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Ettore Messina - Pick and Roll Defense

Pick and Roll Defense depends on:

1. The ability of your players - quickness and mobility. I.E. If you have a slow group of big men,
it is very difficult to show or trap.
2. The ability of your opponent’s personnel. I.E. Defending small guard, may trap him and make
certain passes difficult. Trap on certain positions on the floor to take away easy outlets. If you
are guarding great shooter, you may force him to penetrate.
*With saying this, I believe we need to have basic Pick and Roll defensive rules. If we don’t
prepare anything special, we use these rules.

The philosophy behind our pick and roll defense: To attack/break the timing of our opponent -
Putting people out of position, forcing the opponent into a situation they don’t like, and trying to
steal a little bit of their spacing.

We must differentiate defending the 4 and the 5. With the 5 man, we show or we play flat (Very
few centers are dangerous when shooting the ball). With the 4 man, we show or switch (With
many 4 men picking and popping). Cannot play flat against popping 4, will never recover in time.

If the guard is receiving a pass from another player followed by a pick and roll... We want to
force perimeter catches out and away by denying... This allows us to go under on the first pick
and roll. We want to force re-screen because then the angles of the offense change.

Middle Pick and Roll: If the guard is dribbling... The defender on the ball does not know
where the pick is coming from (from behind, right or left). And sometimes the screener will sprint
into the screen and change the angle last second. I believe in only giving the ball-handler one
option (If right handed player, we would shade to his left hand). As soon as on-ball defender
hears the call, he then must change his defensive positioning on the ball (shading the left hand).

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The post player communicate the pick and roll defensive coverage on offensive big’s first step
into sprint.

When the 5 man is zoning (flat help)... The distance between the offensive ball handler and
defensive 5 man depends on who we are defending and how mobile our defensive big is. We
will play low flat position against non-finishers smaller guards, players who want to pull-up or
use floater, our on-ball defender will rear-view contest. Against players who are more
aggressive, a player who possesses great shooting ability or driving ability (player who can
finish at the rim), we will player higher flat position. *Important that defensive big in flat help
position does not get too high (the highest would be in line with the screener) -- big does not
have to cover space with feet... He should have active hands that take up space.

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First Line of Help vs Second Line of Help...

As players become more experienced they will

learn to force offensive players where we have
two players to limit how much the big helps.

*The most dangerous pick and roll... Flat ball

screen. Very important to only give one option.

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*We want to deny as much as possible and then go under on the first pick and roll.

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Players should understand from day 1... There is a moment in the defensive action where you
want to be very aggressive, and there is a moment where you want to protect. You can’t be for
the whole possession very aggressive, you can’t be be for the possession contain. The good
teams know when to be very aggressive, when to protect. Mentally/psychologically, the defense
will have a major advantage. It’s easier for the offense if they know they are playing against only
one or the other (very aggressive or containing). You cannot let an offense get comfortable... In
a possession, the defense is very capable to shrink and open (deny) -- difficult for offenses
because the types of passes and timing of passes are different when they are attacking your
defense.

Side Pick and Roll:

If screen is coming from the baseline we want to Down/Ice (Deny Access). We want to keep our
big protecting the paint. With our 4-man we want to push down and switch.

If we iced/downed the side pick and roll with 4 (shooter) setting the screen... And we rotate over
weak-side defender (tagging), I worry because now we are in poor rebounding position if shot
goes up... Another reason why we switch against pick and pop.

We force as much as possible to play 2on2 defensively.

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If screen is coming from the top (ball reversal big following with pick and roll) we want to switch
(1 through 5). ***Players must know when to switch - if we do our work early and force catch
meter or two off 3pt line, we fake the switch and go under. Important that if we switch, we do not
switch flat and accept the mismatch... We switch vertically (jump-switch) with feet pointing to the
sideline... If the offensive ball-handler takes dribble back to create space, we switch back.

3on3 Pick and Roll Drill... Purpose of the drill is to

recognize how to guard/attack different personnel.
Players are lined up in three lines (They are not divided
guards and bigs, they are randomly lined up). Player
with the ball in the middle makes a wing entry, he cuts
through. The opposite wing then sprints into a side pick
and roll. Must recognize same position and switch, must
recognize if they have a mismatch, etc.

Big difference in pick and roll defense... Early

communication, early work in making the offensive
player catch out of position.

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Handoffs (Same for Dribble Handoffs):

When cutter is cutting toward the sideline... We follow/tail the cutter

through to keep on the sideline. We do not want to go under
because then we are susceptible to the re-screen, where the ball-
handler is receiving the re-screen going to the middle of the floor.

When cutter is cutting toward the middle... We go through (under).

If they re-screen, we are now downing...

Key against dribble handoff - we want our big men to pressure and
then last second, let defender guarding cutter through. With no
pressure, the offense is now able to get better angle of attack when
using the dribble handoff. Must have pressure.

***For both situations the key is where the 5 man catches the ball...
x5 must work hard to force 5’s catch as out of position as possible.
I want to deny the high post...

~~Overview~~

1. Do the job before the main action takes place (Do your work early).
2. Try to cut angles, keep the ball on one side of the floor (Do not give the offense multiple
options).
3. Force the defense to do what they do not want to do.
4. Understand when to be aggressive and when to contain/protect in a possession.

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