Analyze the Offense

Mens_Rea Teaches You Things About Basketball pt. 3 - Play Development and Analysis

2012-07-20T19:29:00.001-07:00

Introduction

In part 1, we examined how offensive players move on the court and how that movement impacts other players on the court. In part 2, we looked at the options defenses have available to make scoring difficult and the consequences of the choices it makes. Now we're going to try to put the fundamentals we've learned into a more complex system that takes into account both elements - the full basketball play.

A successful basketball play contains three elements: (1) appropriate and realistic identification of the rosters strengths and weaknesses, (2) efficient application of those strengths while minimizing the weaknesses in our play, and (3) proper execution by the players on the court of the play.

We're going to begin by discussing those three elements then we'll take a look at some sample plays and critique them.

Play Design and Concerns

Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses

Probably the most difficult element in designing a play is learning to identify your roster's strengths and weaknesses. It's important that the coaching staff is able to peel away the names, faces, and reputations of its players and try to accurately assess the actual talent available. This can be very difficult because you also need to separate the production of a player that comes as a result of outside factors - the system they've been in, the players around them, and other outside forces. Coaches have met an early exit many times because all too often they rigidly tried to enforce a system of plays that did not match the talent available. Good coaching, and by extension good play design, comes from facing the talent in front of you, not the talent you want. Hopefully, as we proceed it will become more apparent why this is the case.

Efficient Application of Strengths/Minimizing Weaknesses

Once the coaching staff has examined its roster, it needs to see how those pieces will fit together to create some offense. At the end of part 2, I described two fictional players as part of an exercise (the response to which is below) reviewed here:

SG: quick, reads screens well and can convert in the lane or out along the perimeter
SF: fairly slow, has bad hands, and is very poor at low post scoring

When I'm designing a play, I want to maximize the potential of both of these players as much as possible. It would make sense then that I wouldn't design a play for the SF in the post, right? On the other hand, it would probably be a good idea to put my SG in a position to come off of screens to find his scoring opportunities. This may seem like common sense and easy to implement but when we have five players on the court each with their own unique areas of strength and weakness, it can become complicated very quickly.

Proper Execution

Even the best designed plays can fail if the players are unable to understand the purpose of the play and execute the play as designed. As we'll see, some systems try to integrate an understanding of the game's fundamentals into their offensive systems in order to reduce the complexity of a specific play's intricacies. The coaching staff has to make a philosophical decision for its offense - should we rely more heavily on our rosters' ability to read and react to the defense or should we instruct our roster on the options available in each play and tell them how to prioritize those options. Either system requires the team to know the offense and implement its designs as a single unit.

Basic Plays

Now that we've thought about the underlying concerns of a basketball playbook, let's look at some common basic plays. In our animations the 1 is usually the PG, 2 is the SG, 3 is the SF, 4 is the PF, and 5 is the C. However, often times the players are interchangeable and you should ask yourself if what each player is being asked to do fits with someone that plays a different position. For example, in our plays we'll usually have the PG as the playmaker but if the roster we're working with has a point forward, it would be feasible to substitute the SF for the PG.

Single Double

The single double is one of the most common plays in the NBA and is primarily designed to give the SG (or any player that can read screens well for that matter) the ability to create offense off of low set screens. Let's look at the play.

The PF and C set staggered screens on one side of the court while the SF sets a screen on the other side of the court. The SG cuts down the center of the court and may run off either set of screens - the single screen by the SF or the double screen by the PF and C. This is the most basic version of the single double play. But it's not entirely a play until we explore the options around it, so let's see what options are available.

Here, once the SG runs off the double screens, our C tries to seal a defender and the PF pops out to the baseline. Now if the SG doesn't have an available shot, he may pass the ball down to the C in the low post or give our PF a baseline shot. If the SG runs off the single screen by the SF, a similar post up opportunity as the C is available.

Now let's add some desired shot opportunities to our players.

The SG is strong as a perimeter wing and corner shooter
The SF is strong at the elbows as an isolation player
The PF is a strong mid-range shooter
The C is a strong post up player

Illustrated as:

The area in green represents the area of strength for our SG, red is our SF, gray is our PF, and blue is our Center. When we look at the end result location of our players in the single double, we did a pretty good job of accommodating their strengths.

But what happens if the defense has all three players covered? We've left ourselves with no other options.

Let's see a variation that tries to solve this problem.

In our variation, the SG realizes that the passing options to the PF and C are unavailable or don't result in open shots and his own shot would be contested. Instead of trying to force one of those options, we've added a ball reversal option. In other words, the SG can reverse the side of the court the play will continue on by passing the ball back and moving the action to the other side.

Once the SG passes the ball back to the PG, he has keyed the offense to the next set of options in the play. The SF will see the pass to the PG as a trigger to move to the elbow to receive the pass. The PF will set a screen for our SG and the C will move to the baseline for a second screen. The result is the SG, SF, PF, and C are all in favorable positions.

The dynamic that we just stepped through is how well designed plays operate. We have our primary action that tries to maximize the strengths of our players but we have secondary or even tertiary options if our primary plan is unavailable. It's up to player execution to make the right decisions in our plays to understand what options are available and decide which option is best.

The Pick and Roll

Perhaps the most common play in basketball, the pick and roll is centered around two players. The ballhandler will call for a ball screen and try to free himself up off that screen while the roll man will try to exploit the defense's attempt to cover the ballhandler by rolling to the basket.

Here we see the PF set a ball screen for the PG. The PF is able to free the PG of his defender with the screen and the PF's defender must switch to defend a drive to the lane but is much slower. This is the basic goal of a pick and roll, to create a mismatch that can be exploited. Some of the options that we saw in part 2 in defending off-ball screens are available here as well.

Finding the roll man

This time the defending PF tries to cut off the driving lane by the PG by anticipating the PG turning the corner. This is called hedging on the pick and roll. The PF is hedging toward where the ballhandler is going. If the defense isn't coordinated, it leaves the roll man open to receive the pass and a lane to the basket.

Moving under the screen

On the other hand, if the PG tries to simply go under the screen, the PG might simply shoot the ball.

Hedge and recover

Ideally, the roll man's defender will be able to quickly switch to the ballhandler then quickly back to his man. The roll defender usually tries to hedge on the pick and roll only long enough to stop a quick drive to the basket and delaying the ball handler long enough to allow the ballhandler's defender to recover.

Just like our single double play above, let's add some complexity to our basic play. One potential counter to a hedging defender is called a screen-the-screener play. A screen-the-screener play will try to prevent a hedge on the pick and roll by first screening the defender of the roll man before the pick and roll occurs.

Screen-the-screener

By screening for the ball screener, we've made it difficult for the roll man's defender to hedge on the pick and roll by taking him out of position early.

Switching on the screen-the-screener

By carefully switching on the screens, the defense stands a much better chance of defending the screen-the-screener. However, as you can see, it can become very difficult to switch at the right time and it can cause other options (SF in our example) to be open until the defense recovers.

Conclusion/Exercise

Now that we have a general idea of the goals of a play and have looked at some of the basic plays, we're going to continue in part 4 by looking at full offensive systems. It's unclear at this point how I'll break up the various systems and whether it will have to involve more than one part but I hope to discuss UCLA, Shuffle, Dribble Drive, Princeton, Flex, and the Triangle.

As for the exercise at the bottom of part 2:

James Kerti provided a pretty good response that involved doubling the SG out of the Modern Swarm Defense and forcing him to pass to our SF. Our scenario didn't tell us much about our lingering PF and C but I think an additional consideration might be to rotate our C over to defend the SF in the low post if our SG decides to pass to him out of the double team. Now we have the defending SG and SF doubled on the opposing SG, our main scoring threat, with the defending C, who based on position should be at least somewhat proficient at low post defense (an assumption that reading the exercise didn't provide so don't fault yourself if you didn't consider this). We have purposely now left open the offensive C and are forcing the SF to make a fairly difficult pass across the lane over our C.

There are many ways to handle this scenario but the underlying focus should be to force the SF to become the playmaking or scoring threat.

And now for a new exercise to end part 3.

Let's look at the second screen-the-screener play above where the defense switches, but now we'll add our SG and C.

Imagine you're the PG on this team. Your teammates are struggling to hit their jumpshots and you think the best way to get the team going is to get a layup attempt. You just ran the play above hoping to get a drive to the basket or pass to your roll man for a layup but, because you weren't expecting the defense to switch, it failed and resulted in a bad possession. You're coming up the court to call a play and want to alter the screen-the-screener play.

How would you alter it to get a layup attempt for your team?

In animation form:

What would you instruct your team to do next?

Mens_Rea Teaches You Things About Basketball pt. 2 - Defense and Its Consequences

2012-07-02T10:52:00.002-07:00

Introduction

Last time we took a detailed look at the type of movement offensive players make on the court to increase their chances at scoring. This time, we're going to look at the other side of the court - defense. Just as we described the offense's main goal as scoring points, we can just as simply characterize defense's main goal as preventing the other side from scoring points.

We'll start by looking at the different types of defensive schemes, then we'll see how screens affect how the offense and defense interact with each other, and we'll finish by comparing our systems.

Defensive Schemes

Defense can be categorized under three major types: man-to-man, zone, and hybrid man-zone. We'll begin by identifying these three types and then we'll compare them.

Man-to-Man

Probably the most straight forward defensive schemes is man-to-man defense. The defensive scheme operates as the name suggests - each defensive player matches up with a single offensive player and defends him.

Let's look at an animation to demonstrate.

In this animation the SF is setting a screen for the SG and the SG's defender attempts to stay with him.

Man-to-man defense is ideal if your team's roster has excellent individual defenders that are able to stay close to their man. However, as we saw in part 1 and we'll continue to explore, offensive systems are well suited to take advantage of man-to-man defense by setting screens to free up offensive players. For this reason, teams rarely play strict man-to-man defense.

Zone Defense

Generally, zone defense prefers to assign areas of the court to individual defenders rather than a specific player.

For example, here we see the zone of responsibility for each defender in a 2-3 zone.

Similarly, zone defense can be organized in a 3-2 set, a 1-2-2 set, a 2-1-2 set, and practically any other set you can imagine. In the NBA, zone defense must be slightly modified in certain sets to prevent a 3 second lane violation call. This is achieved by stepping out of the lane constantly or picking up players that run though the lane (remember that a 3 second call timer resets when the defender in the lane is actively guarding an offensive player - in practice reaching out toward an offensive player within arm's reach is sufficient).

Each type of zone defense has built-in weaknesses in coverage. In the example of a 2-3 zone, we see some areas of weak coverage in the corners, baseline, top of the arc, and around the freethrow line (not pictured well here). Any area where coverage by a single player is stretched further from the center or coverage overlaps and it's unclear which player has responsibility is a potential area of weakness. Also, zone coverage generally stresses interior defense over perimeter defense and is much more willing to allow the offense to freely pass or shoot along the perimeter.

Let's see an example of how zone defense reacts to ball movement.

Notice how the defense attempts to discourage driving lanes by constricting toward the ball and tries to maximize help defense. Also, notice that the zone can trap the ballhandler in some situations by cutting off passing options or forcing dangerous passes.

Zone defense is a good option if your team is well coordinated, is not athletic enough to prevent dribble penetration through individual defense, and is willing to allow perimeter jump shots from the opposing team.

Hybrid Man-Zone

There are two types of defensive schemes that are neither fully man-to-man nor fully zone defense. The first is called Modern Swarm Defense. Modern Swarm Defense is the most commonly used defensive system in the NBA and in the balance between man-to-man and zone defense, it weighs more heavily toward man-to-man.

Modern Swarm Defense begins as man-to-man defense but the team will strategically switch defensive responsibility off of screens or try to create double teams.

The animation above illustrates a strategic double team on the Center to take away a perceived advantage that he has. The defense rotates to force the player furthest from the ball open and attempting to force a dangerous pass. If the Center is able to locate the open SF, due to the distance of the pass, the defense has more time to react appropriately. Let's look at a longer animation and a video clip to demonstrate how this works.

Animated:

Here, the defense strategically tries to force the ball out of Dirk Nowitzki's hands on the elbow. The defense continues to rotate after the pass and contest the shot by another offensive threat, Jason Terry. Notice how proactive Modern Swarm Defense is. Rather than read the offense and contest apparent shot opportunities, Modern Swarm Defense tries to force the offense away from its options altogether and force difficult decisions by the offense.

The other type of hybrid defensive scheme is called a match-up zone. This system weighs the balance between man-to-man and zone more heavily toward zone. A match-up zone will attempt to force a specific individual match-up similar to man-to-man but will do so within a zone defense.

In our match-up zone animation the defense is operating in a 2-1-2 zone but is also attempting to force a match-up at the SF position by switching defensive responsibilities within that zone.

Both systems of hybrid defense can be criticized as high risk/high reward systems. Hybrid systems have all the benefits of man-to-man and zone defense but also have all the risks of both systems. Execution is the balancing factor between the benefits and risks - good execution is able to minimize the risks while maximizing the rewards.

Reading the Screen

Before we compare the different defensive schemes available, it's helpful to understand the options that come out of screening. As we discussed in part 1, there are a variety of different screens but no matter the type of screen, the goal remains the same - free up the offensive options. Let's look at how both the offense and defense react to screens and from this we can more easily compare our schemes. It is very important to remember, especially when we move to analyzing plays, that good players do not run off of screens - they read them. What I mean by that is offensive players do not simply run through a designed play as if they were following a pattern, they will move based on how the defense is playing them.

For simplicity's sake we're going to start with the SF setting a screen for the SG and the SG's defender attempting to contest. We'll go step by step through the animation to show where our different options open up.

So far the SG is running toward the set screen with his defender trailing closely behind him. It's at this point that several decisions have to be made. The SG will have to make a judgment as to how he believes his defender will react to the screen. If his defender is close behind him and believes his defender will follow him around the screen, the SG has a couple of different options.

The SG may take a flare cut to distance himself while his defender is caught on the screen. This option is generally more effective for players that are adept perimeter shooters or if for some reason the lane is covered.

Another option is to curl tightly around the screen, effectively sealing the defender behind him.

What happens if the defender decides to cheat the screen, or move to where he believes the SG will go?

Our flare is now much less effective because the defender is able to deny the passing angle and is taking a shorter path to the desired location. However, there are counters to cheating the screen.

One counter is to cut back under the screen to receive the pass.

Another is to flare wide and in the opposite direction.

Now we'll add our SF defender and see how some team defense can add to the complexity of playing the screens.

This time instead of the defending SG attempting to stay on his man, the SF defender switches on the screen to help cover the SG. By switching off of the screener, the pressure to cover the SG is alleviated significantly because the switching defender can cover certain angles by simply hedging one way or the other (e.g. staying high off his man to quickly gain position on high flares). Notice that it could also potentially create a mismatch since the SF is now covered by the opposing SG and the SG is now covered by the opposing SF.

This is a reoccurring theme in basketball that you should try to constantly be aware of - when you take something you should be prepared to give something. Here, we're taking away the advantage of the offense's screen but we're giving them a potential mismatch.

Let's add some motion to our SF and see how the dynamic changes.

As we just identified, if the defense switches off the screen, the SF can immediately seal the opposing SG and try to exploit that mismatch.

If the defense pays too much attention to the movement of the SG, the screener can quickly cut to the basket for an easy shot.

As we move forward, remember that these options exist and that screens are opportunities to force the defense into a difficult decision. A well-executed play is not merely running a pattern but rather it is correctly reading the defense and selecting the best options that open up.

Comparisons

Now that we're more familiar with the different defensive schemes and the role screens play, we can make a more informed distinction between the different schemes. Notice how the role of screens is designed almost exclusively to beat man-to-man based defensive schemes (either straight man-to-man, swarm defense, or to a lesser extent match-up zone). For that reason, it should be apparent that it would do our offense very little good other than to free up a pass to an area of weak coverage to set screens if the defense is playing zone.

For example, compare a play similar to what we just examined under man-to-man and zone defense.

Man-to-Man

2-3 Zone

Notice that in our zone coverage, the defense was free to ignore the screen set by the SF because the zone isn't concerned about staying on him. However, remember that one of the weaknesses of zone defense is perimeter shooting and thus it might have difficulty contesting on this particular shot.

Closing Thoughts

Obviously there is much more to defense than I covered but hopefully this gives us a starting point in discussing how defense sets itself up and interacts with the offense. Eventually, we'll move along we'll take a more in-depth look at specific defensive situations but we now have the foundation we need to examine full plays. In part 3 we're going to start with some very basic plays that are found across different offensive systems and then we'll look at a few popular offensive systems.

If you're wondering about the different cuts from part 1 at the bottom, the ones I spotted were a UCLA cut by the PG followed by a back cut by the SF, a curl by the SG, then a cross cut by the C, a banana cut by the PG, and a flex cut by the SG. If you saw something different let me know, it's very possible I missed something.

Before we end here let me give you a hypothetical situation to think about.

Suppose you're a defensive coordinator for an NBA team and after some scouting you determine that the key to the opposing team's offense is defending a low screen set for the SG by the SF similar to what we examined above with effective isolation of the PG, SG, and SF. Similar to this diagram:

The SG is quick, reads screens well and can convert in the lane or out along the perimeter. The SF on the other hand is fairly slow, has bad hands, and is very poor at low post scoring. Your SF is of average speed but definitely slower than the opposing SG and your SG is similarly of average speed and slower than the opposing SG.

What defensive scheme would you rely on to defend against this scenario? How would you instruct your players to react to the screen set by the SF? Can you identify how you have allowed the offense to attack you?

Next time I'll give you my thoughts on this scenario and we can see how they compare to your own.

Mens_Rea Teaches You Things About Basketball pt. 1 - Movement and Mechanics

2012-06-12T09:38:00.003-07:00

Mens_Rea Teaches You Things About Basketball pt. 1 - Movement

Introduction

In its most simplest terms offense has only one goal - put the ball in the basket. Achieving that goal is a much more complex matter. Since the game involves five players on each team on the floor at the same time, it's not a matter of simply breaking down a defender one on one and scoring. There's a team element that adds many layers of complexity to such a simple goal. For that reason, it's very important to understand how all the players interact each other and can influence each other on the court. We're going to begin this series by understanding this relationship between the movement of one player to another and what tools each player has available to them to become an active part of the offense. Likewise, we'll gain an understanding of how the defense can neutralize or minimize the movement of the offense.

Let's start by looking at some basic movement and how our movement can affect the game's mechanics.

Basic Movement - Cuts

Offensive movement on the court is an attempt to further our ultimate goal - score points. We're going to isolate movement by removing some of the variables and then adding some complexity once we understand the isolated movements.

