Zone Lob Play – Oklahoma City Thunder (Scott Brooks)

Written by Kyle Pertuset

Kyle Pertuset began being involved within the coaching profession at a very young age, the 2005 Minford, Ohio Graduate began as a 7th and 8th grader assisting with the Minford Biddy Basketball program in his hometown. Directly after high school Pertuset began assisting in the Jr. High Boys’ program at Minford Local Schools while coaching his first season of AAU Basketball with the Southern Ohio Magic, where he was on the board as one of the founding fathers of the newly established Southeast Ohio based AAU program. During the summer of 2009 Pertuset was hired as 7th Grade Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at Minford Middle School and Head 8th Grade Coach the year prior. During his tenure as Jr. High Boys’ Coach he also served as an assistant on the varsity level under former Minford Head Coach Kyle Copley who worked under Hall of Fame Women’s Basketball Coach, Robin Hagen-Smith at Shawnee State University. Pertuset also worked under current Minford Head Boys’ Coach Josh Shoemaker who is a Minford Alumnus. While Pertuset was at Minford the Falcons made a trip to the District Semi-Finals. In the spring of 2010, Pertuset was hired by Jeff Lisath to be the Head Jr. High Boys’ Coach at Piketon high school, 2 seasons following the varsity programs’ state final four appearance. Pertuset also volunteered and assisted at the varsity level at Piketon, and was a part of 2 district tournament appearances, a district championship, and one regional semi-final appearance. Pertuset has a combined 5 years of AAU Basketball experience working for both the Southern Ohio Magic, South Central Rebels, and Ohio Rebels Elite(Mansfield), where he coached age groups varying from 8th grade student-athletes all the way to the varsity level. Pertuset served 2 seasons as the Boys’ Varsity Head Coach at Lucas High School in Richland County, Ohio where he was heading up the rebuilding process. Pertuset is currently exploring other avenues in both coaching and education.

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October 15, 2015

Zone Lob Play – Oklahoma City Thunder (Scott Brooks)

Today I bring you a set play I have used during my time involved with my earlier years of coaching when I was just starting out. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten about this play, and unfortunately did not have it filed, as this was in the pre-FastDraw era. I actually woke up in the middle of the night, remembered it and placed it in my FastDraw before drifting back into dreamland. This play is from the early days of the Thunder, long before Scott Brooks was on the hot seat, and years during in which James Harden still wore the Thunder blue and orange. Billy Donovan was still enjoying that Florida Sunshine and I was at the junior high/varsity assistant level of coaching. Another humorous side note was that the “Beard Like Harden” parody was a big kick on Inside the NBA, good times.

Zone Lob Play

Okay enough of a trip down memory lane, this set play is very effective against zones who really extend their guards and by default leads to the big lifting after multiple guard actions to sort of put the defense to sleep if you will. I have used this set vs. a 2-3 and a 1-2-2 but it is my opinion it is most effective vs. a 2-3(all comes down to execution). When I ran this zone lob play in junior high I was blessed with a kid who was very athletic and much quicker than most kids at his age, with just a small window he would be able to go up, get the basketball, and have the skills to finish pretty successfully at the rim. This kid would also go on to play varsity basketball as a freshman, so as far as junior high was concerned, this was a great year, that I often reflect on, as I was growing as a coach, a young bright eyed college kid just trying to get his foot in the door, dreaming about when he would finally get his opportunity at the next level. I hope you all can potentially use this set, or maybe tuck it away for a late game bucket vs. a zone defense, or perhaps for a time where you draw something up for m2m action, but the coach does the old trick of switching to zone out of the timeout in anticipation for your m2m action you just drew up, or maybe you just read this article and enjoyed a trip down memory lane yourself.

Best Wishes to you and yours!