by Paul Jordan
I know that a lot of debate has been occuring about the 2009-2010 and the 2010-2011 Wildcat squad and most people agree that the earlier version of Calipari’s team may get the slight edge talent wise. That may be true …. but John Calipari has yet to unveil his greatest asset yet. The DDMO.
In reality, Calipari ran very little true DDMO last season. He recognized the talent he had in the front court and for much of the season, played to his strengths, which were Patterson and Cousins on the post in a more traditional offense. Sure, there were glimpses of the dribble drive motion offense, esepcially when Bledsoe and Wall shared the court, but last season was by no means a fair representation of the DDMO.
Just to clarify, the DDMO is a guard-oriented offense that features spreading the floor and dribble-penetration to the rim for lay-ups or kick-out three-point shots. This offense uses a 4-out set with one post player and the post player does not look to post-up, but rather plays on the opposite block and in theory, this creates more open lanes for dribble-penetration. The post player looks for lobs, or dump passes from penetrating perimeter players, and looks to “clean up” inside with offensive rebounding.
For the DDMO to work effectively, you need four perimeter players who can handle the ball and attack the seams 1-on-1 with dribble-penetration and then finish, and who can also catch-and-shoot the 3-point shot effectively. On dribble-penetration, the ball-handler has three options: finishing the lay-up, dumping it to the post player on the opposite block, or kicking it out to the three point arc for the outside shot. Perimeter players move and rotate to specific spots. Very little screening is used, as screening tends to clog the driving lanes. Good spacing with two guards on top and two deep in the corners really opens up those seams for dribble-penetration.
So with Patterson and Cousins manning the front court at the same time, Calipari really did not have the personnel to give a fair representation of the DDMO. That said, Kentucky is loaded with talented players that would be able to implement the DDMO. I see Kanter as the post player with possibly Brandon Knight, Doron Lamb, Darius Miller and Terrence Jones as the perimeter. DeAndre Liggins and Stacey Poole would also excel in this rotation. Needless to say, Calipari has the players for his system.
And he seems to be preparing the DDMO for a true unveiling of the DDMO this year. Calipari spoke on his Lexy audio post yesterday and seemed to prepare the BBN for his offensive scheme:
"“Right now, I’m spending my time trying to come up with ways that we’re going to play the dribble-drive more than we did a year ago, but with this group. We got a left-hander on the team in Terrence Jones. How do we now put him in the right spots so he can do his best? How ’bout this is a team maybe we go with five-out…so that we have the true strength of our team? “Where last year with DeMarcus [Cousins] and Patrick [Patterson] and Daniel [Orton], we had terrific players around the goal. We had to play that way. Now we do have some strong guys that are bigger players but maybe a little more perimeter-oriented, so I’ve got to figure that out. My time’s got to be spent doing that.”"
One thing for sure is that Kentucky can count the upcoming Canadian trip as a blessing in disguise. The trip allows Calipari to get in some extra practice days for his squad. In case you are still confused about the nuances of Cal’s DDMO, let’s let coach explain it in his own words:
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