This is what a one on one match up would look like:

Our scoring options are very limited here. Our ballhandler could attempt to drive past the defender, post up the defender, or shoot over the defender. Since there are no passing options, our ballhandler is also limited to one sequence of dribbles. Although many players are very good at breaking down a single defender, it is also true that there are many very good individual defenders.

Let's see what happens when we add a second set of players.

By adding only one more set of players the level of complexity has increased dramatically. Now our ballhandler has someone to pass to who has the same options our ballhandler has plus the ability to get in position to move off the ball to get in favorable scoring position.

But how does he do that? We're going to look at some movement and add some names to them.

Front cut

A front cut is a movement by an offensive player where the defender is shielded from the ball allowing an open pass to the cutter.

Back cut

A back cut, as the name suggests, is a cut by an offensive player behind the defender, usually in an attempt to catch them by surprise and gain separation based on the slower reaction time.

V cut

A V cut is usually used to gain separation from a defender that is playing closely to the off-ball player. The quick cut back out to the perimeter gains momentary separation, usually enough to receive a pass.

L cut

An L cut operates similar to a V cut but is a cut down (or up) the lane followed by a perpendicular cut out to the wing.

Curl cut

A curl cut is movement that is circular or rounded in motion.

Flash cut

A flash cut is usually made by a post player that is a quick movement from the high post to the low post or vice versa.

Cross cut

A cross cut is a cut across the lane, usually to gain separation to receive the ball in the post.

Banana cut

A banana cut is often used by players that are skilled corner 3pt shooters.

Let's see if we can identify what we've seen so far with the following animation.

So what did you see? You should have identified a V cut by 2 to receive the ball, an L cut by 1, a front cut by 2, then a banana cut by 1.

As you can see, there are many types of cuts available for players to free themselves of their defenders even without the use of a screen.

Let's continue to add some more complexity and add a third set of players.

Basic Movement - Screens

One again, we've increased the complexity dramatically. Not only does our third player have all the options we had with just our one on one scenario (once he has the ball of course), but he also has all the off-ball movement available to our two on two scenario. Something we have so far ignored is the role of screening and our third set of players will help demonstrate.

Let's focus on our curl animation.

What happens if the defender guarding 2 is just too fast for our offensive 2? He would be able to keep up with our offensive player and wouldn't get open to receive the pass.

One way to prevent this is to screen for our cutting players.

By placing our third player in the path of 2's defender, we've slowed down his ability to keep pace with our player and he now has separation to receive the ball and potentially shoot the ball after receiving it.

Just like there are many different kinds of cuts, there are many different kinds of screens.

Ball screen

A ball screen is a screen for the ballhandler, this is also known as a pick.

Back screen

A back screen is a screen set behind a defender where he can't see him. Generally, the rules require a distance of one step between the screener and the defender being screener in order to be a legal screen.

Down screen

A down screen, sometimes called a pin down screen, is a screen where the screener is facing the baseline, usually set down low to allow a player to gain separation on a flash cut.

Cross screen

A cross screen is a screen to gain separation on a cross cut.

Now that we have added names to the types of cuts and screens available to us, let's look at some common movement on the court that I will call signature movement.

Basic Movement - Signature Movement

Some combination of movement has become so common that it is identified by a particular name - let's show some examples of signature movement.

UCLA cut

A UCLA cut is a cut by a player around another player on occupying the high post. The cut is named after the highly successful John Wooden's UCLA team that used this cut heavily in their offense. This cut allows a give and go from the high post (passing the ball to one player only to receive it back again after cutting to the basket) or if the post player is never given the ball is simply an up screen (opposite of our down screen mentioned above) from the high post.

Shuffle cut

A shuffle cut is similar to the UCLA cut but occurs at an angle. This cut is commonly found in the Shuffle Offense.

Flex cut

A flex cut is named after the Flex Offense which commonly uses this cut to free up players from the corners. By adding a fourth player we can see the usefulness of this cut.

Flex cut - receiving the ball off the cut

Conclusion

As we can see, basketball can become a complex game by means of simple movement around the court. The trick is chaining together the right combination of movement to make our goal - scoring points - easier. So far we're able to identify and describe the kinds of cuts our players can make, identify and describe the kinds of screens our players can make, and identify and describe some of the signature combinations of movements that our players can make.

We'll continue in part 2 with how players negotiate these cuts and screens in combination to maximize separation and scoring potential. We'll also further chain together our movements to look at full plays.

I'm going to end this post with an animation of a play, see how much of the action you can describe using our terms from above. I'll help identify the movement to start part 2.

Analysis by Request pt. 1: The 1995 NBA Finals - Magic vs. Rockets

2012-03-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Background Info

This post is in response to a solicitation for requests I made on reddit. I considered doing this post in the past but I knew it would take a lot of time and I would have to find the right footage to make decent clips. Thankfully, I was able to find decent quality video of Game 4 from the series and I think this game is representative of the entirety of the series. With that said, for this post we're going to take a look at one of my all-time favorite series - the Orlando Magic led by Shaquille O'Neal against the Houston Rockets led by Hakeem Olajuwon in the 1995 NBA Finals.

This series is one of my favorites for a couple of different reasons. First, the '95 Rockets are the lowest seeded team (6th in the Western Conference) to ever win a championship. Second, the path to the championship was probably one of the most difficult. The Rockets are one of three teams to face 50+ win teams in every round of the playoffs (the '01 and '10 Lakers being the other two teams). Even more impressive, the teams they faced - the Magic, Spurs, Suns, and Jazz - had the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best record in the league respectively. Lastly, the two teams played a very similar offensive game so the series was mostly decided by execution.

We'll start by taking a look at the offense common to both teams then we'll take a look at their differences.

4-out-1-in

If you've followed my past posts you're probably very familiar with this set. For those who aren't, the set looks like this:

The Center is posted at the low block while the other four teammates are stationed around the perimeter. Both teams use the 4-out-1-in as their main offensive set. If we think about our rosters it should be pretty clear why that is. Both teams have adept 3pt shooters and both teams have skilled post-scoring Centers but there's also a historically relevant reason for this set.

Historical Context

(WARNING: KIND OF BORING BUT IMPORTANT)

Between 1947 and 2001 there were several restrictions on zone defense. The argument was that the NBA, unlike college, shouldn't try to limit the athletic gifts of its players because it would create a more entertaining product if players were forced to play man-to-man defense. As time went on the league modified how much it would allow zone defense and by the time of this series zone defense was per se allowed but some restrictions still existed that have since disappeared.

The limitations were as follows:

a. Weak side defenders may come in the pro lane (16’), but not in the college lane (12’) for more than three seconds.
b. Defender on post player is allowed in defensive three-second area (A post player is any player adjacent to paint area).
c. Player without ball may not be double-teamed from weak side.
d. Offensive player above foul line and inside circle must be played by defender inside dotted line.
e. If offensive player is above the top of the circle, defender must come to a position above foul line.
f. Defender on cutter must follow the cutter, switch, or double-team the ball.

Additionally, this series was also before the "Mark Jackson Rule" which states:

A five-second count will begin if an offensive player with the ball and not facing-up starts dribbling below the free throw line extended while being closely guarded or starts dribbling outside and then penetrates below the free throw line extended while being closely guarded. (The five-second count commences when the offensive player penetrates the free throw line extended). After five seconds, a violation will have occurred and the offensive team will lose possession.

As a practical matter these rules had several notable advantages for the offense. First, it was more difficult to double team a post player because perimeter defenders could not go below the foul line if their man was above the top of the circle. Second, post players did not have to worry about weak side defenders assisting with ball denial from double teams. Lastly, since the Mark Jackson Rule was not yet in place, post players had more time to make their moves and make decisions. The last rule mostly affected guards that posted up (as we'll see in this game) but if any reader should attempt to compare what we see here to teams that run this system now this information might be useful.

Let's take a look at two clips that show the illegal defense in effect.

In our clip we see Sam Cassell help with ball denial on the post entry pass. Brian Shaw then quickly moves up above the circle when Cassell is caught still below the free throw line so he's called for the illegal defense.

This time Kenny Smith is caught hedging toward the post while his man is well above the circle and is called for illegal defense.

Now let's return to our set and see why all this information is so significant.

Notice in this set that as long as the PG and SG remain above the circle, they cannot come double team the Center. Also remember that the SF and PF, although their offensive players are below the circle, the rules do not allow them to come from the weak side to aid in ball denial to the post. These limitations along with the Mark Jackson rule give the Center an isolation at the low block as long as his teammates are discipline with where they move on the court.

For that reason, this series was a battle of Olajuwon and Shaq's post game and their ability to recognize when to pass rather than force a shot. It's also for that reason that I've decided to break this analysis down mostly by the play of Olajuwon and Shaq. They both ran the bulk of their offense and the decisions they made played a large role in the success or failure of their teams - more so than might have been immediately apparent without the historical context.

Let's start with Shaq's Magic.

Shaquille O'Neal

As mentioned above, this system only works if Shaq is an effective post player. Shaq's style of play was markedly different from Hakeem. Shaq was so physically imposing that his post scoring mostly revolved around gaining deep post position by brute strength and finishing hard or by using his wide body and length to put up a difficult to defend hook shot.

Here we see Shaq's hook shot at work.

Additional clips:
Hook Shot 1
Hook Shot 2
Hook Shot 3
Hook Shot 4
Hook Shot 5
Hook Shot 6
Hook Shot 7

Shaq was able to get great post positioning through screens in the lane and by using his superior strength.

Here we'll see Dennis Scott set a screen in the lane for Shaq that places him right under the basket.

His signature through his career though was his ability to simply move players out of the way on the cross cut. In this clip we see Shaq move Hakeem out of the way on his cross cut and stop under the basket for great positioning.

In this next clip Charles Jones is forced to foul Shaq due to the same cross cut.

This next clip demonstrates the ferocity that Shaq possessed as a post player.

At this point in Shaq's career he was very mobile but his post moves were still a work in progress.

Other clips:

Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3
Clip 4
Clip 5

Hakeem Olajuwon

By comparison, Olajuwon's post game was based on a masterful grasp of the fundamental shots but also an incorporation of a seemingly endless array of counter moves. Where Hakeem lacked in strength, he made up for in footwork and clever adaptation to his defender.

Here Hakeem executes a fadeaway jump shot as a basic move that sets his defenders up later in the game when he starts to add counter moves.

Hakeem was also able to put up a very good hook shot though he wasn't nearly as wide as Shaq and thus he couldn't rely as heavily on it.

The basic post moves executed by Hakeem lulled his defenders into thinking they knew what to expect next. Here Hakeem puts up a baseline spin move shot.

In this next clip we see a play almost identical to the Dennis Scott lane screen above. Notice that Hakeem can't overpower Shaq in the same way and thus is slightly outside the lane by comparison. Also notice that Hakeem uses his body to keep Shaq away from his shot and finesses a runner.

When Hakeem is unaided by a screen he uses his footwork and body control to gain some ground in the post. Here Olajuwon's post entry is initiated by first facing up to Shaq then rolling his body across to get a little deeper position. When the double comes, he splits the double team by planting hard and pivoting between them.

When Hakeem makes a cross cut he doesn't have the strength to muscle into position like Shaq but he's able to compensate by having an excellent face up game.

If he doesn't feel like he has good positioning or if he just wants to test his defender's mobility, he can face up and go to work.

Hakeem was also able to reliably score as a spot up shooter from within about 15ft.

But even when faced with a simple spot up shot opportunity defenders still have to be careful of Hakeem's amazing footwork.

Comparison

When facing Shaq you knew what you were getting as a defender. You expected him to try to assert his strength on you and your difficulty as a defender was to overcome that strength. With Hakeem, you could never over react to any of his movements or he would make you pay. Both styles were very effective but vastly different ways; all the more reason to love this series.

Now that we've seen how each player created scoring opportunities for themselves, let's see how their post play created shots for everyone else.

The Perimeter

I mentioned earlier that the rules at the time allowed much easier post isolation plays but often times teams would opt out of the benefit of the illegal defense rule in an attempt to take advantage of the defense's double team. The animation below illustrates how dropping the wing player to below the top of the circle would permit the wing defender to double and could open up shots for any of the perimeter players.

If any defender is slow on the rotation a shot opens up and ultimately the corner shot should eventually be available.

Here the post entry pass attracted Elie and Smith to help in the post. Shaq reacts by passing to Hardaway who then skip passes to Scott who is open because Horry was late on the rotation.

Did you notice anything strange about this play? Take a look again and see if you can spot it.

You may have noticed that Elie should have been called for the illegal defense since Scott was above the circle and Elie moved below the free throw line. Part of why the rule was eliminated was because of the difficulty of enforcement. Referees were very inconsistent with the call and, like many rules still in place today, often they would miss the call. Some referees would rule based on the spirit of the rule - to prevent zone defense - which would further complicate enforcement since technically zone defense was legal, it was the zone defense as modified by the league that was illegal. As a defender, sometimes it was worth risking the call, especially with the inconsistent enforcement, if it meant taking the ball out of a strong post player's hands a few possessions.

Here Grant drops below the circle and Horry doubles on Shaq. Grant then rotates to give Shaq a better passing angle and is open for the shot.

Even if a shot isn't immediately available the outlet pass from the post could allow drives from pump fakes that could open up the offense even further.

So far we've seen how the Magic were able to create offense out of the post but let's see how the Rockets differ slightly.

In this clip we see something very similar to how the Magic find the open perimeter player. In this instance, Drexler pump fakes and drives before finding Elie but that wasn't uncommon for the Magic either.

Once again, we see a pass similar to what the Magic would run with Olajuwon passing to Cassell.

Where I think the two players differ is when Olajuwon passes out of a move. Olajuwon was very good at passing out of one of his post moves and because he commonly would use counter moves it was hard for the defense to tell if he was going to put up a shot or pass.

In this clip Olajuwon fakes the baseline spin move and then fakes a move to the lane and passes out to the wing. Notice how Hardaway leaves his man and plays for the baseline move which Olajuwon then splits by moving to the lane. This leaves Hardaway not only out of position to defend Smith but also Olajuwon has taken Hardaway out of defending a hook or fadeaway.

Here Olajuwon performs a series of fakes and still finds Horry open on the perimeter.

Grant didn't leave Horry on the initial move but he did once Olajuwon looked to move toward the lane. Olajuwon's style of play not only caused his defender to react but also defenders along the perimeter. With Shaq, he might draw double teams as he proceeded closer to the basket but Olajuwon would cause players to over commit to one of his counter moves and put them completely out of position. The ability to recover was reduced greatly if you were faked into believing a shot was going up as we've seen with Grant and Hardaway.

Once again we'll see Anthony Bowie leave Elie when Olajuwon does a post shimmy.

Additional clips:

Magic Alternate Offense

Both sides created offense through other means. The Magic had Anfernee Hardaway, a very athletic, tall PG that could create his own shot or make a quick cut to the basket.

Several Magic players could also post up if they had the size advantage. In these clips we see Dennis Scott creating some post offense.

Rockets Alternate Offense

The Rockets had Sam Cassell, a crafty, fearless PG in his second year. He could create his own shot or post up to initiate the offense

They also had Clyde Drexler in his 12th season in the league. Although he couldn't create his own shot as well as when he was on the Trailblazers, he was still a solid transition player who could post up and carry some of the mid-range load.

Conclusion

I hope a review of the two sides instills a bit of appreciation for just how amazing this series was. The difficult road capped by a series that pitted the star players' skills directly against one another places this among my personal favorites.

We'll end this post with a clip of the final possessions of the series. Hakeem made sure to end this run in style.

Small Market Series pt. 4 - The Charlotte Bobcats' UCLA Offense

2012-02-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

Small Market Series pt. 4 - The Charlotte Bobcats' UCLA Offense
Background Info

Last time we discussed the most successful small market team, the Spurs. This time we're going to focus on a team that so far has struggled to match that success, the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats have the dubious distinction of ranking last in points-per-possession and have so far shot 41.3% from the field.

When we look at the Bobcats, let's see if we can identify the difference between their execution and the Spurs. In doing so, perhaps we will learn something about what separates successful and unsuccessful teams.

UCLA Offense

The offense gains its namesake from John Wooden's highly successful UCLA teams that he led to a total of 10 NCAA Championships. The offense can be run out of a number of different sets, John Wooden preferred the 1-3-1 version of the offense, but it's also common to see the 4-out-1-in, 2-3 high, and 1-4 high. The Bobcats tend to run most of their plays in a 1-4 high set, as shown below.

The UCLA offense uses a player at the elbow to assist in ball movement around the perimeter or with high-low passes. The elbow players are also used to set screens for perimeter players. The most common screen is known as the "UCLA cut" and is found in many different offensive systems. The UCLA cut is a screen at the elbow which allows the cutting player to read how the defense will play the screen and potentially opens up an easy path to the basket. You may recall the UCLA cut from our discussion of the Bulls last year.

The following animation illustrates the UCLA cut:

In this example, after the SG passes off to the SF, he makes a UCLA cut to receive the ball again from the SF. The UCLA cut is a simple move but can be very effective. The player performing the cut can opt to play the screen on either side depending on how the defense plays him.

Let's watch the Bobcats run the UCLA Offense in their 1-4 high set.

The play begins in the 1-4 high set and Walker passes to Brown at the free throw line extended. Walker then makes a UCLA cut off Diaw's screen. Diaw quickly rolls to the basket but the pass isn't made. Since Walker and Diaw didn't receive the pass, Biyombo flashes to the high post to swing the ball to the weak side. Williams breaks free off the Diaw screen to make the shot.

The play animated:

In this play we have the same 1-4 high wing entry pass followed by a UCLA cut but this time the play doesn't move to the weak side, instead Williams sets a screen at the short corner for Higgins then pops back out to the three point line for a shot.

Our next play shows how the high, flat, set can allow players to weave through the elbows and use them as pivot points to get open.

Notice how Walker and Thomas use Biyombo on the weak side elbow as a pivot point to try to get open. In the next play we see the same play but this time the shot opens up before much movement around Biyombo.

Isolation Plays/Execution

Post isolation plays can arise out of screens by having the screener seal his defender as shown in the next clip.

If you'll remember from the last post about the Spurs, this isolation serves as a good point of comparison to the isolation play for Blair where we saw great off-ball movement. Here we see very little movement and it puts the isolation player in a difficult position. As a refresher, the Blair isolation clip is below.

