Xavier Silas on Maintaining Advantages, Dunker Spot Decisions, and the Player-to-Coach Career Transition {Motor City Cruise}

Inside the Episode

The Slappin’ Glass Podcast is proudly sponsored by Practice Planner Live and Instat. Find out more in our weekly newsletter about special offers from both companies for podcast listeners.

We were joined on the podcast this week by former Pro and now Assistant Coach with the G-League’s Motor City Cruise, Xavier Silas. Motor City enjoyed a successful season in the G-League and this was a fun and insightful conversation that explored a variety of topics. One of our favorites was about the transition from being a player to a coach, and earning respect with players once you’re on the other side. Here’s a great quote from the podcast…“Your (playing) career was your (playing) career…but you can’t just depend on that. That’s something that I’m able to offer, but it’s also that they know that I know what I’m talking about. They know I’ve done the research… they know when I say, ‘hold your follow-through’, it’s not only because I did it, but also that I went and I researched every playoff team for the last three years and looked at every single three and saw how many times they held their follow-through, and that 70% of the shots that were made, a follow-through was held. So when I come to them and I present that to them, then they think, okay, well I know he did it, but he also is backing it up with some data…(Players) have to believe…as a former player, I know that players know when you’re full of it. You can’t walk in there and fake it. You can’t try to get one over on them; they’ll call you out. They’ll interrupt you and say, ‘no, no, you said that it was supposed to be this’…you better know what you’re talking about.” – Xavier Silas

In addition to our conversation about the player-to-coach career transition, we also dove into the areas of:

• Maintaining Offensive Advantages: This was a fun discussion as Coach Silas detailed the variety of ways he tries to teach players to continue moving and working to keep an advantage once one has been created. We work through pace of play, PNR movements, dribble drive drifts and concepts, and dunker spot decisions.
• What Analytics Do Players Need to Know?: Within our conversation about players transitioning to coaching, Coach Silas walked us through his thoughts on the role that analytics play in player development, teaching shot selection, understanding advantages, and establishing roles. Additionally, Coach Silas was generous enough to share with us his study on the Value of the Follow Through, available in the Coaches Corner.
• Pace of Play: We explored how Pace and quickly transitioning from defense to offensive actions factors into creating advantages and teaching players to play for great shots. 
• “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”: Coach Silas was a great sport taking on a ton of questions from us as we pestered him about Paint Touches, Disrupting Great PNR Teams, and more. 

Transcript

Silas (00:00:00):

At the professional game, for sure. The first action never works. I mean, it never works. Whatever you run, that’s not gonna work. What’s next <laugh> you know what I mean? Yeah. Like I don’t care how smart you are, who you are. It’s not gonna work. The scouting’s too good. The other coaches are too good. The other players are too good. You know, whatever your first setting is it not gonna work? It’s what’s next that world of, of what’s next is really how you went. I think that that’s like the meat and potatoes win,

Dan (00:00:31):

Welcome to slapping glass, or we explore basketball’s best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world. Today. We’re excited to welcome former pro player and current assistant with the G leagues motor city crew Xavier Silas coach Silas is here today to discuss, bridging the gap between a plane and coaching career dunker spot decision making, understanding advantages, and we talk elite hate and touches and disrupting pick and roll offense during the always fun start sub or sit for those looking to both explore and grow the soft season. You can join coaches and staffs from over 30 different countries. Who’ve joined the SG plus community, learn and grow at your pace by getting access to thousands of, of our best breakdown videos, deep dive newsletters, Q and a sessions and inclusion in the private coaches corner community. Visit slapping glass.com for more information today. And now please enjoy our conversation with coach Xavier, Silas Coach. Thanks so much for joining us today. We’re really excited to talk to you.

Silas (00:01:52):

I appreciate you guys having me. I’m a big fan of the show, so I’m looking forward to

Dan (00:01:55):

It. Thank you. And let’s dive in with going from being a player to a coach. Now you had a great playing career in college and professionally as well. Now you’re in correct me if I’m wrong ago, your third season in the G league. Yep. And just your journey from not too long ago, being a professional player and now transitioning into being a younger coach assistant coach in the G league level and just the things for you that you’re figuring out kind of transfer over as a player and some things that don’t transfer as well and what you’re learning.

Silas (00:02:26):

Yeah. You know, I think that starting off, I’ve kind of been thinking about this a lot lately. And one thing that I’ve noticed is everybody kind of ends up needing to know the same things if you’re a coach, right? So as a coach that used to play, when you’re done with your career, you’re gonna have to learn sports code. You’re gonna have to learn the analytics side of it if you weren’t into that as a player, but it’s the same thing for a coach who didn’t play. They’re gonna have to learn how to gain the respect from the players. You know, like for me, I have a certain level of respect and relatability to the players because I played, okay, well a coach who wasn’t able to play or didn’t play, they have to work that in and figure out how to gain that same respect and relatability. So we all end up in the same place. Right? Good coach is gonna be able to be respect it, understand the analytics, understand how to cut up film and the video side of things. And they also are gonna have to have the relatability. That’s going to get you to be able to have those relationships with players,

Dan (00:03:31):

Xavier. If I could start with, maybe what’s been the most difficult transition for you where something that you’ve really had to, I wouldn’t say play catch on, but just really try to get up to speed going from being a player to a coach as quickly as possible that maybe you weren’t expecting you needed to be.

Silas (00:03:49):

You know, I think that it’s just my first few years, especially just really understanding the ins and outs of the strategy and the ins and outs of, well, you know what, I’ll take it a little further. And this is funny because my family made me realize this. They said, well, now when we come to the games, we only care about the team winning, right? Yeah. <laugh> like, they used to come to the games and they were like, am I playing well, you know, my wife would be on her phone if I’m not in the game. Right. And so like now it’s, it’s like, Hey, it’s all about winning. And it doesn’t matter who scores, who doesn’t. And I think that as a former player, especially me and the type of player I was where I was a shooter in, in college, I was a score it’s so selfless.

Silas (00:04:34):

Like that’s pretty much the biggest difference. I would say, as far as what’s been the toughest thing, it’s just time, you know, like that experience that you just gain from being in it. I would say the toughest thing is not having those years and years of experience doing the video and being on a bench and being on that side. That’s really, the only thing that I’m playing catch up with is just the actual coaching side of it. But one thing with me is I really paid attention while I was a player. Right. And so all of the coaches that I played for, I really took notes. I really took it serious. I really sat and put myself in their shoes a lot. You know, Cody topper, Ty Ellis, Doug Collins, Brad Stevens, all of these people that I’ve been able to be around. I wasn’t able to coach alongside of ’em, but I was able to really learn a lot from them on the coaching side. And I’ve been able to implement that for myself,

Pat (00:05:30):

Staying on the game and how it’s changed for you going from a player to coach, as far as what are you picking up? You know, when a player, maybe you’re looking at your matchup or you’re, you know, a little bit more narrow mind, but having to then broaden what you see, how has that transition been?

Silas (00:05:44):

It’s been really good for me. I’m a big pick on mismatches guy. And so if I see that we’re gonna expose that, right. And even defensively, putting someone on someone who can really disrupt the game, whether it’s cutting the head off of the snake, right. That’s what I call denying the point guard. When I know just from playing, if this guy gets going, or if this guy has the ball in their hands, we really have a problem. So on the fly, really understanding that and knowing that has been really helpful

Dan (00:06:15):

Just to piggyback on watching film. I know players say, Hey, I watch film or whatnot. But now as a coach, how has film watching been a little different for you?

