The RGV Vipers had a very creative PNR attack and was a team that I enjoyed watching a ton. One of my favorite concepts that they ran, was the low corner ball screen.
Empty side ball screens are an effective because they can open up a lot of space for the ballhandler and screener to operate. It also forces the defense to shift aggressively to help on pick & roll. RGV takes it to the extreme and uses the entirety of the court to attack. This puts the defense into really tough spots to defend. With the emphasis on spacing, this is a concept that I think more coaches should look at.
Ballhandler scoring
Against a side PNR, the defense must fill the nail and the rim. With the location of the PNR, the defense must be even more aggressive in their shift to help stop the ball. These first clips show the ball handler being able to get downhill and get into the paint to score against the spread defense.
**We are classifying anything at the break or lower as the Low corner.
RGV can get into the look out of their transition flow, #4 Thornwell brings the ball down to the low corner and #55 Hartenstine chases the ball. The other 3 players spread the weak side of the floor to help open the floor for the ballhandler. The nail defender is in his normal nail position, but needs to come over even more to stop the ball. Because of the good setup and screen, Thornwell is able to get to his floater.
Pistol look to start with Thornwell getting the ball low. Even with the guard spacing, it forces the nail defender to spread out even more. A good screen takes away the hedge because he must stay below the roller and it leads to a veer drive.
#12 Roach clears out the corner and gets himself setup to attack. #7 comes in and sprints off the screen to take away the hedge which clears the driving lane for Roach to drive hard. Even with the deep help in the paint, it is too late to stop the ball.
Roll Man Scoring
Empty side ball screens gives the screener a chance to get free rolls to the rim if the defense doesn’t aggressively try to tag with the low man. The low angle of the screen puts the screeners defender into a tough spot, because if he helps up at all the roller is on the baseline with a free run to the rim.
The big reads a hard coverage and sprints/slips out of the screen. The low man does a good job of preventing the easy layup but the big is still able to finish the lay-up.
A super deep corner PNR with the defense getting aggressive on the ball. The big rolls hard and catches it in front of the low man coming over. He draws the foul from the help defender. This clip really shows how quickly the action can happen which forces the defense to reposition earlier. It also shows what a hard rolling big can do the help defense as you see #0 have to sink to help #15.
The big getting below the defense is a huge problem and in this clip you see how little of an advantage he needs to score in this alignment. # 21 Frazier does a great job of setting up the guard and Hartenstine sets a good screen. He rolls out hard and puts the drop defender into a tough spot on the 2 vs 1. If the drop helps up at all, the big roller has a free run to the basket.
In this clip you can see the importance of the guard getting into the paint. He draws the drop defender and is able to throw the hook pass to the slow rolling big. This alignment puts so much pressure on the defense if a 3rd defender doesn’t get involved unless they are able to really disrupt the screen 2 on 2.
Guard Setup
One of the major points for this action is the guard must do a great job of setting up the defender. In a recent zoom call, I heard a great teaching point about how important it is for the big to come to the ballhandler.
The ballhandler has to wait and be patient to set up his defender to be screened. The big must sprint into the screen and arrive with the proper angle.
In this clip the ballhandler does a great job of waiting for the screen, he sets up his defender to be screened and the big comes in and smashes the on ball. Because of the quality of the screen (and lack of nail help) the drop defender must help on the ball which opens up the lob.
At about the 4 second mark in this clip, I love how the guard uses the fake to get the defense to react and relax. This lets the screener get into position to screen. Even when the screen is in position, the ballhandler is in no rush and slices off the screen to a floater against the deep drop.
The guard does a great job of really making the on-ball work. He is setting him up by making him have to get back on his heels. The guard leaves a little early, but the big reads the on-ball and sprints off the screen. It is defended pretty well 2 on 2 but they get to the second side to attack.
Beating the Help Defense
So far we have seen a lot of clips showing the ballhandler or screener scoring by beating the defense 2 on 2. In this section, we are looking at how RGV exposes the defensive help for easy opportunities. I have said it before in this post, but the spacing really does put a lot of stress on the defense. Good offense makes the defense always wrong.
“Its a multiple choice test for the defense where everything is wrong”
Zico Coronel
In this clip, the nail helper is low and loaded to the ball. As Thornwell comes off it is an easy kick pass to the trailing big for an easy 3. One of the creative things that RGV does is put a skilled guard in that trail spot, to effectively use the gravity of that player.
Similar to the clip above, the nail help is a little late to stunting at the drive but does force the pass out. The weak side spacing leaves #42 open for the 3.
Here you see the defense packing the paint with the middle defender and not helping with the nail guy as much. One of the things I really like about this is that if the offense can get another defender into the play, it creates a ton of opportunities on the weak side. The ballhandler gets into the paint and has a free look to read the positioning of the weak side defense.
In transition, the Vipers get to the low PNR. The nail defender is trailing the play and is attached to the trail man. #11 is in the paint early and Thronwell is able to beat the switch and make the easy pass to the wing for a 3.
Thornwell gets really deep and turns the corner which opens up the wing pass for the 3.
The low man comes is positioned well to protect the basket and the nail stunts hard. The ballhandler is able to take advantage of the good defense by hitting the open man in the corner.
Cuts
By spreading out the defense to the max, RGV opens up the floor for cutters to take advantage of the stretched defense.
The defense rotates early and Thornwell makes a great cut to the top of the paint. Once he reads that his defender is sinking early to take away the drift he makes the timely cut. He passes it to Hartenstine for the dunk.
The nail defender comes over and #11 is able to sneak in behind him for the layup. One of the things I like about this clip is that you can see the cutter taking up 2 defenders and the next offensive player filling up behind the cut.
In part 2 of looking at some of the low corner concepts we will look at different things they do out of the corner.