One of fundamental aspects missing in today’s game is the ability for players (of any position) to work hard to get good spots on the floor (For post-up opportunities, that usually means getting at least one foot in the paint on a post catch). Contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t always derived from laziness. In fact, most times it’s because players are so used to be so much taller/stronger/more athletic than their competition, that they haven’t yet realized the value of getting prime real estate. Hibbert (and Bynum) are both exceptions that rule.In last night’s contest, Hibbert had a nice contrast of showing the good things that happen with great positioning versus the mistakes that can be made without it.

His first basket of the night was fundamentally perfect from an effort, execution and technique standpoint. About halfway through the second quarter, the Pacers run a quick set seemingly designed to get Paul George and David West engaged in a pick and pop in the middle of the floor. Hibbert starts off on the weakside of the floor as George begins to drive left off the screen.

Knowing that West is popping toward the foul line, Hibbert realize he has an opportunity to duck-in for a quick post up as George clears the hedge. His timing is perfect as he circles around Bynum (whose defensive effort is less than ideal), sits on his legs with both hands high inside the restricted arc. Hibbert receives the ball from George and finishes with a nice no-dribble, right hand jump hook (the ability to shoot so deep without having to use a dribble shows what great work he did to get positioning).
Here is the clip:

The following video has three possessions in which Hibbert again gets great position deep on the block or in the paint. Each catch has at least one foot in (or right near) the lane. Not coincidentally, all three attempts are makes.

As I mentioned before, Hibbert wasn’t flawless on the night. His two turnovers could both be attributed to poor location upon receiving the ball. On each catch that precedes a turnover, Hibbert is pushed more toward the 12-15 foot range than the 7-10 foot range we saw before. The first play you’ll see results in a travel, due to the awkward nature of Hibbert trying to get to one of his counters from so far out. The second is an errant pass possibly caused by Hibbert anticipating an angle out of his post up he wasn’t used to. Check it out:

With Danny Granger struggling to start the year (and not really being a go-to option to begin with), the Pacers could use Hibbert’s post presence to carry them through any offensive lulls. As long as he continues to work for deep post positioning, Hibbert will continue to factor heavily into Indiana’s offensive success.

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The play starts with the 4 Bulls on the court in a diamond formation with Derrick Rose at the bottom and Kyle Korver at the top.  As the ball goes to the trigger man, Derrick Rose sets a backscreen for Korver, who uses it then flashes to the opposite corner.

After setting the backscreen for Korver, Rose comes off of a screen of his own, getting one from Joakim Noah and using it to get to the corner.

Rose is denied in the corner, so Noah flashes to the basketball and he gets the pass from Luol Deng.

After making the pass, Deng flashes to the corner, getting a backscreen from Rose.

Now this is where things start to fall apart.  The plan here is to get Rose the basketball from Noah using a dribble handoff as Korver comes off of a pindown set from Carlos Boozer.  They were looking for two options, either Rose pulling up for three off of the dribble or Korver getting wide open for the three.  However, Rose slips and this allows his defender Dahntay Jones to stay with him and deny him the basketball.  At this point, Noah panics and dribbles towards the corner.

With nothing going on now, Noah picks up his dribble and he is forced to get the basketball to Luol Deng, who is flashing to the middle.

Deng makes the catch and the only option here is to hit Carlos Boozer in the corner behind the three point line.

Boozer takes the three with Jeff Foster closing out on him and fails to knock it down.  Here is the play in real time:

As you can see, the Bulls had a decent set lined up, but because Rose slipped, they were unable to execute. Right or wrong, this is why coaches tend to start the ball in their best players hand and run simple isolations/pick and roll sets. The fear of not getting them the basketball at all, which is exactly what happens here.

This play with the score tied starts with Tyler Hansbrough setting a downscreen for Darren Collison.  Collison uses the downscreen to flash towards the basketball.  He gets it easily.

Once Collison gets the basketball, Roy Hibbert comes over and tries to set a ballscreen for Collison at the top of the key.

Hibbert actually gets in a poor position to set the screen.  He starts off behind the man he wants to screen (Derrick Rose) as if he is waiting for Collison to pick a direction he wants to go in.

