Breakdown of Lue's and Williams' offense from an Xs and Os Standpoint

[bfc1125roy]

EDIT 4: OP updated with even more Williams actions so we can all roleplay as Kurt Rambis today

EDIT 3: OP updated with more Williams plays amidst competition from Suns

EDIT 2: OP updated with section on plays both coaches ran!

EDIT: OP updated with detailed spread pick and roll options and coverage!

I'm going to keep adding to this post over time, but I want to give you folks a detailed breakdown of what Lue's or Williams' offense might look like with the Lakers.

TYRONN LUE


Elbow Series

Lue was famous for running his elbow series, starting LeBron at the high post, and it was deadly. I'm going to show you two plays from this series


1. High Post Split



This is a play the Cavs ran many times last season, called a high post split. It's straight out of the Princeton offense, actually.

You start with James catching the ball at the elbow, and the guard who makes the pass screens for the player in the corner, who then cuts to the basket.

The guard screening needs to be somewhat of a threat from the outside. The other two players are spaced too far apart to where the help can't come off the cut even if they sagged, and you can actually see JR Smith's defender doing that. Imagine Ingram in place of Kevin Love here - it could be EVEN better.

2. Single Side Tag



This play is a little more complicated, and actually is a second option out of the high post split, and boy is it deadly.

Basically, you can see that the guard passes to James at the high post, and sets a screen for the other guard in the corner who clears out to the other side. Then Nance comes up to set the PnR for James on the strong side. This leaves only one defender to help off the weakside, meaning either a lob for Nance, open layup for James, or a wide open 3 for the weakside. Thus the name, single side tag. It's very easy for James to read this play and make the right decision, since he primarily has to focus on who chooses to "tag" the roller.

Instead of Clarkson shooting this jumper, what if this was Bullock? And instead of Nance setting the screen, what if it's McGee or Davis? Bigger lob threats. Lots of cool possibilities.

Spread Pick and Roll

With LeBron James and a team stacked with shooters, the spread pick and roll was a bread and butter play for the Cavs. Many top coaches in the league, including D'Antoni, Rivers, and Budenholzer all abuse this play. We likely won't be able to use this without a significant roster upgrade, namely when it comes to 3 point shooting. Luke tried many times to run it, but due to the poor spacing on the court, the lane was clogged up most of the time. Teams did not mind leaving guys like Ingram, Ball, Rondo, Muscala, and KCP open to shoot as many 3s as they wanted. I believe there have been videos made about this problem as it pertained to the Laker offense this past season.

With that being said, let's get started!

1. Hitting the Roller



With James' incredible court vision, he was the ideal man you wanted in this offense. Too often, teams would be afraid of James attacking the rim, and would send two guys at him as the screen was set. This trap was often ineffective, and would open up easy opportunities for the roller.

Note how difficult it is to help the roller in this situation. With the floor spread so nicely with good 3 point shooters, it's tough for the defenders to cover that distance in such a short amount of time. If they try to anticipate what's coming, LeBron will easily find the open shooter.

Also note how these ideas are employed and taken one level deeper in the "single side tag" I discussed earlier. By setting up the 3 point shooters appropriately, it's easy to create a "pick your poison" situation for the defense. Often times a good coach will watch how the defense is rotating through the game, and mix up where the shooters stand on the court, so that the defense cannot get too comfortable with specific rotations. Watch for this next time a playoff game is on.

2. Covering the shooter



In situations where a shooter is setting the screen, and the defense is afraid of giving up an open 3, it creates openings for James.

In the above play, this is exaggerated to almost a comical extent. Stephenson is trying to catch up to LeBron, but Seraphin is so worried about Korver that in the middle of hedging he runs back to him at the 3 point line. This opens up a lane for LeBron and results in a dunk. You'll notice Stephenson is upset with Seraphin, as well.

