Notes by Jon Giesbrecht... Winnipeg, MB, Canada... [email protected]

Coaching U 2015: Quin Snyder - Defending the Pick & Roll and Other Defensive Musts

Pick and roll defense gets coaches hired and fired.

4 Variables in Pick and Roll Defense: 1) Location of the Screen 2) Angle of the Screen 3) Spacing 4) Personnel - Personnel dictates what you can do

3 Philosophical Bubbles: 1) Control the ball - Keep the ball on the sideline (Ice) 2) Impact the ball - Be aggressive (Show) 3) Contain - We are willing to sacrifice a match-up to contain the ball (Switch)

*For us, controlling the ball makes the most sense (Channel - Ice). We are a NO middle team.

Adjustments are needed, but you better have standard coverages. If we try to make too many adjustments, we lose our foundation.

If you don’t have a clear plan for what you are doing, it becomes hard to hold anyone accountable. If there is no clarity, players + coaches get frustrated - Cannot form habits on things that are not clear.

When I was first hired, defensively we were awful. I was the guy promising that we would be a good defensive team. Better adjust, better keep working, don’t adjust too much, what do you believe in, don’t abandon just because things are going right. Keep working, keep practicing, but don’t be stubborn or stupid... If there are changes you need to make, make them. What happens eventually, accountability becomes ownership. Suddenly instead of you always being the one to hold them accountable, they start holding each other accountable. When you get from accountability to ownership, now you got something.

Teaching Process: Build habits to Accountability to Ownership

The first part of the possession is what I call “early” (first action)... Typical for us to screen with the 5 in drag action... Defensively the first thing we have to take away is transition PnR... Teams want pace, they don’t want to play against set defense.

Probably 70% of all NBA possessions include Pick and Roll. As coaches we’d like to have multiple Pick and Rolls... Ultimately with each Pick and Roll it gets harder to guard because the defense is more and more out of position. Notes by Jon Giesbrecht... Winnipeg, MB, Canada... [email protected]

Chase action (Wing entry to trail big following with side pick and roll - Big above the ball)... Most people says you have to show on this... We would rather channel (ice/ down).

“After” (Second action follow first - early)... i.e High Pick and Roll to Throw Back to Chase

Offensively attacking switches in the NBA is paramount... With how the NBA is going “small ball” and too many teams are being successful in switching...

Entries... Box Set... 4 sets pin-down for 2... If we shoot the gap easy for us to channel (ice/down) side pick and roll... If we lock and trail, now in poor position to defend next action (side pick and roll) through channeling.

Offenses are going to work on entries that make it harder to defend the action.

If you are going through a scout and asking yourself how you are going to guard something... Some of the adjustments may be how you guard the actual entry not just the pick and roll action.

For me, I want our pick and roll coverage to be consistent... No matter location & angle. Clarity was most important to me, because we needed to learn. Channeling is our base coverage, it’s what we work on. We drill it systematically. The most important thing in our whole coverage is the man on the ball. If we can handle 2on2 on the ball, that’s better than anything... We don’t have to help, we don’t have to rotate.

As defender guarding screener sees screener sprinting into action, must be LOUD, UP (Be 1 step below the point of the screen), LOW (Down in a stance), ACTIVITY (Hands). Notes by Jon Giesbrecht... Winnipeg, MB, Canada... [email protected]

On call from defensive big, it cues the guard to get into the ball and send it down (Lock on the ball - “Lock” to “Over”). Player goes over... When back in front, guard must yell “Back, Back, Back!” cueing defensive big to get back to his man.

If offensive player coming off pick and roll, cuts the angle and beats on ball defender who is going over.... On the offensive player’s pickup of the ball... The defensive big who is zoning releases and gets back to his... We rear-view contest with the defensive player who got beat. We call this “stocking” - we want to stock the ball

Scenarios for Channeling 1) We get back in front 2) We can stock 3) We can switch (Two types of switches... Mandatory switch - knowing they are switching beforehand - Channel to a switch... Or a liberal switch - switch late “Black” for us is switching - guards switches onto the big and falls unto the legs of the big ready to rebound...) !*We would drill these three scenarios in a row.

