Slappin’ Glass sits down with one of basketball’s brightest minds, Bayern Munich Head Coach, Andrea Trinchieri. The trio dive into the areas of competition, offensive complexity vs. simplicity, establishing and building an identity, and talk defending non-shooters, rebounding margins, and building trust during the always fun “Start, Sub, or Sit?” segment.
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Inside the Episode
“Your questions were not boring…”
Bayern Munich Head Coach, Andrea Trinchieri, has a way with words. Combine that with a fun sense of humor and extensive knowledge about basketball, leadership, and human motivation, and you’ve got one heck of an educational and entertaining podcast episode.
We were fortunate to sit down with Coach Trinchieri as his season got under way to discuss an array of topics including competition, establishing an identity, the balance of complexity vs. simplicity on offense, stats that matter, and using non-shooters, with plenty of “Trinchierisms” sprinkled throughout. Here’s a look inside the episode.
Building an Identity and “Winning Mentality”
“Of course you want to have a winning mentality, good habits, and culture, of course. But, how to get to this point? I don’t like general stuff. ‘Ah we have to have a winning mentality.’ What is a winning mentality? For you a winning mentality is ‘I hate to lose’, and for you a winning mentality is, ‘I want to win.’ It’s totally different, because when I hate to lose, you have to right those motivations. From this you can build something.” – Andrea Trinchieri
Coach Trinchieri touched on a number of factors that go into building an identity and establishing a winning culture including:
- The Value of Competition
- Practice and Drill Design to Promote Competition
- Gaining Buy-In
- Being Specific with Goals
- Adapting to Your Team
- And a Great “Cooking” Metaphor
Offensive Complexity vs. Simplicity
“If you have a very extensive playbook, you also cover the defense, because your team already saw in practice some things you’re going to face. So to me it’s a win-win situation.” – Andrea Trinchieri
Another main area we discussed with Coach Trinchieri were his views on the balance of complexity and simplicity in half court offense. Some of the main topics included:
- When he would prefer to have more sets and actions, and when he wouldn’t
- Building a base offense to handle “two polar opposite” defenses (from a “trap to a switch”)
- How to help players through the learning process when understanding complex offensive actions
Playing and Maximizing “Non-Shooters” and Rebounding Mismatches
Among many other tactical conversations included in the episode, a couple specific areas of the game of interest were Coach Trinchieri’s thoughts on “using non-shooters” in and offense, and “minimizing rebounding mismatches”.
For using non-shooters, Coach Trinchieri discussed topics of:
- Teaching non-shooters to become great cutters
- Turning Cuts into Hostage Screens
- Learning to Create Space as a non-shooter
He also threw out this gem of a quote about non-shooters… “We are going towards basketball where non-shooters are becoming like Panda: you don’t want them because you have to keep them in a safe place.”
And when it came to Rebounding, we talked about both Offensive and Defensive rebounding topics…
- How Offensive Rebounding is about a “System”, and Defensive Rebounding is about “Desire”
- His thoughts on minimizing “Rebounding Mismatches” on a Switch…
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Coach Trinchieri goes into further detail about how he teaches rebounding during a bad mismatch including involving a third rebounder, pushing the mismatch under the rim, and trying to “tip the ball” instead of grabbing a rebound.
Beyond these topics the episode also covers:
- Start, Sub, or Sit?
- Building trust through cooking, small interactions, and more
- The best investment Coach Trinchieri has made in his career
- Guarding non-shooters and “2nd Side Actions”
- And more!