We are in the dog days of summer here and with the lockout looking like it is far from being resolved, we are starting to see more and more player rankings pop up at various web sites.  I thought I would try my hand at these rankings, but instead of ranking by position or anything like that, I thought it would be interesting to look at a specific skill and rank players that way using a combination of numbers, game tape, and my own opinion.

When run properly, the pick and roll might be one of the hardest plays in the game to defend, and with so many teams using the pick and roll in their offense, having a ball handler who can run the pick and roll and be both a scoring threat and a threat to get the ball to a teammate is vital.  Here is my list of top five pick and roll ball handlers:

1. Steve Nash

I feel like Steve Nash being at the top of the pick and roll ball handler rankings should be the least surprising ranking I’ll do throughout the entire summer.  When you think about active players running the pick and roll, you think of Steve Nash first and foremost.  What makes Nash so dangerous in the pick and roll situations is that he does just about everything at an extremely high level, making him near impossible to defend.  When Steve Nash uses the ball screen (which happens 89.3% of the time), he posts a PPP of 1.031, placing him in the top 10% of all NBA players.

Nash is an elite shooter, especially off of the dribble, so he is always a threat to come off of the screen and knock down a jumper if given a little bit of space (posts a PPP of 1.099 when taking a jumper off of a ball screen – good for top 8% in the NBA).  If you want to take that shooting threat away from Nash, then he can come off of the screen and attack the rim, using his fantastic ball handling ability and his ability to finish at the rim over defenders (when attacking the basket, Nash posts a PPP of 1.050 on 57% shooting).  In addition to the physical skills, Nash knows how to use screens properly.  According to Synergy, Nash runs his man into the ball screen 19.2% of the time (the next highest is Derrick Rose, who does this 16% of the time).  With Nash getting his defender stuck on the ball screen, he puts the defense in such a tough position, usually resulting in a big switching onto him (the result is usually an open jumper as the big backs off of Nash to take away the dribble penetration).

Oh yeah, and if you are able to keep Nash from finding any space to get his own offense (usually by focusing most of the defensive attention on him), he’s one of the best passers in the NBA and will simply hit an open teammate.  Nash does a fantastic job of not always focusing on hitting the roll man, he does a great job of looking for the roll man and looking for teammates spotting up outside the pick and roll (47.5%/43.4% split):

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With the U19 World Championships finished the attention of those who follow international competitions have turned to Spain, where the U20 European Championships are taking place.  As with the U19 tournament we will have a few posts here and there if anything interesting pops up.

Despite being a good pick and roll team, Spain’s U20 squad really struggled taking care of the basketball in these situations.  When running the pick and roll, a turnover would be the result 20.8% of the time (so basically, every 5 times Spain ran a pick and roll, there would be a turnover).  The Italian team, who played Spain in the finals of the U20 European Championships, understood this and started trapping Spain’s ball handler hard every time he came off of a ball screen.  At first, the result was turnovers:

You can see what pressure on the ball handler does here.  On this play, the ball handler is trapped and forced to get the basketball out of his hands quickly.  Normally, when you are coming off of a ball screen, you are observing the whole situation around you.  If that was done, the ball handler would have noticed that a third defender was rotating over to take the charge on the roll man and not passed the basketball.  Instead because of the trap, he just wants to get the ball out of his hands and he puts his big man in a bad position as he makes the catch and can do nothing to avoid the charge.

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For the past two offseasons, we have been looking at players coming to the NBA after playing at least as season overseas. With the lockout, we are going to have plenty of time on our hands.  With that being said, I plan on doing scouting reports for each of the 30 first round picks from this past draft.

Past Editions: Kyrie Irving (#1) | Derrick Williams (#2) | Tristan Thompson (#4) | Jonas Valanciunas (#5) | Jan Vesely (#6)| Bismack Biyombo (#7)

Out of all the draft prospects who were projected to go in the early lottery, Brandon Knight was definitely the most interesting.  That’s because he had widest range of projections.  There were rumblings that he could go second or third, but if he got passed up there, who knows where he could fall.  Eventually, he fell to Detroit, who had the 8th pick in the draft.

