Ethan Khoza breaks down how Sabrina Ionescu uses ball screens at an elite level. The key: shoot threes well enough to force defenders over, read how they cover the screen, control your pace, and vary your footwork on pull-ups to stay unpredictable.
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Being able to effectively use ball screens is one thing that separates good guards from great guards. And for any guards who play with the ball in their hands a lot, it's a crucial skill to have, especially at higher levels. Sabrina Ionescu is one of the best examples to watch if you want to see how to use ball screens effectively. And in this video we'll break down not just the reads that she makes, but the important micro skills that you want to have. If you want to be elite in this area as well, let's get into it. The most elite guards in ball screen situations can shoot if defenders play under. If you can't force defenders to have to play over, then it becomes much more difficult for you to be able to create advantages as consistently using these ball screens. That's why this three is a shot that every guard needs to be able to hit. For players who can make that shot, the coverage they'll see a lot of the time and the coverage that we'll start with is drop coverage with their defender playing over. When defenses play this sort of coverage, it can become very easy to create a 2:1:1 advantage and put a lot of pressure on that drop defender to have to make a choice on who to stop. This requires patience though. You'll notice that she's not coming off the screen going at 100% speed. She might come off going at 40% speed, maybe 60% speed. But this gives her time to be able to read how that drop defender is playing it so she can make a decision. And this leads to another point. The best guards in these situations save their 100% top speed for when they absolutely need it. That way it can be unpredictable or they can catch defenders by surprise with it. If her defender really gets hung up on that screen, then that can lead to a pull up being that right decision. If not, she does a good job of keeping that defender on her back, keeping her pace slow so that she can decide to explode and hit 100 to get to the rim. And one detail when it comes to those pull ups that makes her so dangerous is the fact that she can hit it coming out of a hop or out of a 1, 2. That hop allows her to get off that shot a little bit quicker, quicker when needed, but if she has the time and the space, she also can get it off in a one two. So it's important that you can make shots coming out of both a hop and a one two off the dribble. Here's another example of her saving that top speed until she needs to create a shot for herself. By her quickly getting to 100 into this quick inverted drag, she's able to play with her defender's momentum, which creates space for this shot coming off the screen. When defenses play this sort of coverage, usually her screener is either going to get to a pop or to a short roll. If they get to a short roll, just meaning that they're not rolling the entire way to the basket immediately. If that drop defender decides to commit and take away Sabrina's drive, then she's going to hit that short roll, which is typically going to create an open shot for her teammate. And then there's times where option one, which is her, or option two, which is the role, isn't there and she'll hit option three, which is that lift. We can see this coming out of that over and drop situation, but also out of this hard head situation as well. And watching her in these blitz or hard edge situations, she does a great job of still being patient and not panicking or picking the ball up too early. She understands that hedge defender is going to have to recover eventually, so she waits for a second. As soon as the defender turns to recover, she has an angle to attack and she can get downhill to an end one. And going back to the word I mentioned a few times, which is patience. She's so patient using ball screens, but she's great at keeping her dribble alive until she finds an option. A lot of young players panic when they don't have something right away, but a lot of times just being patient and keeping that dribble open something up for you. And a lot of these same principles apply when she uses handoffs as well, specifically being able to shoot out of different footworks coming off of the catch. She loves getting to the hot because she can get it off so quickly, but she's able to do either off the catch and off the dribble going at different angles. In this sort of versatility when it comes to the different footwork she's able to shoot out of makes her very difficult to stop using these different actions. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you drop a like and subscribe and click the top link in my description below to get my free Leap Scorer workout. Drop a comment below, let me know what you guys want to see next. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.
