Some philosophical things to consider in the off-season is how you want your team to play in certain situations. Here's a great list from Fran Fraschilla on how you play from a deficit.
Players need to know how to effectively comeback late in the game:
1) Stop clock as much as possible
2) Must offensive rebound - send 4 and sometimes 5 to the offensive glass because normally other team is not pushing hard when they are up late
3) Who do you foul and HOW do you foul?
4) What is your foul signal from the sideline?
5) What is your goal in fouling – steals, jumpballs, foul
6) Time Out organization (where to sit and make sure subs are sitting/standing next to who they might replace so they know what they are doing when someone fouls out
7) Do you have a comeback “platoon”
8) Do you have a hurry up offense or quick hitter set for threes/layups
9) Teach team how to do a “running timout” – For example when there is a dead ball foul have team sprint to coach for quick 15 second “timeout” on the floor
10) “We didn’t lose – we just ran out of time
Teach, demonstrate and tell your players that they have 1 dribble per second in late game scenarios. That way if there is 4 seconds on the clock a player doesn’t have to look up – they know they have time for 4 forward dribbles before the buzzer
