Portland Trail Blazers should use pick and roll often with bench unit

The pick and roll is the Blazers’ bread and butter, especially with Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic. The Zach Collins – Seth Curry duo should thrive in this offense off the bench next season.

The pick and roll is a staple of the game of basketball – it’s one of the first plays a young basketball player learns. Many of those childhood basketball tricks fade away at the higher level, but not the pick and roll. All 30 NBA teams use it on a game-by-game basis, especially the Portland Trail Blazers.

Last season, the Blazers ran 1,919 pick and rolls, 21.6% of their total possessions. Only the Atlanta Hawks ran more with 1,939.

Fortunately, the high volume correlated with success. Portland ranked second in points per possession for pick and rolls, trailing the Golden State Warriors by 0.01.

Damian Lillard was the main reason for the high number of pick and rolls. He ran this play type on 47.4% of his possessions and did well to score with the extra space. Lillard put the ball in the basket on 44.6% of pick and rolls, which is in the 94th percentile.

No other ball handler on the Blazers executed the pick and roll as effectively. CJ McCollum came close with a scoring frequency of 41.9%, but on far fewer attempts.

Terry Stotts runs this offense even with Lillard off the court. Shabazz Napier, who was replaced by Seth Curry, ran a pick and roll on 37.8% of his possessions.  He turned it over 15.7% of the time, though, limiting his efficiency off the screen.

Curry didn’t turn the ball over as much as Napier and had a higher scoring frequency after a pick. As a result, Stotts will likely continue this offense with the new backup point guard.

Pick & Roll Roll Man

34.5% of Portland’s 1,919 pick and rolls ended up in the hands of the roll man. The two big men who played this role the most? Ed Davis and Jusuf Nukic.

Davis was barely better than Nurkic when the ball ended up with the roll man. He recorded a PPP of 1.07 and a field goal percentage of 59.7%, compared to Nurkic’s 1.02 PPP and 54.3% shooting.

Without Ed, Zach Collins should assume the reserve center position. With his thin frame, Collins doesn’t set the strongest screens – defenders can swerve around him or go right through him on most occasions.

However, Collins performed as well as Nurkic offensively as the roll man. He also had a PPP of 1.02 despite shooting 44.7% from the field. His ability and tendency to shoot three-pointers after setting a screen created the higher scoring output with worse shooting.

2018-2019 Season

Ed Davis and Shabazz Napier are now on the Brooklyn Nets, ushering in a new era of pick and roll offense off the bench for Portland. Seth Curry and Zach Collins headline that new era.

The three-point threat of this duo should frighten defenders.

If they want to defend Curry’s outside shooting, the opposing guard must step over the screen, forcing the opposing big man to focus on Curry as well. This leaves Collins open to cut to the hoop or to bounce out beyond the arc.

Here’s an example of how that play might look.

If they want to defend Collins, the opposing center won’t hedge Curry and the opposing guard therefore won’t step over the screen. This allows Curry to mimic Damian Lillard and step right up into a three-pointer off the screen.

No matter how the two defenders play it, either Curry or Collins will be in a position to score. Terry Stotts won’t need to change the reserve unit’s play style to optimize the new players. In fact, the new guys might even be an improvement.

Next: Blazers needed to add transition scorers

As long as Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic are on the roster, the Blazers won’t go away from the pick and roll.

With a different looking bench this season, Stotts should maintain the same offensive play style through the whole lineup. Zach Collins and Seth Curry are both efficient scorers on the pick and roll and will play to each other’s strengths to consistently find open looks.