Q&A with Alex Sarama (Part 1)

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All right, let's start with the transition. This is like the Jaden 3-on-3 call. I wanted to get to the pistol stuff, Adriana. So first, he was the transition spacing. So really simple, I divide it into makes, misses, and I call it green. So it's essentially the traffic light.

So you've got green, Which is your transition to dominoes. Yellow is your triggers, and that's the first trigger when we're neutral, as well as the retrigger. So like we were doing today, it's the same. It was post, solos, blocks is the first trigger, and then the retrigger.

But as they get older, it can get a little bit different. For instance, you can run more complex triggers like double drag, stagger away, which are longer, but you can't retrigger to those because they take too long because they're 3 and 4 person actions.

So as they get to like you A good level U16 or U18, I differentiate between the first actions and then the re-triggers. And typically what I call is, I'd call them flow triggers versus re-triggers. Flow triggers could be your double drag, pistol, whatever.

And then your re-triggers are the quick things like a pick and roll, get, solo, if that makes sense. Red are your sets, which are quick to get into, different, you know, out of the same spacing, same alignment, different options, which you use to attack a match jumper coverage, et cetera.

So transition would simply be, let's start on misses and then we'll go to makes. So it really depends on where we are when we secure possession. And let's start with this one. So let's imagine that we've got the ball falling to this player here.

So the first thing is the lag-free reaction. So all 4 players off the ball, instead of just seeing that we gain possession on this rebound and Walking, then jogging, then running. It's a lag-free reaction where they start sprinting immediately and they go up the nearest sideline.

The one exemption is if they think they can just get a 1-on-0 layup or 2-on-1, then they can go through the middle. So what we typically see is it's kind of like these long Cs where we've gotta run here and we always fill corner first.

So if you're getting here and you think you can get a layup, by all means cut in. If you think you can't get a layup, then we're spacing corner first. Now here, same thing, corner first. If you see the corner is filled, 45 is your next option.

Now this 3rd player, if it's primary transition, and let's say whoever gets it is the rebounder, so there's no point guard outlet with this. So this player is leaving the middle free. So what we want to avoid doing is dribbling through the middle.

Why? Because the defense typically low back sprint through the middle. So instead they come just out Side the lane line. And what this allows us to do is we know that the 2 side is here. Now what we're looking to do is intentionally get this.

So what often happens is the 2 side's gonna be very clear who it is, but what about this 3rd player? Right? So typically there are a few things you can do. I never see a problem where this player is coming up. And they kind of move in front of a 2-side pass and take it away.

It just, it doesn't happen much. But what you can do, few options. Number one, you simply have them cut through and get to the weak side dunker if it's dominoes, right? So if we're coming up and we see it's dominoes, you have them come up, they cut and they get to the weak side dunker and it'll be there because we anticipate the skip coming.

Of course, if they don't skip it, then the weak side would be here. So I just gotta be ready for that. Another option would be they could fill the 45 and communicate bump. And all that means is they bump the player in the 45 to go through and they would fill their spot.

So those are the 2 things you could do. If it's neutral, it would be one of these players coming for a trigger. Now this is, I'm thinking, completely positionless youth basketball. If you have a player who is a more traditional 5 where it doesn't make sense maybe for them to run to the perimeter.

It might be a little bit different, but the great thing with this playing completely positionless is that if we're coming up and we are neutral, this is great spacing for us to just go into the first trigger. So say, you know, this player's coming up and they're kind of getting here.

There's no 2-side step when we're neutral. Now this player sees it, calls the trigger, and maybe they're coming up. We could go into a wide, a side pick and roll, a get, whatever. And now we're just playing, trying to start dominoes.

A little bit before that, would you do a pass ahead to the guy who is sprinting in the corner?

Great question. Great question. Only if they're wide open. So I'm not a huge fan of the single side kick ahead. And the reason why is because it's like, often there's a defender here and it's just one good closeout, short closeout, neutral, and we've lost the dominoes.

So what I prefer is keep it, because the main advantage of the 2 side is the defense loads back like this. So if we can get that pass either there, there, or even there, it's kind of a guaranteed 2-on-1. But if they're wide open, you can send it.

I was thinking like between a 3-point line and middle line, somewhere there. Like if it's open between and the defense is like baseline.

100%. So that's a, I think that's a great point, Marcus, and a different one. So say, let's, 'cause this, this happened quite a bit. This player, say we're doing a really good lag-free reaction. This player's got the rebound. This one is a good one because this to me is a domino situation because the defense isn't set and it's very advantageous because you've got space.

There you don't have space.

Yeah.

So for these early kick aheads, awesome, where they can drive the slot and go.

What would the trailers be? Because now you have 2 trailers, the point, or let's say the one who had the rebound and the other one. Would you like clear out on the weak side or do you have the other one? Great point.

So this is now where we get into our different spacings and this is where we need these known spacings.

So.

If we do 2 situations, this would happen. Basically, when the ball is on the outside, on the far outside, and that could happen through a kick ahead, or let's just say this player gets the ball, right, on a rebound. The rule is you can't cross in front of the ball.

That's our principle of trade. So, you know, we spoke about going up the nearest sideline, but not crossing in front of ball takes precedence to nearest sideline. So now this player cannot come in front to get to the corner. So now they're coming here and it's empty corner spacing.

So the spacing that would flow really well with that would be empty pick and roll, clear. At the younger level, when we haven't got those pick and roll spacings, I think you'd have to get one of these players seeing the floor balance, cutting through, and just playing out of that, which I think you can do, because then you can get to solo post, all of that.

Because if you're trying to run a solo here, it's— maybe you could do it, right? So it's Ball, you'd have to have one player go through to the weak side. So the spacing's not ideal because you're probably going to have the defense really loaded, but maybe you could do it.

That's like the transition principles, how you get into it and spacing, all that. Any questions on the spacing? So it's just, I think, summarize, keep the highway clear.

Yeah.

Seek the nearest sideline unless it means you have to go in front of the ball, in which we never go crossing in front of the ball. So then you have to go opposite, look for the 2 sides, early kick aheads, but not single side if it's late.

And then you just have to be ready to communicate, fix spacing, go through on overloads. The overload isn't a problem if it's neutral. It's more if you think there's a 2-side skip where it's a problem, because then you'd have just like 3 players bunched up here.

So if you think it's going to be neutral, it's fine. You can just stay and get into the action. That's where the hardest thing I think with the thing where a lot of teams struggle with is, The transition from transition to half-court offense, which is the first trigger.

So that is what has to be really lag-free. So it's kind of like, as soon as the ball has crossed the half, if it is neutral, they have to be pulling the trigger immediately. What we have to avoid is players coming over, dribbling for like 3 to 6 seconds, and then pulling the trigger.

And that's the most dangerous thing about conceptual offense. So it's, if whoever has it hasn't recognized it, Then someone else has to come to it. Now, if you have target players, what that means is, cuz obviously on a miss we could have a non-target player bringing it up.

So that's where if that happens, you gotta find a way to quickly get a target coming through the ball so that then we can get into the trigger. Pistol was one question that came up.

So if there's an overload, so you have the 45 and the corner.

Yeah.

Are you going to send the corner through? And clear and fill into the— or sorry, send the 45 through, fill into the 45, or do you send the corner along the baseline and then it's just bumped down?

So I think you can do either. In my experience, to send the 45 through is much easier because it's just one player involved. But depending on the level and how good your team are, obviously if you send the corner, it pairs better with cut slide, but it requires more intentionality.

Something I tried doing at prep is sending the worst shooter through. So I would just communicate the name of the worst shooter on the 2 side. So if it's obvious, you know, but again, it becomes difficult because it's like—

So essentially you just wanna minimize how many people's interaction as possible.

That's it. Having it easy, just bump the 45 through. And then if it's a player who is a great shooter, then maybe you could give them the option. If they hear that bump, they just slide and that cues that person to go.

Yeah.

That could be a simple way of, of doing it. If they think there's a chance of the skip, they have to do that bump early. If it's neutral, they can stay. No problem. Just be ready to play off that.

And on makes as well.

Okay, sure.

Great point.

'Cause I completely forgot about makes. So on makes, it would be your target player getting the ball. The closest player takes it out. So the target who you want has to start high above this 3-foot line extended. And the good constraint is it's a turnover if they catch it inside the 3-foot line.

And the reason why is we want these like deep outlets. So the closest player, as soon as the ball is going through the net, they've basically got to grab it out of the net and take a step under, but right outside of the lane line.

Don't want to stay at the backboard because we might get some long baseball passes, and then of course it would hit the backboard. So as this happens, and they can run the baseline pass and we play off that, it's trying to get— seeing if we can get a A C cut and going at speed.

