Simple but effective works for OKC
To open the second half of their game against the Grizzlies, the Thunder used their star Kevin Durant to chip away at a six point half-time deficit en route to a 101-94 win. OKC did it in a rather unconventional fashion; by running the same action over and over again. With the bevy of play calls at their disposal, sometimes coaches outsmart themselves (even at the NBA level). Scott Brooks, however, ran a simple pin down action for Durant on seven of the first eight possessions with extremely successful, and diverse, results.
In the first clip, the Thunder come out of a sideline out-of-bounds looking to run Durant off a screen from Kendrick Perkins on the left side of the floor. KD comes off and immediately kicks to Russell Westbrook sliding on along the 3-point arc after delivering the pass. Westbrook attacks hard rip off the pass back and draws a foul in the middle of the paint.
What makes this opening possible is Memphis’ Tony Allen stunting ever so slightly on his catch to ward off a middle drive by Durant as his defender, Rudy Gay, recovers through the screen.
This movement and quick pass back to Westbrook creates a small closeout situation that the explosive Westbrook easily exploits.
The next possession is something most fans are used to seeing, Durant curling off a screen and draining a mid-range jumper.
What allows this to happen is Marc Gasol failing to offer curl protection on a trailing Gay. If Durant has a trailing defender and doesn’t see a hard show, it makes his read very simple; catch and shoot.
Perhaps overcompensating from Durant’s open jumper the previous trip down the floor, the Grizzlies Mareese Speights shows out a little too early on the next screen in the following possession. Durant and Ibaka combine to read the play and the result is an uncontested dunk by Serge Ibaka.
We’re starting to see how complicated this seemingly simple action can be. In the following picture, we’ll realize that if Speights hedges hard to contest a Durant jumper. With Durant making such an efficient read coming off the screen, the only saving grace is an extremely quick rotation from Gasol over to Ibaka.
Gasol’s rotation, as the video showed, doesn’t get there and it’s two more Thunder points.
With all this attention centered around the screening action itself, it’s easy to forget about the weakside of the floor. Durant takes care of that by coming off another screen from Ibaka, taking one dribble toward the middle of the paint, then kicking out to a wide open Daequan Cook for 3.
In the following freeze, you’ll see that literally all five Grizzlies defenders are in the paint, focused on the Durant. Cook is left with more than enough space to knock down the shot.
After making great reads to find teammates, Durant’s read the next possession allows him to find his offense. Durant comes off an Ibaka screen that Speights is now hesitant to show on. Durant is then able to hangs in the air and nail a right-hand runner.
Taking a closer look, we see that Speights failure to show forces Tony Allen to attempt to disrupt Durant’s move toward the middle of the paint. Allen, unable to get his body in front of KD and force and non-penetrating pass out, can only swipe at the ball.
As this crazy saga continues, we see that Durant’s last attempt causes the newly inserted Dante Cunningham to focus too much on him. This time, Westbrook finds a slipping Ibaka for a two shot foul.
The final result of this series is similar to how it began. This time, the defense is so focused on defending the pin down action, they forget all other help responsibilities. Westbrook, taking advantage of Tony Allen perhaps shading toward Durant’s side of the floor, blows by him toward the rim en route to another foul.
Cunningham, focused entirely too much on the possible screen coming away from the ball, doesn’t realize Westbrook is barreling toward the rim until it’s too late.
This entire sequence of playcalling allowed the Thunder to be incredibly efficient and stay in the game until Durant took over late in the fourth. Scott Brooks, sometimes maligned for his offensive acumen, does a great job during this stretch of simply pounding Memphis with an action they were unable to contain. If the Thunder and Brooks can continue to exploit defense like this, OKC won’t be falling back to the pack anytime soon.
