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.

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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.

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Something that has really hurt the Miami Heat offense all season is the big three’s tendency to stand around while they watch one player with the basketball.  Against the Chicago Bulls and their terrific isolation defense where they like to load up against the ball handler, this standing around hurts the offense more than usual.  In game two, the Heat seemed to make an effort to cut off of the basketball and make themselves available for the pass.  This player movement really helped Miami get some clean looks against Chicago’s defense:

This first example is a set play, but this set play shows how effective LeBron James can be when he is moving off of the basketball.  Here, James sets the screen for Bibby and then rolls as the ball gets swung to Dwyane Wade.  Once Wade makes the catch, he now has an option (James cutting) aside from isolation.  James comes free on the block and Wade hits him with the pass.

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Watching the San Antonio Spurs play on the offensive end this series, it is obvious that the Spurs have gotten away from what has made them successful over the course of the regular season.  While most of it has to do with the Grizzlies’ fantastic defense, I just get the nagging feeling that the Spurs have consciously been getting away from what they have done best.  With the Spurs trailing the Grizzlies by five points with 4:00 left in the third quarter, we saw a perfect example of this:

After creating a turnover, the San Antonio Spurs were able to get out in transition with Parker bringing the ball down the court and Richard Jefferson running down the sideline.

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About a week ago, I took a look at the Durant/Westbrook pick and pop the Thunder were running late in games.  In my opinion, that play might be one of the toughest sets to stop in the NBA because it is basically a lose-lose situation for the defense.  However, the Thunder seem to only run this play late when they want to get a two point bucket, rarely using the option of Durant popping out for a jumper.

So when Eric Gordon knocked down a three point shot with 43.2 seconds left, the Clippers basically took away the Thunder’s most dangerous play.  This put the Thunder in a situation where they have really struggled in the past, working Durant off of the basketball, looking for a catch and shoot opportunity.  When the Thunder aren’t isolating Durant and they try to work him off of the basketball, things are so basic that it is so simple to defend.  The result is Durant always making the catch going away from the basket a good four or five feet behind the three point line.  We saw a perfect example of this last night:

As soon as the ball goes to Thabo Sefolosha, the trigger man, Russell Westbrook splits Durant and Kendrick Perkins and gets the basketball at the top of the key.

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With the Carmelo Anthony trade to the Knicks now official, the question that seems to be asked the most is, “Can Carmelo Anthony & Amar’e Stoudemire work together on the offensive end efficiently?” After looking at the numbers and watching some game tape, it is my opinion that Carmelo Anthony (and Chauncey Billups to a lesser degree) does not fit into the Knicks’ offensive system the way that it is currently built.

I came to this conclusion by first looking at what the Knicks do on the offensive end compared to what Carmelo Anthony does on the offensive end:

Looking at these two graphs, you notice that what Carmelo Anthony does a lot of, while having success, on the offensive end (ISO, Post-up), the Knicks simply don’t do in their offensive system.  With the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony was ISO’d 36.9% of the time, while posting up 15.7% of the time.  Anthony has success in both of these spots, posting a PPP of .853 when ISO’d (110th in the NBA), and a PPP of  .941 when posting up (54th in the NBA).

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After a rough start, Carmelo Anthony really got going and had the best game of his season this year, going 14-27 (including 6-8 from the three point line) and scoring 36 points in basically three quarters (took just two shots in the fourth quarter).  If you didn’t watch the game, you probably are assuming that Anthony did a whole lot of jab-stepping with the basketball in ISO sets last night.

However, that wasn’t the case, as the Nuggets used Anthony in more Spot-Up situations than ISO situations last night, playing to Anthony’s strengths and going away from his weaknesses.  Anthony is extremely successful in Spot-Up situations, shooting 44.6% and ranking 30th in the entire NBA in terms of Points Per Possession.  The problem, Anthony has only used Spot-Up situations on 9.2% of his possessions this season, preferring to run ISO sets (37.5% of his possessions this season) even though he isn’t as successful (39.4% shooting – 89th in NBA with 0.82 PPP).  Last night, that wasn’t the case:

The way that Carmelo Anthony was used against the Pacers was completely different than the way he has been used over the course of this season.  29.7% of Anthony’s possessions against the Pacers were possessions labeled by Synergy as “Spot-Ups,” while just 18.5% of Anthony’s possessions used were ISO sets.

Instead of just giving the ball to Anthony and watching him pivot and work out of the ISO against the Pacers, the Nuggets used Carmelo Anthony off of the basketball, ran action involving other players, and forced the defense to make a decision.  Specifically, the Nuggets ran pick and rolls with Carmelo Anthony on the opposite side of the court.  5 of the 8 Spot-Ups that were ran for Anthony came this way.  This forced the defense to decide whether or not to sink in on the help man or stick with Carmelo Anthony:

As Chauncey Billups brings the basketball up, Kenyon Martin gets in position and sets a screen for Billups.  The Nuggets are running a Pick and Roll on one side while Carmelo Anthony is standing in the corner on the opposite side of the court.

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When you think of the New York Knicks, you think of a high octane offense that likes to run an effective pick and roll in the halfcourt, and that is the reality.  After early struggles with the PNR, Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire have developed a nice chemistry and the PNR is back to being an effective tool for the Knicks.  Overall, the Knicks are one of the best when it comes to running the pick and roll, and they use that to their advantage.  According to Synergy, the Knicks run the pick and roll 17.1% of their possessions, while scoring .96 PPP (They are first in Roll Man PPP, 9th in Ball Handler PPP – according to Synergy).

So during their first match up against the Heat, they tried to go to their bread and butter, but it was far from successful.  The Knicks ran the pick and roll 15.5% of the time, but the Heat’s hard shows on defense held the Knicks to just 0.59 PPP on Pick and Roll plays.  The Heat defense also baited the Knicks into way too many ISO sets, they ran those plays 16.4% of the time, scoring just 4 points out of it (0.33 PPP) on 12.5% shooting.  Looking at these numbers, it was no surprise that the Heat ended up blowing out the Knicks.

So when the Knicks went up against the Heat the second time, they decided to switch some things around.  They still had trouble with the pick and roll (UPDATE: Gian Casimiro over at the Knicks’ blog Posting And Toasting does a great job breaking this down – definitely a must read), posting a low 0.50 PPP, with the only basket for the roll man came off of Stoudemire’s slipped screen/big dunk on LeBron (something the astute commenters here mentioned would work against the Heat):

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Maybe the biggest problem on the offensive end for the Miami Heat is that when Wade and LeBron share the court, there is not enough movement.  When LeBron is handling the basketball, Wade has a tendency to watch, and vice-versa.  It has been something that NBA fans and analysts have been talking a lot about, yet it continues to be a problem.

Yesterday against the Knicks we saw the contrast between what happens when Wade maintains movement off the basketball compared to when Wade stands around in the corner:

Here, Wade isn’t making a sharp cut off the basketball, yet this possession was still effective because he was maintaining movement.  What makes the Heat so unique is that they have two stars who when they are handling the basketball, all five players on the defensive end need to pay attention to him.  So when the star without the basketball just stands there, he is making it easy for the defense.

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If the MonStars were to come back today and steal the talents of Brandon Jennings, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, and Yao Ming what offense would you have them run?

Not a question you get often, but that is what I found in my inbox a couple of days ago from Beckley Mason, the man behind the fantastic blog HoopSpeak.com (I also have to had that HoopSpeak is the latest fantastic addition to the TrueHoop Network).

This question is an interesting way to look at how coaches develop offensive systems based on what their GM gives them.  I recommend clicking over and taking a look.