Blitzing, strongside schemes that bring aggressive, well-executed rotations off pick and rolls are forcing big men all over the NBA to expand their games. Like a quarterback in football, there is an increasing need for bigs that can “make all the throws”. In the NFL, a quarterback not only has to be able hit long routes downfield, he needs to make short, accurate throws in traffic. So while “throws” out of a double team or clever bounce passes from higher up on the floor in a Princeton-style offense are still valuable skills, today’s big men need more.

Unless your team is filled with deadly shooters (or you’re facing the Nets), the days of a post player setting a screen and casually strolling down the lane are long gone. Bigs are finding defenders of all shapes and sizes blocking their path toward the rim. A catch on the roll often leaves them with barely enough time to avoid a charge, much less make an effective basketball play.
Marc Gasol, however, is becoming one of a handful of players that is capable of navigating these dicey situations. Gasol has become adept at consistently creating great looks against a scrambling defense by moving the ball quickly to an open teammate while lumbering toward the rim after a ball screen. Last night against Golden State, he flaunted his envious passing acumen on two different occasions that produce great results Memphis.

In the first video, Gasol follows a pass to Rudy Gay on the left wing with a ball screen. Gay takes one dribble then delivers a nice pocket pass to Gasol as he rolls toward the rim. However, on the weakside of the floor, the Warriors David Lee has rotated over to pick Gasol while Dorell Wright drops to cover his man (Mareese Speights). Even with the speed of the rotation, Gasol is still able to take one dribble and hit a wide open (by design of the coverage) Tony Allen for a corner 3 that he, oddly both takes and makes.

On the next play, Gasol is involved in a middle pick and roll with Mike Conley. Conley throws over the top of a soft hedge and hits Gasol rolling again toward the hoop. Gasol hops to catch a pass thrown slightly behind him, but in an insanely awesome maneuver, delivers a perfect interior bounce pass to teammate Dante Cunningham just as his feet are about to hit the ground. The awareness and skill to make a pass that accurate, that quickly, are just off the charts good. Here is the play both in real time and slowed down.

Passes like these show how deadly having a slick distributing big man like Gasol can be. Roll men that can make this type of play on a consistent basis make their teams infinitely harder guard. So while players that can pass from the block and the high post alike still have a place in this game, there is a need for bigs all over the league to train to make all the throws.

After being last year’s playoff darlings, Memphis was picked as a dark horse contender for this season’s Western Conference crown. Things have been up and down thus far for the Grizzlies, however, and now they find themselves fighting for their playoff lives. The main problem has been their offense, or more aptly put, their lack of it. Memphis currently sits at 24th in the Hollinger’s Offensive Efficiency rankings with the potential return of the injured Zach Randolph looking like the most practical way of improvement.

The pieces outside Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and Marc Gasol aren’t exactly equipped to light up scoreboards. The rest of the surrounding personnel in Memphis probably could be best described as “athletic” more than anything else. Jeremy Pargo, Quincy Pondexter, Tony Allen and Sam Young compromise a group that lacks polished basketball skills but can certainly fly around the floor, particularly on the defensive end. Perhaps that is why, last night, Lionel Hollins threw a small twist at the Jazz; he pressed.

At the start of the second quarter, the Grizzlies pressed the Jazz for back to back possessions with mixed results. In the first possession, coming right at the start of the quarter, a Grizzlies unit Pargo, Pondexter, Gasol, OJ Mayo and Dante Cunningham forced a 24-second violation on the Utah. Make sure to note the time in which the Jazz finally were able to settle into their offense after working hard to get the ball up the floor.

With only 14 seconds left on the clock, the combination of Utah’s lack of flex set and poor clock awareness led to a wasted possession. However, the next time the Jazz inbounded under their own basket, they handled the pressure much better and the result was two foul shots for Paul Millsap. The key to Millsap’s layup attempt came early from a blown coverage during the initial trap.

Take a look:

After this, Hollins called off the dogs outside of a few token man pressures from time to time. But this series brings up a more interesting point. To help make up for their woeful offense, and perhaps find more rest for the overworked trio of Gay, Conley and Gasol, should the Grizzlies press more?

