Chicago Bulls – The Numbers*

• Pace: 92.9 (21st)
• Offensive Efficiency: 105.4 (12th)
• True Shooting Percentage: 53.9% (15th)
• Assist Rate: 20.93 (9th)
• Turnover Rate: 13.37 (16th)
• Offensive Rebound Rate: 29.62 (3rd)
• Free Throw Rate: 30.6 (9th)
• Three Point Rate: 21.3 (18th)

Chicago Bulls – Strengths

Ball Handlers Coming Off Of Screens

When Bulls’ ball handlers come off screens looking to score, they put up a PPP of 0.845 (good for 8th in the NBA) on 41.5% shooting.  Obviously, a large part of these possessions go to Derrick Rose, who has gotten 71.1% of the Bulls’ 2149 pick and roll ball handler possessions.

Part of the reason why Rose has been so successful this offseason in the pick and roll is his new and more effective jump shot off the dribble.  This has forced defense to go under ballscreens set for Rose less this season (Last season, defenses went under these screens 26.9%.  This season, that number has dropped to 17.8%).  Defenses are now forced to go over screens more and that creates lanes for Rose.  This is because if they go under the screen, Rose has the confidence to pull up and knock down a jumper:

Here, Rose brings the basketball down and comes off of a screen towards the middle of the court.  The defender goes under the screen to prevent Rose from driving the lane, but Rose simply stops and pops, knocking down the jumper.

On this play, Rose’s defender goes under the screen as the big hedges out on him.  The big retreats back into the paint and Rose’s initial defender is a little late closing out.  Rose pulls up and gets the jumper off before his defender can get a hand in his face, knocking it down.

With defenses now forced to go over screens, this creates mismatches and driving lanes for Rose to take advantage:

Here, Jameer Nelson goes over the ballscreen to make sure he is able to contest a jumper from Derrick Rose.  Nelson going over the screen forces Malik Allen to step up and try to hedge on Rose.  This is an absolute mismatch, and Rose is able to take advantage with a crossover and a quick move to the rim.

Isolations/Working Off Of Isolations

Another benefit of having Derrick Rose as your primary ball handler is the fact that you can use him to get effective possessions out of isolation sets.  Obviously one of the reasons why the Bulls are so effective (the Bulls are the best team in the league in terms of points per isolation possession) when using isolations is because Derrick Rose can get to the rim almost at will.  Rose’s attacking forces defenses to send help, and out of isolation sets, Rose is able to identify the open man and hit him:

Here, Rose has the ball isolated up top and look at the attention he draws.  There are three defenders paying attention to him when he is 40 feet away from the basket.  Eventually, Rose attacks the rim and Korver’s man is forced to stay and help, leaving Kyle Korver wide open.  Rose makes the pass and Korver knocks down the three.64

Chicago Bulls – Weaknesses

Spot-Ups

Despite the example above and having some great shooters on their roster, the Bulls are actually one of the worst teams in terms of catch and shoot (spot-up) situations.  The Bulls are ranked 23rd in the league in terms of points per possession and are 25th in the league in terms of shooting percentage in these situations.

The main reason why the Bulls struggle so much in these situations is because they tend to spread the wealth a little too much, meaning that guys who shouldn’t be in these spot-up situations are too much for the Bulls to be an effective offense.  In fact, the Bulls have 10 players on there team who have taken at least 50 shots in spot-up situations.  Four of these players (Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer, and Ronnie Brewer) are in the bottom quarter of the league in terms of points per possession.  Notice that 3 of the 4 players listed here are bigs, meaning that the Bulls seem to rely on their bigs too much in spot up situations:

Here, the Bulls run a pick and roll with Rose and Deng and the ball ends up in the hands of Carlos Boozer in the corner.  Boozer takes the shot.  This is how Bulls’ bigs get most of their spot-up jumpers, off of other action where help comes and they are wide open.  In my opinion things bigs need to attack the rim more instead of settling for jumpers in this spot.  Not only would this help their effectiveness, but it now turns that kickout pass from Deng into a threat, meaning that Deng will get open more on rolls to the rim (or whatever primary option help is coming from).

Post Ups

Another area where the Bulls seem to struggle on the offensive end is in the post.  The Bulls are ranked 22nd in the NBA in terms of points per possession when posting up.  The biggest culprit here is Taj Gibson, who has gotten 10.7% of all Bulls’ post up opportunities.  However, in the 69 post up chances Gibson has gotten, he has scored just 41 points, good for a PPP 0.59.  This ranks him 241st out of the 259 players in the NBA who have gotten at least 10 post up chances.

