From an offensive perspective I love pick and roll basketball.  It is a huge part of my offensive philosophy because I think it maximizes the talents of your best players and promotes attacking the basket.  But I am not the only coach who realizes the effectiveness of the pick and roll.  More and more colleges and high schools are employing the pick and roll in their offensive attack.  I would say approximately 65% of NBA basketball involves a pick and roll.  It becomes very clear that you must have an effective scheme to defend this action or you could be in a lot of trouble.

I will talk about “traditional angle” pick and rolls.  By this I mean pick and rolls where the screener (we will call him the 5 man) sets the screen with his chest to the sideline and “telegraphs” which hand he wants to bring the ball handler to.  For this we will assume he sets the screen bringing the ball handler (1 man) to his right hand.

Most teams are “show” oriented and want the big who is guarding the screener (X5) to show (or “hedge”) to take away the rhythm of the ball handler so he can’t get a head of steam going to the basket.  But we can’t just tell X5 to “SHOW!” and think we have done our job.  X5 must know how we want him to show.  I want my big giving a hard, aggressive show on most high pick and rolls (HPRs) with his chest to the sideline.  If his chest is to halfcourt he has a tendency to get “strung out” by the ball handler which leaves him too far to recover to the screener.

On a “hard show” X5 will lose contact with the screener and step out aggressively into the path of the ball handler.  But X5’s job is not done yet.  When he gives his “hard show” I want him to dig at the ball (flicking up at it) with his outside hand up as the ball handler comes off the screen.  This action takes away the rhythm of the ball handler, makes him uncomfortable, and forces him to veer off his straight-line path to the rim.  Our bigs cannot be scarecrows when they give a show (hands straight out, motionless!).  Aggressive guards attack ‘scarecrows’ relentlessly.

The second part of defending the high pick and roll involves the defender on the ball (X1).  If we are in a “show” mode the first thing X1 must understand is that he can NOT get beat away from the screen (what I call “Bingo”).  He must send the ball handler to the screen where X5 is waiting for him.

Secondly, X1 must get into the ball handler.  If the ball handler is comfortable, relaxed, and has space to come off the screen, he will clearly have the advantage when attacking X5’s show.  But if X1 can get into the ball, make him “feel you”, and take away his rhythm, he is much less likely to effectively attack X5 and turn the corner.  Easier said than done when guarding Dwayne Wade or Lebron James.  I’ve learned that lesson too many times!  A great on the ball defender who stays ‘into’ the ball handler can often totally negate the screen being set.  And the pick and roll is much less effective when there is no pick!

The third thing X1 must do is navigate his way through the screen.  Against great ball handling guards we will always play HPR’s “show & over”.  Anytime you go under a HPR you subject yourself to ‘re-screens’, the chance of X1 getting “rolled under” by 5 as he rolls to the basket, and great ball handlers changing directions and attacking back to his left hand while X1 is mixed up navigating his way through the screener and his own man (X5).  Often times we will tell our players to get “over the screen” and call it a day.  But how many times have you seen X1 fight his way over the screen only to run into X5 giving his show?  This is why I want X5 giving an “aggressive” show where he loses contact with the screener.  In our “show & over” defense, X1 fights “over the screener (5) and under the show man (X5).”  As soon as X1 clears the screener and the show he must “square up” the ball handler.  This allows X5 to recover back to his own man.

There is certainly more than one way to guard a HPR though.  Sometimes you have to get creative when trying to stop the game’s best players.  Even though we are generally a “show & over” team, we guard HPRs several different ways at times.  These include:
· Short show & under
· Loose & over/under
· Blue to weak hand
· Blitz
We will talk about the pluses and minuses of these other coverages and why we go to them in another article.