Author Topic: Creative Motion Offense Run by D3 St. Joe's of Maine  (Read 6376 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Creative Motion Offense Run by D3 St. Joe's of Maine
« on: December 24, 2019, 10:58:49 AM »

Offline footey

  • Reggie Lewis
  • ***************
  • Posts: 15965
  • Tommy Points: 1833
I've been meaning to post this for a while.

I found this video fascinating.  It is an analysis of St. Joe's basketball offensive system, put into effect after the 2017-18 season, when its offensive efficiency was pretty average.  The resulting system, with the same players, resulted in an explosion in efficiency.

I don't know if elements of this would work in the NBA, although I could see a creative coach like Brad stealing bits and pieces.  The beauty of the system is that no one stands around, ever.  Every movement from the ball handler results in a movement by the other 4, while maintaining great floor spacing.

Let me know what you think. The players on this team are D-3, obviously this is not NBA or D-1 level talent. But the beauty and the logic of the system is quite engaging.  Basically no pick and rolls, no dribble hand offs.  The best word I can use to describe it is choreography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMdPLhA7drI


Re: Creative Motion Offense Run by D3 St. Joe's of Maine
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2019, 11:53:35 AM »

Offline libermaniac

  • Jim Loscutoff
  • **
  • Posts: 2835
  • Tommy Points: 375
Interesting. Tp. It doesn’t seem that far off of what is done in today’s NBA though. Except maybe the positionless basketball concept, which is pretty cool.

Re: Creative Motion Offense Run by D3 St. Joe's of Maine
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2019, 12:02:37 PM »

Offline tstorey_97

  • Ray Allen
  • ***
  • Posts: 3667
  • Tommy Points: 586
Christmas TP to footey for a great video.

My guess is the best approach for St. Joes was to adopt this system. It best exploited their talents.

I am not qualified to say much about NBA offensive schemes, except I've watched the Celtic's offenses since the 60's.

Stevens likes the idea of "positionlessness." (there's a word for ya)
St. Joes takes this to an art as 5'8" kids are in the "dunker's position" and the Center maybe bringing it up.

This year's Celtics team has a "spread/spacing" element that is born of the 'big three's consistent shooting." The opposing defense must respect Brown waiting in the corner and they must respect Walker at the top whilst leaning towards Tatum wherever he might be. If any of the three takes the ball inside there might be two legit big game scorers waiting for the kickout.

The St. Joe's offense seems dedicated to two things.
Offering the offense enough passes and spacing to get the defense "turned around" enough to get a clear catch and shoot.

It keeps all five offensive players thoroughly focused on the process whilst completely tangling up the defensive team's attempts at reaction. If an offensive player is going to get two passes and give two passes per possession, he's more in rhythm/more aware of the game. This has to help.

The Celtics of today have nights where for instance, Semi is "hiding in the corner" while the scorers get the job done (which is fine). Brown gets lost there from time to time also. This "rotating swing offense" eliminates this.

As usual, I'll just be a homer and state that the Celtics, as currently built, are very difficult to defend. If you are an opposing coach, you have to "react" to which of the big three is going to take over the game. If you attempt to take out Walker? You are opening a different can of worms. An opposing defender has too many threats to keep track of and remain effective. 

The St. Joe's system puts a defender's "head on a swivel"...it's a good thing. Any coach wants to first, put an opponent "in reaction mode" and second, keep him there. 
 
(In the March 1998 NCAA's Princeton (27-1) beat UNLV (20-13) in one of the greatest "pace clashes" of all time. The Rebs were one of the fastest teams in the country and the Tigers were essentially the slowest. Princeton coach Bill Carmody ran a plodding "minimum number of pass offense" that just strangled Jerry Tarkanian's high speed Rebs. 69-57

I actually watched that game. I think Tarkanian had eaten three gym towels by the fourth quarter.
 
« Last Edit: December 24, 2019, 12:15:49 PM by tstorey_97 »

Re: Creative Motion Offense Run by D3 St. Joe's of Maine
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2019, 12:30:28 PM »

Offline W8ting2McHale

  • NCE
  • Jaylen Brown
  • Posts: 686
  • Tommy Points: 88
I miss the days of seeing a John Havlicek or a Ray Allen constantly moving off ball.

Semi certainly isn’t a scoring threat like those two, but just having his big body moving through a defense would disrupt things more than having him stand around at the corner. Even if he’s not a threat to shoot he’s pulling his defender along or causing screens and switches that would free someone else up for an easy shot. He’s not playing 35 minutes, so he should have the endurance to keep moving for the stretches that he’s in.

Jaylen does play more minutes and maybe can’t sustain the constant movement and still play defense at a high level, or maybe he can, either way he’s wasting too many opportunities being left watching from there in the corner.