It belatedly occurred to me that maybe the whole Trapezoid of Excellence thing was a joke, but looking at his Twitter, Iām not sure that it is. Or Iām really bad at picking up on internet sarcasm.
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My impression is much of this board is more of the rhombus of ruin persuasion.
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This junk analysis was posted mid-year. The trapezoid still lives because Houston is still alive.
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Donāt get annoyed by the āzoid. Just let it āroid
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https://twitter.com/EricFawcett_/status/1773711468845834625
some good plays in the thread
This one is kinda wild, you donāt really see teams try to throw the first pass very often.
https://x.com/ericfawcett_/status/1773711542770356375?s=46&t=wAzMZR-0PRGT1LpN6U5x0g
Good example of how to use the space that is created by a non-shooterās defender sagging off them and the value of running the action with good pace. You also see the layered actions there with the handoff option to Spencer for a 3 but then an immediate next option to go to Newton for a ball screen. It also helps when your guards can just destroy a deep drop defender like Newton does to Ledee.
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Yeah, I thought RD had a lot of offensive potential in the offseason and even early season, and boy did I go down with that ship, but stillā¦
Our offensive SPA (to reuse that term) didnāt max out RD on offense, by a long shot.
We couldāve done any of a number of things:
- max him out at about 25 mpg and play someone else at the 4 for more minutes
- early in the year, make him shoot ANY TIME heās open on the perimeter. No thinking allowed! Other than āTony will bench me if I donāt shoot thisā
- Not have him out on the perimeter (we tried this some sorta middle of the year, but it doesnāt really fit well with any of our pre-patterned offenses), but use him on the block. Also complicated when we got locked into a minor-Dunn frontcourt.
- when Dunn had that much space, (1) have him drive into traffic and take a shot and play Houston ball on the glass (super fun if Grives playing the 5!) or draw a foul or generally play into his aggression/athleticism; or (2) do what UConn does here and have Dunn rescreen and get Reece taking it into the trees with great haste.
Instead our offense just devolved into this thing where Dunn would get the ball on the perimeter and everyone would freeze for a beat, and have this āoh rightā moment and then just reset. With no advantage having been gained from all the effort.
(And Iām supposed to trust the guy who made that as his āthis is my best choiceā decision on offense going forward? Nope, no sir. I donāt trust Tony with an offense and I donāt trust Tony in the first round (or game, now) of the NCAA tourney. I will continue to implicitly trust Tony to maul the ACC, be great talent evaluator, and a generally good dude)
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Why do you think Tony has so much struggle in the first round? Only 2 relatively easy wins out of 10 appearances. The other 8: 5 losses (including 3 blowouts) and 2 others were a one possession game under 6 minutes left, and one down by 8 at half.
And why only at UVA?
Tony had 2 easy wins in his 2 first round appearances at Washington State.
Perplexedā¦
I have a little time on my hands, so I gave myself a little off-season project. Iām going through some of the offenses I find interesting and writing little summaries of what they do. And to justify this effort to myself (and others if they should ask), Iām sharing them here! Iāll do an overview, highlight some key actions, and then to give this some UVA relevance, put a poll for rating the fit of the offense for the 2024-25 UVA roster (however you imagine it).
Iāll start with an offense I bring up a lot hereā¦
Davidson 5-Out Motion Offense
Overview
Iām starting here because 1) Iāve enjoyed watching Davidson for a long time, and 2) thereās a lot thatās similar about the broad outlines of this offense to the kinds of things that TB and co like to do. Itās a motion offense that involves a lot of off-ball screens, reading the defense, and lots of curls. Sound familiar? There are differences though, that come with how they use 5-out spacing, early offense, and where they look to score.
Statistical footprint
Iāll look at 2021-22 data, as it was Bob McKillopās last season. His son coaches them now, they havenāt been quite as good despite running the same stuff.
Iāll be referencing these kinds of play type breakdowns often; if you go to the Hoop Explorer page [link] and hover over each bar, it will tell you what defines each play type. For Davidson, they do a lot of scoring relative to the D1 average on cuts from perimeter players, drives, catch-and-shoots off of perimeter passes (which include off-ball screens, I think), and passes from the post to the perimeter. The 2021-22 edition of McKillopās team wasnāt a big transition team; theyāve been a faster team in the past, but slowed it down after coming to the A-10. They have been consistently a high 3pt-rate team, which will make sense when you see how they align themselves.
Video
If youād rather watch than read, there are a couple of videos that do a good job of showing their offense.
Summary from Half Court Hoops: https://youtu.be/mUoBA4-Ypaw?si=b_g48VCY8bkygA6X
Video playbook of all their actions: https://youtu.be/RJYKu1HKPMs?si=9jx9XqSaNDycbA1V
Key Features
Early offense
Hey, look at that opponent! Anyway, Davidson has a very specific approach to how they organize their transition. Two run to the corners (typically their perimeter players) and a forward runs to the rim. The point guard will look to hit anyone open or probe for a drive, while the trailing forward is available to set a screen, catch the ball for a 3, or to trigger the half-court offense. The way they come down in transition links up exactly to their motion offense, they rarely take time to reposition before getting into their motion.