Silas (00:06:24):

It’s very different, you know, coming from a player, cause you’re looking at a lot of different things. Now watching film, you know, as a player, I was always breaking down where I was getting my shots basically or where I was screw up on defense most of the time. But now I look at it from a strategy standpoint, especially when I’m watching other teams on how we can attack how they guard, right? So if they’re in a drop, what are we gonna do against a drop? If this is how they guard slip outs, what’s the counter. And that’s kind of how I find my victims is what I like to call it with the people that can’t guard, you know, and it’s especially, you can be a victim overall where, you know, you just are bad at defense, but it’s also people can be victims in certain situations, right?

Silas (00:07:05):

They’re really good off the ball and on the ball, but in slip outs that really, they don’t know what they’re doing or in the stack pick and roll or whatever. And so really diving in to try to figure out how we can create an advantage offensively is how I’m kind of diving the film. Now it’s a lot different, but you know what, it’s really the same. Cuz when I do my personal development with the players, it’s the same thing we’re looking at. If they’re holding their follow through, if they’re standing their shot, you know, if their feet are set. And so the individual film I do with the players is pretty much the same as what it used to be for me. But team wise is completely different

Pat (00:07:37):

Sticking with the player development. How has, how you coach developed, especially, let’s say as a player, maybe, you know, you were able to pick up on things that maybe were natural and now you’re dealing with different players who learn differently, who maybe don’t pick up things as natural. So what’s been kind of your learning curve and trying to, you know, teach players and evolve different types of skill, level and knowledge.

Silas (00:07:59):

The biggest thing that I’ve learned is just to keep it simple. You know, I think that when we talk about player development, we see all of these videos of guys doing all kind of crazy stuff. Right? And I did some of that as a player, I’m out there doing all these different moves that I’m never gonna use. And so like for me, I’m all about efficiency. How efficient can we be? Even with our shots, the type of shots that we take when we take ’em all of that. I mean, super big on efficiency, but player development, I’m just as big. So we’re only going to practice the shots that we’re gonna get out of our offense, especially in the season right now, out of the season, of course we can develop, do things and try to add to your game. But in the season, we’re trying to find that rhythm and win games.

Silas (00:08:39):

We’re really being super efficient in working on the shots that we want to get and the shots that you’re actually gonna get. So I can go and I was just talking to one of the coaches yesterday. I go and I watch the type of shots that our guys get. And now when we go to practice, we’re only practicing those shots because it only makes sense to right. If we continue to keep getting these same, okay, it’s a drift past the corner. Like there’s no point in working on step backs in the corner where we don’t get those mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know what I mean? And so keeping it simple and it’s really hard to greatness is boring. You know, like being great is boring. A uh, yep. Being a really good shooter is super boring. Like you just have to sit there and do it over and over again. And so for me, I try to just get 1% better every day. And I think that being super efficient and practicing those simple things is how you do that.

Pat (00:09:29):

What do you use to get the buy-in? Cause you coach at the G league. So all the players and it’s only naturally they want to go to the NBA or they want what’s next. And when you’re telling ’em, we’re just gonna work on a simple drift corner shot. How do you get that? Buy-in how do you get them to believe like, this is what we need to do. This helps you. And not just our team.

Silas (00:09:46):

I think it starts with the relationship and the communication sitting there, being able to show ’em the film, right. Being able to talk to ’em in the game. And there’s always the, a moment where you’ve been telling the guy something you’ve been telling them, telling them, telling them, and then it happens in the game. They actually do it and they make the shot and then they point over at the bench and then you got him. And so like if that starts happening with this guy and then it happened with that guy and now everyone’s seeing, okay, well he knows what he is talking about when he tells me something, you know, I’m gonna try to, but the other thing is, and this is just where being a former player comes in handy is that they believe it because they know that I did it and that I can do it. Right. And so if I’m able to step out there and show ’em, this is why, this is how they believe it. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm <affirmative> and so little bit of showing them both visually and physically, and

Pat (00:10:35):

That actually leads to my new next question. How long does that former player shine last or your cache that you used to play? And so maybe the players are a little bit quicker to buy and, or won’t challenge you as much, cuz like, Hey, you know, you were doing it too professionally. Is this the last thing do you feel? Is there like a shelf life on it?

Silas (00:10:52):

I don’t think so. And even the older coaches who I’ve been around that play laid, you know, I don’t think that it goes away just because the respect is the respect, right? Your career was your career. And so I don’t think that there’s a shelf life, but you can’t just depend on that. Yeah. That’s something that I’m able to offer, but it’s also, they know, I know what I’m talking about. They know I’ve done the research on the team. They know like when I say, hold your follow through, it’s not only because I did it, but I went and I researched every playoff team for the last three years and looked at every single three and saw how many times they held their follow through on 70% of the shots that were made a follow through was held when I come to them and I present that to them, then they, okay, well I know he did it, but he also is backing it up with some data.

Silas (00:11:42):

Right. And so I think you have to do it like that because you can’t just, oh yeah, I used to do it this way. So you should do it this way. Now there has to be some data involved. They have to believe. And you have to know what you’re talking about. The biggest thing is as a former player, I know players know when you’re full of you, can’t walk in there and fake it. You can’t try to get one over on them and they’ll call you out. They’ll interrupt you and say, no, no, you said that it was supposed to be this or in the game. Like you better know what you’re talking about. And so that just keeps me on my game and knowing that I always come prepared and I always do the extra work

Pat (00:12:14):

Xavier. My next question is just with player confrontation. I think as young coaches, I mean, I think, and it’s natural young coaches or former players who are now coaches. I think maybe some people try to avoid it or don’t want to, as a young coach, how’s been your experience with player confrontation.

Silas (00:12:29):

When you say confrontation, give me an example.

Pat (00:12:32):

Obviously not, not like screaming, yelling match, but just right. Maybe they’re not gonna give you the effort or they’re gonna question, you know, just kind of these moments, where are you gonna back down? Or you gotta hold your ground.

Silas (00:12:44):

I think that you have to keep it real with them. And once you say something, you have to stick with it. Right? And so if we say, Hey, look, we’re gonna guard the pick and roll. Like, and it doesn’t work. You have to at least know why you’re doing it and have legitimate data to back you up. Mm-hmm <affirmative> in order for the guys to really buy in. Now, the other part of that is if you’re always honest with them, they’ll always have that respect and you won’t have to deal with a lot of confrontation. Right? And so I think the answer to your question on how do I deal with confrontation? You have to deal with it early, before it happens. Mm-hmm <affirmative> your track record with them is how you deal with confrontation. They have to know that in the moment, if we don’t see eye, eye, I have a track record of telling you the truth.

