Weekly Rewatch 6: Pacers-Grizzlies
Indy's early offense, Morant maturity, the King of Floater Nation.
This is the sixth in a recurring series; in previous installments I looked at Celtics-Jazz, Bucks-Pelicans, Nets-Clippers, Heat-Jazz, and Nets-Wizards matchups. I would love suggestions/requests for games that you would like to see featured in this space going forward.
A mid-season matchup between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Indiana Pacers is exactly why one gets NBA League Pass. Two teams that get out and run (the Gizzlies are eighth in pace, the Pacers fifth) battling for their play-in hopes, coaches relatively early in their coaching careers, a young star in Ja Morant, Caris LeVert’s feel-good return from a health scare, Indy’s funnel-and-stifle defense, Memphis’ team-wide commitment to floaters…color me intrigued. Some of the matchup juice was perhaps leached out by the absence of Myles Turner (and of course, the season-long absences of TJ Warren and Jaren Jackson Jr.), but nevertheless. On to the game.
Quarter 1: Valanciunas in the middle, Indiana’s early offense
Watch the Memphis Grizzlies and it is hard to miss Jonas Valanciunas’ post game, eloquently likened by Nekias Duncan to a bear doing ballet. Valanciunas is averaging an even 1 point per possession on post-ups, sixth amongst players with 4 or more such possessions a game.1
Valanciunas is capable of bulldozing his way into good post position, but the Grizzlies also deploy sequential screens and decoy pin downs to set him up.
The Pacers guards generally chase ball handlers over a pick (more on that below), so Domantas Sabonis slides over as a precaution on the initial Kyle Anderson-Valanciunas pick and roll. Valanciunas rolls right into a pin down for Grayson Allen, giving Sabonis a moment’s pause, which is all the space that Valanciunas needs to drop anchor in prime scoring position.
Allow Valanciunas to set up camp under the basket and he will make you pay on the offensive glass. Valanciunas is one of only three players in the league - with Clint Capela and Enes Kanter - to average over four offensive boards per game.
He retrieves over 14% of the Grizzlies’ missed field goals per Cleaning the Glass. The Grizzlies are the third best team in the league on putbacks, trailing only the Zion Williamson wrecking ball in New Orleans and Clint Capela’s Atlanta Hawks. With Valanciunas off the floor, the Grizzlies barely muster 16 points per miss on putbacks; that gets beefed up to 28 points per miss with Valanciunas on, in the 97th percentile of the league.
As a rule of thumb, there is usually a tradeoff between offensive rebounding and transition defense. Sure enough, teams add 2 points per 100 possessions in transition with Valanciunas on the floor per Cleaning the Glass. That likely doesn’t bother the Grizzlies too much; he is prolific enough on putbacks and creating second chance points that the Grizzlies still give up three and a half fewer points per 100 with Valanciunas on the floor.
Transition defense was still something I wanted to track in this one, given that the Pacers under Nate Bjorkgren get out and RUN. They rank top five in the league in points added in transition and in pace. The Pacers get into their offense quickly, manufacturing transition opportunities even off of opponents’ made baskets.
Keep an eye on the shot clock in the clip above; Caris LeVert scores on a layup less than five seconds after the Grizzlies have scored. Per NBA Advanced Stats, the Pacers attempt nearly 40% of their field goals very early or early in the shot clock (>15 seconds left.) That represents a significant shift from the Nate McMillan years. Players like TJ McConnell can resemble wind-up toys, revving up and creating five alarm fires for suddenly panicking defenders.
The Pacers constantly look to push, with flat lacrosse-style outlet passes finding streaking runners. Pity the opposing coach driven to frustration when Doug McDermott beats his entire team down the floor.
(Side bar: TJ McConnell truly is the energizer bunny. He supercharges their transition offense, getting them to both run more and to run more efficiently when he is on the floor per Cleaning the Glass.)
A personal favorite is a simple early offense set that I call “1-3 High” (it’s legit if I name it, right?) Typically, two Pacers players loiter above the arc as the point guard brings the ball up, with two shooters in the corners. Just as the guard arrives at the arc, one of the corner man comes up for what looks like either a screen or a handoff…that the guard rejects while accelerating towards the rim.
Malcolm Brogdon doesn’t possess the quickest first step, but he does have a decisive one and it gets him an open layup. The Pacers will run this play at the end of quarters when defenses to wind down the clock and survey things.
The breakdown there is largely on Ja Morant, caught in two minds between switching and staying with his man. As simple as this set is, it is designed to take advantage of defensive indecision. The Pacers got Morant with it again in the third.
Simple, yet effective.
Quarter 2: More like Doug McDerCUT
Certain aspects of Indiana’s base defense make a lot of sense. Myles Turner is the league-leader in blocks and the Pacers are comfortable funneling opponents towards the rim; they give up amongst the highest proportion of opponent attempts at the rim per CTG, but also have one of the best rim defenses in the league. They run opponents off the arc; only Utah allows fewer opponent threes.
At times though, one wishes Indiana would mix things up and play the personnel. Zach Lowe wrote this past Friday about Indiana’s refusal to go under picks. I present Indiana defending Ja Morant, under 24% on pull-up 3s this season:
Morant is too quick and athletic to have that sort of runway against Domantas Sabonis. Run that pick and roll with an empty corner and it’s ending with a Valanciunas dunk or Morant layup. Even when there is help available to muck up the driving lane, Morant is slithery enough to beat a backpedaling Sabonis.
