Grab Bag
Warriors chemistry, Aaron Gordon and the Joker, the KD-Patty two man game, and a Giannis oop.
Should you find yourself at Berkeley’s venerable Cheeseboard Collective out of ideas, there’s always the Grab Bag, a random selection of cheeses picked at the Collective’s whimsy. Generally well priced, sometimes surprising, and always a delight. In that spirit, here are some plays that From The Logo especially enjoyed recently.
Head Tap
“Head Tap” has been a staple of the Golden State Warriors playbook under Steve Kerr. There are a few options coming out of it, but the tl;dr version is that the 1 (usually Steph Curry) sets a cross screen near the basket for the 3, while the ball is reversed around the top of the arc. The Warriors ran it a lot for Kevin Durant during the dynasty years and it is an Andrew Wiggins staple now. Here’s what it looks like:
The play has a number of options - Wiggins could come off the screen from Curry or receive a pin down from Looney, Steph has a few options to spring open as well - but the Wiggins-version has typically been plain vanilla. More often than not, Head Tap is run to get Wiggins a post-up, leveraging Curry’s screening and gravity to get Wiggins in good position.
Golden State ran Head Tap early during Tuesday night’s game at Madison Square Garden, with all eyes on Steph (two 3s shy of breaking Ray Allen’s record). After Wiggins’ defender Derrick Rose1 gets caught on Steph’s screen, Alec Burks falls for Wiggins’ pump fake and Rose is forced to foul.
Watch Burks give Rose a tap at the end there, acknowledging his mistake. I imagine that was still on Burks’ mind a couple of possessions later when the Warriors ran the play again, with Steph one 3 shy. Only this time, it wasn’t the plain vanilla version.
Bang. Bang.
The Warriors Core Includes Looney
People talk about Steve Kerr’s loyalty to Kevon Looney with gentle amusement. But Team USA and the Plumlees this is not.
Watch the Warriors and it’s clear that Looney shares chemistry with the Steph/Klay/Draymond/Andre core a notch above what the other players do. To wit, watch the mind meld between Looney, Draymond, and Steph during this crunch time play:
Even before the Pacers trap Steph, Looney is moving into position as an outlet and readying a touch pass to Draymond, who has the pitch-and-screen to Steph locked and loaded. Steph pointing Looney to Draymond might even be redundant; Looney knows what to do. Steph missed the shot (although Looney put in the rebound for the game winner), but the process was beautiful. Looney is the sort of smart pro who is able to punch way above his weight in Steve Kerr’s system.
Giannis AntetokOOPo
There is always going to be THE Jrue Holiday-Giannis Antetokounmpo alley oop. I will submit this as another pleasing candidate:
The play looks like a Giannis pin down for Khris Middleton. I imagine that’s what the Knicks expect, with Middleton’s man top locking him and Julius Randle more concerned with Middleton than with Giannis. Twist: The screen is actually for Giannis and he gets sprung open for the alley oop. By the looks of it, Holiday enjoyed that even more than I did. With Giannis in Health and Safety Protocols, Milwaukee is back to playing without its three stars at once. Still: This club will remain the team to beat if all three are available come the playoffs.
The KD-Mills Game
Kevin Durant is scoring 1.07 points per possession on post ups per NBA Advanced Stats. That’s the best mark in the league for players with at least 3 post ups per game, ahead of low post terrors like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.
It is little wonder that opponents feel compelled to send a double at KD in the post. The Nets have weaponized that threat by getting KD the ball on the block with Patty Mills on the strong side wing. Double off of Mills, 46% on catch and shoot threes, at your own peril.
See Isaiah Stewart cheating off of LaMarcus Aldridge there? Aldridge throws in wily flare screens to spring Mills free without the threat of his own defender there to switch and close out. This was something Deandre Jordan and Joe Harris did with some frequency last season.
The Nets’ pups are learning too.
The Nets are scoring 123 points per 100 possessions with Durant and Mills on the floor, in the 99th percentile of all lineups league-wide per Cleaning the Glass. Those lineups outscore opponents by nearly 17 points per 100 and allow 106.4 points per 100, a mark that would rank fifth best in the league. Even if that latter number owes some unearned buffer to frigid opponent shooting, the offense should be good enough to weather any reasonable defensive regression. Until the return of Joe Harris and some spacing relief, the Nets are going to need it.
The Joker-Gordon Game
Preach Zach Lowe.
Nekias Duncan makes a persuasive case as well. MVP debates aside, Nikola Jokic is just a flat out joy to watch and it still astonishes me that more NBA fans don’t place Jokic as one of the most entertaining stars to watch in the league. I mean, this pass:
Jokic packs every Nuggets game full of spontaneity and verve. Jokic is who Alperen Sengun likely sees in the mirror, but that is a conversation for a different post.
On the receiving end of that pass is Aaron Gordon, quietly having his most efficient scoring season with 1.21 points per shot attempt, in the 91st percentile of forwards per Cleaning the Glass. 47% of Gordon’s attempts come at the rim and he is nailing 75% of those shots, a 7% jump from last season.
Gordon receives more than a third of his passes from Jokic and shoots 62% on two pointers coming off those passes per NBA tracking data. He recognizes when to cut to the basket, knowing that Jokic will find him the ball. In transition or semi-transition, he runs hard to seal his man; whether through a full court outlet, or a quick high-low action, Jokic invariably gets him the ball.
One can only hope that we get to see the fully realized version of this Nuggets squad with a healthy Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray. In the meantime, Gordon and Jokic are building a very healthy understanding.
While we are on Derrick Rose, please read Katie Heindl.