The pick and roll is a common play in basketball. The offense needs to be able to execute it and the defense needs to be able to defend it. This drill breaks down the pick and roll into smaller groups until it builds up to a 5 on 5 situation. It is also good that both the offense and defense can be the focus on the drill without doing anything different.
The pick and roll is when one player sets a screen for a teammate in hopes the teammate can get open by using the screen. The defense has to work in being able to stop the pick and roll. There is many different ways to defend a pick and roll. The link will send you to another article where I detail and explain the 6 different ways to defend the pick and roll.
In this drill, I will break down a 2 versus 2 drill and then add a player for a 3 v 3 and finally a 4 v 4 drill. The movement of the first two players in the 2 v 2 drill are the same as when it is 4 v 4. I want the players playing in the most simplistic way. The stuff that is going to work in a 5 v 5 game is how I want the drill to be used in a 2 v 2 scale. This means the offense or defense is going to be at a disadvantage during different points from the 2 v 2 up to the 4 v 4 portion. I will explain what those advantages and disadvantages are when I break down each separate portion of the drill.
2 v 2 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Top
First off I teach a hard hedge and going over the top on pick and roll defense. Due to this, I will be diagramming and discussing the defense aspect using this particular defense. If you use one of the other methods of defending the pick and roll, then your drill is going to look slightly different.
The first drill is 2 v 2. This means there are 2 offensive players and 2 defensive players. The offense is going to have one player with the ball and one player setting the ball screen. The defense is going to be hard hedging the screen and going over the top.
The ball is directly at the top of the key. The 2nd offensive player starts on the elbow. The two defenders are playing man to man defense. As soon as the elbow offensive player moves the elbow defender has to sprint up to the high side of the screener. This is the hard hedge of defending the pick and roll. The offensive player dribbles to their right using the ball screen. The on the ball defender has to fight over the top of the screen and try to get back in front of the ball.
After the screen has been set, the screener rolls to the basket. The player guarding the screener hedges out and then sprints back to the roll man. I do not want the defenders switching unless absolutely necessary. This is a personal philosophy on my part so the defense has to learn how to fight through screens.
I force the offense to use the screen at first to make sure the defense can defend using the hard hedge and going over the top. Once the defense is able to do this then I let the offense free to attack the defense in whatever way they decide. They can pick and pop. They can refuse the screen and hope to get the on the ball defender jumping too early.
The only thing the offense can not do is throw a lob pass over the top on the roll. The roll man is guarded by the third defender when the drill goes to 3 players. The lob is always going to be there so this does not make the drill as productive as it can be.
2 v 2 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Wing
I will also use the wing to start the drill in 2 versus 2. The screener is still starting on the elbow. This changes the screen action for the offense as well as causes how the hedge is going to take place. It gives the offense a different angle to the basket. The vision and passes are going to come from different directions so it is always a priority of mine to do this drill with the ball at the top and then immediately from the wing.
After the defense knows how to hard hedge, then I let the players play a possession completely live. I still restrict the lob pass but everything else is allowable. These drills at 2 v 2 start the defense with learning how to defend the screener and the ball in a pick and roll. The drill starts to give the offense the keys on what they are reading on the pick and roll and how to start attacking the defense.
3 v 3 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Top
Now the drill adds a 3rd offensive and defensive player. I usually put this player on the block with the ball going away from them on the screen. This gives the offense a dump pass to the block if they are able to attack the inside of the defense. In most all of my personal pick and roll setups, I have a player on the opposite block for this very reason. You can put this player on the wing. But when I add the 4th player, I put this player on the wing so I start with the block player first.
The pick and roll players and their two defenders are doing the same thing as before. There is a ball screen, a hard hedge, defender going over the top of the screen, and recovers. The third defender “takes the roll man.” The 3rd defender moves into the middle of the lane to prevent or steal any direct pass on a slip or on the roll. This additional defender has to get involved to help the pick and roll defense.
3 v 3 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Wing
When the ball moves to the wing for the pick and roll nothing really changes for the defense. The defense is still hard hedging and going over the top of the screen. The new defender is moving into the middle of the lane to take away the roll man. This prevents the easy pass the offense had when it was only 2 v 2.
The one new move the offense has is a direct pass to the block. If this were to happen, the roll man defender returns to their man to defend. The key is the hard hedge defender sprinting back after the screen. If this player is sprinting, then they should be able to get back to their offensive player in a span of 2 passes. This prevents a direct pass to the block and then a pass from the block to the roll man. This is a far run for the defender but one they should be able to make.
The introduction of the 3rd players creates more game type decisions. The defense has a player on the ball, one pass away, and one in help side. Now the defense is starting to look like what it is going to be during a game. From here I add another player to simulate more game like scenarios.
4 v 4 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Top
And now with the added 4th players, this drill is very close to simulating a game situation. I add the 4th players on the wing on the same side of the block player. This means the ball is moving away from the wing. I do not want the screen creating a scenario where the dribble is coming towards the wing because that would cause a massive overload on the floor and lose all offensive spacing. So the screen takes the dribble away from the wing.
The first 3 groups of players are all doing the same as before in 2 v 2 and 3 v 3. This creates repetition and additional reps which should create the good defensive habits we are looking to learn. The 4th defender is going to drop down to the block player when their defender moves up to take the roll man away.
As a defense, I want the offense to shoot shots as far away from the basket as possible. This 4th wing defender is going to drop to prevent the pass to the block forcing the offense to pass out to the wing. This keeps the ball away from the basket and gives them an open 3-point shot rather than an open layup from the block.
4 v 4 Offense vs Defense Pick and Roll from the Wing
When the ball moves to the wing for the pick and roll, every player has to adjust their vision. The attacking player is coming from the wing rather than the top so passing angles and rotations are all slightly different than when the ball is on the top. The roll man is coming from the side. The ball is now in the middle of the floor so the ball is traveling on different paths. The backside rotation are still moving in the same directions. The players learning when to take an extra step and when to stay closer to their offensive player makes all the difference in making a defense as good as possible.
The wing defender will need to get into the middle of the lane when the ball is on top because the pass can come more from the baseline because the ball is going down the wing. When the ball starts on the wing then that wing defender may need to only drop to the lane line. That extra step closer to the offensive wing can mean the difference in the closeout getting there to prevent a wide open shot.
Conclusion
The pick and roll is being used by just about every team. Defensively a team needs to know how to defend it. Offensively a team needs to know how they are going to attack it. This drill starts with just a 2 v 2 scenario and keeps adding to it until the players are ready to repeat the actions of the drill in a game. This building progression helps the players learn on a small scale and slowly builds that progression up to a 5 v 5.
Early in the process of teaching how to attack using a pick and roll and what exactly your team is going to do in defending the pick and roll, this drill helps to simplify the learning before building back out to 5 v 5. Giving the information in small chunks help the players learn quickly and duplicate it in game situations. This ability to take practice reps and do them in games gives the team the best chance to win games.
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