If they do start shorter, I allow it, and I actually look to stampede the catch. It's something I got from watching Paris. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was really interesting to get like TJ shorts, quick inbound, pass ahead, and start stampeding.

So instead of catching and jogging up, literally be full-on sprint straight away, and then trying to set a time for three seconds to. Be at the other end, like be at the other 3-point line, like really fast. So that would be the makes.

So the makes is when you just have an assigned target player, essentially. And certain states after a make, like where do you want them to run to? Same rules as misses, same concepts. Positionless, fill corner first. If the corner's filled, 45. Because on the makes, I'm still looking for a 2-side.

I still think you can do it. Obviously less frequency than the misses, getting the 2-side skip, but I still think you can do it. So if it's a chance for a skip, a weak side skip, fix the overload. If you think it's neutral, you stay for the trigger.

What if I just hold it inbounds? Yeah, good question. What I would do is clear. So let's say, cuz there's a few different things you could do. The most common would be playing off on the inbounder. So let's say the inbounder is here.

As this defender goes off, that's the only situation where you might need some help. And you have another player kind of wait to get open. And then this player, just as soon as they pass, this player's got to sprint. And we look to get the dominoes through that.

Another player out, so just passive to their worry.

Yeah.

And something I actually did try at London Lions was, it was principles of play, I think. Let me see if I can remember it. I might not remember it. It was called Square. I might need your help, George, because it was a spur-of-the-moment thing we put on that worked really well.

So I think it was 2 starting high.

Yeah.

And then we had on the front—

where were they?

Where were the other 2 that we put up?

Do you remember?

It was just—

yeah, they'd be on the other side. Ah, okay. George, you call it. I honestly can't remember it. So, but it worked really well.

Let's say like the ball gets passed in and this guy gets it. This player would now go to the weak side dunker as we're bringing the ball up, because now if we have dominoes, we're just straight, you know, we're trying to get a gold medal.

And then that's what it was.

And where did we send these 2?

Do you remember?

This would be the safety pass, or no, sorry, the safety pass.

And they went and the inbounder came up middle.

Yeah.

Was it that? It was something we should dig it up and find it because it was really good because it wasn't a press break, but it was like a way we exploited space To really beat teams who were trying to trap and press early.

I think it was something like they would screen for each other and either player would break, but trying to catch it high still above the 3-point line. So it'd be a screen, either of them could screen. Then I think whoever set the screen and didn't catch it came middle.

So say the ball went here, say they set the screen and this player receives it after screening, they come middle.

Okay.

This player catches and this player is sprinting opposite, but staying level with the ball in case we need it. Then I think it was, like you said, weak side dunker, depending on where the ball goes, strong side corner. I think the idea was trying to just get to dominoes immediately.

And by using the dunker, increases the chance of getting a gold medal if the, if it's 3 on 2 versus getting a catch and shoot 3. So it worked pretty well. We should try and dig up some clips. Yeah.

Yeah.

Because we've got some good game footage of it in action. I think the first thing is trying to remove— this would be more like makes where we couldn't inbound it quickly. Like, the first thing would be get the inbound as quick as we can and play wings practice with a 2-second constraint where if they haven't inbounded it within 2, turnover.

So I really get used to running, getting to positions, and then square can just be useful because it's not a press break, it's more principles.

Question, what do the analytics show with Bringing the ball up on this side, so everyone's still running through the middle, and we actively seek out the 2 sides. So we go into here, either touches the corner, so we have a 1 can't guard 2, or now we go away and then now we go there.

Yeah.

What's, what's been more effective? Because I've always told them to seek out this immediately because we have the 1 can't guard 2 versus coming in here, because I always think it's More time and then, so what's—

There's no direct analytics on something like that. It would be really tough to filter out. You, you basically have to manually log it. What I will say is if you do make this single side kick ahead, the only thing is if you take it and it doesn't directly lead to dominoes, then they pass it back.

The defense will probably be neutral and there won't be the skip pass. What we did is we tried to discourage This, this past season, unless you were sure it was like what we were talking about, Marcus, where it was an early thing to the wing and they could really drive it.

If you didn't think the advantage, like, and the defender's kind of like there, like, you know, try to not like right in front of them. And then if not, just go through and just skip it. 'Cause I just get, it's just a bigger advantage on that backside.

