📅 Published on: 2024-12-13 19:47:04
⏱ Duration: 00:13:42 (822 seconds)
👀 Views: 317989 | 👍 Likes: 9410
📝 Video Description:
What’s the unique play style behind this year’s biggest turnaround? This detailed film breakdown & scouting report breaks down the Memphis Grizzlies “weird” offense that’s inspired by a Division 3 college and has their offense much improved from 2 seasons ago.
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Music by Cody Martin (Epiphany) and Fairlight (Detour in Velour)
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NBA,NBA film analysis,NBA Analytics,Thinking Basketball,highlights,NBA highlights,NBA film breakdown,NBA scouting reports,scouting reports,Xs and Os,Taylor Jenkins,Coach of the Year,COY,Memphis Grizzlies,Biggest turnarounds in NBA history,unique offenses,modern play styles,no pick-and-roll,pick-and-roll,isolation offenses,Dribble Drive Motion,Noah LaRoche,St. Joseph’s Monk,Pace,fastest offenses
🕵️♂️ Transcript:
[Music] watch this play do you notice anything strange about it it may look like a standard NBA possession but it is not something weird is happening here because teams today don’t really play like this and yet this unique style of play has led to one of the biggest turnarounds in the entire history of the [Music] NBA over the last few decades the league has run more and more pick and rolles to generate offensive advantages the 80s and 90s were defined by a ton of post-ups where the idea was to stand as close to the basket as possible and receive the ball for a high percentage shot the ’90s and early 2000s ushered in plenty of isolation where the best players could attack one-on-one to hopefully force a double team but then coaches realized the screen was a massive built-in Advantage for the offense so pick roll heavy teams became the norm a typical NBA possession has at least one ball screen and sometimes more and it’s fairly common for the first action to involve a ball screen have that fizzle out and then rescreen or set a second screen for the ball handler as a backup option to keep seeking out that Advantage now let’s rewatch that Memphis possession it starts without a pick for the ball the trailing big usually gets involved involved in some kind of pick and roll here but they look for a back door cut instead and now there’s a full reset with 11 seconds left and no one comes to set a screen for the ball handler and then off his Drive their Center flashes to the interior and throws up a hook shot for two they came right at the game like yo everyone’s we what they’re doing is like I haven’t seen the Grizzlies run plenty of off ball screens this is something you might see from from a Steve cerr offense the guard in the post with a bunch of fancy screening and cutting out at the elbow like this but they don’t run perpetual motion schemes like the Warriors it’s not like there’s a bunch of movement Shooters constantly zipping across each other in chaos instead the Memphis offense is about positioning it’s about moving into the right spaces to stress the defense they aren’t looking for a ball screen here but to find find Space to drive into there’s room on the Baseline so Santi Alama attacks it that triggers a cut from the weak side into the lane and notice how the man on the Baseline in the dunker spot automatically spaces to three they get a kick out on the collapse and suddenly it’s an open shot the next trip down they’re again looking to drive into space the defense takes that away and instead of the big man coming to set a pick or flowing into screen and roll with a guard they try more isolation there’s that same cut and space out concept they swing it around and again that produces an open three but Scotti Pippen Jr drives it instead another teammate circles behind so he can attack on the move and they end up with a great shot at Point Blank Range so a big key to this offense is to attack driving gaps with almost any of their players on the court at a given time and that means creating those driving gaps by moving into the right positions to perpetually open that space a play like this starts with a common NBA set with a simple elbow screen for a teammate to come off of only it’s already weird because there’s two bigs screening for each other the defender is thrown off so now there’s a small advantage to attack which opens up a skip pass and even though that’s off the mark this player isn’t looking to come set a screen instead he’s spacing to the corner to open another driving lane and look at how everyone reap positions during that drive there’s still an advantage to attack and jiren Jackson Jr finally drops it in so instead of running toward each other to converge in a pick and roll Memphis players pass it and often move away from each other and while this possession still ends up with Pippen attacking a closeout and throwing a baby dream shake at lukee cornette all of the repositioning by the Grizzlies opens up this opportunity for Pippen because Jay Huff goes to the Baseline dragging cornette with him then Huff gets out of the way to distract the help Defender which gives Scotty just enough space Here’s a simpler example a minute later where Pippen pitches it and is almost forced into setting a screen by Jason Tatum Jackson then looks to isolate so the wing cuts down to the Baseline line to pull the help Defender out of the way then Jared can go left for that deadly little floater so memphis’s movement is often repositioning as a unit instead of traditional cutting and this really stresses help Defenders they set up some screens for Morant Desmond Bane drags his Defender so he can’t easily slide over in front of jaw Jaylen Wells circles behind the ball to occupy his Defender and jiren relocates to the corner so if his man stays to help on the lob he’ll be open for a catch and shoot three like if one guy drives right the whole thing mov right like you you drive middle and the whole team is rotating draymond’s talking about this entire offense shifting in unison where as Morant drives left the wing repositions to the corner and the corner repositions along the Baseline and that occupies the help Defenders to make the Drive much easier this time the ball is headed to the right into the middle of the floor that pushes the top to the wing the wing to the corner and the corner