Shooters Defense: GSW Read And React

Photo: NBA.com

I watch as much NBA as I can. Which is half of what I’d like to watch, and that is probably half of what you need to watch to have a decent knowledge of the league… 

But I enjoy The League anyway, and I think there are many good things to see, analyze and pay attention to.

I won’t join the controversy about how many three point shots are too many. Everyone has an opinion. But it is a fact that the record of made threes during a seven games series was broken during the West Conference Finals, and this post is related to three point shooting. 

This classic situation is frequently used by the Golden State Warriors, staggered screens.

OKC tried to stop it switching in off ball screens to avoid easy catch and shoot options. Which is as good an idea as any other, if the defensive execution is good or if the offense is not ready to read it. Let’s take a look at some clips from games six and seven. In the first two plays, the Warriors run the staggered screen situation we are talking about, while in the third one we see the off ball screen right after an inside pass:

The Warriors reaction to the switch is to cut with the last screener to the basket. Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala are the cutters. As we can see, when the switch happens, the defender who is supposed to take the screener doesn’t protect the rim, and leaves the path open for the cut. In the first clip, there is still one more help, although the second cutter gets a perfect extra pass to score.

With the Finals starting tonight, we should be ready to take a look at how the Cavaliers defend this basic, but useful, situations. 

CSKA Switching

Photo: Euroleague.net

I won’t pretend to explain a defensive game plan because not having enough information about it, but I can show you some details of CSKA’s defense during the third play off game against Red Star. If you want to get a deeper understanding, my advice is to analyze those three games to find out how it works.

There’s an old saying in basketball “the best man to man defense looks like a zone and the best zone defense looks like a man to man”. That could be the idea behind the defense we saw in the mentioned game. We can argue about the way we call it (switching man to man, flexible zone, mutant defense) but there’s no need to go crazy about it. 

In my opinion, CSKA has the personnel to try this kind of switching defense. Their physicality and size allow them to go for it not giving up a lot of advantages to their rivals. But there’s another idea we should keep in mind. The defense’s “first stone” is not the switching, but the 1 on 1 and team communication. Bigs need to make efforts to guard smalls and smalls need to be really aggressive, as they will find themselves in a quick mismatch situation quite often. Then, the focus to switch or rotate when needed is also a must.

Also, the scouting work matters, Red Star use very often “horns” situations, as well as quick side screens. This switching defense may create problems and definitely slow down the rhythm of the offense. 

Some of the rules they appear to be following:

They place a “big” on top of their defense (Kurbanov, Nichols)

They switch high ball screens avoiding an advantage for the “roll man”, and try to keep a small guarding the ball after the first switch. 

Continuous attention to the ball’s position and players’ movements

Be aware of cuts, to follow and/or rotate, trying to stay in the same lines. "Smalls" defending outside spaces, "bigs" close to the basket.

Sag off from your man when the ball goes inside

If the mismatch finally happens: FIGHT IT. No easy penetration, no uncontested shots, no easy passes inside (defender in front) Off ball activity.

Let’s take a look: 

Final Four 2015: Cool Goudelock Down

Photo: Euroleague.net

A lot has been said about Real Madrid's offense in the semifinal against Fenerbahce. Not so much about some defensive details during that game. It is clear that their offense was flowing big time, the ball movement was great, they shared it the right way, the quality of the passing absolutely delicious… But they did some good things on the other half of the court too.

Let's take a look at how they cut Andrew Goudelock's rhythm during the first two quarters of the game. But first one more example about something we've been talking about lately, numbers. You can check Goudelock's points and immediately think that he was dominant (34 minutes, 26 points, 9/11 2PT, 2/6 3PT) But, if you want to dig a little bit more, you will find out how at the end of the second quarter, he had 6 points (2/3 2PT, 0/4 3PT) while his team was trailing by 20 (55-35) and the game was really far from where Fenerbahce would have wanted at that moment…

From the outside, and not knowing first hand what was Real's game plan, it looks like they paid good attention on Goudelock, probably the best 1x1 player in the competition. Let's take a look at some clips:

In the first video, we can see Fenerbahce playing one of their most frequently used sets. They set a down screen and then they play a hand off pass. Not only the player guarding Goudelock is committed to the task in hand, but also the other players are really aggressive. Real gave up some other options while trying to decrease Goudelock's production, which is normal when you focus in one player.

I was talking about cooperation to stop Goudelock before. In the next video we see that team work again. Two clips in which we can see up to three of Real's players (and in the first clip, a fourth giving a hand too) guarding Goudelock in the same play. Yes, he scores in the second one, but every effort counts and they keep making his life a little bit harder with their defense.

