Phoenix Mercury Twirl
Great set for a shooter.
I love studying teams After Time Out plays (ATOs) that are clearly designed by the coaching staff that can be very creative. The Phoenix Mercury rank #1 in the WNBA in ATO scenarios so far this season averaging 1.02 PPP.
Note: These ranking are from Synergy, the best site for stats & video that I use on a daily basis. Synergy was grateful enough to give me a referral link and to help provide any interested high school coach looking to get Synergy access for your team, who uses this link https://tinyurl.com/2p8ctdee to get $100 off. The access to college and pro video is a huge bonus for any coach looking to learn and grow.
By far my favorite action from the Mercury is this “Twirl” play for a shooter that uses some decoy action at the beginning.
The Mercury start off some of their best ATO’s with a cut out to the wing out of Horns, something I label “Horns Out” to start the play.
Right now their favorite play is to have DT come off the screen at the elbow and catch the ball in the mid-post and have an option for a quick flip back or ISO/post for her.
Full video of Horns Out 4 from the Mercury.
Using the same entry to have one of their best shooters Allen come off a screen at the elbow to start off the play.
The key to this play is her selling a screen down outside to get her defender to pay attention that she might have to bump or cover that action which is all just decoy.
Right after she goes and screens down here for Griner, she then sprints out to the 3 point line for the catch & shoot 3.
This action is great against teams that switch as well - we can see here catching behind the switch in space behind the defense that is caught too low on the switch.
A similar concept the Warriors would use in their 5-Out offense with Steph/Klay screening for each other, with the full play flowing into a hand off and a weakside screen for the player that cut to the rim - devastating action.
The Pelicans under Gentry used a similar concept out of Horns to setup the basic screendown out of Horns, the base of this play that they used for pindowns for the player in the corner.
Full “Horns Twirl” play from the Mercury:
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