Inside the play: Kyle Singler has the option of screens

Earlier this season, I showed how good Ashton Gibbs is at coming off of screens (read here). If there is one player who can match his ability to use screens, it may be Kyle Singler. Fewer players are better at rubbing a player off a screen and then catching and shooting as they come off the screen.

Singler has the option to here to run off of either Plumlee brother, depending on if Seth Curry gets the ball at the top of the key or not. Dexter Strickland denies Curry the ball, so Singler runs off of Miles Plumlee, to the left side of the court instead of using Mason Plumlee and moving to Curry’s side of the court.

Pe’Shon Howard provides unnecessary help on Kyle Singler

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It’s not often you hear the words ‘unnecessary help’ when talking about defending Kyle Singler but all things considered, I contend that this play is one of those times.

Kyle Singler receives the down screen from Ryan Kelly to start the set. Sean Mosley does a great job of fighting over the screen and not letting Singler catch the ball in a favorable position as he curls to the foul line.

Inside the play: Duke baseline out of bounds set

One of the keys to a successful baseline out of bounds set is multiple options based on how the defense chooses to defend the play. Then, it needs to be up to the offense to read the defense and take advantage of what the defense gives them. In this play by Duke, you see that played out, leading to a Duke basket. There is one option if the defense doesn’t switch and a second option if the defense does switch the initial screen.

The set up by Duke is a fairly common one, with Mason Plumlee at the near block, Kyle Singler on the far block, Seth Curry on the far wing and Ryan Kelly at the free throw line. There are a couple different screens that could be set by the offense, so the defense has to be alert.

Singler sets the first screen for Curry to come across the paint, where he will get a second screen from Plumlee. If Temple doesn’t switch off the screens, Curry will likely be open in the near corner for a jump shot. Therefore, Temple chooses to switch the screens, so as not to get burned by the shooters.

Duke shows multiple actions using a baseline screen

One of the ways Duke likes to get the ball in Nolan Smith’s hands is to have him run off a baseline screen to the corner or wing. Catching the ball here, he has several options to try and create. In tonight’s game against Virginia, we saw the offense run three different options out of this simple screen, all successful.

Jump shot

The first option is to have Smith run off the screen for a jump shot. Here, he gets the screen from Andre Dawkins and uses it to get open in the corner.

You can see Smith’s defender get screened here by Dawkins. Dawkins sets a great screen by seeking out the Virginia player and getting a piece of him, holding him up for long enough for Smith to get open.

The help defender does not rotate out to Smith, as he stays at home to protect the basket from a slip by Dawkins. This means Seth Curry has a free passing lane to Smith, who has plenty of room to knock down the shot.

Post up

The second option gets the post man open on the block. Ryan Kelly sets the block screen for Smith in this play. Smith curls off the screen to get to the wing, instead of running straight to the corner, as he did in the first play.

Kelly sets a good screen and forces Mustapha Farrakhan to trail Smith off the screen. Thanks to Joe Harris’ quick show and Farrakhan’s recovery, Smith is guarded once he makes the catch.

While Harris’ show slows down Smith, it allows Kelly to get post position. While Harris is recovering from his show on the screen, Kelly is able to pivot off the screen and pin Harris in the post. He is able to make a catch in good position and make a post move.

It’s up to Kelly, as Virginia chooses not to double the post and he delivers with a nice up and under move. Due to the threat of Smith coming off the screen, Harris had to come off Kelly and show on Smith, allowing Kelly to secure favorable post position, putting him in a position to score.

Slip the screen

The last option I want to highlight is slipping the screen. If the defender shows (like Harris above) or simply pays no attention to the screener, the screener can slip to the basket and look for the pass.

Miles Plumlee sets the baseline screen in the final play for Smith and sets a great screen yet again (does any team screen better than Duke? I would be hard pressed to find one).

Again, we see the defender of the screener try to show off the screen while Smith’s man trails the screen. Akil Mitchell shows here to try to stop Smith from curling to the basket and allowing Farrakhan time to recover to Smith.

Like the play above, Duke uses the screener’s help to their advantage. Mitchell is a little slow coming off of his show and Plumlee is open at the rim. Curry sees that Mitchell came a step or two too high off of Plumlee and dumps the ball into Plumlee.

This results in Plumlee drawing a foul and going to the line for two shots. Again, we see the screener taking advantage of the defense focusing on Smith and producing a positive result for the offense.

That’s the same screen, yet three different options the offense can run successfully. If the defense chooses to focus on the man using the screener, this allows the screener to get open in a variety of ways. If they choose to stay at home, the man coming off the screen may be open. I liked seeing Duke run the same simple action a few times while being able to be successful in three different options off the same screen.

The lack of assertiveness from Mason Plumlee in the post

One thing I admire about Duke is how Coach K defines each player’s roles and how they all play within their own role. If you look at Mason Plumlee, two of his main roles are setting screens and controlling the glass. As the 25th best defensive rebounder in the country and playing a crucial role in the 5th ranked offense, I think he has filled this role pretty well.

While he is not called upon to be a major scorer, I think he has the potential to be an inside threat for the Blue Devils. He has nice footwork but needs to improve on several things, as we will see in this play.

Wake’s poor defensive rotation

Wake Forest has struggled with rotating on defense this season. I wanted to highlight one play that epitomizes their struggles, which led to a three point opportunity for Duke.

Butler plays great D, Duke scores anyway

Duke currently has the second most efficient offense at 121.7, only behind Pitt at 121.8. By the end of the season, I believe Duke will be the most efficient offense, as they were last year. This play is a perfect example of why they are so hard to defend. Butler plays perfect defense, in my mind, yet Duke still comes away with a basket.

The driving ability of Kyrie Irving

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After his performance against Michigan State, I am sure you have read or heard countless people talk about the level Irving is playing at currently. Hopefully this will be a little different take than the others and you will come away with something new.

Duke easily handles the 2-3 zone of Princeton

Many teams are going to have trouble defending Duke this season. After watching tonight’s game, I do not think it will be smart for many teams to play a 2-3 zone for extended periods of time. Duke carved Princeton’s zone up pretty easily and I will show you how.

Inside the play: Duke inbounds play

After previously looking at a inbounds play run by Syracuse, I am going to look at a play ran by Duke which got them a basket. I had a chuckle when I saw this play in real time, since my high school team ran it when I played there a few years ago. It goes to show that an inbounds play that has a variety of options can be effective in many levels of competition.

Here is the play we are going to look at today: