If you are a good outside shooter playing in the NBA, you are going to garner attention from opposing defenses.  So much so that it may be hard get yourself free for an open look on your own.  Your a good shooter though, and your team wants you to shoot the ball, so that is why they send screeners your way.

You can’t just run off the screen.  You have to set them up, run off of them correctly, and come off the screen in a way that you can make your catch and get the shot off quickly.  There are three guys in the NBA right now who do this really well, and they are J.J. Redick, Kyle Korver, and Ray Allen.  We are going to use their video clips to see how to properly set up screens and use them to get open looks.

The Set Up

Defenders know that if they are covering a good shooter, they are going to have to deal with off the ball screens.  They are looking for these screens, and if they see them early it is very easy to get around them.  That is why the offensive player using the screen needs to set up his defender.  There are a few different ways that you can do this.

Walk Defender Down

This is something that Kyle Korver does very well.  What he likes to do is walk his defender to the block (lulling him to sleep and putting him in a position that makes the screen easy.  Korver quickly changes speeds, and cuts off the screen into a open area for the shot.

Here, Ray Allen walks his man down. His defender doesn’t want to allow him to run baseline, so he gets in position to cut hit off. Allen simply changes direction and runs off the screen.

Screen The Screener

Screen the screener is a pretty effective way to set up a screen for a good shooter. This is because the defender covering the man setting the initial screen (this person is always the shooter), needs to provide help. This help naturally puts him at a disadvantage when trying to defend the second screen.

Here, J.J. Redick sets a screen for Ryan Anderson.  John Salmons (who is covering Redick) needs to help on that screen.  After the initial screen, Redick runs off a screen set by Dwight Howard.  Salmons was in such poor position after helping on the first screen, he can’t get to Redick in time, and he knocks down the jumper.

“Going Hollywood”

Growing up I played AAU basketball, and my AAU coach used to yell out in practice time after time, “When using screens, you have to go Hollywood on your defender.” What he meant was that we had to use misdirection to set up the screen. Usually defenders who are covering good shooters end face guarding them, because they know that the smallest opening will lead to an open shot.

While face guarding works, it also has its weaknesses.  The main one being that you are so locked into your man, you are not aware of your surroundings.  While you have a general idea, you don’t know where the basketball is, and most importantly, you have no idea where the screens are coming from. By “Going Hollywood,” shooters take advantage of that weakness in face guarding. You simply fake as if you are going to cut in one direction, and go the other, sending your defender into a hard screen.

That is exactly what J.J. Redick does here.  He starts cutting one way along the baseline, then quickly changes directions and sends his defender into a screen.  The cherry on top is that the Magic give Redick a second screen, allowing him to make the catch open and to hit the shot.

Here, Allen gets to the baseline and takes a quick jab step to one direction, and goes the other.  With Ray Allen, he only needs about an inch of room to hit a shot, and that is what happens here.