Silas (00:13:31):

And I have a track record of telling you what’s right. So it’s two parts, it’s the truth. And what’s right. And if you do that, I think that you can pretty much avoid it. You can’t back down and let them kind of resist in the moment, especially when you need them to do something to win, you know? And sometimes you can’t really see it as a player. And I know that mm-hmm <affirmative> and sometimes I can say, Hey, look, I know it feels like this, but just trust me go over this screen. Right. I know it feels like you can go under. I know, but push him over the screen and it’ll all work out. And so you have to juggle it a little bit, but I think that’s the answer

Pat (00:14:05):

Saying on this confrontation as a young coach, you have the player and if you were his teammate, maybe you knew you could speak to him as a peer leader. Like you could get on, you could maybe talk to him a certain way, but now as a coach and you see this behavior or something, how has maybe that conversation gone?

Silas (00:14:21):

I think that it’s closer than you think being a leader and captains on teams professionally. Usually that person is an extension of the head coach. Anyway, for example, when I played for Cody, I was that guy, you know, I was the guy who would be the conduit between the coaching staff and the players. And that’s really how I started to find my voice in leading as a coach. You know, it kind of started as a player, right. And so I think it’s really close. I don’t see it being that different. Of course, you know, you’re not gonna use the same language you might use with player to player. Right. But <laugh>, but you might, you know, in the, in the heat of the moment you might, you know, because sometimes it really depends on who you’re dealing with and you have to know that and being a leader and captain on teams helps you really understand, Hey, I can talk to this guy a little crazy, right?

Silas (00:15:12):

Because he responds to that. Another guy you might have to put your hand around him and whisper in their ear. So knowing that and having that experience kind of helps as a coach, aren’t getting a point across, but everyone’s different. You have to treat him as such, but I don’t think it’s that different. I think that head coach and that captain of a team, that point guard is, is what I’m thinking about. You know, how they can pull the guys in and get ’em in the circle and say, Hey, look, this is what we, we need to do. X, Y, and Z to win this game. I think a head coach is pretty close to doing that as well.

Dan (00:15:41):

Xavier, we’ve been talking a lot about earning respect with the players. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but I know the other thing for you that you and I talked about a little bit off fair was just the interesting part of having such, such a long professional playing career. And then trying to now earn the respect of the coaching community. Right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> all that goes into that as well. And so can you speak a little bit about that process of earning the respect there as well as what we just talked about? The players?

Silas (00:16:05):

Yeah. I think that it’s just natural. We all do it. We put people in boxes, right? We say, okay, we use a player here. You know, we put a period after that. He was a player period, but it goes the other way too. Oh, you know, someone who never played that’s a coach who doesn’t necessarily look the park. Oh, they don’t have any feel or, oh, they can’t be relatable. You know what I mean? So I think that we do that. And so what I started doing is putting a comma where, or that period is so a player and a coach and you can do analytics and your, you know, like all these different things. And so I think there’s this underlying tension between former players in the coaching world and just coaches who started off coaching in the coaches world. Like I said before, when we started, it’s really funny that it shouldn’t be any tension because we all are gonna end up getting to the same place.

Silas (00:16:57):

Coaches who may not have respect from the players because they may not look the part or didn’t play or whatever they’re working to get that respect. And they’re working their tails off to do that. And then as a former player, they’re gonna come in and they may say, oh, he is lazy. Or he doesn’t wanna do video or whatever. Most of the former players are working their toes off to prove that wrong. And so I think that it’s not only the former players trying to gain respect, it’s the coaches who didn’t play, trying to gain respect too, in this business. And so everyone’s trying to gain respect and I think it is a lot closer, you know, the tension and people think they’re so different. I think that they’re more similar than they may think.

Dan (00:17:35):

Absolutely. It is interesting as a former player, you’ve talked about how you have, you know, 14, 15 years of basketball, professional experience, but that experience doesn’t necessarily translate that easily to being a coach right away. Even though a lot of times you think it might just, there are gaps in it and you know, where you think you’ve tried to put most of your effort to fill those gaps in these first couple years as you’re transitioning over.

Silas (00:17:59):

I think that basketball or probably sports period is the only place where you can do some 14 years. It, it kind of doesn’t count when in the same profession. Right. Right. And so, you know, for me, I really just dove into the things that they said that were hard for former players that, you know, that former players don’t like doing, which is the video stuff, of course, and scouting and the analytics. And so diving into that stuff and really taking the same approaches I did as a player. So if there’s a drill, let’s say I’m working on a step back move and it’s really hard at the beginning. Right. I can’t get it. I can’t do it. I’m gonna stay in there until I master, like I’m a big 10,000 hours guy. And so I’m always looking to master what I’m doing. I just think I attacked it.

Silas (00:18:44):

And I attacked all the things that people normally wouldn’t do or wouldn’t want to do, you know, the biggest difference between a player and a coach or one of the biggest difference? Probably the biggest difference is the hours that you put in as a player, I used to think that I was a hard worker and coming in early an hour early and staying a little late. And I definitely was probably the person who, who did the most work on a lot of the teams that I was on, but it’s not even a comparison to how many hours you have to put in as a coach. Right. And so, you know, understanding that and attacking that and embracing that has been something that I’ve done for sure. And so the learning is just learning, you know, like I, I know the answer to the question is, is broad, but you just have to learn what you’re doing. Right? Learn, learn the coaching, learn the strategy, learn the flow of the game, learn how do we approach, how are we gonna scout? How all that stuff. And, and the other thing is everyone’s different. You know, like I’ve worked for two head coaches now and they are completely different. And so you can be a coach for 15 years for somebody and then go and work for someone else and you’re gonna have to learn again. Right. So, yep. I think being a sponge is one of the most important things.

Speaker 4 (00:19:56):

Hey, coaches, we’d like to take a quick break to tell you about the today’s sponsor ins stat. They have been hands down the biggest resource we’ve used in generating our content, their expansive database of over 30,000 players and 7,000 teams gives us the access. We need to scout no as trends and learn from some of the best coaches in the game today. So join coaches of all levels who are using Insta to better prepare for their opponents self scout and develop their players by going to Insta sport.com/form and entering the promo code. SG pod coaches can receive one free month of Insta out and 10% off their subscription. That’s SG pod, Insta sport.com/forum. Thanks again to Insta for their support. And now back to our conversation,

Dan (00:20:46):

Xavier, if I could just a little bit of a pivot here. Yeah. Because you’ve mentioned it a couple of times, and I think it’s an interesting conversation. It’s just analytics in general. Yeah. And how much players want to hear how much they care about. And now that you’re just more recently now on the coaching side and you’re using them a lot as a coach, you know, what, as a player, I guess when the coach will bring up some sort of stat or analytics that your eyes are just glaze over, like, Hey, I, I don’t care. But now as a coach, it’s more important. Have you found the balance of kind of giving guys analytics to help them now that you’re on the other side,

Silas (00:21:16):

When I do my report for the game, I’m talking about points per possession. You know, I’m talking about all those different things, because I think that it’s important. What I didn’t like as a coach for the first few years is we talk about it. When we go into our little room, we talk about points per possession. We talk about all this stuff, but then we don’t talk about it with the players. And so, you know, I ask my coach, Hey, can I just explain like points per possession? Like, and so I made up this graphic and did this presentation to the players so that they really understood because for me, no one ever did that for me. Right. And so there’s a reason why we wanna shoot the shots that we want. There’s a reason why the corner three is so valuable. There’s a reason why getting fouled and going to the line is so valuable.

