Earlier this year we launched an exciting annual project called “SG Ventures”, where we searched for coaches who were working on interesting projects related to basketball/coaching/performance and collaborated with them to help bring those projects to fruition. You can read much more about the details of SG Ventures HERE.
One of these projects for 2022 is a three-part PnR series with coaches Drew Dunlop and Jake Grossman founders of, The Pro Lane, a high level, year-round basketball training center in Wisconsin.
Drew and Jake both have experience coaching and training players from the pro to amateur levels, and we are happy to be collaborating with them on a series of videos that deep-dives into some of the most useful ballhandler skills being used within the PnR.
Each installment of the series is a two-part video first showing the why’s, how’s, and when’s of the skill being used at different levels around the world followed by an “Inside the Drill” video breakdown where we look at live drill footage with both Drew & Jake teaching these concepts at their Pro Lane facility.
For the first part of the series we looked at “The Reject” of a ballscreen and why it’s such an important skill/read to learn at all levels. Today, in part two we highlight the “Hostage Dribble” to understand the advantages it can create in the PnR and the optimal situations to using it.
Why Hostage Dribble?
First, before diving in, a “Hostage Dribble”, also referred to at times as “putting the defender in jail”, can be defined as a dribble where the offensive player works to keep a defender on their back, thus not allowing them to get back to a normal guarding position.
This type of dribble is most often seen in a PnR situation where the defender is chasing over the screen. By forcing the over in the PnR an offense can create a temporary numerical advantage. However, as we discussed with Coach Drew & Jake during our “Inside the Drill” segment, maintaining the advantage is a much more nuanced skill and one that players often struggle with. Especially in situations when the 2nd line of defense has walled off the paint, the ballhandler will need to find alternative solutions beyond attempting to race to the rim.
This is where the Hostage Dribble can aid the ballhandler in maintaining the advantage and slowing him/her down in order to allow the action to unfold…
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Zooming In: In the GIF above the PG achieves “the over”, however, the defense has walled off his path to the paint. By using the Hostage Dribble he can keep the advantage by putting his defender on his back, buying more time for the roller to get to the rim and forcing the big to play 2v1 in the coverage.
As mentioned, the built in patience of using the Hostage Dribble buys time for the roller to get out in front of the ball. With the on ball defender unable to get back to neutral the defensive big is forced to stay more in the path of the ballhandler and risks giving up pocket passes or lobs to the roller. Here’s a good example of Joe Ingles using that patience to find Rudy Gobert…
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Additionally, using the Hostage Dribble to maintain an advantage and play off the threat of the roll inevitably opens up spray out opportunities for shooters…
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Zooming In: The last step in the domino. If the on ball defender can never get back to neutral and the defensive big must commit to the ball, then a 3rd defender will be required to control the roll. Once the roller breaks the defensive shell, kick out opportunities will arise.
The greatest strength of the Hostage Dribble is its effectiveness in slowing the ballhandler down and forcing him/her to change their pace,allowing them to see the gaps or passes being created as the defense plays in the disadvantage.
When to Hostage Dribble?
When should ballhandlers look to use the Hostage Dribble? Most often it’ll be effective against a “drop” or “contain” coverage and will depend on whether the ballhandler can come off the screen cleanly and/or how much space they’re operating in. If the ballhandler is in a position to string out the big while preventing the recovering defender from getting back to neutral then a Hostage Dribble likely isn’t needed…
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Zooming In: As shown above, the PG’s defender is completely detached coming off the on-ball screen and the elbow is free. Dragging the screen out instead of using a Hostage Dribble buys time for the screener to roll and keeps the big in the 2v1.
However, if any of these two conditions are inhibited then the PG can look to maintain the space/advantage already won with the over by using the Hostage Dribble…
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Zooming In: Above, the on-ball defender does a good job of staying attached to the PG coming off the screen. Rather than dragging the dribble out wide and risking the defender being able to get back to neutral, the PG makes the better decision to angle the defender off with the Hostage Dribble.
Understanding space is an important element to knowing when to use the Hostage Dribble. With the prevalence of “nail help” in International basketball, it’s especially important that the ballhandler understand the details of the Hostage Dribble in order to avoid over-dribbling into the nail help, creating poor offensive spacing and letting the defensive big off the hook of absorbing the ball.
Another subtle advantage of the Hostage Dribble is that it also allows time for weakside cutters to cut and help clear all that loaded up help at the nail…
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Still not sold yet? The Hostage Dribble can also allow time for the ballhandler to play “cat and mouse” with the defense as they stunt until a potential new gap is created by the roller…
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Overall, the Hostage Dribble allows a ballhandler to achieve a threatening depth against the drop, even with nail or gap help. It plays into the hands of a gapping defense to dribble the ball out laterally, where the defense can stunt, wall up gaps, and the ballhandler poses little threat to the dropped big. But, put the defender on your back and keep the ball in a vertical, north/south plane, and the defensive big must now react while stunts from the other defenders in the shell become longer and less threatening…
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“Inside the Drill”
As we shifted our focus now from understanding the Hostage Dribble to developing the mental and physical skill required to execute it, we sat down with Coach Drew & Coach Jake to go inside a few of their practice sessions as they progressed from 1v0 guided segments up to live 3v3 PnR scenarios.
A main focus throughout the sessions was on how to maintain the advantage and then find space to attack into. They started simple with guided 1v0s to help their players work on their posture and balance in maintaining the advantage and separating into space…
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Then, they layer in live 1v1 defense with an added defender at the rim, reinforcing the importance of holding the advantage and keeping their eyes on the 2nd line of defense in order to find space…
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They then culminate learning the skill into live 3v3 PnR situations where the ballhandler had to create the advantage via the ballscreen and find the proper solution in maintaining and scoring off the advantage. What began to manifest during these live sessions was the role of patience in not only using the hostage dribble, but, in general, finding solutions in the ballscreen. Often times the bridge between creating the advantage and maintaining the advantage is patience.
As Coach Drew shares, players often think they need to race to the rim the moment they get an advantage, when, in actuality, it is better to slow down and work with changes of pace as you get to the 2nd line of defense.
For much more on the Hostage Dribble, view the complete video breakdown and “Inside the Drill” session now on SGTV…
