Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut: 2022 NBA Finals

Rob Williams Changes Game 3 For The Celtics

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:57:47 GMT

I loved how Rob Williams dominated game 3, he was able to defend the ballscreen better than anyone on the Celtics and protect the rim at a high level. Travel microphone, so the audio isn’t ideal - still working out some kinks!

Enjoy!

Coach Pyper

Warriors vs Celtics Game 2 Breakdown

Half Court Hoops — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 23:34:15 GMT

Let me know your thoughts on game 2 & what you anticipate going forward!

Still dealing with feeling sick for the last few days, going to re-record game 1 & edit it for tomorrow - unfortunately, Flu-Ga…

How The Golden State Warriors Defense Stopped "LukaBall"

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 27 May 2022 16:34:25 GMT

The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Jazz & the Suns by spreading the floor running 5-Out offense and hunting the weakest defenders on the court. This nullified the greatest strength of the Utah Jazz defense and Rudy Gobert’s rim protection and Mikal Bridges’ elite defensive ability. In order to understand what this offensive system designed around “LukaBall” is, why it took down two top-10 defenses and how the Warriors’ biggest adjustment was able to shut it down.

I finished up the annual 2022 NCAA Tournament Playbook, with over 2000 plays and 15 hours of film that is now available for sale.

2022 NCAA Tournament Playbook

Note: This is best viewed on the Substack app.

The entire goal of “LukaBall” is centered around the brilliance of Luka Doncic and how he is essentially unguardable no matter how good of a job you do on him (we’ll get to Wiggins’ amazing defense on Luka in a bit). What the Mavericks look to do is find your weakest defender and put him in ballscreen defense to get him switched onto Luka, then space the floor in 5-Out spacing to maximize Luka’s talent.

A good example of 5-Out spacing.

Players like Chris Paul, Cam Johnson, Donovan Mitchell & Jordan Clarkson were all the targets of the Mavericks in the first two rounds that Luka was able to get them switched and ruin their defensive gameplans.

Teams were willing to give Luka the switch he wanted.

Not only did Luka get the weaker defenders switched, but teams willingly gave them the switch instead of fighting over or changing any of their coverages. The main look teams tried was to “Switch & Blitz” to get the ball out of his hands, but put them in direct rotation as well.

Suns “Switch & Blitz” forces rotation and Brunson attacks a closeout for the layup.

A great breakdown on the Mavs offense from Ben Taylor (Thinking Basketball).

The Warriors’ defensive game plan was based on stopping this 5-Out offense not by taking away 3’s or even trying to stop Luka from scoring but by stopping the Mavs with a combination of creative well-executed schemes and consistently showing Luka different looks.

Matching Wiggins Minutes

Kerr & the Warriors staff tried Klay on Luka for about 2 possessions in game 2, and that’s all it took for the decision to be made: Wiggins will match Luka’s minutes the rest of the series.

Miscommunication in Box & 1 led to Luka’s dunk.

Luka puts Steph in BS defense again, then hits Klay with a reject for a layup.

Luka comes out, Wiggins comes out, Luka goes back & Wiggins goes back. Wiggins has done about as good of a job as anybody in the NBA trying to slow Luka down 1 on 1, and contesting with physicality and not fouling is no easy task.

Picking Up Full Court

Golden State vs Dallas Mavericks Game 2 Breakdown

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 21 May 2022 22:09:39 GMT

Trying out a new “video podcast” longer breakdowns including some thoughts through film - let me know your thoughts!

Coach Pyper

Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks Series Preview

Half Court Hoops — Tue, 17 May 2022 18:55:07 GMT

After a tumultuous series with the tough Memphis Grizzlies (is tumultuous the right word for being blown out by 40 without Ja Morant?), the Warriors closed out game 6 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals to face the Mavericks. There were several interesting developments throughout the series against both the Nuggets & Grizzlies, but the main thing is that the trio of Klay/Steph/Draymond under Kerr still haven’t lost a playoff series outside of the NBA Finals.

The Mavericks destroyed the Suns in game 7 to win their series after both teams defended home court behind a ridiculous first half from Luka & a big game from Dinwiddie. Even with Luka missing the first 2 games of the Jazz series, they closed out the Jazz in 6 and again showcased the struggles against playing 5-Out. Showcasing an elite defensive gameplan to slow down both Chris Paul & Devin Booker throughout the series in combination with their ability to play 5-Out offense around one of, if not the best, scorers and playmakers in the NBA in Luka Doncic.

Throughout this breakdown, I will be referencing different terms, concepts, and techniques that I will not be going in-depth on. If you would like to learn more and explore the advanced strategies of basketball, check out the learn basketball course for a detailed breakdown of the basics to the most technical concepts that NBA Playoff teams will be using.

Learn Basketball Course

I also finished up the annual 2022 NCAA Tournament Playbook, with over 2000 plays and 15 hours of film that is now available for sale.

2022 NCAA Tournament Playbook

If you want a deeper exploration of the Warriors’ motion offense & concepts, check out my clinic breakdown of their offense.

Golden State Warriors Motion Offense Clinic

Golden State Offense vs Dallas Mavericks Defense

Like the Mavericks the Warriors have played 5-out as their primary offense this postseason, especially after switching to starting Draymond at the 5 and having Looney come off the bench. Although similar the ways they attack are completely different, with the Mavericks Lukaball offense centered around finding the mismatch and switched to allow Luka to exploit them to score as well as create for others. The Warriors’ offense is designed around motion, movement, and allowing their concepts to take advantage of the mismatches naturally. Kerr has talked about not specifically attacking mismatches and weak spots before and how they prefer to let their offense run and not get themselves caught up in hunting for mismatches.

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While this general philosophy holds true, they will still put the defense in compromising situations by involving those weaker players in the main actions of their offense - typically with a ballscreen - but could be off-ball screening action and hand-offs.

During the regular season, the Warriors’ motion runs itself because teams will not focus on how to defend them as intensely and detailed as they will during a 7 game playoff series. In the playoffs, it can get bogged down by great switching and length, but also due to lack of playmaking outside of Draymond. Steph & Poole are incredibly gifted scorers but playmaking seems to come second or as a byproduct of their attention vs setting up teammates for success.

What makes the Warriors’ offense a really tough matchup is their ability to play small with Draymond at the 5 as their primary handler and creator, surrounded by high IQ shooters and screeners. Draymond's ability to "Bust Out" or grab the ball off a make or miss and push the tempo to create early advantages or cross matches makes the defense pay attention from the very second the Warriors have the ball.

Often times in these scenarios you can see Draymond directing traffic and emploring guys to run ahead of him for these chances, and with their transition spacing running shooters to the corners this opens up the floor for cuts and passes ahead for driving opportunities.

Golden State Warriors "Thumb Out"

Half Court Hoops — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 12:00:37 GMT

Steve Kerr and his Warriors playbook has always been creative, innovative, and perfect in designing plays for each roster he has. Whether it is designing lob sets for his best athletes or taking adva…

Boston Celtics ATOs: Wide Series

Half Court Hoops — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 20:30:42 GMT

The seventh part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Wide Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together a series of plays out of the same formation to disguise and surprise the defense.

Part 1: Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Part 2: Boston Celtics ATOs: Iverson Series

Part 3: Boston Celtics ATOs: Dive Series

Part 4: Boston Celtics ATOs: Delay Series

Part 5: Boston Celtics ATOs: Horns Series

Part 6: Boston Celtics ATOs: Ram Series

I discussed in depth the basic Wide action in 5-Out and the evolution from the Spurs motion into a 5-Out concept that has become a basic staple of every NBA team’s offense early in the year.

Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut

NBA 5-Out Offense: Wide

The NBA has switched over to running 5-Out as their main offensive system with the space & pace aspects of modern basketball shaping the way possessions unfold. While this is not the exact system that every single team runs, the evolution of the Spurs offense combined with Mike Budenholzer’s offensive genius has created this go-to action…

5 years ago · 6 likes · Half Court Hoops

This can be designed and tweaked in After Time Outs more and more since this basic action is run often and will be on the scouting report as part of a teams early offense.

Wide

The basic action is simple, a big in the middle of the floor is going to screen for the opposite wing looking for a catch and shoot opportunity and then flow into a spread pick and roll.

Wide Slip

Designing plays against specific teams can be beneficial, since the Raptors play aggressively on defense and switch actions the Celtics fake this Wide action and slip Williams to the rim into the lane looking for a lob. They ended up getting the Raptors twice on it this year in 2 different games.

Wide Spain

Boston Celtics ATOs: Ram Series

Half Court Hoops — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 20:30:44 GMT

The sixth part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Ram Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together a series of plays out of the same formation to disguise and surprise the defense.

Part 1: Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Part 2: Boston Celtics ATOs: Iverson Series

Part 3: Boston Celtics ATOs: Dive Series

Part 4: Boston Celtics ATOs: Delay Series

Part 5: Boston Celtics ATOs: Horns Series

I use the term “Ram” for when a guard sets a screen down on a big normally in the middle of the lane before a secondary action. First seeing this from Shaka Smart at VCU (Billy Donovan ran this at Florida before as well), I took that Ram term for this basic action.

The majority of the sets that are triggered with Ram action are going to flow into a ballscreen, but there are some examples where the Ram screen is a setup to get the big the ball with less pressure.

Ram Spread

One of the most basic actions to create bad coverage when running Spread Pick & Roll is to have a guard screen down first with the Ram screen and then have the big sprint into a pick and roll.

If teams are playing more aggressively or to create a tougher angle for the big defending, Ram action works really well to give the offense a slightly better chance to execute.

Ram Spain

Boston Celtics ATOs: Horns Series

Half Court Hoops — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 20:30:37 GMT

The fifth part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Horns Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together a series of plays out of the same for…

Boston Celtics ATOs: Delay Series

Half Court Hoops — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:30:38 GMT

The fourth part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Dive Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together a series of plays out of the same formation to disguise and surprise the defense.

Part 1: Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Part 2: Boston Celtics ATOs: Iverson Series

Part 3: Boston Celtics ATOs: Dive Series

I did a complete breakdown on the Delay series in the NBA and it’s origins and influences from the D’Antoni Suns and the current Golden State Warriors, so it is no surprise to see the Celtics run this action like most NBA teams.

Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut

NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay

The next evolution of our 5-Out NBA Offense study is the basic setup of 5-Out and allow players to read and react with the ball entered to a player (typically a big) in the middle of the floor. Starting this week I will be diving deeper into team and player-specific breakdowns that will be more in-depth for paid subscribers, as well as the final 5 posts of the…

4 years ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Half Court Hoops

Starting out is simple - space in 5-Out and have the ball entered into the middle of the floor.

Boston Celtics ATOs: Dive Series

Half Court Hoops — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:30:38 GMT

The third part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Dive Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together a series of plays out of the same formation to disguise and surprise the defense.

Part 1: Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Part 2: Boston Celtics ATOs: Iverson Series

The Boston Celtics “Dive” series is inspired by the Spurs dive action as the basic entry to push the trailer into the lane and have the big low come up and ballscreen at the top of the key. As offenses evolved in the NBA, it has now become a trigger for multiple actions and counters.

An example of the Spurs running similar After Time Out counters like in this flare play for Tony Parker to start a game in the 2006-07 season.

This is a play that Budenholzer ran all the time in Atlanta in his motion offense inspired by the Spurs as well:

Boston Celtics ATOs: Iverson Series

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:00:38 GMT

The second part of the focus on the Celtics After Time Out playbook is going to be their Iverson Series. Just like football, basketball coaches like to put together series of plays out of the same formation to disguise and surprise the defense.

Part 1: Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Out of their Iverson Series, the play will start off with a player - normally a guard - cutting over the top of two players around the elbows from wing to wing.

Boston Celtics ATOs: Creative Guard Design

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:16:57 GMT

The Boston Celtics are currently the #1 team in the NBA in After Time Out scenarios scoring 1.01 PPP currently. After Time Out data is wildly inconsistent without hand-tracking but I always love the …

Screen For Steph Curry & You Will Score

Half Court Hoops — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 12:00:59 GMT

The Golden State Warriors’ beautiful offensive system is predicated on ball movement, player movement with high IQ passing, and screening to open up easier scoring opportunities off of screens and cutting. All of this is made possible by having the two greatest shooting threats of all time - Klay Thompson and Steph Curry - who are both willing to get off the ball and move to create more scoring chances for not only themselves but teammates as well.

One of the main changes that Steve Kerr and his staff made when he took over was the freedom through designed actions with passing and screening being the main focus of the offense. The Warriors have ranked in the top 5 every year in the % of their scores off of cuts and screens - 2 of the most efficient play types that teams in the NBA score off of besides transition offense/primary break.

Off Screen

14-15 Offf Screen 8.8% (1st) / 0.94 PPP (7th)

15-16 Off Screen 12% (1st) / 1.06 PPP (2nd)

16-17 Off Screen 13% (1st) / 1.04 PPP (3rd)

17-18 Off Screen 12% (1st) / 1.13 PPP (1st)

18-19 Off Screen 12% (1st) / 1.13 PPP (1st)

19-20 Off Screen 8.3% (1st) / 0.94 PPP (19th)

20-21 Off Screen 8% (1st) / 1.04 PPP (7th)

21-22 Off Screen 9.1% (1st) / 1.04 PPP (3rd)

Cut

14-15 Cut 9.6% (3rd) / 1.27 PPP (4th)

15-16 Cut 10.7% (2nd) / 1.35 PPP (8th)

16-17 Cut 12.3% (1st) / 1.33 PPP (3rd)

17-18 Cut 12.3% (1st) / 1.34 PPP (3rd)

18-19 Cut 10.2% (1st) / 1.28 PPP (11th)

19-20 Cut 7.8% (4th) / 1.23 PPP (19th)

20-21 Cut 8.8% (4th) / 1.30 PPP (12th)

21-22 Cut 11.7% (1st) / 1.23 PPP (13th)

Steph Curry is a special talent, the greatest shooter we have ever seen in the NBA but not only his shooting prowess but his off-ball movement. His unique combination of skill, IQ, and willingness to sacrifice points for his teams to win makes him the ultimate superstar and the Warriors impossible to guard. Steve Kerr has molded his ball movement/player movement system that amplifies what Curry learned at Davidson through their lethal 5-Out motion offense and turns every player on the basketball court into a threat to pass, screen and score.

If you want a more in-depth look at what the Warriors Motion Offense is based on and everything they incorporate - check out my 1-hour clinic breakdown of their offense.

Golden State Warriors Clinic

Why was Draymond Green guarding Chris Paul?

Half Court Hoops — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 22:09:12 GMT

Draymond Green has been guarding Chris Paul in the Warriors vs Suns matchups, perhaps a preview of the Western Conference Finals. This is not as crazy as it initially appeared or sounds - there are 2…

If it's the end of a quarter, the Warriors are going to run this...

Half Court Hoops — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 04:48:04 GMT

Here is the scenario, the Warriors get the ball with a chance to take the clock down to finish off the quarter with a basket. There is little doubt to what is going to happen next, Steph Curry is goi…