NBA Opening Week - Sunday Recap
A breakdown and recap of everything we have learned since opening night.
The NBA is BACK! A great first week of basketball and some look at how some of the new look teams are shaping up. Welcome to the first Sunday Recap of the season, where I take a look at everything throughout the previous week of games. Studying stats, concepts, and film will hopefully shed more light on what teams are running, issues they can improve on, and tracking everything interesting going on in the NBA this season.
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Upcoming Schedule
Tuesday: Portland Trail Blazers X’s & O’s (Note: since Garland’s injury is going to keep him out, going to pivot to Trail Blazers instead & cover Cavs when Garland is back)
Thursday: Los Angeles Clippers X’s & O’s
Saturday: Los Angeles Lakers Breakdown
Teams Trending Up
Zion is back, the New Orleans Pelicans destroyed the Nets and look to be primed for a playoff run with their flexibility and lineup versatility. They are going to OBLITERATE teams on the offensive glass, good luck boxing out those dudes while playing your smaller lineups.
Boston Celtics look scary good without arguably their best defensive player in Robert Williams and their defense looks like it will be better with Brogdon and a full year of White. They did a great job against Embiid by shrinking the floor and digging down when he tried to get the ball around the elbows and mid-post.
Their 1 on 1 defense has been fantastic, and Vonleh has actually done a great job filling in and will be a great 3rd big when Robert Williams returns.
I am impressed with the Portland Trail Blazers starting off 2-0 and even surviving a pretty rough first game from Damian Lillard is an encouraging sign. I obviously will have MUCH more to say about them when I dive deep into their X’s & O’s tuesday. What a winner from Simons beating the Suns with the hook!
Teams Trending Down
Los Angeles Lakers, what is happening? I’ll touch briefly on their problems and issues since I will dive deep into them for this week’s film study on Saturday but some of this is just really rough to handle - in particular their offensive spacing.
I don’t know if I trust the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs. They will win regular season games, Embiid and Harden will be one of the most dominant 2-man offensive pairings in the NBA but there is zero chance I expect them to make a deep playoff run. Harden could get away with not trying on defense in Houston because he could put 60 on the other teams head like it was nothing - but now he’s the same (if not worse) negative on that end and not nearly as dominant on offense.
Maxey/Harris spend a lot of time watching against the Celtics and I doubt there will be any sort of philosophy shift that allows Maxey to use his speed and athleticism in transition - add it to the list of worries.
SUPER early but already ranking dead last in transition scoring with only 10% of possessions ending in a transition opportunity, not great coming from last year finishing transition opportunities only 13% of the time.
Playcall of the Week
Brooklyn Nets - Point
Steve Nash & the Nets call this set “Point” which is the same play that I have broken down extensively that I refer to as “Wide.”
We can see Nash here mouthing and pointing, saying “Point Ky” as in a quick screen in the middle of the floor for Kyrie.
Full Wide Breakdown:
This is also what the Phoenix Suns use for this same action, among other NBA teams:
Breakdowns of the Week
Boston Celtics - Strong After Time Out Counter
The Celtics set up a great After Time Out backdoor/reject counter for Tatum to score a layup, I broke down the play here:
Nikola Jokic - Incredible No Look Pass Breakdown
I broke down Jokic’s ridiculous no-look pass and previous examples and how he is able to completely read the defense without even looking. Nasty stuff.
Set of the Week
Utah Jazz - Skip Hand Off
The Utah Jazz are off to a great start and ran a nice After Time Out (ok, challenge) counter to take advantage of Gobert’s defensive instinct.
When off the ball, Gobert will typically sag off his man and get a foot in the paint or be the weakside low help in this example. Starting off with a dowscreen for the player they are trying to get open (Beasley), he then sprints into a ghost screen faking a ballscreen.
As this occurs, they throw a skip pass to the player in the corner Vanderbilt who Gobert is sagging off of.
This flows into a dribble hand off for Beasley and although Edwards does a great job with a rear contest, he does end up getting the pullup and the concept is something I expect to see more from teams.
The Jazz also ran this in the preseason out of 5-Out when the player in the middle of the floor is being pressured or denied.
Skipping the pass over the top to the opposite wing and flowing right into a handoff, this turns right into a pick and roll attacking the big sagging and creating an easy 2-on-1 advantage.
Warriors - Stack Skip Hand Off
The original set I saw this concept in was from the Warriors, where they run normal “Stack” action for a ballscreen and then put the big in the opposite corner. In normal NBA defense the low man here is responsible for tagging the roller, so when he automatically helps, the skip pass into the hand off is wide open. Awesome concept.
Coaching Insight of the Week
Coach Micah Nori from the Timberwolves broadcast gives us a little insight into the differences between their pick-and-roll coverage from last year to this year.
The notations at the top of the screen say “At Level” and “Centerfield” for the terminology, talking about where the big is located while the ball screen is being set.
"At Level” Example
“Centerfield” Example
I will dive much deeper into this when I break down the Wolves’ offense and defensive system (aiming for November 5th deep dive), but they combine this with Towns/Gobert on the floor at the same time. If Towns is defending the ball screen then he will be higher at the level still:
Gif of the Week
Golden State clearly wants a high hand when closing out on LeBron.
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When you are watching the NBA this season and anything stands out to you or you want to see included in these breakdowns let me know and I will include them! Thank you again for all of your support and for sharing my work.
Outwork Yesterday
Coach Pyper
I know it's a two game sample - it's just for fun. But New Orleans having a 41.8% OREB% is hilarious.
I think we have seen the desperation for the Lakers to fix their spacing issues with the minutes they are giving Matt Ryan. I highly doubt that was the plan when the roster was designed. They do have players out and that can just be the actual reason but it's not like any of the players coming back increase their spacing that much.
Loved the breakdown of the Skip Hand Off.