(free clip) Explain One Play: Steph, Draymond and Our Guy Juanito Zig Zag Out of a Trap
More ways to punish double teams
A list of all Explain One Play articles and videos is at The new Explain One Play index.
I wanted to talk about one of my favorite new actions that the Warriors have introduced at the beginning of May. And it's meant to be a counter to the trapping defenses that teams throw at Steph Curry. A typical reaction to a trapped pick and roll is a pass to the short roller. However, defenses can make it very tough to get that pass out. The Warriors in the Houston game (2021.05.01) and Pelicans (2021.05.03) games experimented with a new way to find the roll man with a cool new zigzag pass out of the trap.
They’ve used this a bit less as the competition got easier down the stretch, but if the going gets tough and playoff defenses try jumping the short roll pass, I expect to see this come out of the toolbox again.
Co-starring Stephen Curry, the gravity man; Draymond Green and Juan Toscano-Anderson, the zigzag readers; Looney looney as a hard cutter, and Jordan Poole and Mychal Mulder as responsible citizens.
The full 10 minute video can be seen by subscribers at
(If I did everything right, a 140 second preview clip should be embedded below…)
Nice to get a taste. :-)