Liam Flynn has coached extensively in Europe and brings a vast experience to the skills and concepts from the European game. At the recent Basketball Queensland New Year’s Clinic, Coach Flynn presented on concepts in the pick and roll.
Thanks to Basketball Queensland for conducting this valuable coach development opportunity. Here are some notes and observations from Coach Flynn’s presentation.
- Fortunate to have the opportunity to work for experienced European coaches who are outstanding teachers of the pick and roll
- High prevalence of pick and roll in the European game makes it crucial to understand the skills and concepts around it
- Important to define what a good offensive possession looks like
- Concept of creating EASY shots and make it HARD for the defence – use of easy and hard keeps it simple and clear for players
- Three core elements of the possession –
- Space
- Create an advantage
- Shot uncontested shots
- Want to create an open shot (“shot in space”) or attack the “OBD” (off balance defender)
- Simple drill to work on identifying a shot in space – 4 v 3 perimeter, move the ball until a shot in space
- Build above drill by adding constraints – create opportunities to either shoot the open shot or attack the OBD
- Players need to understand the various advantages on offence –
- Space advantage
- Numerical advantage
- Lane advantage
- The three S’s of pick and roll play
- Space – where you start and where players are off the ball
- Set-up – be “tricky”, get defender off balance
- Slice – create the downhill angle
- Drill build-up – 2 v 1 pick and roll (unguarded screener)
- Importance of both handler being “sneaky”
- “First and best option is to refuse the screen” – handler
- Screen the back of the shoulder to create advantage
- Screener needs to be sneaky also – flip angles
- Tweak constraints within drill – no lay-ups etc
- 4 v 4 pick and roll – out of spread
- Start with a “pressure coverage” – two on the ball
- Offence is predicated by the coverage
- “See pressure – attack with the pass”
- Concept of short pressure release pass, then attacking passing against pressure coverage
- Play 4 v 4 off dive and also short roll concepts
- On the short roll, the pass to the screener is the pressure release (short pass)
- When seeing drop coverage, European teams tend to play less through the middle pick and roll and more out of the “low corner”
- By moving to the low corner, puts the dropping defender in a vulnerable position and forces more decisions
- Handler/playmaker – use drive away from the screen on the set-up to create angles to attack
- “We always bring the screen to the ball, not the ball to the screen”
- In the middle pick and roll with a pick and pop, utilise the 45-degree cut to pressure the defence and create space
- If popper is a non-shooter, cut the 45 then swing to the low corner for chase pick and roll
- Concept of circling players prior to the pick and roll – put players off the ball in motion to occupy help and change the help defence/tagging defenders
- Circle the cutter opposite through on the MPR to create a single-side tag and force that defender to make a decision on drive or roll
- “When you sprint as a cutter, you become sticky” – importance of cutters cutting hard and commit defenders
- “Timing is an intervention problem” – allow players to work together to develop timing
- Avoid being over prescriptive with the cutting and timing – players need to get a feel out on the floor for space and team-mates
- Versus the switch – look for inside advantage, then outside advantage
- Rolling/diving for “deep position”, rather than “front position” – create space in the lane
- Against triple switching, use diagonal cuts to disrupt the switches
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