When it comes to coaches, we're generally quite an opinionated bunch... almost every coach I speak to has a "go-to" offence against different defences (it's one of the reasons we didn't want to be another site offering basketball plays for coaches!).

But when I speak to less-experienced coaches, while they're equally apt to fall in love with a motion or action that they've seen, they're sometimes not too sure how to go about getting their team to run it, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to work through some of the steps I've previously used with my teams to help them to embed a new offence.

Breakdown Drills
For me, everything on the offensive end starts here...

If you cannot break the set down into certain actions giving multiple options for a shooting drill, it's probably not a very effective play!

Think about ways to break the play down into the actions you want, and get every player reps in every part of these actions - as this will help everyone to embed the offence more quickly.

On-Air Work
I absolutely realise that on-air work is less than ideal in terms of building decision-making, but I'm still yet to see a better way to simply introduce structure.

We generally move from the breakdown into the "flow" of the offence in a short (5-10 minute max) "on-air" section of our practice.

Overload Work
Before we're ready to run with the offence, we need to build some decision-making into it.  As coaches, we have to accept a certain element of chaos in whatever we're running, purely because we cannot account for the actions of the defence.

I like to work with 3 defenders playing "semi-live".  In this context, I mean they're encouraged to get into passing lanes, close out to the ball, contest shots and box out - but not to chase steals, block shots, etc... this is because I want my players to see the potential obstacles they'll face in the game with the confidence that they can still beat it - remember, at this stage, we're still learning the offence and "feeling it out".

High Reps
To help us to embed the offence, we normally move into "up-downs" - going up the court either "on air" (but conditioned to run a fixed number of passes / ball reversals / a certain action) or in a semi-live overload situation (as above), before coming back down court against a full team of players.

We find that mixing it up like this (and giving two offences for every full defensive possession) really helps us to understand where the defence is likely to cheat, if there are any pinch points in the offence and where the gaps are.

Conditioned Scrimmage
I'm a big fan of conditioned scrimmages in most training sessions, so having one where we're implementing an offence likely won't surprise any of the players I've worked with before!

While I see a lot of coaches go to the "minimum number of passes/ball reversals" (and I believe this has merits), I feel there always has to be a "real game" feel to scrimmaging, while still rewarding the team for improving their execution, so we always set the tone that every competitive drill has a defensive focus on it... we want to develop a team who compete for stops.

Other ways I've done this before is to add a point for every ball reversal or pass before a basket - which naturally adds an element of competition (after all, a layup after multiple passes suddenly becomes more valuable than a three).  Another way of adding the "game real" element is to return the ball to the attacking team on a fast-break score, or if they manage to get an uncontested layup within the number of passes we desire - as this really ramps up the defensive intensity.

Training Timeouts
During scrimmages, I regularly give teams a 30-60 second timeout to discuss what's going on.  It's important to me that these interactions are player led (although I often have an Assistant Coach monitor them and steer the conversation, where necessary - particularly early in the season).

One way I've changed this up recently (after listening to a podcast with Coach Alan Keane) is to have the players ask whether they've committed to the game plan (ie: appropriately running the offence and defence) - if the players cannot honestly answer "yes", they forfeit the timeout... because we don't want to spend time and energy focusing on fixing poor behaviours.

Live Scrimmage
Finally, we move into running the offence in a live environment, (generally) free of conditions - and hopefully, we've got it down!

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The "Two Minutes of Hell" drill is designed to get your team a lot of finishing practice under time pressure, whilst also working on conditioning and 

We start with two queues on the sideline without basketballs and two players under one basket with one basketball each.

We pass the ball to the nearest queue, and they pass it onto the next queue (with the passer joining the queue).  Meanwhile, the player who started with the ball has been sprinting hard towards the opposite basket - they receive a pass and finish with the layup.

The passer crashes the glass, getting the rebound before it hits the floor, while the shooter sets off towards the opposite hoop.

The rebounder has to pass the ball ahead before they cross the foul line, throwing a "quarterback pass" (planting the outside foot and throwing with the outside hand) for the lead player to take their second layup.  They have to follow their pass to get the rebound - outletting it to the first queue and becoming the shooter.

We run the drill for two minutes each side, keeping track of the score (and misses!) to set a standard compete against in future sessions.

It's essential that this drill is run at MAXIMUM pace throughout and that the players on the sideline without a basketball are encouraging throughout - that way we ensure that the standard is set at the highest level early in the season, and we have to compete against that standard every time the drill is run.

You can find our curriculum of team session plans, and our Drill Bible in our webstore; you can also get in touch with one of our coaches to book a ONE2ONE Basketball workout!

My first two "In Focus" pieces zoomed-in on undoubted first ballot hall-of-famers in KG and Tim Duncan - in my opinion two of the finest power forwards to ever grace the game.

So it might surprise some people that the next player that sprung to mind for me was someone who averaged double-digit points per game just once in his career.  In fact, for some of the younger readers out there, they may not even know who the man known as "Casa" is...

Eddie House was (perhaps generously) listed at 6'1", stocky built, rocking a headband, tattoos and baggy shorts, and was a streaky scorer - fluctating between being "Mr Irrational Confidence" and a walking bucket (as could be seen as he is one of only twenty-one players to-date to have scored 60 or more points in an NCAA Division 1 game).

He had a habit of shooting first, second and third - and asking questions only when absolutely necessary.  Whilst I won't pretend I ever played at anything close to that level, there were times I'm sure that my team-mates may have thought my game carried somewhat of a resemblence to Mr House's...

