The NBA team NOT running pick & rolls (!)

What's the unique play style behind this year's biggest turnaround? This detailed film breakdown & scouting report breaks down the Memphis Grizzlies "weird" offense that's inspired by a Division 3 college and has their offense much improved from 2 seasons ago.
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#ThinkingBasketball

[@moose4ku440]

Love when pro teams take a weird concept from lower levels and use it with the best athletes in the world

[@michael_c2]

Yeah it reminds me of like the 2010 era Patriots. They were running a lot of the Chip Kelly type offense I suppose you could say the same thing about the 1990 bills

[@miguelhernandez1407]

Reminds me of the Raptors busting out the box and 1 defensive scheme in the finals.

[@johnykilroy5521]

Nothing about this is weird. This is typical plays. Simple drive, cut, and spacing. College and high school. This is pretty much how you play when you didn't have plays

[@yujipuada8537]

One of their new assistant coaches is Tuomas Iisalo, who has been revolutionizing basketball in Europe for the past 2 years. His teams play one of the fastest, if not the fastest, paces in Europe. You can clearly see his influence, such as when they immediately get down to offense even after made baskets by the opponent, making it harder for the opponent to set up the defense. Such an interesting team indeed, I can't wait to see how it does in the playoffs when rotations get shorter and defenses get tighter. :)

[@bohanxu6125]

While I like teams are being creative in coming up with new offensive scheme. The issue is that such gimmick offense that works well in regular season when teams are not prepare, might not work that well in playoff where the opponenet has time to adapt to the gimmick offense. Warrior's constant off ball screen is in some sense unavoidable. You can see the screen coming and still get caught by the screen easily. A simple pick and roll always work to some degree. Simply because it is forced upon the defense. In contrast, this screenless rotation offense from grizzly seems like something that causes confusion but is fundamentally counterable. The defenders can essentially move around freely (unlikely against screen). As long as the defender know where to move, the defense might be easily countered. The reason it works right now in the regular season, might be that defenders are simply confused... if they adapt in post season, the offense might just not work at all.

[@Jakotina]

This feels like soccer(football) concepts of finding space and occupying it and players without the ball finds new space to pull other players way from the ball.

[@greenlight5921]

LOL. I was thinking the exact same thing as I watched this.

[@4xpbroyalderp295]

Total football?

[@patrickharmford]

@@4xpbroyalderp295 yes, more specifically positional play or juego de posición

[@nevilleachero8054]

@@patrickharmford It's so interesting. Basketball using football's positional play philosophy, and football (more specifically, Arsenal) sets basketball screens to get open on corner kicks.

[@nhloniphogamedze4661]

​@@nevilleachero8054 bro it's beautiful

[@thehippieboy6927]

Man I love this game. Every year we get some new, weird, wonky concepts. The Celtics and their 3 pt volume, basically everything OKC is doing, obviously Golden State, the inception and rise of the Point Center because of Jokic, whatever the hell that zone is they run in Miami, and now this. I remember when small ball was all the craze, now we're not running screens??? Such a beautiful game with seemingly infinite possibilities

[@mamadoubarrie6607]

Like I OKC’s defense is insane run jdub at center

[@maartenvz]

Meanwhile media members who have no clue are stating "everybody is running the same stuff!", "the game is ruined, it's best when athletic players are meeting each other at the rim" (meanwhile, dunks per game have increased significantly). Yeah I know, those media members might not be as dumb as they sound and just want to say controversial/negative stuff to get more attention, but we should keep calling them out on that.

[@BeerAndJointsAllDay]

​@@maartenvz You calling us "as dumb as they sound" while making and idiotic statement like that is so ironic " *the game is ruined, it's best when athletic players are meeting each other at the rim" (meanwhile, dunks per game have increased significantly* " YOU DONT SAY! Its like one of them leads to the other or something. NOBODY contesting ANY dunk attempts at the rim = A barrage of boring uncontested dunks!😂 Funny thing you say WE are the ones saying uhh "controversial" stuff to get attention...like "guys this is BASKETball, not LongShotball right? Go to the basket! Show some actual skills 1v1! Show mid range game! People like you claim today's players are better than ever, I have yet to see them PROVE IT!" is that what you youngins call a "controversial" take? Sheesh man... We literally just want to watch the game we grew up with, this crap we have today is some totally different and INSANELY BORING game! How am I so sure about it? I still watch ALL 2600 games every season and YOU are out here telling ME that all teams are NOT playing the exact same way...bet you don't even watch highlights from every game🤣

[@professionalcurrysexual]

@@BeerAndJointsAllDayyou don’t understand the games and it’s ok

[@One.Zero.One101]

Kobe once called pick & roll basketball as "Accidental Offense". He prefers system offense and as I fan I also prefer watching system offense. The ball movement and player movement is more beautiful to watch.

