Even though it was a fantastic play, it just didn’t feel right leaving an empty possession as the sole quick hitter of the day.  So when J.E. Skeets started talking about a play that the Jazz ran last night during today’s episode of The Basketball Jones podcast, I knew I had to check it out.  After finding the play that Skeets was talking about, it was clear why he made a point to talk about it.  This particular play is a good example of why it is important to have multiple options on a play:

The play starts off with Deron Williams entering the ball to Andrei Kirilenko on the wing.  Once Kirilenko gets the basketball, Earl Watson goes across the paint to set a screen for Al Jefferson.  The design makes it look like the Jazz are simply trying to get the ball to Al Jefferson in the post coming across the paint (we see just about every single NBA team run something like this).  The Milwaukee defender, noticing this dives deep in the paint to try and keep Jefferson from getting across the lane.

This deep dive in the paint opens up the skip pass from Andrei Kirilenko to Paul Millsap.  While this is not option #1 for the Jazz, Kirilenko hits the open man.

As the Bucks’ defender closes out, it seems like the Bucks may have won the possession.  They kept the Jazz from getting the ball to Jefferson in the post, and they got a quick close out on Paul Millsap.  However, the Jazz being the Jazz, they have another option to go to.

Watson holds his screen, but simply rotates it to allow Jefferson to use it to get to the (new) ball side on the block.  Because Ersan Ilyasova was following Jefferson to try and push him out of the post, he has to continue following him around the screen.

Because Ersan Ilyasova is forced to follow Jefferson around the screen, Jefferson is able to seal him off real deep in the paint, where he makes his catch.

And if you let a great post player like Al Jefferson make the catch in the paint (he was in the restrictive circle on the catch), the result is going to be an easy bucket.  Here is the play in real time:

This is what makes the Jazz’s offense so great. Most of the sets they run have multiple options, so if one gets taken away (Jefferson across the lane to the block), they can simply move on to the next one (Skip pass to Millsap as Jefferson curls to the ball side). Fantastic execution.