Starters

Post Entry Pass Study — Duke vs. Belmont

Leading up to the start of this season, the Duke coaching staff and players took every opportunity to make  the point that the Blue Devils would be a much more post-oriented basketball team this year. Ryan Kelly and Miles Plumlee were Duke’s representatives for ACC Operation Basketball, the annual media day in Greensboro before the season begins.

“In our program, the big guys have been the backbone of the defense,” Miles Plumlee said, “and having experience there is going to be huge.”

With Mason and Miles Plumlee as the only post-oriented big men (though not back to the basket big men) on the team, I thought it would be interesting to track post entry passes throughout the year and pay attention to a few things. First, I wanted to see who caught the entry pass and what happened to the defense immediately afterwards. Would they honor the ability of these big men or stay with the passer, choosing to respect Duke’s traditionally potent perimeter shooters? Second, I am paying attention to the result of the play, whether this resulted in a kick out to a perimeter player, another interior pass, or a move to he basket. Third, and I think most important because it helps to provide some context to what’s going on in the play and not just that it was an entry pass, I am recording whether the pass was made in a half-court set or in transition.

This is my first time doing offensive charting, so bear with me as I work out the kinks. Going through each offensive play, possession by possession is tedious work, but it’s something I’ve always been interested in. Knowing what to look for and what to pay attention as I gain experience will undoubtedly make this job easier and I’ll be able to pick up on more things because the tedious part will become second nature.

The chart below represents my findings from the first game of the year against Belmont. There are some very interesting conclusions that can be drawn from going back through the games, which I’ll present below. First, a look inside my methodology:

1. I will only count plays where the player caught the ball in the painted area that put the player in a position to make a “scoring move”. If a player caught the ball as he was cutting through the lane, bringing him out to the perimeter, this will not count as a post entry pass.
2. If a player catches the ball just outside the paint, but then turns to make a post move, I will list it but make a note that the ball was caught somewhere besides the paint.
3. Most plays will be considered as occurring “Out of half-court set” as Duke has made the post entry pass much more of a part of their offense this year. I sometimes will note how the player presents himself for the pass but not always.
4. Please provide any suggestions in the comment boxes below as I’m new at this and would love to crowd-source more concepts to examine.

Now on to the conclusions. There are a number of things that can be looked at based on the results of these specific types of plays, but I will be concentrating on those I listed above. If you want me to look at others, just let me know.  Read more