Silas (00:21:59):

And, you know, I think that as coaches, we don’t always include the players into the conversation, right. We don’t include them all the way into the conversation. We kind of keep it surfaced. And I’ve never liked that. I didn’t like that as a player when I felt like coaches were trying to dumb things down for me. And I don’t like doing that as a coach. You know, like these guys are cerebral, these are some of the smartest people in the world being able to do the things that they do at the speed that they do it right on a consistent basis. And so I think that they have the capacity to understand what we’re talking about. And so to answer your questions, I included, man, I include for possession, we have a graph where we want to get shots and why, and we talk about it and they push back, you know, and I tell ’em, Hey, this is why this is what we did against them. Last game. This is what wins, you know, because certain things win and certain things don’t, and it’s all in the stats.

Pat (00:22:51):

Just continue on that. What about maybe player matchups? Are you giving them points per possession for a player and what they do, or what are those conversations?

Silas (00:22:59):

We get kind of deep with that on who plays even who plays well together, you know, trios and duos that play well together. Mm-hmm, <affirmative> now that’s a little bit one where we kind of keep it in the coaches deal and just try to avoid it on our own because that’s kind of in our control. I dive into that. And I think that that’s very important, especially at the end of the games and knowing who plays well with each other, who doesn’t, that’s all important. And we dive into that G league stat website and go crazy.

Dan (00:23:26):

<laugh> absolutely Xavier, maybe kind of a natural sort of continuing of this is more on the floor of what we wanted to talk with you about today, which is maintaining advantages. Once one is created, like you’ve talked about, we talked about is everybody’s got great stuff. Whether it’s dribble drive, whether it’s pick and roll, whether it’s motion, whatever it is to help get their guys in advantage. But a lot of what you’re interested in and what you do teaching is how to maintain it in whatever way you can. So maybe we’ll just start there broadly. And we’ll dive in about maintaining advantages for you at that level.

Silas (00:23:56):

Yeah. You know, everybody has all this trick bags stuff and they have slip outs and Spain actions and you know, all kinds of different things. The pick and roll can be a step up. It can be a flat screen. It can be left right side, mid, but what is it for, you know, why are we doing that? And it’s to create that advantage. And really at the end of the day, get the defense into a SCR, get the dominoes falling, right. And once they’re falling, how can we keep ’em falling? How can we keep that team in a scramble and living in that world? And now, like, there’s a difference between making things happen when there’s no scramble and making things happen while the scramble is going on. Right. And so making decisions on how they’re running at you, right? Because they’re probably gonna be trying to run you off the line because we put two on the ball, swings swing. Now they’re running. Okay, well, what am I doing? You know, where is the help gonna come from? What type of passes am I gonna make outta here? What kind of dribble move am I gonna shoot the shot? And so there’s a lot of things that we teach on just decision making in that world. And I think that it helped us this year, but there’s a lot of different things. A lot of different rabbit holes. You can go down in that world.

Dan (00:25:08):

Maybe if we can go down one a little bit, I’d love to know, like you said, there’s things that you guys do to teach some of these decisions. Let’s maybe start with like warm up type of drill. Is there anything that you guys do on air or just maybe not quite full speed to kind of help these guys see those advantages over and over again? Well,

Silas (00:25:26):

One thing in, you know, I don’t know what date is, but we’ve been leading the league in free throw attempts, right? And so the mentality I think, has been born with how we warm up and we warm up with pads. We warm up with guys getting downhill and making these same decisions under duress, right. Under being, and, and I tell the coaches and the guys who are helping us, Hey, foul M foul M with the pads, I’m telling the players, Hey, it’s going to be a foul. So don’t look at me, don’t lose the ball because it was a foul. It’s gonna be a foul. I’m telling them to foul you. Now you have to make that decision where we might drive in there. And we’re making a corner path, very simple. Like I said, I like to keep this simple and efficient, but we get to that right in that scramble, we put two on the ball and we swing it to the corner.

Silas (00:26:14):

And that guy in the corner drives and touches the paint and the help comes. We have to make that pass and we have to make a good pass under stress. And it has to be a good enough pass for the guy to catch and be able to shoot it because we know that pastor makes the shooter, of course. Right. And so I think that that’s one of the main drills that sticks out and I can sit here and talk about a whole bunch of drills and, and how we do it. But I think having coaches foul and have coaches be out there and have coaches really put stress on the ball handler to make decisions is really important. And I think that that’s helped us in this world that we’re talking about,

Pat (00:26:51):

How have you worked on the off ball decisions? So, you know, I’m assuming that’s gotta be just as important to maintain that advantage. Not only just watching the guy with the ball, but working with the other guys to know how to read, react, and make decisions and not with the ball in their hands.

Silas (00:27:05):

Yeah. You know, we have cues on when our guys cut, especially when it’s three on the side, you know, the middle guy’s cutting for us all the time, but it’s really about reading when to do it. Right. You can’t do it too earlier. You’re gonna miss the opportunity to be available. Can’t do it too late, or you screwed up the whole bit possession anyway. And so I think that it’s a cadence that you have to have, and we work on that through these drills. And so the same drill that I just talked about, where we have a guy driving from the corner, well, we may have a guy that’s cutting at the right time. And so now we’re hitting the cutter with a lot of hands and pads in there. And mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you know, for me, I’m like, Hey, I don’t care that there’s pats in here.

Silas (00:27:47):

I don’t care that they’re foul, make it happen, get that pass through there and then finish. And so I think that it’s important to have those bodies out there and really have them make the same types of decisions as much as possible that they do in the gaming practice. Yeah. Because do doing it on no one, that’s cool, but it’s not a real rep for me, I’m trying to figure out how can I steal reps, steal real reps? Like how can I steal a real rep and how many can I steal in practice? And that’s how you get better doing it with no one on you and them not really having to make a decision and not really having to make the pass and window that they’re gonna see in the game. They’re getting better. What 20%, you know, that rep was 20% of a rep, you know, like how can I get to a hundred percent of a rep without going live? Of course we can’t go live all the time with our schedule is crazy. Yeah. But I think that doing that with the coaches has been helpful for us.

Pat (00:28:43):

We’ve talked about made this corner drive, or like you said, the three on the side, how many different scenarios are you trying to rep with your guys? Do you guys have like the constant may five, six that you just want to perfect or is it you’re trying to introduce new, different scenarios, new spacing.

Silas (00:28:57):

We try to hit every part of the floor because that’s realistic. And so there’s a lot of different things that you can do in a spot, right. You can drive right with it. You can drive, I’ve left with it. You can run through it, you can catch it and hold and wait for a pick and roll. It’s like, it’s so many things that you can do out of the corner list, say, or the wing, but it all comes down to how good are you when you get ’em into the scramble? Yeah. Because all the things that I’m talking about, the drive or the pick and roll, or the D O or whatever, that’s just getting ’em into the scramble. And so now once we get into the scramble, can we survive and not turn the ball over and actually get a really good shot? And so wrapping that, I think everyone reps pick and roll in the D O and all that, but really putting an emphasis and an importance on, okay, we got out of that.