Collison commits to his left side, and Hibbert tries to get in position to set the screen, but Collison goes too quickly, not allowing Hibbert to get set.  This allows Rose to simply step over the weak screen and stay in front of Collison.

Despite Rose going unscreened, the Pacers continue to try and work their offense.  Hibbert starts to roll to the rim and Danny Granger flares up towards the top of the key.  However, because Hibbert was unable to get a screen set, the Bulls are able to get into their pick and roll defense effectively and prevent Collison from getting into the lane.

With the pick and roll stopped, Collison is now in one-on-one mode, simply looking to create a basket.  Because of this, he ignores what is taking place on the weakside, and that is two Bulls’ defenders getting crossed up and running into each other while chasing Granger on the perimeter.

Collison now has two very good options here, he can either pass it to Hibbert, who established strong post position after his roll to the rim, or even better he could hit the open Danny Granger on the elbow.

However, Collison doesn’t go through with either of those option and he takes a contested pull up jumper with nobody in the paint to get the rebound (Hibbert had to get out of the lane to prevent a three second call/give Collison room to drive).  Here is the play in real time:

Partial blame goes to Hibbert here, because he could have come over a picked a side to set the screen on his own, but Collison is also at fault (and in my opinion, he is at fault more).  Once Hibbert decides to set a screen on his left side, Collison goes too quickly and doesn’t set up the ball screen.  In addition, he leaves too much space between himself and the screener.  The result is a missed jumper.

After Derrick Rose’s go-ahead basket, the Pacers found themselves down two points with 17.8 seconds left.  Once again, bad screens was a big reason why they were unable to get a good look off:

To start their offense, the Pacers run the same pindown screen for Darren Collison, this time using Roy Hibbert as the screener instead of Tyler Hansbrough.

Again, after Collison gets the basketball, the Pacers have a big (Tyler Hansbrough instead of Roy Hibbert) setting a ball screen.  Again, Collison does a poor job of setting up the ball screen, leaving too much space between him and Hansbrough to make the screen effective.

This means that Rose has nothing to worry about and he is able to easily get through the screen.  Once Tyler Hansbrough sets (or at least tries to set) his ball screen, he heads straight to the elbow to set a pindown screen for Danny Granger.

Here, we see another poor job of setting up a screen, but this time it is the screen away from the basketball.  Granger goes full speed the whole time, not slowing down (or even stopping) to set up the off ball screen by Tyler Hansbrough.  So instead of a pindown screen, you now just have two players running by each other.  Because of that, Deng is able to get over the “screen” rather easily and stay with Granger.

So when Granger gets the basketball, he is unable to catch and shoot (which, in my opinion was what the play was set up for) because Luol Deng is right in his face.

The Pacers try to recover by giving Granger a ball screen, but that only makes things worse because now the Bulls are able to use their pick and roll defense.  Noah hedges hard to prevent penetration while Deng comes over to complete the trap.

Granger is forced to pass the basketball to Collison, and then he runs back to it to get a handoff from him.  After receiving the handoff, Granger takes a poor contested jumper as if to put this failed set out of its misery.  The shot misses, and the Pacers eventually lose the game.  Here is the play in real time:

Screens are designed to get either the ball handler or a shooter away from the basketball open, but a strong ball screen does so much more than that.  It puts pressure on the defense and forces them to make all of their rotations correctly.  Weak screens (or screens that aren’t set up correctly) lets the defense off of the hook, and that is exactly what happens on these two possessions.  The Pacers poor looks were a direct result of the poor screens that they set.

After using up some clock, the basketball finally gets into the hands of Derrick Rose and he dribbles it out at the top of the key.  As this happens, Carlos Boozers sets a downscreen for Joakim Noah, who comes off of the screen and sets a screen of his own.  That screen is a ball screen for Derrick Rose.

Rose shows as if he is going to use the screen, but he stays up high as if to see how the Pacers were going to defend the screen (maybe trying to see if he is going to trait/bait the Pacers into the switch).

Niether of those two things happen and everything resets with Dahntay Jones on Derrick Rose and Paul George on Kyle Korver.  Rose attacks the left side and it is George’s responsibility to dig in and try to cut off penetration.

However, George is so worried that Korver is going to spot up on him, that he only reaches in instead of taking the extra step to try and get in front of Rose.  Once Rose clears George, Danny Granger is now responsible for stepping in and trying to keep Rose from getting to the rim.

