Bucks Corner-3 Defense (vs. Jazz, Feb 1st)
To preface, probably have to say that judging defense is tough at granular level. Don’t know what the precise scheme always is and what has been emphasized by coaching staff. Can’t know what film has been shown, what sets have been prepared for etc.
With that out of the way, I thought it would be fun to go through every corner three-pointer allowed by the Bucks (and also situations where potentially should/could’ve been one, or even if Bucks defended well some action), and try and figure out what’s up with their defense which ranks 21st and allows an ungodly amount of corner threes.
Here’s a chart (you may have already seen this) of how every team attempts and allows opponents to take corner threes. As you can see, outliers are Jazz, Cavaliers and Bucks.
Alright so here goes.
First one doesn’t have anything super interesting. In semi-transition Delly gets blown by, which leads to tough situation where Snell has to help the helper and recover.
Second is a good example of Jazz ball movement. Overall, Bucks cover this nicely until the end where Parker is split between corner and wing shooters. Note how Parker isn’t in a stance to recover to shooter. Chalk this up to individual poor performance.
Typical motion that flows into horns. Lyles drives and Monroe is in position to help, but every other Jazz player would have made the pass to wide open corner shooter. Not a bad look from Lyles. Highlights importance of one vs. one defense. Great defenders can get to spot to make ball-handler think and are still able to recover. I don’t know how Bucks want to play this stuff, but seems like Terry should be in position to help on pass and then recover.
Monroe takes himself out of play, and in transition Lyles should have hit the open corner three. Twice in a row Bucks actually fortunate not to give up the shot. Should be noted that Monroe was so far away from play that Burks still got open three.
I hate when defenders do what Monroe does here. Like what are you going to accomplish and really, what’s the probability of getting steal because if you don’t you are screwed. Get back on defense.
Bucks have quite a few of these miscommunications where big man is icing the play but ball-handler’s defender doesn’t force baseline. One big reason why Jazz had such a hard time covering Gobert which then leads to all sorts of troubles down the line. Good look from Jazz that could have been taken away with a better contest.
These types of plays really seem to be just systemic issue. I don’t know what the plan is, but if the idea is really to bump the roll man timing has to work so that you can still recover to corner. Preferably big man defender could contain the action and make it a 2 vs. 2 situation, but this situation being played over and over again isn’t good. Any good team that knows it can get this, could run it a hundred times in a row and get a 1.5PPP look every single time.
Similar play as the previous one, though angle/space to pass to corner isn’t there if you run a pick-and-roll with the strong side corner open. Snell gets stuck too long here and Jazz get a great look even though the first pass was terrible.
I swear it’s not the same clip as before. Systemic issue.
Let’s have some positivity here. Parker and Giannis are on the same page on what to do (or could be an accident) and Snell makes good recovery to corner. Of course, Parker doesn’t get to Gobert’s body which leads to an and-one score so there’s that. Giannis should be split between the two wing players at the end I assume. So yeah it’s a bad play again overall but at least initial action was cleared!
It’s still not the same clip. Just the same mistake. I don’t know whether to blame system or personnel. Leaning towards system.
Again, two players seem to be playing different pick and roll coverages. Snell makes a good play to be in passing lane and is active in the paint on the action before hand, so nice job on that. But overall still bad stuff.
If NBA teams allow pocket pass it’s over. I guess Jazz got a bit lucky on this play as Ingles seems to bounce through Maker’s legs.
This is just a terrible play from Delly. Hill can’t drive to strong side because Hayward is there so he can only reject the screen. Communication. Communication. Communication.
Yeah it’s that problem again.
Someone could point out here that I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m assuming Monroe should be able to contain the action on the sideline and no help is required except maybe briefly on roll man. Of course, due to poor footwork and positioning by Monroe that doesn’t happen and the rest is history. While technically Bucks can still have help scheme where Snell should recover and Jabari boxes out his man, but that’s pretty advanced stuff and I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect. So that’s going to be a corner three no matter what after initial loss.
Not just a plain high screen and roll with correct spacing (which Jazz always do correctly, guys are always in right spots), but it’s still the same stuff. In the words of the great 21st century philosopher Kenny Smith: “I just don’t know man.”
Brogdon gets super stuck on a back screen. Communication. Communication. Communication. Parker says nothing about switching, so that means he should be chasing his man. I couldn’t explain to you what Parker is doing on this entire possession. Blame 90% Parker, only 10% Brogdon. If Parker actually communicated, 100% Brogdon.
“I just don’t know man.”
Gobert makes the right play to flash to open high post, pulls Delly who recovers correctly. If Maker can’t get back quickly, Giannis has to help but that would leave corner three open and Maker would have to recognize which doesn’t seem likely. If this isn’t dunk, it’s an open corner three.
What? Now it’s a different help guy than previously? Did Bucks make adjustment or did this happen accidentally? Still wasn’t executed but at this point.. whatever.
EDIT: Forgot to mention most important part of play here, which is the poor footwork from Maker. Jumps and opens the snake dribble for Hill. Scratch the criticism of other players here. I was just getting cranky at like the 20th clip.
We are reaching the end here, so I’ll just let you analyze this one.
And we’ve reached full circle.
Conclusions
- Yeah. So there’s obviously quite a bit here.
- Value of rolling (and alley-oop catching) big is shown in these plays. Gobert deserves a ton of credit for improving his finishing. And while this isn’t a Jazz breakdown I’d have to mention what a wonderful job he did sealing his defender under the rim. Instead of close post-up, Gobert’s attempts are at the rim thanks to the early work he did so brilliantly. This is also reason behind career best TS%.
- Bucks have pretty terrible big man defenders, which leads to more help being provided and then the Jazz just know what to do. Everyone (except for Lyles) knows how to pass correctly every time. Have to be able to show on the ball-handler and then cover roll. Timing is key since if help is provided (hitting body of roll man), there should be trust that big man can finish play and closeout can be made.
- Preparation against teams like Jazz is key. You have to know some of the actions and all that, and know how to react every time.
- Individually every player can do better, from defending initial action onwards.
