This week we’re excited to bring back one of our favorite coaches to study, SE Melbourne Phoenix Head Coach, Simon Mitchell, for our next edition of “Inside the Set”. Coach Mitchell has long had our admiration for his team’s ability to play with tremendous pace and flow, something we had a conversation with him about last summer on the podcast and then proceeded to devote an entire deep-dive breakdown to on SGTV. In today’s Part One of a two-part series, Coach Mitchell generously shares his knowledge and teaching points in the film room, detailing how he builds the pace, reads and actions of their “Bolt” Transition Offense.
This week, in Part One of a two-part series, we look at SE Melbourne’s use of DHOs and quick “Gets” to build advantages on the 1st Side of the offense.
Transition Spacing and PG “Set-Ups”
Beyond preaching lane running and sprinting in transition, a key component to their pace is the PG initiating with both a purpose and aggression. If at any point an offensive player believes they have a favorable advantage and can attack a gap, said player has to take that opportunity. The first priority in Coach Mitchell’s “Bolt” Transition is to get pressure on the rim…
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Zooming In: As Coach Mitchell discusses, the 1st Point of Action for the PG is to get on the rim. SE Melbourne’s initial spacing is intended to create a gap for the PG to exploit, with shooters flattened out to the deep corners and the Trail Man spaced high behind the ball in the middle third.
A key component to beginning their transition attack is the PG’s “Set-Up”. In Coach Mitchell’s eyes, if the Set-Up is good, more times than not the possession will yield good returns. Coach Mitchell talks about his teaching points of using subtle side-to-side fakes and crossovers by the PG to shift or freeze the defense enough to create a gap to burst into (shown above).
Beyond creating the constant threat to “get on the rim” and score, the other major benefit of the Set-Up is that it often loosens and puts the defense on their heels, allowing SE Melbourne to flow easily into their DHO reads…
Playing Off Guard to Guard DHOs
If the PG isn’t able to get to the rim to score or create an immediate kick-out opportunity, one of the first options that SE Melbourne has in their “Bolt” series is to flow directly into a Guard to Guard DHO. Again, the pressure from the PG on that initial attack will often force the corner defender to be in more of a gap position…
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Setting up the opportunity to flow off of the DHO, one of which is turning the corner and playing into the middle of the floor…
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Zooming In: A teaching point that Coach Mitchell stresses is asking his Wings to sprint and hold corners until they notice the PG flattening out his drive. The flattening of the drive will then trigger the Wing to release off the corner and sprint into the DHO.
In Part One Coach Mitchell further discusses the hows, whens, and whys of:
- Playing Through “Gets” Off the Trailer…
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- The Value of “Fake Gets” and “Keepers”…
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- Reverse DHO Action– Playing Back Through the Trail to Initiate
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- Middle Third PNRs– Flowing into Pick n’ Pop and Pick n’ Roll Opportunities
- Pistol Action – Ghosts, DHO’s, and 2-Man Games…
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Part 2: 2nd Side Actions & The 5 Man
Last year’s podcast interview with SE Melbourne Head Coach, Simon Mitchell, ended up being one of the Most Listened of 2021 as Coach Mitchell made us both laugh and think on a number of topics. A fun, light-hearted joke that ran throughout the conversation was Coach Mitchell’s somewhat jokingly distrust of giving his 5-Men too many responsibilities on offense because, well…they’re 5-Men. The tides turned for those big men this week though in Part Two of our “Inside the Set” film room session with Coach Mitchell, as we further explore all the actions on the 2nd Side of his “Bolt” Transition Series, along with his willingness to let his Big Men be…decision makers…
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What comes into focus through both the film and our discussion with Coach Mitchell, is the onus the offense places on the 5-Man to make reads and trigger actions on the 2nd Side of their “Bolt” Transition. Depending on how the 5-Man chooses to space around the 1st Side Action and, subsequently, how the 1st Action unfolds determines which actions the 5-Man can trigger on the 2nd Side. Let’s dive into a few of those reads…
The areas Part Two of this “Inside the Set” Series covers are:
- Spacing – Where the 5-Men locates to depending on what’s happening on the 1st Side, as well as the Reads that go with it
- 2nd Side Screens – How SE Melbourne will flow into their “Reverse Short”, “Smash Action”, “ALBA Action”, and Pin Down
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2nd Side Elbow Catches – When and how SE Melbourne will use their 5 at the Elbow to flow into Zoom and Split Actions
Please enjoy this week’s “Inside the Set” with SE Melbourne Head Coach, Simon Mitchell, available on SGTV for members of SG Plus…