However, Granger is extremely late with his help, hesitating because he doesn’t want to leave Luol Deng open in the corner.  By the time Granger commits to playing defense on Rose, it is too late as Rose is already starting to attempt his lay-up.

With nobody stopping the basketball, Rose is able to get all the way to the rim and finish the lay-in, giving his team the lead for good.  Here is the play in real time:

A couple things:

• First, it is brilliant by Bulls’ coach Tom Thibodeau to have Derrick Rose penetrate on the side where he has his two best outside shooters (Korver/Deng) spotting up.  Rose has shown he is willing to kick the basketball out (the Miami game comes to mind) in this situation, so both Korver and Deng are real threats that the defense has to worry about.  As you can see, those shooters prevented both George and Granger from committing to the help completely.
• I mentioned in my adjustment post over at SBNation I said that my biggest adjustment for the Pacers’ defense was to not overthink things.  They did it again in this game.  Instead of having Paul George defending Derrick Rose late, they gave the responsibility to Dahntay Jones.  Jones was unable to stay in front of Rose and he didn’t have the length to contest Rose at the rim.  This is the second time that the Pacers opted to go away from a one-on-one George/Rose matchup, and it is the second time the adjustment failed.
• In my opinion, Vogel probably wanted George on Korver to help and recover (he has the length and athletic ability to do so), but George showed his inexperience by reaching in on Rose instead of helping completely.

One of the reasons why Paul George on Derrick Rose works to the Pacers’ advantage is George’s length.  This allowed George to sit back and get in position to defend the drive but still contest the jump shot:

Here, George helps on the penetration and then the ball is kicked out to Derrick Rose.  Instead of closing out hard on Rose to try and take away the shot and then having Rose blow by him, George is able to sit back a little further and still get a good contest on the three point shot.

George’s length also allowed him to defend at the rim without committing fouls.  This is important when it comes to Rose as he has been getting to the line quite a bit recently.  In fact, according to StatsCube, Rose is going to the line 7.8 times less per 36 minutes with Paul George on the court (in the playoffs):

On this play, Rose looks to penetrate and create contact.  Normally you would see a defender jumping with Rose to try and contest this attempt, but with George’s height he doesn’t need to jump and this prevents George from fouling.

In addition to being able to protect against Rose’s drives, George’s length allowed the Pacers to hedge on the Bulls’ pick and rolls, have George go under the screen, and still contest the shot effectively.  This became their defensive strategy for the pick and roll throughout the game:

George’s length allows him to go under screens and still get good contests (in the first clip). Being able to go under screens is important because it allows the defense to “load up” against Rose’s drives. In the second clip, George goes under the screen and is able to meet Rose as he drives, contesting the shot (verses going over the screen and chasing Rose as he penetrates).

On this hedge, you see Rose not even look to penetrate as going under the screen keeps him out of the lane. Rose then tries to kick the basketball out to the wing and the ball gets stolen.

It wasn’t all good for George though as Rose and the Bulls were able to take advantage of him a bit.  The first problem that George had was that he was biting on Rose’s pump-fakes, getting caught in the air and making things easy for Rose:

Maybe I could understand biting on the first pump fake (even though he has the length to be able to stand there with his hands up and he doesn’t need to jump), but jumping on Rose’s pump fake behind the three point line is a rookie mistake that can’t happen. Rose is able to take advantage, get in the lane, and draw the foul.

In addition, the Bulls started moving Rose around without the basketball, and when that happened (specifically when Rose was using screens away from the basketball) George had trouble sticking with Rose:

Here, you see Rose inbounding the basketball and then coming off of screens, curling to the rim. George is trying to trail him, but he loops around the screen too much, giving Rose the lane and letting him make the catch and draw the foul.

Again here, you see George getting a little loose when trailing Rose around screens. He doesn’t stay attached to his hip, and this allows him to get free, get the basketball, and attack the rim.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Bulls had Rose on the court with George on the bench.  The Pacers went with Brandon Rush covering Rose, but they also switched up their pick and roll defense, trapping Rose every time he came off of a screen.  It was a very effective strategy:

Here, Rose comes off of the screen along the sideline and looks like he wants to attack the rim. The Pacers trap him and force him to take a few dribbles backwards. Eventually, Rose gets called for the carry on this possession.