Gibson likes to face up his defender when in the post, but because he doesn’t really have a shot or is athletic enough to drive the middle off of a face-up, defenses are able to play him straight up.  This forces Gibson to try and create, which he isn’t that good at doing.

Indiana Pacers – The Numbers*

• Pace: 97.1 (7th)
• Offensive Efficiency: 101.8 (23rd)
• True Shooting Percentage: 53.2% (22nd)
• Assist Rate: 17.91 (28th)
• Turnover Rate: 14.14 (24th)
• Offensive Rebound Rate: 25.96 (16th)
• Free Throw Rate: 29.9 (13th)
• Three Point Rate: 24.5 (9th)

Indiana Pacers – Strengths

Off Ball Screens

The Indiana Pacers are one of the better teams in the NBA when it comes to setting and running off of off ball screens.  They are ninth in the NBA in terms of points per possession and are scoring on over 40% of their possessions when running off of non-ball screens.  The most effective player coming off of off ball screens for the Pacers is Mike Dunleavy Jr.  In fact, Dunleavy Jr. is one of the better players in the nba when it comes to running off of screens without the basketball (13th in the NBA in terms of PPP and over 20 possessions used in the Off-Screen category):

There are a couple reasons why Dunleavy Jr. is so successful and the first one is because he is always coming off screens and catching the ball with his body in position to get up a shot:

Here, Dunleavy Jr. comes off of a pindown screen set by Josh McRoberts.  Watch Dunleavy Jr.’s footwork here.  He comes off of the screen, starts turning his body towards the rim before making the catch, and steps into the shot nicely.  This type of footwork is what allows Dunleavy Jr. to get the shot off quickly, as soon as he catches it.  When coming off of screens, this might be the most important thing a shooter needs to do.

In addition, Dunleavy Jr. is 6’9″ which gives him the ability to catch and shoot over defenders as well.  Here, the long Trevor Ariza switches onto Dunleavy Jr., but he is able to shoot right over the top of him with no trouble at all.

These off ball screens put a ton of pressure on the defense, and it also opens up cuts off of these screens (In fact, this is why the Pacers are 4th in the NBA in terms of PPP on cuts).  The biggest benefactor of this is Josh McRoberts.  McRoberts is the best off ball cutter that the Pacers have, and a large part of these cuts come off of his off ball screens:

Here, McRoberts is the front man of a staggered screen for Dunleavy Jr.  With the defense paying attention to Dunleavy Jr., McRoberts is able to cut to the rim for the open lay-up.

On this play, McRoberts is setting a pindown screen for Danny Granger.  McRoberts’ man hedges, giving him room to cut backdoor for the lob pass.

Indiana Pacers – Weaknesses

Transition

When getting out on the break, the Pacers are one of the worst teams in terms of scoring in transition.  In fact, they have the 2nd worst shooting percentage in the league when running out on the break.  A large part of that is because the Pacers don’t get enough open looks/easy lay-ups.  Too often, the Pacers are settling for three point shots, contested lay-ups, or runners:

In both of these cases, the Pacers have a fast break opportunity where they can attack the rim.  However, despite these opportunities, the Pacers make a kick-out pass to a three point shooter.  Instead of trying to get themselves to the rim and cash in on the transition opportunity that they have created, they take the easy way out and kick the ball outside.

Here, Darren Collison gets the ball after a make and looks to create a transition opportunity.  Collison gets in the lane, but is forced to take a tough floater.  Instead of settling for the floater here, Collison should have tried to take the basketball to the rim, and if nothing came of it, pull the ball out.

Ball Handlers Coming Off Of Screens

Unlike the Bulls, who are one of the best teams coming off of screens, the Indiana Pacers are one of the worst, scoring just 0.767 points per possession in the pick and roll.  Part of the reason why the Pacers struggle so much is because of turnovers.  Darren Collison, the Pacers most used pick and roll ball handler, is 112th in the NBA when it comes to percentage of possessions that are turnovers. A lot of Collison’s turnovers come from his tendency to over dribble/over penetrate when coming off of ballscreens:

Here, Collison comes off of the screen and instead of stopping right around the foul line and kicking the ball out/taking the jumper, he takes a few extra dribbles.  These extra dribbles allows the Knicks’ defense to swarm him and they are able to knock the basketball out of his hands, forcing the turnover.

Again, on this play, Collison comes off of the screen but takes a few extra dribbles, trying to force the action and get the ball in the lane.  However, Collison takes the basketball too deep, considering that he wants to kick the basketball back out for a pick and pop with Roy Hibbert.  Again, the defense is able to swarm Collison and he is forced to throw a high pass to Hibbert, and the ball sails over his head and out of bounds.

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*All numbers come from the fantastic website Hoopdata.com