Full disclaimer - I do own an Eddie House autographed picture.  I did post angry things on social media when Danny Ainge traded Eddie away for Nate Robinson, and I did get a very strange look in the NBA store when I asked their staff to look out back for an authentic Celtics Eddie House jersey (they were, to my amazement - not theirs - "out of stock").

And that's why it's easy for me to zoom in on him - because of my familiarity with him, and because (despite his flaws as a player) I think Eddie House is a superb role player and role model for all basketball players...

Do What You Do Well, Often:
The NBA in 2019 is far removed from the league at the turn of the century - when seven footers who couldn't post up weren't considered "unicorns" as much as "soft" or even "a bust".

Talent evaluators were similarly size-ist (or at the very least "traditional") in looking at smaller guards... while Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury (amongst others) had turned the point guard position into a shoot-first role, the ability to handle a ball and create for others remained a pre-requisite for the position.  When looking at shooting guards, shooting ability was considered a must, but the assumption remained that Michael Jordan was the prototype, and that everybody needed a 6'6", 200lb hyper-athletic wing.  

House was neither a creator, nor 6'6".

House's handles were (at best) adequate - but he was absolutely not a "traditional" point guard (despite being frequently listed as one), even if he did average 3.3 assists per game in college, his 1.1 apg career average in the league seems to support my assertions, as does him being voted the worst ball-handling guard in the league in a player poll during his prime!

Eddie House simply did not allow what he could not do take away from what he could do at a high level.  House was a scorer and a superb long-range shooter - so he hung his hat on those skills, a career 39% three-point shooter and 85% free-throw shooter, he was constantly called-upon in clutch moments by his team to be on the floor - even if he didn't always get the last shot, that he was one of the players so frequently trusted by his coaches and team-mates speaks volumes... Believe in yourself!


Know Your Role:
Despite being a second round pick without a guaranteed rookie contract, Eddie House played in the league for eleven seasons, earning PT in 717 games - he started just 31 of them (good for about 4% of his career).  However, he averaged over seventeen minutes per game - the equivalent of over one-third of the available playing time for an NBA player.

It wasn't always like this... Eddie House was once the key player for the Arizona State Sundevils.  He started 114 of his 124 games (92% start rate) and played almost 34 minutes per game through his career (84% of available playing time).

Coach Belichick of the New England Patriots is famous for telling his players to "Do Your Job".  Some players have the job where they take twenty shots a night, and make $20 million a season.  Others get DNP-CD's and earn league minimum.  While it's clear that we'd all prefer one job to the other, the allocation of the "superstar" role tends to be based primarily on merit and ability - rather than personal preference.

House quickly understood that in order to stay in the league you had to earn your time, know your role and maximise your impact in it, so he made a career being one of the hardest workers in training, supporting his team-mates loudly, talking trash and waiting for his number to get called...

Be Prepared, Stay Ready:
Having been signed as a key bench contributor for the Celtics in the summer of 2008, some were surprised when House lost his spot in the rotation to Sam Cassell going into the playoffs, as the side searched for a more experienced, traditional point guard to back up Rajon Rondo.

Despite not earning regular minutes for several weeks, down twenty-four points in the first half of game four of the NBA Finals against the LA Lakers, the Celtics turned to House - along with other key bench players - and were rewarded as House's hustle (and two three's) keyed a 21-3 run that turned into the biggest comeback win in finals history, and gave the C's a 3-1 lead en route to their seventeenth title.

The lesson? It's better to be prepared in case you're needed, than to be needed and not prepared.

That Casa stayed ready is a massive reason as to why he has a championship ring, and was beloved by fans and team-mates in Boston.

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Chaos is an inevitable part of basketball.

Even the most well-drilled and poised team will regularly veer away from the X's and O's, as the game is so reliant on players surveying what is happening, and reacting to it.

This drill aims to amplify the chaos of a game, by adding a basketball and taking away one player from each side.

We have a coach on the baseline and at mid-court with a ball each, and two minutes on the clock.

The attacking team continues to play offence for the entire two minute period.  

In the event that they score, the ball goes out of bounds or the defence gains possession, the ball is returned to the coach without the ball as quickly as possible.

The coach with the ball can put the ball in to any attacker once the ball has been returned to the other coach.  We earn points on scores (and add one point for any foul conceded).

This helps your defence to understand the need to communicate constantly and make multiple efforts on defensive possessions.

We're not the first coaches to say "train hard, play easy", but believe that this drill will help embed that belief into your team, whilst also readying your players for the inevitable chaos that comes in-game.

If you'd like to purchase more drills from us, visit our webstore, where our Drill Bible and Session Plans are available.  Alternatively, you can book a ONE2ONE Basketball Coach for a workout here.

'From the Celtics, to the Heat, the Cavaliers, and the Warriors. Super Teams have dominated the NBA in recent history.  Those four teams alone have combined to win seven of the last ten championships.
 
Super Teams in today’s game are good for business.  Ratings and interest in the NBA during the 2017 finals were highest it has been since the Jordan era, with the consistent power struggle of LeBron and co challenged by Golden State who seem to be at the heart of it.
 
So why are we seeing the leagues best players joining forces??  Well I think there are few factors that I want to talk about.  The first and the most obvious is quite simply down to friendships.

Over the last several years we have seen through social media the relationships of these players. Particularly in the off season when they team up for National Team Duty or where they get together to work out and play pick up. And so its understandable and natural that during these times that respect and bonds are forged as friendships that then allows for communication and the idea of teaming up.
 
We saw it with Boston’s Big 3 with KG, Pierce and Allen, then we Saw it in Miami with Wade, LeBron and Bosh more recently in Golden State, now in Cleveland with LeBron and the players he is able to attract. To Oklahoma’s recent acquisitions of Melo and Paul George teaming up with the league's regular season MVP.