Part of the beauty of basketball is the inherent tension between its apparent simplicity and underlying complexity. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘easy to learn, difficult to master,’ and the strategy of basketball is exactly that. But paradoxically, that’s not always true. Sometimes, it’s just about executing the simple stuff well.
Joe Mazzulla is starting to master making the simple complex, giving his players multiple variations of the same action and trusting them to pick the right one and execute appropriately. It’s working.
One of the most straightforward, common actions in basketball is the wide pin-down. It’s where a player sets a down screen for a teammate in the corner.