Attacking the switch: Zalgiris Kaunas
Introducing the “high-seal”
Since coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius took over as the head coach in Kaunas his team has always been one of the best to study for coaches all around the world, both on offense and on defense, in this small piece I will try to look closely just at one details that makes their offense clicking.
As highlighted correctly by the great Coach Liam Flynn on this thread the tendency of switching “over” instead of under has been trending in Europe in these last years, what is the idea behind this?
This strategy offers lot of positive aspects, it avoid to get small guards buried underneath bigs man, it can facilitate a scramble switching scheme, or “switch-on-3", it can lead the offense into a higher TOV% since it push them into quicker passes to a running big, who is diving at the rim with a smaller but quicker defender able to get his hands on the pass and potentially a weak side defender looming there too, with the point guard being guarded by a big man who is able to discourage a lob pass with his length
But every defensive coverage has its weak-spots and its way to beat it, so let’s take a look at how Zalgiris not only tries to beat the switch-over but in some situations their big man are actively trying to go under the guard in order to create space for themselves
Note for the readers: every clip will go one time and then rewind for a second look with just a simple note to highlight a specific point that I found interesting
1st Example: In this first clip we see how Landale read what’s about to happen, a switch, and immediately goes under Shved keeping him “on the high side”, and doesn’t roll as many others would do but instead keeps him as high as possible all the way to the elbow. The handler doesn’t try to make that pass himself but moves the ball to the middle and the other big sprint from the weakside dunker spot to the top, this was already prescribed by the play but in this situations it also help clearing all the space necessary for the easy lob
The basic concept could be synthesized by saying that the big should be between his defender and the basket, with as much space as possible to receive the lob pass, we’ll call this a “high-seal”, where the defender is stuck on the high-side, opposite to a normal seal, where an offensive player takes a deep position in the paint with his defender behind him
2nd Example: In this clip the switch happens before the ball screen and we see Jovic (#24) trying to front Nigel Hayes (#10), he doesn’t try to fight with him to get back in front of him for the catch on the low post, quite the opposite, as we saw before he pushes the D as high as possible and clears space for the lob.
Here the pass is not perfectly on target for the finish but it’s enough to gain advantage for the easy kick-out and drive
3rd Example: Same set as the first clip, here the defense tries to switch under and we see how Zalgiris doesn’t simply accept the switch over but actively tries to get it! They want their bigs between to get fronted and to get as much space as possible to allow that lob pass.
This shows also why it’s so common to see this wing P&R + High P&R, if the defense decide to switch on the first one then the other big man is caught in between his own man sprinting to set a ball screen and his helping position on the switch
4th Example: Same concept but in this occasion the offense uses the flash cut in the high post to feed the high-seal. This flash cut is crucial because it can:
- Be used for the hi-low pass as we see here
- Be a threat to score if his defender remains low to protect the lob
- Make an extra pass if his defender remains low but a third defender commits to him
5th Example Off ball switching: here we see how Olimpia Milan switches on a off screen situation, Landale reads the situation perfectly but he doesn’t try to seal his man behind him, as many other players would do, the opposite, he immediately looks to go between his defender and the basket
By highlighting this my idea was not to diminish this defensive coverage by any mean but to look at a way to attack this even without an elite rim-runner and lob threat.
As we saw it’s particularly effective in situations with a side P&R with an empty corner, to avoid the help of a third defender, as we know basketball is a continuous cat&mouse game between the offense and the defense and there is no magic wand or “solve-it-all” defense or offense, it’s about put our players in the best condition to succeed and having them read and react to what the defense do.
I hope I’ll be able to write soon other post about specific concepts in basketball, hope you like this and feel free to contact me for any information, questions or feedback, either on twitter https://twitter.com/Franz_NanniBK or mail (fr.nanni@gmail.com)
Stay safe in these troubled times!