'Cause a coach from California asked me that last week during the boys camp. And I said, if you have somebody bringing up the ball who could immediately exploit, get downhill, get that rim finish for the initial one, then yeah, maybe you want to set up on this side, not seek this out.

Versus if you have more shooters, then you could go into here. And if you have that immediate advantage, seek out this 2 side. But majority of the time you would pretty much say, come here, exploit more of this.

Yeah.

Look, look for the 2 side. But it really depends because, you know, there might be some games where you get like 8 or 10 skips and some games where you get 1.

Yeah.

It's just, uh, what I found over the years. I think what is more important is just the spacing intent without even having the 2-side skip. It's more getting into the spacing and the recognition of neutral if it's not there. So yeah, I think that's transition spacing.

The last thing was the pistol. Let me just do it here. So, um, It's just a nice trigger you can use. So let's imagine that the ball is bring ball up the side, right? Right outside the lane line. And this is maybe the player who was trailing, who inbounded it.

So it could be anything you could get into this on misses too. It doesn't just have to be a make, of course. So pistol would be player in the single side corner, then so many variations would just come out of it. And how I like running it is with a pistol pass ahead, and you start it with a wing get.

So it's basically a get right there, and you're looking for dominoes. So it could be a keep. could drive around immediately and be really aggressive. Then what we would simply have is have the flare start to come and really bring it over. So as this player gets it back, so they've thrown it and now they sprinted on the get and they get it off the pitch.

Now the player who gives it is coming off this flare screen, and then we cut apart on the weak side. So that would be kind of how I ran pistol, where it was pistol with a get into a flare screen. But then we'd get really creative out of it.

So then sometimes, you know, this player here, they might keep it instead of giving it back and they just come off a pick and roll and that's our side spacing, right? They could give it here and flip. Now we're in our clear spacing double drag.

You could give it in, come off, maybe you're not open on the flare, Ricky rescreens. Now it's a wide. So it's like an example of just running one action, but being very creative with all the different ways you could do it. And we even did pistol invert sometimes where They'd sniff out that we were doing the pistol pass ahead.

So then we'd pass through the trail, we'd go get it back here, and we invert the pistol. So now this player is the flare screen for the trail. So that's something. So just different ways you can be really creative in the conceptual offense out of serves and triggers.

It would just— we just have one call and they would do it. And, but I think that's the good thing with having a language factor. Like, so sometimes if I said pistol, look for the Ricky, if it's there, that would be the rescreen.

It was like, Pistol, think about the key, or pistol invert would be played through the U, right? So I think that's where having the language really helps doing things without having to have like pistol 1, pistol 2, pistol 3. Because then even if, if I called, if we said, all right, pistol Ricky, they would still know that if we can score here without getting to the Ricky or score off the first flare, like say there's a really obvious slip, they'd do that versus just looking for the rescreen.

Would you say, if you say go pistol for the Ricky, that now you're scripting something?

No, but I do think you have to script. I do think you do have to script certain things. Like I'd have, especially within like sets, they do need to be scripted. But the most important thing is that the players know that if you can create dominoes off the first part of it, then that's what we're trying to do.

So like even in something like pistol Ricky, we've got opportunities to start dominoes just off this first part. Which we should look to exploit. If we are not looking for that and we're literally, say we're just running this very passively, then we run the first flare screen, which is the second part of it, very passively.

And then we get to the Ricky. Yes, that's probably an issue. So it's like, cuz there's 2 parts before the Ricky, but, and you need to look to run those parts with intent. Cuz if you do that well, it's gonna soften up the defense.

So then by the time you get to the last part of it, you know, you really soften up the defense to create maximum advantage. What's the time? Uh, yeah, I mean, when she does.

Yeah.

So cutting the pop here would be, I differentiate to the slot cut. It is a slot cut and I just call it cut the pop. So it's basically, let's say the flare is happening right here. Okay. We have to get the moment the player passes the flare screen.

The moment they pass the flare screener, they go early. Now you can manipulate the timing based on what you want going early. Removes the stunt completely, right? If you want to go much later, it might punish them for stunting. So what I mean by that is if you go the moment before the ball is going and then your defender's stunting, you might get more scores off that.

So it depends what one, if you want to prevent it or punish it completely. Yeah. And where do you want the get, the first get happen? Okay, so the first get, true point. Could really— you've got a few scenarios. So the most important thing is we get off the sideline.