Memphis could trot out a designed pressing lineup of Pargo, Allen, Pondexter, Young (if healthy) and either Cunningham or Hamed Haddadi for 3-4 minute stretches to perhaps confuse wear down an opponent. Unlike high school or college, the press’ goal wouldn’t be to turn the other team over. At the NBA level, there are too many composed ball handlers for that to happen with any consistency. The press would have three distinct goals:

- Wear the opponent down for the final quarter
- Shorten their operating time in the half-court
- Allow more rest time for Gasol, Gay and Conley without completely sacrificing the minutes due to playing non-productive players

(To elaborate on point three a bit more, a struggling player like Pondexter or Pargo has a bigger negative effect on the team when employed for long stretches in their standard scheme. However, when employed with a bigger purpose that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet, their negative impact is minimized justifying them being on the floor for more minutes.)

It’s a certainty the Pargo-Allen-Pondexter-Young-Haddadi/Cunningham group would be a trainwreck offensively, but Memphis could simply look to run at every opportunity and use some basic dribble-drive concepts when stuck in the half-court. Again, this lineup would only be on the floor for brief stretches and, if they accomplish their intended goals, punting offense during this time wouldn’t be a total killer.

The final upside is that by using Allen in this role if could switch up the substitution pattern in a way that allows a much better shooter (Mayo) to be on the floor with Gay, Conley and Gasol during crucial stretches. And let’s face it, those three could use the operating room. With eleven teams competing for eight spots, the Grizzlies should explore any avenue they can in order to stay in the thick of the playoff race.

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At first glance, the Grizzlies 82 point, 24 turnover effort against the Spurs last night doesn’t seem like a demonstration for offensive competency. However, in the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies had a three minute stretch where they may have stumbled upon a possible solution for stagnant offensive schemes. Their answer came in the form of a small-ball lineup featuring a now-healthy Rudy Gay as their stretch four. Today we’ll take a play by play look at how this lineup fared and examine the possibilities going forward.

The first possession with the small-ball lineup results in an illegal defense call on the Spurs Tim Duncan (that led to a made free throw from Gay). While that call isn’t sexy and can be made versus any offensive units, this one is a product of the perimeter-orientated Memphis lineup.

Richard Jefferson’s overaggressive hedge on Grizzlies guard Mike Conley ballscreen drive forces Duncan into a help defense position close to Rudy’s pop near the pinch post. By getting caught loitering in the paint too far away from his man, Dante Cunningham, for three seconds, Duncan gives Memphis a chance at an easy point from the line. Here’s the action leading to the call:

Following the whistle, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins makes the wise choice to go right back to the same action (which happens less than you’d think). Conley does an excellent job of stretching the defense on the hedge off the ballscreen and forces a long closeout to Gay, who pops behind the arc after setting the screen and calmly drains a three off Conley’s kickout. One possession, four points. Not too shabby. Here’s the play:

The next possession down, Gay ballscreens for Conley, this time in the middle of the floor. Conley again does a good job of stretching out the hedge defender allowing Gay to have an uncontested catch. Gay does his part by catching and quickly driving to engage Quincy Pondexter’s defender (Matt Bonner). Pondexter misses the three off Rudy’s kickout, but it is a great look:

The following trip down, Conley and Gay again play a two-man game on the wing. Conley’s speedy attack toward the baseline forces his defender (TJ Ford) to switch onto Gay. Rudy sets up near a good operating area (the pinch post) and Conley wisely feeds him the ball and spaces away. Ford, having to smother the much taller Gay in order to contest a shot, opens himself up to a blow-by and the result is a vicious dunk from Rudy:

The next offensive possession starts the same way, but this time the Spurs choose to hedge and recover quickly to Gay. Gay misses an opportunity to roll to the basket or even dive to more prime real estate (like the left block). In the end, his pinch post attack results in a nice freeze-fake, hook finish in the paint, (a shot Rudy has used and drilled frequently). Despite not making an optimal read initially, Rudy still creates good offense. Here’s the clip:

For those keeping score at home, the Grizzlies now have six points (all from Rudy) in four possessions since they went small with Gay at the four. Those offensive possessions obviously don’t include the two trips that resulted in no points, but produced good looks and, perhaps most importantly, no turnovers.

The next time down, Rudy and Mike move their screening action back to the middle of the floor. The play gets to be a little helter-skelter but results in a Randolph tip in. While Gay isn’t directly involved in the action, his presence allows the opportunity.

