Qualifying offers and a Cleveland Indians free agency primer
November 9, 2015Losing passion, short shorts, and vigilante justice: While We’re Waiting…
November 10, 2015It wasn’t long ago when “moves” were a staple in video game play. In lockstep with most with fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, game players could make their character of choice whip out a signature move, oftentimes a devastating one at that, with a mere combination of button pushes. Think: Scorpion’s “Get Over Here!” spear move. But this nuance wasn’t limited to just one-on-one, two-dimensional battles. As it were, these fighting games weren’t even the foundation for such an action. The “versus” series of basketball games—Lakers versus Celtics, Bulls versus Lakers, Bulls versus Blazers1—were not just the first of their kind to feature the NBA licensing, but they also featured a litany of signature moves wherein various stars could bust out a specific play if a series of buttons were hit as the player was located on a specific part of the floor.
Golden State’s Tim Hardaway had his “UTEP Two-step.” Seattle’s Shawn Kemp had the “Off-the-glass slam.” Detroit’s Isaiah Thomas had a 360-degree lay-up that he would bust out even in fastbreak situations. While most of these go-to moves were more an homage to a player’s skill set, the point is that signature “moves” have been as much a part of the NBA game for the last 20 years as hardwood and mesh.
Trailing the New York Knicks for nearly three full quarters last Wednesday night, two of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ least-used weapons on the offensive end2 combined to not just take the lead, but to do so in a roof-raising fashion in front of the home crowd.
Corralling an outlet pass, Cavs guard Matthew Dellavedova took the ball down the left side of the floor as power forward Tristan Thompson paced him as he streaked down the center of the floor. Dellavedova paused for half a second at the left wing, faking to his right as Thompson closed in for what appeared to be an on-ball screen. Dellavedova broke back to his left with both his man and Thompson’s trailing him into the corner. Before any of the would-be defenders knew what was coming, Thompson elevated toward the rim where Dellavedova found him with the lob.
The Cavaliers took the lead, 70-69, and would never look back. In fact, just moments later, the team would open the fourth with nearly the exact same play, but in a half-court set. Delly took the ball with his left hand, hooked around swingman James Jones at the top of the key and then again around Thompson at the left wing. Jones retreated to the right wing, where he would be wide open, but Thompson’s beeline for the rim was a higher percentage shot. He would finish over two members of the Knicks, both of whom stood under the rim in disbelief.
In football, much has been made of the read-option quarterback, the player who can attack you two different ways, making a decision based solely on the action of one defender. Many times, with his eyes firmly on the defensive end, a quarterback will either hand the ball off for a run up the middle, or pull it back and make a run of his own around the vacated edge. The decision is made on the fly, requires a heady, dual-threat quarterback, and has helped several teams reach divisional championship games over the last few seasons, one of which—the Seattle Seahawks under Russell Wilson—won a Super Bowl.
All a mobile quarterback needs is a decision from the opponent and a split second of space before the would-be defender is left on the unfortunate side of a highlight reel. The pick-and-roll lob is very much the same.
The “move” that Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson have tag-teamed on to attack opponents is a high pick-and-roll with Thompson setting a screen for Dellavedova, then rolling to the hoop. We’ll call this the “Delly-Tristan Classic.” Dellavedova uses the screen, and drives toward the hoop, lobbing the ball in the air in the general direction of the rolling Thompson, who’s screaming toward the hoop like a madman. The acrobatic and airborne Thompson snatches the ball from the air and jams it for two really cool points. There are plenty of examples of this, including the clip below from the October 30 game against the Miami Heat.
But the “Classic” isn’t necessarily carrying a birth date of 2014. If you go back to the London Olympic games, Matthew Dellavedova was the point guard for the Australian National Team. His head coach at the time was Brett Brown, current head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, who had an up-close look at the lob when it was Delly’s go-to play with teammate Aron Baynes, who now plays for the Detroit Pistons.