In this next clip we see another point of comparison. The Bobcats look for Diaw in the low post but he's being fronted by his defender. Biyombo flashes to the high post to help but Walker passes slightly off the block rather that passing to Biyombo. Last time, piglet24 asked if an over the top pass could be made in this situation. My response was that it probably didn't seem like a safe pass but let's expand on that a bit and see how players can read this type of situation.

Notice how quickly Gortat moved in to Diaw to double. The play was successful because Diaw made the correct pass to the wing but the options available might have benefited from passing to Biyombo because he can then read where Gortat moves.

If Gortat closes in on him, he can make the high-low pass to Diaw who has inside position on his defender, if Gortat hedges toward Diaw he can drive to the basket with an open lane. If a perimeter defender switches on him, the open perimeter player can either cut to the basket or remain as a spot up shooting option. Either way, I like the options created by the high post pass compared to the low post.

In this clip, we see when the pass is made to the high post. Gortat hedges on Diaw so Biyombo drives for the basket.

Here we see Nash make a good adjustment by hedging toward Biyombo. Since Walker is so far off the 3pt line, the defense can get away with covering the best passing options. The play would probably benefit by pulling Biyombo to the weak side to screen for the corner player while Walker flashes to the ball to help swing the ball to the opposite side.

A careful attention to detail on execution can maximize offensive options and make existing ones more effective.

Conclusion

How do the Bobcats compare to the teams we've seen so far? Has Coach Silas picked an offensive system that fits his roster? Does the difference between successful teams and unsuccessful teams come down to execution or is it something more? How much does individual talent play a role? It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what separates successful and unsuccessful teams but there does seem to be an identifiable difference in execution that does play a factor.

Perhaps it's as simple as a lack of talent can be replaced by good execution to some degree. If you'll remember, the Princeton Offense was predicated on that idea by relying on smart passes combined with smart cuts rather than athleticism. Certainly, our look into the small market teams has presented us with a lot to think about.

2012-02-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

Small Market Series pt. 3 - The San Antonio Spurs' Motion Offense

Background Info

Up until this point most offensive systems we've looked at can be categorized into a narrow subset of the motion offense. The San Antonio Spurs' offense, however, is a combination of designed plays and read-and-react plays. While it's true that nearly every team runs a combination of designed and read-and-react plays, the Spurs run much more designed plays than most teams. For this reason I'll refer to their offense under the more general term "motion offense" - a very broad term but as we go through their offense I think it will become apparent why I decided to do so.

Also, we're going to discuss a topic that has only been mentioned briefly in the past - execution. Execution is the ability of a team to run their plays effectively. An effective play maximizes the potential of its primary scoring option while also providing plenty of auxiliary options if the primary option isn't available.

Let's take a look.

Motion Offense

As I mentioned earlier, the Spurs' offense varies a great deal. Their motion offense generally runs out of the 4-out-1-in low set, pictured below.

They'll also put the inside man in the high set on occasion to better facilitate hand offs to cutters or give Duncan a high post scoring opportunity.

In this clip we see the 4-out-1-in low set with Blair as the inside man. Cory Joseph opts away from passing to Blair and the ball is swung to the weak side creating a pick and roll for Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter.

Once again we see Blair set up an early 4-out-1-in low set but his positioning is too high so the offense transitions to a low double screen for Leonard while Jefferson and Duncan play the pinch post.

While the Spurs run a lot of this in their offense, we've covered a great deal of this type of offense and I don't believe it represents what is truly unique about the Spurs. A review of the 4-out-1-in motion offenses we've covered so far can be found in our discussion of the Timberwolves, Knicks, Lakers, and Mavericks.

The trademark of the Spurs is the arsenal of set plays they run and their careful attention to execution.

A Well Oiled Machine

The Spurs are sometimes criticized for running a ho-hum offense that rarely produces highlight-worthy plays. If play execution caused as much excitement as spectacular dunks for the casual fan, highlight reels would be overtaken by the Spurs.

Let's take a look at an example with a Leonard post play.

This particular game featured the Timberwolves' Luke Ridnour covering Kawhi Leonard. The commentators in the game mentioned Leonard having a 5 inch advantage over Ridnour and the Spurs were more than happy to try to take advantage of that. The clip that follows was the first offensive play of the game for the Spurs.

The play begins to look like a 4-out-1-in with Duncan lagging behind along the perimeter. He then quickly moves for a down screen for Leonard. Leonard then sets a ball screen for Parker.

Already we have a few options. The first option was Duncan staying along the perimeter if Blair found good inside positioning. The quick hitter (fist play) would have been:

After the fist play option a screen-the-screener creates a pick and roll opportunity.

Duncan reads the play and notices Parker has opted out of the pick and roll by passing to the wing. This cues Duncan to cross screen for Leonard, creating a low double screen for Leonard. If Ridnour hadn't fronted Leonard, the play would have given Leonard a post up opportunity.

Blair's move to the high post opens up an additional option, one that is taken in this play. Since Ridnour fronted the post, Blair flashes to the ball to create a better passing angle to Leonard. Notice also that Duncan is open for a mid-range shot if Pekovic is too aggressive closing in on Leonard.

The full play animated is as follows:

This play created several options and it was designed to make the defense pick its poison.

The next play the Spurs ran demonstrates their commitment to execution.

Once again we see Leonard pop up for the ball screen followed by a curl around the low double screen. This time Duncan sets the screen lower which allows Leonard to move between the screens and prevent Ridnour from fronting him. While he doesn't make the basket, it does give him a good isolation at the mid-post. On the surface it would seem the first play was the better play but Leonard did make the proper adjustment. The first play is more likely to result in turnovers because of the additional pass necessary to give Leonard a scoring opportunity. The offense should always look for the path of least resistance for its scoring opportunities and the second play is notable for the adjustment to improve in that area.

Good execution not only recognizes mismatches when playing the defense straight up but also can create mismatches. Let's watch the next play to see how the Spurs are able to do this.

Here Parker notices the fast break isn't there so he pulls back. Blair sets a good screen on Rubio causing Pekovic to switch and a mismatch is created. The first possible way to take advantage of the mismatch is for Parker to use his speed advantage against Pekovic. The space necessary isn't available for that option so Parker passes down to Blair. While the defense is focused on the mismatch Blair finds Jefferson in the corner for an open shot.

Let's look at another play the Spurs run.

In this play we have a double down screen, the first down screen is by Splitter to free up Green and the second is by Green to free up Splitter. Depending on how the defense reacts to this play it could give both Splitter and Green an opportunity to score. Also, notice that when Parker drives into the paint how discipline the other players are to give him the spacing and passing options he needs. Blair is available for the short corner shot and Jefferson and Green are at the wings to serve as defensive balance and 3pt shooting options.

Their focus on keeping their options available and execution can even be seen in their isolation plays. Often times we see teams remain stagnant on isolation plays which puts the isolation player at much greater pressure to put up a shot because a pass can easily become a turnover.

The offense rotates using Duncan as a pivot point on the weak side and Duncan can pop out to set a screen when the ball is moved. The constant motion discourages double teaming Blair and makes the weak side players more available to accept a pass. Once the pass is made, a ball screen is immediately available.

In this next play again we see the discipline the Spurs have in their plays.

This is a very common play, it's a 1-4 low with a high ball screen. Often times teams are too quick to collapse into the paint anticipating a rebound opportunity which leaves the ballhandler trapped into shooting the ball or a dangerous pass. Here we see Blair keeping some distance as a trailing pass option and since nobody crowded the paint Duncan was open to accept the pass from Blair.

Conclusion

Teams sometimes struggle with the right balance of designed plays and letting its players react to what the defense gives them and Popovich has done a good job finding the right combination for his teams. By stressing execution his players can gain a better understanding of why plays work which will help them on both the designed plays and the read-and-react plays.

Small Market Series pt. 2 - The Minnesota Timberwolves' Princeton Offense

2012-01-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Small Market Series pt. 2 - The Minnesota Timberwolves' Princeton Offense

Background Info

The Minnesota Timberwolves hired Coach Rick Adelman during the off season to replace Kurt Rambis; the change closed the books on the Triangle Offense for the Timberwolves but opened up another notorious offensive system - the Princeton Offense. Adding to the exciting changes for Timberwolves fans was the addition of international sensation Ricky Rubio and lauded draft pick Derrick Williams.

Combining the new additions with the existing roster of Kevin Love and Michael Beasley may have created the most appropriate match in the league.

To further discover what I mean by that let's take a look at Adelman's Princeton Offense.

The Princeton Offense

The Princeton Offense is generally run out of the 4-out-1-in set that we've become familiar with when discussing several teams, including the Lakers, Mavericks, and Knicks. Unlike the Knicks' 4-out-1-in system, the Princeton Offense stresses lots of motion - quick cuts to the basket from the perimeter players and much more screening action to open up opportunities. Players should always look for opportunities to make a cut to the basket or cause a mismatch through movement as long as it doesn't disrupt spacing. The offense is most effective when all of its players are versatile - good at passing, shooting, and mobile.

The Timberwolves usually start their offense with a high set which looks like this:

At times they'll also use the low set, usually when Darko is on the floor, which looks like this:

Let's take a look at an example:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/OT-lBlGSFhI]

In our clip we see the Timberwolves begin with a 4-out-1-in high but Love pops out to receive the perimeter pass and Darko fills the low post to create the low set.

The Timberwolves are able to keep the defense guessing by transitioning between these two versions of the 4-out-1-in.

In this next clip we see the opposite transition as Love appears to be setting up low post position but curls to the opposing wing instead.

The Princeton Offense can also use an open set which is the 5-out set.

This set is used to give the ballhandler driving space and gives him passing options for either spot up shooting or cuts from the perimeter. In this play we'll see the open set with Love and Ellington as spot up shooting options while Randolph and Beasley cut to the basket.

In this play Rubio uses the open set to drive to the basket and Randolph attempts to receive a lob by sneaking from the corner.

The open set gives Rubio or Barea an opportunity to force the defense into difficult decisions. Adelman has also added a high double screen play; here we see how collapsing the top of the open set provides a double screen for Rubio.

The Princeton offense also uses a 1-2-2 motion transition to a 3-2 set to allow two post players. The motion is usually a screen for the wing players at the elbow as shown below:

The defense must make a quick decision on both sides of the court - should the post defender leave his man and help the wing defender or should he stick to his man and hope the wing defender can recover to his man? The offense can read how the defense plays these screens and try to take advantage early in the offense.

Here we see Darko and Love at the elbows to screen for the wing players. Neither post defender helps on the screen but the wing defenders were able to recover well enough to prevent the shot. However, Beasley did gain sufficient separation for a drive to the basket and when Darko's defender rotates over to prevent the layup Darko receives a pass but is stripped.

Again we see an early screen for the wing players around the elbow area.

The advantage of this set is it gives an early two man game option on either side of the floor and provides better rebound positioning.

The 3-2 set can transition into the 4-out-1-in through the following motion:

One problem that players need to be mindful of is to time their cuts correctly. In this next clip Rubio drives into the lane at the same time that Love and Randolph cut to the basket. This draws too many players in the lane and doesn't leave Rubio room to safely pass the ball.

Ricky Rubio

Rubio is an invaluable asset to this system because recognizing open cutters and spot up shooters is what makes the system so effective.

Here we see the double screen play for Rubio and he finds the open spot up shooter on the weak side.

Once again, Rubio notices the defense has overloaded on the strong side so he finds an open man on the weak side.

Here Rubio finds Haslem outside of his defensive comfort zone on an athletic Derrick Williams.

This time Rubio moves well off the double screen off the ball and makes the right pass.

His high basketball IQ, patience, and court vision works perfectly in this system.

Kevin Love

Rubio alone is an excellent piece for the Princeton Offense but Adelman is fortunate enough to also have Kevin Love. Since Love is a valid mid-range and 3pt threat he can pop out as the inside man to transition to the open set or he can help the low-to-high or high-to-low transition as we saw earlier in this post.

He's also a good cutting option in the offense because of his mobility. Here he makes a cut off a wide roll to the basket.

And this time we see him get great low post positioning from a cross cut.

Even outside of the Princeton Offense, he's an excellent complement to Rubio in pick and roll situations.

Of course he also brings his rebounding acumen to the offense.

Conclusion

In case you didn't believe Adelman was fortunate enough, he also has Derrick Williams, Michael Beasley, along with many others that are capable cutters from the wings and corners to increase the potency of the offense. It's still early but I believe Adelman's roster matches his system better than most teams in the league. As his players become more familiarized with the system, they have a great opportunity to become a force in the West.

Up next, the most successful small market team in the league - the San Antonio Spurs.

Small Market Series pt. 1 - The Atlanta Hawks' Flex Offense

2012-01-31T13:21:00.001-08:00

Small Market Series pt. 1 - The Atlanta Hawks' Flex Offense

Background Info

Recently, the redditor HumanAfterAll posted a thank you to those contributing material about small market teams. I noticed that lately I have neglected small markets with posts about the Lakers, Heat, Clippers, and Knicks so I thought I should do my part to give some small market teams some attention. The first installment will take a look at HumanAfterAll's team, the Atlanta Hawks.

The Hawks run a mixture of isolation plays and flex offense. The Flex Offense was popularized by Jerry Sloan's Utah Jazz. Like any effective offensive system, the Hawks run their version of the Flex Offense mindful of the strengths and weaknesses of their roster. Let's take a look at the Hawks' Flex Offense.

Flex Offense

If you've followed my previous posts you may remember that we covered the Bulls' version of the Flex Offense last year. As a bit of a refresher, the typical Flex motion is as follows:

In this play we see Jeff Teague perform the down screen for Joe Johnson and then screen for Al Horford to allow a flex cut (the cut across the lane at the baseline). This play ends before the flex cut is performed because of Joe Johnson's drive to the basket, but we can see the play's intent.

This time the flex cut is performed by Marvin Williams off a screen by Joe Johnson. Johnson is then freed up by a down screen by Josh Smith.

An animation might help identify the flex motion in this play.

In this next play, we see the Hawks use the Flex set with Al Horford and Tracy McGrady occupying the corner positions and Ivan Johnson on the low block as a means of performing a high pick and roll.

Since the set is set low, it provides a lot of room for a pick and roll motion or dribble drive motion to be performed with the corners as perimeter options and the low post man as a drop down pass option or, if set slightly off the block, as a short jumper option.

A variation of the Flex set can also be used to open up isolation plays as we see in these plays.

In this next play, Joe Johnson moves toward the low block but opts out of the screen for the flex cut and instead an isolation play is created.

The Hawks have been criticized in the past for isolating too much and it appears this year they're doing a much better job of finding other players out of the isolation.

Conclusion

So far the Hawks' offense has been fairly efficient, ranking 6th in points-per-possession. How does this system differ from the Bulls' version of the Flex Offense? Which system do you think is better adapted to its roster? Do you think this system is the right choice compared to the other systems we've looked at?

Looking forward, I'm going to continue to examine small market teams - next up, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The New York Knicks' Seven Seconds or Less Offense

2012-01-31T13:14:00.001-08:00

The New York Knicks' Seven Seconds or Less Offense

Background Info

Those who are familiar with Mike D'Antoni are also probably familiar with his Seven Seconds or Less Offense. He was very successful with his offense with the Phoenix Suns and many Knicks fans might have been excited to see his system run with two very capable offensive talents - Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire. Unfortunately, the Knicks' record has been rather disappointing so far. While much of the blame can be placed on defense, I want to take a look at their offense to see why this system is performing below expectations.

Seven Seconds or Less

Those who are familiar with the system are probably used to plays with Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire similar to this one:

The system pushes the pace in an attempt to capitalize on early mismatches or quick pick and rolls that put pressure on the defense to make the right decision. This offensive philosophy is evident when looking at the number of transition attempts the Knicks have. At the time of this writing 12.8% of all offensive plays from the Knicks come in transition.

The theory is that generally transition baskets render a higher point-per-possession because the defense hasn't had a chance to set up yet. The same philosophy is what drives the Miami Heat's Pace and Space Motion Offense. However, the Knicks are 21st in the league in points-per-possession in transition and it's largely because they try to push the issue too often and force transition attempts.

Here we see a few of the transition attempts.

If the transition offense isn't available the Knicks run a pick and roll motion offense. The play often begins with a 4-out-1-in high set pictured below.

If you've followed my previous posts this set is probably very familiar by now. We've seen the 4-out-1-in when discussing the Heat's Pace and Space, the Lakers' Strong Corner Offense, and the Mavericks' version of the 4-out-1-in last year. This particular version of the 4-out-1-in is most similar to the Mavericks' variation where the inside man is used to set perimeter picks, but where the Mavericks tend to use the inside man to free up perimeter players off the ball, the Knicks use the inside man primarily as a source of a pick and roll.

The offense, therefore, is keyed by how the defense plays the pick and roll. If the ball defender goes over the pick, presumably the ballhandler is free for a drive to the basket. If the ball defender goes under the pick, the ballhandler might be open for a shot. If the pick defender hedges on the ballhandler, the roll man should be open to receive a pass. If the pick defender doesn't hedge, the ballhandler may be open for a drive. If the defense switches, the offense is free to try to exploit the mismatch created.

The Knicks also adjust the placement of the perimeter players slightly as shown below.

The positioning of this set gives the pick and roll players a lot of space to work and offers kick out options. The weak side will generally rotate around the perimeter rather than make cuts to the basket to maintain pick and roll spacing and instead make drives to the basket.

Let's take a look at how it works.

In this play we see Chandler as the inside man who sets a pick for Anthony. Chandler rolls to the basket but Anthony finds Stoudemire for the spot up jump shot. Ideally, the pick and roll will result in a shot opportunity for the two players involved but if the pick and roll is defended well, the spot up shooting options are the next option. It's because of this that spot up shots make up the bulk of the Knicks' shot attempts - making up 25% of all shot attempts.

Let's take a look at how these opportunities arise.

You might notice a trend with these shot attempts. The spot up shooters have no movement and no means of freeing themselves up if they are closely guarded. One way to combat this is to ask your players to mix your perimeter shots with shot fakes and drives.

In our last clip we see Harrellson take a spot up shot from the corner, but this time he makes a perimeter drive to the basket.

This time we see Fields make a drive from the corner.

Notice in our last clip on the weak side Shumpert does rotate from the corner to the wing. This is the motion usually associated with a pick and roll style or dribble drive motion offense. Players should rotate along the perimeter to free themselves up from any perimeter defenders that gamble by helping defend the pick and roll to gain some additional distance from their defender.

In this clip Shumpert properly rotates up to the wing from the corner.

The offense is fairly simple but it can be very effective if run correctly.

