Ball Screen Defense: Switch And Rotation

Last night we watched a great game between EFES and Real Madrid. A tough one that ended up being decided in the last minutes. 

Let's take a look at some of the last plays of the game. Real looking for options off a middle screen and EFES defending it:

Real played this middle screen three times in the last two minutes of the game (in their last three set offenses) Sergio Rodríguez and Gustavo Ayón running the ball screen and Real's power forward, Nocioni, filling the corner on the left side, with the other two smalls, Carroll and Llull placed one on each side.

EFES defensive rule was clear: they switched between Ayon and Rodriguez's defenders (Lasme and Draper) and made a rotation with one of the weak side defenders when Ayon rolled to the basket. With that rotation, the mismatch after the pick and roll is not so big (it wasn't Draper, but Perperoglou or Osman taking care of Real's big) Perperoglou and Osman, both of them big enough to avoid a big disadvantage in that mismatch, were aggressive and managed to deny the pass to the big man.

Real played three different options after the pick and roll: pass for Llull (and another ball screen), pass for Nocioni (one on one against Perperoglou), and Rodriguez's one on one against Lasme (which finished with a turnover). Only the second one ended up with the white team scoring. That gave them two points in three possessions, which was not enough to win a close game.

Let's watch it:

Playing Against Double Team: Weak Side Cut

When switching on ball screen defense, one of the most frequently used moves once the offense finds the big - small mismatch, is to double team. We saw plenty of it last weekend in the game between Obradoiro and F.C. Barcelona. The home team did a great job to stop Barcelona's offense and played hard and smart on both ends of the court to win a tough game.

Today I want to show you one possible way to beat a double team situation. Barcelona is one of the best teams when we talk about strategy and game preparation, and here they find a nice answer to score. 

Side screen, the defenders switch. The offense finds the pass inside. Mismatch.

Help side is ready to double team. "X3" will play "goalkeeper" against the two players on his side. Avoiding easy skip passes, and ready to rotate if the offense swings the ball.

But then, "3" - Papanikolaou, cuts to the rim forcing the defender to follow him or else he can easily receive and finish without opposition. Here comes the ball reversal and the easy shot for Nachbar.

Let's check it on the video:

Real Quick: Big's Fundamentals Self-Pick

One of the secrets for the big players to excel in our sport is to use their body properly. Beyond size or strength (both help, of course) if they learn how to use the contact to their advantage they will be a defender's nightmare.

Let's see real quick how one of Europe's tallest centers use his body to create an easy pass from the outside. 

Boban Marjanovic from Belgrade Red Star, sets a baseline screen for his teammate and immediately goes against his own defender looking for the contact, not allowing him to get the proper defensive position and creating the space for the easy lob pass.

Zone Offense: Ball Screens

In game three, Real Madrid had some good moments playing against Barcelona's zone defense.

Ball screens, overload and some pick and pop action, they managed to score seven points which in games like this one, are pretty important.

The main ideas were these:

• Dribbling or hand off entry

• Ball screen (they can give the pass straight to the opposite side instead of using this ball screen when Barcelona deny it) + ball screen.

   

• Overload and pick and pop option, mostly when Mirotic sets the screen (forcing the defenders to rotate) plus right spacing.

Let's watch it:

Fastbreak (III): Run After They Score

Having the "running mentality" is much harder than saying "my team will run the fastbreak". 

Before the season starts, when you're interviewed and asked: "hey coach, how are you going to play?" you like to talk about aggressive defense, fastbreak... Well, that's a start, but then you need to work on it, and you need your players to buy it.

I encouraged my players to try to score during the first 4-6 seconds of the shot clock, even after the other team scored.

We talked about the spacing in the last two posts, here and here, being in the right position to receive the first pass, the use of the fastbreak lanes... but there is one more thing if we really want to run after basket, the catch and pass mentality to give that first pass. It helps if you have players willing to do it, the right attitude here is important. And then, as usual, you need to work on it through drills, repetitions, feedback, rewards...

It's up to you to have the same inbounder every single time when the other team scores or to allow anyone to get the ball and inbound. 

