The Waste Basket: End of Game Edition

A collection of end-of-game BOB and SOB, commented and broken-down

This week I wanted to go on a slightly different route, sharing only a collection of end-of-game situations that have caught my attention, trying to share not only the XsOs but also the “Why” behind the play and what can make those situations effective and right for your team.

Let’s start!

1. Use the defensive half-court space!
   This is a big concept that includes different ideas under the same umbrella, this is something that is more common in the NBA for obvious reasons, you can inbound the ball directly to the defensive area, while in Europe that’s not possible, but I would argue that there’s still potential for some of this solutions also in Europe, either using a player in the defensive half-court as a target or as a decoy to occupy a defender.
   This is a clear example of what I’m referring to, in this case the player behind half-court is the target of the play as the two players going toward the corner open up the middle lane for his catch.
   Coming back to the point that I was making, I’m confident that you could run a play like this in Europe, even with the different rules, if Tatum's defender would sit on defense trying to deny the space for Smart’s catch that would already create an open lane for Tatum to jump toward the ball in the offensive half court and have the same dynamic catch that he’s gotten here.
   

   But the player behind half-court doesn’t need to be the primary target, here you can see how on the same play Brown catches the ball in the corner, almost playing 3v3 in the offensive half-court instead of 4v4, and when he catches and drives there’s almost no weak-side as two players were involved guarding a backscreen at the half-court line.
   Putting players so high on the court creates more space to operate!

   Look here at the Jazz, Markannen at the elbow, if his defender sits too low he’s in a perfect position to catch it and either attack or play a running DHO with the players coming from the defensive end, if he tries to play aggressive defense the space is open to spin around the defender and the weak-side is completely open.

   Here’s something very particular, Phoenix puts all four players behind the half-court line and runs something that resembles more an NFL play than an NBA one.
   Here the result is not great, but these ideas have been fascinating to me.

   Basketball is all about space, the bigger the space the easier for the offense to punish the defensive coverages, so why shouldn’t I put one player at the half-court line or slightly behind it? Creating at the same time more space for a screening action to be played on the offensive end but also giving him a runaway to catch the ball with space if he’s the right type of player? Are we sure that defenses would not guard that player at the half-court line in Europe?
   

2. Use cut as the primary target of your end-of-game play

   The defense is going to prepare for screens and anticipate those, a simple cut to the basket can be particularly effective, especially if paired with some decoy actions bringing the other players up toward the half-court and clearing out the paint. Something worth considering when drawing up plays, I’ve personally experienced this with a head coach I’ve worked with, and we were able to get a basket once and a decent look a second time.

   Similar idea, here Vechta is weaponizing the cut after the ball has been inbounded, I can’t say if it was drawn up like this or if both players read their defender at the same time and decided to back-door cut, in both scenarios I like the result!
   

3. Opposite Side Elevator
   A creative solution, it requires a great-passer on the inbound, but I like the reasoning behind this, it assumes that the shooter’s defender is going to be between him and the ball, leaving up the path to run toward the opposite corner.
   It’s important if you plan to use this in a game to teach the screeners how to read a potential switch on the flare and seal inside the smaller defender on the switch.

4. One good example of providing 2 passing lines after a backscreen

   Bonn is one of the most recurring teams in this newsletter as I love coach Lisalo, look at this inbound, it’s nothing extravagant but it shows perfectly how to clear out the space, with one player sprinting toward the ball and one to the corner, and using all the paint to provide two passing lines after the screen. The screener does a good job setting a screen good enough to command one step from his defender, that’s all he needs to dive inside and catch a perfect pass.

5. A variation of the famous “Winner” SOB
   This SOB starts as one of the most used, probably THE most used, end-of-game situations in recent years, used by Brad Stevens, Obradovic, and many others.
   Here it starts in the same way but the designated shooter run to the flare earlier and immediately takes a rescreen to come back toward the ball and receive.
   This can be particularly interesting especially if you have played the “Winner” SOB before and you expect the opponents to be prepared for it.

6. Nice combination of actions toward the weak-side
   
   This has been one of my favorite quick SOBs in recent years, I’ve drawn it up with my team in internal scrimmages all the time.
   As many others I’ve shared today, it starts with a cut to clear-out the weak side, then already the first curl to the rim can be a dangerous weapon with the right personnel, and the tricky part is that if the defender of the screeners takes one step in to help on the curl he’s going to be late on the subsequent flare!
   At that point if the defense is going to try to switch on the flare the screener can dive inside exactly as we’ve seen Bonn doing in the previous SOB I’ve shared.
   This one is not simply a nice SOB but it’s an interesting alignment that provides many more options.

7. Gran Canaria: Weak-side Hammer
   The most fascinating thing for me about the Hammer screens is how coaches set those up, how you reverse-engineer your action in order to bait the defender into helping and getting a second defender vulnerable to the hammer.
   Here 5, a non-shooter, receives a flare screen sending him to the opposite corner while the “real” target of the play seems to be a catch driving toward the paint, X5 finds himself in the perfect position to help and stops the drive, doesn’t he?
   Gran Canaria has used this SOB one other time this year, and it generated a good shot that time as well.

8. BOB: Obradoiro
   
   The first of two BOB, these are less common as end-of-game situations I know, but I’ve liked the idea behind these so why not.
   This is quite simple, a stagger where the first screener set a backscreen for the second, once again it can be effective against switching defense, putting them through multiple screens in a row to cause a miscommunication. Here if you look at it the screener on the backscreen was probably even more open than the actual receiver.

9. Baskonia: Forced curl BOB
   
   It didn’t lead to a basket nor a particularly good look, but this is a great BOB for me.
   The 2v2 on the weakside on the flare was executed perfectly, the screener cut immediately after the contact, and his aggressiveness with the cut opened up the possibility of the corner 3 for Markus Howard.
   While on the ball side the use of a forced curl is a good tool to AT LEAST generate an open catch for the screener almost every time, plus the possibility of having a good look at the pass inside.
   This action is something to consider especially if you have a few seconds more and you could plan a handoff with either the inbounder or another player.

10. Bayern Monaco: Stagger to the strong side corner
    
    I like this idea, it can generate good looks not only for the shooter offscreen but also opportunities for both screeners to dive inside (here they needed a 3 so it’s not something they were looking for), or also we can imagine running a secondary screening action, maybe a flare, for the second screener running toward the weak side?
    Another interesting option that we should consider every time we play a screen going toward the baseline is that it can lead the defender guarding the inbounder to take one step toward that pass to take it away, generating opportunities for a quick pass and get actions for the inbounder.

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That’s all folks!
It’s a wrap for this week, I hope you enjoyed some of these clips and ideas if you did please share this with your basketball friends, if you have any suggestions, teams to watch, concepts to study, or questions, you can reach me at fr.nanni@gmail.com or on Twitter.

If you want to see the concept but do not read it, or don’t have the time right now, or maybe you want a quick recap, here’s the video with all these EOG situations combined, enjoy!