“Low Man”
Term: Low Man
Definition: the defender closest to the baseline and hoop on the weak side of the floor, responsible for providing the first and most important layer of help defense
Synonyms: Low, Gaucho (the term used by Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz), 2.9 defender, MIG (“Most Important Guy”)
See Also: Nail Defender
Prerequisite Reading:
Unsurprisingly, Dylan Murphy’s excellent Basketball Dictionary does a great job explaining the four main principles of help defense:
- Two-Nine: help defenders’ technique of jumping in and out of the paint to deter driving lanes without invoking a defensive 3-second violation
- Trap the Box: the low man’s rotation to the strongside low block if the ballhandler drives to the hoop
- Sink and Fill (aka “Help the Helper”): the weakside defensive rotation in which a perimeter defender “sinks” down to defend the low man’s mark (near the dunker spot) after the low man has rotated to the trap the box on the strong side, followed by the next defender “filling” into the lane
- X-out (or “X-ing”): a defensive rotation after the ball has been passed out of the strong side, and then the path of defenders’ closeouts form an X as they switch matchups
In this diagram, x5 (red) traps the box as x3 (blue) sinks and x4 (yellow) fills. After the ball has been passed out to the corner, x4 and x3 X-out (gray):
This post will touch on some of those concepts while expanding specifically on 5-out and spread PnR situations, which have exponentially increased since Murphy began his Basketball Dictionary in 2016, when 4-out sets were more common among NBA teams.
How It Works (Overview):
As 5 sets a ballscreen on the strong side of the floor, x4, who is guarding the player in the weakside corner, is the low man. He and x3, the nail defender, form a “weakside i”:
Against a 4-out look — which almost invariably places the 5 in the weakside box/dunker spot to open up driving lanes on the strong side — the low man is x5, since he is closer to the hoop than x4.
Because of the NBA’s defensive 3-second violation, the low man often straddles the lane line, 2.9-ing in and out of the paint. At lower levels, the low man is usually stationed in the paint, which is beneficial for two main reasons:
- The low man in the paint is a stronger rim deterrent because he’s in between the ball and the basket instead of having to rotate over
- If 1 makes a skip pass to his matchup, the low man (x4) can make a “one-way stunt” (i.e., from the paint to the corner) to close out. A one-way stunt is easier than a “two-way stunt” (i.e., from the weakside low block into the paint, and then back out to the corner), which is longer and uses the low man’s momentum toward the ball against him:
4 Responsibilities of the Low Man (incomplete list)
- trapping the box (rotating to stop dribble penetration)
- tagging the roller
- pinching in (when the defense is fronting the post)
- rotating for post-ups (especially when the post player spins baseline)
1. Trapping the Box (Stopping the Ballhandler)
The low man’s first responsibility is to rotate to the strong side and offer rim protection in the event of a drive. In this example, UCLA’s guard Tyger Campbell is driving to his left, making Josh Christopher (green) the low man:
As the ball gets closer to the hoop, Jaygup gets closer to the ball, shifting farther and farther away from his man in the far corner. Jaygup commits and lifts up to block the layup:
2. Tagging the Pick-and-Roll (Stopping the Roller)
After dribble penetration, tagging the roller is perhaps the biggest responsibility of the low man. When there are two defenders on the weak side, many teams like to have both of them—the nail defender (x3) and the low man (x2)—tag the roller. The nail bumps or lightly tags the roller early in his roll to stop him from gaining momentum, and then the low man is the final tagger:
When there is only one player on the weakside of a pick-and-roll, the low man is the only possible tagger (in most schemes, but not all of them). Offenses go to great extents to remove the tagger and/or make his life as difficult as possible.
Tagging is always a read, however. If the roller is already contained, an unnecessary tag from the low man gives up a corner 3. The same thing happens if the tagger focuses too closely on the roller and not enough on the shaker, who is often lifting up to the wing:
In this example, Orlando’s Aaron Gordon (blue) is tagging the pick-and-roll between Atlanta’s Trae Young and John Collins. However, Gordon is also responsible for Danilo Gallinari lifting up to the wing:
Trae fakes a pass to Collins to make Gordon take just a half step toward the paint before hitting Gallo for the 3:
The next example is a play called Horns Out Angle: Washington’s Montrezl Harrell sets a cross screen for Bradley Beal to cut to the left wing, and then Harrell snaps around and sets an angled ballscreen:
Atlanta’s Trae Young (blue) is the weakside defender closest to the basket and baseline, aka the low man, and therefore responsible for tagging Harrell on his roll to the hoop:
(The responsibilities of the “nail” defender, De’Andre Hunter guarding Bradley Beal in this play, will be covered further in its own post.)
