Wrinkle
Tyrolian Cat Eater
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- Nov 11, 2019
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The way I see it, all of our struggles can be traced back to this basic fundamental of the game.
For years, we have run a milquetoast pick and roll attack, which isn't really a pick and roll at all. The screener rarely rolls to the rim, and even when they do, they are never, ever hit with the pass by our ball handler.
To defend this bastardized attack, teams hedge the screen, usually aggressively. And this then spells the end for our offense. There is no splitting of the screen by our guards, no rejecting of the screen, no quick swing to the wing, there's usually not even a concerted effort to put down their head and bully their way into the paint.
I think the issue may be twofold. Personnel wise, we haven't had the type of the lead guard we desperately crave -- a guy we can throw in pick and roll every single possession and generate consistent offense. Flynn, MCW, Ennis. Even so, we haven't had total bums at guard (for the most part). One would certainly expect them to be capable of understanding and executing the basics of a pick and roll offense, even if they are not supremely effective at it. Not have we had optimal personnel for roll men. But this cannot alone explain what we've seen on the court for years
And so we come to coaching. What is the aim of our high screen action? It virtually never gets our ball handler into the paint, and the screener almost never receives the pass. So what we have is a useless screen that merely bottles up our guard and stops the ball.
So bizarrely futile is our pick and roll action, it's gotten to the point where I've tried to imagine what the coaching staff could possibly be thinking. Is JB commanding the guards NOT to make the pass to the screener? For the love of God, why? Even if we hit bag o' skin and bones Sidibe with the pass as the roll man, we've penetrated, and the defense must adjust. We seem to run this high screen with the sole intent to free up the guard for a run to the rim, and yet, when the defense denies this alley with the hedge (which good defenses do, every single time against us), we are dead in the water.
I love the pick and roll. It is in fact my favorite play in basketball. It can be very effective at any level of play. But not this Syracuse pick and roll. This is BAD.
For years, we have run a milquetoast pick and roll attack, which isn't really a pick and roll at all. The screener rarely rolls to the rim, and even when they do, they are never, ever hit with the pass by our ball handler.
To defend this bastardized attack, teams hedge the screen, usually aggressively. And this then spells the end for our offense. There is no splitting of the screen by our guards, no rejecting of the screen, no quick swing to the wing, there's usually not even a concerted effort to put down their head and bully their way into the paint.
I think the issue may be twofold. Personnel wise, we haven't had the type of the lead guard we desperately crave -- a guy we can throw in pick and roll every single possession and generate consistent offense. Flynn, MCW, Ennis. Even so, we haven't had total bums at guard (for the most part). One would certainly expect them to be capable of understanding and executing the basics of a pick and roll offense, even if they are not supremely effective at it. Not have we had optimal personnel for roll men. But this cannot alone explain what we've seen on the court for years
And so we come to coaching. What is the aim of our high screen action? It virtually never gets our ball handler into the paint, and the screener almost never receives the pass. So what we have is a useless screen that merely bottles up our guard and stops the ball.
So bizarrely futile is our pick and roll action, it's gotten to the point where I've tried to imagine what the coaching staff could possibly be thinking. Is JB commanding the guards NOT to make the pass to the screener? For the love of God, why? Even if we hit bag o' skin and bones Sidibe with the pass as the roll man, we've penetrated, and the defense must adjust. We seem to run this high screen with the sole intent to free up the guard for a run to the rim, and yet, when the defense denies this alley with the hedge (which good defenses do, every single time against us), we are dead in the water.
I love the pick and roll. It is in fact my favorite play in basketball. It can be very effective at any level of play. But not this Syracuse pick and roll. This is BAD.