“Get”
Term: Get
Definition: an action in which a player (usually a guard) passes to a teammate (usually a big) and then follows his pass to receive a handoff
Alternate Definition: a pick-and-roll (cf. “Elbow Get,” a Mike D’Antoni set in which a player, usually a PF, gets the ball at one Elbow and then gets a ballscreen near the nail, or middle of the FT line)
Synonyms: Go, Throw-and-Go, Throw-and-Get, Handback, Touch, Snap
See Also: Throw-and-Chase (an action in which a player, usually a big, passes to a teammate and then chases his pass to set a ballscreen), Snap
How It Works: In the diagram above, 1 passes to 5, and then 1 follows his pass to receive a handoff from 5.
Why It Works: Gets are effective for the simple reason that players move faster without the ball than with it. For some players, especially those not known for their handle, a get can create more separation than dribbling into a ballscreen.
More broadly, gets can provide the advantages (and reads) of pick-and-rolls, along with the opportunities of high-post playmaking. If the guard’s defender goes under the DHO, for example, the guard can look to shoot. But since the big has a live dribble, he can also fake the DHO and drive to the hoop against aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, such as blitzing or hard hedging.
If the guard’s defender is overly aggressive, the guard can cut backdoor, set an inverted ballscreen, or curl around the big to the basket. Or the guard can fake receiving the DHO and set a screen for his teammate to get the DHO going in the opposite direction:
Against a switch, the guard can attack the big’s defender off the bounce, or the big can seal the guard’s defender, as Bam Adebayo does to James Harden on this play:
Gets are also helpful for players who have already picked up their dribble, and for beating an aggressive closeout. The Miami Heat, for example, teach their shooters to beat aggressive closeouts with a sidestep 3 or a get instead of pump-faking, dribbling once inside the 3pt line, and shooting a long step-in 2.
During his last year with the LA Clippers and his first year with the Philadelphia 76ers, about 1/3 of J.J. Redick’s FGAs were long 2s, often after pump-faking a 3 and dribbling once inside the 3-pt line:
Then a member of Philly’s analytics department convinced Redick that sidestepping the closeout and taking a 3 was a more valuable shot than a step-in 2. The following year, only 1/4 of his FGAs were long 2s, down from 1/3.
“I took that same shot in Michigan,” Duncan Robinson said on JJ Redick’s podcast, The Old Man and the Three, about the long step-in 2. “One of the first things when I got to Miami that they said [was] ‘You’re not shooting that anymore.’” Instead of a step-in 2, Robinson was taught to sidestep the closeout or to execute a get with a big.
In this next clip, Duncan Robinson doesn’t get a clean look for 3 after receiving the DHO from Kelly Olynyk, so he executes a get with Bam Adebayo at the top of the key:
Examples:
