By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Pick-and-roll play is more prevalent than ever in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a trend that has magnified the importance of steady guard play. There are no shortage of talented playmakers leading their respective teams this season, and while each has their own unique skill set and style, shot creators in the EuroLeague have more in common than one might assume.
Pick-and-Roll Score-Pass Balance
The graph above plots every player in the EuroLeague with at least one pick-and-roll possession this season as tracked by Synergy Sports Technology by how many points they have scored themselves out of ball screens as compared to how many points they have created with passes. Several things stand out about this graph.
First, it is a great indicator how far removed the EuroLeague’s playmakers are from the rest of the league in terms of pick-and-roll responsibilities. The top 32 players in pick-and-roll points scored or created by a pass make up 57% of all the points accounted for in the graph above. Another 197 players make up the other 43%. Unlike other common offensive actions, like spot-ups and transition chances, where players from all positions tend to contribute, there is a clear positional bias in pick-and-roll play. Guards drive what teams do offensively in the modern EuroLeague, and teams do not look to get their forwards involved in ball-handling situations with any significant frequency. Though this is not surprising, the same is not universally true for all the world’s top leagues.
Second, nearly every player in the EuroLeague who spends any significant amount of time operating out of ball-screen actions creates more points with their passes than they score themselves. Even players known for their prolific shot-making abilities, like Alexey Shved and Mike James, generate more points for their teammates while dribbling off screens than they score individually. The exceptions to that rule really standout, as off-guards like Darrun Hilliard and Cory Higgins are true outliers in their aggressiveness to look to score using ball screens. It is hard to fault Higgins, who se 39% pass-rate places him in a tier of his own, as he ranks among the most efficient pick-and-roll scorers in recent history.
Third, even the league’s most prolific passers really do not produce that many more points with passes than they score themselves. Players like Nick Calathes, Vasilije Micic and Sergio Rodriguez all hover around the 65% pass-rate mark. There are a few lower-volume passers approaching the 70% mark, but not many. Stefan Markovic is the true outlier among that group, sitting at 78% on a pretty significant volume of opportunities. Several newcomers sit slightly higher, but the fact remains that the most prolific passers and scorers still find a fair amount of balance in their approach to ball screens. Specialization is not prevalent.
Lastly, the separation between the EuroLeague’s top-seven pick-and-roll point creators and the rest of the competition’s players is clear. None of those players hail from a team ranked any worse than 11th in the current standings, which proves that there are plenty of teams finding significant success leaning very heavily on one individual to create shots within their pick-and-roll attack.
There is plenty of nuance to how players create for themselves and others in ball-screen situations. Whether it’s Thomas Heurtel’s aptitude for finding his roll man or the way Alexey Shved finds an angle to score from mid-range after rejecting a screen, every productive EuroLeague playmaker is unique, but each plays a similarly demanding a role that requires a balanced approach.
Source: EuroLeague