to the dunker spot and even LeBron is thrown off by this because defenses aren’t used to all this repositioning and I really love how they move along the baseline from position to position where any player can slide from either corner to one of the dunker spots where they become a layup threat this possession against Sacramento starts with jiren in the dunker spot but when the ball drives towards him he needs to move away to the other block or in this case the opposite corner so if his man stays to help jiren then ends up open on the other side of the floor he attacks the close out which still requires a second Defender and that turns into a simple kickout for an open three and on this one well starts down on the Block Mor is supposed to cut off these two screens which means Wells would shift back to the near side of the court but the Kings blow up the action so jaw decides to cut it back to the near side which means you guessed it Wells needs to move away from him to the far side but then jaw heads middle anyway so it’s another reposition and the third times the charm opening driving Lanes like this and attacking with the dribble might might remind some of you of Vance walberg’s dribble Drive motion that John Calipari popularized in Memphis but a heavy inspiration here is new Grizzly assistant Noah L Ro who architected a similar offense at division 3 St Joseph’s monk a few years back only the Grizzlies have mega NBA talents like Jaw who is beyond deadly playing one-on-one in space and jiren who is an absolute Handful in isolation situations when a second Defender never comes to help as jiren brings it up in early offense look at the size of these wide luxurious driving lanes and that leaves his man on an island and is really hard to guard wide Lanes this is so luxurious also notice how that was only an 8-second trip because this entire system lends itself to immediate attacks in early offense they space it out instead of setting any ball screens then Jackson just attacks in single coverage and that is a 7c possession this one is off a make they set up the exact same spacing but with Bane as the ball handler emptying the corner gives him space to attack right and it’s a quick pull-up jumper the Grizzlies are the second fastest offense in the entire playby playay era taking just 12.6 seconds on average to get up a shot or or turn the ball over yes that is nearly half a second faster than these 7 seconds or less Suns and 7/10 faster than the 2023 Kings who created a ton of problems with their Pace two seasons ago one of the reasons Memphis is so fast is that a number of their players can grab and go while the other four players run ahead to fill out the desired spacing and when everyone has an attacking mindset anyone can drive an isolation and their speed and positioning really stresses defenses off of this m shot they immediately inbound it to the big he brings it up and throws it ahead and when there’s just a little confusion about matchups that leaves this shooter wide open and in this half they absolutely Buckle the Lakers defense with their Pace constantly pushing the ball right down their throats it also helps that they’re a solid defensive team so they can turn turn stops into Quick offense going the other way and they usually have four or five athletes that can run the break and attack on the fly like this and they’re fast because they attack for 24 straight seconds often sprinting out of the gates and when the first action is stopped it’s alama’s turn the give and go doesn’t materialize so again Bane pushes the issue and suddenly boom it’s a huff stuff and if you blink to missed it but Huff spaced out of the dunker spot to the corner then when the ball came toward him he moved back there and that broke the king’s defense now it’s not like Memphis never runs handoffs or pick and rolls it’s just that they rarely run them compared to how dominant it’s become across the NBA According to second Spectrum the average team runs 89 ball screens or dribble handoffs every 100 possessions the Nets lead the league with 117 this year and the 29th ranked Celtics are running just 71 but the Grizzlies are at 43 ball screens or handoffs per 100 right now which is the lowest in the 12year history of optical tracking by a country mile those numbers are even lower when Morant goes to the bench since he’s by far their best pick and role player and even when they do screen they don’t always really stop to set the pick Bane comes toward the ball for a change only to ghost the pick by avoiding any contact then he can back door into all that beautiful space this time Bane has it and Jay Huff might come screen but once Dallas forces this action to the sideline Huff can just space out anyway and then Bane can fake the pass to him to set up another easy Drive the Grizzlies are first in the league in field goal percentage at the rim and first in points in the paint and as of right now they have the second largest offensive Improvement in NBA history adding nearly 12 points to their offensive efficiency when compared to League average and their offense is ranked fifth which might be the second most impressive turnaround we’ve seen after Steve Nash’s sons and because they haven’t sacrificed any defensive principles Memphis might be looking at the biggest single season turnaround ever and yes they were decimated by injuries last year but they’ve also been better in 2025 than they were in 2023 and they’re doing it well playing like absolutely no one else has in the modern NBA it’s unclear how much of this will hold up in a playoff setting or if defenses just need time to adapt to these Concepts but right now this team is fast aggressive and a handful to play every night and they’ve basically done all this by abandoning the most successful play in the sports history and rarely running any pick and roll to support this channel patreon.com thinking basketball that’s where we have proprietary stats on teams and players throughout the year we also have a Discord community and you can get all of our extra video content over there or sign up on YouTube as a member where we also live stream the podcast thanks for watching all the way to the end on this one hope you enjoyed it and that you are having a great day
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