[@freydayath]

i can’t lie this makes so much sense when i was watching the celtics game. because memphis just kept getting open shots and im screaming wondering how it kept happening. i don’t know how far they go but inventing or returning to something so often used in the past is so exciting. the dray interview was a perfect explanation of its effectiveness

[@mikaeki5245]

That's the magic 1st year main assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo brought to the Grizzlies offence, which he is responsible.

[@j-us-t_be-in-g]

You didn't know what you were looking for. Those with experienced eyes sees it better.

[@roboticvenom1935]

@@mikaeki5245 isalo ran many screens when he was in paris though?? Doesn't make a ton of sense- I think it's more to do with the D3 coach

[@M3L203CT]

Brings me back to highschool basketball

[@bennettslavin3975]

The quick thinking and balanced ball handling is insanely impressive from such a young and diverse team

[@cwj_721]

we're finally witnessing the shift in youth development brought to the nba. everybody on this team knows how to dribble and attack a closeout.

[@ceejordan9649]

​@@cwj_721that's what makes it so hard to stop and the exact reason it will work in the playoffs. The movement and ability to attack a closeout is getting them wide open looks to guys that can hit open shots. On top of that they still can hit u with a change up when they go Ja/Edey which is a nightmare for halfcourt defense.

[@cubsfan224]

This may be "weird offense" in basketball, but it's very similar to how good hockey teams move on offense. There's even a line in the movie "Miracle" where the coach, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russel) directly addresses this aspect of the Soviet offensive strategy. I couldn't find the exact quote, but he says something like "they're constantly looking for an open patch of ice". Exactly what Memphis is doing this season.

[@joefarrell7048]

Interestingly i thought it looked a lot like soccer! very cool tho!

[@tako4mvp719]

Their coach actually studied hockey to help improve their offense too

[@aksjdfkhvuci]

@@joefarrell7048 yes reminds me of pep's positional play

[@КуанышКудабай]

New assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo is from Finland, where hockey is the most popular sport.

[@johnykilroy5521]

This isn't weird. It's typical

[@letanefonoti3]

The Grizzlies play exactly like a 5 good players playing pickup together. When all 5 can shoot, dribble, pass, and cut they turn into this lol. No one screens but nice cuts, drives, and shots get the job done

[@dedrickhill2238]

That’s what I was thinking too! I’m not sure if this is that weird or NBA teams really like to copy one another so it feel like it came out of nowhere. I’m not an NBA player, or coach for that matter, but this is a really simple concept (or so it seems) - something you might see in a good pickup game.

[@peytonlamb3187]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@dedrickhill2238i think that the problem is most teams do not have personnel that can do everything most at least have a few players who are poor shooters or cant handle the ball (both of those are usually Bigs) or can't dunk / finish well (guards)

[@AfricanH3ro]

I'm glad someone said it exactly what I was thinking

[@mgl2708]

​@@peytonlamb3187 Yeah, Grizzlies lineup is perfect for it since every position needs to be able to do everything. Celtics wouldn't be able to run this efficiently because they lack a center that does everything while being mobile / agile.

[@jsnrpater]

I saw player screens several times in the first few possessions of the video.

[@conlan1015]

They have a new assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo (Former Paris Basketball Coach) that probably influenced their offense

[@Desi365]

Crazy Ben missed the whole Paris basketball and Lisalo story, here

[@IdkMaybeShawn]

I think the halfcourt movement really is influenced more by the D3 coach than Lisalo

[@jounikananen]

Folks it's Iisalo with double I, not Lisalo, thanks

[@2plus2thats4]

The comment I was waiting for. Iisalo has been doing his thing throughout Europe for the last few years, the German EuroLeague bubble is practically worshipping him at this point...