Strengths

Getting In The Lane/Finishing

Despite not being a crazy athletic ball handler like a Derrick Rose or John Wall, Knight simply has a knack to get into the lane with relative ease.  He has a quick first step and and uses hesitation/misdirection moves very well, allowing him to get his defender on his hip and get by him on his way to the paint.  Off of the catch, Knight loves using the jab step and it is easy to see why, he does a great job of using it to catch his defender leaning one way or the other and then takes advantage, going by him with the dribble:

Again, unlike a Derrick Rose or a John Wall, Knight isn’t going to explode to the rim and finish with powerful dunks.  He’s simply not that type of athlete.  However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t able to score once he gets into the paint.  According to Synergy, on shots around the basket Knight shoots 62.4%.  Knight has a great touch and he loves to use that touch when shooting a variety of floaters over bigger help defenders:

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Last week, Kate Fagan of Philly.com reported that Evan Turner was working with Herb Magee, also known as The Shot Doctor, looking to improve his shooting, and to be completely honest, Turner needs the work.  Turner, who isn’t the quickest wing player, needs that shooting threat to force the defense to respect it and close out/play closer to him.  Once that starts happening, that is when Turner can use that shooting threat to help him get to the rim and become an even better player.  For that to happen, he needs to knock down shots consistently and turn into a threat, something he couldn’t do his rookie season.  According to Synergy Sports, Turner shot just 37.4% on all jump shots (37.1% on shots inside 17 feet, 38.8% on shots outside 17 feet but inside the three point line, and 33.3% behind the three point line).

So what is Turner working on?  Well according to Fagan’s report, he was working on one specific thing having to do with his off-hand:

If you’ve made it this far in the blog post then you’re a Sixers fan and you watched enough games last year to know Turner needed some basic adjustment on his shot. He’s not a bad shooter, not by any stretch, but there were times his confidence seemed to affect his mid-range shot and there are some obvious corrections needed on his mechanics. Yesterday, Turner and Magee worked on the first of those changes: Turner’s placement of his off hand. Turner’s shooting hand is actually quite sound. He holds the ball correctly, keeps his shooting elbow in, and releases the ball off the correct fingers. On occasion, he snaps back instead of holding his follow through, but for the most part his shooting hand is not the issue. That information should relieve Sixers’ fans.

So what is the problem with Turner’s offhand?  The position it is placed on the basketball.  As a shooter, you want to use your off hand to hold the ball in place, but not to have it involved in the shot.  It should be still on the side of the basketball as the strong hand goes through the shooting motion.  What Turner does is he places the basketball right on top of the ball:

With the way Turner’s off-hand is positioned, there is no way that he can keep it from being involved with the shot and Turner is essentially shooting with two hands.  This release effects the shot because it effects the rotation, and any shooter can tell you if your rotation is off, your aren’t going to get those really good bounces.  Here is Turner’s shot live and slowed down so you can really see the effect of his off hand on his shot:

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During his press conference where he announced that he was finally firing Kurt Rambis, David Kahn talked about when he started his search for a new coach (because he didn’t start it yet) he was going to look for a coach who was better suited for an uptempo style.  The whole thing sounded as if Kahn had one man in mind.  Sure enough, a few days later Don Nelson chimed in (From The Mercury News):

Nelson would gladly trade those breezy Hawaiian trade winds for Minnesota winters and the chance to coach again.

“It’d be a great fit,” Nelson said. “I love Minnesota.”

…

Nelson and Kahn talked for about 40 minutes by phone last week and plan to talk again this week.

“They have an opening,” Nelson said, “and I don’t have a job.”

Nelson has a reputation as a coach who is tough on rookies and young players.

“Yeah, I don’t like rookies that can’t play,” he said. “Rookies that can play, I play ‘em a lot.

“There’s talent there. Maybe they just need to change the tempo and play a little faster there.”

Don Nelson and the Minnesota Timberwolves, a match that only makes sense in David Kahn and Don Nelson’s head.  However, since these are the people making the decision, it is almost an inevitable that this is going to happen.  When it does, there is no doubt in my mind that Nelson is going to bring his insane uptempo offense.  The question to ask is, does Nelson have the pieces to make it work?  Maybe better, can the players in Minnesota play well in Minnesota’s style.

