Memphis’ Offensive Solution?
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.
Follow Brett on Twitter
