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Bully Drives

We’ve all played in a men’s league or driveway pickup game against the guy who methodically and consistently backs you down into the post from half court, tossing casual elbows and insults about your toughness along the way. Annoying as it is to defend, perhaps Carl from Accounts Payable is actually at the forefront of modern basketball. No longer purely a tactic weaponized by the out-of-shape during lunchtime pickup games, these “Barkeley” or “Bully Drives” are enjoying a resurgence across all levels of the game. These highly effective drives have long been a staple of Jay Wright’s Villanova teams, and this season the Wyoming Cowboys unleashed it to invert their offense through 6’7 PG, Hunter Maldonado. Former Pelicans Head Coach, Stan Van Gundy, also discussed using these drives as a way to get Zion a post touch while eliminating turnovers during our “Crunch Time” film room session with him. Here’s a look…

Joking about the aesthetics aside, these “Bully Drives” can produce a variety of advantages for an offense including:

1. Limiting Post Entry Turnovers: Like shown in the Zion clip above, allowing a player to use their own dribble to back a defender down to the post drastically reduces the chance of a Turnover occuring. The Post Entry pass has one of the highest turnover rates in basketball, and a “Bully Drives” eliminates the Pass from the equation completely. So, instead of needing a great seal and hold by the post and a successful entry pass from a guard (tough to do both all the time), the offense simply needs to teach the ballhandler to back the ball down into an operating area without getting an Offensive Foul (more on that below).
2. Inverting Offense and Creating “Post Automatics” Clarity: Though analytics often point to the Post as one of the least efficient scoring areas, those numbers can be a bit misleading because, on the flip side, offense generated from “Passes Out of the Post” have some of the highest efficiency and PPP ratings in the game (Examples include…Post Kick-Outs for standstill or extra pass threes, Passes to perimeter cutters, etc. You can also listen to this week’s podcast with Mike Jones discussing his affinity for PNR’s and DHO’s coming off the postduring “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”). So, these “Bully Drives” allow teams to Invert their offense and get into some highly efficient and difficult to guard “Post Automatics”. Whether the preference is to screen, cut, or space, the methodicalness of the “Bully Drive” allows plenty of time for the other four offensive players to see, read, and react accordingly. 
3. End of Offense “Exit” Options: When looking across all levels of basketball, some of the more common “Exits” or actions run at the end of a shot clock include Middle Ballscreens, Ghost Screens, and Perimeter Iso’s. These “Bully Drives” give the offense another legitimate and difficult to guard action to run as the shot clock ticks down. As defenses become more accustomed to trapping, switching, and hedging late-clock PNR actions, the “Bully Drive” has the advantage of 1) getting the ball to an efficient late-clock scoring area, and 2) is a tougher and riskier action for the defense to double late in a possession for fear of giving up an open three or cut to the rim. Because of these risks for the defense, if the offense has a capable scorer who can execute a “Bully Drive” late in the clock, the offense can be reasonably assured to get a quality shot at the rim.
4. Uniqueness to Guard, Pressure Releases, and Psychological Warfare: To go along with limiting turnovers, running post automatics, and using the “Bully Drive” as an “Exit” strategy, the other benefits of this action come from a potential mental advantage for the offense. 
   1. Uniqueness: As most of our time as coaches is spent on guarding the ball on the perimeter, closing out and keeping the ball in front, and guarding a deep post catch, how much time do we spend on guarding a guy turning a perimeter drive into a post up? This is not just unusual for the on-ball defender, but it’s also unusual for the other four defenders as they have to process being a helpside defender on a perimeter drive into defending “Post Automatic” action with the ball now behind them at the block. Not that easy in real time. 
   2. Pressure Release: Tied to the first point of uniqueness, this “Bully Drive” can act as a pressure release against defenses that are intent on pressuring and denying perimeter catches and passes. As mentioned above, it’s really difficult for a defense to continue denying passing lanes when the ball is behind them in the post area. In this way, the “Bully Drive” can be used to get the ball to an operating area for the offense that’s potentially easier for them to play through. 
   3. Psychological Warfare: During the NFL Playoffs this year an announcer made a point about the benefit of having a great running game in football, being that all run plays require the defense to actually make a tackle, further adding that passing plays don’t (incomplete passes obviously don’t require a tackle). The parallel here is that post catches and “Bully Drives” force the defense to physically guard the rim time after time. It requires physicality from the on-ball defender, and great decision making from the other four defenders during the Post Automatics. Though a quick, transition three will wet the lips of analytic-leaning Twitter accounts everywhere (and it may in fact be the best shot if it’s the right guy at the right time), from a coaching standpoint, if the shot is missed, the defense did not have to guard any action at all. After thirty to forty minutes of playing against a Villanova or a Wyoming, where they are constantly poking, probing, and “Bully Driving” in search for great shots, a defense’s physical and mental toughness can be severely stress-tested. 