Quantity, not quality the answer for New York
After an exciting opening day win against Boston, New York promptly dropped four of their next five games and were left scrambling for answers. One of the chief concerns was a lack of consistent offense. Three out of those four losses during that stretch contained brutal offensive outputs. Fans and observers alike questioned whether the Knicks were destined to be a train wreck all season. However, recent wins against Washington and Detroit (I know, I know, not exactly Murderer’s Row) have shown that New York is at least taking steps in the right direction.
The Knicks major problem on offense has been the lack of a true playmaker to fit Mike D’Antoni’s spread pick and roll system. While eliminating a vast majority of that pick and roll action was certainly an option, it would perhaps move away from New York’s biggest strength; explosive roll men. Amare Stoudamire and Tyson Chandler, while not Nick Collison-esque screeners, are incredibly dangerous because of the speed and effectiveness they display diving to the rim after a ballscreen. Rookie Josh Harrelson can also be a force screening on the ball in Glen Davis-type way, using his big, wide body to get the on-ball defender caught up on the screen and allowing the offense to play with a man advantage.
Even though their ballhandlers will never be confused with Steve Nash, the pick and roll is still a dangerous action for them due to the aforementioned screening trio (and even Carmelo Anthony). So instead of crossing their fingers and hoping someone on their roster becomes a pick and roll savant in a shortened season filled with little to no practice time, the Knicks have decided to run the action itself more frequently. In a sense, they have replaced the quest for quality with pure quantity. Everyone has a green light to run a pick and roll and they look to run pick and rolls early, often and with an added emphasis on ball movement out of them.
In the first quarter of the Detroit game, New York had every member of their starting unit, minus Chandler, handle off a ballscreen (yes, even Stoudamire). In the following video showcasing the first half of the first quarter, you’ll see the following screening combinations (with the ballhandler listed first and the result of the possession in parenthesis):
Possession 1: Shumpert-Chandler (Melo 3pt FG)
Possession 2: Shumpert-Anthony, Stoudamire-Chandler (Shumpert 3pt FG)
Possession 3: Shumpert-Chandler, Fields-Stoudamire (Fields shooting foul)
Possession 4: Anthony-Chandler (Chandler dunk)
In just four trips down the floor the Knicks used six screening combinations (from about every area other than the middle of the floor) that resulted in ten points. Here a video of them:
Thanks to this diverse approach, New York cruised to a 25-18 lead with three minutes left in the quarter. However, they started the second quarter with only a one point advantage thanks to series of possessions that lacked any real flow.
In the first clip of the following video, Carmelo Anthony has a great opportunity to run a corner pick and roll with Chandler off of ball reversal from a transition drag screen between Toney Douglas and Josh Harrelson. Melo, instead of making the Pistons defend another tough action, holds the ball and ends up shooting a contested 3-pointer in the corner.
The second clip contains a step-up screen between Chandler and Douglas. This time the ball doesn’t even change sides of the floor and the Knicks get a contested mid-range two (one of the worst shots in basketball) as a result. The next play has plenty of ballscreen action, but the ball is moved more with the dribble than the pass and the result is a Melo isolation post up with very little time left on the shot clock.
The final clip is the last possession of the quarter. With twelve seconds to play with, the Knicks choose to simply post up Anthony on the right side of the floor. Take a look:
The result of those four possessions? A scintillating zero points. It is clear that when they don’t get to a second pick and roll or lack crisp ball movement/reversal, the Knicks are far less dangerous, even though Anthony is so dangerous in isolation.
That being said, it doesn’t mean the Knicks need to stray away from creating isolation opportunities for their big stars. In fact, an equal opportunity system with a commitment to ball movement will actually make things easier on both of them to get their points, Carmelo in particular. In the following video, we’ll see the Knicks swing the ball to the corner out of transition, reverse it back to the other side of the floor while looking for isolation post-ups from both Stoudamire (strongside) and Anthony (weakside). The result is Anthony re-posting against a shifting defense for a paint score. Check it out:
Obviously, the second quarter shooting spree that blew the game wide open will make any offense look good. But once Mike Bibby stops with the illusion that he’s still an NBA player, New York will have to find consistent sources of points outside of Anthony. Their quantity versus quality approach may just do the trick. If their stars (particularly Anthony) continue to buy in (and most importantly, move the ball), New York could have a system that helps them maintain success on the offensive end of the floor.
