Monday Morning Thoughts #5
Welcome back to Monday Morning Thoughts. We took a short break for the long weekend/holiday, but are back to our regular schedule
Do we underutilize the Spain P&R?
We specifically meaning at the collegiate level. This is one of the most common actions you will see in any professional game. I know specifically at non D1 levels it is not utilized nearly as often.
Why is Spain P&R effective? Simply because it is hard to defend. It presents you with a unique dynamic that you will not receive from a regular ball screen. I still think we are behind on the adaptation to guarding this action for that reason. It is also an incredibly creative action where you can manipulate the three guys involved in the ball screen in a number of ways.
Examples: Flip Angle of Ball Screener, Pin in for Low Shooter, Low Shooter shallow cuts early, Low shooter turns into second ball screen/ghost, Low Shooter slips out horizontally early for a BL Exit Screen, (Maybe even play around with some stuff where ball screen pops into inside handoff for low shooter?)
Why do we not use it more? Personally, I think the Spain P&R is very hard to teach. With more guys involved there are more reds involved. Sometimes this can be tough and is one of the many things I’ve tried to hone in on as of recently. It’s also very difficult because it’s really not designed to be a scoring action for the ball handler. Which I believe of all ball screens, but Spain even more magnified.
Should we have more moving pieces when attacking switches?
One of the reasons that I love switching from a team defensive perspective is that it promotes stagnation from the opposing offense.
Shifting from a defensive perspective to an offensive perspective, what can we do in order to prevent that degree of stagnation.
We see how simple something like a boomerang is and what a major difference in can play in your teams effectiveness attacking switches.
Sometimes this is difficult to accomplish when trying to attack the switch with a mismatch because they can scram switch (switch off ball player onto big before ball even enters the post from backside)
However, what if we are trying to attack off the bounce in space, I think there are many things that we can incorporate in order to try and manipulate space for that ball handler or punish the load up or over help from the defense on the potential blow by.
Thanks to all Coaches for making this new series so enjoyable. It’s been a ton of fun and have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you guys. As always if you’d like to reach me my contact info will be below
Cell: 330-787-1146
Email: connor.harr@westliberty.edu