Today’s full video show many of these examples. Here’s a few standouts we enjoyed…

Secondary Offense

Throughout our video breakdown we showcase the advantages of the Bully Drive through the lens of its applications, our favorite being the Secondary Offense. If the ball finds itself in the hands of an advantageous matchup in transition, teams are finding benefits in allowing said matchup to clear the side and begin the Bully Drive immediately in an attempt to generate the highest quality shot. As shown in the first GIF with Zion, this can lead to quick rim finishes if the defense does not get set in transition.

Spacing – Kick Out Threes

Though this type of quick transition scoring can take place, more often than not the real advantage of the Bully Drive lies in its ability to stress the defense and create quality shots for others in the half court. In their effort to protect the rim, the defense will either collapse as the ballhandler gets deeper into the paint or send help at the mismatch. With the offense properly spaced, any double or dig down on the Bully Driver can lead to a kick out three…

Zooming In 2.0: Another tactical note when looking at the video and all GIFS in the newsletter is the in the actual technique used to teach the Bully Drive. Here’s a three main points when teaching the ballhandler to Bully Drive:

1. Pace: One of the biggest benefits of the Bully Drive is that it is, by nature, a slower, more methodical drive after the initial attack toward the rim. This slower pace allows the other four players to space, cut, or screen with better timing, and it also helps slow down the mind of the Bully Driver. This is important when it comes to making better decisions on whether to attack, pass out, and see potential double teams. 
2. Space: As the Bully Driver begins backing his defender down with a nice, methodical pace, they should also be looking to attack into any space they see in the middle of the floor. Like shown above, if there is a gap in which the Bully Driver can speed up and get into safely, that’s obviously a major advantage. 
3. “Hips Not Dips”: Lastly, it’s important to have the Bully Driver understand and think about backing his defender down through their Hips, and not with “Should Dips”. The danger with these Bully Drives is in the on-ball defender timing the backdown and taking a charge. This is why it’s important for the driver to think about creating contact with their hips and not their shoulders. Any shoulder dip, especially on the second bump during the backdown, becomes an easier offensive foul call for the officials.

Teaching players to Bully Drive with nice pace, understanding when to attack space, and using their hips and not shoulders to create contact go a long way in helping them be more comfortable with this action.

Now… back to the secondary action…

Cutting – Corner Cuts

In general cutting and screening around the post are tough actions for the defense to defend. As noted above, with the ball behind the defense, maintaining vision on both can become quiet challenging. The same applies for the Bully Drive. Here are the Pelicans cutting from the corner during a Zion Bully Drive…

Zooming In: With help coming from the dunker spot, the corner defender is left to defend two. Drop too low and open up cuts to the front of the rim, stay on the high side of the dunker and risk screening your own self out. Here’s Wyoming giving an example of that…

Taking it a step further, Wyoming adds a backscreen for the corner…

Screening – Post PnR

There are a variety of actions teams can run when it comes to screening actions once the Bully Driver gets to an operating area, a unique one we enjoyed is teams sending a PnR at the Bully Driver. This deep PNR uses the Bully Drive to get a corner PnR while also getting the ballhandler off of the sideline where it’s easier to trap…

Zooming In 1.0: Screening at the extended block creates a tremendous amount of space for the 3 remaining defenders to cover. The offense is stretching out the open side 2/3s court with such a low ballscreen. Committing help to the ball or roller will put the defense in long rotations.

Zooming In 2.0: Using the Bully Drive to set up the screen frees the ballhandler up on the sideline. A risk of running a corner ballscreen is the sideline can act as a defender should the defense look to trap or be aggressive in their coverage. At the very least the ballhandler should have room to free himself from any trap.

Screening – Wyoming Scissor to Stagger

One of our favorite actions run after a Bully Drive comes from Coach Jeff Linder and Wyoming in which they’ll get into their “Scissor to Stagger” screening and cutting action. Much more in the video, but here’s a quick look…

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