If the work of a basketball coach is to best position his players to succeed, the after-timeout play (or ATO, in coaching parlance) is the literalization of that work. It’s in those scenarios that micromanaging can be put to best use: a coach can position the chess pieces as he likes and move them along carefully scripted lines. Between that underlying scheme and the intuitive reads of the players involved, ATO offense can bridge any number of limitations to create a quality shot.
Brad Stevens, the revered head coach of the Celtics, uses that medium as effectively as any coach in the league.