On this play, you have another hard hedge from the Pacers, and Jeff Foster does a great job of defending with his hands up, getting the deflection, and forcing the turnover.

However, after getting a few stops by trapping hard on screens, the Pacers stopped doing that and started switching screens.  Don’t know if this was a player’s decision or if it was Vogel’s decision (I am leaning towards the latter since it happen with both Rush and George on the court), but it ended up with Danny Granger on Rose, and that is just a mismatch:

On both of these screens, Rose’s initial defender doesn’t even try to fight over (or go under) the ballscreen.  The switch takes place, and much like Chris Paul against the Lakers, Rose is able to take advantage.

The last big defensive decision that the Pacers made on Rose was the double team with 1:15 left in the game.  I took a closer look at this earlier today, but here is another look:

In theory, the double team is a good idea I guess, but I am not sure why the Pacers even needed to do it.  As you can see, George did a very good job on Rose and the only reason he was scoring down the stretch of game 2 was because the defense was switching screens.  I understand wanting to get it out of Rose’s hands, but I would have rather have had George defend Rose one-on-one.  At least that way, you wouldn’t give up the three.

All things considered, I think Paul George did a solid job on Derrick Rose.  Rose went off during stretches, but he is a great player and that is going to happen.  George’s biggest problem was biting on pump fakes and trailing Rose around screens, but when he was defending Rose on the basketball, he was fine.

I was really surprised to see Vogel change his defensive strategy late (going from the hard double to switch), because the trapping was working so well.  Either way, I think the Pacers did enough on the defensive end, their biggest problem is scoring late in games.  They really struggle there.

Seeing the ways that the Bulls lined up, you can see that they are expecting a double team (or at least want to prevent it).  The players one pass away from Rose are good shooters, making it impossible for the Pacers to double from those spots, and they have their two bigs on the opposite side of the court.  Eventually, the Pacers send Tyler Hansbrough to Rose to try and double him.

As soon as Tyler Hansbrough leaves his spot on the court and goes to double team Rose the Bulls’ bigs take advantage as both of them cut to the paint.  Noah cuts more to the top of the key in front of Jeff Foster while Carlos Boozer cuts behind Foster to the ball side block.

You now have the Bulls forcing Jeff Foster into making a decision on the defensive end.  Either guard Boozer or Noah.  In addition, the flash from Boozer actually causes AJ Price to sink in off of Kyle Korver in the short corner and help on Boozer on the block.

Because the double team came from so far away, Rose sees it coming and makes the pass to the open Noah at the top of the key.  Granger looks like he is in position to make a defensive play on Noah, but his man does a great job of flashing towards the corner, maintaining spacing and pulling Granger away from the basketball.

Noah turns and faces, taking one dribble into the lane and sucking the defense towards him.  Not only does Jeff Foster step up, but Price now turns his back to his man and focuses all of his attention on the basketball.  Also, with Rose passing out of the double team, you have two guys who need to rotate back out of the double team.  Paul George looks like he is staying with Rose so this means Tyler Hansbrough has the responsibility to rotate to the open man, which is Korver in the corner.  This is actually not that tough of a rotation since he isn’t too far away from him.

However, that rotation never comes as Hansbrough gets drawn to the basketball as well.  You now have three defenders covering Noah in the paint, leaving Kyle Korver wide open in the corner.  Noah does a great job of spotting him and getting the pass out to the corner.

Korver makes the catch and he is able to pull up and get the shot off before Price closes out on him (it takes longer since he had his back turned), knocking down the shot and putting the game out of reach.  Here is the play in real time:

Usually in a situation like this, one team either makes the great play or makes the big mistake.  In this case, I feel like it is more 50-50.  The Bulls do a great job of being prepared for the double team, maintaining spacing, and executing their strategy, but they are helped by a few Pacer mistakes (A.J. Price turning his back/Tyler Hansbrough not rotating back to the open man).

Here is what we looked at for the upcoming Bulls-Pacers series:

• Offensive Breakdown
• Defensive Breakdown
• X-factors: Luol Deng-Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Check in tomorrow when we are going to be finishing off the Eastern Conference, looking at both the Celtics-Knicks series and the Heat-Sixers series.

