Basketball Training Tips – Mike Conley | Memphis Grizzlies
Over the weekend, Mike Conley had quite the day against an overmatched Kings’ defense. The Grizzlies point guard had 22 points at the half and, most importantly, directed his team to a dominating win. While Sacramento’s poor defensive effort certainly factored into Conley and the team’s performance, Mike still flashed some great understanding of pick and roll play throughout the game.
The first possession of the game highlighted that very fact. The play starts with Rudy Gay screening down for Memphis center Marc Gasol. Gasol sprints to ball screen for Conley on the left wing. Thanks to the laziness shown by Sacto’s DeMarcus Cousins, Conley is able to come off the screen with little resistance.
Here is where Conley demonstrates a great understanding of both ball screen play and penetration. As he pushes his dribble toward the paint, he notices a 2 on 1 situation develop between he and Gasol as Conley’s defender, Tyreke Evans, is caught up in the screen. Most players would turn the corner hard and look to violently attack the basket here. That type of play, at this level, allows the big zoning up (Cousins) to simply time the ballhandlers run to the rim and look to block or alter what mostly likely ends up being a one foot speed finish. Conley, however, slows slightly before entering paint.
This change of speed maneuver accomplishes two things. First, it forces Evans to slow his pursuit to avoid running into and fouling the ballhandler. Secondly, this hesitation dribble keeps Gasol alive as an option in the play. Cousins, with Evans still trailing behind, is now forced to pick whether to stick Gasol to prevent a pocket pass or a lob, or close down on Conley to prevent the shot or drive.
Cousins chooses the former and Conley gears back up to attack the rim. However, due to personnel that struggle to adequately spread the floor, the Kings Jason Thompson (who is near the right block marking Mareese Speights) is able to put himself in a position to contest any shot at the rim Conley has. Instead of forcing a lay-up, Conley pushes hard toward the baseline and creates a passing angle to Speights. Mareese unfortunately clanks a jumper normally in his range, but that shouldn’t take away from Conley’s execution.
Here is a video of the play in both real time and slowed down so you can see it all unfold:
That play wasn’t the only time Conley uses a change of speeds to get Speights an open look this game. Early in the third quarter, Mike has the ball on the left wing again looking for a side pick and roll. The Kings Jimmer Fredette, defending Conley on the play, quickly jumps to his top shoulder to down the ball screen. Speights chooses to stay high near the top of the key instead of re-screening. (While this isn’t technically a step-up screen, it leaves Speights in the same position he would had he screened toward the baseline and popped)
Conley, reading Speights move into space, begins to push both defenders he has engaged down toward the baseline, making Thompson’s closeout to Speights as long as possible. The real nuanced part of this play is Conley finding the fine line between how far he drag Thompson away before the Kings weakside defender, Francisco Garcia, can get into a position to jump the pass or easily contest any shot from Speights. The following video is paused at the exact moment Conley is about to release the ball and you will see that he delivers right before Garcia commits fully to Speights. That leaves Mareese just enough time to squeeze off an 18 foot jumper that finds the bottom of the net.
Conley didn’t just do a great job of distributing either. In the following three clips, we see Mike using change-of-speed maneuvers to free himself for great paint looks, all of which he converts. In this first clip, Conley sees another ball screen downed, this time on the right wing. To attack the defense, Mike uses a hesitation in-out dribble to go at Thompson, the cleverly initiates contact first near the end as he finishes off two feet with his right (off) hand.
In the next video, Conley doesn’t so much change speeds, but continually slows his dribble until he finds himself deep into the paint for a floater. This is a great example of control, pace and ballhandling. I couldn’t recommend this clip enough for young guards.
The final clip we’ll look at today involves Conley in a dribble hand-off with Gasol on the right wing. This time Conley goes back to using a great hesitation, change-of-pace dribble to freeze the paint defenders then blow by them for a one foot speed finish.
It’s amazing what can be learned from a game that’s score indicated a meaningless blowout. However, those who suffered through it, got to see Mike Conley put on an absolutely clinic on changing speeds and using great pace to attack off ball screens Saturday night.
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