Screen the Screener

     Screen the screener Pick and Roll recently became very popular in European basketball.

Latvia's basketball saw it in this September during the Eurobasket 2015, when Latvia's NT played it.

If you remember Bertans or Strelnieks driving to the basket in straight line or Janicenoks or Bertans getting wide open shots from top of the 3pt line, probably  that was the play. 

     This is the basics of this play, player 1 has the ball, 5 is a screener, and 3 sets the screen for screeners (5) defender! 

     I will review two basic options played by Latvian team BK Ventspils in FIBA Europe Cup. 

First option - the drive!

     If there is no help from defender X3 to close the drive, it's a straight line drive!

Second option - 3pt shot

If the defender X3 defends the drive, he leaves too much space for a shooter and very long distance to make a proper close-out to force a drive!

     I've highlighted how defense had to rotate to cover this play, but defender didn't do his job, and Janicenoks made him pay!

Playing vs Step-Out defense (hedge)

     Latvian team Valmiera/Ordo also plays similar play. Their coach Ainars Zvirgzdins, was coach assistant in Latvia's NT, and he knows what to get from this type of play!

     Opposing team Jurmala/Fenikss plays step-out defense so there is no player for whom to set the screen after the PnR. With that said, it's clear that offensive player 3 has to pop out on the 3pt line!

     Defender X3 has to help X5 to guard the roll to the basket, if not, there will be an open player in the paint. 

     If the team is not ready for this kind of a play, usualy they gonna make some mistakes, because, players often ar not comunicating enough during the game!

     Here we see the play in action! 

     Valmiera/Ordo didn't ran this play a lot, but most of the times it was succesfull. Key moment is for player 3 to recognize what defense it is, is there a player for who to set the screen or there isn't and you have to pop out! Running this play you have to be sure, to run it against different players, because after one or two mistakes usualy player will recognize the play and make some adjustments! 

     How to defend this play? Thats up to coaches and their assistants to analyze the play and work on defenseive rotations!

Thanks for reading. Coach Rozlapa!