So that's 3-point line, but what we don't want is catching it really below the 3-foot line where you don't have space. So trying to come up to just underneath the 3-foot line where you're off the sideline is really important because then this player, as they pass, they've got space to operate.

Just here is really important if you're running it there. And if you're running the trail get, kind of just on a side, getting one foot inside the 3. So one foot on the line or outside. What we don't want to avoid, and it's the same here, is catching the get with 2 feet outside the 3.

So really a big constraint, I feel, whenever I play gets is it's a turnover or a reset if you catch with 2 feet outside the 3-point line. And then they've really got to fight for their position, seals.

All of that.

Alfred, you good with piston at the pass entry before chase ball in where center? 100%. And a nice entry. I mean, you can do it off a pick too. So that's how pistol in the NBA is done. I just like doing off the get because I think there's more options out of it.

How you would see it in the NBA would be this player would set a step up and roll or step up into the flare. But that could also, when we were doing it with the college prep team, This guy could come for the get or just set it.

And that could be easily distinguished where if they're showing a fist or just doing something with their eyes, you know, it's a pick. If it's like hungry hands, you know, it's a get. So then you get into the pistol different ways.

Is that how you communicate it?

Yeah, just different. I would just call it. So I'd give the call and it would be this player giving the call. The ball handler would give the call for the pistol, but then finding ways to go off script. Like another example would be like if you're flipping a pick.

If the ball handler and the screener aren't on the same page, it could be a moving screen, right? So for small things like that, a flip, it could just be like a hand signal. For something like this, if you're, if you're setting, then you could have a hand signal, whereas if you're looking for the get, could just be an open palm.

So little things like that, because it's what you don't want to do is have one call pistol and then it's, it's a mess where they really don't know what's happening. So we would be very structured, very constrained, where we'd start the pistol, just always get flat.

Be upset, always in the same place. Get them obsessed with the coverage solutions, and then as that got good, then we'd add wrinkles to it conceptually. But they weren't different play calls; they just did them. Any other questions on this stuff? We can hit the last ones we had, Karen.

It was three quick questions now, or any questions from the week? All right, transition defense. So you got two types: you've got your tagging up if you do tagging up. And then your emergency transition. So you're tagging up principles on every shot, layup or 3, and it's just, you have to tag the player who defended you as the shot went up.

So you don't have time to get to your matchup. So whoever your defender is, you have to get to the high side. So if we're in this situation here, let's just draw some random spots. And let's say the shot comes out of the corner right there.

So the tag-ups would look like this, just getting level to the high side. So we're not behind them, we're not going baseline side, we're not crashing. You're just getting right next to your check to try and win the 50-50. And it's more of a transition defense system than an offensive rebounding one.

So the idea is by doing this, if they get the rebound, you're instantly matched up pressing full court, essentially. Wouldn't— yeah. The drop zone. Uh, I got it from Flynn. So they have called the drop zones. They open up the middle when they tag up.

The drop zone is like the line. They did like studies saying that's where the ball—

Sure.

Go, like, I don't know. So a lot of rebounds fall in this high nail area. I haven't heard of that drop zone stuff, but I think just the natural thing with going to the high side is like you're feeling, you're feeling those areas anyway.

But no, I'm not sure what the drop zone stuff is, but send it. I'd love to take a look. What about like the— So yeah, so I will just one last thing I'll say on the tag up. So then if it's a make, you have to stay and really be aggressive trying to push your checks towards the baseline.

So it's like on offense, we're trying to get captures past here. On defense, we're trying to force them to catch close to their baseline and be really physical trying to do it. Then when they do, if they do get the rebound, it's being really intentional as the offense go.

Being ready to plug. And so you're not just staying attached to your check like glue, but you're really staying in the gaps and give support to the defender guarding the ball handler. So emergency would be a turnover or if something goes wrong here.

So a live ball turnover, or if someone falls over, or a player crashes too far and now we're in dominoes. So that is the last player back to our basket is the first player to declare basket. So In this situation, let's just say this player drove and they fell over.

This player here sees that situation, it's dominoes for them. They declare basket, they sprint all the way back, stand right in front of the spike. Then wherever the ball goes, the closest player to the ball declares ball. And so we gotta hear the verbals, basket, ball.

The other 3 players simply sprint back and load and pick up players accordingly. So that's the emergency system. So players have to know the difference between If you tag up, that's the, say that's the thing you're looking to do, you know, as your primary transition system.