Watch closely during the next video as Conley’s jumper goes up. Tony Parker, due to Duncan’s contest of Conley’s shot, is left trying to block out Zach Randolph. James Anderson notices this situation and moves to double-team Randolph in order to keep him off the glass. Anderson is forced to make this rotation because Rudy smartly fills behind Randolph’s roll to the rim, pulling his defender (Jefferson) with him. Because Anderson slides across the rim to box out, Quincy Pondexter has room on the weakside to sneak in and tap the rebound toward Randolph, who he lays it back in for the basket:

The final possession before the Grizzlies go back to their traditional lineup involves yet another middle pick and roll. Because of a quick transition from defense to offense, Duncan is left guarding Gay. As Rudy screens for Conley, Duncan shows quickly. It is here that Rudy shows that this floor combination still has a few kinks to work out.

Instead of popping toward the left wing, Gay tries to cut down toward the block. This is probably a sub-optimal read given that Rudy’s main advantage over Duncan, quickness, doesn’t have nearly the same effect 12 feet from the basket as it does from 25. Conley swings the ball to Sam Young on the right wing as Rudy maneuvers to isolate against Duncan near the block. Young, not knowing for great decision-making, jacks a long two instead of patiently waiting for Rudy to free himself to operate. Here’s the play:

All in all, that fourth quarter stretch produced eight points in six possessions (1.3 average). Doesn’t seem like much until you factor in that if the Grizzlies averaged that for their (roughly) 97 possessions last night, they would have hung 126 points on San Antonio. Obviously, that is a ridiculously small sample size, but there’s no denying the Memphis playing small with Rudy Gay at the four has some serious upside. If the Grizzlies can add a potent offensive attack to their turnover-producing defense, they could find themselves in the top half of the Western Conference very quickly.

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The Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook pick and pop with Durant coming off of a screen away from the basketball is a play that the Oklahoma City Thunder ran against the Memphis Grizzlies in the past with mixed success.  When they ran it against Tony Allen, the Thunder struggled to score:

The reason that the Grizzlies are able to stop the Thunder’s pick and pop here is because Allen has absolutely no interest in hedging on Russell Westbrook coming off of the screen.  This allows him to stay attached to Durant’s body and prevent the pass from going to him.

However, when they ran it with Shane Battier covering him, they had some success due to Battier’s tendency to hedge on Westbrook coming off of the screen:

For whatever reason, Battier decides to hedge and this allows Durant to get off of his defender’s body and cut to the rim where he gets the pass and the dunk.

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With 6.1 seconds left in the 2nd quarter, it looked like the Oklahoma City Thunder were going to go into the half with a 13 point lead and some momentum.  However, with the Grizzlies taking the basketball out on the side, the Thunder were forced into a mistake, allowing the Grizzlies to get a three pointer at the buzzer that completely shifted the momentum in Memphis’ favor.  That mistake?  Poor communication between Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka:

As the ball goes to Battier, the trigger man, Sefolosha is playing off of him a little bit.  This allows Battier to have a clear passing lane to Darrell Arthur who flashes to the wing, looking for the basketball.

After making the inbounds pass to Arthur, Battier quickly cuts off of him, getting the ball back from Arthur.  This essentially sets up a screen situation with Arthur setting the screen after handing off the basketball.

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Most of the Memphis Grizzlies’ offensive firepower comes from the block with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol posting their men up.  As an offense, once you establish that post threat, you can do some things working off of that post threat, using it as a decoy, and setting up other stuff.  In the first quarter of game six against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Grizzlies gave us a perfect example of how to use a post threat to open up stuff for others:

As Mike Conley brings the basketball down the court, Marc Gasol sets a pindown screen for Shane Battier.  Battier uses the screen and flashes to the pinch post, where he receives the basketball.

After setting the initial screen, Gasol continues to walk to the block where he sets another screen, this time for O.J. Mayo.  Mayo comes off of the screen with his defender Thabo Sefolosha trailing him.

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In game six against the Memphis Grizzlies, the fourth quarter was a real struggle for the Thunder as they only scored 15 points on 31% shooting.  While there is going to be a camp that blames Russell Westbrook and a camp that blames Kevin Durant (in my opinion, they both played an equal role in the quarter), there was one Thunder player on the court that made things difficult for them to score and that player is Kendrick Perkins.

