New York's staggered triple screen - FastModel Sports

Published 03/11/2013 by Mark Travis Favorite Send to FastDraw Print Embed

About This Play/Drill

Aside from having an extremely talented offensive player like Carmelo Anthony, the biggest reason that the Knicks rank third in the NBA in scoring efficiency is the beautiftul playbook that Mike Woodson has assembled. Granted, a lot of the stuff the Knicks run today comes straight out of Mike D'Antoni's scheme - in fact, I think New York runs more of D'Antoni's stuff than the Lakers do - but Woodson deserves a ton of credit for how he has handled the offense this season.

Here is a play that New York occasionally runs in semi-transition or in the half-court. It is a high staggered triple screen that takes advantage of New York's staple offensively: a stretch four. Usually, that player is Carmelo, but in this particular example, with Melo out with an injury, Steve Novak assumes the role of a stretch four.

The staggered triple screen action has a pair of pick-and-pops and a pick-and-roll to cap it off that can send the defense scrambling to find their assignments and put them in a poor position to defend in the case of a mismatch or good ball rotation. When the Knicks ran it against the Cavs a couple of days ago, Cleveland got all out of place following Novak at the three-point line and left Amare wide open on the roll for an easy dunk.


  • Basketball Play - New York's staggered triple screen
  • Basketball Play - New York's staggered triple screen
  • This is a triple staggered screen up top for Pablo Prigioni, who starts the play off on the far left side of the floor in semi-transition, allowing for his three screeners to get into place offensively. Smith sets the first screen and then fades to the left wing/corner, Steve Novak sets the second one and pops to the top of the key and Amare Stoudemire sets the last screen and rolls hard to the rim.

  • By the time Prigioni has reached the right side of the floor, the defense may have switched on screens as many as three times, and there is always confusion as the defense enters scramble mode. When New York ran this play against the Cavs down one with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Cleveland got confused. Ellington, who was switched onto Novak on the second screen, and Speights, who was guarding Amare but never came above the foulline, both darted towards Novak once they saw him open, leaving Amare free to roll straight down the paint.