Follow Brett on Twitter
What Allows A Point Guard To Be Effective In The Post?
When a point guard knows how to effectively produce when posting up his defender, he has a skill that can prove to be very valuable. Most point guards they go up against don’t really know how to properly defend the post, so if they make themselves comfortable in the post, it is something that they can go to from time to time when they want to get a good look.
There are two guys who are really effective with their post up game, and they are:
- Andre Miller (.94 PPP/47.7% shooting on 125 poss. – fouled on 14.4% of poss.)
- Chauncey Billups (.92 PPP/40.5% shooting on 108 poss. – fouled on 13% of poss.)
You probably noticed some similarities between these two players. They are both older more experienced guys who rely on their size and strength rather than their speed when on the court. Let’s look at a few keys for both Billups and Miller when working in the post:
NBA How To: Setting Up & Using Screens To Get An Open Look
If you are a good outside shooter playing in the NBA, you are going to garner attention from opposing defenses. So much so that it may be hard get yourself free for an open look on your own. Your a good shooter though, and your team wants you to shoot the ball, so that is why they send screeners your way.
You can’t just run off the screen. You have to set them up, run off of them correctly, and come off the screen in a way that you can make your catch and get the shot off quickly. There are three guys in the NBA right now who do this really well, and they are J.J. Redick, Kyle Korver, and Ray Allen. We are going to use their video clips to see how to properly set up screens and use them to get open looks.
The Set Up
Defenders know that if they are covering a good shooter, they are going to have to deal with off the ball screens. They are looking for these screens, and if they see them early it is very easy to get around them. That is why the offensive player using the screen needs to set up his defender. There are a few different ways that you can do this.
Walk Defender Down
This is something that Kyle Korver does very well. What he likes to do is walk his defender to the block (lulling him to sleep and putting him in a position that makes the screen easy. Korver quickly changes speeds, and cuts off the screen into a open area for the shot.
Derek Fisher’s Game Tying Three
For almost the entire second half, the Lakers were chipping away at the Celtics’ lead. Any time they would get close, the Celtics would create a little breathing room for themselves. That is exactly what happened after the Lakers tied the game at 61. The Celtics used three Ray Allen free throws to create a three point lead with about six and a half minutes left. That is when Derek Fisher hit another huge three pointer in a NBA Finals game.
An interesting little wrinkle with this play is Lamar Odom bringing the ball up. This is important for two reasons. When Pau gets the ball in the post, it is hard for Big Baby (the man covering Odom) to double off of him. It allows allows for Derek Fisher to float off of the basketball.
The Celtics’ Defense Without Kendrick Perkins
Yesterday, the Celtics made it official. Kendrick Perkins won’t be playing in game seven tonight against the Lakers. Kendrick Perkins is very important for the Celtics on the defensive end, and the numbers prove it. According to raw +/-, the team is about 8 points better per 100 possessions with Perk on the floor versus with him on the bench, and it is performing better on both sides of the ball with Perk in the line-up (according to BasketballValue via CelticsHub).
On the defensive end, Kendrick Perkins is the anchor, allowing for the rest of the team to play against more favorable matchups. Kevin Garnett on Andrew Bynum is rough, but Kevin Garnett on Pau Gasol (the matchup when Kendrick Perkins is in the game) is much more manageable.
Perkins is also one of the reasons why the Celtics are so good at defending the pick and roll:
Perkins hedges out real hard here, but the Celtics probably gameplan it this way to get it out of Kobe’s hands. The Lakers actually counter with a nice play, a quick pass to Gasol who then hits a rolling Bynum (trying to take advantage of Perkins’ hedge). However, Perkins is able to get back, use his body, and force Bynum under the basket. This is something that Kendrick Perkins does very well.