“They did it all the time,” says Brown of his former point man. “We ran the heck out of it—it was our go-to play in crunch time. You’d have Baynes rolling and you’d throw it. You’d loop up our best shooter. Then, it was Patty Mills.3 [The Cavs] can loop up James Jones. It’s hard to guard. When players find a little toy that they can go to during crunch time, all the great partnerships have one of those. It’s hard to guard. You’ll see that it happens a lot, especially with Delly going to his right.”
To Brown’s point, the Cavaliers have managed to surround Delly with a bevy of floor-spacing options, be it Jones, power forward Kevin Love, shooting guard J.R. Smith, or the recently added Richard Jefferson. And while Brown is right about Delly and his penchant for lobs when going to his right—these were common during the NBA Finals with both Dellavedova and Thompson getting extended minutes against the Golden State Warriors—the evolution in the point guard’s game has opened up the lob as a weapon from both sides. While Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan are arguably the best lob combo in the league, Dellavedova and Thompson are dominant with the move, as evidenced by Thompson’s status as the second highest scorer in the league as the roll man. He is also one of only nine players in the top 20 on scoring frequency and points per possession in possessions as the roll man, and is crashing toward the rim on more than 25 percent of plays when he is on the floor. (Among qualifying players, in points per possession, according to NBA.com’s tracking data. This is admittedly only a small sample size, as Thompson only has 12 roll man possessions. DeAndre Jordan is not currently listed, apparently lacking the 10 such possessions to qualify.)
The beautiful and underrated benefit of go-to “moves” like the Delly-Thompson lob is when the user masters the move and then improvises off the original move, strengthening the user’s overall game and creating a feedback loop that further improves the original. Evolution indeed.
The first move building on the Delly-Tristan Classic is the side pick-and-roll lob. Instead of a high pick-and-roll at the top of the key, straight out from the hoop, the pick-and-roll can occur on one side of the court, with various angles. What difference does it make? Well, by moving the angle, the pick set by Thompson for Dellavedova can give Delly a more direct path to the hoop. The effect is amplified by how the Cavs space the floor—this is where the Joneses and Loves and Smiths come into play. In the example below, there are three Cavs on the weak side of the floor. As a result, there’s less help behind Thompson’s defender to stop Dellavedova. As a result, Thompson’s defender doesn’t have time to allow Dellavedova’s defender (screened by Thompson) to recover on Delly. Help from the other side of the lane is late because of the location of the pick-and-roll and the floor balance, and Thompson gets an even cleaner look than he’s accustomed to in the Delly-Tristan Classic.
The second spin-off of the Delly-Tristan Classic uses a handoff. Instead of Delly dribbling the ball around patiently waiting for Thompson to come set a pick, the point guard (or anyone, really) gives Thompson the ball to begin proceedings. Then, Dellavedova runs around Thompson, who hands it off, impeding his defender’s path in the process. Dellavedova, now already at full speed with his man trailing him, breaks for the hoop. Because hand-offs get the recipient moving at full speed, Thompson’s defender has to cut off Dellavedova’s path to the hoop. Unless one of the defenders makes a spectacular recovery, Dellavedova will have a wide open path to the basket or (as is more often the case) Thompson will have an uncontested alley-oop (unless it is contested by way of a foul, as Nerlens Noel does in the clip below).
The results thus far have been palpable. Three iterations of this play were used in the team’s 10-point win over the Miami Heat. At least three lobs were executed perfectly against the Knicks, as intimated above. On Sunday afternoon, in the Cavs’ most recent win, there was an instance in the third quarter (with roughly six minutes remaining) where Cavs starting point guard Mo Williams attempted the lob to Thompson, but the pass was off target. In what was the team’s very next trip down the floor, Dellavedova found the power forward streaking down the middle and delivered a pinpoint pass which was promptly flushed through the rim—it was the second converted Delly-Tristan lob of the day.
“There are times when [the defense] baits [Delly] into taking a floater,” said Tristan Thompson earlier this season. “He’s done a great job this offseason working on his right hand-right-leg floater off the glass. It’s what he has to do to keep the defense honest. For me, I just have to set a good screen and roll hard.
