Matt Jones

🌎 Stacking Days 🇨🇿 Every Day: Grenades, 45’s, Pistol, High Hands, & Peels Concepts > Plays Coaching is Player Development Player Development is Coaching

Daeqwon Plowden talks about guarding Kawhi Leonard in Sunday's 138-109 loss to the LA Clippers, the experience he's gained with bulk minutes in these past few weeks and seeing the Stockton Kings return to the G League Finals.

Spoke to 5 young coaches assistants & GA’s this week: 3 not going because they don’t have the $ & program won’t help 1 can’t attend because of portal visits & is needed on campus 1 taking a bus (his own $) & sleeping on someone’s floor Limiting opportunities ain’t right…

📍Hutch Another Bucket List Experience ✔️ @NJCAA 🏀 - forever part of me

@TripleDoubleXO If you’re looking for transition flow - happy to discuss some of the stuff I’ve done or seen in Europe

Looking for some offensive minded basketball coaches to pick their brain.

@Mike_Jagacki Keep doing good work! Your work is changing thought processes and perceptions. But yes, this poll is deflating 😅

This poll honestly shocked me. I thought we had come further... And I keep wondering what we actually mean by defense is effort. Is staying in front of the ball effort? Or is it angles, footwork, anticipation/reaction, and explosiveness? Is a good closeout effort? Or is it managing space, decelerating under control, and understanding when the shot is actually threatened vs the drive? Is off-ball defense effort? Or is it scanning, anticipating, positioning, and reading information fast enough to move before its too late? Effort is involved in all of those things. But effort isn’t the thing doing the work. We don’t explain missed shots as a motivation issue. We don’t explain loose handles as an effort problem. We call those skills. We train them. We isolate them. We give feedback. But on defense, we lower the standard. When defense is labeled “effort,” breakdowns become emotional instead of instructional. Individual work feels unnecessary. Team drills feel sufficient. And improvement gets outsourced to live play and hope. Which might explain why defense is always “important”… and always feels harder than it should be to actually improve. That disconnect isn’t about caring. It’s about how we’ve decided to categorize defense. Until that changes, some will be great on defense, others will be terrible.

Thanks @MattJonesHoops ! @MJHoopsTraining

A practical & nuanced quote I’ll hold onto as I finish @CoachDaveLove’s book “ShotMetrics”: “As coaches, you shouldn’t be Data-Driven. That doesn’t give your experience enough credit. But you should be Data-Informed”.

@ebosshoops An always excellent choice! Hope you are well!

📍Tempe, Ariz. The Chuckbox. A proper burger dive if ever there was one.

@Anthony_Pugh2 Less variability with hops! I think it’s most viable for youth players & I only use hop when we are tweaking mechanics with older players in the Summer. Control the variables we can control while we adjust others. Good content as always!

I’m a huge advocate of catching and shooting on the “hop” ✅ Better Dip ✅ More legs + more momentum into your shot

@ChuckSmith414 “Intentional dribbles” is the best descriptor I’ve ever heard. Some players can use 2 dribbles and some new 3-5. The caveat I would make is not all players who need 3-5 should be put in that situation as often as those it takes 1-3. Good insight, Coach!

This is why I despise that whole “3 dribbles or less” non sense. Some guys need the first 3 dribbles as a setup because they lack athleticism and/or burst. You can still be intentional if you exceed 3 or 4 dribbles.

@bballbreakdown There’s nuance to shooting & to speak definitively is disingenuous at best. Those who speak otherwise are too caught up in their own ego.

@MattJonesHoops You're trying to say I used the word "effectively" when I never ever said that. I find it interesting that this subject tends to bring out hostility from coaches who want to advocate for 10 toes to the rim. Any insights into why that is?

When working with shooters, I emphasize The Turn (of the feet) to allow the shooting hip and elbow to properly align with the hoop. "Being Square" is a myth.

@bballbreakdown You literally said the pool of players is small - aka insinuating it is an ineffective notion… There’s no hostility - I’ve spent the last 2.5+ years studying shooting from a bio-mechanical, fine motor control & psychological outlook.

@bballbreakdown That’s exactly what you said but go on… Clearly, I am ignorant. Thank you for informing those of us who are unenlightened.

@MattJonesHoops I didn't say that, tho

@bballbreakdown There is going to be some natural tilt/sway/turn in movement shooting at times, of course - that is part of self-organization due to the force created. But to say it’s only a small group who shoot with 10 toes square effectively is disingenuous at best.

@MattJonesHoops The pool of players that can achieve proper alignment with 10 toes is very small, and tons of them, when shown the turn, realize it is better. Where did you learn about being square?

@bballbreakdown Because the opposite of the turn would be being square - your statement insinuates tilt/sway is clearly superior when you say being square is a “myth”.

@MattJonesHoops What makes you think The Turn is some sort of one size fits all thing?

@bballbreakdown *Depending on the slot they shoot from, their ball path from catch/dribble pick-up, and other mechanical/sequencing factors. One-sized fits all shooting is a fallacy due to biomechanics.

@MattJonesHoops Having studied this for decades, I can tell you that forcing players to be square to the basket witb 10 toes pointing to the rim is suboptimal at best

We are grateful for @MattJonesHoops of BK Olomoucko in the Czech Republic for speaking to our guys about all things professional basketball. What a great learning experience. It’s a great day to be a Bearcat! #ShifttheFocus

All-time coaching moment for me: Coaching against & coaching my 2 former players at Combine Academy: Sage Tolbert & Jonathan “Bernie” Andre matching up with one another in a pre-season game today in the 🇨🇿 Czech Republic. 🔄Full circle 🌎