Isolation

The Knicks lead the league in isolation plays - 16.2% of their offense comes from isolation plays. Having a high percentage of isolation plays is not necessarily bad, the Thunder are second in the league in isolation plays at 15.2%. Obviously, isolation plays are only good in high doses if they're effective. The Knicks are 26th in the league in points-per-possession off isolation plays. Compare that to the Thunder who are 1st in points-per-possession off isolation plays.

Part of the reason the Knicks run so many isolation plays is because it can be set up as a natural progression of their offensive set. If the inside man slips the pick for Carmelo Anthony then all the other players are already spaced appropriately for him to have an isolation.

Here we see Chandler slip the pick for Anthony and give him an isolation that results in a turnover.

Likewise, if during a pick and roll Amar'e decides not to roll to the basket, he will be in high post position for an isolation play.

Either player can also receive an isolation out of the typical clear out play. Here Anthony is given a clear out isolation.

Conclusion

The Knicks have been criticized lately for their lack of ball movement and ineffective offense, do you believe they deserve that criticism? If so, who is more at fault when the offense is ineffective? Is it D'Antoni for using a system that uses a system with less player movement than most systems or is it the players on the court for not executing the system well? Is there a better system available for this roster? Is D'Antoni being realistic with his players' abilities? How will Baron Davis' return change things? The Knicks are going to have to answer these questions if they want to see some improvement.

Another interesting question is how this system compares to the Heat's Pace and Space Motion Offense. How is that system, with a similar emphasis on transition basket, performed differently than this one?

The Clippers' High Screen-the-Screener Series

2012-01-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

The Clippers' High Screen-the-Screener Series

Last night the Clippers and Mavericks faced off at Staples Center resulting in a last second victory for the Clippers. Much of the focus will no doubt be the amazing shot Billups made to win the game shown here.

While that was a great play, I want to focus on how the Clippers put themselves in a position to win in the 4th quarter.

The play-by-play shows the Clippers started the quarter with 2 made field goals by Mo Williams, the second coming at 10:51 left in the quarter. For the next 5 minutes of play the Clippers went 1 for 9, the sole basket coming off a well-defended Billups 3pt shot. The Clippers' stretch of misses was due to poor execution and rushed shots. After the Mavericks tied the game at 78 a piece with 5:35 left on the clock, Vinny Del Negro called a timeout.

After the timeout the Clippers slowed the game down and Billups began to run their offense. Let's take a look at what they ran.

Play 1

This was the first play the Clippers ran out of the timeout. Mo Williams screens the screener and Blake Griffin comes up for a ball screen while Mo Williams goes on to curl off a double screen by DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler.

The options this play produces puts the defense in a difficult position. The play is a variation of the classic single-double play.

In the single-double play, the primary offensive option is given a double screen on one side and a single screen on the other. Depending on how his defender is playing him, he can pick either screen to get an open look which can lead to a shot or a subsequent pass. In the version the Clippers ran, they added a ball screen to open up Billups for a potential early shot and put Griffin on the move for a potential pick and roll. Caron Butler also flares to the corner as another option and the front court is put in good rebounding position. The latter point was demonstrated well in this clip as Griffin picked up the rebound off Mo Williams' miss.

Play 2

The second play shows how the Clippers run another play in the series. At first it appears to be another screen-the-screener play that will develop into a single-double for Mo Williams but this time Mo Williams slips the screen for Griffin. This causes Terry to try to hedge above the developing double screen. Unfortunately for Terry, the screens don't come and instead Butler and Jordan stay off the lane a bit and Williams receives the pass at the low block.

Play 3

This play didn't fully develop but the placement of Jordan and Butler when Griffin sets the screen is interesting.

Play 4

Mo Williams sets the screen again for Griffin and this time runs to the corner to receive a ball screen from Jordan. When Butler receives the pass, the offense had to decide whether Jordan should set a screen for Williams or Butler. Butler decides to swing the ball to Williams because at the time of the pass Williams had some separation from Terry and there was a possibility of a corner 3pt shot. The shot didn't occur and Jordan is there to free up Williams.

Play 5

This play starts a little differently with Butler and Jordan swapping positions. The change doesn't seem important until the play develops. Williams sets the screen and Griffin sets the ball screen. When Billups takes Griffin's screen he passes to Butler and by this point Jordan has drifted down to the low block. When Butler drives to the basket, Dirk has to make the decision to either contest Butler's layup or stick to Jordan. Butler reads Dirk's contest correctly and does a drop down pass to Jordan for the dunk.

Play 6

In this variation Jordan sets the ball screen and the weak side develops into an isolation for Griffin.

Play 7

The last time the Clippers ran this play it resulted in a turnover but we can see how they attempted to use Play 6 as a means to open up a driving lane for Billups. If the defense watched the play unfold and believed the Clippers were setting up another Griffin isolation the play might have been successful.

Conclusion

What do you think of this play series? Do you see how a basic set can have many variations to keep the defense guessing? As the defending team against this set, it would not be enough to simply watch for the initial screen and roll, the defense has to remain discipline enough to watch the play unfold and be careful of subsequent screens.

The Lakers' Strong Corner Offense

2012-01-31T12:54:00.001-08:00

The Lakers' Strong Corner Offense

Background Info

This season brought a lot of new changes to the Lakers. One of the more interesting changes this season is the replacement of Phil Jackson by Mike Brown. Under Phil Jackson the Lakers ran the Triangle Offense, a system that brought Jackson's teams multiple championships. This year Mike Brown introduced the Strong Corner Offense to the Lakers. Brown's Strong Corner Offense utilizes some of the same concepts as the Triangle Offense and adds some new elements that are intended to add more low post scoring opportunities.

Let's take a look at how the Lakers run the Strong Corner Offense.

Sets

The Strong Corner Offense has two major sets which can either be the basis of initiating the offense or formed as transitional portions of a play. The first set is the 4-out-1-in set that we've covered when discussing the Heat's Pace and Space Motion Offense and the Mavericks' offense last season. The Lakers will use either Gasol or Bynum as the post man while all other players on the floor cover the perimeter.

This set allows the post player to try to create a shot or provides an opportunity for cutting players to score.

Here we see the Lakers quickly set up in the 4-out-1-in with Bynum in the low post. If either post player is able to move quickly in transition it allows for him to seal his defender and get an easy shot opportunity.

The set also allows Bynum or Gasol to begin an isolation play for them with various cutters as passing options.

The second set is the Strong Corner Fill.

In this set, one post player fills the high elbow while the other fills the opposite low block. The wings are filled and the strong corner is filled. This set creates a formation that the Lakers are familiar with in the Triangle Offense. The spacing is very similar except rather than emphasizing filling the defensive balance position (the top of the arc), the strong corner is filled.

This set is usually used as a transition piece rather than to initiate the offense.

Continuity of the Offense

Let's take a look at how the offense operates.

The play can be diagrammed as:

In this clip we see Gasol as the post man in the 4-out-1-in set. It's quickly apparent that he's covered too well for a post entry pass so Fisher reverses the ball by passing to Bynum. This keys the offense to set up the Strong Corner Fill set. Gasol flashes to the high post and Bynum does a dribble hand off to Kobe then occupies the low block. Barnes and Fisher then run a wing reversal. The result is a transition into the Strong Corner Fill set.

When Kobe passes to Gasol at the high post it allows Kobe and Fisher to run any number of pinch post cuts. In this clip, Kobe runs a UCLA cut that turns into a screen for Fisher who makes a cut for the basket. Fisher's cut doesn't result in a pass so Kobe uses Gasol for the hand off and has an open shot.

The play presented a number of options and a review of the options helps illustrate the continuity of the offense.

Our first option was a quick post entry shot by Gasol.

Or a post entry pass and pass to a baseline cut from Kobe.

When transitioning to the Strong Corner Fill, Barnes and Fisher could have opted to not execute a wing reversal.

After the transition to the Strong Corner Fill Set we can see the options that open up. Gasol may now work for a shot at the elbow, look for a weak side cut by Barnes, look for an open shot with Fisher in the corner, or if Bynum has his man sealed away from the basket a high-low pass might be available.

The set is also designed to give Kobe space in the lane and passing options from the drive.

If Kobe drives from the wing he should have Bynum just off the low post as an option, Gasol as a mid-range around the elbow, and a corner and wing position to kick out to.

Also, we can see how the continuity can reset the set back to the 4-out-1-in set.

In our next clip we see the shot opportunity develop before the transition completes.

A diagram better illustrates the movement involved.

In this play, Gasol is the post man and the ball is reversed - keying the set transition. While Gasol swings to the opposite side, Kobe is freed up by a Bynum screen and Kobe takes the shot. At the time of this writing Kobe has scored 4 consecutive 40+ point games. Many of his shots come as a result of this set transition that gives him an open driving lane or an open shot after receiving a screen on the elbow. Generally, this is the first scoring opportunity off of the basic set transition.

Let's look at another clip.

Once again we see the offense initiated with the 4-out-1-in set, this time with Bynum as the post man. Bynum doesn't have deep enough positioning so Fisher opts to reverse the ball. This keys the offense to transition to the Strong Corner Fill set. Fisher fills the strong side corner and Barnes feeds Bynum in the post. On the opposing elbow Gasol sets a screen for Kobe. Kobe, Barnes, and Fisher all cut to the basket and Bynum finds Fisher open on the baseline.

Diagrammed as follows:

Like most offensive schemes, there are wrinkles in the main offensive set to allow for specific player or shot opportunities to arise. Let's take a look at some of the wrinkles for the Lakers.

Triangle Offense

The first wrinkle in the Strong Corner Offense is the addition of some Triangle Offense. This is mostly because of the familiarity the players have with the former offensive system and it serves as an opportunity to trick the defense because of the similar formations created.

Here we have two plays where the Lakers run the familiar Triangle.

So far the Lakers seem to run more Triangle Offense with bench players on the floor and I believe this is partially because they don't have a solid system in place yet for their bench.

Here we see two clips where the bench executes the Triangle poorly resulting in bad possessions.

Double High Post

Earlier we discussed how Gasol and Bynum can receive isolation plays but the Lakers also use a number of plays to give Kobe isolation opportunities. The Lakers use the double high post set as a way to free up Kobe for either a baseline drive or an isolation at the top.

Other Kobe Isolation Plays

Here we see some clips of Kobe in isolation.

First, just off the post area.

Next, on the wing.

Here he's isolated with Gasol as the corner option.

And lastly, in the 1-4 low set.

Conclusion

What do you think of the Strong Corner Offense? Do you think Mike Brown picked a system that utilizes all his players effectively? The Strong Corner Offense seems to allow more early low post scoring opportunities and gives Kobe opportunities right off the elbow but the other perimeter players seem to have very reduced roles. Is that a good thing or a bad thing given this roster? Does this system take into account the condensed schedule like Spoelstra's system seems to? Trying to answer these questions will be interesting as the season progresses.

The Miami Heat Pace and Space Motion Offense

2012-01-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

The Miami Heat Pace and Space Motion Offense

Background Info

Last season I discussed the Heat's double high post offense and this off-season it seems Erik Spoelstra has been busy tinkering with their playbook. The offense has been heavily modified and is now dominated by a "pace and space" motion offense. This offense emphasizes transition baskets, quick plays, and is a read-and-react system.

As I mentioned last season, the old system lacked low post scoring opportunities and suffered from poor rebounding positioning. Another disadvantage was the old system lacked read-and-react opportunities for its players because of the rigidity of the set. This season Spoelstra has addressed these concerns fairly well with a system that takes advantage of his players' high speed, great conditioning, and high basketball IQ.

Let's take a look.

Pace and Space Motion Offense

As the name suggests, the hallmark of this system is to push the pace to maximize possessions. This will test the defense's discipline and conditioning. The offense is also sensitive to spacing to allow each player room to be an offensive threat.

Sets

The Heat's pace and space motion is most commonly run with a 4-out-1-in high set which looks like this:

Here we see it in action:

This version of the 4-out-1-in high places the C opposite the corner fill player but the Heat also run an alternative set that fills both corners. Also, the C can fill either elbow position to aid in setting screens.

That variation looks like this:

The purpose of this set is to allow the C to set screens for the wings or corner and places the PF in a position to help swing the ball from side to side. It also gives enough spacing for drives through the lane and provides passing options for driving players to kick the ball out to the perimeter.

Quick Plays

In all of the plays the Heat run in their pace and space motion offense, they try to find an open shot as quickly as possible and allow the open man to shoot it. Generally, this happens by a screen to free up a man and then the ballhandler will pass to the open man for a shot or for a subsequent pass to another open man for a shot. Shots are usually taken before the shot clock hits 10 seconds. This strategy is very similar to the Suns' 7 seconds-or-less offense under Mike D'Antoni.

Let's look at our first clip to get an idea how this works:

In this clip Chalmers passes to Wade flashing to the top of the arc off a Joel Anthony screen while Bosh screens for Lebron who attempts to receive the lob from Wade.

The following animation helps illustrate:

Immediately we see a difference from last year. Last year the Heat would have organized in their double high post set as follows:

Wade and Lebron are no longer in the corners and Chalmers is set toward the wing in our clip.

Let's look at how quickly these plays are run.

Each of these plays are quick-hitting, usually with a single screen to open someone up for a pass or to open up a driving lane. It's also common for a quick transition pull up jump shot.

Double High Post

Although the Heat mainly run their pace and space offense, they still run double high post plays under certain circumstances.

Roster Specific Plays

Norris Cole

A new addition to the Heat roster is PG Norris Cole. He's an athletic PG that has already made significant contribution to the team and it's easy to see why. It's still early but it looks like the Heat are going to try to give Cole some early attacking opportunities

So far we've seen a quick high screen for him:

And a transition double high screen:

The Heat also run some double high post set plays with Cole.

In the future, I expect to see more double high post plays with Cole because it allows a double high screen for Cole or a screen for Lebron and Wade in the corners - forcing the defense to make a lot of difficult decisions.

As we'll see later, he also serves an important purpose on post up plays.

Chris Bosh Post Plays

As we saw earlier under quick plays, Chris Bosh is the recipient of a lot of mid-range opportunities and even a few 3pt shots but his most common designed play will be at the low-to-mid post area.

This year the Heat have decided to give Bosh some cutters through the lane after the post entrance pass to give him some passing options. In the past, Bosh was usually set up in a two-man game between himself and Wade or Lebron. When he was put into post isolation usually the passing player would slide around the perimeter to the defensive balance position.

Here we see the modifications made:

Lebron James Post Plays

Another change this year is James no longer enters the post up position solely by means of a cross-cut. Instead, he is fighting for post position immediately and receiving the pass. This was likely a result of Spoelstra's desire to maintain a screener at the elbow position as an early available option and to make the plays run quicker.

In this clip we'll see Lebron entering the post from a cross-cut like last year but we also see how putting Cole at the wing position can add another threat that didn't exist last season.

Last season the most capable PG option to execute this play would have been Chalmers and I don't think he would have done as well as Cole did in this clip. Now Wade can remain on the weak side and there can be a two-man game between Cole and Lebron.

Conclusion

What do you think of the changes Spoelstra made? Do you think this read-and-react quick-hitting style takes advantage of his roster's skill set better or worse than the double high post set from last season? Now that we've seen the direction Spoelstra has in mind for the team, do you think the Heat made the right moves over the off-season by picking up Norris Cole and Shane Battier? The season is still fresh so we'll have to see what toll this kind of offense takes over the course of the season and how effective it will be.

Building the New Lakers Offense - An Exercise in Creating a Playbook

2012-01-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Anyone that has followed the NBA in the last 20 years knows who Phil Jackson is and the significant impact he's had to the game. Since 1991, he has won 11 Championships with the Bulls and Lakers and reached the NBA Finals 13 times. He also earned a championship twice with the Knicks as a player. Unfortunately, this season was his last as a coach which ended the Phil Jackson era in Lakerland. In its place we are introduced with the Mike Brown era. This has left many to wonder what the future holds for the Lakers' triangle offense. While I don't know the answer to that, it gives us an opportunity to speculate by examining the options in front of him.

Philosophy

The Lakers are moving away from the triangle offense, a read-and-react system and I think it would benefit them to continue with a system that uses those skills. It will make their offense unpredictable, dynamic, and fluid making it very difficult to guard. It would also likely make the transition easier for the players since they can continue to use the underlying concept behind their current offense. For this reason I think they should use some form of motion offense, which I discussed in my post about the Mavericks and Bulls.

Roster Concerns

Any offensive system should be a reflection of the roster the coach has in front of him. The offense should try to maximize the roster's advantages while masking its disadvantages. Mike Brown then must take full assessment of his roster and consider what direction he wants to take. Assuming the roster remains the same (or at least the starting 5), I believe Mike Brown's options are mostly centered around what role he sees for Kobe this season. That means that Fisher will likely still be mostly a spot-up shooter, Artest will have occasional low post looks but mostly also remain a spot-up shooter or off-ball threat, Bynum will be a low post option, and Gasol will be a low post or high post scoring option. That leaves us with Kobe.

Is Kobe:

(1) still explosive enough to be a threat driving into the paint,

(2) going to be more of a mid-post threat,

(3) the second offensive option behind Gasol,

(4) mainly an off-ball threat that navigates off screens, or

(5) relegated to mostly a spot-up shooter?

The system Mike Brown uses will depend on how he answers these questions.

Knowing that we will have at least one low post player in Bynum, that eliminates any set that uses double high posts. So we can exclude the following sets:

4-high, I think we can also exclude any 4-out set since it would put Gasol too far out of his shooting range.

1-4 high

double high post

5-out

That's not to say we can't make plays out of these sets for specific situations, but any heavy use would take Bynum out of the game.

That leaves us with some form of:

2-3

2-1-2

3-2

or 1-3-1

The focus of the offense will be with either Kobe or Gasol, though likely there will be a combination of the two. Gasol has two places that he is effective on the offense, either on the high post or, more commonly, low post. Between the two options, we should have an offense that is focused more on the low post and we can integrate specific sets for some high post looks. We might want to integrate the 1-3-1 set for some of those high post plays for Gasol.

That leaves us with 2-3, 2-1-2, and 3-2. The real difference then is what role we want for Artest. If we look at the 2-1-2 diagram you can see Artest would be at the free throw line to help passing and have some lane drives or mid range shots. This doesn't seem to fit the roles Artest has typically been put in and might not be the best spot for him. For that reason I think we can eliminate the 2-1-2 as a valid option, that leaves us with the 2-3 and 3-2. I think either one is a valid option so I'll take a look at both and let you decide which seems like the better option for the Lakers.

