Implementing Conceptual Offenses in the G League with Mfon Udofia

This is the Transforming Basketball Podcast. This is the podcast helping coaches and practitioners change the way we think about basketball performance. Our goal is to provide the ultimate resource for making sense of applying contemporary skill acquisition ideas within basketball. Within this podcast, we unpack how an ecological dynamics framework impacts our perspective of the game.

If you're ready to join us in our quest to transform the basketball world, This is the podcast for you.

Welcome to the Transforming Basketball Podcast. Our guest today is Maffon Udofia, the head coach of the Long Island Nets, the Brooklyn Nets' G League affiliate. A former standout captain at Georgia Tech, Maffon played professionally in the G League and overseas before rising rapidly through the coaching ranks with stops at the Hawks, Wizards, and Clippers organizations.

Mufan brings a unique perspective as he has also had head coaching duties for the Nigerian national team and assistant coaching duties there under Mike Brown. Mufan, welcome to the show.

And thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

So how are you? Season started. How's that journey going from being a head coach there for the G League team?

I'm great. You know, the season just started. Extremely excited to get going, get playing, you know. Throughout the summers, you're building your philosophies. You're trying to figure out what you want to do differently the next year. So I'm just really excited to get the season going.

No, amazing. And I want to talk about, so you were a high-level point guard at Florida Tech and then you played in the G League. How much of your coaching philosophy is built on your own experiences and from what you've learned from, you know, some great coaches at your stops along the way?

And how much of it is built after now that you've taken on a role and that you're learning new things in This journey now with the G League team?

That's a great question. It's funny you asked that question. I'll say not much because, you know, I felt like when you're young, you know it all, right? You know it all. And of course, the older you get, the wiser you get. That's whether in life and in basketball.

I tell my coaches to this day, my older coaches that coached me in the past, I'm sorry. I understand your frustrations from the shot selection to the missed coverages. And now that I'm coaching, I feel it now, you know, but as a player, you know, I always want to be an extension of the head coach.

I was always dialed in, always focused, whether they're teaching things. I wanted to make sure that I was doing it the right way and I was able to help my teammates do it the right way as well. But of course, you know, you want your team to take on the identity of the head coach.

And I played extremely hard on both ends of the floor. And that was just the foundation, played extremely hard. And now that I've been coaching for a few years now, I'm able to build out know kind of my philosophies, obviously, and defensive philosophies and things of that nature.

And in terms of that, you know, playing hard, like, how do you instill that as a non-negotiable on your team?

Yeah, we have something we call WMPs, right? Winning Momentum Plays, right? And that's kind of some ways we can quantify if guys are playing hard or not. That's 50-50 balls, charges, shot goes up, are we boxing out? Are we hitting first? So those are some of the things that we quantify, you know, if guys are playing hard or not.

But that's kind of like the foundation, you know, the effort gets you, especially at our level to get you on the floor. I mean, you have to play hard. That's like the buy-in.

I like that one. I love that one. Hit first. Are you hitting first? Such a small thing. You can't really track it, but it's, you know, you can, you can see it. I also want to ask about, you know, you talked about as a head coach now, you know, when players miss coverages, the shot selection, when you're looking at film with players and you're looking like, you know, is this a good shot?

Like, you know, why did you mess up on this coverage? I guess it's a lot easier now maybe than it was before with all the technology with holding players accountable. How else do you hold players accountable? Obviously you have the film there, but how else do you have that?

Do you build that relationship so you can hold them accountable?

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, to start each season before the players come to market, I reach out to every player, you know, and let them know I'm extremely excited to coach them. And no matter what your previous situation is like, coming here in our environment, you know, it's going to be a clean slate.

I tell the truth, try to be consistent in my approach. Whether we win or lose, I want to be consistent as much as possible because in the G League, of course, things change so often, right? If I'm not consistent in my approach, you know, the player is going to feel that and they're going to see that as well.

But I'm constantly checking in. I'm constantly creating dialogue with the players. And also like before our season starts, we have what we call an IDP, individual development plan for each player. And we talk about 3 things that they do very, very well with their strengths.