Our first instinct is to say no, especially considering that they had the fastest pace in the league (96.5 possessions per game, according to Basketball Reference), but only posted the 24th highest offensive rating(104.2 points per 100 possessions).  However, looking at the numbers, the Timberwolves didn’t actually get out in transition as much as you would original believe.  According to Synergy Sports, transition possessions made up 10.7% of Minnesota’s offense, a number that was good for 23rd in the NBA.  So how was their pace so high?  Bad shots early in the clock and turnovers.

Nelson on the other hand ran a true run and gun team in Golden State.  During his final season with the Warriors, Nelson had his team posting a pace of 100.4 (which was obviously 1st in the NBA that season.  17.8% of the Warriors’ possessions were transition possessions (posting a PPP of 1.13, good for 18th in the NBA).  So if Nelson does come to Minnesota, their style of play would definitely be different in that they would be running more.

This doesn’t mean that Minnesota was a good running team this past season, far from it, posting a PPP of 1.1006, good for 28th in the NBA.  However, bringing in new pieces in Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams, I thought it would be interesting to break down the Timberwolves roster and see if a transition offense would really work in Minnesota:

The Good

Ricky Rubio

Even though Rubio struggled when looking for his own offense in transition last season (1.0 PPP in transition, bottom 22% among international players – though 2 years ago, Rubio even had success creating for himself, posting a PPP of 1.31), when creating for others in transition Rubio was incredibly successful, posting an Assit to Turnover ratio of 4.5 in transition:

Rubio’s strengths in transition is that he is always a willing passer and he always has his head up when running.  When pushing the ball in transition, Rubio likes get the ball in the middle of the court and attack, putting pressure on the defense, forcing the defense to collapse and allowing the wings and trailers to fill in and get open.  Whether it is a pass to the rim or out at the three point line, Rubio does a very good job of spotting the open man and getting the ball to him, creating open opportunities for his teammates.  With the type of athletic wings that Rubio will have in Minnesota, he could have a lot of success creating in transition playing under Don Nelson.

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While the men of the NBA are locked out, the women of the WNBA are in the middle of their 15th season.  Unable to pass up the opportunity to watch some high level real live basketball during the lockout, I will be breaking down the WNBA from time to time.

After playing a strong three quarters and taking a big lead going into the fourth, the Minnesota Lynx allowed the Seattle Storm to get back into the game, as they watched Seattle cut their lead to 7 points with 3:12 left in the fourth quarter.  Looking to put a stop to Seattle’s run and put the game out of reach, the Lynx ran a simple pick and roll that Seattle switched, allowing Minnesota to take advantage:

After the ball gets walked up the court, it goes to Seimone Augustus on the wing and once the catch is made Rebekkah Brunson comes from the weak side block and sets a ball screen for Augustus.  Augustus uses the ball screen and Seattle defends it by switching.  Augustus’ defender slides under the screen as Brunson’s defender steps up, picking up Augustus.

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Last year, I started something called NBA Mythbusters, I’m bringing it back this offseason.

Background

You ask any Raptor fan to finish the sentence “Andrea Bargnani is…” and you are more than likely going to get the phrase “a terrible defender.”  Bargnani, the number 1 pick in 2006, is the player that Raptor fans point at when looking to blame someone on their roster for their terrible defense.  This past season, the Raptors had the worst defensive efficiency in the NBA, allowing opponents to score 109.8 points per 100 possessions with Bargnani anchoring the defense.

However, is this Bargnani’s fault, and is he truly a “terrible” defender.  To be terrible, you shouldn’t really be able to do anything good (in this case, on the defensive end).  Does Bargnani fit into this category?

Evidence

In my opinion, when you look at a player’s skill defensively, you need to focus on two very distinct aspects.  On ball defense and off ball defense (help defense).

On Ball Defense

Despite the reputation, Bargnani is actually a very good on ball defender, both on the block and when put in isolation one-on-one situations.  I recently looked at Bargnani’s post defense, here is what I wrote last week:

Despite the reputation, Andrea Bargnani is actually a good post defender.  In the 205 times he was posted up last season, Bargnani held his opponent to just 182 points (0.888 PPP) on just 46.8% shooting.  The key is length.  Bargnani has length, and when defending on the basketball, especially in the post, he knows how to use it well:

Bargnani isn’t going to block a lot of shots, but he is able to go straight up and use his length to contest shots without fouling (fouled opponents on the block just 7.6% of the time) by going straight up.