“Me and Delly have been together for three seasons now. We’ve always had a connection. We used to play against each other with our national teams. We’re both familiar with each other, and when you have a good relationship in a pick-and-roll with one of your teammates, you never leave it. I just have to set a good screen and he’s either going to take that floater or send an oop to me.”
Of course, things doesn’t always go as planned. Just like with the read option, defenses can pull bait-and-switch moves on the quarterback, or passer. There are times where the mechanics or timing can be off. And there are times when the pick is set a little too deep and Thompson can’t quite catch up … and this happens.
One way for opposing defenses to disrupt the Delly-Thompson lob is a quick switch. Thompson’s defender will take Dellavedova, and Dellavedova’s defender, after being screened, will stay with Thompson and follow him as he rolls to the hoop. Thompson’s defender can get extra aggressive, jumping out to cut off Delly’s path to the hoop once he sees Thompson making his way toward Delly to set a pick. Not a bad idea, but one that requires an athletic big man with quick feet.4
This is, of course, unless Delly and Thompson counter this aggressive tactic with a slip screen. In a slip screen, the screener doesn’t really set a pick—he acts like he’s going to set a pick and then cuts just before contact occurs, surprising a defense that thought it had this great way to stop your move by not actually doing the move. So, Thompson doesn’t set the screen, but fakes it, going to the hoop. Dellavedova’s defender, who doesn’t know to switch because he’s never been screened, keeps following Dellavedova like it’s business as usual. No one’s defending Thompson, who has a free path to the hoop. The clip below shows Kyle O’Quinn jumping the gun; Langston Galloway never gets screened, and both players follow Delly–giving Thompson a clear path to the hoop.
The other flavor that the Delly-Tristan Thompson Lob can come in is an outright fake—a counter deployed when teams send help. Defending the pick-and-roll, especially two guys who have become adept at it, can be a real bitch. So, throw another body at it! If Thompson’s only able to catch these lobs because there’s no one to slow him rolling to the hoop, put someone in his way. Well, that’s when Delly finds the Cav who the help defender just left, as shown in the clip below. A nosy Nik Stauskas thinks he’ll get cute and help slow Thompson, when Dellavedova finds Richard Jefferson—recently abandoned by Stauskas and now open—with a difficult cross-court pass for a wide open three-pointer.
After being burned like this once, help will be slower to come (if at all) in the future for fear of allowing an open, back-breaking three-pointer. As Brett Brown intimates, looping those floor-spacing shooters is one of the underrated elements of this play.
That’s how the different variations of the original move improve both the Cavs offense and the Delly-Tristan Classic: By having a counter for every attempt to thwart the original move, Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson can neutralize attempts to stop it and find new wrinkles to exploit opponents. This is only possible through impeccable timing, proficient execution, and a great understanding of the subtleties of the pick-and-roll lob and opponent tendencies. The result: Both Dellavedova (+10.3) and Thompson (+7.1) are among the top-35 in the league thus far in plus-minus per game. The fourth-best five-man unit in the NBA, as sorted by net rating, is that of Matthew Dellavedova, Mo Williams, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. And if that’s not enough, Dellavedova and Thompson are currently the 19th best two-man unit in the league (as sorted by point differential) with the point guard being featured in three of the top 20 two-man units in the NBA thus far.5
While these two players have turned many a head—both fans and would-be defenders alike—this season, Cavs coach David Blatt echoes the Thompson’s sentiments regarding familiarity. “They’re two good players who know how to react to situations,” said David Blatt of his reserve weapons. “You build trust and you build timing and a connection over a course of a year like last year. There’s carryover, and obviously its carried over to this year.”
That carryover has led to two non-stars unleashing moves typically reserved for the most electric players in the game. While video games have naturally evolved since the days of Bulls versus Blazers, the NBA game has as well. Specifically in the Curious Case of the Cleveland Cavaliers and their second-unit stars, this evolution is only magnified by two players who fit each others’ skill set with perfection, allowing Dellavedova to decide how and when he and Thompson will in fact finish on their defenders. To borrow a phrase from Mortal Kombat, through the first two weeks of the season, the two have provided a near-flawless victory.
