Jason Quick did a blog post Monday about the way the Trail Blazers defend the pick and roll, aimed, it seemed at this blog. It was a very interesting post, as Nate McMillan kind of laid out his philosophy and explained what he wants to do against the pick and roll. McMillan’s comments were preceded by this remark from Quick:
Anyone who acts like they have all the answers hasn’t coached in this league. I learned a long time ago that when you start acting like you know basketball better than these coaches – who live and breathe it everyday – all you do is make yourself look stupid.
That sounds like some sort of rationalization for not questioning what a coach is doing on the floor. I mean, if you wanted, you could have taken Maurice Cheeks’ wacky explanations of what was going on in Blazer games for years and not challenged them, then woke up one day and realized he just got fired because he wasn’t much of a coach. What a shock!
And while all writers have their own style of covering a beat, I’ve always figured it’s EXACTLY their job to question coaches and hold them responsible for their actions. And take their answers, hold them up to the light and see if they make sense. At some point, you have to judge whether what you’re hearing coincides with what you’re actually seeing. (Thankfully, by the way, the people who cover politicians and the police for our newspapers feel like I do. Of course, maybe NBA basketball is just that much more complicated than the real world).
So let’s take a look at what McMillan said to Quick about the Blazers’ pick-and-roll defense:
First off, the Blazers’ pick-and-roll principles are NOT to switch. They switch only in cases the team calls “emergencies” – when the guard is surprised by the pick or unable to get through. And yes, that has happened more frequently of late because guys like Sergio Rodriguez and Jerryd Bayless are playing more now that Steve Blake is hurt. Blake is the best among the guards on the team at fighting through picks, and Rodriguez is probably the worst. Bayless, the rookie, is still trying to make sure his feet are on the ground.
Because of the increased “emergencies”, the Blazers bigs have switched, matching them against guards or in the case of the Detroit game, forwards like Tayshaun Prince. The easy approach would be to have the bigs drop down and guard the paint, giving the ball handler a perimeter shot.
“Sometimes we do switch, sometimes we don’t,” Brandon Roy said. “We switch when we are getting picked apart. Usually it’s our last resort. Right now, some games we do well in pick and rolls, and we don’t have to switch. Others, they are picking us apart.”
Wow, they switch only in “emergencies.” Well, this team has more emergencies than “E.R.” Monday night, one of our eagle-eyed readers actually went to the trouble of charting the high pick-and-rolls that the Bucks ran against the Blazers. Here’s the way they broke down, thanks to DJ Shatter:
1st Quarter
—————-
16 Total High Picks
14 Switches
1 Over/Under Cover
1 Trap
2nd Quarter
—————–
8 Total High Picks
7 Switches
1 Over/Under Cover
3rd Quarter
—————–
9 Total High Picks
7 Switches
2 Over/Under Cover
4th Quarter
——————
14 Total High Picks
10 Switches
4 Over/Under Covers
Totals
—————-
47 Total High Picks
38 Switches
8 Over/Under Covers
1 Trap
That’s a lot of “emergencies” right there, particularly against a team that’s really not much of a pick-and-roll team. Obviously, the Blazers switch these picks a lot. I mean, you can say they don’t — but watch the games and you’ll know.
I can’t resist commenting on one other Nate McMillan observation. Here’s what he said about the pick and roll:
“In this league, you don’t stop the pick-and-roll,” he said. “You just don’t. And I don’t think there is one way you can guard the pick and roll. Regardless of how you guard it, teams will scout you and make an adjustment.”
Sorry, but the pick and roll gets stopped all the time. At least when Portland runs it. Go ahead, run back the tape of that Charlotte game and see how ineffective the pick and roll was for the Blazers. They seldom force the other team to switch and usually end up with nothing out of it. I think Greg Oden almost fainted Monday night when someone hit him with a pass as he rolled off a pick — it’s such an infrequent occurence that he was in shock.
I would also point out that some teams share McMillan’s philosophy of having several different ways of defending the pick and roll, and mixing them up throughout the game. But there are other teams who play it ONE WAY and one way ONLY. Most of those teams blitz, or double-team the player with the ball — as Pat Riley teams are famous for doing. The rationale for this approach is that Riley wanted no confusion among his players on what he demanded from them – every, single, time. But you can do it whichever way works best for your team.
Look, I don’t pretend to know as much about basketball as Nate McMillan or anyone else coaching in the NBA. But I’ve been watching this league up close for more than two decades and there are certain things we all can see. And quite frankly, it doesn’t take a great deal of basketball expertise to see that whatever it is the Blazers are trying to do against the pick and roll — before and after Blake’s injury — wasn’t working very well.
Tweet This Post
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Jason Quick, Nate McMillan, NBA, pick and roll, Portland Trail Blazers, Steve Blake