The Waste Basket

Week 2: some defense, Spain P&R, and a vintage ATO

Jan 28, 2023

These are 10 things I’ve liked or made me think this week, copying from the famous Zach Lowe format.
If you want to get to the raw video without reading the thoughts at the end of the page there’s the youtube edit with these 10 things in the same order, 3’ of ideas.

Just today a friend of mine and an excellent coach in the NBL, George Robinson, suggested me some teams, I’ve already started watching them and I’ll include them in next week's column, just a reminder, if you think there is any team out there that you would suggest me to watch I’d gladly take the advice.

Let’s get into it…

Defensive concept on show defense: Jump inside after the pass
This is something that I’ve worked on with my previous team in the last months, it can seem like a minor detail but it makes a huge difference.
When you’re showing or blitzing and the ball is passed immediately out of that the whole defense is in scrambling mode, bodies recovering, bumping from the weak side, and too many teams rely on the 3 players behind the ball + the screener’s defender recovering.
Well, having the ball-handler defender jump inside after the pass out can really help your defense and give your team 1 second more to rotate and recover.
Here’s the video and a short explanation below
His responsibility is this: jump inside with your hands up, your job is to slow down the skip to the weak side, then if the player perceives that he can steal it he can gamble for the steal, but the primary idea is to not allow that skip pass to be quick.
Once you’ve done that you can decide to involve that player in the X-rotation or not, my coach's idea was to do it if the ball was flying to the single side, while not doing it if it was flying to the 2 man side where there was already an establish X-out rotation ready.
I think no matter what you decide it’s nice to consider if this can have any use in your defensive system.
Dallas: Cut vs. strong nail help
Last year in the playoff we’ve seen more and more teams switch and then rely on zone concepts like a strong nail-help from the closest defender or a complete blitz on the offensive player, some teams (i.e. Brooklyn vs. the Celtics) have struggled against this coverage, while others, Dallas for example, have used cuts and spacing in a good way to distort the defense and punish/prevent the help on Luka
The first 2 clips are from this year's match-up against the Lakers, LeBron was blitzing Luka and Wood flashed inside right behind his shoulder, if you look at the spacing it reminds, both for Off and Def, of a 2-3 offense with a high-post player.
The other clips are from their PO run vs. the Suns, you see Kleber (mostly) cutting either behind his defender to get a deep catch, or to create an open 3 for a teammate.
It’s nice to keep checking the growth of double team/strong stunt help and what the offenses do against that coverage.
Spurs ATO 2014: Downhill DHO for Manu

I was looking at some old stuff Spurs wise and this possession caught my attention, Look at how masterfully Duncan disguises his intention after the elbow pass, then set a screen to get Manu downhill into the DHO.
I haven’t seen this combination of action recently, let me know if you have, but I think it can be interesting for slashers to prevent the under.
Olympiakos: Pass & cut with the post
Olympiakos is probably the best offense in Euroleague this year by the numbers, and a big part of that is how much their players are effective without the ball,
they use that ability in many situations, let’s focus on one.
They’re a P&R offense and on some occasions on passes out of the P&R they find the paint filled by the rolling big man, look at the first clip.
From here they’ve developed the ability and the connection to “attack the closeout without the ball” instead of catching and driving 1v1.
So passing and cutting inside, in the moment where their defender, wrongly, turn his head, playing against a common defensive mistake.
Tennessee Volunteers: Improvised Pin-in

One of the offenses that use more off-screen in college basketball, with an interesting motion that is worth studying if you’re into “that kind of stuff”, has added a nice wrinkle in their last 2 games to their offense, watch here:
They’re playing right into the defensive tendency of jumping to the ball after the pass, in their motion, there’s often a guard in the 45° position and a big slightly below him, once the guard passes the ball his defender jumps inside ready to help and being involved in the defense, and usually, the big’s defender is doing the same, so the big sets a pin-in or containment screen.
The solution seems like a simple one, but it can be effective, especially vs. teams that don’t want to switch that action
Spain P&R: Coverage solution vs. guard-to-guard switch

The guard-to-guard switch is one of the most common coverages solutions on Spain or Stack P&R action, here are some examples of a smart player being able to read and anticipate the switch and stealing some crucial points at the rim
Treviso: Cross double high vs. 2-3 zone

Not a super new idea, I’ve seen it I believe from Obradovic’s Fener back in the day, but it’s always a flashy one.
I don’t believe this can be your main offense against 2-3 zone, but it’s for sure a nice wrinkle to have, especially if you have a guard who’s comfortable with the mid-range pull up
Real Madrid: ATO Backscreen

Using a variation of a set you normally have is always a good idea to start thinking about ATOs.
Here Real went for an offscreen movement followed by the backscreen of Llull for Tavares, take a look at Canaan, he’s trying to top-lock Llull to deny him the easy movement offscreen, but in doing so he finds himself on the wrong side of that screen and he can’t nor help nor even communicate with his teammate.
Virtus Bologna: Guard post-up set

Scariolo is one of the most creative coaches in Europe, I’ve liked this set they’ve used to get Pajola, their point guard, a touch in the post.
Starting with a guard-to-guard screen followed by a veer action, where you can imagine creating an advantage immediately either to shoot it or to drive in the double gap that’s created by the point guard’s cut.
That cut is the real option of the play, after a ball reversal they pass inside to 1 who then can pick his options between going 1v1 or waiting to see and read the offscreen action on the perimeter.
Cavs: P&R Spacing 3-out 2-in

We’ve gone vintage with the old Spurs clip, we finish with some “vintage” spacing by the Cavs.
They’re playing together Mobley and Allen for long stretches of the game and it’s interesting to see their P&R offense when they’re doing so, playing with 2 interior players is not an impossible fix in terms of spacing, but it forces your offense, even more, to be perfectly executing those spacing principles in the correct way.
For years in Europe Kattash was the master of this offense in Jerusalem, and they were always an efficient offense, it’s nice to see some of this particular spacing also on the other side of the ocean.

If you want to see the concept but do not read it, or don’t have the time right now, or maybe you want a quick recap, here’s the video with all these 10 things combined, enjoy!

It’s a wrap for this week, I hope you enjoyed some of these clips and ideas if you did please share this with your basketball friends, if you have any suggestions, teams to watch, concepts to study, or questions, you can reach me at fr.nanni@gmail.com or on Twitter.
I’ll be back next week and maybe even sooner with the first deeper analysis of a specific team, stay tuned.

Garbage Time

Discussion about this post