2016 NBA Playoffs Late Game Offense by John Zall

Written by John Zall

Twitter : @John_Zall John Zall BIO: Coach John Zall just completed his first season working for the Dallas Mavericks in their Player Development Department where they advanced to the First Round of the 2016 NBA Playoffs. Prior to joining the Mavericks, Coach Zall served as an Assistant Coach at Division II Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH for 2 seasons. During his 2 seasons there, Franklin Pierce University finished with a winning record and in 2014 advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. Zall arrived at Franklin Pierce after spending the past 3 seasons as the Associate Head Coach/Head JV Coach at O’Bryant High school in Roxbury, MA. During his tenure at O’Bryant the program improved from 4 wins to 12 wins and qualified for the MIAA State Tournament twice. Coach Zall also has experience as an AAU Head Coach for the Boston Warriors. As Head Coach for the Warriors his team won the 2011 16U State Title and twice competed in AAU Nationals down in Orlando, FL. On top of being a student at Northeastern University, Zall was named Head Coach of the Men’s Club Basketball team for the 2012-13 season. During his lone season as Head Coach, Northeastern finished second in the Northeast Regional Tournament featuring colleges from throughout the East Coast. Coach Zall has also spent time as a Head Coach in the Bay State Games where his team won the Bronze Medal in 2012 and at various camps including: Five Star, Boston Celtics, NIKE, Franklin Pierce University, Hoop Group and The Elite 75.

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May 12, 2016

2016 NBA Playoffs Late Game Offense by John Zall

With NBA Coaches in the news daily for the constant shuffling their profession requires you almost forget what the ultimate goal of all these coaches are. The pinnacle of the profession will always be every Spring Time when the NBA Playoffs begin and this year is no different. With so many moving parts to a basketball and with technology and analytics moving front and center being an NBA Head Coach has never been more difficult. This 2016 NBA Playoffs Late Game Offense will give you some idea.

The consistent area that all NBA Head Coaches are judged is by their end of game ATO’s. ATO stands for “After Time Outs” and usually insinuates that the Coach had just had a chance to huddle his team up and draw up a play that puts their team in the best position to win.

As you can see from watching all these clips that there seems to be some sort of consistent theme where coaches will run a specific action on the strong side of the floor (the side where the ball is) in hopes of catching the defense resting on the weak side and getting a wide open shot.

2016 NBA Playoffs Late Game Offense

A popular NBA action that was run by the Hornets, Warriors and Pistons was the “hammer” action. In the hammer action a weak side back screen or flare screen is set to spring a shooter to the corner. The ball is usually on the opposite wing and is being driven by the teams best ball handler towards the baseline setting up a perfectly timed drift pass to the open shooter in the corner.

As you watch all these plays there also seems to be another common theme amongst all the successful actions: really good players. All-Stars like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Isaiah Thomas are being given the basketball by their coaches and asked to make plays. Their coaches do a great job spacing the floor properly and putting them in space to make a play for themselves or for other potent teammates.

Click on the pdf link to download the 2016 NBA Playoffs Late Game Offense:

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