The Pick and Roll and the Raptors

[Axel]

The Pick and Roll is considered the staple of many NBA offences. The simplicity of the play allows for multiple variations and disguises and the degree of difficulty in defending it makes it, arguably, the single most lethal play call in basketball (some youth leagues have gone as far as banning the pick and roll until players are older).

The Raps run the pick and roll primarily with either Lowry, DD or CoJo as the ball handler. Lowry has ran it 158 times, DD 129 times, and CoJo 97 times (the next highest ball handler is Carroll at just 27 times). In terms of %, Lowry runs it 35.5% of the time, Demar 26.9% and CoJo 47.5% of the time.

The points per play for these three are 0.77, 0.94 and 1.08.

http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/bal...r&OD=offensive

PnR Ball Handler for these stats is defined as:
A screen is set on the ball handler’s defender out on the perimeter. The offensive player can use the screen or go away from it and as long as the play yields a possession-ending event, it is tagged as a pick and roll.


The roll man on these screens is not well utilized by the Raps. Scola has received a pass 50 times, Patterson 23 times, Jonas 17 times, Biyombo 18 times. Those are pure numbers (not per game), but the %s show a much stronger story. Scola gets the ball on 22.6% of the times, Patterson 16.4%, Biyombo 16.5% and Jonas, just 10.1%. (Bebe has gotten the ball on 35.3% of the time and scored at 1.67 points per possession).

For comparison’s sake, a lot of the top big men get the ball in the 20%-30% range. Bosh is one of the best scorers at 1.24 PPP and gets the ball on 26.5%. Ibaka gets the ball at 33.5% and scores 1.04 PPP.

The PPP for the Raps’ roll man are:
Scola 0.86
Patterson 1.13
Jonas 1.18
Biyombo 0.94

http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/rol...r&OD=offensive

PnR Roll Man for these stats is defined as:
When a screen is set for the ball handler, and the screen setter then receives the ball for a possession-ending event. This action can include: pick and rolls, pick and pops and the screener slipping the pick.

Player	PPP	Freq%
Jonas	1.18	10.1%
PPatt	1.13	16.4%
CoJo	1.08	47.5%
DD	0.94	26.9%
Biyombo	0.94	16.5%
Scola	0.86	22.6%
Lowry	0.77	35.5%

Our best weapon on the pick and roll (Jonas) is the least called upon option. Our ideal option should be the CoJo-JV PnR. For some reason, Biyombo gets the ball on the roll more than capable offensive players. CoJo-JV PnR could be the 4th quarter offence we are looking for when Lowry isn't in God mode.

As team, when using the PnR, the Raps use the ball handler at the 5th highest frequency. We use the roll man 5th worst in the NBA.

This makes the pick and roll much more predictable than it should be. The league is never 50/50 splits, it always favors the ball handlers since they “make the plays” despite the bigs always score at a better rate; that shouldn’t be the goal here. Leaving the ball in the hands of the ball handlers allows for more options (drive for lay up, open three, pass to another teammate if help comes), but when using the roll, we need to make effort to get it into the right players hands and need to offer up a greater variety on the PnR. By running variations and using disguises, we can get more open looks, increase our efficiency, our watch-ability, and hopefully, increase our chances of success in the post-season.

(same of one from another post http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forum...eCasey/page195)

Random Related Info:
We run the 4th most ISOs in the league.

Off-Screens - Identifies players coming off of screens (typically downs screens) going away from the basket toward the perimeter. This includes curl, fades, and coming off straight.
We are the 4th highest frequency in usage but score at just 34.2% of the time or 0.78 PPP, good for the 6.9th percentile in the NBA (only Utah and Detroit are worse). Demar is the primary recipient of these play calls.

All numbers from NBA.com play tracker - powered by Synergy.

[consmap]

Teams know how well JV finishes inside, he finished 2nd in FG% in the league last year. They'll double (or triple, or quadruple, or quintuple, or tupletuple) him on the roll, sometimes even in the post because of his effectiveness on offense.

The rest of the league seems to value JV more than our team does

[Axel]

Teams know how well JV finishes inside, he finished 2nd in FG% in the league last year. They'll double (or triple, or quadruple, or quintuple, or tupletuple) him on the roll, sometimes even in the post because of his effectiveness on offense.

The rest of the league seems to value JV more than our team does

Which is ideal, cause then Carroll, Patterson, etc will be wide open for 3.

[A.I]

Which is ideal, cause then Carroll, Patterson, etc will be wide open for 3.

You guys are making the offense too complicated for Casey.