[@xavierjohnson4496]

I thought tuamas was the one to credit but Ben says the other guy. Makes me wonder who's the driving force of who brought this here. Seems awfully European to me

[@betterbasketball]

It's the READ & REACT OFFENSE by Rick Torbett released publicly in 2008. It has taken 16 years to make its way into the NBA. Glad to see it! Especially Layer 4 CIRCLE MOVEMENT!

[@kevinhenryjr6355]

I was thinking that too . Great eye

[@UnsungVillain]

Why someone had to die first before his concept came to adoption? Sounds like Jimi Hendrix type shit

[@kwokfaing4370]

You beat me to it. I was thinking, what's so odd about it. That's the Read and React. The constant filling of the spot one pass away, the circular movements on the parameter triggered by the driver.

[@UnsungVillain]

@@kwokfaing4370 So this type of play didn't work back then I guess?

[@subzero-ku2wx]

​@@UnsungVillainthe concept of an airplane wing was alive and well long before it was actually made viable.

[@BuzzworthyBand]

Who knew Read and React Level 1: Circle Movement was so revolutionary? It is literally the most basic offense that can be implemented. This is the same offense my daughter's 1st & 2nd team runs. Neat to see it with NBA athletes.

[@Watermelon_Man]

I’m not sure what the name for this concept is, or if there even is one, but it’s the jarring nature of its simplicity compared to the complex but repetitive offenses that every other team runs. The simple nature of doing something different when most teams are on autopilot for nights on end is enough to catch people off guard.

[@David-iv6je]

But with the length and speed of NBA defenders you need a minimum of 4 3-pt shooters on the floor to do this. It wasn't possible even 10 years ago. Plus at least 4 of these guys need to be able to drive and kick reasonably well: also not that common. So this won't work for some rosters. Also note this is why Ja wants to assist more this year plus dunk less: he has open shooters with higher percentage shots while also reducing his chance of injury. I'm impressed. Now let's see how far the can go with it.

[@maartenvz]

I see you are a man of culture as well! Rick Torbett had great instruction videos on this on KZbin over 15 years ago.

[@habaconia]

Like if you bought a bunch of DVDs from Rick Torbett

[@guhsuckyamudda586]

It’s also the same offense I’ve seen on the playground for the past 20 years, and im 100% sure that ppl who’ve been playing longer than me will say the same n more.

[@omeralikhan5697]

I'm glad you brought up Vance Wahlberg's dribble drive offense because that's exactly what this is. Wahlberg was an assistant coach with George Karl on the Kings and was a big part in when Boogie started attacking off the dribble on the perimeter vs always posting up. The dribble drive offense has the same spacing rules you're discussing here, which are designed to open driving lanes as wide as possible. Really great to see it make a comeback

[@Matkatamiba]

It's like a zone offense. Even once defenses figure out what to do about this, it'd be such whiplash if a team could swap back and forth between this and P&R

[@cwj_721]

thats a great point. this system requires a lot of capable drivers and high awareness of positioning. im sure those skills could easily translate into running an effective pnr offense. ill say once the game slows down in crunch time memphis will go more into pnr with ja just to get a guaranteed easy shot.

[@patlokmusic]

was just thinking couldnt a matchup zone handle this

[@jonathanchan1365]

that assistant is now a head coach for next season lol

[@johnreyes4198]

Is the coach daniel he mentions the youtuber Coach Daniel? I heard he got a NBA job.

[@Quince477]

​@@johnreyes4198It was coach Daniel I remembered that video while watching this. Dope to hear he got a job in the NBA

[@BULLSHITSUPREME]

@@Quince477 dope

[@theking-ss]

​@@Quince477 coach Daniel had a job with the Dallas Maverick a couple years ago. I'm pretty sure he doesn't work in the NBA anymore

[@mikaeki5245]

Not coach daniel, but Assistant Coach Tuomas Iisalo, who is responsible for this offence.

[@toston2093]

Appreciate the full video with complete thoughts and observations without the need to pay for membership.

