http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/r...Latest twist in Mike D'Antoni's offense: taking pick out of pick-and-roll
LOS ANGELES - As DeMarcus Cousins picked up Ryan Anderson, pitting the burly center on the Rockets' marksman, Anderson looked to the backcourt to where James Harden was bringing the ball up and had noticed the same thing.
Harden did not call out a play or signal for any sort of action. But he and Anderson caught each other's eye and knew just what to do.
Harden took the ball to the middle of the floor and Anderson quickly moved in to set a screen. But Anderson never actually set it. Cousins moved to his left. Anderson rapidly backed away, taking Harden's quick pass at the 3-point line and firing away before Cousins could rush back.
Anderson was not shying away from contact with Cousins' 6-11 mountain of muscle. This was a part of Mike D'Antoni's offense rarely mentioned, but as integral as fast-breaking or shooting 3s.
The Rockets run more pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops than any NBA team. But they usually don't actually set a pick.
From Clint Capela rolling to the rim to Anderson back-pedaling to the 3-point line, if the Rockets see a big man move himself out of position, rather than standing still to set a screen, they move rapidly to take advantage, a part of D'Antoni's offense that teams are adopting the way they did his pace-and-space style a decade ago.
"He is the first person I've ever seen teach the basic elements of pick-and-roll differently," said Hornets coach Steve Clifford, an assistant under D'Antoni in Los Angeles who now uses the style with his big men in Charlotte. "Offense, it always was you want a solid screen that sets up the guy with the ball's ability to create separation. That sets up the roll. He does it, as soon as you hear the defensive player (call out of the defense) and that guy moves, you go then.
"With them, their best plays, they don't screen. He's the first person in this league to teach it like that. It makes the pick-and-roll quicker and for a lot of guys, it's a much better way to play."
D'Antoni's Suns used the tactic extensively with Steve Nash and Amar's Stoudemire. But it is so important to the Rockets offense, it gets Anderson open against defenses that know he is there to shoot 3s and has freed Capela going to the rim so reliably that he is making 65.1 percent of his shots, the second-best shooting percentage in the NBA.
The Rockets not only take more 3s than any team ever has, Harden passing to Capela has led to more dunks than any combination in the NBA. Most begin with no pick pick-and-rolls.
"I don't need to stay to set the screen," Capela said. "I only stay when the defender is actually in front of James. But when he steps that way, I know all I have to do is dive. That creates a situation it's two-on-one with James handling the ball and I get lobs.
"Past coaches, they wanted me to set the screen. I always knew that sometimes you don't need to set it because the defender is thinking about you setting it. You're already open. That sometimes opens our shooters and sometimes I'm open for the lob pass."
With Anderson, if his man is expected to "hedge" or "hard show," defenses in which a big man steps out to help on Harden off the dribble, Anderson can read that and back away before his man can get out to him at the 3-point line.
"It depends how the defense is guarding," Anderson said. "I can slip the screen and get right out of there. It messes up the coverage. I go to screen, feel where my defender is guarding me and get out of that screen as fast as possible. James does a really good job reading what I'm going to do.
"There are occasions it's important to hit the man. If a team likes to show (having a big man step out on Harden) really hard, I can go in there and hit James' man and he's got a wide open path to the lane if they're worried about getting back to me."
D'Antoni does not mind a good, traditional, hard screen. But the idea is to get open shots for his big men at the rim, his shooters at the 3-point line or Harden on the move, not to have bodies banging into one another. If the Rockets are in position to get the shots they want, he does not expect them to stand still because the X on his drawing board does.
"The reason you set a pick is to get the point guard or whoever has the ball an advantage," D'Antoni said. "Defenses are being taught now that when you see the pick and it's being called out, you jump to the position. That gives the offense an advantage. The big helps. Just go. You get a two-step head start. You don't get tangled up with people. You just go."
With that, the Rockets get the shots they want most, 3-pointers and shots in the lane.
"Our offense is movement, making the defense work," Anderson said. "Everybody talks about a fast pace. But the pace isn't just about … fast-break layups. It means making decisions on the fly, reading how the play goes. Sometimes I'm reading the play and James and I will make eye contact.
"That's essentially our offense."