3. Counter to Switching



The easiest way to blow up the pick and roll, provided you have the right defensive players on your roster, is to just switch it. The Lakers call this type of coverage "red" and you'll catch the screener's defender yelling this out sometimes. Generally, if you have players on your team that can guard multiple positions, this is your best bet. However it also has the potential to create mismatches, which LeBron can feast on.

The above example demonstrates how LeBron attacks these situations. With the floor spread well, he's able to get to the rim at will. If anyone on defense runs into the paint to help, it's a wide open 3, and LeBron will surely find them.

This idea was actually such a large part of the Lue's offense, I'm going to cover it more in the below.

4. Attacking the Switch



If the Cavs know a team employs a "red" or "switch-everything" defense, they can attack the other teams weakest defender. You rarely find a team where all 5 guys are perfectly okay guarding any of the other team's 5 player. In the Cavs-Warriors example, the Warriors would have players like Iguodala, Durant, Thompson, and Green all on the court who were okay pretty much defending anyone. But Curry was the lone wolf who was not a "switchable" defender, and though he's not *that* bad, he wants no part of guarding LeBron James.

Much of Lue's attack plan was to force the other team into switching their weakest guy onto LeBron, and then attacking just like I described in the above section. An example of that is above. Apologies for the black and white, instances of this were a little tough to find because of the Warriors' counter strategy that I'll explain below.

5. Counter #1 to Attacking Mismatch on Switch



One defensive counter to this, specifically when LeBron is the ballhandler, is to high hedge to stop the drive, and then run back to your original man. The Warriors, for obvious reasons, did not want to switch Curry onto LeBron too much. So they used this strategy. What you're giving up here is a pull up 3 when the guy hedging is going back to his man. But LeBron isn't *that* big of a threat to pull up quickly like that. And even if he did, the defense will live with that, versus him attacking the rim.

In the above clip, watch how Curry and Durant execute this strategy to perfection, twice. Curry hedges to stop the drive and then gets back to Smith quickly. Durant then recovers onto James. In fact, James is so frustrated by this he gives up after it fails twice, shooting a mean glare at the bench and then passing the ball and withdrawing himself from the rest of the possession.

The obvious next question to ask is... "What if the ball handler is a threat to pull up from 3?" Great question. Let's say we get someone like Irving to go ahead and be the point guard. Now you can't high hedge without leaving yourself vulnerable to getting 3s drained on you all night.

In that case, we move some very advanced concepts that were invented last year, and shown during the Warriors-Rockets and Celtics-Cavs series.

6. Counter #2 to Attacking Mismatch on Switch



This concept is known as "scram switching", a "bumpoff, or "pre-switching." Essentially, what happens is when you know the offense is targeting a defensive player on the switch, you go ahead and have him switch who is guarding the ball screener with a more adept defensive player, one the defense doesn't mind switching onto the ball handler. This results in the offense having less of a mismatch, and thus, less of an advantage. Many times, they can rescreen and try to get the switch, but at that point, the clock is working against you, and there may not be enough time to do much even if you get the switch. This is how the Warriors ran it.

In the above GIF, you'll see a different variation on this. For the Cavs against the Celtics, they actually preferred to have LeBron be the ball screener to try and stop this, forcing the switch of Rozier onto LeBron, who they then posted up. This was a smart play, but the Celtics employ scram switching just a little later. Quickly bumping off Rozier with a better defender, in this case, Horford. Horford is coming from across the court, and leaving Love open far away. This is a tough pass to make, and Rozier quickly covers before anything can happen. The Celtics are okay with giving up the Love open 3 if it comes to it, but they make it as difficult as possible, and ultimately, it was a nice counter to the idea of attacking the mismatch in a spread pick and roll.

7. Counter to the Counter (Scram Switch)



The scram switch isn't the end all be all for the spread pick and roll. We saw glimpses of the counter during the playoffs last year.

Essentially, what you want to do is spread the floor well, so that anytime a scram switch happens, you're leaving someone way too wide open. You also don't want to run the PnR off to the side, but rather at the elbow, or out top (like the Rockets did), so it's easier to hit the open guy.

