Joe Ingles & Rudy Gobert: A Dynamic Duo

This post was supposed to be about Joe Ingles and his wizardry with the ball. As anyone that follows me on twitter knows, I might be the president of the Joe Ingles fan club. However, the more I dove into the clips the more I noticed the subtle nature of their offense to help Ingles be more effective. A big part of that is how Ingles & Rudy Gobert are able to work together in 2-Man game situations. Gobert is great at being able to manipulate the on ball defender to build advantage for Ingles.

This blog post idea came from a recent Efficient Sauce session (again I will plug what they are doing because it is one of the best things I have done this offseason) where they mentioned how much the Jazz try to get Ingles going left. It made me think about how the players that we coach all have strengths. It is our job as coaches to maximize strengths of our players and minimize those things that they are not as good with.

The Jazz use Ingles as a trigger to create offense quite a bit. Some triggers are able to create offense just by themselves or with very little help (IE Damian Lillard, James Harden, Kevin Durant). However some triggers are dependent on others to help them get the dominos started. Ingles falls into the second category.

Screening Angle

One of my conclusions after watching Jazz clips is that nothing that they do (or other NBA teams) is by accident. When talking about ball screen angles their has been a ton of talk about screening the back pocket of the on-ball defender to get the ball handler attacking. That is how I have taught ball screens the last year. However, I think that being able to set screens at different angles can be a huge advantage for the offense. Rudy Gobert is a great on ball screener and roller because he can set screens at different angles and attacks the rim on the roll. He has really good instincts on how much he needs to screen and at what angle.

The first thing when talking about screeners is to “Sprint” or “Smash” on the screen. The sprint occurs when the on ball defender is already behind the play or is in a “gentlemans stance” opened up to the screen. The job of the screen is to create advantage, so when the ball handler already has advantage on his defender the screener can reroute the defender quickly by his position and sprint out of the screen quicker. Gobert is a master of this because he never thinks pop. A Smash occurs when the on ball defender is locked into the ball handler and the screener must create the advantage by hitting the on ball defender and holding his position.

Out of a pistol look, Gobert sees that Ingles has the advantage and he simply needs to reroute and sprint out. This early sprint out softens up the hedge defender because he must protect the rim. This opens up the paint for the layup once Ingles gets past the first help defender.
Similar idea here on the wing. Gobert gets below the on ball defender and forces the over. Because Gobert reads that the on ball defender is a step behind he can sprint out early and put a ton of pressure on the rim. This gives Ingles and a Gobert a 2-1 advantage against the drop guy. Ingles hits him with the pass fake for a layup.

So now after looking at the traditional force over, lets look at why sometimes it makes sense to force the under or a high over.

Screening the top side of the defender will usually force an under. This does 3 things for the offense.

  • Open jumper for a good shooter like Ingles (especially going to his right hand).
  • Set up a Rescreen situation where the big turns and sets a second lower screen to get a better angle
  • Plays into the defensive strategy to always go over ball screens. When the screen is so high that the defender has to fight the urge to go under it puts him way behind the play once he decides to go over.
You can see in this clip that Gobert sets this screen at an angle that makes Paul George go under which opens up the dribble 3 for Ingles.
The last ballscreen Gobert sets (10 second mark) you can see how he starts a little higher to bait the defender into going under. Once Duncan Robinson goes under Gobert starts his rim run and gets in the way of Robinson which opens up Ingles for a wide open 3.
We will talk about rescreens later in this post, but you can see the influence of Gobert’s angles on the on ball. The first screen opens up a quick rescreen. On the rescreen Gobert sets up higher to force Caruso into an impossible situation. If Caruso takes the bait and goes under he opens up the Right Hand dribble 3 that Ingles is so good at. However, because he decided to go over the screen he gets caught on Gobert and the only thing the Lakers can do is Veer Switch.

The Throw & Go

One of my favorite concepts I have studied this offseason is the throw & go. The European influence of “gets” is something I really like. The throw & go is no different and is an effective way to get an advantage for the offensive team. For a player like Ingles this can take away specific ballscreen coverages that the defense might play. If a team would push him to his right hand, he can space away and play throw & go with Gobert.

In this clip the Jazz run a high split to get ingles a handoff form Gobert. Ingles stretches out the defense and throws it back and chases the ball. Gobert sets a good screen for Ingles and allows him to get to his floater.
Similar to the above clip, Ingles comes off a ballscreen and since he doesn’t have an advantage he throws it back to Gobert. A quick cut and a clean handoff with Gobert rerouting the on-ball defender get Ingles downhill in a 2-1 situation.
In this clip Aaron Gordon is pushing Ingles to his right. Ingles being super crafty continues on his path and stretches out the defense which pulls both Gordon and Vucevic further away. Ingles throws it to Gobert and chases to get the handoff. Gobert reroutes Gordon and Ingles executes a hostage dribble to maintain advantage.

Rescreens

Rescreens can be effective for offensive players that struggle to build advantage. It is hard to guard something two times in a row so it puts the hedge defense in a tough show and the on-ball defender must fight through two hard screens. It is pretty common to rescreen vs an under because most defenses will not go under two screens in a row.

Ingles weaves against the top lock in this clip and gets it on the wing. The on ball defender does a great job of staying with Ingles over the first screen, however Gobert turns and forces him back under with way too much space to recover. Ingles is able to dribble into a 3 going right.
On the pitch back to Ingles he starts driving and Gobert allows the defender over (no screen set). He turns and sets a screen forcing the on ball defender to go under and then over. Because he smashes on the over it gives Ingles much more room to get downhill. Gobert’s rim threat pull the drop defender away from Ingles.

Pindowns

The Jazz get a ton of use out of wide pin downs for Ingles out of the corner. This allows them to play it in a similar way to the ballscreen because once Ingles catches he is on a 2 v 1 with Gobert. Like the throw & go, this takes the defense out of specific ballscreen coverage that would limit him being able to go to his left hand.

One of the plays they run a lot for Ingles is the back screen into wide pin down. You can see that Ingles goes early to gain an advantage on the defender. If he gets that 1 step advantage over his defender he is elite in his decision making. On his catch, Gobert can screen and sprint to gain the 2-1 advantage against the drop.
Similar set up as above with Ingles leaving early to gain space. This gives him more space to get downhill in the 2 V 1.

Handoffs

The Jazz use handoffs like the pin downs in that they use them to help Ingles get downhill.

One of my favorite sets in the NBA is the suprise mash. The PG runs a through cut but instead of just filling weak side he pins for Ingles. This surprises both the defender guarding Ingles and their is no hedge. Once Gobert flips it to Ingles he is wide open
Another great set that the Jazz run is this handoff play out of an Iverson look. Ingles cuts through and screens for #31 Niang then gets the handoff from Gobert. The key to this play is that the Jazz empty out the entire side which puts the drop defender in a tough 2 V 1 situation.
This handoff play comes out of a transition situation. Like the Pindown you can see Ingles sprinting out of the corner a little early. The tracer action (handoff into ballscreen) gives Ingles space to turn the corner. Gobert reads that the on ball defender is behind so he sprints to the rim putting a ton of pressure on the drop defender.

To finish up this post

If you are looking for a good podcast, the Joe Ingles appearance on the JJ Redick Podcast was a great listen. Some legit good insight into how he plays. Here is the link