Silas (00:29:45):

It worked, let’s say it worked right. We drew two on the ball now, what are we doing? What’s next? You know? And so if you ever hear or see me, coach, I’m gonna be yelling what’s next because honestly, at the professional game, for sure, the first I action never works. I mean, it never works. Whatever you run, that’s not gonna work. What’s next. <laugh> right. You know what I mean? But I don’t care how smart you are or who you are. It’s not gonna work. The scouting’s too good. The other coaches are too good. The other players are too good. You know, whatever your first set is, it’s not gonna work. It’s what’s next that world what’s next is really how you win. I think that that’s like the meat and potatoes of winning. Yeah.

Pat (00:30:26):

Get ’em back to maybe the off ball decisions or the kind of this what’s next. What are you working with your bigs, whether it’s a roller or maybe there’s a big in the post and just how he should be reacting or, you know, also maintaining the advantage.

Silas (00:30:39):

Yeah. You know, I think that it depends know who the big is and what they can do and you know, their skill level. Right. But if it’s a shooting big of okay. Space to the corner pop. Yeah. You know, they rolls there, right. If you’re non shooting, big getting to the dunker, really being active because you can mess up the scramble by not being in the right spot. Right. And not being available. And so I think that wrapping those reads, okay, if it’s a drive, should I be going from dunker to dunker? Or should I be SPAC? So there’s a lot of different things. But to answer your question, getting into the dunker is one spacing to the corner and actually moving that nail. So if something’s going on, on the strong side with the ball set, a rip screen, setting a back screen. Yeah. Setting the down screen and then being available for a roll out of that down screen, a rip screen or popping for a shot. And so all of it is a rhythm and re that and guys understanding where they need to be. And when they need to be there is important. And I think the only way you do that is doing those perfect reps.

Pat (00:31:44):

I got two follows, but I’d like to stay on the dunker. How do you want the big to stand on the dunker or the spacing of the actual being in the dunker spot? The next step is how are you teaching them to finish? Maybe they get that dump off, pass from the dunker. How are they finishing from there? When they’re behind the backboard at times

Silas (00:32:01):

First, how they’re standing, they have to, to be an athletic stance. You know, you can’t be standing straight up, you have to have your butt to the baseline, so you can see everything and be available. And so that’s the positioning. Now, the finishing, you know, depending on who you are, but you gotta go strong because you know, it’s probably gonna be a drop off. Right. Yeah. And that drop off, you only have a certain amount of time to get that thing up. And so you’re springing up, probably won’t be able to use the backboard. Right. So there’s two kind of shots that I’m thinking about just like that strict power layup. And the reason why I don’t like the backboard from the dunker is because now you’re going from, but to baseline to, but to the half court line to use that backboard and the bigs are so athletic, they’re gonna go come and put that on the class.

Silas (00:32:48):

Yeah. And so instead of wasting that time, I would say power layup, and just go straight in and lay it in, in the rim or go dunk it. You have to go finish by trying to put it in theri yeah. And expect contact. That’s the biggest thing. If you’re getting it in the dunker, you’re probably gonna have some contact, you know, check Diallo who we have now is really good in the dunker. So is Luca Garza. But you know, like those guys understand that when they get it, they only have a certain amount of time to make something happen. And you know, that guy is usually when we’re talking about keeping ’em in the scramble, they’re usually people who are able to get that pass they’re drawn to, and they keep the scramble going. You know what I mean, by kicking it and drift past to the corner or kicking it back out. Cause usually that pass is wide open for a three.

Pat (00:33:36):

And are you working on the catch? They’re coming to the, meet the catch and go right into their move or keep this hope of space and let the ball come to you.

Silas (00:33:45):

I think down there, you have to take up that space. Right? There’s too many hands. And again, you know, yes, there’s a scenario where you let the ball come to you because you need that space. But for the most part in the paint, you have to be aggressive. And so all ways air on the side of being aggressive in the paint. So no go meet the ball. If you can run through it on the way to the layup, do that, you can’t let it come to you because that’s taken up time and you don’t have time. Right? Not down there like it’s so compact guys are coming down there to come and block that shot. You have to take up as much space and take up as much time as you can

Pat (00:34:23):

Getting off the dunker spot. And you see this a lot in Europe, which I’m thinking about and kind of admire is the big kind of like that gore to screen, or maybe the big can’t get to the dunker. Can’t really get out of the way, just telling ’em like, Hey, just keep seal then. And just try to back ’em out and make space that way. Are you guys working on teaching your guys that, talking about that

Silas (00:34:43):

When teams are in a super deep drop, that’s a counter when they have their big way back. And usually our guards can beat the, the person guarding them, especially with a pick and roll. So even if the guard goes under, we’re racing it to get downhill. If he goes over, he’s done anyway. Right. But all that role. So let’s say I’m at the top, it’s a pick and roll. The defender goes over the screen. The big defender is in a drop. We’re getting downhill and the big is gonna go and just seal him off. Right. And so that the guard can go and finish at the rim. That’s a counter. We teach that because it’s very effective and it may, them have to get out that drop. It’s all about chess, right? It we’re trying to do something to make them do something else.

Dan (00:35:29):

Coach just kind of coming back, maybe more broadly with maintaining advantages in the time you’ve been in the G league. Is there any situation in which guys sort of stand up and stop understanding that they can keep an advantage? So is it like on a post catch, do guys not have a general understanding of how to keep an advantage when the ball gets to the post or on a drive, do they not understand how to move as well or pick and roll? Do they understand the like spacings and movements of a pick and roll? Like, is there an area where you, you have to teach more about maintaining an advantage than other areas?

Silas (00:36:01):

I think that it’s just the constant fight of getting them to get to the world of keeping an advantage out of anything. Like I think that the answer is we can be stagnant in all of those things. We can be stagnant out to pick a role. We can be stag. It just really depends on who we are are that day. Right. And so, and it’s hard, like this stuff that we’re asking or what I’m asking the team to do is really hard because what does it involve? It involves a lot of movement. It involves always being engaged. It involves a lot of running and you know, that’s uncomfortable. And so sure. You know? Yeah. There’s times where I’m like, Hey look man, and you guys can’t just be stagnant, but you know, I look up and we’ve been doing it for the whole quarter and it’s the last two minutes, you know?

Silas (00:36:46):

And they’re like, man, like, can we just walk? Can we I’m like, no, we have to go. And you know, one thing that we didn’t talk about with the advantage is the biggest advantage I think. And my favorite one, you is the change of possession, right? Is a automatic scramble mode that other teams in a scramble mode already. So make or miss, like people misses and turnovers for sure. But even on the may, like they aren’t necessarily loaded up and ready to go defensively. After a may. What we really try to do is go at the ball out really fast and now we’re pushing it down your throat. And with that 75% of the time they’re gonna be in a scramble, right? Because they’re trying to get back it’s same thing as transition. They’re trying to figure out what’s going on. And so keeping them in a scramble after a make and on the misses and on those changes, possessions are the same thing.

Silas (00:37:39):

It’s like, why do we run a pick and roll? The reason we run a pick and roll is to create an advantage is to put two on the ball. We probably can do that. If we take the ball out fast and we have a really fast point guard and we get down there, right. We can probably put two on the ball there. And now we did the same thing. It’s coming down and running a pick and roll. And so that’s kind how I approach it. And that’s the importance of pace. And what made me think about that is, okay, now I’m asking them to run a whole bunch in half quarter and I’m asking them to run with this type of pace. So then when they’re stagnant, I’m like, ah, okay, here we go. Like, what buttons can I push to keep them do? Because it works. You know? And they don’t always understand that it works. And there’s a reason why we have to play so fast, but playing fast, it’s hard to guard and no one wants to guard that

Dan (00:38:29):

With playing fast guards, love it. Obviously push and get the floor. What about the bigs? What do you teach the bigs? When you’re trying to push it in those first couple of seconds, a transition, whether it’s rim run or come set a drag screen, do you have any cues for them to help the pace stay up?