Chicago Bulls – Luol Deng

Why Is He Important?

Luol Deng is probably the Bulls’ third best option on the offensive end, but if Chicago is able to get him going, their offense is really tough to stop.  This is because you now have Rose penetrating to the hole, Boozer on the block, and Deng spotting up/cutting without the basketball.  Also, when Deng is hitting his jumpers, he makes it much harder for the defense to help on Rose’s drives or double on Boozer’s post moves.

How Can The Bulls Get The Most Out Of Him?

By using him correctly.  This means keeping him away from Isolation opportunities.  Deng gets isolated in just about 20% of his possessions, and in my opinion that is just way too much, considering how ineffective he is.  Deng is in the bottom quarter of the league in terms of PPP and he is shooting just 34%.  This is due in large part to his slow dribble-drives to the rim:

Here, Deng gets McRoberts switched on him, yet he is able to get by him and get a clean look at the rim.  Deng’s drive is slowed in large part due to his high dribble, and you can really see how it hampers him in this clip.

The Bulls need to keep Deng from dominating the basketball and allow him to do his work off of the basketball.  He is much more successful cutting to the rim (shooting 61%), working off of the ball, both spotting up and coming off of screens (shooting 40% in both categories).  That is where his possessions need to be used for him to be effective and for him to help the Bulls win this series.

Indiana Pacers – Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Why Is He Important?

We already looked at Mike Dunleavy Jr. and his ability to work off of screens away from the basketball, but as it turns out, Dunleavy Jr. might be the Pacers best offensive option overall.  He simply does a number of things very well, and if the Pacers get him going, the Bulls’ defense might have trouble trying to stop him.  How Can The Pacers

Get The Most Out Of Him?

In addition to screens away from the basketball, Dunleavy Jr. is in the top 10 percent of PPP when it comes to spotting up.  Much like when he gets the ball coming off of screens, it all comes down to footwork for Dunleavy Jr. and that is how is he able to get quick and accurate shots up.  Dunleavy Jr. also is very good at reading the defense and spotting up accordingly:

Here, the ball goes into Roy Hibbert and Dunleavy Jr.’s man turns his attention to Hibbert in the paint.  Instead of just standing there and hoping the basketball comes to him, Dunleavy Jr. spots up at the top of the key, where he gets the ball and knocks down the open jumper.

If Dunleavy Jr. knocks down shots early, the Bulls will be hesitant to leave him and that could hurt both their pick and roll defense and their defense in the post.

• Defensive Efficiency: 97.4 (1st)
• Opp. TS%: 50.9% (1th)
• Opp. Assist Rate: 18.21 (2nd)
• Opp. Turnover Rate: 13.64 (11th)
• Defensive Rebound Rate: 76.10 (2nd)
• Block Rate: 6.1 (3rd)
• Opp. Free Throw Rate: 29.7 (11th)
• Opp. Three Point Rate: 19.7 (27th)

Chicago Bulls – Strengths

Pick And Roll Defense

The Chicago Bulls are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to stopping the pick and roll, both the ball handler coming off of screens and the roll man.  According to Synergy, the Bulls are top 5 in both pick and roll defensive categories.  What it all comes down to is the Bulls ability to “swarm” the basketball and force misses/turnovers (the following was pulled from my Bulls’ PNR defense post over at SBNation):

Here, you have Jerryd Bayless coming off of a screen set, taking the basketball to the middle of the court.  Taj Gibson steps up and meets Bayless as Derrick Rose goes over the screen.

Just like with the Celtics, you have two defenders committed to defending the basketball.  This leaves the screener open, and Omer Asik steps up to pick him up.

As the pass gets made, Asik is right there in the screener’s face, defending him.  Eventually, the ball is forced to be kicked out to start the offense again (where the Raptors try another pick-and-roll that fails).

Just like with the Celtics, there are sharp rotations here on this pick and roll.  As Asik steps up to defend the roll man, his man flashes from one block to the other, trying to create confusion and mess with the Bulls’ rotations.  Instead, Gibson simply drops down and picks him up after the pass from Bayless gets made.