- And the playoffs! [↩]
- In 2014-15, Thompson and Dellavedova were 14th and 18th, respectively, when ranked by usage rate. Only Lou Amundson and Mike Miller were lower. [↩]
- Mills now plays for the San Antonio Spurs. [↩]
- Coincidentally, this is the exact thing Thompson excels at on the defensive end, a big reason for his newly signed $82 million deal. [↩]
- Source: Basketball-Reference.com. [↩]
18 Comments
The Delly-oop would be such a better name.
Wasn’t there a game where Tom Chambers could dunk from an absurd distance on the court?
And I referenced “The Kraken” in a previous game recap – a Cavs: the Blog coined term for the play where Mo drives baseline and hits Lebron coming full steam down the lane.
As long as Delly does learn to evolve and read the situation correctly (which it appears he is doing), these two will continue to give teams fits. I think it took until the Finals last year for anyone to get wise and stop this, and the result was bad because Delly didn’t know what to do anymore (in his defense, he was probably to burnt out to think and improvise). But Delly has certainly looked improved this year, no longer only an offensive one-trick pony.
yeah, GS was stopping it but as you say, Delly looked exhausted and it appears he managed to improve his little floater in his brief off-season. This whole thing is especially great because the two of them will often be playing against the opponent’s second teamers. There were times last year when the offense just died when LeBron rested.
GREEEEEAAAAAAT….now we gotta give Delly $80 million for 5 years too.
“There were times last year when the offense just died when LeBron rested”
….and by LeBron you mean Kyrie.
The offensive ratings with Kyrie off the floor versus on are even more lopsided that LeBron on and off the floor.
no, actually meant in the Finals when the Cavs couldn’t buy a bucket when LeBron was getting a breather. They had Kyrie in the conference finals when LeBron rested. In the Finals they were trying to squeeze points from Delly, J.R., whomever.
They’ve actually used this a couple times this season. Was a fun flashback.
no half 2.5 years for $40M
Throw out those finals with 2/5 of the starting rotation out plus Shumpert not 100% and no bench I can’t see a comparison to the current team. Even with the current team missing KI and Shumpert.
But the more important point is the fact Curry never had to defend that entire series so he was rested to hit those amazing jump shots. He didn’t have to cover KI or a Mo or even a Shumpert all he had in front of him was Delly.
Totally agree with that last paragraph. And, of course, Delly had to defend the league MVP. That took an awful lot of energy.
The fact Delly lasted as long as he did in the finals was a testament to his heart, tenacity and courage. While that is to be commended that doesn’t make him a starter. When KI returns Mo becomes his backup and Delly slides to the role he was born for: energy provider, defensive pest/shutdown, tenacity and court diving. That’s his role. Right now, for me, anything else he provides is an extra bonus and I’ll gladly accept it.
What’s nice is this is a low-risk play with a 2nd unit; you really only need to score half the time for it to be efficient for that grouping, at worst.
So wait… Kyrie and Love were hurt, Lebron was on the bench AND THE TEAM COULDN’T SCORE?
Fair point. 😉
I wonder how the minutes will be split between Kyrie, Mo, and Delly when Kyrie comes back. I mean, it’s pretty incredible to think the team’s second unit will be Mo, JR, RJ, TT, and Andy (not that we’ll see the full 2nd string lineup together regularly) with guys like Delly, and Jimmy John’s being 3rd string, but I think Blatt will have a task ahead of him figuring out how to get the combinations he wants on the floor while balancing the minutes. I sort of hope the situation allows him to hold Kyrie under 30 minutes per game. He’s young enough that keeping him “fresh” isn’t so much of a concern, but maybe it will help keep him healthy.
call me a dork, I’ve been referring to this as Tristelly points.
Because Delistan sounds like a forgotten middle east country.