Because of the defensive 3-second violation (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the dimensions of an NBA court and the skill of NBA players), Trae is not in the paint when the ballscreen is set. He must first shift over to tag Harrell and take away the easy lob or layup to the roller. The low man is taught to meet the ball—either the ballhandler on a drive or the roller on a pass—above, not below, the restricted area so as not to end up on SportCenter’s Top 10 later that night.
However, if the ballhandler makes a skip pass to KCP, Trae has to stop his momentum and retreat to his original corner:
It’s important that Trae “moves on the flight of the ball”: that is, waits for the ballhandler to pass to KCP before recovering. As Trae himself knows, a low man who prematurely leaves his tag to recover often concedes a lob.
Hunter, as the nail defender, could close out to KCP and Trae would then X-out to Beal on the wing:
Washington’s clever play design, however, has disadvantaged Hunter, who is not in a good position to X-out when the pass is made. Because Washington begins the possession running Horns Out, Hunter had to fight over a cross screen and recover to Beal, which put him higher than a nail defender typically wants to be when the ballscreen is set (not to mention Hunter’s reluctance to help off Beal, especially since most Horns Out plays are designed for that cutter to receive a pass). As a result, the low man, Trae Young, has a difficult two-way stunt before recovering to KCP, who hits the 3:
Offenses often try to put the opponent’s worst defender in the weakside corner. Notice that the Wizards ran the above play so that Trae Young, not John Collins (who is in the opposite corner), is the low man. Another change is putting a stretch four on the weakside wing instead of in the weakside corner, which prevents the opponent’s PF from being the low man and thus a secondary rim protector. Offenses also have their two weakside perimeter players “exchange,” or change spots on the floor, so that the weaker defender is the low man (defenses often switch these exchanges to prevent that from happening).
On the flip side, defenses like to place their best defender as the low man. Some of the greatest defenders in recent years, from Draymond Green and Giannis Antetokounmpo to Kawhi Leonard and Robert Covington, are purposely tasked with “guarding” low-usage players so that they can prioritize help defense rather than locking down the opponent’s top scorer. Notice on this play—an inverted ballscreen for Karl-Anthony Towns—how Clint Capela is guarding not Towns up top but Jarred Vanderbilt in the far corner. This makes Capela the low man and therefore a stronger rim deterrent to dissuade KAT from attacking the paint:
3. Pinching In (When Fronting the Post)
Against good post scorers—especially after a switch has caused a drastic mismatch—some teams like to “front the post,” or face-guard the post defender and force a pass over the top:
Fronting a mismatch in the post (called “white” by some coaching staffs and “red” by others) fixes the immediate problem—a post feed—but concedes perhaps a bigger problem: an easy over-the-top pass for a dunk. That’s why it’s the duty of the low man (x4 below) to “pinch in” and take away that pass:
In this play, the New Orleans Pelicans switch a Ricky Rubio–Evan Mobley ballscreen. Mobley immediately seeks to post up the smaller defender, who fronts the post to prevent an easy feed to Mobley:
But Jonas Valanciunas, the low man, sees this is happening and pinches in right when Mobley lifts his left hand to call for the pass:
Much like tagging, however, pinching in is a double-edged sword: Pinch in too much and you give up a skip pass to a corner 3; pinch in too little and you give up a dunk.
Rubio reads Valanciunas and passes to his matchup in the far corner. Devonte’ Graham, at the nail, is both closer and faster than Valanciunas, so they X-out:
Valanciunas hasn’t gotten any nimbler as he’s gotten older, however, and Isaac Okoro attacks the closeout toward the middle.
Now that the ball has switched sides, defensive roles have also switched. Although he’s not the new low man, Herb Jones reacts immediately, crashing from the nail to block Okoro’s layup:
Although the low man is supposed to be the first line of help protection at the rim, Herb Jones follows perhaps the most important rule of defense: Always break scheme if it means preventing a layup.
4. Rotating for Post-Ups (especially against baseline spins)
As with trapping the box against dribble penetration, the low man is also responsible for rotating over and stopping the ball if an offensive player in the post beats his defender. Because most NBA defenses have a “no middle” philosophy, a post defender, if he does get beat, often gets beat by a baseline spin, which, uncoincidentally, forces him toward the low man.
In this instance, Luka Doncic is posting up Andrew Wiggins (orange), making Draymond Green (light blue) the low man. If Doncic beat Wiggins going toward the middle, he could have either an easy bucket or an easy kick-out pass to every single one of his teammates on the perimeter:
As a result, Wiggins prefers to force Doncic towards the baseline, and since Drayond Green can comfortably help off Frank Ntilinkina, Green is there to block Doncic’s shot:
Attacking the Low Man (Coming Soon):
Because the low man is so crucial to the opponent’s help defense, offenses have great success toying with the low man. Here is a limited number of techniques:
