The Wood Shop: Kyrie Can’t Run The Pick and Roll

When I think of a wood shop, I think of a place people go to contemplate things. Wood working happens in them for sure, but it’s really just a convenient hobby. It takes a long time to complete even a small piece of wood work, which means many trips to the shop to really examine the intricacies of life. This article is part of a continuing series where I take some aspect of this Cavalier team into the wood shop and hang out with it for a thousand or so words. My own personal Cavs Wood Shop

“Kyrie Irving can’t run a pick and roll.” There, I said it.

I expect a lot of Cav fans wouldn’t agree with that statement. After all, the foundations of a good pick and roll play are a guy who can keep the dribble alive while being a threat to knock down a shot or get a layup, and a man who can roll to the rim, catch the ball, and finish.

Everyone knows Kyrie is one of the best dribblers the league has ever seen. His in-game dribbling is better than 99% of peoples’ dribbling in their driveway, or, if talking about NBA players, in their private gyms. He’s also a career 38% 3-point shooter, although he’s shooting just 30.9% this season. And, he can make a layup from any angle using either hand.

Kyrie’s primary pick and roll partner is Tristan Thompson. Thompson is in the 92nd percentile for roll men in the pick and roll among guys who have played at least 41 games and use at least 15% of their possessions going to the rim. He’s behind only Hassan Whiteside and DeAndre Jordan using that criteria. That’s amazing company. Thompson averages 1.30 points every time he catches the ball as the dive man.

Naturally, one would assume that Kyrie is helping TT’s numbers to a degree, since he has shared a decent amount of minutes with him (about 18.5 a night). That just isn’t the case though. Irving puts up just 4.1 assists/36 with Thompson on the floor. Matthew Dellavedova shares the court with Canadian TNT for 16 minutes a night. He gets 7.1 assists/36 with him on the court.

To make the case that Irving hasn’t helped contribute to TT’s rolling numbers even more clear, just look at how often TT gets passes directly from Irving and Delly. He receives just 15.5% of his touches from Irving; Irving gets just .3 assists a game from him. He gets 26.7% of his touches from Dellavedova; Delly gets .8 assists a game from the Canadian.

It’s also easy to say “Kyrie may not be getting assists in pick and roll plays, but he’s finishing them.” However, that statement is wrong.

Kyrie not only fails to get TT and other guys points out of the pick and roll, he fails to get himself points out of it. He’s in the 81st percentile for pick and roll ball handlers. There are over 20 guys ahead of him, when setting the data to include only guys who have played over 20 games and use at least 15% of their possessions handling the ball in pick and roll situations.

Kyrie gets just .90 points per pick and roll play. Darren Collison and Ramon Sessions, both back up point guards, get nearly the same amount of points per possession. That number is more even more disturbing considering that almost 46% of Irving’s possessions use a screener. Collison and Sessions both use screens less than 40% of their touches.

The Perfect Pick and Roll

Before diving deeper into Irving’s pick and roll issues, let’s look at a video of one of the best pick and roll teams the NBA has ever seen: Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Since this piece is about Kyrie’s struggles to use screens, I want focus on what Steve Nash does in the pick and roll with Amar’e. If you watch Nash, three principals become clear:

1. Put the opposing defenders in constant decision making mode. Nash makes sure that there is no simple decision when defending him coming off of a screen. He dribbles in a way where there is always an open passing lane or path to the rim. This keeps help defenders from committing to him or the roll man. Defenses get put in limbo.
2. Use the screen. Don’t dilly dally. When a guy sets a screen for you, use it.
3. Give the play time to unfold. Don’t sprint to the hoop, don’t dribble like you’re in quick sand.

These three rules are clearly an over simplification of what good pick and roll ball handlers do, but they provide a good baseline from which to evaluate Kyrie.

Snaking the Roll Man

One of Kyrie’s bad habits in the pick and roll is that he snakes the roll man. Snaking the roll man is when a guard comes off a screen one direction and then cuts back the opposite direction in the path of the man rolling to the rim. To quote the great Justin Bieber: “First you wanna go left and you want to turn right.”

In the above play, Kyrie goes right and then left. This may not seem like a big deal on first glance, but it is. When Kyrie veers back to the left, TT can’t roll to the rim. Well, he could, but he would have to bulldoze Kyrie, which would probably result in a turnover. That’s not a good outcome. By eliminating TT’s path to the rim, he makes the Thunder’s decision on defense very easy. They just have to stop him. It’s as easily said, as done. Steven Adams rotates over and stays on Kyrie, and Westbrook comes back to Kyrie, since he doesn’t have to bump TT to prevent a lob. Kyrie just isn’t putting defenders in limbo by snaking TT.

In the above clip, Kyrie again snakes TT. It’s disappointing because TT sets a solid screen on Garret Temple, which gives Kyrie some room to work. Marcin Gortat is on an island against him. If Irving hadn’t cut him off, Tristan would have had an easy path to the basket, especially if Irving had slowed his dribbling down to keep his original defender on his back. Since that isn’t the case, three Wizards simply load up on an Irving layup attempt. It doesn’t end well.

In this final example, Irving snakes TT, and then sprints to the hoop. All five Kings end up playing defense on him at some point during the possession, and he loses his dribble out of bounds. In theory, Kyrie executed the play poorly, but he did open up three different shooters from beyond the arc. That doesn’t matter though, because he was set on scoring rather than getting someone else an easy look. His score first mentality is known around the league and contributes to teams crashing down when he drives. He’s averaging just 4.4 assists a game this year.

Just Use the Freaking Screen

The other issue with Kyrie’s pick and roll play is that he doesn’t know how to use a screen. One of the big things I learned growing up as a larger basketball player was that the ball handler has to use your screen. You can’t screen a guy if the ball handler doesn’t help you. When watching Steve Nash and Amar’e play, you notice that Nash runs his defender into Amar’e to create the space he needs to work. Amar’e doesn’t step into Nash’s defender.

In the play below, Tristan is trying to set a screen on Reggie Jackson.

As TT stands there, Kyrie dribbles to the left away from him. It is then quite quite clear that Irving is getting ready to use a screen. Reggie knows it, I know it, and the entire arena knows it. Naturally, Reggie anticipates Irving’s actions. As Irving goes around TT, he takes a soft angle that gives Reggie space to go around the screen. TT even bounces his hips out to create a little more separation. Despite that, Reggie is still able to follow Irving and bother his shot from behind. Irving makes it, but it was a harder shot than it needed to be.

In the video below, count how many times Tristan tries to give Kyrie a screen.

I counted three times. As Kyrie crosses the half-court line, TT is ready with a screen to his right. Kyrie goes behind his back the other direction instead. TT then back pedals a little and sets a pick for Kyrie to go around on his left side. Kyrie uses it but then backs out. At that point, TT gives up, stands still, and actually pats his head in frustration. He must have a three screen limit or something. Each time Irving didn’t drive around the pick, Washington was able to prepare for penetration a little more. Irving somehow lucks out and scores at the rack, even though three Wizards were within a one-step of contesting his shot.

Timing is Everything

The last issue to bring up with Irving’s pick and roll play is that he lacks timing. Irving moves at a break neck pace when he comes off of screens. This causes two problems. First off, he doesn’t give the guy rolling to the hoop time to roll or to create a good passing angle. Secondly, Irving’s constant need to go fast causes him to snake the roll guy. Snaking the screener is often the path of least resistance, as defenders aren’t expecting it.

Timing is probably the most important part of the pick and roll game. Look at Delly. He’s a guy who isn’t an amazing dribbler, yet he is one of the better pick and roll players on the Cavs. Look at the timing he employs to get Timofey Mozgov an oop in the video below.

Delly uses a little hesitation dribble while Gortat and his original defender are focused on him to allow Mozgov time to get to the rim for an oop. He has an easy pass because Gortat is still focused on him driving to the hoop, not feeding the big man. Delly’s pace hints that he might go for his own shot still. If he had gone as fast as he could, Gortat and his original defender would have been contesting him at the rim, and Mozgov would have been behind the play.

Solutions

There isn’t an obvious solution to Kyrie’s pick and roll woes aside from strapping him to a chair, taping his eyes open Clockwork Orange style, and making him watch Steve Nash use screens. However, that will never happen. It’s also hard to fix Kyrie’s issues, because a lot of times his bad habits still result in him getting points. He scored in two of the five fundamentally flawed plays I used as examples.

Perhaps Tyronn Lue will elect to let Irving run even more isolation plays instead. He is scoring 1.01 points per isolation possession, which is a top ten number for guards, and he’s only going iso on 14.4% of his touches. While I’m not the biggest fan of isolation play, at this point I’d welcome it. It sucks watching Irving infuriate teammates as they try to guess how they can roll to the rim when screening for him.

Finally, I want to say that the reason I harp on Kyrie today is because he has the tools to be one of the best pick and roll players the game has ever seen. He’s got handles, at the rim shot making abilities, great passing skills, and a beautiful stroke. He’s just not utilizing his skills correctly. Yet, he is somehow still in the top 25% of the league as far as pick and roll ball handlers go. The league better watch out if Irving figures out how to use a screen.