The high pick and roll, spaced so the roll is open
Basketball · Attack · 5 of your players
A ball screen set above the three-point line on the right, with both corners filled and the weak-side wing lifted. Two players make the play and the other three decide whether it works.
Opens on a basketball pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
The picture at the catch
The handler has the ball above the arc, right of centre. The screener has already climbed out to meet him — about five feet away, a little inside and a little lower — so the handler does not have to stand and wait for the screen to arrive. Because the screen is on his inside shoulder, the first read drives at the middle of the floor rather than at the sideline, which is the whole reason to set it up here.
The other three are not spectators. A shooter sits in each corner and the weak-side wing is lifted above the free-throw line extended, which puts every help defender a full pass away from the lane. Setting the screen this far from the basket then gives the roll man the entire length of the paint to fall into, with nobody standing in it.
When to call it
Go to it when your best decision-maker has the ball and the defence has shown you it will switch, or when a big defender has to guard in space and you would like him to do it forty feet from the rim. It is also the cleanest thing to run late in the clock, because the two players involved can read the coverage and the other three do not need a call.
It is not the answer against a defence that traps the ball screen hard with two long guards, unless your screener can catch a short pass and pass again. Against that, the screen is the setup and the fourth player is the play.
What to sharpen in practice
- The angle of the screen, not the spot. Turn the screener a few degrees and animate both versions. Sending the handler middle instead of sideline is one small change on the diagram and a different possession.
- The roll and the lift together. Draw the screener rolling to the rim and the strong-side corner sliding up at the same time. Timed on one playback, you can see whether they crowd each other.
- The weak side after the second dribble. Mark where the weak-side wing and corner are when the handler reaches the lane. That is where the ball goes when the coverage is right, and it is the part players skip.
Take this ball screen onto the court, change the angle to the one your screener really sets, and animate the roll until the timing looks like your team.
Also known as
- pick and roll
- ball screen
- two man game
- spacing
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Put the High pick and roll on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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