While the 2011 Miami Heat team was most certainly at times disjointed, they relied all season on their defensive effort and athletic ability to get their team out and running in the transition game to score easy baskets. What happens if you have a team that doesn’t have that ability to get out and outrun people?

In the Finals Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle pushed all of the right buttons en route to the Mavericks first championship. There were three ways Dallas got easy baskets: 1) Through fantastic set plays that put players in great positions to score in their comfort zone, 2) The court vision of Jason Kidd, 3) and Dirk Nowitzki’s play out of isolation. So here is a set that encompasses all three of those aspects.

Mav’s Lineup on floor: 1–Kidd, 2–Terry, 3–Marion, 4–Nowitzki, 5–Chandler

**They interchange their 1 and 2 spots in crunch time. In scoring plays Terry became the primary ballhandler.

This is the initial action. As seen, Dirk absolutely lethal at the high post which is at times where he would cut to after the screen. It seems like a lot of coaches are trending to smaller and quicker 4 men. This look allows you to stretch the floor by playing through that guy.

At times your 1 guy can bomb here, teams have to sag off to defend the 2 man’s drive. If not it is either a dribble handoff or pass and brush screen, which allows time for the 4 man to get his space.

In this diagram the 4 man takes it to the rack. In the video below he kicks out back to his 2 man spotted up for an open 3. (My apologies, apparently I am not smart enough to imbed the video quite yet. Next post!)

Staggered Ballscreen 1

Same action as the counter shown above.

This time, Dirk is hard denied and sprints to set a ballscreen for Terry and pops to the elbow.

Coaches, the beautiful thing about these sets are how it makes everyone on the team a threat while still putting their best players in the best positions to score. Are you going to leave Shawn Marion wide open for a corner 3? How much room to you help off of Jason Kidd? Do you switch the Chandler-Dirk pin-down, leaving the possibility of Kidd casually ooping a slip? The point being, while your guys may not have the talent of the Mavericks you still have to find ways to give them opportunities to score, and this set is just an example of how that is done in the NBA.

Staggered Ballscreen 2

*In this video they overplay Chandler-Dirk screen and Dirk slips to the basket and gets fouled.

Coaches, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail at jacobcollins34@hotmail.com with any questions.

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