[@Iggy1378]

Looks a whole like the 5 Out (Rick Torbett) offensive concept.. particularly the circle movement on drive off-ball repositioning.

[@flashover52]

Except there are times when the ball handler drives to the basket which should trigger a push-pull for those outside the arc but they all stand still. Perhaps with their skill, size, speed, they figured it wasn't necessary but rather just let the ball handler do his thing.

[@maartenvz]

@@flashover52 Haha good catch, Scottie Pippen Jr in that first clip is a perfect example of someone who's not automatic yet.

[@maartenvz]

I see you are a man of culture as well. This is definitely circle movement and I'm surprised both Ben and Draymond don't recognize it.

[@betterbasketball]

Thanks for the recognition! It's the READ & REACT OFFENSE Layer 4 Dribble Penetration CIRCLE MOVEMENT right down to Baseline Drive Reactions. Glad to see it in the NBA levels. You can see it when you watch the Lady Hawkeyes of Iowa as well.

[@Swoldridge]

Shout-out Coach Daniel. The whole explanation I kept thinking that it sounds like his video about St. Joseph and then sure enough you show a clip from his video. Amazing work.

[@back2back379]

Love it. Team ball, everyone gets to be active and have opportunities to do something other than just stand around.

[@TolbertOwusu-w5v]

Another wonderful and insightful content from Ben Taylor the goat basketball purist

[@djdrake111]

This is basically Random Rec offense in NBA 2K 😂 in a good way

[@damonlaw8218]

Definitely tho just not the selfishness of missing the open pass with my center 20 and 15 easy with a random rec team like this

[@jordanbaker8215]

I had my high schoolers run this offense. It forces them to read and react. It forces defenses to play defense and not switch. I found when my players understood the simple pass cut or screen away concepts they saw the game better than just passing and setting a lazy ball screen. It’s hard to guard and gives players a lot of freedom to attack and move on offense. This was our continuation offense and then we built a few plays and offensive concepts out of it to give us a little more looks.

[@NihilisticRider09837]

I tried to do this with my kids as well, whilst they can understand it in practice, sometimes, letting everybody move in unison especially in the games is tough coz they don't have the concept yet. It's like sleight of hands, taking away the attentions and let the offender have much more freedom to either drive, or pass to someone who's got into an empty spot.

[@phothewin6019]

I like to run 7 Triangles or Less Offense for my high school team. Not much room for pick and rolls with these schemes. Gets the job done though.

[@cwj_721]

love the notte pfp RIP dragalia lost

[@benjihuynh2970]

Any rhombuses included in that scheme? Having fewer than 7 triangles can be limiting

[@IdkMaybeShawn]

Rhombus is not strict enough, you needed a parallelogram

[@benjihuynh2970]

@@IdkMaybeShawn WE MADE IT TO THE GODDAMN STATE CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNING RHOMBUSES, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE

[@phothewin6019]

@@benjihuynh2970 The issue with that is that teams start throwing the Triangle Defense and Princeton Defense against us. 7 Triangles or Less is the best compromise we can make.

[@Tomi2times]

Circle Movement being talked about as revolutionary is so interesting to me. I guess it's just way more common in highschool/college, so it's an anomaly in the NBA

[@cwj_721]

i thought this at first too, but it makes sense when you think about it. nba teams are the highest level of basketball on the planet, their goal is to play as efficiently as possible. theres only one ball, so it's intuitive to want your best player to have it as much as possible and let them create the best shot with support from role players. with a team like memphis who has developed the skills necessary for everybody to play well with the ball in their hands then it opens up the idea of playing this extreme "your turn my turn" style based off everybody being able to create an advantage and that compounding upon itself. the talent gap within most nba teams is like st vincent st mary with lebron in 2002. but if you have the deepest team in the league with the bench playing heavy minutes like memphis, it starts looking more like a high school team in terms of the talent gaps between players. and then you get to test out high school ideas. all comes back to personnel

[@ny3793]

It’s actually not “mover blocker” or basic circle movement. It’s actually a little more complicated than the video leads on. Coach Daniel does a good breakdown of the basics of the assistant coach they stole some of the concepts from.

[@maartenvz]

I'm just so glad to finally see this in the NBA. In the first clip you see Scottie Pippen Jr forgets to move and this is something you see in so many games. Players just standing still and watching the ball.

