Every defense has a solution. You can’t take away everything.
Mike Conley does a wonderful job in the PnR of systematically working through his process:
Reading coverages.
Setting up the best angles of attack.
Finding solutions for himself and his teammates.
Conley’s ability to operate in the PnR was critical in Minnesota’s series win vs. Denver.
Conley provided Minnesota with a secondary point of gravity in addition to Edwards and consistently created good shots for himself and his teammates, including long closeouts for Edwards to attack from an advantage!
According to Synergy, Conley’s PnR PPP numbers for the Playoffs are at 0.971. That’s not eye-popping by any stretch of the imagination, but the quality of the shot he consistently created was fantastic!
Considering Denver loaded up vs. Edwards and shrank the shell every time he had the ball, the ability to create advantage attacks for your best player is absolute GOLD!
This edit dives into 10 two-man game actions vs. two specific coverages from Minnesota's series vs. Denver:
Four vs. Down + Drop coverage
Six vs. Up to the Level coverage.
This edit contains ten clips and nine coaching points:
00:00 - 00:20 INTRO
00:27 - 01:50 (Down + Drop) Taking advantage of down into a 2 v 1 Floater
01:50 - 02:19 Coaching Point of Clip 1
02:19 - 04:38 (Down + Drop) Taking advantage of down into a 2 v 1 Lob
04:38 - 05:14 Coaching Point of Clip 2
05:14 - 07:01 (Down + Drop) Flipping the screen to Skip to Shot vs. Drop Coverage
07:01 - 07:47 Coaching Point of Clip 3
07:47 - 09:41 (Down + Drop) Flipping the screen to Pocket Pass vs. Drop Coverage helping UP
09:41 - 10:18 Coaching Point of Clip 4
10:18 - 12:10 (Over + Level) Reading “go” if you are outside of the level defender frame
12:10 - 12:36 Coaching Point of Clip 5
12:36 - 14:19 (Over + Level) Reading “pocket” if you are inside of the level defender frame
14:19 - 14:51 Coaching Point of Clip 6
14:51 - 16:18 (Over + Level) Reading “shot” if the level defender drops
16:18 - 16:57 Coaching Point of Clip 7
16:57 - 18:56 (Over + Level) Holding the level defender with a threat of shot and reading LMH
18:56 - 19:33 Coaching Point of Clip 8
19:33 - 21:36 (Over + Level) Refusal - Screener defender at the level open
21:36 - 22:08 Coaching Point of Clip 9
22:08 - 24:04 (Over + Level) Threat of refusal creates an extra five feet of space to attack
24:04 - End OUTRO
How Mike Conley Broke Denver’s PnR Coverages