Depending on the skills of your players, you can play with that rule. Sometimes it will be better to know who is responsible to do it, and sometimes it will be faster to have the one who is closer to the basket doing it. Again, it is important to know your players, work with them... and adapt to them.

I have in my mind the right way to catch the ball and pass, but in this case, I'm quite flexible as, frankly, I think it's way more important to do it real quick, to be able to deliver the pass, than to use the exact technique. 

It's a changing situation (different passing angles, the receiver can be in different positions, there might be defenders in front of the passer...) so if the player feels more comfortable doing in a different way, I am fine with it. Once they have the right mentality for the catch and pass, we will work on it to make it still more effective, but I won't "cut their wings" because of which foot goes first or whatever detail I can think of.

Once the first pass is given... push the ball. Sometimes it will be a coast to coast play, sometimes there will be a second pass to give... Push it.

Fastbreak (II): Big Men Running

Another thing I wanted, having in mind the kind of big players we had last season (not too big, not big presence inside) was to make our disadvantage in size become one of our strengths through their ability to run faster than the other teams' bigs.

Not only we had to change our minds looking for many efforts (and understanding that sometimes those efforts would be unrewarded) but also make specific work with them on keeping the right spacing, and finishing the fastbreak avoiding to travel or turn the ball over (individual work was of paramount importance, we did it often before practice or in specific sessions) 

We were able to link this work with the ideas we talked about in the last post (basically, the use of the lateral lane) to create the space for our bigs to run.

We gave our big men three easy rules to follow:

- Wait until we get the rebound.

- Once we get it, run. Middle lane, straight to the basket (not to mid post - low post area, go straight to the hole) Do not ask for the ball until you're in a "finishing area". 

- If you receive it, finish. If not, go to ball side low post and then you will try to receive with your back to the basket.

Our smalls had to understand the different skills of our bigs, mostly to know what kind of pass they wanted to give to each one of them (some of them needed the lob pass, some of them were able to catch bounce passes...) Again, we put work in practice and video sessions so it would be easy for them to decide.

Over all, what's most important to me is to create the habit of running in the big men, and in the small guys, of giving them the ball whenever they're in a good position. Through practice, feedback, and letting them see the reward they get (easy buckets) they get used to run almost every time.

Fastbreak (I): Using The Side Lane

Last season I worked quite often fastbreak rules in my team. The truth is our players were not used to keep very good spacing or the right order when running the break and I thought we needed to improve that aspect of our game.

I'll show you in the next series of posts some of the rules we followed, I think we ended up being quite a good team if we talk about how to run the fastbreak. 

Let's start with the use of the side lanes. Even if it's not forbidden for my players to use the middle of the court, I really think that running the fastbreak with the ball close to the sideline is a good idea, being the main reason that the defensive balance tends to place a lot of players in the mentioned area.

I worked a lot in the first pass after rebounding. I like this pass to go to the free throw line extended area:

And also in the spacing of the players who run in front of the ball. The bigger the space to cover by the defense, the better for our options to score. This was one of the most difficult things for my players to learn, and we really had to put a lot of work on it. Finally, as I said, they get used to run as close to the line as posible.

Let's take a look at one example. First pass, run near the sideline... and of course, unselfishness to give the second pass, strong quick passing and aggressive finish towards the basket. Notice how the defenders colapse the central area and how we manage to "beat the crowd" by following our simple fastbreak rules:

SF Advantage. South America 2012

I'm watching the South American Championship these days. There are very good teams and very good players and coaches.

Here I bring a nice situation Argentina started playing against Venezuela to get an advantage for their small forward Marcos Mata (he'll be well known soon) who is much bigger and stronger than his defender Jose Vargas.

Argentina place their "4" at the corner (Leo Gutierrez, a hell of a shooter) and are supposed to look for their "3" inside. You can even hear how they tell Vargas to fight against Mata's posting up from the Venezuela's bench.

Instead, in the first play, Mata will surprise the defenders by faking the hand off pass but driving hard towards the basket. As we said, Leo Gutierrez is right in the corner so his defender can't take the risk of a long help.

In the next offense, they run the same situation, but this time they do look for Mata inside. He gives the hand off pass, and then they run a pick and roll situation. As we can see, their "5" (Leiva) clears out the low post so Mata can go to work against Vargas. Right spacing, and Mata scores again.

LEB Gold: Alley Hoop Canarias

After 10 games, Canarias is the leader of the league, scoring 94 points per game, and once again showing a fun to watch basketball, with high pace and quick shots.

They’ve done the same for years under coach Alejandro Martínez and maybe this is their moment to take a step forward and reach the ACB.

They’ve been running this offensive set for all this years. It’s a reminder that a good execution can beat the scoutings year after year. Also, it’s a good way to show Canarias’ style. Players like Jakim Donaldson, Nayal Koshwal or Rod Flemmings have enjoyed it.

Starting with both bigs placed near the three point line, the pointguard sends a lob pass and the power forward goes backdoor to get the ball and (most of the times) dunk.

There is a curious detail that shows a non verbal comunication between the passer and the big, maybe you have noticed... in some of this clips, the pointguard changes the ball between his legs before giving the pass. I think this is the signal for the big to look for that option...

Take a look. Showtime.

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LEB Gold: Double Diagonal Screens - Ball Inside

There are some “go to” inside players in LEB Gold. The teams work hard to find them in mid – low post but sometimes is not easy to put the ball inside. Some teams are using these double diagonal screens to free their bigs. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a good option anyway.

As we see there are two small players setting the screens, so the defense can’t switch easily or there would be a miss match. If the timing is good and the screens are hard enough, they’ll give the big man a small advantage, maybe half a second, to get the position and the inside pass. From that point on, he must go to work.

In the first clip we see J. T. Durley (former Wichitta State player) from León. He’s made a great impact in the first three games of the LEB league, averaging 20 points per game with an astounding 75’9% in 2pt shots, 60% in 3pt shots and 77’8 in FT.

In the second clip, as there is no pass inside when the big man (Kevin Langford, yes, Keith Langford’s brother) comes off the screens, Navarra’s players keep running the play, and they end up playing a ball screen to score in the last seconds of the shot clock.

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LEB Gold: Post Player's Game

The Spanish second division (LEB Gold) is a really competitive league. Some of the best Spanish basketball projects as well as veteran players make it an amazing and strong competition. One of the latter is Darryl Middleton, who at age 45 still can show the way to the league’s younger players (that’s to say, to any other player)

What I bring today are some basic but important concepts to play as a center.

- When you are in the weak side’s low post, you shouldn’t stay in the same imaginary line as your teammate when he gets the ball. One step closer to baseline would be fine in order to be able to move properly when he plays his one on one. Helps are quite more complicated, and you will find good passing and rebounding options moving when the ball moves.

- When a teammate drives to the basket, move to create space for him. Your defender will probably try to help and stop the penetration, giving you the time to receive and have an easy shot.

- Against aggresive defenders who try to play defense in front in low – mid post, use your body to roll over them, and with a self screen, get the position to receive a pass from high post.

- After setting an off ball screen, go against your defender, to get a good position to receive. Most of the times, the screener defender will relax, and you’ll be able to place him behind your back and make it easy to get the ball.

Middleton knows well all these concepts, and his love for the game brings him again to the league, so we can keep enjoying his performances.

Thank you!

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LEB Gold: Spacing

Spanish second division, LEB Gold, has just started. From now on, I’ll show you some details of this interesting league.

To begin with, a topic I’m really interested in, spacing.

Alex Navajas, from Breogan, scored 5 out of 5 threes in the league’s first thriller (Breogan 87-Menorca 86 in the overtime) And he did it by making a great use of the space.

As we see in the video, he picks and pops, he creates space when the ball handler goes hard to the rim, he pops when his teammate curls... Many different ways to punish helps and and to achieve an astounding 5/5...




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Transition Offense: Ball Inside

Nowadays a lot of teams want to play transition offense as much as they can. They feel fine with established positions when they aren’t able to finish off the fastbreak and the idea of not giving the defense the opportunity to settle is a valued one for many coaches.

Here we see a nice situation from Israel National Team, in which after the inside pass, they set a screen for the passer that will give the center two pass lines. So he can play one on one, give it back to the guard or pass to the power forward, specially when the latter is a good shooter.