[@CadChamberlain]

Screens and hand offs was the main motor of the Bill Russell Celtics offense. Not too many traditional pick and rolls, but tons of picks and motion to get shot opportunities for their shooters like Sam Jones and Havlicek. Its the pre-spacing version of this concept. If you stretched out those 20 foot moving jumpers off of motion from those days to a 28 foot 3 ball, you get this movement-heavy flowing offense.

[@bytbeats9591]

This is old school basketball they’re basically just running rotation drills but game planning around that drive rotate and read the degense to create space. Extremely basic yet takes a genius to create an entire offense off of this. Please make more videos like this this is a great breakdown

[@dornshammer]

When I was playing HS lacrosse this was part of our offense and many of the teams we played against so kind of cool to see here

[@The-BCM]

Watching this I immediately thought of that Coach Daniel video, so it was amazing when we got the assistant coach reveal.

[@cl5rys]

yk I’m noticing their offense looks like volleyball 😂 spot on when you really think about it

[@lemonwater8479]

Low-key it's similar ain't think about it dat way

[@hardyvonhardy7384]

This is the content that I love seeing on here! I got hooked last season with all the info about what/why the Celtics were doing. This is really great stuff. You make it so easy for the viewer to understand the game. High concepts made easy. I coached 7 years of basketball and wish these videos were coming out then!! I would have had all my kids watching! Keep up the great work!

[@quaintninja6057]

I'm so glad you've gotten attention from the NBA to create content. You're literally the reason I started getting into the league. Thank you!!

[@RockHawley]

Awesome full length video!! 🥳🥳

[@David-iv6je]

With the length and speed of NBA defenders you need a minimum of four 3-pt shooters on the floor to do this. It wasn't possible even 10 years ago. Plus at least four of these guys need to be able to drive and kick reasonably well: also not that common. So this won't work for some rosters. Also note this is why Ja wants to assist more this year plus dunk less: he has open shooters with higher percentage shots while also reducing his chance of injury. I'm impressed. Now let's see how far they can go with it.

What intrigues me the most about sports is not only the emotion and passion, but the innovation that comes every now and then. This looks like a very fresh concept, and I'd love to see how the league responds to this breakthrough!

[@icrashout]

I love how weird Memphis's offense is, it gets everyone involved and doesn't make them predictable

[@ReCharredSigh]

The basic concept of this offense kinda makes sense; if you drive towards another defender and your teammate guarded by him cuts away, it puts more distance between the two of you and makes it harder for the defender to help on you without leaving his matchup even more open. And when all 4 offball teammates are doing that, cutting away from one teammate towards another, it puts a lot of pressure on the team defense to keep track of everyone.

[@FarFlungHeel]

You know you’re old when the revolutionary new offense is what you ran in high school 40+ years ago. That offense is what we ran against M2M defense in the 1970’s, using Dean Smith’s UNC system. But that was a pre-3 point shot, and pre position-less players era, so the movement principles were slightly modified to have one set of rules for 1-3 and another set for 4-5, but those rules interacted and operated to produce the same everyone in motion and floor spreading motion offense. And we NEVER set ball screens, only off-ball screens.

[@QED_]

props

[@pboogity8309]

This is what I was thinking. This isn’t revolutionary, we’re just getting classic concepts with modern principles (like you described). I never understood not setting ball screens tho. They been creating simple buckets for 100 years.

[@QED_]

@@pboogity8309 "We’re just getting classic concepts with modern principles and players with futuristic versatility . . ."

[@pboogity8309]

@ big facts. Huge facts.

[@Num21343]

Wow that really explains why Yuki was passing so well in the summer league. A great passer combined with players repositioned to available spots on the floor!

[@SteeveyKneevey]

As a grizzlies fan. I love to see people talking ab how good the offense is. Just wait until we get Edey, GG Jackson, & Vince Williams back

[@HandballNinja]

Reminds me of Rick Torbett’s Circular Movement Concept in his “Read and React” Offensive Philosophy

[@roysalvador2126]

This is the triangle offense with 5 out zone influence/principles. You drew a couple of triangles inbetween the players and you showed how Ja got a few Jordan-esque right shoulder fadeaway. This is 90’s basketball with a big.

