Jan 28 • 💡 Coaching Questions & Advice
Some thoughts on running the pick and roll
The pick and roll has become the most common action in basketball. Every team runs it. Every coach teaches it. Every player practices it.
But here’s the truth nobody says out loud: If you’re running pick and roll just to “run a pick and roll,” you’re wasting everyone’s time.
The action only matters if it creates an advantage. And advantage only matters if players know how to use it. Let’s break down what that actually means:
1. The real point of pick and roll is force a decision!
Offense in basketball comes down to one principle: Make the defense choose something, and then punish that choice. A ball screen is simply a structured way to force that moment of decision. When the screen hits, the defense must decide:
- Do we go under?
- Do we chase over?
- Do we switch?
- Do we hedge?
- Do we help from the corner?
- Do we tag the roller?
Each decision creates an opening somewhere else.
The job of the offense is simple:
Create the decision → identify the reaction → attack the weakness it creates.
If your players can’t do that, running a ball screen is nothing more than cardio and hurting offense.
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2. Players must be empowered to “Make the Defense Wrong."
A pick and roll only works when players understand solutions. If the defense goes under, what’s the answer? If they switch, what’s the answer? If they hedge or trap, what’s the answer?
Teams that are good in the PnR aren’t just good because they set great screens. They’re good because the ball-handler, screener, and spacing players all know how to make the defense wrong.
Here’s what empowerment looks like:
Ball-handler: reads coverage, gets downhill, manipulates the tag defender.
Roll man: short roll vs. rim roll vs. pop based on help.
Spacing players: lift, drift, shake out, and be ready to punish help.
If players don’t know counters, the defense wins. If players do know the counters, the defense has no right choice and an advantage gets created.
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3. If you're just running pick and roll to run it… stop. Seriously.
Too many teams call ball screens like they’re checking a box: “Okay, we ran our set. Now someone make a play.” That’s lazy coaching.
If your players don’t understand how to create or exploit advantage, you’d honestly be better off scrapping ball screens entirely and running a dribble-drive offense, a cuts and gaps-based motion... anything where the advantage is created more naturally and doesn’t require complex reads like what the PnR requires.
Because a poorly executed pick-and-roll is not just neutral. It’s worse than doing nothing for a few reasons:
- You bring two defenders to the ball.
- You shrink spacing.
- You delay your next action.
- You teach your players nothing about decision-making.
A pick and roll is only valuable when it creates something better than what you had before the screen.
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4. Basketball is advantage-based offense, period.
Everything in modern offense: PnR, dribble handoffs, post touches, ghost screens, cuts, etc. has one job: Create an advantage.
And then a second job: Sustain or convert that advantage into points.
The pick and roll is just one method of doing that. It is not the purpose of your offense. If your players can’t create an advantage off the screen, or read the reaction, or convert the advantage into a shot or drive… then you’re not running an offense, you’re rehearsing a choreography.
So When Should You Run a Pick and Roll? When your players understand:
How to create the advantage
- Use the screen angle
- Change pace
- Manipulate the weakside help
- Force the defense into the coverage you want
How to punish the coverage
- Under → shoot or re-screen
- Over → turn the corner
- Drop → floaters & pocket passes
- Switch → attack the mismatch
- Hedge → split or hit the short roll
- Trap → hit the release valve
- Help from corner → drift pass
- Low man tags → skip pass
If they know why the pick and roll works, the action becomes lethal. The pick and roll is not a play. It's a problem you force the defense to solve.
But it only works if your players are equipped with the tools to:
- Create the problem
- Read the solution
- Punish the solution
If not? You’re better off running a simple gap-based scheme and saving everyone the frustration. Empower your players. Teach them how to make the defense wrong. Then the pick and roll becomes exactly what it’s supposed to be: An advantage-creating machine.
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Some thoughts on running the pick and roll
