Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut: 2022 Season

Phoenix Suns vs Dallas Mavericks Game 3 Adjustments

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 06 May 2022 09:00:44 GMT

The Phoenix Suns controlled both games 1 & 2 fairly easily facing the Dallas Mavericks and exposed the defense of both Doncic & Brunson in ways the Utah Jazz couldn’t. This doesn’t mean the Mavericks don’t have options or counters that they can go to, but the fact is that Doncic needs to be better on defense.

Offensively the Mavs aren’t having too many issues, with an offensive rating of 116.9 (CTG), although the Suns have done a great job limiting the small ball success compared to the Jazz.

Phoenix Suns Adjustment

The hardest thing about relatively easy wins in the first two games of any series is you are not the team that NEEDS to make changes. NBA coaching staffs constantly watch and prepare for adjustments the other team might throw at them like they are their opponents, so I am not expecting the Suns to be unprepared for what the Mavs might try. I anticipate the Suns' staff are going to prepare for traps & zone coverage from the Mavs defense, and multiple different looks to keep Luka out of the action.

Miami Heat vs Philadelphia 76ers Game 3 Adjustments

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 06 May 2022 03:05:27 GMT

Joel Embiid is out. That is obviously the biggest adjustment that would swing the series around, but with Shams reporting that he is out for game 3 - the series is looking bleak for the 76ers.

2022 NBA Playoffs X's & O's Preview

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 14:56:42 GMT

I created a quick-hitting breakdown of the 2022 NBA Playoffs & included every breakdown of teams below!

Boston Celtics vs Brooklyn Nets Series Preview

Half Court Hoops — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 01:30:14 GMT

When the Brooklyn Nets ended up with the 7 seed in the play-in tournament, that meant a first-round matchup with either the Heat, Celtics or Bucks - all teams I have on my title contender list - woul…

Purdue Boilermakers Chicago Counters

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 12:00:34 GMT

In the first breakdown, we looked at the basic “Chicago” action that Purdue runs most often as one of their favorite sets. They have 25+ counters out of this one action that Matt Painter has run and added over the last 5 years in my study of his playbook.

Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut

Purdue Boilermakers Chicago Set

Matt Painter’s playbook is deep, creative, and full of counters and specials to surprise defenses for easy scores. Over the next few breakdowns, we will look at the base sets they run most often with the counters in the next post. Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becomin…

4 years ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Half Court Hoops

I am only going to break down 12 of my favorite counters since they are the most common and my favorite counters that Purdue runs out of this action. For members of The Basketball Playbook, all of the entire playbook will be available in the next few days to watch and download the PDF.

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Chicago Triple

The first and my favorite counter is the triple screen for the player in the opposite corner. Once the guard comes off the chicago action the point guard cuts opposite and sets the first screen with the other two players following just outside the paint for the second and third screens for a shooter to look to score off.

Chicago Triple Exit

Purdue has not run this set that I have seen so far, but a tweak to the triple screen is to use it as a decoy. We can see below the player Edwards comes off the triple screen and then curls off the last screen into the lane.

The player who set the second screen in the middle of the floor then comes off a baseline exit screen catching the defense off guard.

Purdue Boilermakers Chicago Set

Half Court Hoops — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 12:00:36 GMT

Doc Rivers Steals a Set For James Harden

Half Court Hoops — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 12:00:38 GMT

The best coaches steal. It’s not a secret and in 2022 every team has access to every possession run since 2003 to watch online any time they want. When a team acquires a new player they will typicall…

Film Study: Memphis Grizzlies vs Minnesota Timberwolves

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 08:59:37 GMT

A breakdown of the great game between the Grizzlies & the Timberwolves, if you have any feedback let me know! I am going to be tweaking and constantly improving the process and look forward to doing …

Utah Jazz Pick & Roll Attack vs Trailblazers Hedging

Half Court Hoops — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 02:15:26 GMT

Tomorrow I have a breakdown of aggressive defense and it’s place in the modern NBA, and along the way I watched the Jazz completely destroy the Trailblazers hedging scheme. I used this for a film ses…

Brad Stevens "Winner" Set

Half Court Hoops — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:17:36 GMT

Brad Stevens “Winner” set has been one of the best sets at the end of games for not only his teams at Butler & Boston and is now being used and tweaked by almost every coach in every league. In this …