Silas (00:38:44):

Yeah. You know, one, we don’t always have them take the ball out. That’s the one thing that helps them. So now they’re not always behind the play, which can be tough for them. You know? Like they have to take it out. Now we’re running full speed and four or five seconds of coming off the clock before they’re at the three point line. We don’t want that. And so closest guy to the ball can take it out right now, we’re running. But you know, they kind of get used to it. They adapt, you know, like they, they’re not complaining about anything. And if we get down there before them, we might throw ahead, throw it back, her, go do a D O and give them a little space if we wanna play through them at the top. But other than that, I mean, they’re running too. Like our guys, Chuck Diallo and Luca, those guys are sprinting just like all of us. So you know why they like it is because they get those easy points. Like they might get a throw ahead over the top or Luca might get a three in the corner just from running you. I mean, and so I feel like we don’t really treat ’em too different. They have to get in where they fit in. Yep.

Pat (00:39:40):

Coach just sticking on the plan with pace and your transition offense. Are you guys just running to spots or are you designating lane lines? Like we want our twos and threes in the corner. We

Silas (00:39:50):

Have spots. I remember growing up where you, you know, the two went to the right corner and the left. We don’t do that. We fill those spots. And when we practice, we practice with guys in all these different spots, because the most efficient thing, when we’re talking about keeping ’em in the scramble is the closest God to that spot. Get to that spot, run wide, open the floor up. That’s gonna give us the best chance to score. And the other thing is the most efficient time to score is in the first six seconds of the shot clock. And so with us, if we can get one up quick and it’s good and it’s clean, we’re gonna take it. And that’s only because statistically that’s the best thing to do. You know, analytically. If we can get an open three at 18 on o’clock every single time we’re gonna take it, we have to take it because I know that the defense may not let us get another one that clean. You know what I mean? And so that’s kinda our approach to it. And it’s a little bit new, you know, I think a lot of coaches feel more comfortable feeling like they have more control in coming down and running a play every single time. But for us and understanding the analytics of it, that’s not always the most efficient thing to do

Pat (00:41:07):

With running into spots. Are there certain tricky spacing or situations you get into where maybe there’s not a shooter in the corner? The point guard is being flanked by maybe a big and a non shooter. Are there certain trigger or, you know, situations that you rep with your guys, like how to solve this, maybe how to then get an advantage back, or maybe you can’t really maintain the advantage just because it’s just not ideal player placement.

Silas (00:41:29):

I think that that’s kinda like a personnel thing and that’s something that you have to know with your team. So we talked about that honesty in the beginning, right? With the players and Hey, you can’t shoot, right? If you can’t shoot and you’re in this spot, maybe you should cut. You know, like you should cut out of there. Okay. Now he’s cut out of there. Now let’s say he’s in the corner coming up the sideline, non shooter ahead. Cut it. Right. You cut. Now the ball handler takes it down. Now we have a deep pick and roll right on that side. And so we all know that if you know that you can’t help the team by being over there in spacing, cut out of there, let’s do something else. Let’s get to something else. Right. And so I think the answer to that question is more of the relationships and the communication you have with the team, the personnel of, Hey, you know, look, if you’re here and you see that, we don’t have a clear advantage cut out of there. Let’s get to the next thing like what’s next. And maybe what’s next for me is not standing here in the corner. Maybe what’s next for me is a cut. And so having everyone one kind of think about what’s next in the flow of everything is kind of how you start making that beautiful music in the symphony

Dan (00:42:41):

Coach. Great stuff. So far here, we wanna transition now into a game. We play here called start sub or sit. And so we’re gonna give you three basketball topics, ask you to start one, ask you to sub one, ask you to sit one on the bench and then we’ll have a discussion from there. So coach, if you’re ready, we can start diving in.

Silas (00:42:59):

I’m ready. I, I can’t wait to see what my stark sub sitter

Dan (00:43:03):

<laugh> us as well. So coach’s first one has to do with disrupting a great pick and roll team. Maybe not a where you have a point guard like a Chris Paul type, where you need to just really take care of the pointer, but a team that just really plays well within the pick and roll. So you wanna disrupt that system that they run. So start sub sit for defensive coverages to disrupt it. Would you switch everything okay? Would you hedge either one step or two step hard hedge or would you play drop coverage and keep it more of a two on two game?

Silas (00:43:35):

It’s the hedge kind of a blitz.

Dan (00:43:37):

There’s like a lot of gray area, right? Like you can one step next too. You can.

Silas (00:43:41):

Uh, I mean, I think this is pretty easy for me. I think switching is number one for me. I think it just completely neutralizes the pick and roll and pretty much every action. If you have switch ability, you know, if they’re good pick and roll team and they’re winning games because their pick and roll actions, then they’re not just by default a good one on one team. And so now when you switch, they have to show us that they can beat us one on one and a lot of teams can’t do both. Most teams can’t do both. And so I would say switch is number one. I would say drop is second. I guess I would start switching. Yeah. Then I would go with the, and the reason I like the drop is because I really value the three. And when you’re in a drop, you can have the other three players stay at home essentially.

Silas (00:44:27):

And the guy that’s guarding the ball can go over on the screen and force ’em down and you can get to a late, or you can just pursue and try to get back in front and play it like that. But you can essentially keep the whole thing two on two, which is what I really like. And if it’s a nons shooter, you can go under. And so I really like the drop. I don’t like hedging because for me offensively, when I see a hedge, it’s perfect because you’re just starting to scramble for me. We just talked about scrambling for like an hour <laugh> and, and, and you’re just gonna do it for me. Okay, cool. Let’s run a pick and roll and get it going. You know, like we work on this all day and keeping the advantage. That’s why I don’t like it. I just feel like it puts you at a, this advantage right off the bat, especially when you’re playing against a good guard who can get off it quick and pick you apart. It’s just tough

Dan (00:45:17):

Coach. You had the hedge as a sit, but you kind of asked in the beginning about the blitz. If we had substituted, you know, blitzing it, would that still sit for you or would the blitz be a little bit higher up in your scenario?

Silas (00:45:30):

I think that it’d move a few chairs towards <laugh> coaches, not at the end of the anymore.

Pat (00:45:38):

He an injury away,

Silas (00:45:39):

But cause the blitz is the same thing. You know, it’s the same thing. You just have a better chance of getting a steal. You know, when you blitz right with the hedge, you’re not gonna get a steal out of a hedge, you know, but a BLI, maybe you get a steal, which makes that a little bit attractive, but the switching and the drop, those are things you can live in and make it tough for a team to score out of. And you can win games like that.

Pat (00:46:03):

Coach I’d like to follow up on your drop coverage and specifically the guard chasing over first, how are you helping your guard to fight over the, at screen or get him over? I’m sure a lot of guards, you know, they hate it, that the bigs so dropped and they’re just getting nailed on the screen and chasing immediately, you know? So what are you doing to work with them on getting over and then also their decision whether to late switch or pursue?

