“Scram Switch”
Term: Scram Switch
Definition: an off-ball switch (especially in the post) to mitigate the mismatch caused by an earlier switch
See Also:
- Veerback Switch: an emergency switch after a ballscreen in which dribbler’s defender can’t recover to the dribbler, so he switches onto the roller as the roller’s defender switches onto the dribbler
- Pre-Switch: a switch before a ballscreen so that a better defender is now guarding the ballscreener and can thus switch onto the ball handler
- Peel Switch: a defensive tactic to stop dribble penetration by having a help defender switch onto the ballhandler, and then the ballhandler’s original defender “peels off” him and guards whoever is left open by the rotation
- Triple Switch: scram switch is a type of triple switch (in other words, all scram switches are triple switches, but not all triple switches are scram switches)
How It Works:
In this example, Miami’s Bam Adebayo sets an empty side ballscreen on Charlotte’s guard James Bouknight. Bam’s defender, PJ Washington, switches onto the ballhandler, and then Bam posts up the smaller Bouknight:
But then Charlotte’s center, Montrezl Harrell, leaves his assignment in the weakside corner and—when he’s close enough to guard Bam—yells “scram” at Bouknight to tell him to leave Bam and guard Harrell’s original assignment. Thus, the scram switch eliminates the post mismatch:
With seven seconds on the shot clock and no mismatch, Miami has little choice but to pass to Bam anyways, and Bam misses the Elbow jumper as the shot clock expires:
Three Ways to Attack Scram Switches:
Scram switches have two main weak points: First, the mismatched defender can leave too soon, giving the opponent’s big an open shot in the paint. In this example, Cleveland’s Evan Mobley sets a ballscreen. The defense switches, so Mobley posts up his smaller defender near the Elbow:
Houston’s Alperen Şengün attempts to scram switch onto Mobley, but the smaller defender leaves Mobley before Şengün arrives, and Mobley hits the open jumper:
The full play:
The second, and more common, scram switch liability is the player left open when the bigger help defender comes to switch. In this example, Atlanta’s Danilo Gallinari sets a ballscreen for Trae Young and posts up Trae’s original defender, Raul Neto:
Washington’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leaves Kevin Huerter in the far corner to scram switch onto Gallinari. Before Neto can close out to Huerter, however, Trae passes to Huerter for a corner 3:
Full play:
In the previous play, you might wonder why KCP came all the way from the far corner to scram switch onto Gallinari when Washington’s center, Daniel Gafford, was much closer—especially since Gafford’s man, Clint Capela, isn’t quite a knockdown shooter from the Elbows. Furthermore, KCP isn’t much bigger than Neto, so switching Gafford onto Gallinari is a much evener matchup. The problem with an interior scram switch is that Capela is left open much closer to the hoop and ready for an alley-oop (and if the guard is too small to defend Power Forwards, he’s definitely too small to defend Centers).
In this play, Cleveland’s Kevin Love sets a ballscreen for Darius Garland, whose defender, San Antonio’s guard Lonnie Walker IV, switches onto Love.
Similar to the Atlanta–Washington example, the defense switches a PG-PF ballscreen as the offensive center stands near the weakside Elbow. Unlike Washington, however, San Antonio attempts an interior scram switch; SA’s Jakob Poeltl leaves Jarrett Allen (both in light blue) to switch onto Love:
But before Walker IV can switch onto Jarrett Allen, Garland is throwing up a lob for him:
Full play:
A third way to attack a scram switch is to have posting up player pop out for a shot. Good scram switches occur inside out; the new defender comes from the baseline/under the hoop to his new assignment. However, that means the post player can create space by popping out for an open 3 before his new defender arrives.
Love sets a cross screen for Darius Garland. Garland’s defender, Sacramento’s Davion Mitchell, tries to fight over the screen, but when he realizes he can’t recover to Garland, he and Love’s defender, Marvin Bagley III, execute a veerback (or late) switch: Mitchell stays with Love, and Bagley stays with Garland:
Love immediately looks to post up Mitchell, so Sacramento’s Tristan Thompson leaves Evan Mobley in the weakside dunker spot to switch onto Love. But Love senses the switch is coming so he pops out and hits a 3 before Thompson can closeout from the low block to the top of the key:
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