Charlotte Hornets playbook: Spain pick-and roll

Whilst they’ve got (many) flaws, the Charlotte Hornets coaching staff are definitely masters of play-design.

One of the key plays of James Borrego’s last 2 seasons as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets has been the “Spain Pick and Roll” (Spain PnR).

For an in-depth explanation of this action, there’s a great piece here which uses the Houston Rockets as an example of how this action is executed at the NBA level. Below is another great video detailing decision-making out of the pick and roll.

I did my best to try to sum-up the play in this below tweet.

Each player involved in the Spain PnR must have specific strengths. The ballhandler has to be a reliable decision-maker, able to promptly spot the holes in the defense resulting from this action. The screener needs to be a good screener and roll man. Finally, the back screener also needs to be committed to making contact on screens, and needs to be a good shooter.

In the case of the Hornets, the ballhandler is Devonte’ Graham, Gordon Hayward or most commonly LaMelo Ball; the screener is PJ Washington, Miles Bridges or Bismack Biyombo, and the back-screener is Rozier, Graham, Bridges or Washington.

This play does a great job of keeping Ball involved in the half-court offense in spite of his current weaknesses. The back screen for the roll man alone usually confuses defenses enough to create an advantage somewhere even if the ballhandler doesn’t put pressure on the rim (a major weakness of Ball currently), and Ball is a master of identifying the open man.

This action has also been an extremely effective counter to how teams normally defend any PnR ran by Ball, which has been to “drop” their big man and force Ball to hit pull-ups and floaters; whilst Ball’s current numbers are fairly solid (50% efficiency on pull-up 2 point field goals, 37% on pull-up 3 point field goals per NBA stats) they’re likely unsustainable due to his poor footwork and rhythm off the bounce.

Now, teams will likely figure out counters, especially when Ball is the ballhandler; since Ball is a weak finisher at the rim (55% at the rim is 189th in the league), teams can switch the back screener’s defender onto Ball and “play the pass.” That’s not to say Ball can’t adjust and beat these counters either; Ball taking it harder to the rack would make it hard for teams to switch the back screener’s defender onto Ball, since the backscreener (Rozier, Graham) is normally a quick, small guard and is thereby usually defended by smaller guards/wings.

This clip of Hayward taking it strong to the rack is EXACTLY what Ball needs to do more, both in normal PnR but also in Spain PnR. If the Hornets ballhandlers can pressure the rim out of this action it becomes nearly impossible to defend, especially given how good Graham, Ball, and Hayward are at finding open shooters if opposing teams commit more defenders.

Overall, this is a great Charlotte Hornets play that only begins to scratch the surface of the type of creative offense the Hornets can unlock with their current roster. See if you can pick it out next time you watch Hornets basketball!