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The Foul Line is the Key to the Pick and Roll

by Tommy Dee on November 11th, 2010 at 8:23 pm

What do I mean by that? Simple.

The point guard’s job, and what Steve Nash does so well, and Stockton before him as well as all the others who are great at the PnR, is that he uses the screen but also continues penetration to the foul line (extended). Getting further below the foul line is great as it draws defenders so easy baskets are created.

See how Nash gets at least to the foul line extended. That gives him the proper angle, ability to draw help, and a short distance to make a hard bounce pass that’s easily caught going to the basket. The screens are set very high towards the top of the key, but Nash uses the screen and gets deeper towards the basket.

Here, Felton gets the pass to Amar’e but it’s too far to consistently get positive results. To me, Felton needs to do a better job of getting into the paint, or at least the foul line, consistently, so he can make the defense react more.

Or maybe they should run more 2-man side pick and rolls so that they start near the foul line. Nash aside, Deron Williams is simply the best at it. I guess we can all collectively pray that he decides to dart East to the Big Apple at some point.

It’s an essential play to this system and it takes time to perfect. And because you can run so many things off of it, it should be very difficult to stop in the half court. But if you’re not surrounded by capable shooters, it makes it that much harder to make efficient.
  • grahambo86

    Great stuff TD!

  • JeffM729

    While Felton can improve his PNR, he not the shooter that Nash is. That’s what helps draw defenders to the PG. Defenses would rather let Felton put up his floater than let Amare have a clear path to the hoop.

  • Custom66

    Im with ya Tommy. I’ve seen the same problem and feel the same way. The PnR starts way too far away to be effective. Amare is money when he’s near the basket. But when he’s too far away, he’s either jacking up some crap shot or turning the ball over. The biggest problem Ive seen (other then endless 3 pointers, but I think we’ve all beat that one to death) on offense this year is not getting the ball to players where they can be effective. Dantoni can bench his center, but it starts with the guards, in my eyes. To be honest, I think all Knick fans are tired of seeing pure PF’s at Center. Fix the guards Mike!

  • HaS

    Raymond Felton!

  • Custom66

    Ha.. Very succinct HaS. But yep, it’s all on Felton. He seems to not get the guys the ball where they can be effective. Which is main goal of any pg. I dont think he’s incapable (maybe cause the season just started and I’m still optimistic) of doing it. I think it just needs to be drilled into his head.

    But… the biggest prob is the green light behind the arc. Not sure if we’ll see a change there though, since that’s Dantoni’s signature. Last night was just stupid Basketball. Killing a poor interior defensive team inside, yet keep jacking threes. Ugly. But that’s another thread I guess. haha

  • BiggieSmalls

    so now our only hope is to pray for Deron Williams?

    life of a knick fan/

  • scsizzle89

    good post man. i dont think felton has ever been a pnr player. hopefully he’ll get better as the season goes on.

    and who was the last great pg on the knicks, its def been a while.

  • Old Knick

    D Williams just explains it and shows it so simply but I guess it is not that easy. Has _antoni shown this video to our point guard?

  • gonygony

    i have noticed this too. Amare is getting the ball way too far from the basket. The things is, why is the coach not picking this up? I am sure that being the genius that he is, he should be able to come up with something to make it better for Felton or help him understand better. Also why not run the Utah offense then?

    I think of all the criticisms of MDA this has to be a top one as offense is supposed to be his specialty. It seems to me, that he is not adjusting to the talent that he has.

  • sino428

    Great stuff here Tommy, these types of posts are great and fun to read.

    You are spot on about how Felton has yet to get comforatbel running the PNR with Amare. Felton is a good player though, and a I think that with more time he will get better at it.

    And I disagree a bit with the poster above, saying that Feltons jump shot is the problem. While it does help if the PG is a sharp shooter like Nash, all we have to do is look at the way Duhon and Lee were able to run the PNR last season so well. Duhon at point couldnt hit a jumper to say his life yet they had PNR success.

  • giantg

    Spacing is key in this offense and right now there doesn’t seem to be enough of it.

    Thus far it is about figuring out who is going to play when the rotation drops to 8 players and who should start and who should come off the bench.

    Many players are getting impatient and trying to make something happen. Now D’Antoni needs to fine tune the overall traffic cause right now it’s chaos out there. The comment about Fields cutting too often give some credence to that thought.

    Some things that also (statistically at least) need to change:

    Chandler taking threes. He is just not good enough or consistent enough of a shooter. If he is not hot, he needs to quickly find shot inside of 18 feet or move the ball. He is a lot of things but a crafty ballhandler he ain’t.

    Gallo, stop forcing threes… We need him to take plenty of the 3pt shots whenever he can set his feet but when he gets limited to creating his own long range shot off the dribble it becomes low percentage hoops.

    TD please dribble less and pass more quickly in other words: be aggressive on D but let the offensive game come to you. When he finds the seam, is open for an j, or is in transition he looks like money. Otherwise he looks like he is forcing the action.

    Randolph, play your game, the one that works when there are fans in the seats. Rebound, weak side help, and work toward getting your hands near the rim without the ball. Figure out who you can body up on (get in the gym!). Don’t over dribble, don’t shoot threes, don’t get tunnel vision.

    Miami has better, more versatile well rounded players yet has chemistry issues. They will figure it out (I am betting quickly) and so will NY (I am betting now that quickly). Fans can be patient if the team plays hard and starts to exhibit their own style. Right now it is painful to watch.

  • giantg

    should read: (I am betting not that quickly)

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