Question on this play: LaMelo gets the switch onto their center, commentary says “give him some room”; why does Coach Clifford motion for PJ to cut and screen here, allowing a guard to switch back onto Melo?

6 comments

1. I don’t know but there probably should have been some movement by Miller and Gordon here

2. Turner is not any slow feet center. Being guarded by Hield is a bigger advantage than a 7 footer that can decently move and block your shot. It was probably a good action, Lamelo just fumbled the layup.

3. Yeah, Clifford is not a good coach offensively. You either run something with several motions and screens (involving 4-5 of the guys on the floor) or stay spread and let LaMelo work on the bigger slower defender without pulling in any other defenders.

   Literally the worst possible thing we could have done there.

4. Trying to get to the rim– Turner is an agile defender with quick feet, huge size advantage and positive rim-protection ability.

   You might want that Melo v. Big matchup if it’s a big guy with slow feet and poor lateral agility, but Turner is a decent perimeter defender and one of the better PnR defenders in the league. He’s also good at getting hands up on the stepback jumper/3 and disrupting the shot.

   Getting the switch on a PnR from Turner to Hield is a big positive offensively on a drive attempt. The layup attempt v. Hield has a way higher chance of scoring points than driving on or stepping back on Turner.

   You can see Melo gets a good, clean shot off against Hield. Turner would have made that a much, much worse look.

5. Hield is a really bad on ball defender. Washington slipping opens up the right side for a drive. If brown helps then you have Gordon in the corner. Good coaching on cliffs part tbh

6. In live time I thought it was to take turner off the drive to prevent him from helping onto Mark