In the above GIF, the Cavs execute the PnR at the elbow. They get the mismatch, and nobody is in a position to bump Rozier off. LeBron attacks, Horford doubles, and he dumps it off for a layup inside. Good defense, but just better offense.

The game will continue to evolve. Let's see what good coaches come up with. But this gives you an idea of how Lue will play different defenses if we do decide to run a spread pick and roll. It goes very deep, and is fun to watch the chess match unfold.

I'll cover Williams' sets a little later. But these are difficult to breakdown since they are old. I will also look at some things the Sixers do that we can use.

MONTY WILLIAMS

It's tough to judge how Monty Williams will be as a coach based on his Pelicans tenure. That team went through a lot of (bleep). CP3 trade, trying to develop Davis, being owned by 3 different people, etc. Injuries were rampant as well. There was never a strong identity and Williams was honestly dealt a bad hand.

Now I recognize you can say the exact same about Luke. However, despite the FO madness, bad roster, and injuries, we all saw Luke did very little to optimize the situation. Running offensive sets that exasperated our already poor spacing, refusing to upgrade his staff, not installing second or third options in his playbook, etc. Now I, nor likely anyone else on this board, didn't watch enough Pelicans games back then to know how well Williams tried to "make the best of what he had."

If you go back to the stats, the Pelicans under Williams weren't a great team, but again, that is to be expected given their roster. He never had a player like LeBron James, either. They did not move the ball much on offense, shot very few 3s (albeit at a high %), and played questionable defense for a supposed defensive-minded coach. Williams preferred to attack a defense via dribble penetration quickly before it got set. His rotations were also the subject of a lot of criticism. Now, this sounds a lot like Walton, to be fair.

Some evidence (2014):

1. The Pelicans were the only team in the NBA to have no players average at least 1.0 greater secondary assists a game.

2. Pelicans shot 15.8 3PA per game. 2nd to last in the league. But shooting wise, they had the second highest 3FG% in the NBA.

3. Defensive Rating was 28th in the league. 27th the year before.

4. Williams employed hard hedging on PnR defense, which got exploited a lot back then, but will only be worse now.

I would expect Williams has probably learned a lot during his recent tenures as an assistant coach. Watching Brett Brown's motion-heavy offense hopefully has influenced him. Plus, the game has changed a lot in the past few years. When Williams was a head coach, it was transitioning between more old and new school playstyles. Now, it's almost entirely modern offenses.

It's tough to say what Williams will do as a Laker head coach. I don't know what his staff will look like, nor our roster for that matter. We all hoped Luke would bring in elements of the Warrior offense and defense to the Lakers, but he honestly didn't. So whether Williams uses Spurs and 76'ers stuff for us is a question mark.

Low Post Offense

Williams loved to get Davis into the low post and then create something from there. We don't have a low post threat like this (yet -- fingers crossed for Davis) but I could see LeBron in these positions. He definitely has the facilitating skills

1. Low Post Entry into Guard Double Pindown



Davis sets a down screen for Evans who cuts through. Immediately, Davis seals Green in the post and receives the entry pass, though Green, by staying nice and low, does a good job of pushing him closer to the perimeter.

Asik then sets the screen on Evan's man, allowing him to cut to the weakside and clear the perimeter. He then sets a screen for Gordon, and when Curry goes over the screen, he pops out for a wide open 3.

2. Cross Post Action



This one is a little simpler. The Pelicans start off in a more traditional alignment with Asik on the strong side post and Davis on the weak side. Then Asik sets a cross screen for Davis, who immediately flows to the strong side high post.

When that option is denied, it flows nicely into a pick and pop out top. Davis sort of half-heartedly sets the step-up screen, and then drifts to the high post, where he has the choice to either attack the basket or shoot the jumper. Because the defense is so focused on containing Davis, with Barnes even helping one pass away, he's better off just shooting the jumper, which he drains.