Let’s take a look.

Eurobasket 2011: Slovenia

Quarter Finals! Slovenia!

Spain is now two steps from the final... and Slovenia is the team to beat to advance to the semifinal.

They’ve been playing just so so, but we can’t think it will be an easy game. They’ve got really good players, both inside and outside, and some of their bigs (Smodis, Lorbek) can create tough situations to stop for our big men.

They run different plays, and quite often they end up playing with one guy inside and four guys outside. Their high-low game is quite good, and also their inside – out passes. As I said, Lorbek and Smodis are very good shooters from mid range and also from three point distance, so they are dangerous when playing these situations. The outside players move well without the ball after they give the pass inside, and I guess there’s no need to talk about Lakovic’s quick release...

Boza Maljkovic has allways liked these staggered screens’ plays. The shooters have many options to read the defense and get some shots, and also the bigs to roll if their defenders hedge. In this play they finish with a hand off situation between their “4” and one of the guards (Lakovic, Dragic & Dragic, Muric, Osboltz...) They play triangles and can find multiple solutions reading the defense.

Another play they run is this “wheel” with the pointguard cutting and setting screens (which can free a wing or a center), to finally get the ball back. Once he gets it he can shoot (Lakovic is dangerous) or look for options (ball screen, pass inside...) I like how well they react when the defender denies the pass to the pointguard. They find the open man and play hand off.

Goran Dragic has shown us his skills along the tournament. I like the way he plays without the ball, how he read the defense, how he can finish in traffic. And of course, this guy is quick...

Eurobasket 2011: France

Next game, France.

The most physical team all over the Eurobasket. They are in very good shape. They’re playing very good basketball, without mistakes, with discipline, with their stars playing together, sharing the ball... A team that likes to run. They are strong rebounders on both sides, and they solve their lack of shooters with very good spacing and teamwork.

Boris Diaw has been hot during the previous games, going to work often in mid post, and showing all his skills with and without the ball. Good passer from the paint, he’s scoring and assisting. They run this situation for him very often. Once the ball goes inside, the other players move well to difficult helps. The guard pops using to screens and then Diaw (sometimes Noah) receives a screen to get the ball in low – mid post. Watch out the first cutter (often, Batum)

You could think (many teams have) that zone defense is a good weapon against France. It should be. They don’t have great shooters, so they should struggle facing a zone. Well, they don’t. They play really well against zone defense. Their spacing, the way they use the screens, their offensive rebound...

Here, take a look at their bigs, setting screens for the guard, playing from behind the defense (really important concept against zones) popping to hig post, spreading the zone from the inside (high post player goes to the free throw line, low post player almost touches baseline)

A strong dribble attracts two defenders. The spacing is great. An off ball screen frees another player on weak side. Two defenders are defending no one, high – low action...

Three players moving together, a ball screen for Parker and an off ball screen against the upper line’s second defender. Free way for Parker to drive and an easy pass outside in case he can’t finish. Teamwork.

Really important against zones. Offensive rebound.

And not only against the zone. They follow penetrations, and get the rebounds coming from nowhere...

Eurobasket 2011: Serbia

Serbia, even if they’ve lost two games by now is, in my humble opinion, the biggest menace for Spain in our quest for the Eurobasket’s gold.

I gave you an appetizer some days ago and here you have the main dish.

First, Spain must avoid a game start like this one. Not that Serbia’s doing it every game, but they have the skills, for sure they’ll have the motivation and we wouldn’t like to trail from the beginning...

Let’s talk about defense. And this is something I’ve already shown, but I think is interesting enough to take another look at it. The Serbian team manages really well defense on missmatch situations. They are used to involve more than two players in order to avoid advantages for the offense.

More “defense”, not only Teodosic is a wise fastbreak “stopper”, they’re all so good at using fouls to stop the other team’s fastbreaks! They look for a slow paced game that is clearly better for them. Spain need some points off the break, so we’d better reach the bonus as soon as possible and if they stop the break with fouls, at least we’ll go to the line.

