A few months ago, during our “Film Room” session with Birmingham Squadron Head Coach, TJ Saint{🔓}, we had a conversation centered on playing small and analyzed the solutions he developed to combat switching and size mismatches. During this part of the session, he introduced us to an offensive concept for attacking switches called “Drive the Wake.”
Since then, it’s been a concept we’ve kept an eye on and briefly referenced in our “Switching Primer” a few weeks ago. Today, we’re taking a closer look at this concept, exploring what it entails and why it works so well.
What is it?
“Drive the Wake” refers to the ballhandler, after a switch (or sometimes a hedge), attacking the defending big by driving back into the area where the screen occurred. The penetration follows the roller, who creates an open gap in the defense with the roll, leaving a “wake” of space for the ballhandler to exploit and beat the defending big.
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Why it’s Effective?
This attack can be effective due to the roller’s gravity and the defense’s momentary lapse in plugging gaps. After switching onto the big, the defending guard is often preoccupied with either chasing or attempting to control the rolling or (as shown above) popping big. In either scenario, the defender may lose sight of the ball, creating an opportunity for the offense to exploit the speed mismatch on the perimeter and attack the space left open.
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Zooming In: In the above clip, due to the need to locate the big post-switch, the defending guard follows the roller, which opens up space immediately behind the roll. In this instance, the entire middle third of the court is open for the ballhandler to attack.
With the roll clearing the space and creating the wake, the defense, based on the offensive spacing, may have one more opportunity to plug the gap with the next defender rotating in behind the screen. However, since the nature of the switch is to handle the ballscreen 2v2 with minimal help, the remaining perimeter defenders are often too slow to fill in behind the roll and close the gap.
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Zooming In: In both examples above, neither perimeter defender moves off their initial ballscreen position to shrink the space and help the big caught on the perimeter with a speed disadvantage.
Countering the Peel Switch – Gortat Screens
One possible defensive remedy, if the defense is unable to stop the penetration, is to use a Peel Switch(or veer switch) {đź”’}, where defenders switch back onto their original matchups as the penetration occurs.
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Zooming In: As the offensive guard penetrates into the wake of the roll, the defensive guard will jump off the roller to switch back onto the ballhandler, while the defensive big peels off to cover the rolling big.
The simple fix to combat this coverage is to the turn the roll into a Gortat Screen…
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Zooming In: By setting the screen to essentially hold the defensive guard hostage, the roller not only prevents the peel switch but also ends up setting a double screen.
To dive deeper into this innovative concept and see why it’s such an effective offensive solution, view the full breakdown now on SGTV!
