Pocket Plays and Special Situations

I was speaking with a coach on our GroupMe group chat (feel free to join) about special situations — late clock moments, end of quarter, and the like.

NOTE: Usually, I post a lot of “answers” and “how to” type posts. This post is more about asking questions…and you answering them for your team.

Before I go into what I proposed, here are a few things to consider when creating a plan for special situations:

1. How much time is on the clock (under 3 seconds? under 7 seconds? over 10 seconds? etc?)
2. What is the score?
3. How prepared is your team for a particular thing you’re trying to do?
4. How can you streamline what you ALREADY run into your end-of-game situations?
5. How much can you install that your team will actually be able to execute?
6. Who do you want to have the ball in their hands (either as a decision maker, playmaker, or shooter/scorer)?

All of these questions will guide you in the process of deciding what to do in different situations.

Here is what I proposed were the main areas that you need to have covered:

• Need 2 — Full Court
• Need 2 — BLOB
• Need 2 — SLOB
• Need 3 — Full Court
• Need 3 — BLOB
• Need 3 — SLOB

These are the main things you need to have in your arsenal.

Once you have those main situations down, you can start to branch out into more specific situations.

It doesn’t matter if you use a set play or call that your team already runs consistently or if you want to install a few special sets — that’s your call as a coach.

Personally, if I can find ways for my players to run a set they’re already familiar with, that’s what I’m going with.

Another thought would be to run a set you’ve run over the course of the game, but throw in a wrinkle:

• instead of rolling, slip
• instead of using the ball screen, reject it
• instead of coming to the ball go backdoor
• etc, etc, etc

Make the defense pay for being prepared or guarding you a certain way all game.

Here are a few other special situations to consider:

• What do you do up by 3 and when the other team has the ball? Foul? Let it ride?
• What do you run when the other team scores and you have no timeouts left? What do you run when you get the rebound with no timeouts left?
• What do you run when you need to intentionally miss a free throw? Do you have an actual plan?
• What do you want your team to run when it’s time to play “catch up”?
• What do you run when you’re up by 2 late? What do you run when you’re up by 3 late?
• What do you run when you’re up 4+ points as a delay game situation?
• What do you run when the shot clock is winding down and your earlier offensive attempts didn’t work?

Obviously, there are endless combinations of things that could happen in an end-of-game or late clock situation.

Your job as a coach is to make sure your team is as prepared as possible for these situations.

I’ve created a Google Sheet to help you get organized — feel free to click it, make a copy, and change it how you see fit.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog