How the Pacers can put a cramp in their own style

On summer's last gasp and why less breathing room, as it applies to certain types of floor spacing alignments, can be more 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

The start of fall can be fickle in Indiana. Officially, the last day of summer is September 22, determined by the autumn equinox. Unofficially, Labor Day weekend is often thought of as the grand finale. In the meantime, however, the weather isn't so much transitioning here but rather wavering between the two. Last Saturday, as someone who unknowingly ventured outdoors for a morning stroll with short sleeves on, there was a chill in the air, making it seem as though sweater season was just around the corner. A few days later, it was more like sweltering season, as temperatures jumped back into the high 80s and even 90s, offering a reminder that summer isn't quite over yet, nor has fall quite arrived. The same applies to the NBA, as training camps still have a few weeks to wait, even though Summer League has long been over.

And yet, when it comes to basketball, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas, which means, just as the NBA continues to linger in liminal space, perhaps so too can we, exploring a certain tactic from the summer with an eye for potential broader application in the fall.

Before hopping in the time machine and setting course for July, though, it's necessary to turn the calendar back a bit further, returning to the 2022-23 season, when the Pacers first started running this half-court lob play as an opening set. As a brief overview, the play begins with the point guard entering the ball to the wing, who then immediately flips it back before curling around an off-ball screen from the big at the elbow.

Easy enough, right? Well, if that option isn't there, then the cutter will relocate to the weak-side corner, with the big instead setting a high cross-screen for the player at the weak-side wing, who rejects that action to flow into stack pick-and-roll (i.e. setting a back-screen for the screener as they roll to the hoop) with both corners filled.

Notably, with Buddy Hield shaking up from the corner, the low-man is going with him, no longer low and not giving any consideration to tagging the roll-man.

But, what about when the player in that corner doesn't demand that degree of attention? In that case, rather than circling out to the weak-side corner, the cutter (assuming the lob isn't there) wheels behind an exit screen in the ball-side corner, as Aaron Nesmith can be seen receiving here from Jalen Smith. From there, the team flows into angled pick-and-roll between Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner with Smith moving to balance out the floor in the opposite corner.

Make sense? Ok, let's fast forward to this past July, in which the Summer Pacers can be seen running that same play -- or, at least, something very similar to that same play. Except, look at the subtle differences. As Jarace Walker curls around the off-ball screen from the big looking for the lob, just as Nesmith did, there is no one standing at the weak-side wing, which means (if the lob isn't there) Oscar Tshiebwe won't be pivoting into wide-reject-stack. Meanwhile, Johnny Furphy is running the baseline toward Enrique Freeman, so the option for Walker to circle behind an exit screen from Freeman also isn't going to be there.

Taken altogether, it effectively appears as though they have optimized the floor spacing for the lob option (there's no one to help!), while simultaneously compromising the floor spacing of every other option. After all, look at Furphy and Freeman. They are converging into the same corner.

 Then again, look at Furphy and Freeman. It's possible they've stumbled onto something by stumbling into that same corner and spacing themselves below the break. In that regard, when Walker's defender slides under the off-ball screen and takes away the lob, notice how they don't stay below the break. Instead, as the pick-and-roll between Tristen Newton and Tshiebwe starts to develop, Furphy spaces slightly off the corner and Freeman lifts as high as possible, going so far as to nearly curl up and behind the ball at the top of the key.

In effect, that movement around the pick-and-roll has the potential to confuse the tag while also creating longer rotations. For example, imagine if Newton had sprayed the ball out to the perimeter here instead of pulling up for two. With the low-man tagging Tshiebwe on the roll, look at how much ground the high defender is going to have to cover in this 2-on-1 situation as a result of the amount of space between Furphy and Freeman.

Taking that a step further (no pun intended), picture Freeman being Myles Turner and Furphy as Andrew Nembhard or Bennedict Mathurin. If Turner's defender slides with him up along the three-point line, then almost the entire defense is going to be shifted. Moreover, because Furphy is standing off the corner, Nembhard or Mathurin would then also have the option to drive middle or baseline on the kick-out in that role. Oh, and there's another benefit: If Turner is the player lifting behind, say, a Haliburton-Siakam pick-and-roll, then he's also going to be the first player back in transition, already positioned to protect the rim.

Of course, the counterpoint to all of this would be that this is summer league and none of that might've even been intentional. Maybe Furphy was actually supposed to stay at the wing, as Mathurin did against the Grizzlies for the wide-reject-stack option, instead of cutting from the wing to the corner? Even so, sometimes, mistakes can spur innovation, especially given that defenses typically prepare their coverages based on standard spacing. If two players are standing below the break in the same corner, that's a unique alignment that most opponents aren't likely to be prepared for. Plus, if that was a mistake, then Furphy and Freeman made several mistakes -- and so, in turn, did the defense.

Here, less than a minute earlier, the two of them could once again be seen in the same corner, practically holding hands as Walker and Tshiebwe were in the process of running spread pick-and-roll. Then, in the blink of an eye, they both split off in opposite directions with Furphy lifting above the break and Freeman making a beeline for the rim.

With Freeman appearing as though he might set a corner pin-in for Furphy, Freeman's defender was preparing to switch out to Furphy. When the screen didn't happen, Furphy's defender stayed attached, which opened up an unimpeded path for Freeman to the basket. Still, even if that mix up had never happened, that alignment could theoretically open up more room for the screener in the short-roll, a la for Turner to shoot from that range, provided that the ball is moving toward the single-side of the floor. Think of it this way. If Furphy was stationed at the wing, his defender could more easily sit at the nail and disrupt the roll-man. Granted, Furphy probably isn't going to get a quick shot out of this spacing, but his gravity is enough to free up space for the screener, and as the first clip from this game goes to show, he and Freeman can still space off the corner as the pick-and-roll develops to create longer closeouts out of 2-on-1 situations on the back-side.

As it was, no screen was ever even set. Just by virtue of the fact that two players were standing in the same corner again, the defense got complacent, point switching for the low defender to take Furphy while effectively zoning up in no man's land at the elbow.

For those keeping track, that's three times where Furphy and Freeman were spaced below the break in the same corner, and that's also three times that the defense lost track of one or the other of them. In that regard, it's almost like the best hiding place is the most obvious. From the perspective of the defense, which (again) is typically prepared for standard spacing, it begs to reason that, upon discovering that two players are virtually spaced on top of each other, that one defender should reasonably be expected to defend two. The only problem is, the two of them never continuously stayed in that same space. Regardless of if the two below the break spacing was intentional, Furphy and Freeman lulled the defense to sleep and then they actively attacked the laxness, whether lifting up along the three-point line, splitting off in opposite directions, or simply cutting from the corner to the rim.

All of which is to say that, just as late-September in Indiana can be unseasonably warm, offering feint whispers of summer's ghost, maybe the same could potentially apply to the regular season, incorporating the "mistakes" from Summer League as a potential innovation, in which the spacing, albeit in cramped spots, might be so bad as far as what's conceded that it could actually be good in terms of what's gained.