Now, their some details on their offense:

One player in, four players out plus pick and roll. That’s one of the keys of their offensive game. Savanovic and Macvan can make mid range jumpers and threes (specially the former) They make good use of their skills to spread the defense and find space to drive. Serbians know how to punish helps. Just like here... Schultze helps way more than needed and Savanovic hits the three.

One play they’ve been using a lot. The same concepts. They set a down pick for the shooting guard to receive a hand off pass and then, again, pick and roll. Notice how Savanovic (in the first clip) and Macvan (second and third clips) end up in the corner. They read the defense and react. Nice triangles, good options for the shooter after the hand off... Dangerous.

They have many different options for baseline out of bounds’ plays. They look for the advantage and use it. As we see in the first two clips, it’s the same play but they play for Savanovic first and for Teodosic posting up in the second. Also, if you’re not focused on defense, they can find the easy shot after the first pass...

I want to finish with a state of the art passer. Teodosic is showing everybody his polished fundamentals, and the pass might be his best weapon. All kind of passes, with both hands, no looking passes... I’d say “kids, TRY to do this at home...”

Eurobasket 2011: Germany

Next game, Germany.

Germany and Nowitzki. They go together. We should not forget Kaman, Herber (terrific shooter), Benzing, Jagla (mini – Nowitzki), Hammann...

But everything starts by Nowitzki.

They will run some plays to let their “go to” player receive near the basket, or facing the basket. From that moment, he’ll take care of Germany’s offense. We all know he is great in low post, in high post, beyond the line... Well, he’s great everywhere.

So their teammates and coach know, and they set many off ball screens to free him. I showed a clip yesterday in my twitter account to give the first example (yes, he’s not perfect). And I want to show you some more situations now.

They like to play this isolation for Kaman and Nowitzki. The other players will be placed on weak side, moving without the ball, trying to keep help side defenders busy. Nowitzki’s defender should not help, so it’s a good 1 on 1 situation for their center.

Also this screen for Nowitzki to find an open shot when the defender gets stucked, or a good option to penetrate if the defender comes late. Here we see a very good defense (Gallinari) chasing Germany’s star and being close to steal the ball.

This one is by far the situation they run more often. A screen set by the pointguard so Nowitzki can choose, low post or three point line. As you know, he’s likely to hit his shots from both spots.

Can’t wait for the game to start!

Eurobasket 2011: Turkey

Next game, Turkey...

A lot has been said about Turkey, mostly after their defeat against Poland. Well, here I bring you a couple of clips.

Everybody knows Emir Preldzic, but I thought it would be a good idea to show some of his skills. We know he needs improvement on Defense, and a better shooting technique, but he’s an all around player who can drive hard to the basket, shoot (terrific coming off dribble) and pass. And basically that’s what we find in this short video. I love this young player, his future is in his own hands.

One of the most dangerous things for the Spanish teams is to manage with Ersan Ilyasova’s defense. He plays far from the basket, has a devastating first step when he goes to the rim, can hit the three... and will play the power forward to take our bigs outside of the paint. Many pick and pop situations, many one on one... and something he does really well, to fake the ball screen and cut hard to the basket (take a look at the video)

I repeat, our bigs will have a hard game tonight.

On The Road To Lithuania: Great Britain

What I like from Great Britain’s team is they are trying to mix styles. Their league is well known for being a run and gun competition. But now they have many players playing abroad (they have NBA, NBAD-League and NCAA players, ACB players, NBL-Czech Rep...) and they need to make them play as a team. Coaches Finch and Nurse are trying to do it, and I think they are doing a good work.

There’s something they seem to have clear though, if you can score in the first 10” of the shotclock, just do it:

On The Road To Lithuania: Poland

Some details from Spain’s first rival, Poland.

First, this play they’ll use to make our big men defend far from the basket. They run this isolation ball screen to avoid helps and to create a good advantage for the ball handler (off the screen but also before it’s set) and for the screener (they'll want to pop)

Take a look at the video:

And one of their players, #10 Szymon Szewczyk, who plays in Italy. He’s really dangerous shooting from mid range and also from beyond the three point line. He can step outside and hit the three easily. He could create some problems to our bigs in different situations.

Here he is: