Creating an Advantage with the MPnR

Methodology and pedagogy are essential to teaching any offensive concept in detail including the pick and roll. Utilizing a systematic approach to make things clear and concise for our players allows for progression in their vision and decision-making within the pick and roll. There are many great teachers of the game that provide tremendous analysis in teaching the pick and roll, with Peter Lonergan from Basketball Australia, Liam Flynn from Hapoel Jerusalem, Zico Coronel from Hawke’s Bay, and Ettore Messina from Olimpia Milano. The teaching points I share within these series of articles are a compilation of things I have studied over the last month from great minds such as these coaches. This will be a three part series where we will discuss “Creating an Advantage with the mid-PnR.” Here are the three topics I will discuss:

Part 1: Space before Advantage and the Corner-Middle-Corner Concept

Part 2: Teaching Principles for the Creator

Part 3: Teaching Principles for the Screener

WHY USE THE PnR TO CREATE AN OFFENSIVE ADVANTAGE?

1. Create a mis-match.

With switching schemes dominating PnR defensive coverage we can intentionally get the match-up we want by slipping screens or ghosting screens. When teams do not communicate early and effectively while they switch, using schemes within the PnR can create the offensive match-up we desire, leveraging an offensive advantage. It’s imperative we “keep the ball hot” (visual cue of passing a hot potatoe to keep the ball moving) along with player movement when attacking the switch. We can attack these mis-matches either through advancing the pass and into a deep paint with the mis-match defending our screener, or back to our Creator with a boomerang pass to force a closeout by the big to contest both catch and shoot 3 and the drive. Keeping the ball hot will create, keep, and leverage offensive advantage against the swtich within the PnR. Ettore Messina said it best, “When we create an advantage with the pick and roll, where we pass the ball determines if we make a bigger advantage or if we lose that advantage.” We will discuss more on attacking the switch with the screener in Part 3: Teaching Principles for the Screener.

2. Execute in short-clock situations.

Whether we flow into PnR conepts after transition or we utilize the PnR at the end of shot clock, executing the mid-PnR in short-clock situations enables the offense to space before finding the advantage. If we get an offensive rebound and don’t have an immediate put-back by the rebounder or a kick-out 3, we are using player and ball movement to get the ball back into our Creator’s hands to execute in the final seconds of the shot clock.

3. Precede or conclude another offensive action.

The first offensive action in a possession doesn’t typically score, but the third or fourth action will. Excellent scoring attacks create, keep, and leverage advantage and sometimes it takes three to four actions to accomplish this. Scoring attacks that lead to an offensive advantage are a blend of different types of screens that lead into a PnR such as short-route pin-downs into a PnR, a DHO into a PnR, a side PnR into a mid PnR, or some type of false motion into a PnR. Ideally, we prefer to make defense guard up to three to four of these actions during a defensive possession before we find and exploit the offensive advantage within the mid PnR.

4. A dominate, crafty Creator

We are constantly trying to create and exploit 2on1s with the mid-PnR. Having a Creator that has great “eye manipulation” and vision as he scans the floor and makes great “Pocket Decisions” at the point of the screen, enables us to leverage this advantage. Not only can this Creator make great “Pocket Decisions” for his teammates by “throwing strikes” to their shot pockets with his passes as they space, but also has a great rim finishing package, skillful with both hands and jumping off either foot, and a great paint finishing package with stride stops, donuts and floaters. We will discuss in more detail what skills the Creator needs in Part 2: Teaching Principles for the Creator.

5. Gain an advantage in transition

One of the easiest ways to gain advantage with the mid-PnR is against a team with poor transition defense. Whether we use drag screens or “get” action (throw and go) with the trail, we can leverage this 2on1 advantage early in the shot clock.

WHEN CREATING AN OFFENSIVE ADVANTAGE WITH THE PnR…

1. “We never want to be a prisoner of the defensive coverage” - Ross McMains

We must have a solution to make the opponent’s defensive coverage our advantage. How do we make their defensive coverage our advantage?

Manipulating Coverage vs. Killing the Coverage

Manipulating the coverage means we will run a scripted set to distort or soften the coverage at the point of the screen. An example of this would be the Spain PnR (or Stack PnR) when manipulating the screener’s defender that is in drop coverage with a back-screen. Killing the coverage means we LET the defense run their coverage by inviting their coverage, then we space to gain advantage and execute against their coverage. The goal of killing the coverage is to always make the defense wrong. Teaching PnR decision-making is “coverage dependent” in that we focus on the defense at the point of the screen. Once the defense coverage at the point of the screen has been determined, teaching the Creator the “Pocket Decisions” and the Screener to “See the Coverage” will contribute to killing the coverage and gaining an offensive advantage with the mid-PnR.

2. We don’t use the PnR to create a shot, we use the PnR to create an advantage.

The first PnR usually doesn’t score so its important to teach our players that the PnR is part of the offense, not THE offense. Whether we are preceding or concluding an offensive action with the mid-PnR, how do we create this advantage that leads to a shot? Spacing before advantage and the Corner-Middle-Corner Conept.

||“Spacing before advantage, advantage before shot” -Liam Flynn Hapoel Jerusalem||

In Liam Flynn’s teaching video, “The Art of the Mid PnR”, he discusses the importance of having the optimal spacing before creating an offensive advantage. The mid PnR creates this advantage which can precede or conclude any other offensive action that will lead to a high percentage shot.