Film Room: Favorite Sets From The Early Season

Half Court Hoops — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 12:00:49 GMT

In the early NBA & NCAA season, I have seen a ton of sets that have caught my eye and wanted to break down some clever actions that I have really enjoyed. It can be tough finding great new actions bu…

The Chicago Bulls are running 5-Out without shooting 3's

Half Court Hoops — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 22:10:38 GMT

When Billy Donovan joined the Chicago Bulls last season he ran some 5-Out offensive action but overall the roster was not built to run 5-Out until the trade for Vucevic occurred. Then the Chicago Bulls brought in Lonzo Ball, Caruso, Demar Derozan in the offseason and gave Billy Donovan guards with the tools to add to Lavine, Vucevic, and Patrick Williams to run a flexible 5-Out offense like most of the modern teams are adapting for their base offense. Here is the catch: they are last in the NBA when it comes to 3 point frequency - they don’t shoot 3’s.

If you enjoy these in-depth breakdowns you can subscribe below, I did an 8 post series breakdown on 5-Out Offenses and I am going to continue to add to that throughout the season!

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Note: All of the stats referenced are from Cleaningtheglass.com & Synergy unless otherwise noted or referenced. There also have been some issues with videos and gifs not showing up correctly - please check the website version for best viewing.

Spacing

Since I did an in-depth breakdown of NBA spacing and how teams might teach and space the floor, I won’t spend too much time on this for the Bulls.

Post Breakdown: 5-Out Offensive Spacing

5-Out spacing is simple for them as they use Vucevic as a floor-spacing 5 that can pick and pop, spot up and also attack out of the 5-Out spacing on drives or for back down into post-ups.

The Bulls also “invert” the offense or when guards back down (also referred to as “Barkleys” in this breakdown) they have the big space the floor to the 3-point line so if any help comes they have 4 spaced 3 point threats but also attacking off the bounce when the defense is recovering.

Vucevic this year has been below average to start from a shooting aspect with the Bulls, ranking in the 25th percentile of pick and pop bigs - but overall he has typically ranged in the 70th percentile for pick and pop as well as attacking off the catch in spot-up opportunities. When you look at his cleaning the glass numbers, we can see that his 3-point shooting over the past 4 years has been in the 34-40% range, and this year he is only shooting 27% so far. If he shows more of what we expect from a pick and pop and 3 point shooting threat, the Bulls’ offensive spacing will become even more difficult to guard, even though his shooting is not lethal right now, the threat of the pick and pop still opens up the rim for the Bulls guards.

5-Out

To get a feel for the Bulls 5-Out offense here is an initial edit of their 5-Out flow and actions.

When Plays Don't Work: Timing & Design

Half Court Hoops — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:59:03 GMT

The New York Knicks ran a normal “Chin” set against the 76ers that resulted in a contested step-back long 2 - basically the worst shot in the NBA unless your name is Kevin Durant. In this breakdown, …

New Orleans Pelicans Horns Play For Brandon Ingram

Half Court Hoops — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 03:24:46 GMT

The New Orleans Pelicans are scoring 1.67 Points Per Possession when they run this play for Brandon Ingram. No, that is not a typo - a small sample of 15 possessions but the Pelicans are scoring at a…

Portland Trail Blazers Backscreen Baseline out of Bounds Play

Half Court Hoops — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 05:52:24 GMT

The Portland Trail Blazers under new coach Chauncey Billups are running some good offensive action out of baseline out of bounds - with the few examples we have to work with so far. Billups has tweak…

Phoenix Suns "Sit" action that prevents switching.

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 04:58:19 GMT

Designing plays in today’s NBA it is becoming increasingly difficult to get new actions or concepts that haven’t existed before. These coaches are some of the brightest minds in the world and with sc…

New York Knicks use Spain action to beat the Celtics

Half Court Hoops — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 04:15:45 GMT

The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics in a grueling, awesome, double-overtime thriller in their season opener. Late in the game, after the Celtics went up by 1 the Knicks called a timeout and r…

Milwaukee Bucks "Ghost" vs Switching

Half Court Hoops — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 03:53:12 GMT

There are a couple of different philosophies when it comes to attacking switching defenses, and the primary way for NBA teams is to get the mismatch you want and then attack 1 on 1. Overall the 3 mai…