Andrej on the offensive

MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) - After Clint Steindl fired a wayward three-pointer over a hand with barely a tick off the shot clock in Game 2 of the Sino-Australia challenge, you can bet he heard about it from coach Andrej Lemanis.

"We're trying to get rid of that bullsh*t contested shot that we've settled for at times in the past," Lemanis said a few months ago as he prepared for the international season.

"We settled for a lot of jump shots, and on the international stage that can lead to a lot going against you pretty quickly."

After taking over the reins as coach, Lemanis and his support staff studied closely what has and hasn't worked for the Boomers in previous tournaments.

"We went through all our games at the Olympics and all Spain's games at the Olympics, looking at when we shot it in the shot clock, the level of contest, the level of adaptability," he said.

From that exercise, knowledge of his own players and familiarity with the style that suits Australian hoopers, Lemanis came up with a three-step guide to offensive success - Pace, Poise and Penetration.

"The pace is the first eight seconds of the shot clock, getting going and trying to shoot lay-ups," he said.

"We're putting heat on the rim and we'll take what's given to us, but it's lay-ups, it's not jacked threes or contested stuff."

He wants to capitalise on the speed and aggression Australians play with at a young age - and that European teams aren’t as comfortable with - while not sacrificing the search for good shots and subsequently gifting opponents easy baskets.

"For Australia pace is something we're good at, but we need to understand what we're going to get on the back-end of pace and what we're prepared to accept, and what we're not going to do," Lemanis said.

That's where Poise comes in.

"The poise is the next eight seconds where we do get some movement. We're still looking to score but we’re setting screens, getting some people a touch in that phase of offence where we will take open lay-ups or kick-out threes," Lemanis said.

"Once you go inside and then come outside the jump shots seem to fall a lot more often."

My column last week talked about how the disruptive Australian defence wants to make opponents use the full shot clock, and it’s the same story at the other end.

If the Boomers can push the ball quickly, then flow into movement that doesn’t allow the defence to get set, opponents will consistently have to play 20-24 seconds of defence, a good recipe for drawing fouls.

It's a stark contrast to many international teams who walk the ball up the floor, but Lemanis said his players must have the right mindset so that 'pace' doesn't become 'a rush'.

"We'll take the lay-ups otherwise nope, I'll pass up this shot and I'm going to move the ball, get my teammates involved and give them a chance to foul us," he said.

It's obviously still a work in progress, but even in his first game in charge of the first-choice men's team, in last year’s FIBA Oceania Championship, Lemanis loved what he saw.

After a first half where the Boomers, and particularly star guard Patty Mills, had not executed these team-first concepts, it was the pint-sized San Antonio Spurs guard who immediately heeded his coach's words during the break.

"Patty, to start the third quarter, comes out and we run a play and he gets a look in the deep corner which was one of those half-open looks, he had someone running at him," Lemanis said.

"I think that's one of those shots that in the past we would have shot, but he passes up that shot, we continue to work the offence, it finishes with three seconds left on the shot clock with (Anthony) Petrie finishing on the rim, scoring the basket, drawing the foul on (Mika) Vukona and that was Vukona's third foul.

"That changed the game. For me that was a beautiful example of starting to understand those style of play concepts."

They key for Lemanis was the end of the play ending up in the paint.

"The last eight seconds of the shot clock we talk about penetration," he said.

"That can be off the dribble or off the pass. It can be feeding the post man at the rim and getting your post action off him, or going and setting an on-ball and going to work off that.

"Understanding the reads but trying to get heat on the rim."

It's a simple but comprehensive plan, and it seems to incorporate many of the things Australian basketballers grow up with and hence are good at.

Pushing the ball, moving the ball, moving the man, attacking the rim, shooting rhythm shots after movement rather than standing and waiting, as Boomers so often did under Brett Brown.

So how well is it working? And the parts that aren't succeeding, is that because of execution or the structure not achieving what it's aimed to?

Let's talk about that next week after the two-game Chinese leg of the Sino-Australia Challenge.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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