January 06, 2017
The other day, I wrote a post about Joel Embiid mastering the rip through move early in his career. And then against the Minnesota Timberwolves, “The Process” drew two fouls with his pet move. Here was one of them, against Gorgui Dieng:
But today, I want to very quickly highlight how Embiid caught the basketball on that particular play. That’s called synergy, folks.
This is one of Brett Brown’s favorite sets to get Embiid and Jahlil Okafor a post-up, and it’s very simple. Let’s break down a bucket that Okafor got in the season opener against Oklahoma City to see how it works.
The play starts with the wings in both corners. The one on the strong side (Robert Covington, in this case) will run off a staggered screen from the two big guys, making an “Iverson” cut and catch the ball on the opposite wing.
Besides the main action, two things are important to note here. The center (Okafor or Embiid) is always setting the first screen. And as the strong-side wing makes his cut, the weak-side wing (Nik Stauskas) starts drifting toward the lane from the corner.
And Stauskas’ job, to set a cross-screen on the opposite block on the man guarding Okafor (Steven Adams, in this case), is key on this play. Just watch Steph Curry for a few minutes and you will realize that guard screening can be a very useful tool in today’s NBA.
On this play, the goal is for Covington to have a clear passing lane to get Okafor a layup or post-up on the block. Knowing that he had a stable young post players this season, Brown thinks about creating passing angles quite a bit. A few days ago, the Sixers coach said that the late Rick Majerus was somebody who was an expert on the subject.
Obviously, Brown’s time with Tim Duncan and David Robinson in San Antonio also helped.
“It became a real focal point of a skill package from the wings, the angles, and the action to get them to the block,” Brown said. “Slashing them, cross-screening, diving them, whatever.
“All over the place, you study it, you see what the player responds to the best. You study what side of the floor they like the best. Some people prefer the left side, some prefer the right side. You put them in their honey spot and you get them how they feel most comfortable. Then you need perimeter people who can get them the ball and space around it.”
Here are some other examples of the play:
As you can see, the execution isn’t always there (particularly when Embiid is the player they’re running it for), which isn’t all that surprising for a team with the worst offensive rating in the league.
UPDATE: Cool video work by Mike O'Connor on the play ("Iverson screen the screener"):
In the coming weeks, I hope to highlight a few of the ways that Brown likes to get the best players on his team the ball. That way, hopefully we can start to notice how some very detailed events are unfolding in real time on the offensive end.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
