Yesterday, Team USA faced their first real threat as they faced off against Brazil in a game that should end up deciding who wins their group. They also seemed to struggle for the first time, especially on the offensive end. Brazil shot the ball so well (in the first half at least) that it kept Team USA from getting out on the break and turning this game into a track meet. This meant that Team USA had to have success in the halfcourt, and that didn’t really happen. Let’s look at why they struggled. Two things really hurt Team USA, turnovers and bad shots.
No Movement
Team USA turned the ball over 22 times yesterday against Brazil. That really can’t happen against a team that is going to be able to make you pay for those mistakes (for the most part Brazil did in fact make Team USA pay). Some of those turnovers were questionable (those traveling calls in particular), but a lot of them were self inflicted, due to stagnant offense with everyone really standing around and watching the player with the ball do their own thing:
In this clip Derrick Rose brings the ball up with nobody really doing much off of the basketball. Sure, you have those cross screens at the back but neither Andre Iguodala or Chauncey Billups work all that hard to get open as they are basically jogging through the motions. With neither wing open, Rose is forced to try and get the ball to the middle when the turnover happens.
Team Argentina won their two FIBA World games this weekend by a total of six points. Normally when a team takes two close games back to back it is due to solid execution on both ends of the court. However, this isn’t what happened with Team Argentina, as they ended up winning despite poor execution on the offensive end. In both games Argentina suffered a key turnover late when they were looking to put the game away, forcing the defense to step up.
Poor Execution On Offense
Game 1 vs. Germany
Up by one with 47 seconds left, Argentina wants to run some clock and get a good look at the basket. Argentina’s point guard dribbles the clock out for 12 seconds before they get into their offense. When they do, they decide to run a pick and roll with Luis Scola as the screener/roll man:
As the PG comes off the screen with Scola rolling the German defense switches. Mismatch for Argentina right? Well, no, because Germany just doesn’t switch once, they essentially switch twice. The German PG, passes Scola off to a bigger help defender, then picks up the open man.
However, good German rotation isn’t the only reason for the turnover. Argentina shoots themselves in the foot pretty bad here. Even with the good double switch, Scola still gets the ball in very good position. However, he isn’t able to complete a move because Hernan Jasen inexplicably cuts into the lane right as Scola starts his move.
Going into the FIBA World Championships, I thought if Kevin Love could find a way to get some minutes, he could make a positive impact for Team USA because he seems to be your prototypical International-style big man. Love crashes the boards hard, passes well, and is a legitimate threat from the outside. He hasn’t been playing a ton (only 13 minutes in each of the two games), but he has made his presence felt.
Rebounding
Kevin Love is a very good rebounder in the NBA, and we shouldn’t be surprised that this skill carried over to the FIBA Worlds, but at this pace? Love has grabbed 21 rebounds in his 26 minutes of play, which comes out to an insane 31.5 rebounds per 40 minutes (h/t J.E. Skeets via John Schuhmann). How is Love able to grab so many rebounds? By simply outworking and outsmarting his opponents:
The FIBA World Championships started on Saturday, and one of the major themes from the first day of games was the importance of post position for offensive players. There were two performances that illustrated this point very well. They were Ante Tomic’s game against the United States and Yi’s game against Greece.
Good Position Before The Catch
Getting good position in the post before the catch makes everything easier for the player posting his man up. Getting closer to the basket before even getting the ball, limits the amount of moves a post player needs to make. Also, it allows for an easier attempt because the post player is closer to the basket.
Here, Ante Tomic (#11 from Croatia) is allowed to set up on the block before he gets the pass, and with Tomic being 7’2″ (According To DraftExpress) that position is all he really needs. After making the catch, Tomic only needs two dribbles to set himself for the turnaround jumper. Push Tomic another five feet out, and that is a tough shot. But at his size and position on the court, he is able to get off an easy shot.
If teams are having success scoring in the post, one way defenses try to stop them is by double teaming the post. Double teams are the most effective way to keep someone from scoring in the post because you have two defenders now covering one. If the double team is effective, it can take a decent passer and turn him into a below average one. However, if a team knows how to handle a double team, they are able to take advantage of the defense’s willingness to have two players covering one.
Handling double teams is really a team effort. Not only does the man getting double teamed need to be able to make a good pass under duress, but his teammates need to provide him with a passing lane. In my opinion, the two teams that handle double teams very well are the San Antonio Spurs and the Orlando Magic. Both teams have very good big men (in Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard), so they see (and beat) plenty of double teams. Despite both teams being very successful, the Spurs and the Magic handle double teams in very different ways:
San Antonio Spurs: Cut On The Double
Whenever Tim Duncan gets double teamed, the Spurs like to send a cutter diving through the lane. In theory, it makes sense, because when a double team takes place, most teams are worried about rotating on the perimeter, so when a cut happens, it is hard to adjust to. They are able to be successful with this because they have a big man who is willing to let the double team come and make a pass over it. Also important is his teammate’s ability to time their cuts just right.