And we also talk about things that they can improve on. But there's also an opportunity for those guys to give dialogue, to have dialogue, to talk about their goals and what they see and what they want to get out of this year. Coming from a foreign player, you know, you don't get that.

You know, it's more so, hey, we need you to do this, we need you to do that. We see you playing this role, not that role. So we kind of give those guys, you know, the freedom and the dialogue to speak on what they're trying to get out of the G League because that's the most important thing, right?

Like basketball comes kind of first. And then once they feel like you care about the basketball portion and what their next level is, that's when you can start to build those relationships off the court.

Right. And that's just like, you know, those conversations you have before practice, after practice to build those relationships. I love that, you know, you have the IDP and you let the players speak because I do think a lot of the times coaches are always like, this is what you're going to do.

And that's how it is versus like, All right. What do you think is best for you to help this team and giving them that voice? Because it also might be things that they can help you find about how you can make the team better.

For sure. You know, cause I mean, especially at our level, at the G League level, you know, everybody's next level is different. Whether it's a guy who's trying to get a call-up, right? That's just maybe his next level or a two-way guy trying to get a standard contract, right?

That's the next level or a guy trying to use this G League as a springboard to, to get better opportunities overseas. So everybody, What's different. So you want to give the players the space to express that. So just going into the season, we can know what they're trying to get out of this.

And then as far as just creating a dialogue, that's nonstop. And in practice, that's at baggage claim, in the airports, that's when we're on the bus, especially for our staff and myself. I'm constantly preaching that we got to continue to just touch these guys.

Ask them, you know, like for example, ask them what they ate last night. Little things, you know, to get to know the person. Outside of basketball.

Absolutely. So moving on now, I want to ask you, how do you teach a player to make better decisions within conceptual offense instead of just running set plays and you're in a conceptual offense and you see the defense is going over, you know, a screen away?

How are you actually teaching that? Is it the games that you're deciding at practice, the drills you have at practice? Is it through film? Is it a mixture of both? Is it a conversation with the players? How do you teach those decisions?

Yeah, it's a mixture of both film, individual instruction, we call it vitamins, and then practice. You know, majority of good offense usually comes from random offense. Honestly, the sets that we script every day, they're just sets to get you organized, right? Like, we're very, very intentional with our spacing.

And like, a lot of turnovers and poor decision-making and shot selection comes from bad spacing. So we give the guys the opportunity to make plays and get paint touches when we have the correct spacing, but the spacing won't always be perfect. And so in practice, we put guys and we give guys situations that they will see in the game.

For example, let's say a guy is driving the slot and then the low man comes over and traps the box. Like that's a situation that they'll see in the game. So what are the next reads from there? Right? If a guy comes trap the box, that obviously means the guy is sinking down.

So it's a 2-on-1 on the backside. So now his reads are, no, I got to lay up at the rim or I'm swinging it to the corner or to the wing. We'll call it the 45 guy. You know, so just putting them in situations like that in practice where it's not so much the sets that you run, it's more so situations that you may see in the game that you gotta be able to read and make the right play.

You know, especially if you're going left, then maybe it's a right-handed player going left, being able to make that pass with the left hand is hard, you know? So like you need to be put in those situations to learn how to make those decisions, especially, you know, with the length that you have in professional basketball.

I mean, it's very hard. And then from like a team aspect, we drill that as well in practice as well. We put those guys in situations where it's funky spacing to where we have constraints, right? Hey, the ball's going to start here on the 45 and you can either pass it to the wing or you can pass it to the corner.

And that's when we're live, right? And we're trying to find the next action, you know, whether that's a guard-to-guard slip out, whether it's a guard-to-guard push pick, how can we continue to flow? Playing random basketball without calling a quote unquote set.

Yeah. And how, like, I've always wondered how coaches do it. Like, you know, different coaches have different ways. So maybe if it's, you know, if you pass it to the 45 and there's, there's on that second side, and then there's 2 guards there, is that an automatic guard to guard, you know, ghost?

Or how do you decide? How did the players decide? I guess my question is, you know, what action they should be going to.

Yeah, great question. So we have something we call nonverbals. Right. And it's also dependent on, right, the player's skill set. So I might pass it to a guy that's on a 45 and there'd be a really good 3-point shooter that's in the corner.

He might use a nonverbal where he's having his hand out and he's setting a guard-to-guard slip out because he's a really good 3-point shooter. Or it's another nonverbal where he's not really a good 3-point shooter. He's a bigger wing. He might set a push pick where we hit the bottom of the defender and we roll.

And you lose it. To let the ball handler know what screen that we're going to set. And, you know, it's not always screens either. It could just be a simple swing pass, right? That can cause indecision and some confusion as well. And you can find the next action with that as well.

Yeah.

I just always find it interesting because obviously different coaches have different ways. And I think the game is trending more and more towards like more concept-based action. But then how do you determine which concepts you want to run at any given time in the game?

I want to transition now. And obviously Brooklyn Nets, Long Island Nets, you guys are both, you know, you run the pick and roll a lot. There's a lot of play conceptual basketball. I want to ask you, what are some of your biggest keys for teaching the pick and roll?

You know, it's relationship, whether that's the point guard, 5-man, or guard to guards, you know, pick and rolls. I say with the point guard, it always starts with a setup. Get the defender up. Usually I like to set the defender up with rejects.

You know, that can get the defender shifting his feet and that allowed a big time to get a really good screening angle. We tell our bigs, we want them screening where their butt is facing to the corner so we can force the defender over top.

And then from there, you know, with the guard having a really good setup and the bigs having a really good screening angle, as the guard's coming off, he's reading whatever coverage the defense is playing. You know, some teams are a drop defense team where X5 is kind of protecting the basket.

Some teams are Or up to the level team where the low man is very pulled in, right? So that's when we teach those reads then, you know, as you come off the pick and roll, you're reading that low man. If he's pulled in, that means corner might be open or that 45 guy may be open.

You know, the big is in the drop. You're attacking that big, engaging that big because you might have a pocket pass, you know, or you might finish at the rim.

Like, let's switch it now. Biggest keys for defending the pick and roll if you're in the drop, and then we'll go to the switch as well. Or actually, let's keep it drop and then up to touch drop as well.

Yeah. The biggest thing is, you know, the communication. That's first and foremost, right? The big is yelling, you know, what direction the screen is coming from, whether it's coming from the left side or the right side. And then we teach our guards, right, to get into the body of the guard, right?

To take away that airspace, to have ball pressure, just so you won't be easily screened, you know? So as that guard is getting to the ball pressure, he's fighting over, he's trying to get back in front. He's trying to get back in front.

And the big is going to drop. And if you can't get back in front, Usually we call that a late red, right? When you see either he cracks the free throw line or you see the back of his numbers, we like to communicate a late red where the big will take the guard and then you will veer off and take the big.

Right. And so like, just so I understand it for the coaches listening as well, you know, the ball pressure is there about an arm's distance away, but as that pick is coming up to set it, they're pretty much hugging the offensive player so that it can get real skinny and get through the pick.

Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So like, As the screen is coming, like you said, we're arm's length distance away, right? We're not super hugged up. You know, you have some defenders that's better than others where they can have extreme ball pressure and not get blown by, right?

You have some guys that we want to be up to touch where we're arm's length distance away. And as the hitter screen's being called, that's when you want to take up that airspace. And that's when you get into his body so he can get skinny and fight over that screen.

And as he's coming off, you know, your big is either up to the level of screen or he's going to drop. If he's in the drop, he's playing 2-on-2, he's retreating, stabbing at the ball, not letting the roller get behind him. You know, if your big is playing up to level screen, you know, he's up to level screen, he's jabbing at the ball to try to have the ball handler, you know, take a step back, trying to attack the ball handler because he's going to have help with his low man on the backside protecting the

roll.

So that's super important as well. Like, I guess when you're repping it, you don't even do a 2-on-2 game to work on it because you need like to work on that up to touch because you need that tag man. To be there.

Yeah. So when we're working on it, usually we have 3 to 4 guys out there on the floor, especially when you're up the touch. You know, when you're up the touch, the big is at the level of screen. It's pretty much like you're blitzing the screen a little bit, right?

You got 2 on the ball. So as that big is rolling, you know, the low man is in between the dots in the charge circle because he's protecting the roller. And the guy that's at the top of the I, he's sinking to take first pass.