Horns

1. Two Up Dribble



This one is fairly basic, but we've seen the Pelicans execute it before. I don't think we will see it run with lineups like this very often in today's NBA where the "4" can't really stretch the floor as well. Lot of times the Pelicans would play Davis and Asik, but that can create spacing problems.

The play starts off in the Horns alignment I discussed earlier, with both bigs at the elbows. Asik sets the screen for Evans who dribbles off it. Asik then dives to the weakside dunker spot. At the same time, Evans executes a dribble handoff with Holiday, which sets him up nicely to attack the basket as Davis sets an inside ball screen.

This action is nice because there's some "prelude" to the final PnR, occupying the defense to make sure they can't get their coverage set. It also gives the guard a head of steam after the dribble handoff to attack the rim, which usually creates favorable situations.

Maybe if we ran this play today, I would expect to see the first big be a shooter, and potentially clear out to the weakside corner, while the player who is currently standing there drops to the weakside wing. Also, if the defense plays the first Asik screen the same way, I would expect that big to "pop" and get the open jumper. Asik is not a threat and the defense isn't really too worried about him setting a screen - you can just see Duncan hang back. On the second inside ball screen that Davis sets, I would also expect to see him pop more to the elbow to open up a better driving lane for the guard.

Flex Action

1. Low Post



This action is pretty interesting and common around the NBA. Davis has 2 options at the post, to use the cross screen or the down screen. The cross screen would allow him to establish deep post position on the other block. The down screen sets him up for a midrange jumper. In this case, he opts to use the cross screen, getting low post position. Gordon, who set the cross screen, then uses the down screen to get that midrange shot I was talking about earlier, which he nails.

Some things to note: the spacing here is not very great, with 3 guys standing so close to each other. The midrange will generally be contested. It might be wise to just use the cross screen to get Davis position on the low block and have the down screen setter flare out a bit more. This is similar to the Cross Post Action I broke down earlier.

PLAYS BOTH COACHES RAN


Horns

I don't like to think of Horns as a play, but rather more of an alignment. There are many variations, but the hallmark is when two players (usually the bigs) come up to either elbow to initiate the offense. This is probably one of the most popular alignments in the NBA, as there are a lot of options out of it.

1. Horns Backdoor

Let's start with the Pelicans version of this play, since it is a little simpler and older.



The Pelicans start off in Horns, with Holiday making the entry to Davis at the high post. He then sets a screen for Cole on the weakside. This a decoy action to occupy the defense, so they cannot help on what is to come next. Davis then fakes the dribble handoff to Pondexter. Livingston, anticipating the action, tries to get ahead of it. Pondexter then cuts backdoor, and gets an open layup. Pretty cool stuff.



Lue puts an interesting twist on this for the Cavs, taking advantage of Kevin Love's gravity as a spot up shooter.

LeBron and Love setup at the elbows to initiate Horns. JR Smith pretends to make an Iverson cut as he rubs off the LeBron screen. However, Smith halts the cut midway, looping around the Love back screen to get an open dunk. Love's defender is so concerend about leaving Love open one pass away for an open shot, that he sticks to him and allows Smith to get the opening at the rim. You can see the hesitation Love's defender has in this particular clip.
_________________
(bleep) David Stern.

[bfc1125roy]

Testing how to post images here...
_________________
(bleep) David Stern.

[activeverb]

[LAKERMIKE2]

Don’t bother cause as soon as Sixers are eliminated they’re going to fire head coach & name Monty the head coach!
_________________
My Laker squad.
Mr. Clutch, Nixon, Eddie, Nick, Magic, Kareem,
Silk, Cooper, AC, Worthy, Horry, Shaq, Kobe.
HC: Riley

[unleasHell]

These reports of Lakers management worrying about hiring Lue because he might favor LeBron or give him too much power are INSANE.

Does Laker management understand that if LeBron is happy and successful - the Lakers will be happy and successful??