In the weekly series Learn A Set, we are going to be looking at a set that a team runs and break it down. First we are going to look at the Xs and Os, then we will take a look at the advantages and disadvantages. The goal is to break down a set run consistently last year by every team.
To start off the Learn A Set series, I am going to be looking at a team that I know pretty well, the New Jersey Nets. Despite being terrible, the Nets actually had some pretty good sets, and when they were able to execute, they would score from them. Maybe my favorite was the set where they had a guard setting a screen for a big in the paint. If the Nets wanted to get the ball inside to one of their big men, they would run this play because not only does it prevent the defense from fronting the post, the motion away from the post keeps the double teams away. Here is the Xs and Os breakdown of it:
My Favorite Sets is a weekly series looking at some of my favorite plays from the 2009-2010 and breaking them down using FastModel’sFastDraw program, and then showing you what it looks like live.
UPDATE: Corrected the Thunder set to show it correctly.
Last time, we looked at my favorite sets coming out of timeouts in dead ball situations. These are set plays drawn up in the huddle, so it is all on the coaches. During non-dead ball situations, it is more on the player to execute. Because it isn’t a quick hitter, where you see one or two quick passes and a shot, players are now forced to react to the defense and go from there.
Up by one with 16.9 seconds left, Team USA needed to get one final stop to secure their win against Spain. With Spain inbounding from the sideline at halfcourt, Team USA decided to use a zone against Spain. It is no surprise that Jim Boeheim, Syracuse’s head coach, was involved in that decisions (from Chris Sheridan):
“In the timeout, Jim Boeheim said ‘Let’s go orange.’ We call it ‘Orange’ out of respect for Jim. He said he doesn’t have any buildings named after him in Syracuse, so we named the zone after him. And I agreed with him, but it was his suggestion,” Krzyzewski said.
Now, this was a bold call because if it doesn’t work, Coach K finds him subject to some criticism (yes, I realize this is just a friendly, but the criticism will still be there). However, because it was smartly run and caught Spain off-guard, the zone worked well:
Team USA ran zone one possession, so it is safe to say that Spain wasn’t really expecting it. More importantly, Team USA did a very good job of disguising their zone. They opened up showing man to man as the ball was getting ready to be inbounded. You have Odom covering Marc Gasol, and the 4 other members on Team USA on the perimeter as if they were waiting to match up in a man to man defense.
Derrick Rose had an impressive 4th quarter against Spain in Team USA’s final tuneup against Spain, scoring 10 of his 24 points in the fourth, with one play in particular standing out, his lay-up over Marc Gasol with the game tied at 82. While it appeared that Ricky Rubio was responsible for the bad defense on this possession, it was actually what Rubio couldn’t control that allowed for Rose to get to the rim.
Bad PNR Defense
This possession started with Derrick Rose dribbling the ball up and had Lamar Odom come from the low block to set a screen for Rose. Odom originally sets up the screen on Rose’s right.
With the screen taking place, Marc Gasol (Odom’s defender) shows really hard:
One of the most memorable things that happened in summer league didn’t take place on the court. It was actually David Kahn’s interview with NBATV. You know what I am talking about, the one where David Kahn praised Darko’s passing ability (comparing him to Vlade Divac) and then telling Chris Webber that Darko’s career path has mirrored his so far. Webber (and just about everyone) as you might imagine, didn’t really agree with Kahn’s comments. While it is a little late, I thought we could take a look at Darko’s passing ability and see if he really does excel at it.
First, let’s take a look at the numbers really quick. Darko averaged 1.8 assists and 1.4 turnovers in his 24 games with the Timberwolves, good for an Assist to Turnover ratio of 1.3. That number isn’t all that bad, considering the average among centers who played at least 15 minutes per game is 0.93 (Darko was ranked 14th). However, it doesn’t really tell the whole story, because turnovers can happen at any time (instead of purely passing turnovers), and as everyone knows, assists are a really tough statistic to keep track of. So that means we have to look at the video tape to really get a feel of Darko’s passing ability.
In the flow of an offense where he doesn’t have to make a decision (and he can just throw a pass), Darko is actually a good (but not great passer). Now, he is no Vlade Divac, but in my opinion he is slightly above average. The Timberwolves actually do a lot of cutting off of Darko when he has the basketball to take advantage of this. In fact, this is almost exclusively how he got his assists with the Wolves. If you go to Synergy and look up his assists, you see just about all his assists plays described as Cuts (and very little as spot up – more on this later).
