This time of year, it’s always worth a second, third, or even fourth look at offensive strategies aimed at attacking defensive switching in the ballscreen. This is especially true as teams begin facing opponents multiple times in a season, as switching can become a powerful tool to disrupt offensive flow and stymie sets or actions late in the year.
In past newsletters, we’ve highlighted offensive strategies to exploit the perimeter mismatches, like “Drive the Wake” {đź”’}…
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or through a variety of dribble pitches to attack the big on the perimeter {đź”’}…
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Today, we’ll show some love to the bigs by highlighting a clever “short roll to post” strategy offenses can use to maintain and exploit a size mismatch.
Short Roll to Post
With all switching schemes, defenses have contingency plans to prevent the offense from isolating and attacking through either a perimeter or size mismatch. By utilizing various “Hit” strategies {đź”’}, the defense can force the ball out of a perimeter player’s hands, shifting decision-making to less skilled offensive players…
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Or, in the case of size mismatches, teams have various doubling or zoning methods to prevent the big from playing 1v1 in the post.
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Additionally—and perhaps more commonly—defenses that excel at switching can use the “Triple Switch” to rotate the smaller defender out of the mismatch on the roll, replacing them with the nearest defender of size to match up on the rolling big.
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Zooming In: Referring to the example above, by deep rolling the big against the switch, the offense presents a clear and easy switch opportunity for the guard and the defender waiting at the rim. As a result, any size advantage the offense may have had is mitigated, and upon the catch, the big is operating against a defender of similar size.
In response to the “Triple Switch,” clever offenses looking to exploit the size advantage are countering by short rolling the big to post up the guard around the free-throw line…
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Zooming In: As shown above, the short roll to post puts any attempt by the defense to “Triple Switch” in a “grey area.” The big doesn’t roll all the way to the basket where the bigger defender is waiting to switch, and, at the same time, that defender at the rim is reluctant to leave their matchup and expose the rim to dumb offs or cuts. Therefore, the guard is forced to defend the match up 1v1 on the catch.
From this position, the defense is harder-pressed to solve the mismatch after the catch. Good corner/dunker spacing on the short roll post-up makes an attempt to double or bounce the small out of the mismatch very risky, as it can lead to direct kick-out threes or a dump-off to the rim with little chance for a second defender to rotate over on either.
Forced to defend the matchup 1v1, the big is in an advantageous position to attack smaller, quicker guards with minimal dribbles and fewer opportunities for their dribble to be stripped.
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Zooming In: If the big can gain even a slight edge on the guard, one dribble is often enough to leverage their size and finish at the rim. Ideally, these post-ups shouldn’t require them to get into their “bag”—the size advantage should be enough to make a quick, decisive move.
The short roll to post offers a dynamic and effective counter to defensive switching schemes, especially when trying to exploit a size mismatch. By maintaining proper spacing and attacking decisively, offenses can create easy scoring opportunities for their bigs without needing to rely on overly complex moves or numerous dribbles.