[consmap]

Which is ideal, cause then Carroll, Patterson, etc will be wide open for 3.

You forgot to mention Ross. He's really good at making open 3s

[SkywalkerAC]

Hard to gauge how well-covered each of the recipients are, but the Raps do seem unusually risk-averse when it comes to passing to JV on the pick and roll. We've seen some frustrations in the past, with Jonas/Lowry mis-timing lobs, bringing the ball down and getting it slapped away, that kind of thing. However, if he's not closely covered we've got to get JV the ball in-stride on a more consistent basis.

I really wish he hadn't gotten hurt. Could be well on his way to an allstar berth by this point.

[LJ2]

Teams know how well JV finishes inside, he finished 2nd in FG% in the league last year. They'll double (or triple, or quadruple, or quintuple, or tupletuple) him on the roll, sometimes even in the post because of his effectiveness on offense.

The rest of the league seems to value JV more than our team does

Now I'm confused. You just mentioned that he is getting double and triple teamed so wouldn't that indicate it's a lot more difficult to get the pass to him on a pick n' roll play? If the opposing team is aware how well he finishes around the rim wouldn't it make sense for them to take the roll portion of the play away from the Raptors and thus force the guards to take a shot or finish the play themselves which would be the lower % play?

[LJ2]

The Pick and Roll is considered the staple of many NBA offences. The simplicity of the play allows for multiple variations and disguises and the degree of difficulty in defending it makes it, arguably, the single most lethal play call in basketball (some youth leagues have gone as far as banning the pick and roll until players are older).

The Raps run the pick and roll primarily with either Lowry, DD or CoJo as the ball handler. Lowry has ran it 158 times, DD 129 times, and CoJo 97 times (the next highest ball handler is Carroll at just 27 times). In terms of %, Lowry runs it 35.5% of the time, Demar 26.9% and CoJo 47.5% of the time.

The points per play for these three are 0.77, 0.94 and 1.08.

http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/bal...r&OD=offensive

PnR Ball Handler for these stats is defined as:
A screen is set on the ball handler’s defender out on the perimeter. The offensive player can use the screen or go away from it and as long as the play yields a possession-ending event, it is tagged as a pick and roll.


The roll man on these screens is not well utilized by the Raps. Scola has received a pass 50 times, Patterson 23 times, Jonas 17 times, Biyombo 18 times. Those are pure numbers (not per game), but the %s show a much stronger story. Scola gets the ball on 22.6% of the times, Patterson 16.4%, Biyombo 16.5% and Jonas, just 10.1%. (Bebe has gotten the ball on 35.3% of the time and scored at 1.67 points per possession).

For comparison’s sake, a lot of the top big men get the ball in the 20%-30% range. Bosh is one of the best scorers at 1.24 PPP and gets the ball on 26.5%. Ibaka gets the ball at 33.5% and scores 1.04 PPP.

The PPP for the Raps’ roll man are:
Scola 0.86
Patterson 1.13
Jonas 1.18
Biyombo 0.94

http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/rol...r&OD=offensive

PnR Roll Man for these stats is defined as:
When a screen is set for the ball handler, and the screen setter then receives the ball for a possession-ending event. This action can include: pick and rolls, pick and pops and the screener slipping the pick.

Player	PPP	Freq%
Jonas	1.18	10.1%
PPatt	1.13	16.4%
CoJo	1.08	47.5%
DD	0.94	26.9%
Biyombo	0.94	16.5%
Scola	0.86	22.6%
Lowry	0.77	35.5%

Our best weapon on the pick and roll (Jonas) is the least called upon option. Our ideal option should be the CoJo-JV PnR. For some reason, Biyombo gets the ball on the roll more than capable offensive players. CoJo-JV PnR could be the 4th quarter offence we are looking for when Lowry isn't in God mode.

As team, when using the PnR, the Raps use the ball handler at the 5th highest frequency. We use the roll man 5th worst in the NBA.

This makes the pick and roll much more predictable than it should be. The league is never 50/50 splits, it always favors the ball handlers since they “make the plays” despite the bigs always score at a better rate; that shouldn’t be the goal here. Leaving the ball in the hands of the ball handlers allows for more options (drive for lay up, open three, pass to another teammate if help comes), but when using the roll, we need to make effort to get it into the right players hands and need to offer up a greater variety on the PnR. By running variations and using disguises, we can get more open looks, increase our efficiency, our watch-ability, and hopefully, increase our chances of success in the post-season.

(same of one from another post http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forum...eCasey/page195)

Random Related Info:
We run the 4th most ISOs in the league.

