Synergy – a platform that keeps track of multiple NBA play type metrics – offers play type categories for “cuts” and “P&R roll man.” Regarding the first, the Warriors of the Golden State are the best team in the league in terms of percentage of cuts made on offense; regarding the latter, they are 27th in terms of percentage of possessions completed by the roller in pick-and-roll situations.
This can be attributed to their overall philosophy of not incorporating a high volume of ball screens into their offense. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point – and neither should their ranking in overall pick-and-roll frequency this season (25.9% of their possessions, 29th in the league).
The main historical reason behind the low frequency of pick-and-roll operations has to do with personnel. The Warriors prefer to invert the floor and have their bigs be hubs at the top of the key, on the elbows and in the low post, with wings who can also moonlight as passers and conduits for movement consistency of the ball – leaving little room for possessions to slow to a crawl in order to accommodate high or slanted ball screens with an extended floor.
(Though, by the way, that doesn’t mean the Warriors don’t use extended ball screens at all — they just don’t make them the basis of their offense.)
Aside from Andrew Bogut and JaVale McGee (and to a lesser extent, Damian Jones and James Wiseman), the Warriors haven’t really had a plethora of centers above the rim with whom they can use rolling gravity to make pressure on opponents. Of the players mentioned above, only Bogut has the ability to act as both a hub and a rolling threat who has the ability to play above the rim; the others were square pegs that tried to fit into round holes.
Trayce Jackson-Davis isn’t a seasoned veteran like Bogut, while he isn’t as big as McGee, Jones and Wiseman. But he showed his potential to be the kind of dual threat that Bogut was – both as an athletic pogo stick of a roll-man and as a floor reverser who can seamlessly fit into their basic offensive philosophy.
After having some early issues with an injury-hampered Memphis Grizzlies team, the Warriors locked in and stamped their class (something they failed to do against a previous game). The defense became noticeably tighter, while the sets in the half court became more concrete and were executed much better than they were at the start of the match.
This allowed Steve Kerr to get into his bag of games, some he hasn’t pulled out in a while. Part of this was due to context – the Warriors had a big cushion to work with, allowing Kerr to expand his playbook a bit. But it can also be attributed to having Jackson-Davis on the roster and giving him the required playing time he needed to flourish in his current role as one of the team’s five substitutes.
Let’s return to the “cut” and “P&R roll man” play types as categorized by Synergy. Cuts happen to be Jackson-Davis’ most frequent type of play (112 possessions, 35.7% of total possessions) and one of his most efficient: 1.384 points per possession (PPP), which ranks in the top half (35th) among 99 players who have totaled at least 50 cuts this season.
He finished fewer possessions as a roll man in pick-and-roll situations (61 possessions, 19.4% of total possessions) but was just as effective: 1.393 PPP, seventh among 66 players this season who have completed at least 50 possessions as a roll man. man.
Jackson-Davis’ fairness has made Kerr more comfortable letting his players run ball-screen action, especially with Chris Paul running things at this point. Paul makes up half of the equation, while Jackson-Davis completes the formula for possessions like this:
Digging a little deeper into the nuances, Jackson-Davis’ presence as a screener and roller forces opponents to make a decision in terms of coverages. Paul is generally a ball handler who eviscerates coverage against drops – as evidenced in the possession below, where the Warriors run their “21 Nash” set (a throw to Paul on the wing, followed by double ball screens on the side by the initial passer and the five-man):
Jackson-Davis’ throw after setting the screen pins his defender to the ground and forces him to make two choices: Should I step in to take the ball handler? Or do I stay undercover to take out Jackson-Davis?
This decision is made even more difficult when it comes to Klay Thompson as Jackson-Davis’ partner in two-man actions. Staying back to eliminate Jackson-Davis risks possessions ending up like this:
The double of Thompson being a coverage nightmare for defenses and Jackson-Davis being a threat on the roster has been a ready source of offense for the Warriors as of late. Jackson-Davis’ subsequent dive after the screen inflicts the aforementioned “freeze” moment that pins his man to the ground – enough for Thompson to make a layup after a block attempt:
While executing ball screen actions as a turnover man remains his ideal offensive role, the fact that he can also be a decent decision maker within the Warriors’ base offensive scheme is a welcome bonus – which also allows Kerr to occasionally use him as a decision maker. go big in 5-out stocks.
Increasing the number of repetitions within this system also improved its ability to perform reads such as this:
And increases Kerr’s confidence in handling the ball up top the same way Draymond Green does whenever he’s the central decision maker in an inverted floor setup. Kerr can comfortably handle cleverly designed set pieces with Jackson-Davis as the central benefactor, with a layer of deception that utilizes both Splash Brothers.
This one is crazy:
Moving Thompson to the middle of the lane usually means a “Stack” or “Spain” pick-and-roll is coming, which is a typical pick-and-roll with the addition of a back screen (usually set by a deadly move shooter) for the roll man. But it’s smoke and mirrors to put Thompson in position for a reverse pick-and-roll for Jackson-Davis, who puts the ball on the floor and drives deep into the paint with Thompson’s help – enough so that the change is ineffective and for Jackson-Davis to score easily.
To put it plainly, Jackson-Davis allows the Warriors access to a simple source of offense while diversifying and expanding their options. Although his size limits him in some ways, his athleticism, screen presence and floor awareness make up for his physical shortcomings.
So it’s no secret that most of the good things have come from him being the kind of big the Warriors haven’t had in a long time.