2-3

The 2-3 has a few different formations. The one pictured above was a 2-3 low

This is the 2-3 high set. This version gives us more room for drives by opening up the lane. As discussed above, this version won't work for us because it takes Bynum out of the low post and puts Gasol too far off the post.

The 2-3 low has a nice offensive system called the flex offense which you may recognize from our discussion about the Bulls. Let's take at a possible play we could run in the 2-3 and see how well this would work for us.

Here the C flashes to the high post after setting a screen for the SF on a curl to the weak side corner. The PG uses the pinch post as an option for a drive and the SG cuts to the ball side for an open look.

What do you think? Can you see this working for the Lakers? Personally, I don't see this working too well because it takes Gasol out of the play, relegates Kobe to a spot up shooter position, and puts Fisher as a layup when he's typically a spot up shooter. While we may have found a decent set it doesn't seem like we've found the right motion in this set. Let's look at another.

I think this is an improvement because it gives Kobe two offensive options, puts Gasol in the high post where he's a legitimate threat, and puts Fisher and Artest as spot up shooters with Artest given an opportunity for an easy layup opportunity or rebound cut. Something becomes immediately apparent with this set though that I dislike. Since Artest is set lower he'll be making a lot of baseline cuts which is fine when we need additional rebounding but it has a tendency toward clogging up the lane at times. In this last play Kobe and Artest met under the hoop and that can cause some confusion that we can probably avoid. This set might then be a good option for when we need additional rebounding because we'll have Bynum, Gasol, and Artest all in good position to grab rebounds. This might also be a good set if we ever plan to have Odom, Gasol, and Bynum in the game at the same time with Odom at the SF position. Let's take a look at the 3-2 and see how that compares.

3-2

As we saw in the diagram of the 3-2 earlier, this gives us more more space around the post area. Immediately one thing I like about this set is it gives us an easy two man game option with Kobe and Gasol.

We can also easily make an isolation for Gasol or Kobe by simply feeding the ball to one of them and moving the other to the weak side.

Let's take a look at some possible motions.

Simply having Gasol flash to the high post gives Kobe an open driving lane to the basket off the pinch post.

Here Fisher does a dribble hand off to Kobe while Bynum comes up to receive a pass. Gasol screens for Fisher who is given a driving lane to the basket and eventually curls to the corner. The pass then goes back to Kobe after Gasol screens for him. Kobe now has an open 3 point shot or he can pass to Gasol on the slip after the screen. Fisher and Artest are both available as 3 point shot options. The onlu disadvantage to this play is Bynum is left in defensive balance so any turnovers would be a certain fast break opportunity for the opponent and we're left with a lack of rebounding. However, the offense is fairly strong - putting most of the players in positions they're comfortable with.

Let's see how we can incorporate Bynum into the offense.

Here Kobe does a V cut to accept a pass from Fisher. Gasol screens for Bynum then flashes to the high post for a pass. Bynum seals his man to accept the high-low pass and Bynum is free to get a basket.

This play shows how we can convert to a 4-out to give Bynum an inside look.

We can give Kobe a double high screen that puts Artest and Fisher in spot up shooting position and Gasol ends in the high post or slips to the short corner with Bynum as a rebound or rolling pass option.

Here we have an example of the two man game that opens up with this set. Kobe receives a screen by Gasol while Artest screens for Fisher. Fisher and Artest are open as three point options, Kobe and Gasol have driving lanes off the pick and roll with Gasol as the trailer in this version.

This is the double curl play and it gives three great pass entry options for Kobe to either Bynum, Gasol, or Artest.

Here Kobe is given a cut to the basket and if the pass isn't available, he sets a screen for Bynum to get a low post pass.

So far I tend to favor the 3-2 set because it puts Kobe and Gasol in positions that they're effective and gives good options for Artest, Fisher, and Bynum. Thus, I would recommend the 3-2 motion offense as the main offensive system for the new Lakers offense. Do you agree or disagree?

1-3-1

Gasol is effective at the high post and we can add a few plays specifically designed to give him some options from there out of the 1-3-1.

These two plays show how Gasol is able to divert attention away from himself by using his passing abilities to wing players.

Here the 1-3-1 can set up for a wing iso.

The 1-3-1 can also turn into a low isolation for Gasol.

Conclusion

Based on the above, do you agree that the main offensive system for the Lakers should be a 3-2 motion offense with some 1-3-1 sets for Gasol and 2-3 for rebounding? I think this combination would provide the most benefit by allowing players to continue to use the read-and-react skills they're used to and it puts players where they're most effective.

The Making of a Champion - NBA Finals Game 6 Deconstructed

2012-01-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Now that the NBA Finals are over, I want to review the last game of the series in order to point out what made the Mavericks so successful. The final score was 105-95 favoring the Mavericks. The full box score can be found here along with the play-by-play and shot chart.

Since past postings have already discussed the offense of both teams I'm going to focus mainly on categorizing some of the plays to give an idea what kind of plays each team was running.

Double High Post

I discussed the double high post offensive set the Heat run here. One commentator during the playoffs (Jeff Van Gundy maybe) mentioned that the Heat moved away from running this set too much and it caused a lack of fluidity in their offense. As I mentioned in my Q&A post, I tend to agree with this assessment and during the first half you could see a lack of double high post sets relative to other types of plays (only run twice by my count).

In the second half they run this set much more as is shown by the 6 clips below.

Lebron's Cross Cut Series

Like the double high post set, you can find a discussion of the cross cut series in my previous post. This game demonstrated much more variation of the series and really shows how difficult it can be to guard.

This clip shows the most basic version of the cross cut series and Lebron is able to make a difficult pass to Bosh.

Another basic cross cut but a foul is called on Marion when he attempts the cut.

This time we see the beginning of the cross cut but instead of taking the screen, the lane is left open for a Wade drive to the basket.

Again we have a cross cut counter, Wade goes to set the screen for the cross but instead Lebron curls to the top.

Lebron uses a screen-less cut to the middle leaving the lane open for a layup.

Some of the back story coming into this game was the lack of aggression by Lebron and I think this may have been an attempt to get him some more looks. Interestingly, there was a drop off in the number of these plays in the second half compared to the second.

4-out-1-in Motion Offense

The Mavericks' main offensive set is the 4-out-1-in motion offense that I discussed here. The following clips show how they ran the offense in Game 6.

They ran this set a little less in this series compared to the past in favor of running more double high screen plays.

Double High Screen

The double high screen is a series of plays designed to be run for Terry or Barea. The play can be diagrammed as follows:

The purpose of this play is to give Barea/Terry an opportunity to drive to the basket, give an option for a roll by Chandler, and a pop option for Nowitzki.

If the drive isn't available for Barea, the motion is typically similar to this:

The play also gives options to kick out to the SG or SF. Let's take a look at how this works.

Here we see the drive by Barea and he lobs to Chandler for the late roll option.

This time the defense tries to stay home with Chandler and Nowitzki and Barea is able to find an open spot for a jumper.

Terry is the ballhandler this time and Cardinal takes the place of Nowitzki. Since Cardinal can hit the 3pt shot, he can stand in place for Nowitzki as the pop man.

Here we have Mahinmi as the roll man and Marion as the pop man.

The Mavericks ran this play multiple times and generally had a lot of success with it.

This play was run heavily in the 4th quarter, a total of 5 of their 7 non-pick and roll plays.

(the Mavericks ran another double high screen in the 4th quarter but it was unsuccessful and evolved into a pick and roll play).

Zone Offense

Zone offense is a new subject for us so I'll take some time to describe it. Zone offense is a broad description of offensive plays designed to break zone defense. In my defensive primer post I described the zone defense and some of its advantages and disadvantages. It should come as no surprise then that these offensive sets are designed to attack the baseline, perimeter, corners, and around the free throw line.

The best way to break the zone is to find a seam in which to drive to the lane, this will collapse the zone and open up some options. Here Lebron is able to find a seam in the zone and attacks it. He then finds Wade who drives baseline and Haslem cuts the lane for an open basket.

Overall the Mavericks found a lot of success running the zone and here see an example of that. The zone tries to force jump shots and perimeter ball movement and here they force Wade into a contested jumpshot with mostly perimeter movement.

Another perimeter jumpshot, this time by Lebron.

In these three clips the Heat made their perimeter shots. The zone is usually okay with perimeter shots but when they start falling there's additional pressure to move away from the zone and go back to a man-to-man defense. The defense must constantly balance securing the middle and the perimeter when choosing between man and zone.

The other way to break the zone is to attack the middle, here we have two clips of the middle attacked, the first initiated by a Lebron iso followed by a Wade cut, the second by a dribble drive.

The zone can force a lot of turnovers when guys try to force attacking the middle. When the middle gets closed off, it can put the offense in a very bad position. In our two previous clips we see Juwan Howard try to force middle and he travels. Bosh also tries to force a drive and when it's cut off he throws the ball away.

One down side to switching between zone and man is the defense can get confused as to which one is being run. In this clip Terry overcommits to man defense and as a result leaves his zone and Bosh gets a wide open jump shot.

Misc. Clips

Some clips are pretty self explanatory but I felt it would be helpful to categorize them and allow you to get a feel for how each team executes these particular plays.

Pick and Roll Offense

Heat

Mavericks

Isolations

Dirk

Marion

Lebron

Wade

Bosh

Transition

Misc.

Heat

Mavericks

Conclusion

I would say the key to the Mavericks winning this series was a combination of four factors. First, the Mavericks' zone defense was successful at limiting the number of drives by Wade and Lebron taking away their most valuable asset. Second, the double high screen sets allowed the Mavericks to spread the floor immensely while taking away the interior shot blocking. This gave Barea and Terry a lot of room to work and kept the defense guessing. Third, the Mavericks were very careful with the ball and had less turnovers than the Heat in 3 of their 4 wins. This limited the number of easy transition baskets by the Heat. Lastly, when they needed a basket, Dirk was very effective at converting his isolations (although not as much in this particular game).

Reddit Q&A #1 - Examining the End of Game 2

2012-01-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

A member of reddit's /r/nba posed a few questions and I felt the questions deserved a thorough response. Below is the question by gatorphan84:

I have a request, or question at least. It looked to me like in both games 2 and 3 [of the 2011 NBA Finals], the Heat stopped attacking the basket towards the end of the game when Dallas started to make their comeback.
To me it just looks like they start playing crappy offense, but I'm guessing that perhaps the Mavs defense might have something to do with it? What do you think is the case? If it is the Mavs defense: 1.) Why don't they play like that more often, and 2.) why can't the Heat seem to adjust, and 3.) what could they do to adjust to it? If it is the Heat's offense, why do they start taking jumpshots and stop attacking the rim when it is clearly their best strategy?

To answer your underlying question, I believe the late game difficulties the Heat face are a combination of ineffective defense and stagnant, simplistic offense. I'm going to focus on game 2 since I believe it better demonstrates the issues.

Game 2

Time	Score	Action
6:30	88-73	Dwyane Wade misses 24-foot three point shot
5:50	88-75	Mario Chalmers misses 25-foot three point shot
5:28	88-77	Lebron James misses layup
4:54	88-79	Chris Bosh misses 21-foot jump shot
4:09	88-81	Lebron James draws shooting foul
3:27	90-84	Lebron James misses 16-foot jumper
2:20	90-88	Udonis Haslem misses 15-foot jumper
1:31	90-88	Lebron James misses 26-foot three point shot
1:05	90-88	Lebron James misses 25-foot three point shot
:36	90-90	Dwyane Wade misses 24-foot three point shot
:24	93-93	Mario Chalmers makes 24-foot three point shot
:01	93-95	Dwyane Wade misses 28-foot three point shot

This is the stretch that our questioner is likely pointing to. In the last 6:30 of the game, the Mavericks outscored the Heat 22-5. Within that span, the 5 points came from Lebron James' 2 foul shots and Mario Chalmers' late 3pt shot. The shots total 1 make out of 11 FG attempts. Other than Lebron James' 2 layup attempts, the next closest shot was from 15-ft and 7 of Miami's final 12 shots (including Lebron's shooting foul) were 3pt shot attempts.

This information alone paints a picture of pretty poor shot selection but let's look at the clips to see whether our initial reaction holds true.

Based on the lack of movement by the offense and the timing of the shot, it seems as though the Heat are comfortable at this point with simply running the clock. Wade has an open 3pt shot and takes it. Terry did a decent job closing out at the last second but overall he had a fairly open look. The Heat are also up by 15 with roughly 6:45 left when they pass mid-court so their strategy to run the clock isn't really a bad one.

Once again the movement is minimal and they're still trying to run the clock. Chalmers is given an open look but seems to take enough time to allow Terry to close out. Just like the last play, it's difficult to determine just how much Terry bothered that shot but either way Chalmers ends up missing it.

This time we see a lot more movement and less concentration on simply running the clock. The Dallas 4-0 run likely got their attention a bit. When Lebron drives in for the layup Chandler swipes at the ball. It's unclear whether Lebron lost hold of the ball or if he simply missed the layup but overall he had a great path to the basket.

We have the same play run in the next possession, this time the low double screens come a little late and in bad positioning, this allows Marion to move up top to avoid the screens. Lebron recognizes Marion cheated the screens so he flares out to the wing to receive the pass. Since Lebron didn't get the positioning he did last time, he looks to Bosh but Chandler and Kidd are waiting and break up the play. This leaves the Heat only 5 seconds left on the shot clock to get a shot.

The out of bounds play they run is defended well by the Mavericks and Chalmers drives and kicks to Bosh. Once again we see Terry do a decent job at closing out on Bosh resulting in a miss.

The Heat are still focused on running some clock and this time run a high pick and roll for Lebron. Lebron gets a good path to the basket and collects the foul. He ends up making his two free throws ending a Dallas 8-0 run.

Here we see essentially the same play but this time Chalmers comes up to fake the screen and receive the pass. Terry does a good job denying the pass option and the Heat have spent too much time trying to force it so Lebron attempts to drive to the basket. Marion does a good job of staying with Lebron on the drive forcing him to attempt a fade away jumper that misses.

Wade tries a pick and roll with Bosh but the Mavericks are able to defend it well. The Heat decide to try an isolation for Bosh but he loses the ball out of bounds. The Mavericks deserve some credit for defending the pick and roll and Chandler did a good job closing off the middle forcing Bosh to try baseline but Bosh also seems to have simply just lost the ball.

This time we have Haslem and Wade in the pick and roll. When Wade tries to penetrate he's met by 3 defenders. Wade then appears to bobble the ball and pass to Haslem who then immediately shoots. He shot the ball with about 10 seconds left on the clock so the Heat appear to have given less emphasis to running the clock compared to previous possessions which makes sense since they now only have a 2 point lead. Haslem's shot was probably a little rushed since Nowitzki and Marion were both within range to contest the shot.

This clip shows us 3 consecutive possessions by the Heat. First, the Heat try some Lebron pick and rolls with no success. Chalmers tries to set a pick for Lebron with about 7 seconds left on the shot clock and Terry temporarily switches and hedges high to prevent Lebron from having an open lane to the basket. When Marion recovers to Lebron, Marion is able to poke the ball away and does an excellent job of contesting Lebron's 3pt shot without fouling.

After the offensive rebound by the Heat, they go to Bosh at the high post and run Lebron on the pinch post. Marion is able to slip under Bosh to prevent the easy drive and Kidd denies Wade curling off the corner. Lebron retreats back to the wing to receive the ball and passes to Chalmers. Chalmers drives to the basket but has nowhere to go so he kicks it back to Haslem who immediately looks to pass to Lebron. Lebron receives a pick by Haslem and attempts another 3pt shot with Nowitzki and Marion there to contest.

Haslem gets the offensive rebound but is stripped by Terry. He then has to pass the ball back to the perimeter but the Mavericks retrieve it.

The Mavericks defended this series of possessions very well and really seemed to take the Heat's offensive system out of the game here.

This possession begins out of a timeout and the game is now tied. Terry is defending Lebron on the way up the court because he's quick enough to bother Lebron far from the basket. The result is the Heat don't get into their set until about 16 seconds are left in the shot clock. The play begins with a pick and roll for Lebron by Bosh. The Mavericks trap Lebron off the pick and roll causing him to back up and forcing Wade, who was curling around the perimeter to come toward Lebron to relieve the defensive pressure. Nobody else is trying to get open and Wade seems to rush the shot slightly, attempting a well-contested 3pt shot.

The last possession saw the Mavericks take their first lead in the second half. Down 90-93, the Heat run cross cuts for Miller and Chalmers. Terry gets caught paying too much attention to Wade and leaves his man wide open for the cross court pass. The play was beautifully designed to open up a 3pt shot right out of bounds but it was also very poorly defended by Terry.

The final Heat possession is simply Wade heaving a 28-foot shot at the buzzer that misses.

So let's summarize what we saw. Jason Terry, for the most part, did an excellent job on the defensive end closing out on shooters and generally making it difficult for the Heat. Shawn Marion did a good job of contesting Lebron's shots and preventing easy drives. The Heat's offense appeared unimaginative with too much attention paid on letting the clock run and not enough attention to good shot selection. The offense descended into mostly pick and rolls that were defended well. The one field goal made was from an out of bounds play rather than the result of freelance offense.

Returning to your questions, I'll see if I can provide an answer.

To me it just looks like they start playing crappy offense, but I'm guessing that perhaps the Mavs defense might have something to do with it?

The Heat's offense became too simplistic. They went away from plays heavily involved in their double high post offense and instead relied too much on simple pick and rolls. The result is the simplistic offense relieved some of the defensive pressure off of the Mavericks because the Heat became tentative when their first options were taken away from them. Without a designed play, the level of confidence in their offense and predictable options is removed. Credit the Mavericks for defending the Heat well, but also give the Heat credit for making it a little easier for them.

If it is the Mavs defense: 1.) Why don't they play like that more often

As I previously stated it's the Mavericks defense in part and I don't think they play great defense more often because the Heat don't give them the opportunity as often. In the first 3 quarters the Heat tend to run their double high post offense fairly smoothly, when they felt the pressure being relieved when up by 15 points in Game 2, they took their foot off the gas, became a little less particular with their offense, and by the time they realized it they had already dug themselves too big a hole.

2.) why can't the Heat seem to adjust

That is a very good question. I think partially it's because big players want to make big plays. I can't say for sure but the way they play seems to suggest to me that Wade, Lebron, and Bosh all want to take hold of the game individually and make the dagger basket.

3.) what could they do to adjust to it?

Run their offense. If you've ever heard the phrase, "let the offense come to you", this is what they mean. They need to stick to their game plan and have confidence in the system that Spoelstra has mapped out for them. They need to not rely on pick and roll basketball or at the very least mix in a few more double high post plays to give them some easier baskets.