[@camiloaalmendralesa8509]

I see that you made some changes in the membership model, Ben. Thank you for having an open ear/mind and listening to some of the feedback given in here!

[@pagman2356]

Must be cathartic for Noah to see his scheme being ran by NBA pros instead of D3 players (and it working GREAT)

[@davydignatenko8651]

WOW! I remember this video about school team and this strange offence, cool to see to their Coach make his debut to NBA, that bust Memphis record to the moon. So Cool!

[@IzuEneh]

Watching this is so surreal I literally watched that Coach daniel video years ago and tried to implement it in my intramural team. The concepts just seemed so simple and intuitive. Crazy to think its being implemented in the NBA

[@SoloPerICommenti]

I think the success is mostly coming by the fact they are surprising the opponents. I am not sure such a system creates more advantages than a ball screen based one. But there are some ideas that could be borrowed, though

[@BBall0027]

12:16 Keep in mind, the only bigger offensive improvement was when the Nuggets drafted Melo

[@pjm7879]

Thank you for this. I love this offense and your analysis. Looks like the offense from the 70s and early 80s that so many high school teams ran, the twist being an adjustment to create open look 3s (which we didn't have back then).

[@M.F.Gamesta]

Toumas Lisalo is the brains behind the Grizzlies offense. Look at his euro league work.

[@shane3858]

It's an adapted "wheel action" offense (don't recall if you said the specific name of it but maybe you did and I missed it). It's very close to Tuomas Isalo's offense that he ran in Europe that made him basically the best coach on that continent. I'm sure it has similarities to (Noah) LaRoche's style, but from what I've seen it's nearly a copy-and-paste of Isalo's previous offense. St. Andrews was hired as an asst. last year to supposedly improve the Grizzlies half court offense, but this year's is totally different, so I doubt it's coming from him. This seems to be mostly from Isalo's bag, but LaRoche being in charge of Player Dev likely has helped tremendously given his talent for adapting players to a similar style.

[@gaudupont]

That is exactly the way we played basketball in Belgium in the 90's at school : find space or open space for others, depending if your direct opponent follows you or not. I recognise three typical schemes that we've learned on this video: (1) the large circle movement of the 5 players, (2) the baseline position swapping and (3) the counterattack : the two big guys running along the lines to attract the two forward opponents outside of the key, generally opening the center for the point guard. If one of the two was too slow, the point guard deviated his race to his side, opening space for others in the middle. We had a lot of rules like that, which are very easy to implement during a game. We called it "écarter la défense" in French, "spread the defence". This strategy also creates a lot of 1v1 situations. But the difficulty is that players have to move all the time, which is more tiring. And fast counterattack was also a key element, not to give time to the opponent to find their place. And because they are spread, they cannot swap their position. Often, it was not my direct opponent who found himself in the position to defend against me. I was tall (according to Belgium standards 🙂). Quite often I just had to go to the rim, receive the ball, no dribble and directly put the ball into the basket over a small guy. Easy, anybody who was tall could do that. I barely dribbled at that time, but ran a lot on the court. Training therefore focused on physical conditions. Our trainer insisted on this and we generally won the games in the last 10 minutes, our opponent being too tired and not able following us turning around or swapping positions all the time. Very good video, thank you.

[@billyy]

Love seeing metagame developments like this that are funky but work. Pick-and-roll doesn't seem to slice up defenses that much anymore? Let's do some weird magnetic movement to generate space. Will be interesting to see how this develops across the season.

[@maxlin7208]

So "Coach Daniel" is in Memphis now? I used to follow him on YT before he was hired by the Mavs as a film room guy (coach spo's previous position) and stopped uploading videos. There were only 3 great basketball analytic type of channels, Thinking Basketball, Coach Daniel, and BBall. Now only two. well, good for him. Maybe someday we will see him being an NBA head coach.

[@TheVinzius]

I watched "Coach Daniel" YT channel before he became an NBA assistant coach. That content where there is no ball screen, I have watched it multiple times.

[@guybezant9009]

There was a clip a few years ago of a high school team running this screen-less offence and it was just open look after open look. Fantastic!

