Pick and roll reads

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Basketball drill · Under-12 and up

The screener sets a ball screen at the top of the key, the handler comes off it shoulder to shoulder, and the screener rolls to the rim. Then the handler reads the screener's defender. If they step out to stop the ball, the pass goes to the roller. If they drop back, the handler pulls up. It is the most-run action in basketball, practised as the read it really is.

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Time
15 minutes
Players
4 at a time: 2 on offence and 2 on defence, with lines at the top and the elbow
Equipment
  • 1 basket
  • 2 balls, so the next group is ready

Setup

  1. The handler starts at the top of the key with the ball, guarded. The screener starts at the right elbow, guarded.
  2. The screener comes up and sets a screen on the handler's defender, on the side the handler will drive to (here, the handler's right), feet wide and still.
  3. The handler drives right off the screen, close enough to brush the screener's shoulder.
  4. The screener rolls to the basket as the defender goes past. Play it out live: the offence scores, or the defence gets a stop.
  5. Run it from both sides. Rotate offence to defence to the back of the line.

Coaching points

  • Screener: set the screen and stand still. A screen set while still moving is a foul, and so is leaning or sticking a hip or a knee out.
  • Handler: wait for the screen to be set, then go shoulder to shoulder past it, so your defender has no room to get through.
  • Read the big. If the screener's defender steps out to stop you, the roller is open: pass it, a bounce pass round the defender.
  • If the big drops back towards the basket, pull up for the jumper or keep driving. If the defence switches, attack the mismatch.
  • Roller: turn to face the ball as you roll, with your hands ready to catch, and roll to the rim, not to the corner.

On the run sheet: Screener: set it, feet still, then roll hard. Handler: shoulder to shoulder off the screen, then read the big

Progressions

  1. Tell the defence what to do (hedge, drop or switch) without telling the offence, so the handler has to read it.
  2. Add a weak-side offensive player and defender, so the roller's pass has a helper to beat. Then the skip pass is open.
  3. Let the screener pop to the elbow for a jump shot instead of rolling.

How it runs

The screener comes up from the elbow and sets a screen on the defender guarding the ball, on the side the handler is going to drive. The handler waits for it to be set, then drives right, shoulder to shoulder with the screener, so their defender has to fight over the top. The screener's defender steps out to stop the drive, which is called a hedge. That is the read. The screener rolls hard to the rim behind the hedge, and the handler passes to the roller, who finishes. The animation shows that version. In a live rep the big defender may drop or switch instead, and the handler takes the pull-up or the drive.

Why drill the reads

Every level of basketball runs the pick and roll, and youth teams usually run it as a set play. The screen comes, the handler drives whatever the defence does, and it works until a team defends it well. Taught as a read, it keeps working. The defence has to pick a coverage, and every coverage leaves something open. Live 2-on-2 is the smallest game where both players learn which option to take.

The mistakes to watch for

Screens set on the move. Handlers who go before the screen is set, or go wide of it. Screeners who roll too early, or drift away from the basket. And handlers who decide before the screen what they are going to do.

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