Let's take a look at one of the most intense and crazy games of the year!
Kansas State - Michigan State
Long thread, full of clips 🧵
#marchmadness Nice ATO to start the game by KSU, creating a high-tag behind the backscreen

The way that MSU plays high in the gap on defense and how KSU was able to exploit it will be a recurring thing in this thread

🚨New post: We spoke about structured Freedom last week, now we break down how Alba Berlin applies it in one of their most used set
Thread 🧵 here but you can read here ⏬ for a more in-depth analysis
franznannibk.substack.com/p/alba-berlin-… Starting alignment:
📌Quite common for European teams, with the ball passed to 4 in the guard position, sometimes using a screen at the FT line from 5 to get open
📌Both corners filled
📌Rarely you could see 5 catching the ball on the first pass

Practice breakdown: Using offscreens
You will see here a series of activities and SSGs I use to introduce the concepts and the use of off screens actions to a U17 team last week
Blogpost and thread 🧵
open.substack.com/pub/franznanni… 🎯Always being assertive and aggressive in their 1v1 without the ball, both as a screener and as the player using the screen
We started the warm-up with some very simplified 1v1+screen, introducing the idea of a defender chasing OR shooting the gap

🏆Barcelona U18 won the ANGT in Zadar a few days ago
🗒️Consistency in Game principles is one of the things that make their Academy great
🧵In this thread, I'll be discussing a simple defensive principle that is applied from U12 to U18, and offer some ideas on how to teach it ⬇️ 👀Ball is blind = go to steal
📌U12
As soon as the ball-handler turns his back you see the closest defender sprinting to go for the steal
📌What else do you see?
The other defender has to react to it! He's lifting up to rotate to the closest man!

U13 Practice 🧵
You can check the video here, plus on this thread, I'll elaborate on some of the SSGs and comments in the video, please check it out!
I'm available for Questions & feedbacks
Context:
📌This is not MY group, it was the first time I saw them
📌They're not a "selected" group
📌I've ended up doing a wider variety of things than I normally would do because I wanted to show to the coaches of that club my approach on a few different topics

I've written something about the Minicopa Endesa, I've created some small edits to highlight some of the most recurring offensive concepts that the top U14 teams in the world are using! Comments, RT, and questions are appreciated 🙌
Thread 🧵⏬

open.substack.com/pub/franznanni… More than 8000 people were in attendance to watch the final, a “mini-Clasico” between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
⌛️In this tournament players like Rubio and Doncic were able to compete against some of the top competitors available for their age group at the time

10 things I’ve liked this week:🧵 and link 🔗
(Complete video at the end)
1⃣Real Madrid 🇪🇸 automatic stack P&R after OR
📌19/20 season, interesting idea, I love the possibility of playing something automatically in a neutral situation after the OR instead of simple high P&R 2⃣This starting alignment might be my favorite, it’s very common in the US, less in Europe
👀Look how Manresa uses it to flow into a Flex screen the screener action
In the last 2 clips they change the positions of the players at the start and run a quick screen-the-screener

An alternative to the traditional shell drill through adopting a constraints-led approach 🧵

We all agree that it's important for players to be able to help and rotate on a drive, BUT we can achieve this through representative situations and constraint manipulation. 🗒️4-on-4 closeout: D starts inside the paint. From here, the constraints are key...

The scoring system incentivizes behaviours that we may wish to see emerge.

Here, the defense got 2pts if they were able to get back to neutral: forcing the offense to use a trigger to continue.

10 things I’ve liked or made me think this week, copying the famous Zach Lowe format, short thread 🧵 and link 🔗
If you want to get to the raw video without reading at the end of the page there’s the youtube edit with these, 3’ of ideas.
franznannibk.substack.com/p/the-waste-ba… D concept: Jump inside after the pass
When you’re showing and the ball is passed out the whole D is scrambling, bumping from the WS.
Too many teams rely on the 3 players + the screener’s D
Having the BH's D jump inside can help you and give your team 1 second more to recover

Varese: an NBA-style Offense in Europe
Post ⏬and 🧵here ⏬
The coach is Matt Brase, formerly an assistant coach with the Rockets and Blazers, and he is incorporating many NBA tendencies and introducing modern concepts not common in European leagues
franznannibk.substack.com/p/case-study-v… Before going deeper, there’s an important premise to make: this is working. You may like or dislike these concepts for tainting traditional views of basketball, but right now Varese has the highest OffRat in LBA - the Italian league - with 101.6 points per 100 possessions

Some nice clips from Milan, listen to the pod with @tonywmiller for more!
Punish a switch ⏬
🍚Recipe: High-low flash
Ingredients:
📌Big "high-seal" his man - creates space between him and baseline
📌Flash from 2nd big
📌Keep the contact WHILE the ball is flying

https://twitter.com/tonywmiller/status/1458463267035168773

Chess-match ♟️
📌The defender comes up to deny the high-low pass at the FT line
📌The lob pass is now open
📌2 defenders fly on the ball, from there it's a domino sequence until the shot to maintain the advantage

Virtus has won the Italian SuperCup
We don't know how the season will go, BUT..

Their Offense so far has been
📌Creative
📌A mix of sets and concepts that can be used in different plays
📌Aggressive in every action they run - no "fluff" just to use seconds

📹Clips are here 🧵 Milano was switching on off screens situations
📌Beli kept playing his 1v1 w/out the ball and makes a backdoor cut
📌Look at the defender of the passer: It's clear that the ball is looking at that side, maybe he could close that passing line a little bit more
📌Great 2-hand-pass

📋Next Coverage on Offscreen
⏱️Fly WHILE the ball is in the air
🧠Know the personnel, the passer is the worst shooter of the 3, so you see a stunt and recover by the 3rd D involved
🗝️Disrupts the rhythm of shooters
📌Risky strategy for 40', could be effective if used occasionally Check this out!
📹Great video about how you can use "random" P&R coverages during the game

https://twitter.com/BBallImmersion/status/1440301183072043022?s=20

📌Being unpredictable in Off. is already crucial in the more modern teams, I think in the next few years we'll see more teams trying to be unpredictable on D as well

👨🏻‍🏫1v1 w/out the ball 🧵

📌Keep reading if your defender is in the right position, if not PUNISH him
📌Punish him doesn't mean a basket cut all the time
💡How to teach this with younger players? It's a complex topic, some considerations on that As @Doug_Lemov writes:
Having knowledge of the terminology makes a player more primed to learn it and use it
📌The idea of playing 1v1 w/out the ball should be explicit and reinforced throughout the practices
What do we mean by 1v1 w/out the ball? Let's make some distinctions ⏬

📌"Add a defender" is a great philosophy for coaching
I'm trying to implement it as much as possible in our warm-up and individual work-out with our pros
Some considerations about this in this thread ⏬
📽️ Drive + pass + relocation & 2nd drive with guided D 📌Scripted and guided D makes everything more realistic
📌Practice should NOT look perfect
📌We want mistakes to happens!
As they do in the game, to be able to recognize where we need to focus our work and attention
📌If we're doing something perfectly it's probably useless