Silas (00:46:27):

Yeah. Okay. So the first part of getting over, it’s helpful when you know, it’s come me and you know what you’re doing when we know we’re in this drop coverage, the guard isn’t gonna get, you know, disconnected from the guy. He’s not gonna be surprised. And so it’s a little bit easier to kind of get over and pursue. So to answer your question, if we can blow it up, usually you can’t, but let’s just say the best scenarios blowing it up and staying in front of the screen, right? Yeah. OK. Probably won’t happen, but let’s just try to do that. Okay. Once you’re not able to do that and you’re pursuing, can you get back in front before the free throw line?

Pat (00:47:07):

Okay.

Silas (00:47:08):

Can you get back in front, before you see the guy’s numbers on his back, that’s kinda like my, if the guy passes the free throw line automatically, if you come off and it’s super high and you just see the back of the guy’s numbers and he’s just getting downhill, a full speed you’re out of it. And you know, you’re out of it, then automat lay, you know, now there’s a gray area where there’s really good defenders and I’ve seen this where they come off, all the point, guards now are, are stopping and putting everybody in jail. Right? Yeah, they’re doing all that. And I hate that offensively because that allows the guy to get back in front or gives them more of an opportunity to get back in front instead of just getting straight downhill. Like if the guy’s dead, Eddie’s dead, keep going. Right.

Silas (00:47:50):

But let’s say guy comes off, tries to put the guy in jail. Well, we know that that’s happening. And the defender kind of just goes around that whole jail thing and gets back in front. And so there’s a little bit of a gray area. I’ve been on teams where it’s almost like a automatic beer. You know, most of the times you’re just kind of automatic switch and bearing back and you have to just deal with that one five kind of switch pick and roll type deal. And if you have the right five man, that’s not that bad because it’s better than them running their offense. And you know, getting to their stuff. If you have a five that can guard the one. But I would say knowing that the screen is coming and doing your work early, stay in the play is what kind of we teach. You know what I mean? So if you know that it’s a high pick and roll, you have to get your positioning, right? You can’t let the guy reject the screen. You know, you have to get into the ball and you have to fight your way over and try to get back into the

Dan (00:48:46):

Hey coaches. This segment of start sub sit is brought to you by our friends at practice planner, live practice planner live has combined all the components of effective, efficient, and time saving practice planning into one, easy to use platform, saving your most valuable resource as a coach time ditch the word docs and the scribbled legal paths for simple point and click experience to build your drill old directory, collaborate with your staff and create clean, customized and shareable practice plans. In minutes with over 75,000 practice plans created at the professional collegiate high school, AAU and youth levels. Practice planner live is proven to raise a level of organization effectiveness of any program listeners of the podcast can visit practice planner, live.com and register for a free 21 day trial and enter the promo code SG pod to get 10% off your subscription. Thanks for listening. And now back to our conversation,

Pat (00:49:48):

Okay, coach, our next one is called. Just get it done. So we’re gonna give you three things that your start would be the thing that you would most likely say, like you just gotta get it done and not so much time would be spent on maybe teaching the fundamentals or the technical side of it. All three of these things are important and you’re gonna practice them. But what would be more like you just gotta get it done. You gotta compete through this. So it is box out, close out or get through off ball screens.

Silas (00:50:17):

Okay. I think you have to work on getting through off ball screens. Okay. I think that that’s really important because there’s so many things that can happen with that. You know, a guy can flare off of it. They can curl cut. I mean, we may be switching. It might be a rip screen. It might be a back screen. It might. So you gotta talk about the off box screen stuff, for sure. It’s too much. It’s too complex to just tell ’em to go out there and do it. I think you have to give a little love to close out because there’s so many different types of players in so many different types of closeouts and depending on what type of philosophy you have, you may be closing out and forcing the baseline. You may be closing out forcing the middle. So you have to show a little love to that. And then boxing out, just go get the ball. We don’t have to spend that much time on it. Like, just go get it. That’s like the effort toughness going and getting the ball is huge. You know, boxing out is important, but all of those Rodman highlights, I don’t remember any of them, him boxing out, do you? Yeah.

Pat (00:51:14):

<laugh>,

Silas (00:51:15):

He’s just going and getting the ball. Yeah. Like, like he’s the best food ever. And I don’t remember any of the highlights of him just like doing a really cool, good box out, you know? So I think that that one would be the one where you just have to go and do that. You gotta go get it done

Pat (00:51:30):

Just with the closeouts. Yeah. How are you helping your guys irrespective of overall team philosophy as your defense mm-hmm <affirmative> what are just tips or what are you working on? Just to get them to let’s say get it done and stay in front.

Silas (00:51:41):

Yeah. That’s a rep thing as well, you know? Cause let’s speed. Like to be honest and again, it depends on the philosophy, but let’s say that we’re trying to keep it out of the middle. Well, getting that rep of throwing it out there and the guy really learning themselves, what I don’t like is when coaches just put a drill out there, let’s say a closeout drill. We’ve all done. Right? We’ve all done a closeout drill. Well, I’m gonna close out a little bit closer than someone who is less quick than me. Let’s say someone who has slow feet. I don’t want them closing out to the same spot as I want the quickest guy on the team. Right. And so when we do a drill and say, okay, well squeak your feet and close out at the three point line. Well, that’s not realistic because I may not want this guy to close out a three point line. I may want him to really get in to the ball because that’s his strength, but another guy may want, Hey, you need to close out like way,

Silas (00:52:37):

Way back. You know what I mean? And so that’s almost a individual rep thing and we’ve done some drills like that, where we’re working on closeouts. But in that drill, you’re speaking to the guy coming off like, Hey, look for you. You need to do it like this. And so it’s a drill for everyone, but everyone’s doing the drill differently because you can’t put it all in the box. Everyone’s just different. You know what I mean? So that’s what I would say. And then the bigger part of the answer to that question is who are they closing out too? Yeah. If we’re in a scramble and it’s a shooter, the real answer to it is don’t let him shoot. You know, I don’t care if you moonwalk out there, don’t let us

Pat (00:53:15):

Shoot. <laugh>

Silas (00:53:16):

You know, I mean, cause that’s gonna hurt us more than you doing a specific way that I said, Hey, do it this way. You know what I mean? Just being realistic, like in the flow of the game, it’s really hard to get the perfect technique, especially in the things that we’re talking about. Like the boxing out and the, all those three that you just asked is like, it’s really hard to get to the perfect technique in that stuff when you’re in battle. Right? And so I may have to do it and my body may be contorted every which way, but I have to get it done,

Dan (00:53:44):

Coach our last one for you. Yep. So this will be start subset about the most valuable part of a paint touch. O and I know these are all valuable. So we’re gonna ask you to see if you can start sub and sit these three different values of a paint touch. So number one is that it draws fouls. Okay. The second is it leads to great assist opportunity on kickout or cuts. And the third is that the ability to lead to second chance points for offensive, rebounding for guys close to the rim, things like that. So start sub sit those three values of a paint touch.