Off-Screens - Identifies players coming off of screens (typically downs screens) going away from the basket toward the perimeter. This includes curl, fades, and coming off straight.
We are the 4th highest frequency in usage but score at just 34.2% of the time or 0.78 PPP, good for the 6.9th percentile in the NBA (only Utah and Detroit are worse). Demar is the primary recipient of these play calls.

All numbers from NBA.com play tracker - powered by Synergy.

Nice write up Axel. Is there any stats (or maybe I missed it in your article) of how many times the guards run this play with each of our bigs? I'm referring to initialing the play and not finishing.

[Axel]

Nice write up Axel. Is there any stats (or maybe I missed it in your article) of how many times the guards run this play with each of our bigs? I'm referring to initialing the play and not finishing.

No stats on pairing the ball handler with the big unfortunately.

[consmap]

Now I'm confused. You just mentioned that he is getting double and triple teamed so wouldn't that indicate it's a lot more difficult to get the pass to him on a pick n' roll play? If the opposing team is aware how well he finishes around the rim wouldn't it make sense for them to take the roll portion of the play away from the Raptors and thus force the guards to take a shot or finish the play themselves which would be the lower % play?

Yeah good point. At the same time, we still see instances where JV is ignored on the roll, dump off, etc. even if he has the opportunity to get a good look in the paint.

It is much harder to get JV in a good position to score than someone like Biyombo, but the thing is the team doesn't seem to put too much effort in trying to get him involved on offense. Our guards tend to focus on trying to attack on the PnR rather than making the pass to the roll man, and usually it's a bail out. Someone mentioned Amir in another thread and how his touches in the pick and roll diminished once Calderon left the team.

[Axel]

Hard to gauge how well-covered each of the recipients are, but the Raps do seem unusually risk-averse when it comes to passing to JV on the pick and roll. We've seen some frustrations in the past, with Jonas/Lowry mis-timing lobs, bringing the ball down and getting it slapped away, that kind of thing. However, if he's not closely covered we've got to get JV the ball in-stride on a more consistent basis.

I really wish he hadn't gotten hurt. Could be well on his way to an allstar berth by this point.

Funny you mention the turnovers:

Rollers TO%
Scola 4%
PPatt 4.3%
JV 0.0%
Biyombo 11.1%

Ball Handlers TO%
Lowry 15.8%
DD 12.4%
COJo 8.2%

[SkywalkerAC]

Funny you mention the turnovers:

Rollers TO%
Scola 4%
PPatt 4.3%
JV 0.0%
Biyombo 11.1%

Ball Handlers TO%
Lowry 15.8%
DD 12.4%
COJo 8.2%

Which makes sense. I'm pretty sure that on things like bobbled catches, the turnover goes to the passer not the recipient.

[LJ2]

Yeah good point. At the same time, we still see instances where JV is ignored on the roll, dump off, etc. even if he has the opportunity to get a good look in the paint.

It is much harder to get JV in a good position to score than someone like Biyombo, but the thing is the team doesn't seem to put too much effort in trying to get him involved on offense. Our guards tend to focus on trying to attack on the PnR rather than making the pass to the roll man, and usually it's a bail out. Someone mentioned Amir in another thread and how his touches in the pick and roll diminished once Calderon left the team.

Totally agree that we don't have any pure passers like Jose and that our guards look to finish rather than pass more often than not. However, I see no reason why the guards would be looking off JV more than the other bigs. I could definitely understand why Biz or Bebe might receive the pass on a roll more often as the defense is probably leaving them open more than they would JV. What I hope readers aren't getting out of a good write up by Axel, is that there is some sort of conspiracy against JV. I would conclude from the write up that JV is well respected by the league and that opposing teams are being coached to stick to the roll man whenever guarding the pick n' roll because JV will finish when given the opportunity.

[CNinja26]

Nice analysis and write up.

Makes a pretty compelling case for having Joseph start alongside Lowry. The Joseph-Lowry 1-2 works in the 4th quarter, why not the first? That's where we struggle the most to score. And it would give Joseph the opportunity to play alongside JV for extended minutes.

[Axel]

Which makes sense. I'm pretty sure that on things like bobbled catches, the turnover goes to the passer not the recipient.

Well in terms of turnovers:

in the post (ball passed to within 12 feet of hoop) - 4.1% TO% - 5th best in the NBA

We have higher TO% on drives (5.7%)

So not really sure if JV's handles have really resulted in enough turnovers for the ball handlers to look him off (especially considering they pass to Biyombo at a higher rate). Most of the turnovers I remember in this situation is because Lowry's pass to JV was down around his knees, which simply isn't a good pass.