Find a situation, we attack it systematically relentlessly, and train our players over and over again - to the point where it became instinctive, clear... And if they didn’t do it, I could take them out of the game.

Accountability -> Go after your best player first. If he is a good player, he will respond... If he doesn’t you are in trouble anyway.

Level of the big is our main adjustment in channeling... If Gobert wants to block shots he will be further back -> What are you giving up? Mid-range jumpshots, contested twos. For me, if everyone is successful taking away the rhythm three and the rim, pretty soon the games starts becoming who can make the most contested twos - don’t abandon mid-range basketball.

As soon as big as “Channel”, all players not directly involved in Pick and Roll are now in a zone. If play gets back in front of the ball, we are back into man to man. In all situations we are trying to help with the lowest man - we call this guy the “Gaucho” responsible for roll man until big gets back. If plays laugh at you, stay with it... They will remember the name. The more aggressive we are on the screen, the more aggressive we are with our help, the less aggressive we are on the ball, the less aggressive we are with our help - make people beat you with long range twos.

As coaches we have to identify our communication... Too many times we are only telling them to talk. It’s hard to talk when you don’t know what to say.

If our big is dropped lower below the roller, we call the low man the “matador” - he is in and then he is out, but he is still helping. Body is in the paint, mind is on the corner three.

Against pop VS channel... Our defensive guard off the ball will stunt at the pop. Notes by Jon Giesbrecht... Winnipeg, MB, Canada... [email protected]

Sometimes the players will blame the coverage... Don’t let them off the hook. Make them do it better, make them do it harder, make them do it faster and then adjust.

Three types of stunts... You are stunting as the ball is in the air. !Regular stunt... !If not a great shooter: Scare stunt - As guard is picking up dribble, we want to !scare the big because maybe the man I am guarding is a shooter - we want to !create indecision with the ball-handler. !Big is great shooter: Stay stunt - Guard rotating will stay until defensive big can !contest shot or offensive big becomes non-threat, thinking pass. !*Throw back to shooting guard: We will liberal late black.

As much detail we like to have with our stunts... Sometimes you just have to get it done, we don’t want to over coach.

In guarding middle pick and roll... We honor the defender on the ball’s feet - force the ball in whatever direction the guard has his feet.... We will channel (big will zone)... An adjustment is WEAK... Here we are sending the guard to his weak hand. We call this “Shade Left”... Shade Left is an adjustment for us, for a lot of teams, this is their primary coverage.

Against wide roll, High I will stunt at the roll (Not tag, doesn’t like terminology, we want to stay consistent). The next level of aggressiveness for the High I is bumping the screen (Making contact with body)... The next level of aggressiveness is jamming the roll with the High I (Completely getting in the roller’s way) - Will stop dynamic roller (Tyson Chandler, Gobert, etc) from getting all the way to the rim and then get back to his.

When we begin to teach in 4on4, we become more dynamic. Box set, bigs setting pin- downs into pick and roll. Scripted simulation... Like 4on4 Shell drill... Notes by Jon Giesbrecht... Winnipeg, MB, Canada... [email protected]

We scrapped the word Shoot Around, called it Game Day Practice... I wanted a different mindset. As the year progressed and reached March, I backed off. I wanted the players to go into the off-season feeling a little bit better about me not just about each other.

In rotating... We want hard early shifts...

If it is a tight roll, it is good for us... Spacing isn’t great and it is difficult to throw pocket pass.

Teaching process... 2on2, 3on3 vs roll, 3on3 vs pop, 4on4 with big lifting, then we created a 4on4 pick and roll shell (Multiple actions)

Spacing + Movement creates confusion.

Defending interchange on weak side during pick and roll... We stay and zone up.

If our guard gets clipped on the screen, we go over and our big now changes his position and moves over. Becomes a flat hedge.

Messina would get the bigs to play below the roller because a lot of teams were beginning to short roll... Would provide help off the high I... Didn’t want to give up the corner three.

One of the rules for the big in defending pick and roll (channeling), NO dribble arounds... We may black (late switch) this and if they continue to go away from the basket we will switch back