Joe Viray on Team USA's sound defensive preparation against Serbia

Steve Kerr had his players prepared for everything Serbia tried to run on offense.

Joe Viray has kindly agreed to write articles for us about some of the USA Olympics Men’s Basketball games! - Eric Apricot

The concept of heliocentrism in basketball can come in many forms — albeit, it is always thought of as one ball-pounding “sun” around which others figuratively orbit and literally stand still, in hopes of finishing a possession that involves one or multiple defenders finding themselves gravitating toward the offensive focal point.

In that regard, the most famous (or infamous) central bodies whose gravity can seemingly be larger than life have been Luka Dončić and the prime Houston Rockets version of James Harden. Their ability to score in a myriad of ways — pulling up from deep, off the dribble, around screens, driving to the rim, etc. — allows such spread-floor alignments to exist, and provides them with a platform to showcase their elite floor-mapping skills.

But there’s another sort of heliocentrism that doesn’t subscribe to the traditional definition — and where players quite literally orbit around the gravity of one transcendent offensive player. You may have seen this in the NBA in the form of the Denver Nuggets, where Nikola Jokić plies his trade as one of basketball history’s most dominant offensive singularities — if not the most dominant.

If you find yourself blessed to have Jokić on your team, it is basketball criminality not to have him be the chef that stirs the offensive pot, so to speak. Which is why, in adherence to how Nuggets head coach Michael Malone uses Jokić within his offense, Svetislav Pešić — head coach of the Serbian men’s national team — took a cue from Malone by incorporating a Nuggets staple half-court set.

Malone’s terminology for the set is “Elbow,” but it’s known by a couple of other names. Some call it “Peja” action, eponymously named for — you guessed it — Peja Stojaković. Others call it “Rip DHO" because of the two components that comprise the set: a “rip” screen or backscreen, followed by a dribble handoff (DHO) for the person who set the rip screen.

In terms of personnel, the set is typically a three-man dance: a shooter who sets the rip screen (Jamal Murray in the clip above), the recipient of the rip screen (Aaron Gordon), and an elbow big (Jokić) who makes the decision of either hitting the cutter coming off of the rip screen or handing it off to the rip screener.

The high success rate of the set — and Jokić’s involvement in it — meant it was destined for the Serbian national team. Their version retains much of the central tenets of “Elbow.” Oftentimes, it is identical to Malone’s. But a decorated Serbian coach such as Pešić is, of course, compelled to add his own personal tweaks and touches.

As such, the one that the Serbians run has an additional component: a “flare” screen, or an off-ball screen for a player going away from the ball:

In the example above, Jokić is a bit out of position in terms of his typical role in the set — he is the recipient of the rip screen, with Pešić playing another big (Nikola Milutinov) and having him be the elbow decision maker. But take note of what Jokić does before coming off the rip screen: he sets a flare screen for a teammate, who eventually becomes the corner shooter off of the pass created by the DHO recipient.

The flare screen acts as another layer of motion that a defense has to add to their checklist, which can easily befuddle them if they fail to cross their t’s and dot their i’s. Defenses who are able to sniff this action out and act accordingly not only have the personnel to switch and/or navigate screens — they have the chemistry to communicate and mesh well with each other, fueled by longevity and continuity.

In the case of Steve Kerr’s Team USA, they are bereft of those two principles. But despite that handicap, they were able to cruise their way to a 110-84 win over Serbia. Understandably so, the headlines have focused on their offensive explosion, captained by perhaps the greatest FIBA player of all time in Kevin Durant (23 points on a whopping 116.4 TS%) and LeBron James (21 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists).

Much more needs to be said, however, of their defensive exploits against Serbia, considering their hastily assembled nature. The personnel should be rightfully lauded — in particular, the perimeter defense of NBA All-Defensive Team stalwarts in Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, as well as the contributions and efforts of Durant, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, and Stephen Curry. But the coaching staff also deserves to be given their flowers.

Again, the headlines concerning the coaching have focused on other things — such as the Jayson Tatum controversy, in which he saw no playing time whatsoever against Serbia. Never mind that the Americans won by 26 points against a medal contender featuring an all-world offensive weapon — in several people’s minds, Kerr had done nothing right and everything wrong.

But this article isn’t to dwell on Kerr’s perceived shortcomings as a head coach — and he has quite a bit of them. Rather, it commends his preparation of Team USA’s defensive gameplan, with help from his assistant coaches in Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue, and Mark Few.

"We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration always," Kerr said to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. "So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape walk-through. We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.' We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different."

The sense of urgency Kerr wanted to instill before the games that counted ultimately manifested — especially on the defensive end.

It was apparent for most of the game that Kerr and his staff watched tapes of Serbia — their tendencies, habits, and favored half-court sets — and imparted those to their players. In turn, the Americans executed a near-perfect defensive gameplan, banking on endless screen navigation, constant ball pressure, and consistent effort.

Of those half-court sets the Americans were aware of, the Serbians’ “Rip DHO” certainly wasn’t spared. Watch, in its full glory, how White was able to navigate his way effortlessly around the rip screen and the DHO, track Vasilije Micić, and stay close to him — ultimately ending up in one of White’s trademark blocks, of which he has developed a reputation as arguably the best shot-blocking guard in the NBA:

The constant effort around screens — both on and off the ball — was a prevalent theme in the Americans’ dominance of Serbia. It was hard to ignore the difference between their exhibition effort and their high-stakes effort. The sense of urgency Kerr wanted to see was there, the “force” (his favorite word as a coach) was aplenty, and the transition opportunities generated by stops were prevalent.

Americans in international competitions will never be fully complementary, nor will they have sufficient time to develop the requisite coherence and connectivity on offense — which is why their half-court possessions are often of the vanilla pick-and-roll variety and are less of the complicated machinery that Kerr himself has preferred with the Golden State Warriors. Hanging their hat on half-court supremacy will never be a winning recipe, at least on its own.

Rather, they must almost always bank on their defensive quality — of which, on this team, is abundant. Despite having a good game statistically (20 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists), even Jokić couldn’t overcome Team USA limiting Serbia to 88.7 points per 100 possessions. There are certainly some adjustments and corrections to be made, and some of the criticisms levied toward Kerr (the constructive ones, at least) are with merit. But the benefit of having a roster as deep and talented as this is that the margin of error is truly small.

That margin can be microscopic if the Americans maintain this level of preparation and execution in their games to come.