But obviously there will be liable turnovers. There will be situations where something goes wrong with a tag up and that's where it's emergency. What about, um, what are they called? But like the juts. So yeah, so with the tagging up, what it might lead to is, is obviously, cuz you don't control the matchups like you do with normal defense, you might have You're big guard and they're small, or vice versa.

So you don't have time in the frontcourt to fix it. But if you get back in your halfcourt, there might be situations where you can fix matchups if it's a pass 2 gaps away. So that means if you're on the weak side, you could just fix the matchup and get back to your normal desired matchup.

But if you're single pass away, you can't, you have to stay. And then dead balls, obviously perfect time. Any dead ball, you automatically go back to your matchup. On a demo, or did you stay like a 5-foot or behind? Stand right next to him.

So say, George, let's do a demo, man. So let's say this is the basket, George, and you're defending me here, and Brady shoots it, right? What I'm doing is I'm being really intentional, getting right, right level with him. So I'm not going ahead of him, I'm not slightly behind him, I'm not on his back.

I'm literally just right level with him. And trying to be a little bit physical, putting my hip and my arm into him to try and win the 50-50, get the rebound, tip it back. And then if he gets it, I'm literally here straight away and my other teammates are being in the gaps to gimme support.

Just to build on that, we tried to implement this with the girls, and what we've learned is they start to don't box out actively because the offense rebounder comes to them. So what they do now is just Standing under the basket.

Yeah.

Brace themselves. So because the offensive rebounder is coming.

Yeah.

And that's a good point.

Problem.

So what I talk about with that, Jan, is let's say George is tagging on me, right? What they can't do is, sorry, George, just, uh, go back. Let's say Brady's shooting it now, right? If they do this and they let them get here, they failed.

Yeah.

So what they have to do is an early take on. So the moment Brady shoots it, right, you have to go and be active taking them on. And that would be design, think of the constraints to reinforce that. If they're just passive, so it's like you cannot let them get level with you.

Do whatever you can to keep them behind you but not level with you. You got anything that would help tagging? No, no magic drill. Has to be a constraint on everything you do. Because if you, if you look at it like a lot of coaches look at tagging like drills, and it's like, all right, we're gonna do one drill for tagging up, but then it's left in the rest of the practice.

Never gonna work. So it's, you have to have one coach if you can, or train yourself to watch in every activity in a practice. And then the constraints have to be very strong. Like if they score, but one player misses a tag off, doesn't count.

That's the only way you can get it.

Like problem with tagging up because you have to do it all the time.

All the time. But I do think if you stay with it for a month, I think it helps. And I, you know, Paris basketball is such a unique part of their identity. I think for youth teams, it's awesome because I think offensive rebounding is so important and full-court defense is so important.

So I really like the approach. If I was coaching youth FIBA, I'd have every team under 12s up, tag up. I want to ask a question about planning.

Yeah.

Like if you were a head coach of a youth team, especially the last, like under 18, how would you plan the whole year? Absolutely. So I'd have a principles of play document, Adriano, with everything I think we going to get to. And that would be, you know, everything on the offense and defense.

So things like the triggers, the coverage solutions, what our domino principles will be, things like special situations, 2-for-1s, just zone up everything. And then the same on defense. And then I would use that as a framework which I frequently revisit. And I would try and do all the practice planning maybe a week or 2 weeks at a time on Google Documents, having a 'Cause right now, until there's a really good online software for practice planning, I think Google Docs the best thing, 'cause everyone can see it in a cloud.

It's free. You can export as a PDF easily. And it's great 'cause then you can copy things from earlier other practices and put them in. So I have a Google Doc template and I'll do 1 or 2 weeks ahead so that you can be really intentional and it's not done last minute.

'Cause I think when it's done last minute, it's often, I think it's hard to really zoom out and be as It included, you know, sometimes you're too reactionary to a game or the last game and things of that note. I'd have really clear— I'd have like a running list of rate limiters, of problems that you want to get your team better at.

So that would— I use sticky notes on my Mac. So when I was coaching prep in Paris, I'd have one whole sticky note would be things, and it could be big things like transition offense spacing, which is a huge topic, to really specific details like We're not looking for a Gore-Tex seal against a deep drop, right?

And I'd have these things done in hierarchy from most important to least important so that when I'm practicing, I'm looking at those. And then when I think something's good, when we were off the list, and then so I always have something on the sticky note just to look at.

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