How to Replicate A Modern NBA Offense

• By Grant Young

The NBA has undergone a seismic shift in how the way the game is played over the last decade. Sharpshooters like Steph Curry have made basketball offenses more reliant three-point shooting than ever before. 

Yet, it isn’t just the NBA that has evolved due to Curry. Every level of the modern game, from youth basketball, AAU, high school, and even college requires much different offensive tactics than they did ten or twenty years ago. Therefore, if you aren’t an NBA coach, you still must learn how to adapt your coaching to the modern game.

That said, you might as well learn how to do so from an NBA coach. And luckily, Mike Weinar is more than willing to teach you. 

Mike Weinar is an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers. Before his time with the Pacers under Rick Carlisle, Coach Weinar was a member of the 2011 championship team coaching staff with the Dallas Mavericks. He is responsible for opponent preparation and contributes prominently to the offensive side of the ball. Weinar can often be heard shouting out play calls and helping players with defensive assignments as well, due to his diligent preparation ahead of each game.

Weinar has a front-row seat (literally) to how basketball is evolving. We have compiled some of the best insights from his ‘Guide to Modern NBA Offense’ course, providing you with the insights you need to modernize your coaching style to fit the times. 

Expert in Room

“You’re never going to be an expert in everything.” - Coach Weinar

Before Coach Weinar gives into the details of the modern NBA offense, he lays the groundwork with a few must-know tidbits about being a coach. 

In ‘Expert in Room’, Coach Weiner discusses the fact that no coach knows everything. This is why there are coaching staffs, rather than just one coach running and managing everything themselves. Within each coaching staff, each coach should be assigned a specific task or set of tasks. 

Coach Weinar notes that, regardless of what your task may be, it’s your duty to master it and execute that task as effectively as possible to help your team win. This is what he means by saying, “Be the expert in the room”. It might not be the most glamorous task, and you might want to be doing something else with your time. But an NBA team (and especially a coaching staff) is the sum of its parts, and any weak link will get exposed once the game begins. 

Coach Weinar notes how, despite having an offensive focus during most of his tenure under head coach Rick Carlisle, there was one season where Carlisle approached him about midway through and asked him to focus more on defense. Instead of getting upset, Coach Weinar attacked this new task with vigor and made the most out of the new opportunity. 

Generate Efficient Shots

One aspect that Coach Weinar believes is paramount to the modern NBA offense is getting players to produce countless repetitions of shots that they’ll be taking in games, during practice. While this might seem obvious, Coach Weinar stresses that, during the season, players shouldn’t be wasting time shooting shots that they wouldn’t take during the game. 

There’s only so much practice time, and players can only take so many shots per day. So they need to be getting reps at the shots they will actually be taking; the ones which will best help the team win. 

Coach Weinar also has another quote, “Don’t steal their reps”. When he says this, what he means is that coaches can’t be on top of players all game or practice. They need to allow players to make (and fix) any mistakes that they make themselves at times. In doing this, players will be able to internalize whatever they need to do, which has been proven by multiple studies as a more effective way to learn, rather than being told about their mistake (and how to correct it) by somebody else.

Another important aspect of modern NBA offense is being unpredictable. According to Coach Weinar, this means not drawing up a play and instead allowing his players to improvise the play themselves. While this makes a lot of sense in the NBA, since these are the world’s best basketball players, it’s a great tactic for players at any level. It will get them out of their heads and playing more freely on the court. 

Early Offense 3 Player Interaction

In getting more to the X’s and O’s, Coach Weinar discusses the benefits of running a 3 player interaction scheme on offense. This basically means that three players on offense will be running some variations of the same play, while the other two players are waiting on the wings, ready to take a shot in case the ball is kicked out to them.

This is an effective offensive set at all levels of basketball because it emphasizes ball movement and moving off of the ball. In order for players to get open and remain unpredictable, they need to be constantly moving and setting screens for one another. 

By installing slight variations on these types of player interactions, which players can fall back on if their improvised movement isn’t working to generate open shots, players will then feel comfortable playing with each other and creating chemistry while knowing that their coaches have a last resort to make them generate offense.

Taking Coach Weinar’s insights and making them a part of your own offense should help modernize your team, and get them playing more like the NBA stars they’re surely already trying to mimic.