My Journey in the Pick and Roll nightmare

[jeebs9]

So I've been playing these pick and roll guys. Who run pick and roll every single possession. It's a great offense. But it can be one dimensional at times. One of the nice things nice this I like to do is to see how smart my opponents is. Can they see pass the first man? Can they see the kickout? And then after the kick out can they see. In the following plays I’ll be showing some situations. Over the pick or under the pick. Force to the middle or no force. Hedge or no Hedge. And one my favorite things to do pre rotate.
Having a good on ball defender is just as important as having a shot blocking center. But also having good wings to help cover the weak side is important too. I’ve been playing with the Grizzlies for the most part. They are probably a top 3 defensive team in the game. But I’ve found that every team is different. Running small line ups sometimes actually helps in pick and roll coverage.
Russell drive - Gasol Block

Tony Allen goes into the pick. And then Russell goes away from it. Leaving Gasol on a island to cover the very dangerous Russell in the paint. The one thing about my opponent is that he never took the wide open mid range jumpers when I was in a drop. A drop is when the center stays back to protect the paint. Most teams with big slow players play in this style because the bigs have a hard time come out and covering speedy players (like Russell in this case)
Russell Dunk

In this clip I’m caught in a mini fast break with Russell having a full head of stream. Z-Bo is my worst defender when it comes to pick and roll coverage/paint. I lost this battle once I didn’t get Russell under cover. So after watching my opponent dunk it for the 3 time. I changed my tactic and I changed the defensive settings to pre-rotate to yes-all. What this does is make the CPU controlled defender rotate to the players that are left open. The next clip will show you the result of that setting change.
Durant paint packed

In this clip Green fights over the weak pick (I think it was Singler). Green stays in coverage on Durant. Which means Gasol is able to stay on the roll man. But you’ll because Singler is open for a second B.Wright leaves his man Ibaka in the corner to cover to cover Singler. Because Green’s on-ball defense is so good in this situation (bumping Durant). He slows him down and stays in front of him. You’ll also notice Tony Allen leave Russell and dive into the paint. That’s 5 guys in the paint. My opponent still takes a contested jumper with Durant.
Russell dunk - Late rotation

You would think after watching the last play with 5 players in the paint. My opponent would look for an open man. But he still doesn’t and gets a dunk. One thing I want to mention to anyone who is still reading lol. Is that it’s not going to work every single time. And my line up doesn’t work well here. Allen and Green are my best defensive players. When they are on the bench it doesn’t work as well.
Adams dunk - Green Late rotation

Like I said it doesn’t work all the time. I don’t get a body on Russell. It’s going to be a dunk. And Green is late on the rotation.
Russell drive - Green rotation block

So after this play… I really had enough with the over and over. And I put GAP on all the outside players. I do this because I want to close the lanes down. But look at the wonderful rotation by Green.
Durant drive missed - Gasol rotation

Spoiler

Russell drive - Z-Bo rotation

This is an outstanding play by Zo-Bo. My opponent finally starts to see the lanes close down and finally PASS the ball to the second layer. Results contested 3 pointer.
Russell drive - Gasol steal

People complain about pick and roll not working. But it does!! They are also people complaining that it’s too easy to score on a pick and roll but they have given use a bunch of ways to slow it down. This clip above show Allen working his butt off. The pass should have been a bounce pass. But I think I would of stripped with Mike Conley because it was so low.
Durant drive - Gasol block

Green again fights over the pick. Gasol gets caught up. But still makes the block on Adam. There no tactic to this play in my opinion. This is all about having a good defensive center.
Russel dunk - No rotation (weird animation)


Russell drive – Gasol winning block


This just makes me happy that it all worked out lol. You see this why I'm half and half on-ball defense. I think you need a mix of it.

[jeebs9]

One other things I wanted to mention was Hedging. This tactic is all about your bigs. And it's some thing I think everyone should look into if they like playing with a small line up. You can basically play the Heat style of defense from their championship run. But it depends on what kind of wings and bigs you have. You need bigs that can move fast enough to get in and out of hedges and recover back their man. But you also need Wings that can fly around the court and contest shots at the rim.

[Smirkin Dirk]

Good thread. As a human player, the game gives you heaps of options.

But the CPU doesnt use enough these options regularly enough.

[Sleepy59]

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Opponents notice you playing off-ball therefore they hit u with the P&R. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

[Optik]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sleepy59

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Opponents notice you playing off-ball therefore they hit u with the P&R. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

It's this kind of self-righteousness that people can't stand about people who say you should play on ball D.

[2_headedmonster]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sleepy59

P&R's are easy to stop. Maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you played ON ball D, It's you own fault! The CPU defenders are horrible on pick and rolls, They get stuck on picks and can't react properly. Ronnie They see you don't play on-ball therefore they P&R you. Play your opponent, learn his habits and stop it yourself instead of having the cpu do it all.

Thank you for blessing us with your wisdom. Do you by any chance have any proverbs in print?

[The 24th Letter]

Good write up jeebs


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[Smirkin Dirk]

This is exactly why OS is the best sports gaming forum around.