Attacking Turtles

Gap creation against the switch; Early offense framework

Mar 10, 2025

🤔 Thought Starter: John Cleese
⛹️ Attacking Turtles
🏀 Early Offense Concepts
🎶 The Playlist

NOTE: I’m making another trip to Ireland next month. Would love to talk some basketball with any Irish coaches. Just reach out!

🤔 Thought Starter: John Cleese

“We came to understand that the blockages weren’t an interruption in the (creative) process, they were part of it. For example, when you eat, the bit where the fork returns empty to your plate isn’t a failure. It’s just part of the eating process.
“The anthropologist Gregory Bateson once said, “You can’t have a new idea ’til you’ve got rid of an old one.” This insight helped me to view my fallow periods as preparatory to the fertile ones, and therefore as an inseparable part of the whole creative process.
“When the juices are not flowing, don’t beat yourself up and wonder if you should retrain as a priest. Just sit around and play, until your unconscious is ready to cough up some stuff. Getting discouraged is a total waste of your time.”
- John Cleese, Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide

Bonus Basketball Thought Starter

“Everybody is a heavy set team. Be a heavy read team.”
- Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State

⛹️ Attacking Turtles

Normally, I’d be all about saving the turtles, but for this newsletter, it’s about attacking them — specifically, the bigs in a switching defense. (Cringe, I know.)

Earlier this week, I caught the first half of a European pre-qualifier for the 2027 World Cup between Switzerland and Ireland. I’ve enjoyed watching Switzerland at both the senior and youth levels—they play a fun, well-structured offensive game and always seem to have a clear plan.

I pulled a lot of clips from the game, but here, I’m focusing on how Switzerland used some gap-creation concepts to attack Ireland’s switching defense — especially targeting the Irish bigs. (Turtles is probably apt since Ireland was rocking their green kits). The four clips below highlight some of Swiss concepts used to create advantage situations.

Clip 1. Identify & Attack the Advantage
In this first clip, No. 7 recognizes a mismatch after Ireland switches, leaving a big defending a Swiss perimeter player. This triggers a ghost screen that creates a huge gap for No. 21 to attack, ultimately leading to a dump-off pass after he draws three defenders.

Clip 2. Off-Ball Concepts
Off-ball reads are a crucial part of offensive execution, and this clip highlights that. First, you’ll see an on-ball screen forcing a switch. Then, a Swiss player vacates the wing, recognizing that a teammate has a potential 1v1 advantage against an Irish big.

Clip 3. Advantages Beget More Advantages
Switzerland uses two ball screens to hunt their preferred matchup. Once they create the switch they want, watch the wing execute a nail (ghost?) run—something they consistently used against the Irish. This action sets up an advantage that doesn’t fully materialize until after the shot, as an Irish guard is now forced to box out a Swiss big.

Clip 4. Late Shot-Clock Action
In the final clip, Switzerland runs the same concept as the previous clip, but with just five seconds left on the shot clock. The switch is set up through a Zoom action. Ireland does a solid job recognizing the "Mouse" situation and manages to switch it, but the result still works in Switzerland’s favor — creating a rebounding disadvantage for Ireland.

🏀 Early Offense Concepts

One of the best parts of the offseason — especially for an average coach like myself — is the opportunity to improve. Looking back, one area where I could have better supported my players was in early offense opportunities. With a younger group, they often struggled to initiate actions quickly on their own. Reflecting on the season, I realize I needed to do more to help them in that area.

As we head into our summer season in late May, implementing a simple early offense series will be a key focus. To explore ideas, I recently watched a new Open Practice video from Championship Productions featuring Washington State head coach David Riley. The video, which actually showcases his Eastern Washington team, includes a 3v0 transition drill designed as a progression of concepts. His assistant coaches eventually add a defender, turning it into a 3v1 drill — an adjustment I plan to incorporate early after introducing any initial concepts.

Below are some FastDraw slides I put together based on the transition concepts from the video.