Stagger screen reads
The stagger screen for an off-ball mover is the signature alignment of their motion. They get into this right out of transition after reversing the ball through the trailing forward to the opposite wing. This is a read, so the player coming off the stagger (in the far corner near the Davidson bench) has the option to 1) reject the stagger and backdoor cut to the rim, 2) curl the first screen towards the rim, 3) use both screens to pop for a 3 at the top of the key or to curl towards the rim. He rejects it here and burns Nigel:
Then the first screener (the one closest to the player using the stagger) can then come off the second screener for a 3, or to keep the offense going for another set of stagger screens to the other side. When they run this, their curls either go right to the rim or outside the arc; rarely do they hit the curler while heās in the midrange.
5-Out spacing
Davidson does a really good job of keeping the lane clear in their motion. Looking at this other picture of them getting into their stagger screen after transition, the rim-running forward (#23) gets out of the paint and clears towards the corner. They rarely keep someone in the lane for long. In this case, it helps that their forward is a shooter, but they clear out whoever is down there.
Personnel
The 2021-22 Davidson team had a starting lineup with three high-volume 3P threats, a stretch big who was good both inside and out (on lower volume), and another big who rarely shot the 3 (but hit them when he shot). Their bench was composed mostly of non-threats from 3, but they mixed them with their starters enough to keep two shooting threats on the floor at all times. It helps with the bigs can step out and shoot it, but theyāve had success with a non-shooter at the 5 (2019-20 is an example). Like many motion offenses, there arenāt really differentiated roles for different players, though thereās a little bit of a guard/forward split like in Blocker-Mover.
UVA Fit
Time to weigh in! How well does this offense fit, on a scale of 1 to 5 (pillars):
Davidson Offense Fit
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
0
voters
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Might have to take a closer look at this offense, Iām loving that they make Flex look good in the modern day (unlike Al Skinnerās last couple of Kennesaw St teams):
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Nice clip of Hurley talking to JJ about how he and Luke Murray built UConnās offense to have multiple looks off each set.
https://x.com/djacenba/status/1781352454627459518?s=46&t=vkjgQUekzGC7z44tIfnIRQ
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Iāve really enjoyed watching how teams in the NBA playoffs have schemed ways to keep their rim protector at home, and this video has a cool example of how Minnesota managed that in Game 1 against the super dangerous Denver offense:
They basically give the guy using the Jokic ball screen a runway to the rim, knowing that Gobert will be there to clean it up and with a plan to rotate behind him. And this helps them take away Jokic catching the ball on the roll. Cool plan and good execution to make it hard to beat.
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Been thinking about offensive philosophies some, and I am curious to get othersā thoughts on this.
How would you define UVAās offense philosophy under TB?
To give some examples of how I might describe offensive philosophies for some prominent offenses:
Alabama (under Oats)
- Push in transition and attack before the defense settles
- Any semi-open 3 is a good shot
- Avoid shooting from the midrange at all costs
Villanova (under Wright)
- Off-ball players limit movement to stay spaced for the ballhandler to be able to attack
- Everyone catching the ball should look to shoot when they catch
- Look to create an advantage mostly 1-on-1 (dribbling into post ups, attacking a spaced floor), ball movement is mostly to turn a small advantage into a big one
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Something along these lines:
- Pass up a good shot for a better shot
- āDo no harmā
- Minimize turnovers
- Prioritize stopping the other teamās transition over crashing boards
- Prioritize defense, which might mean getting a breather in the first few seconds of the shot clock and/or walking the ball up (this is the only one that might be a bit of a ātakeā)
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It might be included in either #2 or #5, but Iād also include:
āTransition offense is risky. Leaking out pulls people away from grabbing the defensive rebound, the risk of a TO is high and it requires using non-system offense. Only do it if its an OBVIOUS opportunity. REALLY obvious.ā
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Rim protection. Do we need it? Does it work as planned out of the pack line?
This Nuggets-Wolves series has been great on the Xs and Os front. Look how Minny is just flying around offball to make doubling Jokic work:
https://x.com/joeviraynba/status/1791310750658732447?s=46&t=wAzMZR-0PRGT1LpN6U5x0g
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I think we need it. Our best defensive teams have tended tj have a very high block rate.
IMO, basically about 90% of the things that would be good in any defense are good in the pack line, too.
And about 8 of the 10 remaining points are a bit controversial, too. (This is the Haney take part). Like, did Minor suddenly āfigure something outā or did Tony suddenly decide to remove his head from his ass. You be the judgeā¦ no seriously, you do it. Because people get annoyed at me when I be the judge.
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