I mean really? they have no problem paying the guy $35mil a season, but worry about him having power?

So does it make more sense the the Buss family to hire someone that does NOT get along with LeBron?

Lakers should contact Lebron (or his management) ask if he wants Lue as a coach and if YES, the next call is to offer Lue the position...PERIOD end of story.

If LeBron does NOT want Lue, then fine, go for Williams, Kidd or whoever..

Apparently they don't, apparently they are MORE worried about protecting the Buss Legacy than putting a winning product on the table.

Sell the Team...
_________________
“Always remember... Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots.”

[epak]

Nice simple set.

[missingkobe]

Relax bro, lol, of course we will hire LUE. This "interview" game is just to convince the fans that we are "looking for the best candidate."

We know it's going to be Coach Lue

btw I miss kobe dearly

[bfc1125roy]

[GameCock-MD]

[GameCock-MD]

[bfc1125roy]

[GameCock-MD]

[bfc1125roy]

Monty Williams

It's tough to judge how Monty Williams will be as a coach based on his Pelicans tenure. That team went through a lot of (bleep). CP3 trade, trying to develop Davis, being owned by 3 different people, etc. Injuries were rampant as well. There was never a strong identity and Williams was honestly dealt a bad hand.

Now I recognize you can say the exact same about Luke. However, despite the FO madness, bad roster, and injuries, we all saw Luke did very little to optimize the situation. Running offensive sets that exasperated our already poor spacing, refusing to upgrade his staff, not installing second or third options in his playbook, etc. Now I, nor likely anyone else on this board, didn't watch enough Pelicans games back then to know how well Williams tried to "make the best of what he had."

If you go back to the stats, the Pelicans under Williams weren't a great team, but again, that is to be expected given their roster. He never had a player like LeBron James, either. They did not move the ball much on offense, shot very few 3s (albeit at a high %), and played questionable defense for a supposed defensive-minded coach. Williams preferred to attack a defense via dribble penetration quickly before it got set. His rotations were also the subject of a lot of criticism. Now, this sounds a lot like Walton, to be fair.

Some evidence (2014):

1. The Pelicans were the only team in the NBA to have no players average at least 1.0 greater secondary assists a game.

2. Pelicans shot 15.8 3PA per game. 2nd to last in the league. But shooting wise, they had the second highest 3FG% in the NBA.

3. Defensive Rating was 28th in the league. 27th the year before.

4. Williams employed hard hedging on PnR defense, which got exploited a lot back then, but will only be worse now.

I would expect Williams has probably learned a lot during his recent tenures as an assistant coach. Watching Brett Brown's motion-heavy offense hopefully has influenced him. Plus, the game has changed a lot in the past few years. When Williams was a head coach, it was transitioning between more old and new school playstyles. Now, it's almost entirely modern offenses.

It's tough to say what Williams will do as a Laker head coach. I don't know what his staff will look like, nor our roster for that matter. We all hoped Luke would bring in elements of the Warrior offense and defense to the Lakers, but he honestly didn't. So whether Williams uses Spurs and 76'ers stuff for us is a question mark.

Low Post Offense

Williams loved to get Davis into the low post and then create something from there. We don't have a low post threat like this (yet -- fingers crossed for Davis) but I could see LeBron in these positions. He definitely has the facilitating skills

1. Low Post Entry into Guard Double Pindown



Davis sets a down screen for Evans who cuts through. Immediately, Davis seals Green in the post and receives the entry pass, though Green, by staying nice and low, does a good job of pushing him closer to the perimeter.

Asik then sets the screen on Evan's man, allowing him to cut to the weakside and clear the perimeter. He then sets a screen for Gordon, and when Curry goes over the screen, he pops out for a wide open 3.

2. Cross Post Action



This one is a little simpler. The Pelicans start off in a more traditional alignment with Asik on the strong side post and Davis on the weak side. Then Asik sets a cross screen for Davis, who immediately flows to the strong side high post.

When that option is denied, it flows nicely into a pick and pop out top. Davis sort of half-heartedly sets the step-up screen, and then drifts to the high post, where he has the choice to either attack the basket or shoot the jumper. Because the defense is so focused on containing Davis, with Barnes even helping one pass away, he's better off just shooting the jumper, which he drains.
_________________
(bleep) David Stern.

[LAL1947]

[twisted]

props for this thread! thanks!
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“God knew they couldn’t be on this Earth without each other. He had to bring them home to have them together.” – Vanessa Bryant

[Dr. Laker]

[Ujah's Goat]

Lou Will is on the Clippers.. have I logged into clippersground

[danzag]

That's a very nice thread, thanks!

[Villain6Activated]

[bfc1125roy]

[bfc1125roy]

Posts updated with GIFs embedded. Thanks to @DancingBerry !

Welcome any suggestions for breakdowns, or other ways to view content (e.g. videos, blog posts).
_________________
(bleep) David Stern.

[Ujah's Goat]

[bfc1125roy]

Get ready for a long one here fellas. This one is going to go more in depth into the chess game that teams play when it comes to the pick and roll. If the Warriors and Rockets end up playing each other, watch for some of these concepts to be employed by both teams.

TYRONN LUE


Spread Pick and Roll

With LeBron James and a team stacked with shooters, the spread pick and roll was a bread and butter play for the Cavs. Many top coaches in the league, including D'Antoni, Rivers, and Budenholzer all abuse this play. We likely won't be able to use this without a significant roster upgrade, namely when it comes to 3 point shooting. Luke tried many times to run it, but due to the poor spacing on the court, the lane was clogged up most of the time. Teams did not mind leaving guys like Ingram, Ball, Rondo, Muscala, and KCP open to shoot as many 3s as they wanted. I believe there have been videos made about this problem as it pertained to the Laker offense this past season.

With that being said, let's get started!

1. Hitting the Roller



With James' incredible court vision, he was the ideal man you wanted in this offense. Too often, teams would be afraid of James attacking the rim, and would send two guys at him as the screen was set. This trap was often ineffective, and would open up easy opportunities for the roller.

Note how difficult it is to help the roller in this situation. With the floor spread so nicely with good 3 point shooters, it's tough for the defenders to cover that distance in such a short amount of time. If they try to anticipate what's coming, LeBron will easily find the open shooter.

Also note how these ideas are employed and taken one level deeper in the "single side tag" I discussed earlier. By setting up the 3 point shooters appropriately, it's easy to create a "pick your poison" situation for the defense. Often times a good coach will watch how the defense is rotating through the game, and mix up where the shooters stand on the court, so that the defense cannot get too comfortable with specific rotations. Watch for this next time a playoff game is on.

2. Covering the shooter



In situations where a shooter is setting the screen, and the defense is afraid of giving up an open 3, it creates openings for James.

In the above play, this is exaggerated to almost a comical extent. Stephenson is trying to catch up to LeBron, but Seraphin is so worried about Korver that in the middle of hedging he runs back to him at the 3 point line. This opens up a lane for LeBron and results in a dunk. You'll notice Stephenson is upset with Seraphin, as well.

3. Counter to Switching



The easiest way to blow up the pick and roll, provided you have the right defensive players on your roster, is to just switch it. The Lakers call this type of coverage "red" and you'll catch the screener's defender yelling this out sometimes. Generally, if you have players on your team that can guard multiple positions, this is your best bet. However it also has the potential to create mismatches, which LeBron can feast on.

The above example demonstrates how LeBron attacks these situations. With the floor spread well, he's able to get to the rim at will. If anyone on defense runs into the paint to help, it's a wide open 3, and LeBron will surely find them.

This idea was actually such a large part of the Lue's offense, I'm going to cover it more in the below.

