Question for more knowledgeable B-Ball watchers about our Offense
Unlike in football, I do not follow the more technical details of how teams play offense and defense in basketball. So I've come across a lot of talk about how "switching screens" has been giving our offense problems all year, and after last night's game, there has been much talk coming from Bellein and others about how we have to evolve our offense. One quote:
“The way the game is going, Gonzaga switched every screen,” Beilein said. “These guys switched every screen, it’s the way it’s going. Isolation basketball. We have to look a great deal on creating your own leverage.”
Can someone explain in laymen's terms what this means, why we have trouble with it, and why we have to evolve? It seems to me that we just didn't have a go to guy this year that could make three's or create his own shot, and if we had that, like in past year's, we'd be fine. Or am I wrong about that?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
Brian brings up feeding the post, but is it really that simple?
Isn't Z's inability to hit 3s a huge reason why it is hard to feed the post? I imagine it is hard to feed the post when you have a 6-10 guy sagging off because you aren't a threat to shoot.
I agree with this completely. Facing the switch on screens, a knock down PG like Burke or Walton is a better weapon. Simpson has his qualities, mostly in terms of defense and leadership, but offensively he is limited. You can't shoot that cute hook shot every time.
You are correct. Hopefully he can improve his 3-point shooting like he did his FT shooting. I'd hate to see Beilein drastically change his offense just because his PG can't shoot.
That's certainly a factor. Still there were plenty of times this year where did we have Teske isolated on a shorter guy and didn't recognize it. We need to become a better passing team in general.
A few things:
1) there's no reason why Simpson shouldnt make >=50% of uncontested 3s
2) the team needs to practice post entries (and Teske finishing those) more
3) we need to run more pick and rolls with someone who can both shoot and drive, like perhaps DDJ or a better version of Poole or Iggy and then circle back to 1) Z needs to be a big enough threat in the corner to prevent his man sagging into the lane.
Positionless players taking over game.
Every player can play every position, thus switching on every play.
Yeah seems like the ideal team is 4 as tall as you can get em guards and 1 as tall as you can get athletic person. The taller and better shooting and better ball handlers those guys are the more successful you'll be.
Your biggest weakness will be burly post-oriented teams but 1) who cares, post offense is inherently inefficient and 2) once your 5 hits like 6'8 or 6'9 that will hardly even be a weakness. DJ Wilson/Isaiah Roby/that wasted center on MSU last year whose name i'm blankin on would all be ideal for this.
Because there are no "stars" they could not capitalize on the switched mismatches. Besides the 1/5 mismatch, there was no consistent 3 point shooter to stretch the defense and prevent helpside rotation.
JB was running a lot more slip screens at the end of the season (show a screen, but not set it and dive to the basket while the other team switches.) but things just weren't working. This team was full of B players no stars. That isn't a knock on any of them, just fact.
Adjustments will be made. Another year of JB coaching, new faces, and more experience will heal most of the problems.
We actually didn’t run a offense! We sat on the perimeter all game and waited. A few cuts here and there but to say it was a offense was and is a joke!
All of this is why the best athletes avoid Michigan. It's a hell of a lot easier to look good when you're surrounded by exceptional athletes. Michigan basketball presents the opposite option.
I'm sure all the guys Beilein has sent to the NBA would agree with that expert analysis.
I support all the guys that Beilein has put in the NBA...but...lets take a step back and also admit its not like our guys are crushing it either. Its one thing to be drafted, its another to be a legitimate NBA player day in and out and have a long career.
- Glenn Robinson barely plays
- Nik is already on his 5th team
- McGary is already out of the league
- Trey is almost out of the league, his minutes and games played is reduced every year
- Hardaway and Caris (if he can ever stay healthy) due appear to be legitimate players at the NBA level
I am not bashing our coach, I am not bashing our players, but lets also stop with the narrative about all the guys we get drafted. Yea, that is a great recruiting pitch, no doubt about it, but if you are a true fan of the sport, you will also see our real hit rate in the NBA is not good. We are NOT producing quality 6th Man / Starting / All Star level talent .
Outside of the handful of one-and-done factories, basically no one produces All-Star talent. Take a look at what our fellow B1G schools have sent to the pros.
The poster above is claiming that we don't have good enough athletes for college basketball, and that's pretty silly.
Now that is an absolute fair point (its nice when we can have reasonable conversations instead of the typical "Your a fucking moron and I'm always right attitude" Not saying that is you or Me, but you know the type I am talking about.
I would say, I do believe that we were fairly athletic this year. Poole, Mathews, Livers are the core athletes. Iggy is not terrible, average, maybe slightly above average. I think that athleticism is what propelled this defense to be as good as it was.
What I would say is that I think need to be more athletic at certain positions. So, if we have a PG like X, that really is not a good shooter, then he needs to be an A+ explosive athlete, someone that is just way faster than anyone on the court to make up for the lack of shooting, they need to be able to explode to the hoop if they cannot shoot mid/long range. I would also looks at the 5 position and try to find one of those 6'9/6'10 Pogo Sticks we see at Florida, Tennessee, hell even Maryland. We would be devastating in a 4 out - 1 offense with that.
I love Teske, respect how much better he has become. I think he can still get better, just spend all summer on low post moves. Nothing else, just practice 7 ft from the basket and in. BUT...think if this team had a Bruno Fernando from Maryland. That kind of athleticism and aggressiveness in low post. Yes, we would losing some shooting, but if we are going 4 out on offense, having that kind of athlete at the 5 on the High Pick and Roll. That would solve a lot of those scoring droughts we encounter.
