George Karl – Offensive Concepts and Dealing with the Media
George Karl spent most of the time referencing a Gaps offense that he didn’t show much. System is Vance Walberg’s. Wings sprint to corners, post goes to the rim in transition and gets out of the way. PG attack the paint. Last man up fills the other guard behind.
If you want to play fast, you have to change how you coach.
Execution is not the first priority. Spacing is the first priority.
Must team your team HOW to play, not what to run. Teach your team how to find a defensive mistake and how to make them pay.
When training camp starts you need to teach pace, spacing, and how to attack the defense.
Spacing begins on the defensive rebound.
The best way to teach it is to make the 24 second clock a 16 second clock and then make it 13.
Most important thing is a big guy who runs rim to run and if he doesn’t get it, then he gets out of the way.
To play fast and aggressive, takes a coaching commitment on a daily basis. You have to have structure in your practice that demands spacing and playing fast.
Attack and Make SIMPLE, EASY, basketball plays. When you attack the paint, a missed shot becomes a pretty good offensive play. Even though the Spurs didn’t run, this is what they did.
If you want to play fast, you have to have an aggressive defensive style.
Philosophically, there needs to be balance between offense and defense. Can’t be 85/15.
In the Gap Offense, George Karl asked Ty Lawson to dribble the ball in the paint 40 times a game.
Get out of the way of the ball and let it attack.
In order to run, your first 20 practices, you can’t put a lot of plays in.
“Always play against a team that’s in recovery” – Chuck Daly. The defense is in recovery in transition defense. Play before the defense is set. Create turnovers, create pace, create action. On missed shots, you demand that your team runs.
Sometimes having your second trailer as your best penetrator can be a great thing.
Get your big guy underneath the defense.
Best shots in basketball: layups, free throws, and threes. 25 layups, 25 assists, 25 free throws, make 10 threes you can’t lose.
If you can shoot the three, rebound the three, and defend the three, you have a good chance.
Shot selection is KEY. Must teach shot selection. San Antonio beats you because they get the shots they want and they get better shots than you.
Don’t need specific personnel, just need a coach who owns it. Focus on the system early in practice and THEN put your plays in. You can’t teach plays and teach running at the same time. If you want to run, then you have to teach running.
Vance Walberg has tapes on this gap offense.
A bad defender closing out on a good offensive player is a good play.
San Antonio has a one second rule. You can’t have the ball for more than one second.
It wears teams out. They can cover you early in the game, but then late in the game they can’t stay with you.
60-70% of possessions should result in paint touches.
Go – catch. Get your body moving toward the basket before you receive the ball. Don’t catch and then go.
NBA is moving toward multiple point guards. Two guys that can make a read when the defense makes a mistake.
Must work on transition defense because you have shooters in corners and ball going to the rim.
Look for double gaps. Attack double gaps off the dribble every time.
We LOVE the layup, we like the three.
On the drive if the player in the corner sees the back of his defender’s head, he back cuts. If that player over helps, he lifts. Corner catch is either a shot or attack.
Know what you are going to do before you catch it.
It’s how you play, not how well you play.
On penetration, if your man has helped to the ball you have to go crash the boards. Not floating bigs out for 15 footers. They are going to the rim. When you are shooting a contested drive, don’t let the shot get blocked. Get it up to the rim and let the bigs go get the offensive rebound.
“Just because you talk with a player doesn’t mean you connect with a player.”
Good coaches are good teachers. Basketball and life.
If you can’t handle this statement, don’t go into coaching: Players win games, coaches lose games.
Don’t say ‘I’ in the media. The players want the spotlight. They don’t want you to have the spotlight.
Delegating to good assistant coaches is important. It’s a different voice, different vocabulary. Karl will only coach 5 on 5 situations in the future. Will delegate the rest to assistants.
When George Karl gets his next job the first guy he is going to hire is the guy who is going to create the right culture in the gym. The gym needs to be safe, and have energy.
Basketball is a team game. Today’s player is going away from that. Need to have guys that build each other up.
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