Decisions, Decisions: Mavs video coordinator breaks down basketball’s “if, then” riddles

New Dallas Mavericks assistant video coordinator Tevin Juwan Brown breaks down the practice drills that build the knack for instantaneous decision-making that developing players need.

When played correctly, team basketball is a cascading tree of branching if/then decisions. It’s a test atop the painted hardwood, with each correct answer unlocking the next situational challenge. When we’re watching the best of the best do it, those moments when we turn, look at our buddy and say, “damn, what a play,” are the result of three or four correct answers to those if/then situations being made in a row, pure individual athletic brilliance aside.

Is the defense you’re running your pick-and-roll action against hedging, blitzing or dropping? Is the wing defender sagging a little, or is he overplaying the passing lanes? How quickly is the double-team coming at you? Does it give you enough time to split the defenders to gain an advantage, or do you need to get rid of the ball as soon as possible?

Tevin Juwan Brown is the Dallas Mavericks’ new assistant video coordinator as of this offseason. The team hired him this June. Brown joined instructional coach and former Marquette point guard Tony Miller on his “Quick Timeout” podcast on Tuesday, where the two examined some recent Texas Legends and Mavericks Summer League practice clips that provide a window into the coaching techniques that can equip players, ranging from youth camps to the NBA level, with the best decision-making tools as the variables on the court shift and shift again. Both of these guys are great follows for this kind of instructional content if you’re looking to learn more about the intricacies of the game.

Brown gives us a look at different drills that enable players to keep their offensive game structured, even in free-flowing situations where specific sets aren’t being called, and how one drill sets players up for the next, building skills that layer on top of one another to provide both sound individual play as well as winning team concepts.

These practice sets are as useful in teaching young players the game as they are in solidifying the instantaneous problem-solving that elite-level players must possess in an array of in-game situations. Whether you’re a coach or you just want to be able to better recognize the correct response to what the opposing defense presents when you’re watching Mavs games, this video and videos like it are really eye-opening, especially in the dog days of the NBA offseason when there’s little, if anything, to watch to scratch that basketball itch. It’s fascinating stuff.

It all starts with the straight-forward “Active Off-Hand” drill, which helps ball-handlers deal with the first bump an aggressive defender will offer. Brown uses a heavy ball for this drill, ideal for young incoming players graduating from one level of play to the next. Building off of that, the “One-Bounce Finish” drill allows for more situational creativity, because a ball-handler never knows what kind of finishing situation they’re going to find themselves in on any given drive to the bucket. You can easily follow along from drill-to-drill in the video below according to the list of drills on the right side of the screen, and as you watch, it becomes obvious how the skill honed in one drill is foundational for the next few.

The “1-on-1 Advantage Finish” drill familiarizes players with different dribble cadences and builds the skill of disrupting their 1-on-1 defender’s timing and controlling the driving lane on the way to basket. Problem solving in tight spaces is the name of the game. Later in the video, Brown shows how changing the defender’s size and position allows the ball-handler to see how switches can affect the reads he’s faced with.

After a few minutes of various 1-on-1 finishing drills, Brown adds cuts into the mix for more game-like prep. Players must read the top defender, cut and immediately get their eyes up and read the next oncoming defender from underneath. Then he adds multiple shots off of that action that mimic in-game scenarios.

“Cutting is such a huge part of the game that I think it helps with the off-ball and reading their defender to get open, rather than just the old V-cut and just start the drill,” Miller says at one point. “Incorporating scoring off the cut into the drill provides those real in-game scenarios in a better way.”

Especially when you’re dealing with high-level shooters, trying to find ways to confront them with numbers games or timed shooting, gets their competitive edge rolling.

Next comes a set of dribble-hand-off drills, and, again, one drill builds into the next. First, there’s a simple finish off the DHO.

“When we’re going right, everything has to be a right handed finish,” Brown says. “Maintain the advantage by hitting the corner with speed.” It’s all about “making clean handoffs, receiving clean handoffs” and committing those basics to muscle memory.

Two-on-two DHO drills add another read that the offensive player has to make. Read the strong-side defender and choose best action, whether that’s finishing at the rim or kicking out for a corner 3-pointer. Passing then triggers the concept of re-spacing. If the pass recipient drives, spacing again becomes key to deciding which action to take.

“This is completely live,” Brown says. “They’re just playing basketball. It all happens naturally once they’re placed in the situation.”

Moving to the four-on-four version of this drill allows different positions to learn decision making on different parts of the floor. Bigs gain an understanding of how guards think. They better understand decision-making from the perimeter.

At this point, the practice is fully simulating the in-game if/then decision tree.

That if, then tree is central to the pick-and-roll, of course, the offensive action baked into nearly every NBA team’s offensive sets in one form or another. Brown and Miller go from 2-on-2 situations, which condition bigs to set multiple picks per play and educate offensive players’ feet and minds to make clean moves and clean decisions. They work up to 3-on-3 small-sided games that work as eight-second offensive possessions. All the skills built in the previous drills flow into these more game-like sessions so players can use the foundational tools from before as they face that cascading list of if, then’s in a real game.

So, the next time you see whatever point guard the Mavs choose to open the season with blow an obvious opportunity in the pick-and-roll game, you’ll know just which drill they’ll need to work on to correct it for the next game. Or, start offering the pointers Brown and Miller go over in this video to your pick-up game crew to elevate yourself to player-coach status.