Red-the middle third of the front court where the mid-PnR will occur. The Creator (1) is inside the slot which is elbow extended, with 4 point line spacing. The Screener (5) will sprint into the screen to create separation from his defender and from this point the Creator and Screener are reading the defensive coverage at the point of the screen to kill the coverage. The topics of “Teaching Principles for the Creator” and “Teaching Principles for the Screener” will be covered in Parts 2 and 3 with teaching cues and detailed instruction regarding what specifically will happen in the middle third.

Purple- has two players occupying this outer third of the front court so it is called a “2 side.” The 4 is spaced in the corner, rim level, with his shooting foot into the rim, ready to catch and shoot. The 2 is above the FT line extended (45) and is spaced at 4 point line spacing. Zico Coronel calls the third of the court that the Creator is slicing to the “front-side” because this is the side that is in front of the Creator’s vision at the point of the screen. The spacing between the 2 and 4 must be “stretched” in order to ensure one defender can’t guard the both of them if there is a defensive rotation on the X-out. Stretching the “got two” defender (defender who closes out on the catch of either 2 or 4) is paramont to creating this advantage and the “1 more” (good to great pass) will leverage this advantage by “stretching” out the “got two” defender.

Green-has one player occupying this outer third of the front court so it is called a “single side.” The 3 is spaced in the corner, rim level, with his shooting foot into the rim, anticipating a kick-out for a catch and shoot decision or “lift” if his defender tags the roll. Zico Coronel calls the third of the court that is behind the slicing Creator the “back-side” because this side is behind the Creator’s vision at the point of the screen. The 3 must lift out of the corner as his defender tags the roller to create this momentary 2on1 advantage.

4 point line spacing by any player at and above the 45 is crucial to optimize spacing before advantage for two reasons: 1. It creates a longer closeout if the ball is kicked from the Creator to a teammate spacing for a shot/drive decision, because their defender tagged and helped on the PnR. 2. It provides more space for the Creator to slice off the screen and read the coverage and the screener to set the screen and roll to separate from the coverage.

||“Corner-Middle-Corner Concept” -Peter Lonergan Basketball Australia||

Peter Lonergan discussed this concept in a clinic with Elite Athletes in Belgium earlier this year. The Corner-Middle-Corner concept means that before the screen is set and before the Creator utilizes the screen, the Creator will scan the other 9 players on the court and “prey on the flat-footed defender”. “Preying on the flat-footed defender” means the Creator will locate any defender that is defensively out of position, not in a stance and flat-footed, or is caught turning their head to the ball. The vision the Creator has before the point of the screen, will lead to a “scoring pass” to a teammate who has spaced before advantage and whose defender is out of position. A “scoring pass” puts the receiver in a catch and shoot 3 or an advantage in attacking a long closeout. A “non-scoring pass” would be a pass where the Creator delivers to a teammate who has spaced, but on the catch his defender has a short closeout and arrives on the catch ready to defend resulting in no advantage.

Purple- Before the point of the screen, the Creator will look ball-side corner first and “prey on the flat-footed defender.” In this example, X2 is the flat-footed defender, in an incorrect, deep defensive triangle, paralyzed by a long-closeout when 2 receives the early pass from the Creator. If X2 was in a correct, shallow defensive triangle in the gap, on the catch of 2, the closeout would be a short closeout thus resulting in a non-scoring pass from the Creator. In Part 2 we will discuss the details in how the Creator will Setup his defender to have vision before the point of the screen to enable this early, scoring pass.

Red- Before the point of the screen, the Creator will secondly scan the middle third of the court and the rim to read the PnR Coverage as early as possible, as well as, read the first and second help’s position (X4 and X3). When the Creator uses the screen, he already has vision on where the weak-side tag and rotation will occur as well as where teammates are spaced. Peter Lonergan says, “Vision is going to proceed the decision, the decision leads to precision.” The vision the Creator has before the point of the screen will preceed his “Pocket Decisions” at the point of the screen. Once the Creator has gotten to his Slicing Angle after the point of the screen , his “Pocket Decisions” leads to precision with the Creator scoring or the Creator finding an advantage with a pass. An advantage is only an advantage if the Creator sees the advantage.

Green- Any pass to 3 before the point of the screen would be a “non-scoring” pass due to X3’s position but if X3 was rotating early to anticipate tagging 5’s roll or was not in a stance and flat-footed, the Creator could pass early to 3. The Creator’s vision before the point of the screen would be “preying on the flat-footed defender” as the 3 lifts to space with a “scoring pass” thus completing the Corner-Middle-Corner Concept with the Creator’s scan of the other 9 players on the court.

Our next topic of discussion will be Teaching Principles for the Creator and we will dive much deeper into how the Creator can kill the coverage with his Setup (before the point of the screen), Separation (at the point of the screen), and Slicing Angle (after the point of the screen).