Explain to me what offense

Which generally results in him having to deal with 2 defenders instead of 1. Our screeners are no threat to roll and score even though they are generally open. This happens so often and it only seems to serve to further impede us from gettiing into ourt offense when the ball handler is trying to deal with a double team at the top of a set. I’m not saying its bad strategy but the execution is typically poor so I dont know why we stick with it.

This is a quote from Turgeon talking about his new offense at Texas A & M. I think he basically adapts to his personnel.

At MD, I think that basically means a bunch of screen and rolls to the basket. The forwards set high screens which will give the guards the freedom to shoot jumpers or take the ball to the basket. It also gives our big men an opportunity to use their quickness against other larger big men. I think we stick with it because it’s relatively simple to execute and, when executed fairly decently, is tough for the other team to defend. MD’s offense hasn’t necessarily been bogged down by “bad looks,” but an inability to put the ball in the basket. That’s all. This sort of offense is also easier to impement when you don’t have any (or only a few) point guards on the team.

I think he’s also tried to just throw it into our bigs, but that depends on the other team. If they have a size advantage, then he tends to rely on the high screens. If we have the size advantage, then he tries to dump it down to our bigs. So, it depends.

Can you talk about your offensive and defensive philosophies?

TURGEON: “Well I just spoke to the players. Last year I was in Hawaii with Coach Gillispie and we started talking and we like the same players, we recruit the same players. Obviously recruiting at Texas A&M went to a new level this year so we didn’t bump heads as much but we like the same players. We also both have the same philosophy defensively. We get after it man to man defensively. We will probably, this is a word I don’t like to use but, sprinkle in a zone, not very often and we will press some. Looking at the guys and watching them on T.V. I think we will be able to do that. The Carolina, Kansas background, better be careful using Kansas now, is trapping and doing different things, and I told the guys we will do different things. I was lucky enough to work for some great coaches. Does that make me a great coach, no. I had to go out and work hard and try to make myself a better coach. I adapt to my team. I am not an expert on this team yet. I know a lot of them, saw them play in high school. Offensively we will do whatever is best for this team. If it’s throw the ball to Joe Jones 25 times a game then we will do that. If it’s Dominique (Kirk) or somebody else then we will do that but we will figure it out. I told the guys we’re going to follow the same motto you’ve had here for the last few years. We are going to play hard, play smart and play together. If you do those three things you are going to be pretty good and you just try to get better every day. Our team will evolve and we will get better as the season goes on. That is a very special group of young men over there and I look forward to coaching them.”

I remember reading a little about it, but the more the season goes on I’m noticing very little movement off the ball. Other than one-dimensional high screens and a handful of individual plays aimed to get Len/Padgett a touch at times (wish we did more of that, btw), what are we doing?

I remember reading somewhere that a motion offense involves, well, motion, and differs based on where the players are initially positioned on the court. Is it a case of coach only teaching them one set for now in an effort to keep the players from getting too confused? I know he said that Len benefited from simplified drills with fewer options, so I could see that happening on the larger scale as well. Still, you’d think that anyone who’s ever played the game could handle a screen/pick and roll. Hopefully we’ll see the offense get progressively more complex over Turge’s first few seasons as he gets his players in and they learn the system.

our offense right now just consists of a series of ball screens and weak side screens. We don’t have any good spot up shooters except Stoglin, on the rare occasion that he is finishing a play. And we don’t have any back-to-the-basket post players who can score off that action.

The one thing I would like to see more of is Len setting the ball screen for Stoglin. It looks like Len can hit a 15 footer (unlike Pankey, Padgett or Weijs) so that would keep defenses honest on Stoglin. What you really need for that to work, though, is a spot up shooter for Len to then swing the ball to …. Mosley? Maybe, but he is no Eric Hayes or Mike Jones.

We have very limited options this year no matter how you slice it.

Come to think of it, that has been one of the bigger dissapointments this year. Faust has been up and down, but on the whole I have liked what he has given us, better on defense that I thought and has more ups than I thought. I thought we were getting a pure shooter, though, and clearly not.

Can a program that would average 10 points fewer per game than Duke/Carolina be successful in the ACC? Can a fewer possessions lower score philosophy work in the ACC?

pretty sure having a 6’ foot shooting non-point point guard is creating some issues. there are deficiencies with the MD roster. no player is ever perfect, but the flaws of each player on the team stand out. there is never a complete package on the floor. that’s making finding an identity difficult.

flaws for example:
pankey is a capable scorer. moreso than padgett, but his youth, inexperience and sometimes immaturity do not make him an automatic go-to weapon on the blocks. padgett’s inconsistency and poor defense make playing him for stretches a problem. faust is athletic and aggressive, but doesn’t have the outside shot and causes teams to sag into the paint and kill the low post game. Len is talented, but not suited or comfortable playing an aggressive offensive-minded center. parker can score, but his approach and attitude make giving him the ball and green light to shoot a bit less enticing. and so on and so on.

that’s part of the situation that turgeon has to deal with.
but the biggest issue is that motion offense is built for penetration. one of the primary points for a motion offense is to swing the ball around the perimeter, measuring the defense, forcing it to become unbalanced, and then attacking it when there’s an opening. unfortunately, stoglin shoots a lot from the perimeter. he goes solo a lot and kills the entire offense. —and the team doesn’t have a wave of great long range shooters. so basically it all gets wasted.

there are multiple sets/styles of motion offense, but the one turgeon is running has his bigs going from post to post as the ball swings around. the ball is dumped in if there is an opportunity. but primarily it is built to throw the defense off balance to allow dribble penetration. the only players who consistently want to go to the hole (at least right now) are parker and faust. when you have athletic guys it can work really well. if stoglin picked his shots better on days that he was off, meaning allowing faust to go inside (or parker whenever he sees court time) it would open up things for him a lot more. having a capable big also opens it up for the perimeter. the main point of its success comes from having a big who can get inside and draw a double team, then feed off the defenses overcompensation. its hard to stop a driving slasher without fouling him. and at the rate MD gets to the line already they could be a few wins fatter if they got it all together.