ICE Station NBA Style

Mere child's play relative to stopping the side screen-and-roll.




Defending the screen-and-roll is one of the toughest assignments in basketball, along with defending great post players (vanishing species), and closing out. Coach Nick demonstrates how they do it in the NBA...and shows supporting video.

COMMUNICATION is essential to maintain coverage
FORCE the ballhandler baseline
Screener's defender "zones" and CONTAINS the dribbler
No DEFENSIVE ROTATION necessary from the help side (ball reversal stresses rotations)
ICE "permits" the "HARD 2" (long 2) for the screener
There is only minor variation (not shown) for the high screen-and-roll

Why this discussion, today? Gary Washburn in The Boston Globe (bottom of column) discusses the explosion of three-point shooting by bigs in the NBA. NBA players are highly skilled and adaptive, changing to confront the defensive landscape.