DBP Newsletter #14
Kon Knueppel, Transition Offense, and Notes
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Kon Knueppel
Kon Knueppel led Duke in plus/minus over the last three games, posting a combined +71.1 Of course I love watching Kon’s skill on offense, some of which is highlighted in these clips, but I wanted to focus on his hustle plays and rebounding. Knueppel has an excellent motor and does not let his offense affect the rest of his game.
Kon fights under a screen as Sion creates the loose ball on the Stanford drive. Knueppel dives on the floor to force a tie-up in favor of Duke - he covers a lot of ground, navigating the screen in the left corner before jumping on the ball near half court. Then, Kon is in excellent help position - he can see both the ball and the cutter on the help side before knocking the pass away. Next, Knueppel gets switched onto Maxime Raynaud. Kon does a nice job using his footwork to front and deny Raynaud in the post, forcing Stanford to take a contested three instead. Flagg rips and runs with the rebound, finding Tyrese for a transition three (more of this in the next section). Then, on the missed three from Cooper, Kon is able to grab the offensive rebound between two Cardinal defenders, and gets the hockey assist on the kick out to Proctor, who finds Cooper for another three-point attempt. Finally, with Duke leading 78-54 and under 10 minutes to go, Kon tracks down his own miss, sprinting down the sideline and throwing it off the defender to save another possession.
Early in the game at UVA, Knueppel misses in close, but comes right back into the play to snag the loose rebound and get fouled. Then, Kon and Maliq switch on a hand-off at the top of the key. Kon is caught on the high side but he is able to recover on the roll down the middle, deflecting the pass and forcing the turnover. Next, Virginia attempts to save the long offensive rebound - Knueppel dives into contact just to get a hand on the ball, which is picked up by Sion. Kon hustles back down on offense, trailing into an open three from the top, with the assist from Proctor. After setting a ball screen for Flagg, Ngongba finds Knueppel open in the opposite corner (great pass). Kon misses the three but sprints back in transition - he’s still outside the arc when the Cavaliers throw the lob, but closes the gap to disrupt the pass and allow Cooper to score at the rim off the turnover. Finally, Kon provides resistance in the paint, contesting the shot in the lane and grabbing the rebound. He stumbles on the crossover but is able to avoid being tied up. As Foster puts up a three on the kick out, Kon is up off the floor and battling for position inside - he snatches the offensive rebound, gets into the body of his defender, and is fouled.
These clips from Kon represent how hard the entire team has played throughout the season - I could put together similar clips for several other players. As I mentioned earlier, I love that the guys continue to make tough plays independent of their offense - and independent of the time and score. Some of these examples came with Duke leading by 20+ points, but the effort and hustle remained.
Transition Offense
Duke outscored Stanford 22-3 in fast break points (+19), their largest margin in transition so far this season, while using defensive rebounds and turnovers to get out and run. Let’s take a look.
Proctor grabs the missed three and pushes the pace before reversing the ball to Cooper, who sends it to James in the left corner. Stanford’s transition defense collapses to the ball on Sion’s baseline drive, leaving Kon open for three in the opposite corner. Then, after Khaman’s block starts the break, notice how Tyrese and Sion run hard down the sidelines while Maluach runs to the rim. Cooper reverses the ball, creating a two-on-one situation - Kon and Sion on the right wing with only one defender. This leads to a transition three from James, and a signature “Uh-oh, here come the Dukies” from Dick Vitale. Welcome back, Dickie V! Next, Tyrese is running off the outlet pass from Isaiah. A good fundamental in transition is “go until you get stopped.” With no one stopping the ball, Proctor takes it all the way in. Late in the first half, Sion grabs the rebound and pushes it up. Khaman sets a flare screen for Tyrese for the transition triple. Early in the second half, Sion does a nice job of changing speeds - he runs the ball into the front court before hesitating slightly. The key here is Khaman’s rim run - Sion crosses over and drives right behind Maluach, which prevents Khaman’s defender from helping on the drive. Moments later, Coop swipes the ball from Raynaud and Duke is off again - James, Knueppel, Flagg, and Maluach are sprinting immediately and, after a break out dribble, the ball doesn’t touch the floor. Finally, this one-handed cross-court pass from Tyrese sets up another quick three-pointer, this time from Flagg.
The game at Virginia was played at a slower pace (61 possessions compared to 66 possessions in the Cal and Stanford games). Combined with UVA’s transition defense, there were less opportunities to get out and run, but here are a couple more examples of Duke playing fast.
Sion corrals the rebound and pushes the ball up the left sideline, before reversing it cross-court to Isaiah for the open transition three. Minutes later, Isaiah starts the break with his blocked shot and hit ahead pass to James. With Proctor spacing in the left corner, his defender does not want to help and allow an open transition three. Rightfully so, given what we’ve looked at so far. Sion attacks down hill and executes what I call a “power layup” - a jump stop and shot fake, before going up strong off two feet and absorbing contact for the and-one.
The common theme with these transition buckets is Duke often has four guys on the floor who can lead the break. Whoever gets the rebound or steal can run, and the ball doesn’t stick - it gets hit ahead and reversed to create transition threes, which open up some drives to the hoop.
California Clip
California and Coach Madsen mix up their defense often, so I wanted to point out a couple of looks Duke hasn’t shown much on offense. Cal is man-to-man to open the game, and Duke isolates Sion in the post against a smaller defender. Khaman’s man comes over to deter the post-up, so James dribbles out before re-attacking. Cal doubles James on the drive, while Khaman screens the low help defender. Sion sends the pass out opposite to Tyrese for the three. Next, the Golden Bears are in a 2-3 zone, as Duke uses Isaiah to run the baseline. The first ball reversal sends Evans to the left corner while Tyrese receives the pass from Sion - this is done to set up the next action. Tyrese reverses it back to Sion, so Isaiah runs the baseline again. This takes the bottom defender with him toward the right corner. Simultaneously, Maliq screens the middle defender so Cooper can slide into the open space for the dunk. Then, Cal changes to a triangle-and-two late in the first half. Proctor and Gillis are guarded man-to-man, with the other three defenders in a triangle zone in the paint. It’s not something you see often, but Duke executes nicely - essentially overloading the triangle. Flagg and James exchange passes with only one defender at the top, before Sion takes the open three. Finally, there’s a bonus hustle play from Kon, as he fights through two Golden Bears to put back the missed free throw.
Notes
Against Stanford, Duke posted season-highs so far in effective field goal percentage (73.4%), points-per-possession (1.61), and assist-to-turnover ratio (4.60). Sion James, Tyrese Proctor, and Cooper Flagg combined for 16 assists and 1 turnover.2
Duke outscored California, Stanford, and Virginia by a combined 60 points in the paint (114-54) while posting a +40 rebounding margin (121-81), including +20 on the glass at UVA.3 The Blue Devils trailed for just 1:54 over the three games.
Duke has made at least 9 three-pointers in six consecutive games, averaging 1.31 points-per-shot from beyond the arc in that span.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
Duke plus/minus last three games: Knueppel (+71); Flagg (+65); James (+65); Proctor (+52)
James (6 assists, 1 turnover); Proctor (4 assists, 0 turnovers); Flagg (6 assists, 0 turnovers)
Duke Points in the Paint: vs. California (30-20); vs. Stanford (42-16); at Virginia (42-18)
Total Rebounds: Duke 43 California 31; Duke 37 Stanford 29; Duke 41 Virginia 21
Sources