About this episode

Coach Brendan Suhr interviews DJ Bakker about coaching strategies and team development in the G-League.

This week Coach Brendan Suhr is joined by DJ Bakker, head coach of the 2025-26 G-League Champion Greensboro Swarm. In this episode Bakker shares insights into managing constant roster turnover and creating alignment between the Swarm and the Charlotte Hornets to ensure consistent development, terminology, and expectations across both levels. The conversation dives deep into offensive philosophy, including how Greensboro became one of the highest-scoring teams in G League history by prioritizing elite spacing, early-clock decision making, paint touches, and unselfish play. Bakker also details his approach to defensive principles, pick-and-roll coverage, practice structure, and the importance of over-communication and adaptability in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. Regardless of what level you are coaching, this episode includes concepts on building identity, maximizing personnel, and developing players in today’s game. All that and more on Episode 329 of the Coaching U Podcast presented by Noah Basketball. Noah Basketball is trusted by 28 NBA teams, over 200 NCAA programs, and over 1,000 high school programs to capture and analyze key shooting metrics to help your players…

People in this episode

Host: Brendan Suhr

Guest: DJ Bakker

Topics covered

• coaching
• basketball
• offensive philosophy
• defensive principles
• player development
• team alignment

Keywords

• G-League
• basketball coaching
• offensive strategy
• defensive strategy
• player development
• team alignment
• Greensboro Swarm

Sponsors

Noah Basketball

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte Hornets

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