I'm not suggesting we don't have athletic guys -- but there are degrees of athleticism. I'm essentially saying there's a reason why the top recruits go to Duke, Kentucky, etc.
Duke hasn't looked like a great team lots of times. They can't shoot from the outside. Their top-tier athleticism allows them to get away with it.
The reason is they get paid and that's it.
Well I'm not a super expert on basketball stuff, really just hockey. But I love basketball and watch film and highlights of it more than any other sport.
Tech was collapsing every time Michigan tried to get inside the arc and switched on the Pick and Rolls michigan was running, putting a small guy on Teske. We weren't exploiting it enough, give some credit to tech on denying the pass inside. But I thought their best option last night was to run pure isolation on every other possession. Tech's defense as individuals is not very good. If you Let matthews, poole, iggy go iso where the other four guys are completely on the other side of the floor and then rotate over once the iso guy got by his guy for a kick out three if tech collapsed, it would have been wide open, theoretically, all night. I'm talking Kobe, MJ type isolation basketball. Our players were more talented and showed throughout the game they could get by their one on one defender. We made some poor decisions once tech pressured inside the arc.
Lacking shooters allows teams to do what tech did and not worry about leaving a shooter, other than poole, open. Beilein's offense needs shooters and this team was probably his worst shooting team since 2009. I think they are better when they are elite offensively and just average defensively rather than elite defensively and average offensively. The last two years beilein had his best defensive teams and they had worse losses in the tournament than his previous teams have had. I think 2017 was actually the perfect mix because they had a lot of length and a 5 that could shoot with the best of them, but 2013 had just too much star power.
The last two years beilein had his best defensive teams and they had worse losses in the tournament than his previous teams have had.
You do remember that we went 7-2 in the tournament (and 63-15 overall) these past two years?
The most valuable characteristics a player in a Beilein offense can have are shooting ability, ball handling, and passing ability. When a screen is used, it gives you the option to exploit the defense by creating mismatches and lanes to the basket (as others have said above). As Brian said in his post, M didn't have a guy on the team who could do all 3 of these reliably. In past years, M's offense has thrived with one of these creators (Burke, Stauskas, LeVert, and Walton are the best examples). M's best man with the ball was Simpson, but he lacked the shooting ability to keep defenders tight on him on the ball screen. Compare that to Stauskas (a little unfair given positional difference, build, and skillset) who could rise up almost immediately every time a big was switched on him, get into the lane and either finish at the rim or distribute without turning it over, and the offense hums at a new level.
The offense has found ways around the above problem the last couple years by trying to play 5-out, opening up the paint for guards and forwards to get to the rim. They're entire starting 5s except Teske this year and Livers last year were good finishers at the rim, so it created good looks for those guys to take advantage of their skillset, but eventually teams used switching to take those lanes away and force M to make 3s. Without many reliable shooters, M was prone to have games like last night.
Going forward, it's imperative that M develops a player with 2 of the above skills and gets him the third. Simpson is almost there, he just needs shooting. Poole has the greatest potential in my mind to get there because he has all 3 skills, he just hasn't been that consistent (and seemingly rarely chooses to drive to the basket). Brazdeikis is close as well, but he needs to look for passing lanes more often. The nice thing about the team the last few years is that having an elite defense should keep you in every game. Offenses are more variable in my mind, reliant on good shooting performances and keeping turnovers low. So while we can expect another good season next year, if they truly are going to contend for championships, they need to develop one of those 3 guys to become the head of the offense.
What would have been nice to see out of the offense, especially yesterday with X being so out of sorts, put Poole at the top and run the pick and roll with him. he is our best pull up shooter, can get to the hole pretty well and can knock down the three if they slide under. His only issue is he is over focused on getting his own shot. Our offense was predicated too much on X being the main ball handler. If you look at the box scores, games where he shot 10+ shots were games our offense usually struggled. Which means the D didn't help off their guys as much. Putting Poole in the pick and roll can give us more options off from it.
I agree, we needed to put Poole in a lot more pick n rolls this year as he is a good shooter, is pretty good at the rim, and he's a pretty good passer too. The problem is he seems to bug out and take a step back 3 way too often. Presumably with more reps he would have gotten better though and he has the highest ceiling there. Unfortunately this also means X is standing at the 3 pt line and teams might sag into the key off of him. X should be able to make wide open 3s at a much better rate that would prevent this but currently he does not. We should have been doing this on every offensive possession where Poole as in and X was on the bench though and should have tried it a lot more when X was on the court too.
I think the reason we didn’t see Poole run the pick and roll is they didn’t/don’t trust him to be able to make the right read/play coming off the screen. Certainly something they need to work with him on, especially if Z is still not able to come off the screen and hit a jumper. That is what makes Winston so tough coming of the ball screen, you play off and he can hit the jumper but if you crowd him he will go right by you.
Leverage means getting a favorable position on your opponent. We need more players that can create their own leverage, but we also need to look at other screen/off-ball strategies that can help create space and positioning. Dribble hand-offs, ball reversal using a post hinge, and good, old-fashioned talent can all create leverage without using traditional ball screens. Speeding up and using more deception with screeners could also help.
Beilein will find some creative ways to improve the offense, or he'll hire someone who will.
Basektball is mainly coached to get a mismatch and go one on one with your better offensive player versus their weaker defender.
Our big problem is we don't have one guy who can get their own shot all the time .
Space the floor, pass and cut, run sets/quick hitters that exploit the switch. Off the ball action to keep the backside defenders occupied so they can’t just sit in help side. Belien has transformed his offense before and I have no doubt he will do it again. Would love to see us run offense like Purdue and dare I say MSU.