One of the keys to playing advantage based basketball is teaching players how to read the defense. A terrific teaching tool for this is using IF/THEN reactions. This simplifies decision making and allows players to easily understand the different reads in a game. On dribble penetration, here are some simple reads, with a video to break it down.
- IF you don’t see a chest in the lane, THEN go score
- IF you see a chest in the lane, THEN share the advantage
- IF the help defender helps up, THEN dump it off
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Control the Controllables | Draymond Green
There is no doubt that Draymond Green has played a critical role in the Golden State Warriors’ NBA Championships. He is a versatile player, who provides a level of toughness that compliments the Warriors’ explosive offensive attack. The one constant criticism of Draymond Green has been his emotional instability. A lot of people think of scenes like the one below, when they think of Draymond Green.
Draymond got a technical after disagreeing with this foul call: pic.twitter.com/MYxukvrAoQ
— ESPN (@espn) April 28, 2019
In Game 5, of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs, the Warriors seemed to be in serious trouble. Kevin Durant hurt his calf, and was expected to miss some serious time. Despite this set back, the Warriors responded by winning back-to-back games to eliminate the Houston Rockets, and took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Portland Trailblazers. During these games, Draymond Green has played some of his best basketball.
This is the Draymond from the 25-game winning streak 3 years ago… just incredible. Didn’t think he could get to this level anymore.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 19, 2019
One of the obvious adjustments that Draymond Green has made, other than increasing his aggressiveness offensively, has been his mental approach. After winning Game 3, Draymond talked about it.
Draymond’s playing with a different energy.
“I had got to the point where I was doing more crying than playing.” pic.twitter.com/4pOTg85bmk
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 19, 2019
Draymond Green has clearly taken a “control the controllables” approach to his game. Instead of majoring in the minor, he is choosing to focus his energy on helping his team win. This was most clear when he put his leadership on display, following a Jordan Bell missed dunk.
With Draymond Green’s focus being on winning 🏀 games, it allows him to provide mental stability and confidence to his teammates.
This is great leadership! #Leadership#GrowTheGame🏀 pic.twitter.com/x2w1c35bNt— Doug Brotherton (@CoachBrotherton) May 19, 2019
In the post game, Draymond Green also displayed the importance of allowing other people to strengthen the influence of a leader. In this case, it was a message from the Warriors’ video coordinator. As the tweet below states, every person around a team has an impact on the group’s culture. The best cultures are “exclusively inclusive.” What that phrase means, is that each person must demonstrate the standards that are required to be a part of the team. Once they do that, then they deserve to have their voice respected, which allows the group to perform at their best.
Great Leaders 👀 what is going on around them, and 👂 what others have to 🗣. They encourage other voices, to strengthen their influence!
Every person around a team has an impact on a culture. The best cultures are “exclusively inclusive.”#CultureWins#GrowTheGame🏀 pic.twitter.com/rAoBtobi4I
— Doug Brotherton (@CoachBrotherton) May 19, 2019
With Draymond Green demonstrating his ability to block out the distractions, and “control the controllables,” the Warriors are going to be tough to beat. This is a lesson that can be used with any team, as there is no escaping the threat of outside noise. Look for Draymond Green to continue to play at an elite level, as long as he can maintain this focused mentality.
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PROGRAM BUILDING MODEL
TALENT
The number one factor to winning games is TALENT. While this might not be a popular reality, because some aspects of talent are out of the control of a coach, it is the truth. Without talent, it is hard to win games. Talent is made up of three main categories; athleticism, skill, and depth.
CULTURE
Culture is defined as “how we do things here.” Every person around a program has an impact on the culture of a program. Culture is the easiest area to impact, but the hardest thing to control. Sustainable success can be directly attributed to good program culture.
COACHING
Coaches have all of the power, but very little control. The best coaches recognize that their role must shift from driving force to quality control. The sooner that this can happen, the quicker a program has the opportunity to become an elite program.
The word ELITE is thrown around too frequently, but there is no denying that the definition of elite describes what every program is striving to achieve.
Want to know how you can become the driving force to making your program elite? Be on the look out for our next blog post, which will talk about the first three areas that a program must improve!
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Team Building: “ABC Team Challenge”
Is your team struggling to COMMUNICATE IN CONFLICT? The phrase, “communicate in conflict” refers to the communication when a mistake is made, adversity hits, and frustration shows up. The best teams are able to clearly communicate, learn from the challenges, and get to the next play. The ability to be a team that communicates well, in these conflicted moments, comes from trust and experience. This simple team building exercise teaches teams to focus on learning from mistakes, not overreacting, and getting to the next play. Below are the details for the ABC Team Challenge and two videos of teams completing the challenge.
The “ABC Team Challenge” usually takes less than ten minutes, and is a great way to start of end practice.
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