. And the influence of a player in the development of the game goes, for example, way beyond the points he scores.

Playing the devil's advocate I'm throwing two single numbers in support of Teodosic: he scored 6 of CSKA's 17 points in the last quarter. That's 35% of their total points in the last quarter. 

These are Teodosic's offensive actions during the last quarter, those in which he was handling the ball - finishing his team's actions. There was some talking about "ball stopping" and it is clear that he forced some situations (something that Spanoulis did, too… being the outcome the main difference between some of them) but we should review the other four players movement (or lack of) and the spacing they have in some of those actions (not really helpful)

On the other side of the court, we can ask ourselves if Olympiacos' rule was to attack Teodosic, not being his defensive skills his main strength. It looks like he gives up a couple of fouls without a big defensive effort. In the second clip he gives his man a big distance so the pass is easy (and this is quite common when he plays defense on the ball handler)

The way things work on a team, a coach must consider a number of plus and minuses of his players, who is on the court, what is each one giving to the team, the game situation, will he attract the defenders to create opportunities for the other players (there are many different things to think about) and then make a decision about who is playing in a specific moment. But the beauty of sport is also in the decision making, sometimes the right decision looks like a mistake, and sometimes a "crazy" move from the coach ends up working… Sometimes you just need to keep it simple instead of "over coaching"… 

But remember, "after the battle everyone's a good general".

Final Four 2015: Ball Screen Defense - Switch

Photo: Euroleague.net

I'll be posting in the next days some details we saw during the Euroleague Final Four. In my opinion, it's been an amazing weekend for European basketball, with really good basketball and a good dose of thriller... 

We've been talking about the 21st century basketball for a while, its evolution, the way our sport is going… Maybe this Final Four has been a clear example about the "new basketball" we are going to see. 

I'm talking about defense now, and specifically about switching against (ball) screens. Will this become the main defensive rule in the years to come?

During the semifinal between Olympiacos and CSKA, we saw how that defense was extensively used by both teams. I bring today two short videos with the teams scoring... 

...and getting stops. 

Both single (between the two players directly involved in the screen) and multiple (different rotations to avoid mismatches) switching options were played during the game. It's no surprise that many teams are building their rosters with this idea in mind, trying to find players as physical as possible, capable to play solid defense in different situations. Other teams work on ways to switch with "smaller personnel", and still cut the offense's rhythm. 

What's your opinion, are we going to watch more and more switching? 

Nordic Championship - Solna 2015

While the biggest names of our basketball were in Madrid, for the Adidas Next Generation Tournament, and Euroleague F4, last week I had the opportunity to watch live the Nordic Basketball Championship. Well known by many scouts and GM's who often find good prospects there, this tournament brought together the U16 and U18 generations from Sweden (organizers), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia and Denmark. Also Estonia and Sweden U20 played two games during the weekend. 

The terrible news about Rasmus Larsen passing away struck everyone in Solnahallen, where so many people who knew him well and saw him play in this same tournament were devastated. Everyone had nice things to remember about the young player.

About the tournament, from an outsider's point of view, along with a lot of comments heard, it may seem there wasn't as much talent as in past editions. Lauri Markkanen, considered by Eurohopes as one of the best 20 players from 1997, was injured and couldn't play. But from a coach's point of view, I've seen many players which, considering my experience coaching in European leagues (Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal, Spanish LEBs), will be ready to play at a good level (or very good) if they have the right development and work properly during the next seasons. 

NBA prospects? probably not, but for sure there were kids whose talent, size, or both, put them in a very good position to keep growing as players and to fight to reach Top European competitions. At least one of the players we saw is been already recruited by Joventut Badalona, so we will see him in Spain pretty soon. 

The basketball was high paced (with a couple of "run and gun" teams) with some full court press teams, more 2-3 zone than I'd like (mostly because of the low intensity and execution mistakes), teams showing good spacing when playing pick and roll situations, lots of three point shots, and not too many situations to feed the big players, which surprises me as some of them had a clear advantage inside. 

One of the main problems (I've been finding it in different countries and Championships, as the U18 Spanish I watched two weeks ago, for example) is the passing quality. Youth teams coaches should give much more emphasis to the pass. Talent shouldn't be the only factor to have good passers in our sport and my perception is we need a lot to work to develop this fundamental skill. 

Overall, a really good experience, many names in my agenda to follow for the next seasons, and an appointment for the future editions of an exciting tournament.