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With the U19 World Championships finished the attention of those who follow international competitions have turned to Spain, where the U20 European Championships are taking place.  As with the U19 tournament we will have a few posts here and there if anything interesting pops up.

With the U20 European Championships taking place on their home court, Spain looks poised to compete for the gold medal by fielding a very good team.  That roster allowed Spain to beat Turkey by 49 points in the first game of group play.  During that game, the Spanish team executed a beautiful play to perfection, one that revolved around a staggered screen away from the basketball:

The play starts with the Spanish point guard bringing the basketball down the court along the sideline on his right side.  Once the point guard gets to the spot, Josep Franch comes off of a staggered screen and curls off of it looking for the basketball.

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For the past two offseasons, we have been looking at players coming to the NBA after playing at least as season overseas. With the lockout, we are going to have plenty of time on our hands.  With that being said, I plan on doing scouting reports for each of the 30 first round picks from this past draft.

Past Editions: Kyrie Irving (#1) | Derrick Williams (#2) | Tristan Thompson (#4) | Jan Vesely (#6) | Bismack Biyombo (#7)

As I mentioned when looking at Tristan Thompson, Jonas Valanciunas to the Cavs was looking like a lock, but as we got closer to draft night, it was getting more and more up in the air, partially due to Valanciunas’ buy-out forcing him to stay overseas for a year and partially due to how impressed they were with Thompson’s workouts.  As we all know, the Cavs took Thompson allowing Jonas Valanciunas to fall in the Raptors, who need a true center, lap.

Strengths

Off Ball Offense

Valanciunas’ biggest strength offensively is when he is working off of the basketball cutting and in pick and roll sets, and his international team, Lietuvos Rytas was smart enough to build Valanciunas’ offense around that, as 43.3% of his offense was either cuts or pick and rolls (if you want to add offensive rebounds, off ball offense makes up 65.1% of Valanciunas’ offense).

As the roll man in pick and roll sets (23.2% of all offensive possessions) Valanciunas posted a PPP of 1.434, which puts him in the top 4% of all international players as he shot 74.7%.  Valanciunas rolled to the rim 97% of the time in pick and roll sets (slipping the screen the remaining 3%), showing his ability to find lanes when rolling to the rim, making the catch, and getting the ball on the rim:

Valanciunas doesn’t set the best screens and that probably needs to be improved upon (though we have seen guys like David Lee, David West, and Amar’e Stoudemire have success without setting the best screens), but when he is rolling to the rim he does just about everything right.  He makes himself available and once he makes the catch, he is going right up with it and has the ability to finish over the help defender (something we also saw during the u19 tournament).

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For the past two offseasons, we have been looking at players coming to the NBA after playing at least as season overseas. With the lockout, we are going to have plenty of time on our hands.  With that being said, I plan on doing scouting reports for each of the 30 first round picks from this past draft.

Past Editions: Kyrie Irving (#1) |Derrick Williams (#2) | Jan Vesely (#6) | Bismack Biyombo (#7)

Tristan Thompson is a athletically gifted 20 year old (and physical freak – 6’8″ with a 7’2″ wingspan) who didn’t have the most consistant freshman season that we have seen, but he did show tremendous flashes of potential this year. Still, it was a surprise that the Cleveland Cavaliers took Thompson with the fourth overall pick with Jonas Valanciunas still on the board.

Strengths

Off Ball Offense

Thompson is pretty raw offensively, which should make it no surprise that he had the most success offensively away from the basketball, and it is a skill that seems like it could translate well when he makes the jump to the NBA.  Offensive rebounding and putbacks consisted of 17.3% of Thompson’s offense at Texas.  On these putback attempts, Thompson is shooting 54.2%:

Watching Thompson work on the offensive glass, you really get to see the high work-rate that he has on the offensive end.  Thompson does a very good job of reading the ball off of the rim and putting himself in a position to use his athletic ability to grab that rebound.  Once he does get the rebound, he does a very good job of quickly going back up with it and not wasting a lot of motion or time by taking extra dribbles or bringing the basketball down.

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