And when Green caught the ball on the perimeter, the Warriors often ran a specific action that Brown found especially tantalizing: the dribble-handoff. Green would have the ball, and set a screen on his teammate's defender while handing him the ball.
In that moment, a world of options opened.
Green could free up the teammate for an open 3-pointer. Or he could fake the handoff and drive hard toward the rim, trying to score or pass to an open teammate when the defense collapsed. Or he could hand the ball off to a teammate, then roll toward the rim and be fed a quick pass for an easy bucket.
The DHO, as it's known in basketball parlance, was a potent weapon. And even more so, Brown believed, if it had the right practitioner.
What's more, he thought, not many teams employed it, so not many teams practiced defending it. If he ever became an NBA head coach again, Brown envisioned one day building an offense around the DHO.
What he needed was the right opportunity and, most of all, the right player to run it.
"My story, it ended short. Now comes a Sabonis with a long story."Arvydas Sabonis, about his son Domantas
Meanwhile, some 2,200 miles away, Domantas was running DHO actions more and more during his time with the Pacers, where he spent five seasons after playing in Oklahoma City. In 2020-21, when he was named an All-Star for the second straight season, Domantas was involved in a league-high 780 handoffs, according to ESPN Research. The next season, 716, another league-high.
The only other player even close? Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.
On Feb. 8, 2022, the Kings traded for Sabonis, sending Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Pacers (while also receiving Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round draft pick in return). A few months later, the Kings began looking for a new head coach, and Brown, keenly aware of who they just acquired, pushed to fill the role.
In the job interview, he laid out his vision, with Domantas being the centerpiece. Brown imagined Domantas running even more DHO actions, especially with Kings rising star guard De'Aaron Fox. Those two alone, Brown said, would present a powerful one-two punch. He got his wish.
He was hired in May 2022 and brought with him two assistants from Golden State. In his first season as the Kings head coach, the team ran 1,136 total direct handoffs with Domantas, then the most in the Second Spectrum tracking era, which dates back to 2013-14.
Domantas averaged 19.1 points and a league-best 12.3 rebounds and was named an All-Star for the third time. Fox, meanwhile, earned his first All-Star nod. The Kings' offense improved from 24th the season before to the league's best in Brown's first season. The Kings broke a 16-year postseason drought, the longest active streak in the four major North American men's professional sports leagues, and Brown, for his part, was named the NBA Coach of the Year.