Golden State Warriors: 3 key actions the team must run for D’Angelo Russell
Golden State Warriors’ guard D’Angelo Russell has the chance to become an All-NBA player if Steve Kerr uses intelligent actions for the new young star on the Warriors’ roster.
When the Golden State Warriors acquired D’Angelo Russell, the question on everyone’s minds was how he would fit with the offense.
Russell was ranked second in the NBA in the number of pick-and-roll possessions per game with 11.4. Despite his high volume, he was only in the 67th percentile in points per pick-and-roll possession with just 0.89.
The Warriors, however, were dead last amongst teams running just 12.1 pick-and-roll possessions per game. The majority of these possessions were quick drag screens for Stephen Curry in semi-transition where Curry would quickly pull up from deep.
Despite running it the least, the Warriors were actually first in the league in pick-and-roll points per possession with 0.99.
So clearly, head coach Steve Kerr needs to unlock more efficient parts of Russell’s game. There are three key actions that the Warriors already run for other players that we should be sure to see in the 2019-20 season with Russell as the beneficiary.
1. Pistol
Russell’s favorite action is definitely the pick-and-roll, but the Warriors clearly don’t like running just straight-up pick-and-rolls out top. So one way to get Russell coming off of a screen but also still part of the Warriors’ free-flowing offense is to run pistol.
This is basically a dribble handoff into a pick-and-roll.
It usually starts with a player in the corner without the ball and the point guard at the top with the ball. They sprint towards each other and execute a dribble handoff. Then a big immediately sets a screen for the player with the ball so he can drive towards the paint.
In the video above it shows the Portland Trail Blazers running the pistol action mentioned from 0:42 to 1:00. The video as a whole shows the many variations that you can run using pistol.
For the Warriors, this would work best with Russell starting in the corner, Curry as the point guard, and Draymond Green as the screener. Curry dribbles to the wing and does a handoff to Russell.
Green sets a screen for Russell so he can turn the corner and attack inside. From that point, there are numerous options. If the defense doesn’t switch then they’ll be trailing Russell and he’ll get an open mid-range jumper.
If they do switch everything then that’s very dangerous as they’ll have to switch twice which could leave any one of the three stars open.