A comprehensive guide to one of the best and most common Pick-and-Roll variations basketball has to offer.
With the rise of international presence, the NBA has been a melting pot both culturally and schematically. The strategic tendencies of Europe's greatest basketball minds have changed how the sport is played on the highest level.
Perhaps the most essential example of the NBA’s cultural diffusion, is the widespread usage of "Spain Pick and Roll," an action named after the Spanish National team that frequently used the set in the 2016 Olympics.
The action, like most have its origins almost impossible to fully discover, with there being examples in the early 2000’s of Coach Obradovic’s Panathinaikos teams using it. It’s unlikely that either example is the first time someone thought of setting a backscreen for a roller ( Example from the early 90’s below), but Spain’s use of the action is so legendary that the the name just fits.
In execution, Spain is a 3-man action involving a ball-handler, screener, and back screener/shooter. In short the play can he described as a ballscreen in the middle of the floor set by a big, and at the same time, a guard sets a backscreen on the back screener's man. The play has devastated NBA defenses for years now, with its usage increasing yearly. Take the Dallas Mavericks game 6 usage of the set against the Suns for example:
Sometimes the defense is so scared about the backscreen that they forget to defend the ball. In this clip, Joel Embiid recognizes the Spain PnR, retreats, signals for a Spain by throwing up his fist in the air. Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell says “thank you very much “ as he walks into 3 points.
The NBA’s remedy for the Set has been switching the action, but often times this leads to very weird cross matching. Take the play below for example, when you have a wing sized player as the ball handler and the Backscreener is a guard sized player, you’re giving up 4+ inches by switching this action.
The best way to beat a switch is usually a slip and this still applies when running Spain. Here the backscreen opens up the slip to the basket.
Spain has a bunch of little wrinkles, and one way to take advantage of switches is "Iverson Spain." A simple “Iverson cut" is run across the free throw line before a screener sets the ball screen to enter Spain.
Often in “Iverson Spain," the backscreener/shooter is taking a diagonal angle on the pop as opposed to a straight one. Germany has its fingerprints around this wrinkles origins, and have ran it to perfection before on the FIBA stage.
Spain PnR is also often paired with Ram, which is when a player receives an off-ball screen before setting a ballscreen. With a Ram Spain PNR , the ram screener is now setting the back screen in Spain.
Remember that Spain is the NBA’s ultimate counter to drop coverage, and also that ram forces defenses into pseudo drop coverages (the defender who gets ram-screened is lagging behind from that, and therefore trailing too far behind for a more aggressive PnR coverage).
The set is so easily complimented by other actions, that going down a full list of variation’s would take days. All you have to know is that it works, and if your team wants anything to do with an NBA title, they should probably find ways to add it to their playbook!
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