The Basketball Podcast: EP342 with Grant Leonard on Conceptual Offense

Grant Leonard Quotes:

“Our pace was better than most teams . . we were 10th in the country at pace. But that’s not really, in my opinion, the most important thing to offense. I think spacing is the first priority and then it goes from spacing to pace as the second priority. Pace isn’t always about how fast you get a shot off, but it’s the pace at which you get down the floor. It’s the pace at which you get into the first action. It’s the pace of your cuts, it’s the pace of your separation to screens and all of that creates a tempo that becomes difficult to guard.”

“We run offense for each other, so the first thing you have to do is run the floor for each other. You’re not always going to get the ball, but you’ve got to get to the corners. If the guy in the middle is staying in the middle, then he’s got to get underneath the defense And then we’ve got to create gaps early in the possession so that we can create advantages.”

“Our main rule on offense and our entire goal is to get two guys on the ball or two guys guarding one guy. You can do that a lot of different ways: post ups, cuts, ball screens, handoffs. And once you get two guys guarding one guy, we’ve created an advantage and then we’ve got to keep that advantage. The entire goal of our offense after getting two on the ball is to get a wide open shot versus a shot over a body.”

“I don’t ever want to do a drag versus a set defense, we want to do drags versus floors that are transitioning, whether it’s a drag or a double drag or step up. But we want to get into that action before the defense sets. And the defense sets usually around five or 6 seconds.

“We want to teach our guys how to read the concept and then just make the right decision out of each concept which will create an advantage. The point of a ball screen is to get two on the ball. When you have two on the ball, you should pass it.”

“The first layer of becoming a great college player is learning to read the coverage. The second layer is manipulating the tag or understanding where the tag is coming from. And then, great players can manipulate the tag.”

They’re going to play slower. Nothing wrong with that. We’re going to play faster. But your defense has to be married to how you play offense. If we’re going to play that way, we have to create some sort of turnover margin. So, we’re going to have to pressure the ball. And if you’re going to play a five out system, you’re probably going to have more guards. You don’t want people to wear you out down low on the post, so you’ve got to keep the ball higher on the floor. Whatever your offensive system is, it has to match what you’re doing defensively.”

“If guys are playing to their strengths and you get guys to buy into that, they’re going to do what they’re really good at. It’s going to create high efficiency because you’re going to teach guys, ‘Hey, in this area you’re over a point per possession. In this area you’re not. So, we’re going to stay away from this area and we’re going to try to do this more.’”

“An NBA GM, the first thing they’re going to pull up is your synergy page and they’re going to see what your points per possession were. And if you’re not in a range that they feel comfortable with, they just toss your resume out like it doesn’t even exist.  Every shot you take is basically a dot on your resume.  Your goal is to get to an area where you’re the most efficient you can be and then to increase your volume. And if your team is playing with the right spirit for each other, you’ll get the same amount of shots, but you’ll just get better ones.”

“When you practice at a pace, it could seem chaotic at first, but there has to be structure within that chaos. And probably the biggest thing you’re going to teach your players is to just make the simple play, okay? If it’s two guys guarding you, just pass to the person open. Take the less risky play. In a 75 possession game, the team that makes 55 to 60 easy plays is the team that wins. And out of that comes a highlight lob or special play that happens, but just make the easy ones.”

Grant Leonard Breakdown:

Grant Leonard Selected Links from the Podcast:

Grant Leonard

Bart Lundy

Geno Auriemma

Nate Oats

Dan Bailey

A.J. McKee

Andy Bronkema