[@yoinkhaha]

They’re also currently 2nd in assists per game.

[@Flossy2K.]

I never knew this was weird, I always assumed this is what players should do without screens, move away & rotate away from the ball handler so they have space to work + it gives options for cuts & 3’s

[@GunninRebel55]

A few minutes into this I thought of the St Josephs HS vid you did a few years back so I wasn't surprised at all when u said Noah LaRoche was now an assistant with Memphis. Absolutely brilliant hire. My Blazers need this guy to replace Chauncey Billups as HC.

[@OpAD24]

Great video Ben. Keep up the great work!! So fun to see offensive systems and tendencies evolve even when everyone thinks oh all NBA teams do is walk up and jack a 3

[@PrestonSpencer-y9c]

Reminds me of the 2016 Hawks, which I'm pretty sure current Griz coach Taylor Jenkins was an assistant with at the time. Produced a lot of good backdoor cuts

[@1st_team_allcincy465]

Dribble drive motion. My high school went to this in 2009. Finally making it to the big leagues

[@PensFan96]

This is the future of the league, they are a hockey team with a ball

[@OnGeauxReport]

Good breakdown! I'm loving this style of offense a lot, super fun to see anyone be a threat on any given night

[@rajaalahmar4371]

there was a D2 or D3 college doing this a few years back and it is super effective... basically when a player drives right everybody moves to their right, when a player drives left everybody moves to their left. edit: that college coach is now an assistant coach in the NBA????? DAMN

[@skip_wit_it]

Go Grizz Gang GO!!! Ja Morant it's my favorite player & in my opinion he's the most exciting player in the NBA. I didn't really notice their offense this season & their play style has went over my head😅 I did notice that they play defense, they score in the paint & that they don't overly rely on the 3pt shot but get on my nerves with it just a bit🙄 Overall, I'm glad u just broke this down cuz this is very unique read & react type of basketball making moves & taking what the defense gives u🤷🏿‍♂️🏀 Maybe next season or two, the Memphis Grizzlies may be ready to compete for a championship🏆👀

[@icanbemoore]

Love to see a deep dive into the Grizz. This team is legit. Great turnaround after a year of unprecedented injuries.

[@shiberzz]

Very interesting. would really like to see how this plays out in the playoffs, but I'm glad teams innovate and try different things other than endless screens. will definitely watch them more on League Pass thanks to this video. Thank you!

[@JoseMaloof]

This "wheel" offense was used by a HS team about 8,maybe 10 years ago. The idea is to have 5 out and they move to the direction the ball handler moves. If he dribbles right everybody transitions to their right, and one wing can cut if the defender falls asleep. I remember it was very effective and they talked about it a lot back then.

[@daviswhitlock9161]

Wouldve loved to see the Durant Kyrie nets play like this before they sent off their depth

[@creber6563]

This is the work of their new lead assistant Tuomas Iisalo.

[@thebottomofthebarrel5008]

This is one of main ways soccer has been played in Europe since the 50s. Using movement between positions to create space in defenses is very Johan Cruyff/Pep Guardiola-esque. Total Basketball anyone?

[@ericingersoll7243]

Thanks for the breakdown! Was a little distracted by the carry Bane does at 8:45 😂 and the travel by Ja at 12:54. 😂

[@shieldon530]

Holy cow hats off to this staff and these players for the buy in and discipline to resist the urge of ball screens. It’s simple : put the ball and/or players in space is the number one principal. Not creating 4v3s or 3v2s or shots from a particular spot just ethical hoops.

[@Steeban1]

lets be honest this is way more entertaining to watch than a million ball screens being set every play. these are the best athletes in the world let them play ball on their instincts

[@bogusphone8000]

Coaches are using help defense to their advantage now. They have taken the approach that if a team is going to switch / help, then they will drag that help out of position and move the ball to the open man. If we watch the last few Warriors games, you see them being severely exposed by trying to help and cover relocation offenses and drive and kick plays. They are always out of position. Offenses like these will force the return of man-on-man defense and minimize help.

[@ZioSerpe]

I am shocked how this is a revolutionary concept for the NBA. This was the basic of my Under 18 team offense back in the early 2000 in Italy, if the driver is coming to the space you're occupying get out and rest rotate. Granted bigs were not running all the way out to the 3pt line but rather long 2s, because it was the 2000s, but the concept is a very common one

[@dosquats]

WOW. This offense and this analysis. Unreal TB team.

