You know, I know, One Eye Willy from The Goonies knows that Manu Ginobili is going left. There, I said it. He goes left. I said it again. If every scouting report and defender guarding him knows where he wants to go, how is the newly minted Sixth Man of the Year able to score? Is he some sort of super athlete? Even though I think some defenders would answer the last question yes, he is not.
The bottom line is Ginobili is fundamental and so are the Spurs. Ginobili knows he can score going left and Popovich wants to put him in the position to do so. How are they able to accomplish this?
1. Ginobili can shoot the ball from the outside. Every defender is threatened by Ginobili’s outside shot, therefore the defender must crowd him or he will be open to shoot over the defender. With the defender crowding him, it is easier for Ginobili to go around him. He uses a shot-fake on the defender to get him off balance as the defender is not willing to give Ginobili an open shot. Then, he rips through with the ball to get to the basket. The rip through is important. It creates an explosive first step and creates space from the defender and Ginobili uses the rip through well.
Without the threat of the shot, the entire move does not work. The defender is not falling for the initial shot-fake and, thus, the defender does not get off balance creating an opportunity for Ginobili to go around him.
2. Stockton and Malone will always be synonymous with the pick and roll. The Spurs, however, are underrated on how well they run this play. In the Phoenix series, with Shaq in the game guarding Duncan, Popovich knows that Shaq will not hedge out on the ball handler (Ginobili). The pick set by Duncan opens Ginobili’s defender to be off of him. Shaq who is guarding Duncan is poor with hedging/stopping the ball handler. Thus, an alley is created by Duncan’s screen and Ginobili is able to exploit it and get to the rim or if defenders stop him, he can pass the ball to an open teammate. Check out the clip below from the Spurs vs. Suns series. It is a non-traditional pick and roll, but the job gets done with Manu hitting Duncan for a dunk.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I think you may have overlooked the possibility that when the coaches yell “don’t let him go left”, the defender gets confused and stops him from going to HIS left.
Also, even though the video that you used is not a pick and roll, the Handoff play presents similar problems to the defense, as does the Dribble-Handoff.
I am not sure why we don’t see those 2 plays used more, at every level of play. They are almost as hard to defend if executed properly. We see the Pick and Roll run almost to ad nauseum.