HoopDirt.com’s Starting Five Presented by FastModel Sports
By: Adam Spinella / HoopDirt.com Contributor
Golden State Warriors – Flash X Side Elevator
A great set run here by the Golden State Warriors and Steve Kerr. There’s essentially no way to defend Stephen Curry when he runs all over the court like he does in this play. The attention that Thompson gets on the X-cut is enough to score off of an action with Curry. But when the ball skips to the opposite side and Curry cuts under Draymond Green to the baseline, it is natural for the defender to want to get between Curry and the ball — only allowing him to get screened as Steph goes through the elevator.
Georgetown Hoyas – 5 Up Backdoor (BLOB)
BLOB, or baseline out of bounds, plays are wonderful opportunities for a backdoor action because the defense gets sucked close to their man as they deny a pass towards the rim. Georgetown’s John Thompson drew up this great set to get a backdoor out of a baseline inbound situation, sucking the entire defense away from the rim in order to do so. Thompson isolates the man guarding the inbounder as well, turning him into the help defender on a backdoor. As many coaches know and communicate to their players, the offensive player inbounding the ball is always dangerous once the ball gets inbounded. By paying too close attention to the inbounder, a defensive team will have no help at the rim on a backdoor cut.
Denver Nuggets – Zip 2 Angle Hammer
This action is a wrinkle on the popular NBA Hammer action by flooding the strong side with movement and screens. Most zipper actions are run to swing the ball across sides of the floor, so help defense will particularly fall into the trap after the zipper screen when the action returns to that strong side. That allows the hammer to be run to perfection. And with sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari as a screener, there’s little opportunity to give help away from him. The Sixers help off Will Barton in the corner instead, and that allows Gallinari to get to the rim for the dunk!
Stephen F. Austin – 1-4 Clear Backscreen
Stephen F. Austin and coach Brad Underwood were very aware of who they were — they had a great lead guard in Thomas Walkup. By putting the ball in his hands and making a 1-4 high set look like a clearout for him to go to his strong hand, defenses were sucked into reading the action for him. Instead of running a set to clear out on his side, Underwood ran lots of traffic through the lane, getting all four help defenders to stand in the lane at one point. When the chaos cleared, what was left was an empty weak side, a perfect opportunity for a lob at the rim. By using their best shooter as the screener, there was no opportunity for the play to be foiled.
New Orleans Pelicans – Spin Rev Double
The ability to utilize a stretch-shooting big man is paramount in the NBA, and becoming more important in the collegiate and high school games as well. A great counter to teams that will look for the pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop, the Pelicans ran this set to get Anthony Davis a three point opportunity in the corner. They have also run it for Ryan Anderson with great success. The Spin dribble, which triggers the action to begin, allows for perfect timing of the play when Davis arrives in the corner.
