Back in June 2024, we had a terrific conversation on the podcast with Nazareth Head Coach, Kevin Broderick, were we explored his systematic approach to limiting turnovers, focusing on techniques like “patient pivots” and off-ball cutting. After breaking down the film and studying his offense, we saw how these two techniques work together to build a strong foundation for an effective DHO attack.
These DHOs often serve as a safety outlet when a ballhandler penetrates the paint but doesn’t have a clear play. Instead of rushing or forcing an action, the ballhandler stays poised, maintaining their dribble and playing off two feet. This patience buy time for the offense to organize, allowing a teammate to sprint in from across the court to create a well-timed, deep DHO opportunity…
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Zooming In: Even on a neutral-yielding penetration, the ballhandler has successfully accomplished two key things: 1) They’ve moved the ball into a threatening area, and 2) They’ve shifted the ball behind the perimeter defenders, making it harder for them to track both the ball and their matchups. Instead of giving up the paint touch with a kick-out or dribble-out, the offense can capitalize on this positioning by searching out an “east-west” DHO in the paint.
Inevitably, the offense will catch a perimeter defender focused too much on the ball, creating an opening for a teammate to front cut into the paint for the DHO. This leads to another key distinction we appreciate about this action: while most perimeter DHOs aim for “North-South” angles to force overs, a DHO in the paint neutralizes the under due to the catch already being in a scoring area. Additionally, these randomly occurring DHOs in the paint make it hard for the defender on the ball to pick up the switch, as they are occupied controlling the penetration.
Exploring the “Cross Court” DHO further, we can see how this concept can be applied in the PNR to combat defensive coverages, particularly those designed to contain the PNR 2v2 and avoid committing help to the action.
Punishing the Under
A preferable solution for ballhandlers limited in their shooting ability, who will consistently face unders, is to leverage offensive actions like the DHO and/or off-ball cuts rather than relying on rescreens, which can potentially stagnate the possession. Based on the location or depth of the screen, the defense can aid the offense by conceding a high paint touch as the defender tracks under the screen to square off the ball. Once in the paint, the offense can rally around the penetration to seek out the “Cross Court” DHO…
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In the past, we studied another similar concept to punish the under in the PNR from Coach Bartzokas and Olympiacos {🔒}…
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Zooming In: On the under, Olympiacos will play the rescreen, if necessary, to get back to the two-man side. This allows them to burn cut the 45 players while lifting the corner player up into a DHO.
Coach Broderick’s innovative use of DHOs—whether to neutralize an under, attack a switch, or target secondary help defender…
