Army Men’s Assistant Zak Boisvert has assembled some of the ways that the Golden State attacks defensive switches.
Coach Boisvert has posted several videos of some of the better schemes he has seen. His You Tube channel is: Zak Boisvert You Tube Channel
The voice-over that you hear is Coach Boisvert.
Sets and Actions to Attack Switching Defenses
Notes from the video appear below.
SLIDE / GHOST SCREEN / RUNNING SLIP
Instead of setting a real high pick-and-roll screen, the screener bails out early to another spot on the perimeter. This has become the NBA’s go-to counter for attacking switching defenses and shows up in nearly every team’s late-game/late-quarter package.
POST-UP AS A HUB
Teams like the Warriors use the post-up not primarily to score in the post, but as a vehicle to trigger their “split” action off of it. Once the ball goes into the post, off-ball screening actions behind the defense make it very difficult for defenders to switch cleanly.
CURL SCREEN (PICK-AND-ROLL VARIANT)
An old-school concept where the cutter curls tightly off the screen, dragging the initial defender with him and leaving the screener open to pop and attack the second defender.
BACK SCREEN SEAL
A cutter clears through, giving the screener room to seal the defender and roll to the rim. Back screens are difficult to switch — for example, a guard back-screening for a big, then popping to create a guard/big mismatch on the perimeter.
FLARE SCREENS
Similar issues arise for switching defenses on flare screens, such as entering the ball to the elbow and running a flare action on the weak side.
DELAY / FIVE-OUT SETS
Almost every NBA team runs some form of a delay or five-out action after a free throw or timeout specifically to exploit teams trying to switch screens.
SET PLAYS AGAINST SWITCHING
- A Miami-style set (effective against all defenses, but especially switching) creates an easy post-feed via a size mismatch.
- Within Horns sets, rather than reversing the ball through the big to the opposite wing (which allows the defense to reset and match size on size in the post), throwing the ball ahead directly prevents the defense from recovering.
- In the 2016 Western Conference Finals, the Warriors attacked the Thunder’s switching defense using a ball-screen-into-flare-screen set designed for Steph Curry.