Because if the point guard gets out the pick and roll, he throws to the corner, that sink guy is taking the first pass. Guy that was protecting the roller, he's taking a second pass.

Nah, and then, and then you want your big up to touch as well to just recover so there's no switch either, I guess.

You want that big up to touch so he can impact the ball. Now he's pretty much helping the ball handler. I mean, the guy that's guarding the ball handler, he's helping that guard out, you know. We don't want that guard getting downhill, so our big is up to touch impacting the ball because we don't want that guard getting downhill and then our guard is fighting like hell to get back in front.

And then as soon as he's in front, the big is, is back to his check.

Yeah, so as soon as he's in front, he's calling— Sarama was like to use a square. He's calling square, square, square. He's yelling it 3 times, you know, because we want to have early, loud, and continuous communication. So he's yelling square 3 times, letting that big know to get back up, to get— that he can release and get back to his man.

Man, I love it. That's great. I appreciate that. I always think it's so interesting, the terminology used in the pros. I think it really kind of sets the communication apart. And obviously some things that, you know, coaches everywhere can take and apply with their own teams.

All right, moving on now. I want to pivot. Biggest takeaways being the youngest head coach of the Nigerian national team in the AfroBasket qualifiers?

Oh, the biggest takeaway. It's a good one. It was a couple of years ago, but honestly, that was my first time being a head coach, you know, being in that coaching seat. At the time, Mike Brown was the head coach of the team and he had some obligations with his NBA team.

So he was like, hey, you're up next. He allowed me to coach in that window. I was extremely nervous, but I was excited at the same time because, I mean, I felt confident. Because I spent years in the G League, you know, finding my voice, building out my philosophy, things of that nature.

But it was some guys on the team that I knew previously. So I had some familiarity with the players, which made it a lot easier. But, you know, the biggest takeaway is that you got to make all the final decisions.

Right.

Whether in-game adjustments, whether practice times, bus scheduling. So that's the biggest takeaway, man, is like, especially if you've never been in that leadership role, you have to make the final decisions and everything's end up on you. So it's simple, you know, with AfroBasket and FIBA, the ball pressure and physicality is extreme.

It's super extreme. They're very, very physical. So just keeping it very simple. That's one of the biggest takeaways. Yeah.

I always like when I was head coaching last season and it was like, you know, we had a little staff. I had 2 assistants. I found it really interesting how much I relied on them just to voice my thoughts before I make my decision versus just going straight into a decision.

Whereas sometimes I felt like, man, I just need to make a decision because like I know what I want to do. Like, but then there was that balance that I had to learn as I was going through the season as well.

No, for sure. You definitely have to find that balance, you know, because you might have the final say-so, but you also got to lean on your assistants as well, you know, because sometimes they have the best observation of something or maybe it's their scout that they've been working on.

So you do have to create that dialogue and you have to trust your assistant coaches as well.

Yeah. Yeah. I want to ask biggest lessons you learned from that environment when you were working under Coach Mike Brown. And also just to touch on, like, you know, you worked with Brett Brown, Wes Unseld Jr., you know, the coaching staffs from all those teams, Lloyd Pierce.

So like, what are some of the biggest lessons from all these great coaches?

Yeah, no, I've been fortunate and blessed to work alongside, to observe a lot of great coaches. You mentioned a few there. You know, it's crazy. When I first got into the business, that's when I was with Delaware 87ers, the Philadelphia G League team.

And we were able to sit in coaches' meetings at the time. You know, the G League year-round had training camp. We were able to sit in coaches' meetings. And that was my first time seeing Lloyd Pierce, right? Lloyd Pierce was an assistant at the time in Philadelphia.

And just watching him in meetings, he was very, very prepared. He just knew what he was talking about. And once I seen that, I was like, you know what, that's who I want to be. Like, he's very prepared, he's organized, comfortable with the players.

And I was like, you know what, I see what I want to be. I see who I want to be. And sometimes that's, that's what it takes. You know, if you can see somebody, you can see somebody else doing it, allow you to do it.

But I learned a lot. I learned a lot from Mike, learned a lot from Jordy. Of course, I work with Jordy now a ton. But the biggest thing, especially with all those coaches, just attention to detail. You know, those guys are very organized and they're very intentional about the craft, very intentional about the day.

