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Looking for some gamewinning wrinkles?

For most of us, the most important games of the season are around the corner.

That’s also the moment where little wrinkles and surprises to your playbook can make the difference.

Therefore, I’m sending you 5 of the best quickhitters I’ve picked up in European basketball over the past few months.

WARNING! Don’t expect any rocket science or long new plays you need to implement from scratch…

I’m talking about simple concepts which can be an addition or wrinkle to existing plays in your playbook.

Some of them can be a gamewinning wrinkle coming out of a time-out.

If you like this kind of content, make sure to give me a follow on Twitter and YouTube, where I share more frequently X’s and O’s concepts than what I publish through my newsletter.

1. End-of-quarter play

In this end-of-quarter play, Coach Ponsarnau combines a ram screen with a ghost screen. looking for the easy triangle results into a wide open lay-up.

… Or a skip pass for an open shot when the weakside defender is helping.

          Zaragoza (Spanish ACB League), Coach Jaume Ponsarnau

2. Quickhitter against a 2-3 zone

This quickhitter against a 2-3 zone defense has all the classic ingredients, but can be very effective!  It creates an overload and the purpose is to get the ball to the highpost.  Having bigs that can pass and seal off is key!

          Belgium NT women, Coach Valérie Demory

3. Start your HORNS dynamically!

Most of my followers know that I’m a big fan of horns sets. Mainly due to its excellent initial spacing. The biggest pitfall in running HORNS 🤘 is being to static. A dynamic start is key.

There are several options for doing so. I really like the one where the 2 bigs set screens for a double Iverson cut and then move up to go and set the Horns 🤘 screens. Not screen the spots, but to go and sandwich the defender of the ball.

          AS Monaco (Euroleague), Coach Sasha Obradovic

4. Add an extra sauce to your Horns!

Are you running a lot of HORNS 🤘 plays? Don’t forget to add wrinkles!

Valencia Basket shows the most simple way to add a Spain Pick-and-Roll, which gives a whole new dimension to your horns set.

          Valencia Basket (Spanish ACB League), Coach Joan Peñarroya

5. Use the Spain PNR to open up your shooter

Any Spain PNR action can be turned into a flair screen for a shooter.  Beautiful example by Tenerife where the backside of the Spain PNR is cleared to prevent any help on Doornekamp coming off the flair screen.

          Lenovo Tenerife (Spanish ACB League), Coach Txus Vidorreta

As always, your feedback matters to me!  Let me know how these concepts work out for you!

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