4. Attacking the Switch



If the Cavs know a team employs a "red" or "switch-everything" defense, they can attack the other teams weakest defender. You rarely find a team where all 5 guys are perfectly okay guarding any of the other team's 5 player. In the Cavs-Warriors example, the Warriors would have players like Iguodala, Durant, Thompson, and Green all on the court who were okay pretty much defending anyone. But Curry was the lone wolf who was not a "switchable" defender, and though he's not *that* bad, he wants no part of guarding LeBron James.

Much of Lue's attack plan was to force the other team into switching their weakest guy onto LeBron, and then attacking just like I described in the above section. An example of that is above. Apologies for the black and white, instances of this were a little tough to find because of the Warriors' counter strategy that I'll explain below.

5. Counter #1 to Attacking Mismatch on Switch



One defensive counter to this, specifically when LeBron is the ballhandler, is to high hedge to stop the drive, and then run back to your original man. The Warriors, for obvious reasons, did not want to switch Curry onto LeBron too much. So they used this strategy. What you're giving up here is a pull up 3 when the guy hedging is going back to his man. But LeBron isn't *that* big of a threat to pull up quickly like that. And even if he did, the defense will live with that, versus him attacking the rim.

In the above clip, watch how Curry and Durant execute this strategy to perfection, twice. Curry hedges to stop the drive and then gets back to Smith quickly. Durant then recovers onto James. In fact, James is so frustrated by this he gives up after it fails twice, shooting a mean glare at the bench and then passing the ball and withdrawing himself from the rest of the possession.

The obvious next question to ask is... "What if the ball handler is a threat to pull up from 3?" Great question. Let's say we get someone like Irving to go ahead and be the point guard. Now you can't high hedge without leaving yourself vulnerable to getting 3s drained on you all night.

In that case, we move some very advanced concepts that were invented last year, and shown during the Warriors-Rockets and Celtics-Cavs series.

6. Counter #2 to Attacking Mismatch on Switch



This concept is known as "scram switching", a "bumpoff, or "pre-switching." Essentially, what happens is when you know the offense is targeting a defensive player on the switch, you go ahead and have him switch who is guarding the ball screener with a more adept defensive player, one the defense doesn't mind switching onto the ball handler. This results in the offense having less of a mismatch, and thus, less of an advantage. Many times, they can rescreen and try to get the switch, but at that point, the clock is working against you, and there may not be enough time to do much even if you get the switch. This is how the Warriors ran it.

In the above GIF, you'll see a different variation on this. For the Cavs against the Celtics, they actually preferred to have LeBron be the ball screener to try and stop this, forcing the switch of Rozier onto LeBron, who they then posted up. This was a smart play, but the Celtics employ scram switching just a little later. Quickly bumping off Rozier with a better defender, in this case, Horford. Horford is coming from across the court, and leaving Love open far away. This is a tough pass to make, and Rozier quickly covers before anything can happen. The Celtics are okay with giving up the Love open 3 if it comes to it, but they make it as difficult as possible, and ultimately, it was a nice counter to the idea of attacking the mismatch in a spread pick and roll.

7. Counter to the Counter (Scram Switch)



The scram switch isn't the end all be all for the spread pick and roll. We saw glimpses of the counter during the playoffs last year.

Essentially, what you want to do is spread the floor well, so that anytime a scram switch happens, you're leaving someone way too wide open. You also don't want to run the PnR off to the side, but rather at the elbow, or out top (like the Rockets did), so it's easier to hit the open guy.

In the above GIF, the Cavs execute the PnR at the elbow. They get the mismatch, and nobody is in a position to bump Rozier off. LeBron attacks, Horford doubles, and he dumps it off for a layup inside. Good defense, but just better offense.

The game will continue to evolve. Let's see what good coaches come up with. But this gives you an idea of how Lue will play different defenses if we do decide to run a spread pick and roll. It goes very deep, and is fun to watch the chess match unfold.
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[bfc1125roy]

OP now updated with detailed PnR options from Lue!

Thanks everyone for the continued feedback.
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[pio2u]