More examples, hand off and ball screen situations. We see how the screener's defender is aggressive to stop Goudelock. Aggressive hedging, and again, it is clear that they rather prefer other players to have the scoring opportunities. Help side defenders work against those other options, trying to avoid the easy shot, forcing some drives, rotating…

The last clip might seem naïve, but it is not. A "no helping" policy is advisable when facing some players. It appears Real Madrid decided to use that strategy with Goudelock. There were some actions where helping would have been a right move in a normal situation, but the defender decided not to. Take a look at the next clip.

So let me ask for your opinion: Was Goudelock's defense a success?

P.S.: You can check all of Goudelock's first half actions, here.

Final Four 2015: Ball Screen Defense - Switch

Photo: Euroleague.net

I'll be posting in the next days some details we saw during the Euroleague Final Four. In my opinion, it's been an amazing weekend for European basketball, with really good basketball and a good dose of thriller... 

We've been talking about the 21st century basketball for a while, its evolution, the way our sport is going… Maybe this Final Four has been a clear example about the "new basketball" we are going to see. 

I'm talking about defense now, and specifically about switching against (ball) screens. Will this become the main defensive rule in the years to come?

During the semifinal between Olympiacos and CSKA, we saw how that defense was extensively used by both teams. I bring today two short videos with the teams scoring... 

...and getting stops. 

Both single (between the two players directly involved in the screen) and multiple (different rotations to avoid mismatches) switching options were played during the game. It's no surprise that many teams are building their rosters with this idea in mind, trying to find players as physical as possible, capable to play solid defense in different situations. Other teams work on ways to switch with "smaller personnel", and still cut the offense's rhythm. 

What's your opinion, are we going to watch more and more switching? 

Ball Inside Set: Scout and Adjust

As a coach, when you have a "special" player (understanding that as a player around whom for whatever reasons you are going to organize your offense or your defense) you have to find the way to use him in the best possible way.

Sofoklis Schortsanitis from Maccabi Tel Aviv is one of these players. He is a "go to" player for their offense whenever he is on the court. And today I want to show you how they look for him, and how important for their rivals is to make some adjustments when they face the Israeli team. 

Analyzing the Top 16 games between Maccabi and Real Madrid, we see it clear. In the first game, we saw Maccabi running one of their favorite sets for "Big Sofo" and getting a lot of good looks for him. When both teams played again, we noticed how the Spanish side made some adjustments against that set. 

Maccabi's set involves a lot of movement without the ball, off ball screens, and, finally, Schortsanitis' duck in action to seal his defender and get the ball inside. It is interesting to notice how he sets a down screen and then he manages to establish his position inside to leave the defender behind his back. Once he gets the ball there… We can see how they run the set and score in the first clip.

Then, for the second game, the Spanish team adjusted their defense, showing much more intensity in order to, first, avoid easy passes at the beginning of the set, and then, trying to keep Sofo off his favorite spot (or forcing him to fight for it)

Nevertheless they end up finding him inside, but Real's players are ready to trap, jumping immediately after the ball leaves the passer's hands. Nocioni's hands up when he traps and Rivers' help side activity as a "goalkeeper" avoid the dangerous skip pass.

Let's take a look...

Real Quick: RMA - FCB Euroleague

With Real Madrid and FC Barcelona still cooling down, and although obviously this is a game that deserves deep analysis, I want to show you this clips from early in the game, with some interesting details.

First, a nice high - low action from Real Madrid. Barcelona often switch in off ball screens when guarding JC Carroll. Real responds well and finds the way to use the mismatch in low post.

Second, another defensive situation from the "madrileños": Maciulis gets on the court and guards Marcelinho Huertas. Maciulis' size and quickness allows him to protect himself from Huertas' penetrations and at the same time he is able to contest shots and switch against ball screens:

Low Post Mismatch: Double Team

It's a situation every team work to stop. When a big guy ends up playing near the basket against a smaller defender you need a team effort and a good defensive organization to fix the mismatch.

The double team is one of the solutions teams use more often. We will see today how Panathinaikos manages to get a stop against that situation through a good team effort, organization, and last but not least, the players' knowledge and awareness. There's no need to say that F.C. Barcelona is one of the best organized teams and they are always ready to react against the double team.

The mismatch happens after a switch in a hand off pass. Abrines finds Doellman in low post. Let's notice how Dimitris Diamantidis, who is on help side, sees the problem even before the ball goes inside and gets ready to trap (there is a reason he's been named Euroleague's best defender so many times). 

At the same time, the communication is good between DD and Mavrokefalidis. Help side activity is good, the trap works well (they attack the ball, hands up, avoiding an easy way out…) and they break the timing of the offense. PAO collapse the paint, creating a lot of traffic through help side activity, and they force Doellman to give a bad pass which Mavrokefalidis steals… starting a fastbreak situation.

Let's take a look:

Ball Screen Defense: Switch And Rotation

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

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

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

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

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

Let's watch it: