When I did my debut post over at Basketball Prospectus, I looked at why Raymond Felton was struggling with the pick and roll early in the year.  One of my biggest problems was Felton’s lack of patience coming off of a screen.

Often times, Felton’s PNRs would look like the clip above.  Felton would come off of the screen, and before the roll man would have time to work his way to the paint, Felton would have already kicked the ball out to the “safety outlet” on the wing.

Ever since I wrote that article, Felton has done a really good job of making me look like a moron.  Part of it is that the Knicks seem to be running the pick and roll a little bit less, but some of it has to do with the fact that Raymond Felton has developed more patience when running the pick and roll:

Here, Felton is going to come off of an Amar’e Stoudemire screen.  It is the same type of screen that we saw at the beginning of the post.

Like last time, Raymond Felton has a “safety outlet” option on the wing who becomes open as Stoudemire rolls to the basket.

Felton hangs in on the pick and roll and waits long enough for Amar’e Stoudemire get open in the paint.  He then makes a very nice  jump pass to Amar’e, who finishes at the rim.  Here is the play in real time:

That one extra dribble that Felton takes is what allows Stoudemire the time to get open in the paint.  It just wasn’t a one time deal either.  Check out another Felton pick and roll against the Raptors (Video courtesy of Get Banged On):

This time Felton picks up his dribble, but he doesn’t panic.  He pump fakes to Toney Douglas on the wing, and the hits Mozgov who becomes open in the paint.  In the past, Felton wouldn’t have pump faked to Douglas, he would have made the pass to him.