[@johnnice7419]

12:38 Their offense is so ahead of its time that they are playing in 2025.

[@justtimes9257]

😂

[@taptiotrevizo9415]

This is the 2024-2025 NBA season

[@majripple]

He's comparing the 22-23 season vs 24-25 season

[@13thravenpurple94]

This was a delightful watch! Thank you very much for creating it! 😊

[@10rtp]

Great analysis. It seems to force a higher degree of teamwork, everyone knowing where someone likes it and which lanes to open up for them. Spacing over everything. I hope this catches on.

[@DarwinChaug]

definitely huge influence from the dribble drive offense. they have the right cast to do it. Very college bball/team influenced. It's fun to watch

[@andrewmeyers1853]

Proper spacing is the most important part of successful offense in the NBA. Fascinating video on this “spacing offense.”

[@jkizer3171]

Great job illustrating everything in this video. Super informative.

[@conanbdetective]

I remember that Coach Daniel video from ages ago. I was about to leave a comment about it had it not been referenced in this video. As long as players stay in attack mode, it can be overwhelming but they have to add a wrinkle with dribble pitches in a playoff setting like the Spurs of 10 years ago. Memphis' iso focus is because they have downhill players but a lot will hinge on JJJ and Edey come playoff time

[@ZetaCheese]

Great video, the conclusion was good and definitely made it feel like a complete video

[@cj987]

Kind of reminds me how a lot of Rec teams play on 2K, a lot of iso drives and rotating around the perimeter

[@Yo_Lo23]

Man Ben has become legit one of the best NBA KZbinrs Hope you can make a Jaren Jackson offensive vid loved the defensive one

[@PowerbangGaming]

Basically my high school offense. Kinda weird seeing it at this level.

[@davidwhite591]

Excellent breakdown 👌

[@DSj-f8h]

This is how I used to play 2k like 20 years ago. Drive to occupy a second defender, then kick and repeat till you have an open 3 or hit a cutter for a dunk. I think Don Nelson did it best with Nelly Ball in the 2000s at Golden State

[@benmcmullan2906]

Was literally thinking you should drop a video on the Grizzlies offense and then BOOM. Great vid]

[@conradyoder6897]

As soon as I saw this I was thinking of St Joseph’s. They have had a lot of success with this offense. Great video!

[@adibishara4192]

Great video, had a coach that tried to play using the dribble drive system but it didn't quite work out as well as he planned, mostly due to him being unable to explain it. And a little spite from the team that hated the system. Also SO MANY CARRY VIOLATIONS

[@isaactirrell7866]

At 5:15 that was a sweet move by Triple J...yet my man DWhite just nearly picked his pocket.....

[@jonathanlyell2149]

This offense is actually most similar to "read and react" by Rick Torbett, that's what that assistant was running and that is where the spacing concepts and cutting come from.

[@alexlook9010]

Great shit man. Keep posting.

[@Praetoriusify]

I just read an article on the Ringer about this offense and it gave no actual analysis, no video clips or even still snapshots of the offense, and I was like, wtf is this. Now it makes sense: they manufactured an article based on this breakdown and didn't even try to do the analysis themselves. The highest form of flattery!

[@nbapbaupdate8338]

NBA every year IMPROVE 💯

[@mrtardigrade3942]

t has to do with Tuomas Iisalo which was in Paris and has implemented the same offense, rebounding and deffensive habits as in Paris. Nothing to do with Noah LaRoche

[@BraelanEdwards]

This is Total Football. Interesting to see NBA Coaches taking concepts from other sports and applying it to

[@MrJSheppy16]

I feel like this is the standard men’s pickup game offence lol. If it works, it works.

[@ericniesen1775]

What's awesome to me is that they can run this stuff with their starters, or run it just as easily with Pippen Jr., Laravia, Aldama, Clarke etc. Really speaks to the coaching job Taylor Jenkins is doing, seems like there is full buy-in from the starters all the way to the bottom of the bench.

[@robintay1449]

Great video! Thanks for putting it together.