Silas (00:54:18):

This one’s easy to me. It’s fouls for one, cuz that’s the highest, poor per possession you can get. Right? It’s the most valuable shot in, in the game. The second thing is the grit assist. There’s nothing better to me than a paint, touch three, you know that kickout three or the kickout and then one more three. I love it. And then the last thing is the second chance I do value that a lot. I really do like I’m on the extreme end of the spectrum with like, just go send everybody and get that extra possession. Like, you know what I mean? The defensive coordinators probably like, oh, here you goes, you know, back right. <laugh>

Silas (00:54:56):

Yeah. I would have to sit the second chance, you know, just cuz those other ones are just so valuable. You know, the fouls are self explanatory. Not only are you gonna get a few bumps there, not necessarily shooting fouls, but little bumps because you’re so aggressive touching the paint. That’s gonna get you to the bonus a little bit earlier. Right. Which is super valuable, but also the foul trouble that you put the other team in and the other good players, like now that’s being a gamesman and that’s that gamesmanship that I love is like, Hey, let’s go at their best player and try to get ’em in trouble. So they don’t play as much, you know, like, you know, so fouls for sure is gonna be the number one thing. Now the assist huge because now everyone’s touching it and that Embodi sharing and when you’re sharing and the ball’s moving now, everybody’s feeling good. We’re making shots. And the essence of the team is important and those types of, or how you get there and get everybody flowing in that chemistry rolling. And when you do that, you know, you’re hard to be.

Dan (00:55:53):

Absolutely. I’d like to start, I guess, with the start and the sub. So fouls Ansis, because one of the things I imagine is teaching maybe spacing and cutting. Once the ball does get to the paint and you know, if like a jump stops and is going up and under to get fouled, do you want a, do you teach cutting? I guess what are the decisions you try to, you know, going back to our maintaining advantages conversation, when the ball does get to the paint,

Silas (00:56:16):

There’s two types of cutters. Like we said, there’s three on the side that middle guy has to cut, but then there’s also the guy that we talked about before. Who’s not necessarily a shooter and doesn’t help us spacing, but he’s a hell of a cutter. You know, once you get to a point to where you’ve done it enough, then they start figuring out, okay, this is a good time for me to cut the guy that is the cutter on the three on the side. It’s almost like mandatory, automatic. That guy has to go. It’s just a matter of when and how right. And so I think that it’s very important to cut while you’re in that paint. Now, sometimes it doesn’t always work. It doesn’t always make sense, you know, to cut on top of a drive. But most of the time it does. And like you said, that cutter turns into a potential offensive rebounder, which is helpful as well.

Dan (00:56:58):

Just quickly on that. Just a skill development work of trying to get fouled in the paint. Is it jump, stop up and under what are you talking with guys about to try to draw fouls in there.

Silas (00:57:08):

This is a downhill, straight line mentality. The refs are good. You know, we hate ’em, but they’re good. Right? And so, yeah, they know when you’re going in there and trying to draw a foul more than likely you’re gonna draw foul. If you just get downhill and go straight in there with aggress. If I just go straight at the rim, I don’t care. What’s in front of me. I don’t care. Who’s in front of me. I’m straight at the rim. Of course not someone, you know, load enough or charge on you, but in the flow of the game. And I just go and my whole focus is to go and finish. Like, like what I tell the guys is you’re going for three. You know what I mean? When you drive, you’re driving for three points, that’s the hand one and in your free throw.

Silas (00:57:44):

And so when you do that and you have that mentality more than likely guys are gonna try to stop you and swipe at you. And it just happens naturally. Now there is some gamesman and pump faking and getting up in the air and all that, which we encourage. And we work on a little bit, but the main thing is every single day we have, those has, and those guys are used to getting straight, downhill on a defender. That’s fouling you, you know, the 10,000 hours deal. Once you do that over and over again, it becomes normal. And you kind of crave that contact

Pat (00:58:18):

Follow up on that shot selection within the paint floaters step backs. When is it we live with that. That’s too much. Let let’s then keep trying to plate, maintain the advantage. You know, if you can’t get to that, you know, going in there for three or getting into the rim.

Silas (00:58:32):

So you’re asking what kind of shot and my answer would be, where is it in the paint? So it has to be the low paint. So there’s a difference between a high pain and low paint for me, you know, a paint shot, right under the free throw line, isn’t necessarily a paint shot for me. I like to get it deep into the paint. So deep, low paint. Now, once you’re in there, which is like the part of the defense, I really don’t care what kind of shot it is because you in there, right. You’re in there. Now we have a opportunity to offensive rebound. We have our cutters coming our big, like we talk about a, probably in the bunker, right? And so like, we have done what we’re supposed to do. And we have gotten where we were supposed to get now being crafty and all that.

Silas (00:59:15):

You have to have a little bit of craft to your game once you get in there because you’re with the bigs. But at the end of the day, it’s not necessarily what types of shots now everyone’s different again. Right? Yeah. And so like, I think that if I come in and say, okay, we’re gonna work on floaters, but somebody might be better at shooting a runner. That’s not as efficient to me is saying, okay, we’re gonna break the down the types of shots other than, rather than breaking down. Okay. This is how we’re gonna get to where we want to get mm-hmm <affirmative> right now, once we’re here, now you finish. And we’re at a level now where guys finish how they finish. Right. You know, I think that trying to develop a guy’s floater in January and the G league, it’s good for the player and the player development, but it’s not efficient, you know, to what we’re trying to do, which is in basketball games. So let’s get to where you’re supposed to get or where we want you to get. And then you finish how you finish. And a lot of our guys are really crafting and they finish different ways, but they all are getting to the spot where we want to get, which is that low paint.

Pat (01:00:19):

Absolutely. Yeah. I was searching forward with my, my question is yeah. If you differentiate or distinguish between, you know, are all paint touches equal?

Silas (01:00:26):

No, absolutely not. No, I’m, I’m huge. That’s that’s like another hour of the

Dan (01:00:31):

<laugh> we’ll have you back part too.

Silas (01:00:34):

The importance of the low paint versus yeah. The high paint is huge and even the importance for possession is way different, you know, when you dive into the analytics on that. So it’s very important to get to that little paint

Dan (01:00:46):

Coach you’re off the start sub sit hot seat. Thanks for going through those with us. That was a lot of fun. We’ve got one more question for you to wrap this up, but, uh, before we do thank you very much for coming on and spending some time with us, this has been really fun for us. So thank you. No,

Silas (01:01:00):

I appreciate it. I feel like you guys are had some really good questions. You know, I think that I got a few more questions than usual, you know, I listen to this quite a bit. We got a lot of questions, which was good though. It was good.

Pat (01:01:12):

Yeah, we were intrigued. So yeah.

Dan (01:01:14):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We appreciate it. And we are gonna close up here with a question that we ask all the guests at the end here, and that’s, what’s one of the best investments that you’ve made in your career as a coach.

Silas (01:01:28):

I think just reading as a player, I read a whole lot too, but as a coach, I’ve really started to dive into reading different coaches, their biographies, Nick Saban, Don Shula, be check the big blue Belichick book, you know, trying to really learn as much as I can about coaching and what winning coaches do. And that has been one of the best things that I’ve done, you know, because it’s really helped with my approach in finding my identity as a coach in the first three years. So I would say, you know, spending that time, investing the time and just sitting down and reading and doing research on the best in the game.