My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

[jeebs9]

So I've been playing these pick and roll guys. Who run pick and roll every single possession. It's a great offense. But it can be one dimensional at times. One of the nice things nice this I like to do is to see how smart my opponents is. Can they see pass the first man? Can they see the kickout? And then after the kick out can they see. In the following plays I’ll be showing some situations. Over the pick or under the pick. Force to the middle or no force. Hedge or no Hedge. And one my favorite things to do pre rotate.
Having a good on ball defender is just as important as having a shot blocking center. But also having good wings to help cover the weak side is important too. I’ve been playing with the Grizzlies for the most part. They are probably a top 3 defensive team in the game. But I’ve found that every team is different. Running small line ups sometimes actually helps in pick and roll coverage.
Russell drive - Gasol Block
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Tony Allen goes into the pick. And then Russell goes away from it. Leaving Gasol on a island to cover the very dangerous Russell in the paint. The one thing about my opponent is that he never took the wide open mid range jumpers when I was in a drop. A drop is when the center stays back to protect the paint. Most teams with big slow players play in this style because the bigs have a hard time come out and covering speedy players (like Russell in this case)
Russell Dunk
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In this clip I’m caught in a mini fast break with Russell having a full head of stream. Z-Bo is my worst defender when it comes to pick and roll coverage/paint. I lost this battle once I didn’t get Russell under cover. So after watching my opponent dunk it for the 3 time. I changed my tactic and I changed the defensive settings to pre-rotate to yes-all. What this does is make the CPU controlled defender rotate to the players that are left open. The next clip will show you the result of that setting change.
Durant paint packed
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In this clip Green fights over the weak pick (I think it was Singler). Green stays in coverage on Durant. Which means Gasol is able to stay on the roll man. But you’ll because Singler is open for a second B.Wright leaves his man Ibaka in the corner to cover to cover Singler. Because Green’s on-ball defense is so good in this situation (bumping Durant). He slows him down and stays in front of him. You’ll also notice Tony Allen leave Russell and dive into the paint. That’s 5 guys in the paint. My opponent still takes a contested jumper with Durant.
Russell dunk - Late rotation
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You would think after watching the last play with 5 players in the paint. My opponent would look for an open man. But he still doesn’t and gets a dunk. One thing I want to mention to anyone who is still reading lol. Is that it’s not going to work every single time. And my line up doesn’t work well here. Allen and Green are my best defensive players. When they are on the bench it doesn’t work as well.
Adams dunk - Green Late rotation
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Like I said it doesn’t work all the time. I don’t get a body on Russell. It’s going to be a dunk. And Green is late on the rotation.
Russell drive - Green rotation block
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So after this play… I really had enough with the over and over. And I put GAP on all the outside players. I do this because I want to close the lanes down. But look at the wonderful rotation by Green.
Durant drive missed - Gasol rotation

Spoiler

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Russell drive - Z-Bo rotation
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This is an outstanding play by Zo-Bo. My opponent finally starts to see the lanes close down and finally PASS the ball to the second layer. Results contested 3 pointer.
Russell drive - Gasol steal
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People complain about pick and roll not working. But it does!! They are also people complaining that it’s too easy to score on a pick and roll but they have given use a bunch of ways to slow it down. This clip above show Allen working his butt off. The pass should have been a bounce pass. But I think I would of stripped with Mike Conley because it was so low.
Durant drive - Gasol block
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Green again fights over the pick. Gasol gets caught up. But still makes the block on Adam. There no tactic to this play in my opinion. This is all about having a good defensive center.
Russel dunk - No rotation (weird animation)
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Russell drive – Gasol winning block
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This just makes me happy that it all worked out lol. You see this why I'm half and half on-ball defense. I think you need a mix of it.

[jeebs9]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

One other things I wanted to mention was Hedging. This tactic is all about your bigs. And it's some thing I think everyone should look into if they like playing with a small line up. You can basically play the Heat style of defense from their championship run. But it depends on what kind of wings and bigs you have. You need bigs that can move fast enough to get in and out of hedges and recover back their man. But you also need Wings that can fly around the court and contest shots at the rim.

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[Smirkin Dirk]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

Good thread. As a human player, the game gives you heaps of options.

But the CPU doesnt use enough these options regularly enough.

[Sleepy59]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Opponents notice you playing off-ball therefore they hit u with the P&R. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

[Optik]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Opponents notice you playing off-ball therefore they hit u with the P&R. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

It's this kind of self-righteousness that people can't stand about people who say you should play on ball D.

[2_headedmonster]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Ronnie They see you don't play on-ball therefore they P&R you. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

Thank you for blessing us with your wisdom. Do you by any chance have any proverbs in print?

[The 24th Letter]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare



Good write up jeebs


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[Smirkin Dirk]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

This is exactly why OS is the best sports gaming forum around.

[2_headedmonster]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

Good job taking the time to document this. Looks like a mixed bag. And by that i mean bad pick and roll cpu rotations mixed with good adjustments by you.

I can stop the pick and roll, but not in the multitude of ways i should be able to depending on personnel.

[Smirkin Dirk]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

I play with Dallas, and I rarely hedge because they are just too slow. I drop back with my bigs, but this just opens the lane up for the CPU to splash 16 footers.

I definitely feel to be made inadequate by my personnel, and I love it.

[2_headedmonster]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

Also id love to blitz the pick and roll, but as it is the two that eve up on the ball aren't aggressive enough. No crowding, no high hands and no quick rotations to the open man. That means accurate passes and no turnovers, defeating the purpose.

[YaBoial]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

We only have the cavs in the finals to thank for this mess. They pretty much did the same all series playing hero ball but great post jeebs

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[Jaw11]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

@jeebs9: Excellent thread. It's nice to see all of these defensive options implemented with corresponding video. Have you had more success with using gap and pre rotate on all for other one dimensional Pn'R dominate offenses on-line?

[DC]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

SMH @ The 3rd video. Dude took that shot with KD in the paint and there were so many of his teammates open.

Honestly man, sometimes when I play online, tell me if I am not alone here, I feel like I am taking advantage of people when it comes to BBALL IQ. Some of the boneheaded decisions folks make, I feel sorry for them sometimes man. I feel like, "I should be playing someone that knows better."

But good videos Jeebs. Actually posting evidence. That is how you do it in 2015

[Krodis]

Re: My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

I play with Dallas, and I rarely hedge because they are just too slow. I drop back with my bigs, but this just opens the lane up for the CPU to splash 16 footers.

I definitely feel to be made inadequate by my personnel, and I love it.

You could always try what they did vs Houston, hedge anyway, and leave your center to die 1v2.