MIES (Switzerland) - They say love is the universal language.
Well, we'd like to correct that statement and say that it is one of two universal languages, with the other being basketball.
And we back that statement up with a recent exchange between Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla and Celtics Blog, talking about how he spent last summer in Le Mans with the head coach of Le Mans Sarthe Basket, Guillaume Vizade.
"I think the game is just growing in general. Coach (Vizade), he does a great job at Le Mans and his ability to teach offense was good so, I enjoyed sitting down with him and talking to him. I got better in my time I got to spend with him so, I'm grateful for that," Mazzulla explained.
High praise, indeed, from the 2024 NBA Championship winning head coach. And if the statement in itself doesn't provide evidence for his claim that the game is growing in general, then what does?
We wanted to know more about those conversations and specifically, which concepts translated from north western France to New England.
Guilaume Vizade spoke exclusively to the Basketball Champions League website to delve deeper into that summer Erasmus tour for Coach Mazzulla.
His answers, as you might expect, led us straight to the film room.
Pick and roll motion
The first clip you see below shows us a staple set you will see in both the Le Mans and Celtics offenses.
What you are looking at is a side pick-and-roll, with an empty strong side corner alignment from the offense. This is designed to make it harder for the defense to help on the big man rolling to the rim.
When you watch that clip for the second time, focus on what happens after the side pick and roll.
Rytas Vilnius clog the nail (free throw line area) with help defenders, so #12, Trevor Hudgins moves the ball onto the second side of the floor.
As the ball swings again to the corner, there is a pin screen for #10 Ugo Doumbia to shoot. Again, Rytas defended the action well and Le Mans' motion pick-and-roll offense moved straight to the next action.
When the ball moves to #32 Lucas Dufeal in the high post, this action is known in the famous Triangle Offense as Blind Pig, because #5 Shannon Bogues Jr's defender instantly becomes blind to where the ball is.
All of these actions are regular features for Vizade and Mazzulla's teams.
"We were both using that motion last year and that was really interesting to see how they were using it also. The side to top action (Blind Pig) really uses the versatility of the players," Vizade explained.
Whilst the rules in FIBA Basketball and the NBA are different, especially with defensive three-seconds, it's always fascinating to see which offensive alignments and actions are able to cause chaos in defensive schemes on both sides of the pond.
Whilst the NBA attracts the best athletes in the world of basketball, when you look at the tempo that Vizade is able to extract from his players in every possession, and the timing of execution, it's easy to see why it was in Le Mans that Mazzulla chose to spend his summer last year.
The short roll
Another topic that Vizade told us that came up regularly in their discussions was the application of the short roll. And in particular, the challenges for teams trying to defend them.
In the next clip below, lock your eyes on #35 TaShawn Thomas.
The play starts with Hudgins pushing the tempo in early offense and getting into a middle, angle ball screen in transition.
As Thomas sets the screen, #8 Johnny Berhanemeskel makes what we call a Green Cut along the baseline (named after the Spurs shooter Danny Green).
As Thomas receives the ball on the short roll, he has actions on either side of him to choose, with Berhanemeskel replacing a cutter on his strong side, and Hudgins waiting with an empty corner alignment on the weak side should he choose to flip the ball back.
When you give a high IQ player like TaShawn Thomas the option to choose between scoring or having great options to play pick and roll on either side of the floor, that is excellent offensive design and you can expect reliable outcomes.
"It makes you play between the lanes and disturb the défensive schemes," Vizade said when extolling the virtues of utilizing the short roll.
"This is absolutely something we exchanged about," he continued bringing the topic back to the point about Mazzulla's visit.
"Also it involves the big in decision making and promotes their passing ability," he said.
If you look at the Celtics roster, it's so easy to see a set like this translating to Nikola Vucevic in that short roll, or even being used to develop decision making in rising star Neemias Queta.
The fact that both players are European, also highlights another intriguing feature of this Euro-American knowledge share; the development of skill and decision-making in bigs on the continent is exactly what has made them so appealing to NBA teams over the years.
And yet, in Le Mans, it's an American in TaShawn Thomas who has come to Europe to master his craft as a playmaking big in these Euro-centric offensive schemes.
Princeton offense
When you watch international basketball, the NCAA, or the NBA, one of the very few universal themes, is actions from Pete Carril's Princeton Offense.
As you would expect, when so many of the concepts you see in European basketball and the NBA derive their roots from the Princeton, this was obviously a regular item on the agenda at training sessions and coffee shops during Mazzulla's visit.
"We discussed and shared a lot of topics but the stuff you can find in both teams definitely includes elbow entries and the Princeton Offense," Vizade told us.
The video above shows you some of the options from Le Man's Horns Elbow series against Rytas Vilnius earlier in the Round of 16.
In each clip the play starts with two players on the elbows and two others on the corners, forming the traditional horns alignment. From there, Vizade's Le Mans are so clinical when it comes to executing and reading their options to generate shots or advantages in the pick-and-roll.
"It's the same goal (as the short roll), using the bigs as the initiator and playing with different reads to be creative around that pick, for example, using a flare and slip on that one against the switch," Vizade said.
If you watch the video back, when he described the slip against the switch, he is talking specifically about the second and the last clip in the video.
In both examples the ball handler enters the pass to one elbow, then receives a flare screen away from the other elbow. When the defense switched that screen, on both occassions Le Mans were able to create an advantage to play pick-and-roll or get a wide open shot.
For the real hoops nerds amongst you, the reason these Elbow Entries relate to the Princeton is that almost everything you see in that video draws from the Princeton's Point Series.
If you are that way inclined, go ahead and click that link to enjoy the rabbit hole that awaits you.
Now, of course, when two coaches of this level spend any extended period of time together, they aren't going to cover only three very specific topics.
According to Vizade, conversations ranged from using line ups to game plan rotations, to tracking the type of game they want to play, and how they develop their coaching staffs. But those will need a longer deep dive to cover.
For now, when you watch Le Mans take on Hapoel Netanel Holon this Wednesday, March 18, or if you stay up late to watch the Celtics take on the Warriors the night after, you know what to look out for when looking for evidence of Joe Mazzulla's Basketball Erasmus trip.