On this play, the Pistons run a pick-and-roll and the Bulls dedicate their three defenders to it with Rose and Kurt Thomas playing the ball handler and Carlos Boozer stepping up to the roll man.  Boozer leaves his man, meaning Luol Deng needs to leave his man in the corner to pick him up.  That happens as the basketball gets deflected out of bounds.

Closing Out On Shooters

The Chicago Bulls are the best team in the NBA when it comes to defending spot-up opportunities for the defense.  According to Synergy, the Bulls are first in the league in terms of PPP allowed in this category, holding opponents to 37.7% shooting.  In addition, the Bulls only give up threes on 19.7% of their opponents shots, that is 4th lowest in the NBA.  In my opinion, the Bulls are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to helping in the paint, and then recovering to shooters:

How the Bulls help is what allows them to close out on the shooter.  Here, as the pick and roll takes place, the only pass the Bulls are giving up is a cross court pass, knowing that they can recover in time.  That is exactly what happens as the ball goes to Ryan Anderson.  Taj Gibson, Anderson’s man is able to recover and contest the shot because of the distance on the pass.

Chicago Bulls – Weaknesses

Transition Defense

The Bulls’ defense is so good, that the only weakness that I can find is something that they are average (and not above average) at doing.  Instead of being in the top ten of PPP allowed, the Bulls are just 17th in the league, allowing 1.15 points per possession.  Where the Bulls really get hurt is when teams look to get three point shots in transition:

When teams get an advantage on the Bulls (in this particular case the Celtics have a 4 on 3 break), the Bulls have a tendency to sink into the paint a little too much.  This is what opens up the kick out pass behind the three point line.  Here, Korver stops the basketball, and you have two defenders in the paint.  One needs to try and get out to the three point line before the pass is made to contest the shot.

Indiana Pacers – The Numbers*

• Defensive Efficiency: 103.5 (12th)
• Opp. TS%: 53.0% (9th)
• Opp. Assist Rate: 19.03 (5th)
• Opp. Turnover Rate: 12.65 (25th)
• Defensive Rebound Rate: 73.97 (15th)
• Block Rate: 5.8 (6th)
• Opp. Free Throw Rate: 30.9 (10th)
• Opp. Three Point Rate: 20.5 (23rd)

Indiana Pacers – Strengths

Defending Off Ball Screens

When defending players coming off of off ball screens, the Pacers are one of the best teams in the league.  The Pacers hold opponents to just 35.9% shooting and a PPP of 0.793, which is 3rd best in the NBA.  The Pacers have length at a lot of positions, and that is what helps them challenge shots:

Their size is what allows them to bother shots that normally would be considered open.  Here, Granger gets a pindown screen set on him.  Granger gets off of it, but not in time to get out to Williams completely, however Granger’s length is what lets him get a hand on the shot, bothering it enough to force the miss.

Post Defense

In the post, the Pacers are able to hold their opponents to just 42% shooting.  Their best post defender seems to be Jeff Foster, who holds opposing players to just 30% shooting.  In fact in 94 post up attempts, opponents have scored just 61 points.  Foster is able to succeed because he has perfect technique:

Here, Foster is going up against the bigger Emeka Okafor and he just does everything correctly.  He uses his hands to try and keep Okafor from getting strong position, and once Okafor gets the basketball, he takes his hands off.  Okafor tries to back him down, and instead of pushing off, Foster absorbs the contact with his body and gets his hands straight up in the air, contesting the shot and forcing a miss without fouling.

Indiana Pacers – Weaknesses

Isolation Defense

With the Chicago Bulls being the best isolation team on the offensive end of the court, the fact that the Pacers are one of the worst Isolation defenses (29th in terms of PPP) in the league is really going to hurt them this series, especially considering who is the worst isolation defender on the Pacers.  That is Darren Collison, the team’s starting point guard.  Collison allows 1.16 points per possession when the opponent isolations him, with any number over 1 being terrible, this number is especially terrible.  It is hard to think of someone so quick as a poor one-on-one defender, but Collison’s size really hurts him.  Look at how a player with the size of John Wall (who’s size and playing style is comparable to Rose) can easily bully him with the basketball:

Here, Wall makes the catch and Collison is right up on him.  Wall simply drives on a straight line, takes Collison to the spot he wants to be on the court and hits the floater.

—

*All numbers come from the fantastic website Hoopdata.com

• 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