Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Panathinaikos: Pick And Roll

It’s often said that the main “two on two” situation is the pick and roll. Maybe in the past, but now a pick and roll is an offensive situation that requires at least three, four or even five players playing together.

It’s not that I say it, but top level teams that are running these kind of offensive patterns and using more than two players on them.

Above all them, Panathinaikos (Coach: Zeljko Obradovic) is the best. During the last years they have been the Top European team playing the best pick and roll situations. Their game is based on spacing and they use the ball screen very often and with very good results.

As we can see in the video, they play against the defensive help coming from weak side. If you can watch any of their games, pay attention because they look for the same pass all the time. When the screener’s defender flash against the player with the ball, the weak side defender has the command of helping inside in case the screener receives. The defenders are ready to jump and sometimes there is a big risk if the player with the ball tries to give the pass to the screener when he rolls. That’s the reason of sometimes forgetting that pass and instead give a skip pass for the open player on weak side.

Once he receives, he can shoot, pass, or drive, but the defense will be somehow out of balance and they will go one step behind. Watch in the video how, even if they don’t score, they have very good advantage situations.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

great explanation and video material. it has been said that the proper pick'n'roll is impossible to defend.