golden state

[PureGreatness]

watch them play..thats how we should play

[AtLaS]

Just not on defense.

[lunar]

maybe for the last couple of games to give the fans something to look at, but as for next season, that is the worst way to play. they play no defense and horrible interior play. i would rather play like the spurs, they have both quality and quantity. players know there roles and the plays get people open. a system like that would help out a player like marvin who needs space along with joe and josh since it allows for cuts to the hole and pull up for short to mid range shots.

[Popeye]

Why is this in HOMECOURT?? This should be in "around the league" i believe.

[AHF]

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Why is this in HOMECOURT?? This should be in "around the league" i believe.

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Because he is talking about the style the Hawks should play.

[BusBoyIsBack]

All I could think about during that game was this should be our style of play.

Of course we could never win a championship with that lackluster D but we would have AT LEAST 10 more wins if we played that style of ball. AT LEAST.

We are actually built to run just as much as Phoenix. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. Position by position we have just as much speed as them.

I know we don't have a decision maker on the fly like Steve Nash but still the matchup problems are there and we have proven we can exploit them on the few occasions that we have played fast break offense.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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watch them play..thats how we should play

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OK . . go get us Baron Davis, and we can play like that.

LOL . . people want this team to run. Who is going to lead the break? Salim may be the fastest guy on the team right now. You want Salim leading the break and making decisions?

BTW, it's AMAZING what healthy bodies will do for a ballclub. Davis and Richardson have missed a big chunk of the season. Now that they are back, G-State looks a whole lot better. They're 8 - 4 since Davis' return, and making a big time push for that 8th seed.

LOL . . and did Nellie really start Al at CENTER?

Then again . . I did suggest that Woody start Salim and Solomon, along with Marvin, Chill, and Smoove. So that lineup would look a lot like that Golden St lineup. But instead of Nellie's 4-guard, 1-forward lineup . . we'd come with 4-forwards and 1-guard.

[BusBoyIsBack]

We don't need an elite PG to run the break. We just need to run period. Our guys on the wing will get open. It doesn't take Steve Nash to hit a wide open guy on a break.

Hell we'd be better off having Smoove run the break than having a 1/2 court offense the whole game.

[Diesel]

I think we are a lot closer to the Warriors than the Spurs. You have to consider personnell. The Spurs have the personnell to play the halfcourt set with the backdoor picks because they have a good passing Big in Duncan. We don't have that. We're more like an "open" court team such as Golden State... Even PTL runs more "open" court than we do.

Woody is really not a good fit because he's trying to make us into a Larry Brown offensive team whereby we play a halfcourt set. You don't draft runners and put them into a halfcourt system.

[Diesel]

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I know we don't have a decision maker on the fly like Steve Nash but still the matchup problems are there and we have proven we can exploit them on the few occasions that we have played fast break offense.

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Being an uptempo team doesn't mean that you neccessarily have to have a great PG.. It's good to have one, but the elements to run are these:

1. Rebounding Bigs who can make the outlet pass.

2. Runners on the wings who can fill the lane.

3. Shooters who can be asked to hit the outside shot in case the other teams defense just lays back.

4. A few tall ballhandlers who can see over the defense.

I think we have all the elements. It's just that we don't practice. Fast break decisions are more about practiced outcomes rather than PG decisions. The coach has to be empowered with the knowledge of how the passes through the lanes work and under what circumstance. Then he can pass that knowledge on to the players.

[Plastic Man]

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Larry Brown offensive team

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oxymoron of the day.

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You don't draft runners and put them into a halfcourt system.

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i agree D. even an average coach knows how to adapt his coaching style to fit the strengths of his players.

[Diesel]

Question 237- Where could I find about Paul Westhead, and the fast break he ran while at Loyola Marymount?

ANSWER

Interestingly enough I ran the Loyola break, or our variation of it, in Europe while I was Coaching professionally there in the early 90's. Coach Westhead sent me a considerable amount of material and a video on his break. I'd like to share my thoughts on his system and it's basic points to assist other coaches.

Coach Westhead's system wasn't a novel idea in terms of a style of play rapidly changing the game. In fact back going back as early as the 1930's Piggy Lambert's Purdue teams might be considered forerunners of pressure fast break basketball including their talented All-American player John Wooden. However what was novel about the Westhead's Loyola fast break was it's relentless pressure up the court in every single possession, to the point of not really requiring a half court set offense. I believe not only was his idea to wear down other teams, but this style of play would help him significantly in recruiting athletic players who didn't want to be constrained by the overly.

Coach Westhead was a firm believer in fast break offensive systems. He believed it was the most fun system in basketball to play but noted that it is in fact the most taxing physically. What appears on the surface to be a free wheeling run and gun show was in fact a very orderly and precisely executed system.

The Loyola fast break requires total commitment to each of it's rules and principles on a regular basis. If one player doesn't execute their role on every trip down the floor the fast break system as he devised it cannot work. It only worked if the team played as a five man unit and not as five individuals.

The fast break starts with the block out. Each man must find and maintain contact. Everyone pursues the ball with their hands up. What he called "instant possession" is vital to successfully running the break.