Shifting gears, let’s take a moment to appreciate the role that Doug McDermott has carved out for himself in Indiana. No longer just a shooter, nearly half of McDermott’s shot attempts now come at the rim per Cleaning the Glass, a career high by some distance. He anticipates moments when the offense risks getting bogged down, cutting into space as a release valve.
Overplay him even slightly and McDermott breaks towards the rim.
McDermott isn’t just a good cutter, he is an elite cutter. He averages 1.58 points per cut, sixth amongst 116 players who have attempted at least one cut per game per NBA Advanced Stats. He and TJ McConnell make for fun viewing together, all nervous energy and movement.
Quarter 3: Zone busters and zone confusion
One of the first things I watch for on a possession is whether teams are playing man or zone (or some hybrid janky defense.) In a typical NBA game, teams will toggle between multiple defensive schemes, sometimes reactively when the opponent is scoring at will, sometimes proactively to throw offenses off. The Miami Heat may go into a zone after a time out to muck up whatever play the other team has drawn up; at other times, watch teams throw up the double fists after a made basket to signal to their teammates to fall back into a zone.
It’s fun to watch the counters that coaches run to bust open zone defenses (see the end of this post for one that the Jazz run.) Indiana dropped back into a zone a few times in this one and the Grizzlies had a ready counter when Ja Morant was on the floor. A big (Brandon Clarke here) comes up to the elbow while the other big moves into the dunker’s spot to keep the center man on the back line occupied. Once Clarke receives a pass from Morant, he pitches it back to him on the run. That give-and-go gives Morant the momentum he needs to attack down the middle.
Sabonis was lucky not to end up on a poster there, but you probably want Morant dumping the ball off to Xavier Tillman (Grizzlies 2) there.
The Grizzlies will also run this where Clarke sets a rip screen; the threat of Morant on the run pulls the defensive center out of position enough to open up the lob from Morant.
That this simple play breaks open the Pacers D so easily owes in no small part to Indiana’s sloppy execution of their zone. I recommend reading Caitlin Cooper on how teams attack the Pacers’ 2-3 zone (and in general, I always recommend Caitlin Cooper’s writing.) Nobody picks up the roller on the high pick and roll, with Jonas Valanciunas able to trundle from the hash mark all the way to the rim.
The Pacers just seem confused about roles here, with both McDermott and Goga Bitadze pointing for someone to follow Valanciunas.
That confusion results in Bitadze caught in no man’s land, neither corralling Valanciunas, nor acting as much of a deterrent against the accelerating Morant.
It’s hard to know what’s worse; no one picking up the man, or everyone picking up the man. Here, three Pacers zero in on Xavier Tillman’s flash to the middle.
This again seems to be a combination of miscommunication and confusion about responsibilities. Once Doug McDermott shades into the lane, Caris LeVert needs to be moving out to Tyus Jones on the perimeter. LeVert eventually leaves himself too much ground to make up to meaningfully contest Jones’ three.
Zone defenses can be a handy change up and as Miami showed against the Boston Celtics in the Bubble Playoffs, may tip games on the margin. Still, they are only as good as their execution and teams have too much shooting in today’s NBA for a shoddy zone to survive.
Quarter 4: Patient Ja and the King of Floater Nation
In case you hadn’t heard, the Memphis Grizzlies are the foremost exponents of floaters. Brandon Clarke has an especially nice one, but tune in to watch the Grizz and you are likely to catch many, many members of their roster floating in a bucket on the run. I humbly submit Tyus Jones as first amongst equals in Floater Nation.
At a generous 6'0”", Jones needs to put some serious arc on his floaters, giving them that much more aesthetic appeal in at least this writer’s eye than those from say the 6’8” Clarke. And this isn’t just about aesthetics; per Cleaning the Glass, Jones is shooting an even 50% on short mid rangers this season, in the 86th percentile for his position. And Jones knows it too. He scampers towards the basket and launches the second his toes touch the paint.
Jones’s shot chart at the top of the paint burns with the heat of a thousand suns.2
Jones should get an extra point for the sheer bemusement with which opposing big men watch the shot arc over their heads. Many are caught so unawares that they forget to even put their arms up!
The fusillade of floaters aside, there are plenty of reasons to watch the Memphis Grizzlies, including Ja Morant’s expanding skill. Morant is the new face of the franchise, so it can be easy to forget how young he is (both of Memphis’ rookies this season are older than Morant.) That can lead to defensive miscues, many of which are evident in the clips above. However, Morant also displays the timing of a veteran ball handler. He knows to wait for a window to present itself.
That bounce pass is a thing of beauty, placed and paced to just evade Domantas Sabonis’ outstretched paw and hit Valanciunas in stride.
Morant isn’t just patient for patience’s sake. He sees a snappy pass before it happens, while processing the optimal course of action.
When corralled by Sabonis, Morant is patient enough for Valanciunas to present an outlet, before relocating to the corner. But he isn’t done, turning down the open look and passing the ball to the super shooter in Grayson Allen (42% on catch and shoot 3s this season.)
The dunks and the Sportscenter highlights aside, the above two possessions are a big part of why I am high on Morant as a franchise point guard.
Arvydas’ boy
Tales of Arvydas Sabonis are legendary, but some highlights aside, most of his best passing years came before he made his way to the NBA. Some of that spirit lives on in Domas though and it brings me a thrill every time we get a little number like this one.
Malcolm Brogdon is literally standing still under the basket when that pass finds him! Ja Morant needs to be better on Brogdon’s cut, but you can’t blame him for not expecting Sabonis to find that passing window.
The names above Valanciunas on that list? Nik Vucevic, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, and Nikola Jokic, All Stars all.
Image credit: Cleaning the Glass.