Slappin’ Glass sits down this week with the terrific Head Coach of ALBA Berlin, Israel Gonzalez! The trio discuss a number of interesting topics including Coach Gonzalez’ thoughts on offensive building blocks, re-triggers within an offensive, player development, and talk skill acquisition and “Next” Defense during the always fun “Start, Sub, or Sit?!” segment.
Inside the Episode
It was a fantastic start to October on the podcast as we were joined this week by ALBA Berlin Head Coach, Israel Gonzalez! Coach Gonzalez is coming off his first season at the helm in which he led ALBA to a BBL Championship. Coach Gonzalez is a wealth of knowledge and we enjoyed discussing:
- Building an Offense throughout the Season: As mentioned, Coach Gonzalez led Berlin to the BBL Championship last season, but it was not a hot start for ALBA. We discussed Coach Gonzalez’ ideas on building an offense that can grow with the players as the season progresses and the building blocks that are necessary in preseason.
- Re-Triggers in Offensive Flow: Along with the conversation on offensive building blocks, we also dove into how ALBA can “re-trigger” their offense and not loose their flow. We also touched on late shot clock concepts and why running a middle PnR isn’t always the best option.
- Non-Competitive 5 v. 5: Yes, we wrote that correctly. Coach Gonzalez discussed his views on 5 v. 5 and his preference to use it as a teaching tool rather than to make it competitive with score, constraints, etc. You’ll have to listen to the episode as his thoughts on this are well-worth thinking about.
- “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”: During this always fun segment we ask Coach Gonzalez about the most difficult parts of “Next” Defense as well as the best ways to continually develop skills.