The pick-and-roll is no longer a two-man action!
Ballscreen spacing and cuts: a 🎥 breakdown
The “pick-and-roll” action is probably still the number 1 action for teams in Europe to create an advantage over the defense. While years ago it was basically an action by two players to create a 2-on-1 advantage, the situation has changed over the last years. Defensively, good teams involve all 5 defenders in stopping these ballscreens. As a result, the offense has to be more creative to recognize and exploit the advantages that started from this two-man action.
When running a middle “pick-and-roll”, spacing is an important key. Often, teams choose to spread the three other players around the three point line. This gives the opportunity to one defender of the side with two defenders to help out on the screener who dives to the basket.
In this video you will see how Olympiacos attacks this defense using
- a “Spain pick-and-roll”
- cuts from the corner or wing
- a post-up in the middle or
- a “short roll” of the screener.
In this video breakdown 📽️, I will highlight the different options that Olympiacos Piraeus recently showed in their Euroleague match-ups 👇👇👇
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