If it is the Heat's offense, why do they start taking jumpshots and stop attacking the rim when it is clearly their best strategy?

I think it was a combination of trying to run the clock out and relying too much on their ability to beat the defense. We saw the Mavericks' ability to make it tough to drive to the basket and when you combine good defense with a shorter window for your offense (running the clock) it usually results in poor shot selection.

I used Game 2 and focused on their offense because I felt it would be easier to demonstrate the issues the Heat had. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to give the same amount of treatment to the Heat defense down the stretch but suffice it to say it was bad.

Hopefully this answered your question.

Defense pt. 1 - A Defensive Primer

2012-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

Defense pt. 1 - A Defensive Primer

Background Info

Up until now we've focused entirely on the offensive end but today I want to take a change of direction and look at the other end of the court. You have likely heard the phrase, "the best defense is a good offense", today we take the opposite stance and the reasoning behind that sentiment is probably pretty clear. First, solid defense relieves the pressure on your offense to score more points. Second, the more your defense makes the other side work for its points, the more tired and frustrated they will become. Lastly, solid defense can break up the other team's offensive options and plans.

How does the defense try to achieve these goals? Defense operates in both sets and types. A set, much like our discussion on offense, is a description of the formation created by the players on the court. A type is a description of the way the defense interacts to the movement by the offense. The defense will pair a set with a type of and we'll see how these pairs can affect how the defense operates on the court.

This first part is in no way intended to be comprehensive but instead is intended to introduce you to the basic defensive concepts. In the future, we will apply these concepts more thoroughly and recognize the differing defensive philosophies.

Let's start with the sets.

Sets

The first set we'll look at is the 2-3 set.

At this point the formation shouldn't come as a surprise to you based on the name. We see two defenders on the elbows and three defenders lower to guard the middle and corners. A notable advantage to this set is how much area is covered in the interior. You'll also notice the C is in the paint in the set, because of the defensive 3 second rule he will have to be careful to reset himself outside the paint otherwise he will constantly cause a violation.

Here we have a 3-2 set. This set is obviously similar to the 2-3 except this set front loads the defense, adding some perimeter support in exchange for paint and baseline protection.

This is the 1-2-2 set, in many ways it's similar to the 3-2 set except the wings are sunk to the elbow position.

Already you should notice a few things about these set choices. Each has its advantage and disadvantage and the choice of which set to use is dependent on the kind of offense you're facing and the abilities of your roster. For example, when we compare our 3-2 set and 1-2-2, the wings are sunk to the elbows. This gives the coach an interesting dilemma. If the coach feels that the biggest threat is perimeter shooting, he may opt for the 3-2 set over the 1-2-2 set since it puts the wing positions in a better position to contest shots. On the other hand, if the coach is more concerned about driving lanes to the basket, he may lean toward the 1-2-2 over the 3-2 set because driving lanes are more clogged and gives a better opportunity for defenders to help contest drives.

Also notable are the 2-1-2 and 1-3-1 set and at this point I think you can envision what those look like. Important to note is that each set has its advantages and disadvantages, choosing between them is a matter of trying to maximize your advantages while exploiting the offense's disadvantages.

Let's look at how defensive types play a role in this.

Types

Defensive philosophies are integrated into defensive sets and thus, similar to the triangle offense and motion offense, are not a description of formation but rather a description of movement. We'll talk about two different defensive philosophies, the first is man-to-man defense and the second is zone defense.

Traditional Man-to-Man

The most common philosophy is man-to-man. Man-to-man defense is where the defensive players simply try to stick to a single offensive player.

Here we see the flex motion offense introduced in our discussion about the Bulls except this time I added defensive players that are covering using man-to-man.

Let's step through this animation and see what happened. The offense starts in a 1-4 low set and the defense is playing man-to-man.

Notice how each defender tries to stick to his assigned man regardless of where they move on the court. Also notice how the offense attempts to free up players using screens. This is the common struggle in basketball and should come as no surprise to you - freeing up offensive players covered by their defensive players. The offense was able to free up the SF off a screen by the C, the PG was screened for by the PG but in my example the defensive PG was able to stick to his man, and the C was freed up by popping off his screen.

Let's see how this differs from zone defense.

Zone Defense

Zone defense focuses on covering areas of the court rather than players and is more closely associated with using defensive sets because of the focus on areas of the floor. Let's take a look at what I mean:

Here we have the 2-3 zone with each defender's area of responsibility colored. Notice there are some areas not covered by the zone. The top of the arc, the corners, the positions between the wing and corner, the baseline, and just below the free throw line (though not pictured very well here) are all not covered well by the zone. The offense's goal then is to try to manipulate this in their favor while the defense has to prevent the offense finding a way to penetrate the zone. Let's see how the zone moves.

Notice that when the ball moved, the defenders moved toward the ball while remaining in their area of responsibility. Generally, the goal of the zone is to prevent penetration into the lane and force perimeter shots. Let's watch a longer sequence to get a feel for how the movement works.

Did you notice the defenders moving toward the ball movement rather than covering individual players? When faced with a wall of defenders it can dissuade the ballhandler from trying to drive to the hoop and instead cause him to pass. The ballhandler is then forced to focus more on passing to the right option which can eat up time as nobody is looking to shoot. Also notice at the very end the C ended up trapped in the corner. Players are willing to break from the zone if it means forcing a trap but they should keep in mind that this is a gamble which could lead to an open shot on the weak side.

Let's watch the Mavericks play some zone defense.

Now let's look at a diagram of what we saw.

The Mavericks are playing a 2-3 zone defense in this clip. As I mentioned earlier, one of the weaknesses of the 2-3 zone is the baseline and here we see Wade recognize the 2-3 zone and attack the baseline. The Mavericks scramble to cover that area but Chandler is unable to get there in time. Also notice that Haslem is in another weak area of the zone right by the free throw line.

Modern Swarm Defense

Modern basketball most commonly uses a combination of man-to-man and zone. It is mostly man-to-man, and in fact is usually even simply called man-to-man, but in reality is actually a hybrid of the two systems.

Swarm defense begins as man-to-man but players will switch off their man to aid off screens and defensive players will rotate to provide better coverage.

Let's look at an example:

Let's look at an animation of what we saw.

Notice how we began with a man-to-man defense but the defense switched to put additional pressure on the key offensive threats.

The Mavericks have two main offensive threats, the first option is likely Dirk Nowitzki and the second option is Jason Terry.

The offense ran a double screen for Nowitzki and Stevenson. When Nowitzki caught the ball, Chalmers and Miller began to hedge toward Nowitzki. They did this to look for opportunities to trap or contest his shots. The defense is making a conscious gamble to be late to contest Barea's corner shot or late to contest Stevenson's wing shot in return for more pressure on Nowitzki. In this case, the trap on Nowitzki was successful and he has to pass out to Stevenson at the wing.

Stevenson has a couple options at this point. He can either try to shoot, drive to the basket, or pass. The defense is very aware of the options and must be sure not to overcommit when they respond or they risk leaving a player open for a shot. Lebron has been at the low post reading the offense and notices that Miller trapped Nowitzki, this means that he will be unable to rotate to Stevenson if the pass is made. When Nowitzki turns to look for a pass, Lebron knows exactly where to go, which is to help off of denying the low post and out to the wing. Stevenson then opts to pass to Terry in the corner.

Since Lebron picked up Miller's man, Miller now rotates to trap on the Mavericks' second option, Terry, to try to corner trap him. The trap forces Terry to shoot the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock over two defenders. Terry makes the shot but the defense has to be happy with how difficult they made it. The best a defense can do is make the offense difficult, it cannot account for players making those shots - thus, they have to consider this a good defensive trip.

Now that we looked at what happened, let's look at what didn't happen.

This is the same play but this time Miller doesn't rotate back to Terry. I wanted to show the difference to help demonstrate the difference between good defense and bad defense. Good defense will constantly rotate to cover all the options, bad defense results in open shots. Good defense relies heavily upon communicating when to rotate, all it takes is one missed rotation to give up an open shot.

So how would we classify swarm defense? Is it man-to-man or is it zone? Well, like I stated earlier it's a combination of both. There will be some trips where everyone stays on their man, there will be other trips where players are constantly switching off each other. It really depends on how the coaching staff has decided to handle their opponent. Some players might deserve more attention defensively than others or sometimes it's even certain areas of the floor that need special attention (e.g. defend the paint or guard against the 3pt shot). It's also largely based on the abilities of your roster, you can't ask a slow C to try to rotate out to the perimeter and thus you need to account for that in your defensive plan.

Guarding the Pick and Roll

The pick and roll is the most common play in basketball, mostly because it's quick and effective. There are a few things that teams do to try and reduce its effectiveness. Let's look at this clip to see one example:

Did you notice what Haslem did? When Nowitzki ran up to set the pick, Haslem went above the pick to force Barea to go over him. This made Barea take a longer path toward the basket allowing Chalmers to step between the gap created between Haslem and Nowitzki and making it easier for Chalmers to recover on Barea. Since Barea has a longer path to the basket, it also gives the help defense some additional time to get in place to defend a drive. Here Barea was still able to get by Chalmers but Bosh had enough time to get in position for the good contest.

Here we see Barea go over the pick to guard Chalmers on the pick and roll. Barea gets beat but Mahini is waiting for him. Mahini did not rotate back to his man once Barea recovered and that leaves Bosh open to receive the pass. Barea likely went under the pick here for two reasons. First, he's small and quick which makes it easier for him to negotiate picks and recover to his man. Second, Chalmers was 2 for 2 from 3pt range up to this point in the game (including one on the previous possession) so he wanted to be in possession to contest a possible 3pt shot.

Conclusion

This first part is intended to provide a primer to the way teams approach defense. Hopefully what you gained from this part is the balance that teams must strike on defense. Teams recognize the advantages and disadvantages to the defensive systems they run and try to apply the system that provides the most benefit with the least detriment.

Next time we'll take a deeper look into some of the defensive philosophies teams apply and how that alters their approaches. We'll also look at some clips and try to apply what we've learned so far to identify what choices the defense has and why they made the choices they did.

The Thunder

2012-01-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

Analyzing the Offense pt. 5 - The Thunder

Background Info

The Thunder's offense is a mixture of many of the concepts we've already seen. They probably have the most diverse offense of the teams we've seen so far. They tend to rely mostly on the dribble drive motion offense but they do use some more standard offensive systems. Below we'll see examples of the Thunder using a 1-4 low set, 1-4 wide box, and double high post. Their offense seems to be a work in development and that leads to some confusion and frustration by the players. Since they use concepts we've already seen before we'll jump into some examples and see what we can learn about their offense from there.

Dribble Drive Motion

We looked at the dribble drive motion offense when we analyzed the Bulls and you'll remember that the idea is to breakdown the perimeter defense and make offensive motion based on how successful the ballhandler is at penetrating into the lane. The Thunder's offense is a little different because they have two players that are adept at driving the lane (Deng is okay at dribble penetration but they don't tend to use him for that). Since they have two dribble penetration options, the Thunder like to screen to open the off-ball player in case he gets better positioning. Let's look at an example.

Here we see Durant immediately do a screen-the-screener action to try to get open while Westbrook has the ball. He finds himself in the corner and Westbrook appears to have started to break down his man to get in the lane so Durant is satisfied with remaining as merely a passing option for Westbrook when he enters the lane.

They also use each other to create the dribble drive offense. In this clip we see Durant do a quick screen for Westbrook which frees himself up for the pass.

Unlike the Bulls, in general we see less movement by the off ball players. This can really hurt the offense in a few ways.

Confusion

As I mentioned earlier the Thunder have a very dynamic offense, part of the disadvantage to that is it cause confusion. Also, the Thunder off ball players seem to have difficulty knowing where and when to move in the dribble drive motion.

In this clip we see the offense completely stagnate. I think this is caused by a desire for a dribble drive motion offense but Westbrook isn't trying to get himself open while Durant isn't actively trying to break down his defender. When the off-ball player between Westbrook and Durant is not trying to get open and the ballhandler doesn't seem to be breaking down his man, it can confuse the other players on the floor.

We see the same problem here, this time Westbrook is the ballhandler. Nobody is moving because nobody knows exactly what the plan is.

In this clip Westbrook doesn't fully commit to the penetration, instead he makes the high post pass. Durant is completely out of the play and not trying to get himself open for the swing pass, meanwhile Ibaka rotates into the path of Perkins.

On the other hand, this clip shows Durant utilizing screens while Westbrook has the ball to get himself open. He continues to fight to get open until Westbrook penetrates then finds Sefolosha because he rotated up the perimeter to get himself open when Westbrook entered the drop zone. This is the action that needs to happen consistently in order for the Thunder's offense to run more smoothly.

Once again Durant is freed up by the low screen. Westbrook should be moving after the pass to make sure he's an open passing option if Durant needs a kick out but at least Durant freed himself early and was a part of the offense.

Frustration

The confusion created by this offense seems to also frustrate players because they can easily be taken out of the offense. The lack of motion and lack of predictability on the offense combines to make players frustrated by their lack of touches.

Here we see Durant on the weak side wing calling for the ball. His lack of motion to get open and the uncertainty of the motion offense contributes to his lack of touches causing frustration on offense.

Once again Durant is calling for the ball but he's not moving to open up a better passing lane. We saw in the Mavericks series Jason Kidd guarding Durant at times with fairly good success and part of that reason is Durant will sometimes become stagnant. He lets himself become denied the ball too easily at times and it can limit his offensive opportunities. This isn't entirely his fault though, the Thunder offense does not work hard enough to get him open looks at times and a good adjustment could be to give him more set plays to make sure he has some open looks. If I am a Thunder fan, I would like to see less dribble drive motion offense and more set plays.

Double High Post

We saw the double high post when we discussed the Heat but the Thunder use this set slightly differently. When we introduced the double high post it was used to free up Wade and Lebron from opposite corners, to give Bosh some high post options, or to set up a two man game between Wade, Lebron, or Bosh. The Thunder seem to use it as a means of cutting across the court with double high screens.

Here we see Durant trying to get open from the double screens created by the double high post set. The other value of this set is it gives Westbrook a screen off the open high post which he utilizes here.

Here the double high post is used to create a double high screen for Westbrook. The Heat don't use their PG for dribble penetration and thus we don't see this play as often for them. When we do it's usually the SG or SF receiving the double screen but it's a rare play for them.

Lately we've seen Ibaka take his open double high post shots and even Perkins has attempted a couple. This might be another threat they're trying to open up from this set.

1-4 sets/Isolations

The Thunder will sometimes flatten the defense with a 1-4 low set. This gives Westbrook a chance at an isolation play or the counter would be a player popping out to receive the pass.

Here we see the 1-4 low set but instead of a Westbrook isolation drive Collison pops out.

Durant is a unique player because he can be an offensive threat from the perimeter and the post. For that reason they give him two types of isolation plays.

Durant post isolation

Like the other teams we've looked at, the Thunder have a post isolation play. Here we see the play for Durant.

Durant high isolation

In the upcoming clip we will see a 1-4 wide box set high isolation for Durant. We haven't seen this set yet so let's diagram it.

Just as the name suggests we have a player at the point and four players in a box pattern. The typical 1-4 box looks like this:

You can probably see why the 1-4 wide box set is called wide. The 4 players in a box formation are set at the perimeter to clear the lane.

In our clip we see the 1-4 wide box as a high isolation for Durant.

Conclusion

The Thunder offense is very dynamic and while that can be an advantage it can also be a disadvantage. It can keep the defense guessing but it can also confuse the players on the floor. I am not completely convinced the dribble drive motion offense is the right offense for the Thunder. At the very least it seems to be used more often than it should be. Do you agree? Of the offensive systems we've looked at so far, do you think the Thunder have picked the right one or should they use one of our other systems? The Thunder made it to the Western Conference Finals and with some fine tuning of their offense I think they can continue to be a contender for years to come.

Next time we're going to take a little shift and explore defense. I am leaving town for a few days so I won't have an opportunity to work on the next post until Wednesday of next week at the earliest. For that reason I am leaning toward covering the defense of the Mavericks and the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals. That may change but we'll see.

The Bulls

2012-01-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

Analyzing the Offense pt. 4 - The Bulls

Background Info

Let's quickly review what we've seen so far to put the Bulls offense in perspective. We've seen the triangle offense that emphasized read-and-react with a particular spacing; we've seen the rigid use of the double high post set by the Heat; and we've seen the motion offense that combines a particular set with a read-and-react system. Now we'll see a system that is probably most similar to the Mavericks system we saw last time but has some key differences.

The Bulls combine a few different systems to create their offense and can ultimately be described as a type of motion offense. I'll characterize their two main systems as a flex motion offense and a dribble drive motion offense. Like most NBA playbooks, the Bulls don't run a purely flex motion offense or a purely dribble drive motion offense but instead have created a variant of those systems to maximize the advantages in their roster. Let's first take a look at what a flex motion offense is.

Similar to the description of a motion offense we used last time, any motion offense is a description of a system - one that emphasizes off-ball motion to open up passing options.

Flex Motion Offense

Basics

Let's look at a traditional flex motion offense play and see how it compares to how the Bulls run their version.

Notice that the traditional flex motion starts with a 1-4 low set and ends as a 2-3 with two players at the high post. The key to this motion is to find an opportunity for a player to get a cut for an open shot. There is an opportunity for a cut by the SF after the pass to the PF, another opportunity by the cutting PG down the lane or in the corner, and another opportunity for the SF at the elbow.

Now let's watch the Bulls run the basic flex offense.

In our clip we see the 1-4 low set with Noah at the point. In the version the Bulls run here Rose enters the elbow, then Bogans gets his low post screen by Gibson. Rose then screened for Gibson who receives the pass. Rose entered the corner and Bogans set a screen for Deng to receive a shot at the low post.

Notice how the movement down low opened up that shot for Deng. The flex offense gives players the opportunity to screen for each other to free up shots down low. Let's see how shots open up on the perimeter.

In that clip we saw a pop out to the perimeter after the low post screen by Bogans. You can now imagine the combination of screen and roll/pop available by the movement created in the flex offense.

Variations - UCLA read

We've looked at the most basic version of the flex offense, now let's watch what happens when the Bulls add some variations.

Our clip shows us that the Bulls are okay breaking out of the traditional 1-4 low set. What is important to them is the movement created between the corners and low post. It is common for them to substitute the 1-4 low for a wing pass entry. This frees up Rose to enter the flex motion and become a more potent off-ball scoring option.

You will also notice that the Bulls have incorporated what is known as a UCLA cut into the flex offense. A UCLA cut is simply the low post flashing to the high post to screen for a perimeter player to enter the low post. In our clip the UCLA cut is made by Rose toward the high post to meet a screen from Deng. The Bulls likely incorporate this cut also to assist freeing up Rose for a potential early basket and to further confuse the defense.

The Bulls love to run this variation. I have seen this variation called the UCLA read because they seem to start with the UCLA cut and when Rose reaches the low post they read the defense to decide what combination of screens and cuts they can run to free someone up for a pass. In the clip above they chose to free up Deng with a Rose screen.

The Bulls run this UCLA read so often I'll include a library of clips with a brief description for each.

Clip #	Description
Clip 1	UCLA read - Wing reversal to dump down
Clip 2	UCLA read - Wing return to dribble drive
Clip 3	UCLA read - Wing reversal dribble drive drop to Boozer

Variations - Wing Reversal

The Bulls also like to incorporate a wing reversal by Rose to create a two man game between Rose and Boozer or an isolation for Boozer. Here we see the wing reversal with some brief flex motion down low that transitions into a two man game between Rose and Boozer. Rose eventually slides out of the two man game to create an isolation for Boozer.

As a side note, you might notice why they went with the wing reversal. Look at the Heat defense when the play begins. We have three Heat defenders crowding the high post to prevent an initial high post pass entry. This stops the basic flex offense and requires either a dribble entry, guard to guard pass, or a wing pass entry.

When the wing reversal is initiated, it allows the players swinging the ball to the opposite wing to surprise the defense with a move. Here we so Noah catching Bosh expecting a wing reversal and it results in a drive to the basket.

The wing reversal in many respects is a counter to the UCLA cut seen above. If the UCLA read doesn't result in an open play the wing reversal can be used to reset the offense.

Variations - High Pick

You may remember our 1-4 low set when we discussed the Heat's isolation plays. The Bulls are able to run the same isolation play and, as is common with the 1-4 low set, they can call up a high pick for Rose.

Did you feel bad that Noah didn't receive the pass? Me too, so here's a clip of him receiving that pass in the very next possession.

Dribble Drive Motion

The dribble drive motion offense is a motion offense that utilizes dribble drives to key the motion of off-ball players. Unlike the motion offense we saw with the Mavericks, there are no off-ball screens to free up players to accept a pass. Instead, it relies upon the player entering the lane to find the open man after the defense collapses on him. If you've followed Derrick Rose you may recognize this system because he ran it at Memphis.

Here we see the Memphis Tigers running the dribble drive motion offense.

The dribble drive motion has four distinct zones.

The rectangular area in white is called the breakdown zone. This is where the ballhandler will attempt to break down his defender and enter the lane. The area marked in red is called the drop zone. Once the dribble penetration reaches the drop zone it keys other players to make one motion. The gray area is called the drag zone, keying another motion. The green zone is called the rack zone where the dribble penetration player should attempt a layup.

If the dribble penetration makes it to the drop zone, it usually keys the C to drop down to the opposite high post to receive a possible pass and the SG and SF rotate upward.

In our animation you can see the PG was able to make it to the high post and has a few passing options. He can either look to the weakside perimeter to pass to the SG, make the closer perimeter pass to the SF, make a bounce pass to the C, or if the PF''s defender moved to stop the PG's penetration the PF might be open for a high-low pass.

In this animation the PG was able to make it to the drag zone which opens up different possibilities. The SG and SF still rotate upward but now the PF has rotated out for an open baseline shot and the C has rotated behind the PG on the perimeter for a kick out.

If the PG makes it to the rack zone he simply attempts a layup.

The animations above don't fully cover the possible motions by the off-ball players but should give you an idea of how the offense works. The main idea is that players will give the ballhandler some passing options based on the defense collapsing on him.

You may have noticed some significant weaknesses to this offense. First, it requires at least one perimeter player that can consistently break down his defender to enter the lane. Second, it requires the ballhandler to make some very quick decisions on where to pass.

One way the Bulls have decided to cover these weaknesses is to have the C or PF set a high screen. This makes it easier for him to break down his defender and gives him a closer passing option.

Let's take a look at this motion in action.

Here we see the high screen by the C and he roughly makes it to the drop zone. This keys the SF and SG to rotate across the perimeter slightly to receive the pass. The PG finds the weak side corner who is open for the shot.

Again we see a high screen attempt by the C but it's unsuccessful so the PF sets a screen. The PG is able to make it to the drop zone again and he makes a high-low pass to the C. We also see the weak side corner is open so he doesn't need to shift up and the ball side corner rotates upward as another passing option.

Since the Bulls have added a high screen to the typical dribble drive motion it allows players that otherwise wouldn't be able to breakdown their defenders 1 on 1 the ability to run the dribble drive motion offense. In this clip we have the PG receive a series of screens that allow him to get to the drop zone. He makes a bounce pass to the opposite high post and the C finds the PF open at the low post. Also notice on the perimeter players rotate upward (Brewer should have rotated upward slightly but he seems to have been caught ball watching).

If the rotations go wrong, spacing issues can result and can easily cause turnovers. It is essential that the rotations maintain adequate spacing and everyone knows where to go.

In this clip Rose makes it to the drag zone but we see Boozer rotate into the lane rather than out to the baseline. This causes Bosh to be in the rack zone, preventing a layup attempt and also further clogs the lane for the cross court pass. As a result, Lebron is in place to intercept the pass attempt.

Roster Specific Plays

Boozer Isolation

The Bulls have a few plays to give Boozer some low post isolation opportunities. Usually it's a simple wing entry followed by a clear out like the clip below.

Kyle Korver Single Double

The Bulls also love to run a single double for Kyle Korver. You probably remember the single double play when we discussed the Mavericks, which is good news because I wasn't able to find a clip of Korver running the single double.

Conclusion

Once again we end by comparing this offense with what we've seen so far. Which offensive system would you say the Bulls' system is most similar to? Do you agree that it's probably most similar to the Mavericks' system? The Bulls utilize so many offensive elements that I don't think there's really a right answer. It features some read-and-react elements in its dribble drive motion offense, though not as complex as the triangle offense and certainly not the centerpiece to their offense. The flex motion offense is also primarily a read-and-react system but they incorporate the UCLA cut enough to nearly make it begin as a set.

How about the role of the PG in this system? Derrick Rose has such an enormous impact on the success of the Bulls' offense compared to the systems we've looked at previously. In past systems the PG was an offensive threat mostly because he was a spot up shooter. Now we see the PG as the anchor to the offense. In the flex motion offense Rose enters the UCLA read off a UCLA cut at which point he can control the screening or exit on the opposite wing to reset the offense. In the dribble drive motion he has to penetrate the defense and make the right play. Looking forward we'll compare the role of Rose and Westbrook when we take a look at the Thunder offense. After that we'll take a little change of pace and look at the best offense of all - defense.

Analyzing the Offense pt. 3 - The Mavericks Offense

2012-01-30T20:59:00.001-08:00

Analyzing the Offense pt. 3 - The Mavericks Offense

Background Info

When we looked at the triangle offense we focused on the system's emphasis on a particular framework, one that emphasized spacing and reading and reacting to the defense. We then moved to a much more rigid offensive system that the Heat run in their double high post series. In this offensive analysis we're going to look at a system that combines the two elements to create a mixture of an offensive framework and set plays.

The Mavericks run a combination of motion offense with a variety of sets, some roster specific plays, and isolations in their offense.

Let's begin our discussion by defining the motion offense.

Motion Offense

Basics

The motion offense is a read-and-react system where off-ball screens are utilized to constantly free up players to receive an open pass. The system continues until an open shot opportunity develops. Since motion offense is a description of a concept and not a set formation, the two are not mutually exclusive. Motion offense can be used in any set you can imagine and as we'll see later the Mavericks used this system in the 4-out-1-in set and the 1-3-1 set.

The set the Mavericks favor for their motion offense is the 4-out-1-in set. The set looks like this.

You might be able to recognize where the set gets its name. We have 4 players on the perimeter with the C inside the arc. Let's see how the motion offense is incorporated in this set. As mentioned earlier, motion offense attempts to free up players to accept a pass through a series of screens - imagine that system in our set. The C is available to rotate for a perimeter screen and the SG and PF are able to screen for each other. The C will also commonly find himself at the free throw line extended to facilitate passing the ball, setting screens, and looking to roll to the basket.

Let's look at some common movements in the motion offense.

Here we see how the SF and PG can screen for each other for either one to receive a pass off a cut. The same option is available between the SG and PF on the opposite wing with off-ball screens.

Another option is a guard to guard screen shown below.

This would free up the SG for a pass from the wing. Alternatively, the SG could curl toward the basket off the screen. The 4-out-1-in can then be reset by shifting the perimeter players. The C can also drop down to the low block for a post play.

If an entry pass to the post is unavailable the wing can simply pass the ball back to the PG and the C can rotate back to the free throw line, restarting our motion sequence.

This was just one example of how the motion can operate, in practice it's a seamless, constant motion of screening and ball movement. If you have some familiarity with the Mavericks offense you might be asking yourself, why I'm not calling this the Princeton Offense. The Princeton Offense is a subset of the motion offense. The Princeton Offense is very similar to the one run by the Mavericks but it has some slight alterations. Both systems heavily utilize the 4-out-1-in set but the Princeton Offense tends to favor the 5-out, or "open" for transitioning between reseting the offense whereas the Mavericks favor a sort of 3-out-2-in with 2 at the high post or one player at the low post.

Keep in mind then that the Mavericks are very flexible in their 4-out-1-in set. They're okay with not extending players all the way out to the perimeter if it means assisting cutters or looking for a mid-range shot.

Examples

Example 1

Let's now take a look at our first clip to see how this works.

In this clip I want you to simply pay attention to the formation created when the players entered the set. In this clip you can see the basic formation with the exception of the PF who has sunk into the arc slightly. The Mavericks are very flexible with the way they play their offense and are willing to break from their set plays if a better option presents itself. Here, they attempt to set up a 4-out-1-in but since Dirk gained inside positioning in transition, they went ahead with a transition isolation play.

Example 2

Our next clip demonstrates some of the movement involved in the motion offense.

Our play begins with a 4-out-1-in set and the PG passing to the PF who then hands off to the SF at the wing. The PG heads for a high screen by the C and to the wing position. The C pops out to receive the ball from the SF. The PF continues for a curl toward the basket after his hand off to meet a screen by the SG at the low post. The ball is swung back to the PG on, now on the wing, and he passes down to the PF. From here the play develops into an isolation.

Hopefully you start to see how a series of perimeter screens with assistance by the C created the isolation for the PF.

Example 3

Let's take a look at another play to show as a comparison.

Focusing on the key elements of the motion offense let's review what we saw. The SF used the PF for a screen on the wing, the C was used to facilitate a screen for the SG by the PG, and the SG then curled for the pinch post and eventually found a lane to the basket. While the SG was driving the SF reused the PF screen to free himself up for a passing option.

Carefully reading the defense and freeing up options with screens out of the chosen set are essential to successfully running the motion offense.

Example 4

This next play demonstrates the importance of reading the defense well. The Mavericks get in their common 4-out-1-in set and the PF calls for the SF to begin rotating early as he sets an early screen (though his man was so far off him he didn't really need one) in anticipation of the PG's pass to the corner and curl. The Thunder do an excellent job of denying the curl early so he flashes back out to the wing and the SF is in position from the previous screen to do an on ball screen. The PG quickly recognizes that the Thunder still haven't found the SF and he passes for an open 3.

A similar start occurs here, this time it's an early strong side screen for the SG. The C pops out for a ball screen and a driving lane opens up.

Now compare that clip to our next one. We have the 4-out-1-in set again and the C moves to the strong side high post but this time instead of setting the screen he receives the pass. The PG then fakes a screen for the SG as the SF pops off his screen for the PF for an open shot. This was essentially a counter to the play that developed earlier. The defense thought there would be another pinch post for the SG but the weak side set up an open shot instead. Also notice that Dirk is in low post positioning to receive a pass and they can isolate for him if necessary.

1-3-1 Set

Important to note is the formation created, the positions only serve to help describe the formation. The PG stands at the top of the arc with the SG and SF at the wing position. The C is at the free throw line or elbows and the PF is at the low post, usually on the weak side. You may have noticed how the set gets his name. Set names are often derived from the formation created when viewing the set from the half court toward the baseline. We have 1 player at the point, 3 players lined up at roughly the free throw line extended, and 1 player in the post. Hence, the name 1-3-1 set.

What this formation has created is a lot of space on the strong side corner and a central location to pass to. For this reason, many plays out of the 1-3-1 set begin with a pass to the C or movement to fill the strong side corner.

As stated earlier, the motion offense is not exclusive to any particular set. In this clip we see a 1-3-1 set to begin the offense as a means of setting a high double screen which then creates a low double screen for the PF on his curl.

Roster Specific Plays

The Mavericks have done a good job of finding the right set to facilitate their roster and are not afraid to move away from the motion offenses. For example, in this clip we see the formation begin to look similar to the 4-out-1-in with the C moving toward the free throw line and 3 perimeter players outside the arc but they've sunk the PF into the low post and begin a screen-the-screener action. The C screens for the PF who then does an on-ball screen. The SG now has an open lane to the basket and, since the C set the low post screen, there's an open lob available for the C. This play is designed to give Terry a driving lane, Marion a good cut to the basket, a lob option for Chandler, and Kidd and Stojakovic are available as spot up shooters.

Here we see a single double out of an out of bounds play for Terry. Terry, like many Mavericks players, is very good at negotiating screens so they have him in bound the ball and run directly into the single double play. In this case he opted to go under both sets of screens, flare out for the pass, and drive to the basket.

They also run a series of isolation plays for a few players. Here we see a low post isolation for Kidd because of his excellent court vision.

And here's a quick isolation play for Dirk.

As we saw earlier, the Mavericks also have no problems developing their motion offense into an isolation if necessary.

Conclusion

Let's put this offense in perspective of the previous two we've seen. You'll notice that the role of the PG is fairly limited, just like our previous two systems. All three systems don't require our PG to dominate the ball and it doesn't require extensive amounts of dribble penetration. We see a mixture of the read-and-react concepts from the triangle offense by utilizing the motion offense and we also see some form of rigidity from the Heat offense in our 4-out-1-in and 1-3-1 sets.

Looking ahead we'll start to see a shift in direction when we take a look at the Bulls.

The Miami Heat

2012-01-30T20:58:00.001-08:00

Sorry to those of you that wanted me to select a different team but I wanted to go with an Eastern Conference team that was still in the playoffs which left with me with the Heat and Bulls. Between the two teams the Heat was the easier team to analyze. Having said that, let's take a look.

Background Info

The Heat's offense can be described as a mixture of double high post offense, triangle offense, and a series of pick and rolls. The offense is still fairly raw and I think that shows in some of the clips we'll be analyzing.

The double high post offense is their main set play and can be diagrammed as follows:

[1] Double High Post Set

Let's look at what unique characteristics this set gives us. First, you'll notice there is nobody at the low post. This has the obvious disadvantage of limiting low post plays and rebounding. The advantage, however, is there is a lot of space available for perimeter players to drive to the basket. The SG and SF have potential baseline drives and cuts through the lane to the basket.

Second, you'll notice there is nobody in the wing positions. This is also to facilitate as much space as possible for the SG and SF to make moves to the basket.

If this offense looks familiar, you may have seen it used by [2] UConn on their way to winning the NCAA Championship or the [3] Cavaliers in the past.

We'll see how this all works when we start to break down this set.

Double High Post

The basics

Let's start with some basic plays out of this set. We'll use [4] this clip to show how the double high post operates.

The play begins with Bibby dribbling the ball up the court and passing the ball to Lebron who fills in for Bibby at the point. Bibby then fills the right side corner in place of Lebron. Our set is now established and looks like this:

[5] Picture

You'll notice that this differs slightly from our picture of the double high post above. The important aspect of this offense is the formation, not necessarily which player is which position. The SF is essentially playing the point and the PG is essentially playing the SF. Why? We'll see in a moment.

Once the SF is at the point, he immediately passes to the PF and moves to screen for the SG. The SG then uses the screen to move to the basket. Pretty simple right?

Now let's return to why the PG and SF swapped positions. The answer is fairly simple and underscores a vast difference in philosophy between our previous discussion of the triangle offense and this offense. The play was called as a conscious effort to use Lebron as the screener because he was the bigger body and would be more effective against Brewer. This is a lot different philosophy than the read-and-react systems. Brewer was essentially targeted from the very beginning of the play ([6] come at me bro ).

Back to our clip - we wouldn't be doing the system much justice if we didn't look at the other possibilities available. The first option was the PF could have simply attempted a jump shot after the pass from the SF. Second, the SG could have made a baseline cut away from the screen for the pass. Third, the SF could have showed the screen and made a cut to the basket instead. Do these options sound sort of familiar? They're options generally associated with a classic pick and roll except now they're off the ball and each is looking for the pass from the high post. This is no accident, Lebron is currently ranked 4th in pick and roll points per possession moving off the pick and Wade is ranked 14th. This offense allows them to operate in ways that are familiar and comfortable to them (not to mention extremely effective).

Screening for the entry pass

Let's move on to our second clip [7] found here. The play begins with our familiar double high post set.

This time the defense is anticipating the pass entry to the C and has decided to front his man to try to stop the play. Since the double high post puts the PF and C at opposing elbows, they're able to screen for each other to free up one or the other for a pass. Here, we see the PF screen for the C so he can accept the pass.

Last time we saw a screen for the SG to free him up but this time the PG is going to curl toward the basket opening up the first passing option. The C passes to the SF and immediately sets a screen which is utilized for a lane to the basket.

If you watched the PF after the curl by the PG, you'll notice he was ready to set a screen for the PG to continue on to the wing. Earlier I said the offense is still somewhat raw and you can see that toward the end of this play. After the PG did his curl and the PF looked to set a screen, the PG went to set a screen but the SG instead went to fill the wing at the same time the PG decided to do the same. In time, some of these confusions will likely be worked out.

SF and SG positioning

Sometimes we see the SF and SG on the same side of the floor, other times we see them on the opposite side of the floor. In [8] this clip we see how the double high post offense can be used to create a two man game between the SF and SG.

The play starts with the SF at one of the high post positions. This was accomplished by substituting Chris Bosh for James Jones. Since James Jones can shoot the 3pter, it allows him to space the floor in the weak side wing and corner positions.

The PG passes the ball to the SF and cuts down the lane as a passing option. He's also in a position to grab an offensive rebound if Lebron takes a quick shot. As a side note, take notice that this is different from the previous plays we've seen where the initial pass to the post was followed by a screen and a curl respectively.

The SF passes to the SG as he moves from the corner to the wing position and screens for the SG. The SG's defender went under the screen and the SF seals him forcing a switch. The SF immediately seals his defender and moves into the post position. At this point the SG attempts a post pass but the SF is fouled.

The result is a scary demonstration of what can be accomplished by this offense. Look at how the play ended. Lebron was posting up Korver, Deng was guarding Wade on the perimeter, Noah was floating in the lane, and James Jones was alone on the wing. This play forced the defense into a lot of difficult decisions.

That was an example of putting the SF and SG on the same side of the floor out of the double high post. Let's turn to a play that puts the SF and SG on opposite sides of the court in [9] this clip.

We see the familiar double high post formation, this time to help receive the pass easier the C begins at the low post and flashes to the high post. The PG then moves to screen for the SF in the corner while the PF screens for the SG in the opposite corner. The SF makes a cut to the basket but the C decides against making the pass and instead hands off to the screening PG for a pinch post hand off and drive to the basket. You'll notice on the weak side the SG cut to the wing and the PF rolled to the low post.

That was a lot of options. The screens on each side opened up options for each screener and each person moving off the screen. It also opened up the additional pinch post option on the strong side.

Wrinkles

Every good set contains a show for the defense to make them expect the typical set but in fact a different one is played to keep the defense on their toes. In [10] this clip the play starts to look like our typical double high post set with the SF filling one of the high post positions. Instead of a pass entry to the high post we see a screen-the-screener action. The C screens for the SF who then screens for the PG. This causes a number of options to open up.

First, the initial screen could free up an open pass to the C after he rolls to the basket. Second, it could free up the SF for a mid-range shot or drive through the lane. Third, the second screen gives the PG a lane to the basket. Fourth, it opens up a pass to the SF for a shot or drive. Lastly, which is the option chosen here, the PG can look for the open SG or PF.

You'll notice this action takes up a lot of room because of the space required to have two separate screen and rolls. For that reason, this option is best utilized when the PF and SG are three point threats or at least 20ft out. Otherwise, you run the risk of clogging the lane for the separate roll/drive options.

Hopefully at this point you're beginning to see how the double high post offense works. The central theme is to put the SF and SG in position to operate around picks/screens with as much space as possible.

As a variation of a 1-4 low isolation

The formation might look fairly similar to a play typically run at the end of quarters or when the shot clock is winding down called the 1-4 low isolation. That set looks like this:

[11] Picture

[12] Video

As a variation of a 1-4 low isolation continued

That set tries to minimize help defense by flattening out the defense and maximizing the amount of space for the isolation. It also gives options from the movement of either perimeter player and puts rebounders in position. The double high post series has a similar play seen in this clip.

In that clip we see a high isolation and the high post flattening slightly. This play opts for a screen for the PF which could trigger a screen-for-the-screener action, (the PF could set a pick for the SF), a flare to the corner by the SG setting the screen, or a pass at the wing after the PF's cut.

Clip library

After reviewing the basics and describing a few of the plays you should notice just how many different options are available out of this set. There are so many plays that can be run out of the double high post set that I decided to simply add a library of different plays with a brief description from here.

Clip #	Brief Description
1	Screen to weak side kick, low post cross
2	SG screen for SF low post
3	SG double high screen
4	Wing dribble entry PG screen PF elbow cross
5	SG wing away from screen
6	SG wing dribble entry PF cross SF curl reset PF low post
7	C screen PG show/screen broken play to weak side wing

Triangle Offense or Who's the Bosh?

If the double high post mostly creates opportunities for the SG and SF, where does the PF fit in? The PF gets his shots out of the double high post at times by isolating at the high post, a two man game similar to our last clip, or an open elbow jumper. However, the Heat have incorporated the triangle offense to help give him some low post scoring options. This version of the offense is less concerned with the read-and-react portion of the triangle offense and more about the similar spacing and motions.

In this clip we see the familiar formation of the triangle with the SF at the wing position for a dribble entry, the PG in the strong side fill, and the PF in the low post. We also see the PG make a banana cut for a weak side fill to form the triangle on the opposite side and initiating the solo series (I didn't mention this by name last time but that's the name of the two man game and isolation formation of the triangle) between the SF and PF. The play is broken here but the intent is unmistakable.

This clip shows the triangle run to create an isolation for the PF.

The Heat seem to run this play almost exclusively as a means to give Bosh his low post opportunities.

Lebron Cross Cut Series

The Lebron Cross Cut Series of plays are designed to give Lebron some touches in the mid post area. The formation begins with an overload on the weak side of the floor with the ball at the wing position.

Picture

The positions are interchangeable, the formation is what matters. The key is to set a cross screen for the SF to allow him to cut across the lane and give him space from his defender to receive the pass from the wing.

Let's look at how this works in this clip.

In this version of the cross cut, the PG passed to the SG at the wing then set the cross screen for the SF, freeing him up for the pass. A different approach would have been to have the PG dribble enter the wing (which we'll see later) with the PF or C at the low post and setting a cross screen for the SF.

Once the pass is made to the SF the Cross Cut Series has a few options. The wing player can stay at the wing to set up a two man game, similar to our SG/SF two man game in the double high post series. The wing player can cut through the lane for a pass. What we see in our clip is the wing player overloading the weak side to create an isolation for the SF.

What happens when the cross cut is covered well? The ball will be swung to the opposite side to look for the other options that have opened up. Here we see the initial pass denied and the ball reversed only to return to the SF entry pass for an isolation. If the screener was the PF, this might mean reversing the ball to the opposite wing and looking for the PF.

In our next clip we see a dribble entry to the wing with the SG as the screener. The entry pass was denied which triggered the ball reversal. Since the SG was the screener the C dropped from the wing to set a screen for a curl by the SG.

Conclusion

The Heat's offense is still in its infancy which is apparent by some of the confusion in the plays, the number of broken plays, and the number of pick and rolls. However, I think Spoelstra has created a very good set that maximizes his roster's abilities. If I were to put a rough estimation as to the percentage I see each set I would probably put it at about 40% pick and rolls, 40% double high post sets, 10% triangle, and 10% Lebron cross cuts.

Overall, if you're a Heat fan, you should be very happy with the way things are looking so far. I expect next year to have a reduction in the number of pick and rolls and maybe a play that gives Bosh a high post option. I would like to see a variation of the double high post added similar to this:

Bosh starts in the low post for a possible quick low post entry in transition

C screens for Bosh for a flash to the high post, opening up a shot at the high post or a high-low pass - PG fills the weak side wing

PG screens for SG to move to defensive balance for a shot option, C screens for SF to make a cut toward the basket/corner for a pass

C cuts across the lane for a high post isolation and the SG has a pinch post option

This is a play I would like to see added. It gives Bosh a quick low post entry option, gives him an elbow jumper option, gives the C an easy opportunity for a high-low, gives the SG and SF some cutting options, and puts the PG in a position to be a spot up shooter.

The Triangle

2012-01-30T20:56:00.001-08:00

I thought there might be some interest in a discussion about different offensive sets so I decided to write a thread about the triangle. In the future I might discuss other offenses around the league if there's any interest.

Background Info

Let's start with some underlying premises of the triangle offense.

First, it emphasizes spacing and ball movement in order to penetrate the defense. This differs from typical offensive schemes because it values dribble penetration a lot less. Rather than rely upon a perimeter player to pierce the defense, it focuses on off-ball movement and post players to create passing lanes in the teeth of the defense.

Second, for the most part it's a read-and-react defense. Most modern versions of the offense (Lakers/Timberwolves) incorporate set plays within the triangle offense framework but the majority of the offense is based on reading the court and finding the best options available. For this reason, every player on the court is assumed to be a legitimate offensive threat.

Lastly, the triangle offense is a description of an offensive framework, not a type of play.

Forming the Triangle

Like most offenses, the ball is brought up the court by two players. One player (usually the PG) dribbles the ball up the court while another player is slightly behind parallel to provide relief from full court pressure and traps. This idea of having a second player to relieve pressure is called the lag principle. These two players will eventually move up the court with the off-ball player filling the empty wing position and the ballhandler filling the defensive balance position.

We'll start by using a picture of the typical halfcourt set.

In this picture we see the PG with the ball, the SG and SF on the wings, the PF and C in the low post. This is how most offensive sets begin before a play is called. The triangle usually begins the same. Notice the hash marks on the left and right top corners? That is roughly where the triangle offense begins. This is called the moment of truth. It is at this point when the ball is being carried up the court that the ballhandler (usually the PG) will ideally make his initial pass to either wing - initiating the start of the triangle offense. This pass is called the number 1 pass.

Take note of where the PG is right now, the PG is in what is called defensive balance. This position is intended to gather long offensive rebounds, serve as a passing option to reverse the ball, and head the defense down the court on defensive rebounds. This position is also available for top of the key 3pters. This spot becomes important when we discuss spacing later on.

Let's assume that the PG decides to pass the ball to the SG. The play now looks like this:

The PG now has two options. He can either do a strong side fill or a weak side fill.

Strong side fill

Weak side fill

You should notice the difference immediately. A strong side fill is when the PG moves to the corner on the same side as the ball has been passed to. A weak side fill is a move to opposite corner of the ball.

The same options are available if the PG had passed to the SF on the number 1 pass.

You may have also noticed that we now have the triangle formation. A strong side fill formed a triangle between the SG, PF, and PG on the side of the court the ball was passed to, a weak side fill has formed a triangle on the side opposite the ball between the SF, C, and PG.

How does the PG decide which fill to make? It's based on the moment of truth discussed earlier. The PG makes the first read of the defense at that point and decides whether the triangle should be initiated by the SG or the SF and whether he should do a strong side fill or a weak side fill. The only purpose this serves is to decide where the triangle will be formed and what options will be available for the number 2 pass (discussed later).

This is the most common way to form the triangle, however, sometimes the triangle is formed by dribble entry. Rather than the PG bringing the ball up the court then passing to a wing, a SG, SF, or sometimes PF (think Odom) dribbles the ball to the wing position and the PG immediately fills a corner to initiate the triangle. Alternatively, the PG might stay in the defensive balance position and the triangle might be formed immediately.

After Triangle Formation

Let's look again at what the strong side and weak side fills have created other than a triangle. Look at the [5] weak side fill [RES ignored duplicate image] first. You'll notice that the SG and PF have half the court to themselves. This can create a good place for a pick and roll if the PF slides up and sets a pick, the SG can pass the ball to the PF and let him work, or they can do any number of combinations of a two man game.

This can also lead to an isolation play for the SG or PF. The PF can slide across the lane and give the SG an isolation ([6] Picture ) or the SG can slide across the perimeter and give an isolation to the PF ([7] Picture ).

Remember, that the triangle offense is a read-and-react offense so the offense should not dedicate itself to one particular option, but instead be ready to adapt to what the defense gives them.

Examples

Example 1

Let's look at an example using what we already know.

The clip we'll be looking at is [8] this one.

The clip begins with the SG with the ball on the wing. Let's diagram the play right now.

[9] Picture

This was either the result of a dribble entry or number 1 pass from the PG to the SG. The result is an isolation for the SG with a weak side triangle and the PG at the defensive balance. The defense has made a decision to focus on the SG on his isolation plays so you see the defense's PG hedging toward the SG and the defense's SF hedging toward the lane for help defense on dribble penetration by the SG.

The defense successfully stops the isolation and causes the SG to pick up his dribble. This signals the rest of the offense to help the SG. This is accomplished by the PG moving to the wing position, the SF moving to defensive balance, the C cutting to the strong side post, and the PF moving to the weak side post.

[10] Picture

You probably now notice the triangle has been formed between the PG, SG, and C. This was accomplished by what is known as a center opposite. Center opposite is a cut by the C across the lane. In this instance it was a quick cut across the lane but this can also be done by having the PF screen the C's defender to either provide space for a pass or cause a mismatch between the PF and C. You might also notice that the PG is far off the 3pt line. This is to maintain one of the central principles of the triangle offense - spacing.

The SG passes the ball to the PG who then immediately passes to the PF who was free to receive the pass after thecenter opposite. After passing the ball the SG sealed his man which gave him a lane to the basket, the PF does a short bounce pass followed by a screen and the SG makes the basket. Also notice that the PF's slide in the low post gives him great positioning for a rebound.

Example 2

The next example we'll look at is from this clip running from 6sec to 14sec in the video.

The beginning of the play isn't in the video but likely what happened was the PG dribbled the ball up and after crossing the moment of truth passed the ball to the lag player (the SG), which reversed the play from the left side of the floor (from the offense's perspective) to the right side. This gives the SG the option for the number 1 pass, which he then makes to the SF on the wing.

It's slightly confusing so hopefully these pictures will illustrate what I mean:

Ball carried up by the PG with SG in lag position, PF and SF fill the wing positions

Moment of truth crossed, PG swings the ball to the SG, reversing the side of the floor the play will be initiated on

Strong side fill by the PG forming the triangle, defensive balance by the SG, and high posting C

The PF was slow to fill the post and covered pretty well so the SF makes the number 2 pass back to the SG atdefensive balance. This triggers a number of motions. First, the C flashes upward toward the SG for a pinch post option between the SG and C. The PG attempts to make a banana cut to the opposite corner but is guarded pretty well. The SF moves for a rebound cut but instead the PF and SF screen for the PG who curls toward the wing and takes the shot, meanwhile the C after showing a pick for the SG makes a strong rebound cut toward the basket.

Picture

Let's stop for a moment and analyze this a bit further. What if the SG had opted for the pinch post? The pinch post would have looked like this.

Picture

The PG would have made the banana cut to the opposite corner and the C would have dropped down to the post.

Picture

Look familiar? We now have a strong side fill by the PG creating the triangle off of a pinch post. At this point the SF can either move to defensive balance to reverse the triangle, or remain in the weakside wing.

This possession really highlights the players' ability to read and react to everything around them. The PG read the right side of the floor to start the play on, the SF recognized a poor line of deployment (the line of deploymentis a principle where an entry pass to the post should occur at a 45 degree angle between the baseline and the passing direction and the passer reads which side the defender is on to determine which side he should pass to -Picture ), the SG then saw a weak pinch post option, the SF and PF saw a failed banana cut by the PG, and everyone reacted to these correctly to get an open shot for the PG.

Example 3

So far we've seen a few different ways to form the triangle. We've seen a dribble entry to the wing and we've seen a number 2 pass to the wing. Now let's look at a pass to the post.

The first clip we'll look at is here.

The clip begins with the PG bringing the ball up the court, the C in the lag position, the SG in the wing, the SF in the low post and PF in the high post. Typically we have seen the SG in the lag position but having a versatile roster allows you to have any player fill nearly any position. Remember, everyone is considered an offensive threat in the triangle offense thus versatility is key.

Picture

The number 2 pass to the PF keys a couple of movements. The PG settles into defensive balance position, the SG initiates a wing reversal. This means the SG will make a curl from his wing position to the opposite wing position and the C will fill his previous position.

After the number 2 pass

What this has done is free up a lane to the basket for the SG that the PF has an option to pass to.

I'll let Scottie Pippen demonstrate that for you

It also gives an option to pass to the C, and it gives an option to pass to the PG at defensive balance to reverse the play. In this instance the PF passes to the C for an open shot. Remember one of our key principles to the triangle offense, everyone is considered an offensive threat. With that in mind, compare our clip to this one. It's the same play but this time the SF is initiating a wing reversal and the SG is filling his wing position.

Let's see what the play would look like if it had played out completely.

The SG would have completed his curl to the opposite wing for a wing reversal

The PF would have passed to the PG at defensive balance and dropped to the low post

And now we're back to the reset position where the PG can make the number 1 pass to either wing. The triangle can then be reformed by passing to the SG, followed by a strong/weak side fill by the PG

Picture - strong side fill

or a center opposite (though in this case the PF would play the role of the center) by cutting the PF across the lane, the C moving into the low post, and the SF cutting to the corner.

Picture - center opposite to form triangle

Wrinkles to the Triangle

Spontaneity

Sometimes the triangle offense can be a little harder to spot, remember that this is an ideal framework so you need to think about the intent of the offense and not what actually happens. For example, let's look at this clip from 4m29sec to 4min36sec.

The play presumably began with a pass from the PG to the SG on the wing and the PG starts a strong side fill.

Picture

In the process of the fill, the SG reads and reacts to what the defense has given him and sees an open lane to the basket.

Picture

Four defenders collapse on the SG and he finds an open pass to the C for the basket.

Even though the triangle never fully set up, this was still within the framework of the triangle offense. The offense requires its players to take the open opportunities when they present themselves and that was what occurred here.

Incorporation of Plays

Earlier we mentioned dribble entries to the triangle, but a dribble entry is not exclusive to a dribble entry to the wing position. In this clip we see a dribble entry to the corner.

The PG brings the ball up, the C is in the lag position, the PF flashes to the high post, the SF fills the wing, and the SG is in the weak side post. So far do you see any similarities to this set up? It begins very similar to the wing reversal that we saw earlier, except rather than passing to the PF at the high post the SF screens for the PG who then does a dribble entry to the corner. The SF then makes a quick cut to the basket using the PF as a screen and receives the pass for the basket.

This play really demonstrates why the triangle offense is a framework and not a play. You can incorporate plays into the triangle offense while keeping the principles of the offense intact. This play is essentially the same as a 1-4 UCLA cut. Do you see the difference between our clip and this one?

The difference between our clip and that one is our clip used the PG to dribble enter the corner rather than a PG to SG pass to the wing. Both clips utilize the PF for a high screen to the basket.

Triangle as an Out of Bounds Play (Token Timberwolves Clip)

In this clip we see the triangle form as a part of an out of bounds play. The play creates a top of the arc isolation with the triangle formed on the left side of the court. This is a different isolation than what we've seen before with a weak side triangle. Two things should be immediately apparent. First, Beasley is going right, it's too crowded to go left where the triangle is formed. Second, Beasley heads right into the right corner defender to try to free up the corner pass as a second option.

Conclusion

This was intended to serve as only a basic introduction to the triangle offense. Hopefully at the very least it demonstrates the complexity and fluidity of how the offense works. If I can find some more clips to break down I might add them. I'll end this for now and if anyone has questions I can try to answer them when I get a chance. I think I'll do another analysis sometime during the week next week for one of the remaining playoff teams.

Let me know which of the four remaining teams you prefer me to go over. I can't promise the most popular one will be my next pick because it will mostly be influenced by my ability to find/make clips but I can keep it in consideration.