There are so many thoughts regarding effective transition defense. You must first convert mentally. There is nothing more important than the beginning -- the first three steps are essential for the possibility of success. Straight-line sprint -- critical key for success. But another facet of great transition defense occurs once your cross half-court. We are constantly talking to our team about "pointing and talking" -- in other words everyone should be talking and pointing to who they are picking up in transition and seeing if someone has been missed. Great effort getting back is wasted effort if we don't effectively pick up are assignments. One the absolute best books I've read in the past couple of years is "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. It's a book that I think can help you in so many ways and I strongly urge you to pick up a copy. One of the stories that Clear shares is the "pointing and communicating" system used by the Japanese railway system:
"The Japanese railway system is regarded as one of the best in the world. If you ever find yourself riding a train in Tokyo, you’ll notice that the conductors have a peculiar habit.
As each operator runs the train, they proceed through a ritual of pointing at different objects and calling out commands. When the train approaches a signal, the operator will point at it and say, “Signal is green.” As the train pulls into and out of each station, the operator will point at the speedometer and call out the exact speed. When it’s time to leave, the operator will point at the timetable and state the time. Out on the platform, other employees are performing similar actions. Before each train departs, staff members will point along the edge of the platform and declare, “All clear!” Every detail is identified, pointed at, and named aloud.
This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent.
Pointing-and-Calling is so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level. Because the train operators must use their eyes, hands, mouth, and ears, they are more likely to notice problems before something goes wrong."
We shared this with our team, talking about how much more effective it made the subway and how it can help our transition defense.
Point Guard Sprint to half court...ball side Attack the dribble by half court Slow the ball down Get the ball under control Push to sideline without giving ground 2 Guard Sprint to elbow...ball side Do not give up lay-up Make them make another pass 1st Big Back Disrupt route & timing of post No hands, palms up...bump with chest Get low and wide "Thru me" to get into the paint Forward Shadow ball as long as his man hasn't come down the floor Last Big Back Weakside elbow protecting against skip pass & shot "You win transition on the first three steps...take first three steps without any concern for vision."
Coach Coale said that the #1 question she was asked was did she transition from high school coaching to college coaching:
"There is no secret. Do the best job that you do no matter where you are. Be in the right place at the right time. Coach kids like they are pros. Everything else will take care of itself. If you do the right things consistently, people will find you."
Here is a list of things that Coach Coale was said in starting a program:
Practice planning is most important. Teaching is the most important part of developing your team. How do you go about teaching your kids every day? Taking notes is the single most important thing that you can do. Keep every kid engaged at all times. Every drill that you do must have a purpose. Spend twice as long preparing as you do teaching. Practices should be designed to be tougher than games. Use competition drills as much as you can. There should be a winner and a loser. Use echo yells when practicing.
Five things that Coach Coale said they do everyday in practice:
Fundamentals (Passing, Shooting, Catching, Dribbling) Defensive Transition Offensive Spacing and Timing 4/4 and 5/5 Rebounding
One of the great things about social media is not only the information that becomes available but new relationships developed. One of those for me is with Coach Steve Finamore (a great follow on twitter) who has an amazing passion for the game -- he, like all good coaches, is a continual learner. Steve recently visited the Detroit Pistons for a practice session and Steve was great enough to share those notes and we want to pass them on as well. This is part of I of Coach Finamore's notes:
Detroit Pistons
Practice #1
Tuesday September 29, 2015
10:00 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.
- Huge sign on
the wall at the Pistons practice facility behind basket:
- “BE
IMPACTFUL!”
- Championship
and division banners hang from the rafters.
- Pistons team
and coaching staff walk onto court together at 10AM.
(Many players
were at practice facility at 8 A.M. getting in extra shooting with coaches)
Coaching staff:
Stan Van Gundy,
Brendan Malone, Bob Beyer, Malik Allen, Tim Hardaway, Charles Klask.
- Coach Van
Gundy has said in the past that attending a clinic should not change your
overall philosophy.Beyond clinics, SVG
suggested to go out and watch people practice. I agree. In the past I have
found attending practices has helped me so much as a coach.
- This morning
there are a few college coaches observing practice. Pistons give out three
handouts. One handout is a card asking for any feedback we would like to share
about practice. SVG values anything you can share with him regarding practice.
One thing I came away with is that SVG cares about the game and its coaches.
- Pistons start
with a walk-through on transition defense.
- “Getting back
on defense” is emphasized the entire time.
Reaction time
is key. Get back to middle of floor. Point and talk.
“Getting back”
is something you can control states SVG.
- Coach Van
Gundy is one of the best I have ever seen teach the game.He makes it so simple to understand. He’s
teaching pro’s why it’s so important to get back on defense.
Detroit Pistons Defensive Musts:
1-Get Back
2-Protect the
Paint
3-Close and
contest
4-Pressure the
ball
5-Defend
without fouling
6-Block out and
rebound
- Pistons work
on running their offense.After they
score, Van Gundy emphasizes getting back to half-court. He wants them getting
back to the center circle. Assistant
coaches on sidelines shouting to get back to all five players.
“GET BACK! GET
BACK! GET BACK!”
What are
your rules on getting back on defense?
-1 and 2 are
back on the release of the shot. Dead sprint to the other end of the floor.
-4 and 5 go to
the boards unless they are above the free throw line.
-3 makes a
decision to crash or sprint back.
Match up when
you get back. You don’t have a man in transition.
- Pistons
worked on their four-man shell drill for :24 seconds.
“Twenty-four
seconds of work!” –SVG
- Lots of
energy. Lots of talking. Everyone was involved and engaged and encouraging each
other.
Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at some the thoughts, principles, and guidelines for our defense. In Aggie Defense: Part I we talked about philosophy and the key concepts for our non-negotiables. Today we will look at some basic thoughts and concepts for our Transition Defense:
“If you don’t get back on defense,
you may as well get back on the bus.”
-Don Meyer
GOODOFFENSE LEADS TO GOOD TRANSITIONDEFENSE
In all successful journeys there is the first step. For each defensive possession, there is transition defense and those teams that stress and excel in this phase are further a long in being good defensively than those teams that don’t.
Ironically, I think when you start the conversation about great transition defensive teams, you must being on the offensive end.Your offense can go along way in setting the table for your transition defense.
Offensive keys that aid in solid transition defense include
1. Floor balance...have proper spacing which allows your offense to be in a position to get back defensively is extremely important.
2. Shot selection...how many times have you seen a bad shot lead to a transition basket?You offense can anticipate transition defense better if they know when, where, and by who in terms of the shot being taken.
3. Value the ball...the hardest thing to convert back on is a turnover.If the turnover is in the open court it can be.
Therefore, teams that shot at a high percentage and take care of the basketball tend to be at the least good defensive teams because they have given their defensive an advantage in terms of conversion.
THE CONDITIONING FACTOR
The other element of transition defense before we go over the guidelines is conditioning — and I believe this is two fold:
1. Physical Conditioning
Teams committed to great transition defense are in great physical condition.They pay the price in fall conditioning and continue to value conditioning through their practice habits.One of the first places a player will take off when conditioning is a factor is in getting back defensively.
2. Mental Conditioning
This is one that must be developed through the structure of your practice.There cannot be a mental “delay switch” for players in terms of getting back.It can’t a be a shot taken and then a one or two-second period where the defense is watching.
"If you think that your half-court defense wins your games, you don’t understand the game. If you take film and break it down, you will find out that only 30% of your points are coming out of your set plays and the other 70% are coming in transition, second shots, and foul shots. So the transition game is what it is all about."
-Hubie Brown
We tell our players its “one or the other.”Either you are going to the offensive boards or you are sprinting back (unless we are in a full court press).
The setup and execution of your practice will be singular most important thing you do to develop both physical and mental conditioning for transition defense.While certainly all coaches have a series of transition defensive drills they live to utilize, one of the most important things you can do is to always convert during scrimmage situations.And in those conversion situations, stress, teach and coach transition defense.
AGGIE TRANSITION DEFENSE GUIDELINES
SPRINT BACK...STRAIGHT LINES...NO BACK PEDALING
Important to know in transition defense that the first three steps are the most critical...don’t worry about find the ball during those first three steps...get out quickly with long strides and cover as much territory as possible.
TALK & POINT UNTIL EVERYONE IS MATCHED UP
To be successful on a consistent basis, all five players must be engaged in talking and pointing...there will be times when we have to defend someone other than are original assignment but there should never be a situation where we have two players on one offensive player and another player wide open.
“LOAD TO THE BALL” HEAVY HELPSIDE...5/4...5/3...5/2
As we are getting back, if you are not sure immediately who you are picking up, move to the middle of the floor in a help and anticipate position...it will give you a closer angle to pick up someone on the ballside...if end up defending someone opposite the ball then you are in help where you should be any way.
PICK UP THE BALL (ONCE THE HOLE IS COVERED)
We want to pick up the ball as early as possible and funnel it out of the middle...however, we don’t want to leave someone under the basket wide open...once we know we have the rim covered, aggressively and intelligently attack the basketball.
TAKE AWAY THE RIM AND THE BALLSIDE LOW POST
While this is the primarily responsibility of our post players, perimeter players may have to assume this responsibility at times...make sure we don’t allow easy post feeds from the point guard or the wings...if we are mismatched, fight to front the low post until help comes.
POST DEFENDERS: MEET THE OPPOSING POST AT THE ELBOW
We want to be waiting with an extended forearm...the goal is to stop the post or force her to veer one way or another...at no time is it acceptable to allow an opposing post a direct cut to the low post for an immediate post up opportunity.
FIND & PICK UP DEAD 3’S EARLY
At least 3 steps above the arc...giving up an open, rhythm 3 is also unacceptable...Goal #1, take away the touch...Goal #2, force catch further away then where she wants to catch...Goal #3 (last resort), closeout hard to force her to put it on the floor and now allow her a clean rhythm look.
1.In transition, beat the offensive post player
to favorite spot. 2.Key to defensive post play is footwork. 3.Defensive post player must communicate her
positioning. 4.Must take away initial path to cutter. 5.Good defensive post players never lose sight of
the ball.
Thanks to Point Guard College who tweeted this story out on the importance of communication on defense that ran on The Cauldron. It was written by Jared Dubin and is the best thing I've seen in my 30+ years of coaching on defensive communication. It's a lengthy and outstanding piece and you can read it in it's entirety here. However, here are some key take aways I got from the article:
Ask any coach or player in the NBA what the most important aspect of a good defense is, and without fail, they will give you the same answer: communication. Gasol, one of the league’s best defenders himself, understands the paramount importance of talking while defending.
“Communicate early. That’s one key that I think basketball is losing, is how important it is to know, not just to know what action is happening, but to let your teammate know where his help is at,” Gasol said. “I think that we don’t practice that enough as basketball players. Not only as a team, but as players. Knowing where your help is, and knowing what’s happening, really helps.”
Defensive chatter sounds simple enough, but it often eludes NBA teams, especially the younger ones.
“Communication, it boils down to, as much as anything, just understanding what you’re doing,” Flip Saunders said. “If you’re talking, you’re not worried about what you have to do. Young players, many times, they’re thinking about what they have to do because it’s new to them.
“It’s probably the biggest thing with young players, is their lack of communication. They don’t come out [of college] as good communicators. That’s something we all try to instill. KG (Kevin Garnett) will try. I believe that when they see him practice, and when they see how much he communicates and they see the impact it has, they’ll try to do it. But it’s one of those things that sometimes it takes a long time. It takes a year. It took KG a long time to get (Kendrick) Perkins to be a communicator, and he wound up maybe talking too much at times.”
The Timberwolves’ acquisition of Garnett at the February trading deadline reeked of nostalgia for a floundering franchise, and Minnesota gave up 26-year-old forward Thaddeus Young to get him, but there was a huge reason Saunders wanted Garnett beyond giving the fan base a throwback to the team’s greatest era: He might be the most legendary defensive communicator in the history of the league.
Shaun Livingston spent the 2013–14 season playing with Garnett on the Brooklyn Nets. He’s played with nine teams in his 11-year career.
“Garnett was the best,” he said about defensive communicators. “At all times, no matter what arena, no matter what atmosphere: you’re gonna hear him.”
Glen Davis also played with Garnett on the “Big Three” Celtics teams that were consistently among the best in the league at point prevention. Right from the jump, Big Baby said, Garnett hammered home the importance of always talking on defense, always letting your teammates know what’s happening, where you are, and where they should be. “Communication was one of his biggest things [with the Celtics],” Davis said. “We really figured out that had a lot to do with our success. Everybody started buying in.”
Ask anyone involved with the Clippers (who isn’t named Glenn) about the team’s defense, and they’ll name three catalysts for the success they have on that end: Chris Paul, Matt Barnes and DeAndre Jordan. Together, they form the backbone of a stingy starting lineup. Paired with Blake Griffin and J.J. Redick, that trio allowed just 100.0 points per 100 possessions this season. That’s the full-season equivalent of the Wizards’ No. 5-ranked defense. When even one of those players sat down, the Clips’ defensive rating jumped to 104.8 — or, the NBA’s 22nd-best defensive unit.
Within that group, Paul is the first line, the advance unit. His job is to relentlessly pressure the ball, shaving precious seconds off the shot clock and forcing poor decisions. He helps in the post, swipes at drivers who pass too close to his area, and Richard Shermans his way into passing lanes for steals. Barnes is the stopper, sinking his teeth into the opposition’s best perimeter scorer on any given night. And Jordan is the back line maestro, standing tall and getting his KG on, using that baritone voice and those gargantuan arms to conduct the action from the back line.
“Calling out screens, calling out plays, calling out situations late in the shot clock where we’re gonna switch,” Jordan said. “I’m usually in the back, so I can see everything that’s going on or that’s about to develop. So I try to give us a head start on plays.”
“We all talk, but myself and DeAndre are kind of the anchors of our defense,” Barnes said. “We just try to quarterback everybody, cover for each other’s mistakes and play hard. DeAndre knows every play. I take my hat off to him. He really studies the scouting report, and whenever they call a play, DJ calls it out. We all go with his call and get ready to play defense.”
There may be no team in the NBA that talks more than the Golden State Warriors. For the Dubs, Andrew Bogut is the man the middle, the anchor, the last line; he’s responsible for both deterrence and disruption should any opposing player dare venture into his paint. But above all of these things, he’s responsible for letting his teammates know what’s happening around them.
“I think it’s an important role for me,” Bogut said. “I need to be loud and verbalize everything that’s going on because otherwise the guards are going to get hit by screens and our defense will break down. That’s one of my main roles defensively, to make sure guys know what’s going on.”
Bogut credits the veterans he played alongside early in his career with teaching him the importance of studying sets and tendencies off the court. By being mentally prepared for his opponents, he would see a play starting to develop and know what was coming. Perhaps more importantly, he’d be able to clue his teammates in, too.
“It’s easier [to communicate a switch when you know you’re going to be doing it],” said Shaun Livingston, now a backup guard on the Warriors. “You’ve got to communicate it anyway though, because if you don’t, then that’s how breakdowns happen.”
The Dubs don’t just talk to make things easier on themselves, though. Livingston, like many other players around the league, feels it plays a role in gaining a psychological edge over your opponent.
“You learn, as you get in the league, communication can become contagious and also it can be intimidating for other teams,” he said. “If we’re playing cards and I already know your hand, then it’s like I already know your next move.”
Sniffing out actions before they develop is the kind of thing that can happen when you spend a long time executing the same system, with the same players. If you see the same plays from opposing teams over and over, and you’ve reacted to it — together, as a unit — hundreds, if not thousands, of times, you can cultivate a sixth sense not only for where the opposition wants to go, but where your teammates will be, and when. Five guys who have been through a lot together and know each other’s tendencies can even develop a system of communication that goes beyond words.
The San Antonio Spurs are the model organization when it comes to stability. They’ve had the same core of key players — Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili — for what seems like forever, Gregg Popovich has been running things since George Bush was the Governor of Texas, and R.C. Buford has been with the organization almost as long. Even the “newer” pieces, like shooting guard Danny Green, have been there for a couple years and have picked up on the Spursian language.
“It’s easy with communication or with the look of an eye, or a facial expression, of what we want to do or where we want to be,” Green said. “It’s easy to communicate without having to talk every play or every possession. We can use gestures or communication with hand signals for us to be in the right places.”
Green knows that if he points a certain way when guarding a pick-and-roll, Tim Duncan will help him ice the ball-handler into the short corner and away from danger. That kind of “corporate knowledge,” as Popovich calls it, is the key to the Spurs’ success on both ends.
“Corporate knowledge is always good if you have a group that’s been together,” Popovich said. “You need to have that to have the trust and the rhythm. Everybody talks about rhythm offensively, but defensively it’s just as important to have that same crew who knows how to react to each other.”
Gasol: “I always try to get the call as soon as we can. If one man is really close, especially on the free throws, the coach will tell the opposing team, and Mike is right there to listen and pick it up.”
Conley: “I normally relay the play back to him. I yell it back to him and he’ll start putting people into position.”
Gasol: “And once I hear it, I know what the play is and I try to get my teammates ready for, not just the play call, but the action that they want to score off. After that, it’s reads and reactions.”
Gasol is not blessed with the physical gifts of a Dwight Howard or Nerlens Noel. He’s not what you’d call a springy athlete. He doesn’t jump out of the gym. His high-level defensive play is, first and foremost, a result of intellect and communication. He relies on copious film study, play recognition, and communication from his teammates to put himself in the right position for every play.
“There’s other guys, they have athleticism that I don’t have. They don’t have to foresee the play or try to get ahead. They are so athletic that they can wait, and let the play happen and still get out there and block it. I can’t do that,” Gasol said. “It’s not my game. I have to get there before the other guy gets there or I’m going to get a foul. I have to get there before the play even happens.”
And unlike most big men, Gasol said he’s been drilled on the importance of defensive communication for nearly his whole basketball life. “I was brought up that way. I was always taught basketball that way. How important it is.” Gasol credits his coaches and the development staff in Spain for teaching him the game like that.