That's the biggest thing I learned from, you know, Alex Soto.

Yeah, maximizing, because the season, if you really think about it, the season's so short and there's so many principles you want to implement that you have to be kind of on it, especially at the start of the season, right? Where it's like a sprint and then it turns into that big marathon, but you have to be super organized to your point on all these coaches.

Is what stuck out from them?

Yeah. I mean, like I said, I work with Jordy a ton. You know, I see him on a daily basis and like, he's very intentional about what are we doing for the day in practice, his message of the day, things like that, what people don't even think about, you know, what are the first 3 days of training camp going to look like?

And then from there, what are the next 5 days going to look like? Like, that's well thought out. You know, that's planned, you know, and of course, like things may pop up in that, but Like I said, these guys are very, very organized.

They communicate at a high level.

Yeah.

And just one more thing before I ask the next question. It's to your point, you said like seeing them actually work just lets you know, like, all right, that's what I need to know. It's, you know, I always say like being in the same room as people that you want to aspire to be or where they're at, it's just so helpful for you to just know what it actually looks like so you can start applying it in your own life.

No, for sure.

What's one long-held basketball belief That you've had to reevaluate or throw out completely since you started coaching?

Ooh, that's a good one. That's a good one. I would say 3-man weave. The 3-man weave drill.

Listeners are going to love that one. Yeah.

No, that's a basketball staple. You know, some people might be mad at me about that one, but that's a basketball staple. But, you know, that drill is for you just to get loose, get warmed up. You know, now that I've gotten older, you know, There are other ways that you can get loose, get warmed up.

For example, there's different ways that you can still incorporate your concepts, offense and defense, at the same time. When you're getting work done, when guys are getting better during the warmup, you know, I talked about the 2-man eye drill where coach is driving on a right slot.

He's driving down the lane. You know, the low man comes trap the box and now the top guy has to sink. Now you throw it to the weak side corner. So now it's an X-out. So we're teaching our guys, you know, trapping the box, our shell defense.

Now we're teaching our guys communication on the X-out. And then we teach our guys closeouts, closing out with a stick hand. And then from there, we transition to offense. Now we transition to offense, we flow down to offense. And now we're working on kicking heads and coach can be there to set a drag screen to come off.

Now it's a single side tag. So we're working on offense and defense at the same time while getting warmed up and loose before practice.

Yeah, it's crazy how ingrained the 3-man weave is in like basketball culture. I remember I said to my players last season, I was like, guys, you do the warmup today. I want you to think about, I want you to huddle up, talk about what you want to do for warmup.

And then they did the 3-man weave. I thought it was hilarious because we hadn't done it the whole season. So I was like, oh, what's going on here? But, you know, I let them go with it. They thought it up.

So. That's the basketball staple. You know, that's the basketball staple. And like, it does get you loose. It gets you warmed up, but it's, it's how can we incorporate our concepts and get the most out of our practice? Like, you want to be super efficient with your time.

So. We're trying to implement little drills and concepts within the small things, you know, just to get our guys remembering like little drills and concepts and stuff like that.

Yeah, man. It's just like you said, like, you know, we were mentioning like the seasons, it goes by quick. And if you can use that time, that warmup time to actually, you know, continue to learn and then learn about your concepts and teach your players that, it's just going to make, you know, you obviously learn a lot quicker and then make your basketball team better, more efficiently, I'd say.

100%.

I have one last question for you, Mfon, and it is our transformative tip question. If you could leave coaches with one piece of advice that can instantly transform their practice environment, what would it be?

Be your authentic self. Don't try to be someone you're not because your authentic self will always come back around.

Yeah, that's a great point. Mfon, thank you so much. I appreciate the time here today. It's been great chatting to you and just talking hoops. All the best for the rest of the season as well.

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Transforming Basketball Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about the work that we do, head to transformingbball.com to access our free resources and spread these ideas throughout the basketball world. If you enjoyed today's episode, Be sure to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.

You can also connect with us on Instagram, X, or YouTube with any questions that you have from the episode. See you next time on the Transforming Basketball Podcast.