The second key teaching point was the outlet pass. The quicker the release of the pass, the more effective the fast break was. He believed that most fast break system breakdowns occurred because of a disruption to the outlet pass. He taught his rebounder or inbounder to snatch and release the ball before the passer touches the ground. He taught the outlet passer to turn and see the receiver, encourage the dribble out of traffic, and most importantly taught a three-step routine on a made basket for the designated player, normally the 5 man) to inbound the ball within 1 second after it came through basket on a made shot. He spent an extensive amount of practice time working on what he called the 5-1 outlet after a make or miss, to teach this routine and teach timing and coordination between the outlet pass and the PG.

The third teaching point of the Loyola fast break was what to teach the receivers (usually the point guard). He demanded that all receivers be available at all times for an outlet pass, always looking for a pass from behind. He designated spots for the lead guard, foul shots for misses, and wing for makes. The receiver must step toward the ball and call out traffic. He taught an instant turn and look before the dribble to avoid the offensive charge foul. He also emphasized making an immediate decision to either pass ahead or dribble attack, and that the PG controlled the success of the fast break. Finally it was important that the outlet receiver didn't drift away form the outlet passer.

The fourth and final point focused on filling the lanes. A critical part of the Loyola fast break was the 2, 3 and 4 players immediately fill lanes on a change of possession and sprint every single time to their offensive attacking spots. He did not however encourage his players to leave early and abandon defensive responsibility. Probably the most important teaching point in the Loyola break for the runners is that you do not choose when to go all out. You do it every single time. The Loyola fast break was not effective if every single player was not sprinting hard up the floor every single time. To encourage the 5 man inbounding the ball he taught them that often the player who gets the later start up the court is the one more frequently open to score whether as a trailer, cutter, or at the 3 point line.

The fast break is an offensive full court play that begins with possession of the ball off the defense. As the outlet pass is being made, each of the five player were required to sprint to their designated positions in this pattern. The key element to fast break success was for consistent execution of this play in rapid fashion as Coach Westhead called it. The defense will know what you are doing, but you will beat them to the spot you are trained to sprint to. The Loyola fast break worked off a number system. Each player had unique and individual assignments.

The Point Guard (#1) was taught to receive the outlet pass and push the ball of the court. His role was to push the ball up the court and PASS for a score! The PG was to dribble up the center of the court to the top of the circle and make a pass to the wing spot or top spot being creative to find the open man. If no one was open for a pass head he would continue to dribble penetrate.

The (#2) Shooting Guard was taught to run the right wing to the basket area and flair out to the side looking for a jump shot or inside pass.

The (#3) Small Forward was taught to always run the left wing to the basket area. This player needed to be a defensive rebounder first before filling this lane but have the athletic ability to make up the late start while being an honest defender.

The (#4) Big Forward was required to fill the center of the court parallel to the PG and stop at the key area for an open jump shot. On any pass from PG to the Shooting guard, the Big Forward made a diagonal cut to the basket. This player was necessarily a very strong post player with a good perimeter shot to 15'.

The (#5) Center was responsible for the initial outlet pass and always took the ball out of bounds with the 3-step technique on any made basket. He would then fill the spot vacated by the #4 man cutting diagonally.

The Loyola fast break had three basic phases, the early break involving PG, 2, and 3 and a lot of creative penetration and pass, the middle break looking for 4 as a key trailer or on the diagonal break, and the late break where the 1 and 5 man played a series of different options including what was called the 1-5 dive, 1-5 pick and roll, 1-5 get, 1-5 screen, and 1-5-3 dive.

There were additional rules that taught how to overcome defensive tactics for ball advancement which I won't go into here, but needless to say the fast break worked because his players bought into this highly demanding energy gulping offensive system. The player were give the green light to shoot all open three point shots including the 4 and 5 men although the range of the post players determined which shots were green lighted.

What I can say from personal experience is that this system works with the right personnel and with a tremendous amount of practice and effort to automate it's execution. I will say this however, that if you put this much effort into any system's execution you will likely have success. While Rick Pitino brought Providence and Kentucky back to prominence with his full court match-up press designed to wear down opponents through 40 minutes of pressure, Westhead's system was designed to bring teams totally out of their normal game tempo's, get opponent players caught up in this "apparent run and gun", and enable Loyola which practiced this system daily to make a higher percentage of shots, and wear down opponents through conditioning and physical attrition. Coach Westhead's teams were conditioned as track athlete's and this exceptional year round training program allowed them to maintain their endurance in this system through the court of a full season. I believe that anything less would have caused this system to quickly fail.

It worked at the college level because they generally played only two games a week and 28 plus in a season. It didn't prove successful during his stint as a Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets because the pro player mentality is quite different and 7' center and other players probably didn't buy totally into the execution of this system. Plus more athletic teams gained a greater benefit from the up tempo system than did the Nuggets. Plus the 82 game schedule and 48 minute games put a tremendous physical strain on a "all out every time down the court effort". Still in the right situation I think you as a coach could achieve considerable success with great preparation and execution.

[Diesel]

Just get their GM to draft for their style.

I kinda think that Woody is a lame Duck coach because we don't draft for his style at all. Not if we want to be more like LB's pistons.