Coach Scott Brooks kept Perkins in the game for the final eight minutes in the fourth quarter, where he posted a +/- of -5 during that stretch (according to the fantastic PopcornMachine.net).  While Perkins’ free throw shooting is poor, that isn’t even the reason why Perkins shouldn’t be in.  Kendrick Perkins shouldn’t be in the during the fourth quarter of close games because of the fact that he isn’t a threat on the offensive end.  This allows whoever is covering him (in this case Marc Gasol) to basically ignore him and play off of him.  In this particular case, Gasol was able to shade towards Kevin Durant and keep the ball out of his hands.  There were three specific plays that come to mind when looking at Perkins and how Marc Gasol is able to play off of him:

This play starts with Russell Westbrook bringing up the basketball along the sideline.  As that happens, Durant gets a cross screen set for him by Nick Collison.  Durant jab steps one direction and then comes back towards the screen, using it very well.

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After an epic triple overtime game, the Oklahoma City Thunder ran away with game five, beating the Memphis Grizzlies by 27 points.  Perhaps the biggest problem the Memphis Grizzlies had with the Thunder was transition defense, as they allowed the Thunder scored 25 points off of their 14 transition opportunities.

While some of the opportunities were simply the Thunder being a better team, a good chunk of the chances were due to poor transition defense from the Grizzlies:

Mistake 1:  Everyone Stops The Basketball

This break opportunity starts with Russell Westbrook getting the basketball and pushing it up the floor.  Westbrook’s speed creates a four on three fast break chance.

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Whenever the Oklahoma City Thunder find themselves in a close game late, it seems like everyone watching the game (and talking about it on Twitter/TV) focuses on Russell Westbrook, and when the Thunder don’t have success and Kevin Durant isn’t touching the basketball, everyone seems to bash Westbrook for it.  That is exactly what happened in game four, a game the Thunder eventually pulled out in triple overtime.

In the fourth quarter and in overtime, Kevin Durant didn’t get a shot off in about nine minutes or so, and despite Russell Westbrook being the point guard, this isn’t on him.  It is on Kevin Durant, who seems to struggle more and more when it comes to moving off of the basketball late.  We saw plenty of examples of this in game four.

Lack Of Movement

Something that should be extrememly concerning for Thunder fans is that Kevin Durant is starting to watch Russell Westbrook more and more.  Instead of moving off of the basketball, Durant is getting flat-footed behind the three point line, even when his man turns his head/leaves him to help on the basketball:

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Collapse might be the best word to describe what happened to Oklahoma City, who had a 11 point lead with 7:43 left in the 4th quarter, but ended up losing in overtime after scoring just 4 points in that time.  With the ball in Russell Westbrook’s hands and with Durant not scoring, just about all of the blame has been heaped onto Westbrook.  While he deserves a large chunk of the blame, there are others who deserve blame as well.  Even though it may not be equal, Russell Westbrook, Scott Brooks, and Kevin Durant all deserve to be blamed for the Thunder’s loss yesterday.

Scott Brooks:

Scott Brooks playcalling should definitely be called into question here, because throughout the final minutes of the game, the Thunder were just standing around, running simple pindown screens for Kevin Durant, or running the same play over and over.  Too often, the result was Russell Westbrook with the basketball as the shot clock was winding down, forcing him to attempt to make a play.  I think the most egregious error made by Brooks came at the start of the collapse, coming off of the heels of a great play:

This is a fantastic play called by Brooks and executed well by Westbrook and Durant.  Durant gets a screen from Nick Collison and comes off of it to set a screen for Westbrook.  With Battier trailing, he is forced to try and hedge, and that frees up a lane for Durant to roll into.

After a timeout and a three by Memphis, the Thunder had the basketball looking to once again go up by double digits.  Instead, they ran the same play and the result was a turnover:

Because there was a timeout right before this possession, running the same play isn’t a smart move by Brooks.  This is because Memphis was in their huddle talking about how to stop this play (Durant’s man didn’t hedge and Westbrook’s man went under the screen).  With their initial read now stifled, Westbrook and Durant are left to try and create on their own, and they end up turning the ball over.

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