Why The Pacers Offense Is Impossible To Guard

Why The Pacers Offense Is Impossible To Guard

after being overshadowed for essentially the entire season the Indiana Pacers are now on their way to the NBA Finals A big reason for their success is a really unique offense one that I believe every NBA team can learn from And in today’s video I want to discuss how their offense is so unique and why it’s just so hard to guard Just like everyone else the Pacers want to space the floor as best as they can Most teams do this by having their guys stand at the three-point line have a ball handler create dribble penetration and then make a play But as we’ve seen this postseason defenses have done a great job mucking up that spacing The reason is when everyone is standing around defenses can better key in on the ball handler One way to do this is by helping in the gaps When off-ball defenders know that their matchups aren’t moving they can dictate when to help and then recover back to their man But Indiana takes advantage of this defense by using a ton of improvised offball movement to balance that spacing Because those defenders are watching the ball there’s opportunities to move to create better spacing and much better shots My favorite concept that they use is when they have one guy move and then another guy fill that space The whole team doesn’t do this in unison like the Grizzlies but it’s a powerful tool that creates a lot of confusion As one guy moves the other guy fills that space which forces a defender to make a decision between the ball and man On this one Halleurn creates that mismatch with Robinson Turner has a post up but eventually moves out After the dribble handoff Seakum fills the paint to post his defender And look at all that space he has now Then here Shepard comes up to set a screen and McConnell goes the other way Mather moves to fill the top of the key before seeing a cutting opportunity at the rim If we look at some of these possessions again it really is just a simple isolation at the end of the day However when the ball handler and other offball guys move in unison defenders have to make split-second decisions to figure out where they need to be and that’s how they get lost It gets even harder when the Pacers start incorporating other concepts The other thing I love is how they use screens to maintain and create better spacing The most traditional way to use a screen is to create a mismatch and then use that advantage to make a play But Indiana uses screens to put defenders in bad spots One thing the Pacers do is reject screens On a ball screen the guy guarding the screener is usually up so high especially if they’re trying to switch So if the ball handler can sell it hard enough those lanes are going to be wide open During a dead ball TJ McConnell tells Turner “Stay prepared.” All right And calls out the play pistol Now as the ball’s being inbounded what would typically happen is for McConnell to run the pick and roll along the sidelines but he waits for Jared Allen to go to the baseline which then clears the middle So he drives and now has a wide open layup This is what makes the Pacers offense so different They’re not really looking to just force a mismatch because they know there’s so many ways they can attack here Sam Merrell holds Hallebertton because they don’t want him to set the screen on Garland But because they’re occupied McConnell sells like he’s using the screen just to go middle in a wideopen paint and then kicks it out for another wide open shot When the Pacers do create those mismatches they’re not always looking to isolate them Halleurn has cat but immediately attacks the lane and Turner smartly screens his defender so that Harley has a wide open dunk These screens are set in all kinds of ways to just open up lanes OG and Anobi’s watching Tyresese Hallebert but Nesmith sets a screen to make OG deal with another action with both Brunson and OG occupied Halleurn has that driving lane which then creates all that ball movement And even though it ends up being a seakum ISO that’s a good matchup to attack but he just misses it The offball screen that the Pacers most commonly use though is the flare And as you may be able to guess it’s to distract the help defenders And this time Miles Turner is wide open in the paint But what makes the flare more powerful is that it gives the ball handler another passing option to move the defense On this one TJ McConnell is running a pick and roll and Obi Topphen has a flare screen set Now Delawain Wright is the gap defender and sees the flare screen so he’s trying to get in a good position That’s when Tophin moves out of it though and Wright is now behind and Topphen attacks Brunson for a foul The flare opens up a lot of options here Turner sets a screen and looks like he’s setting a flare except he slips it And then knee who sees that Nhard has a driving angle screens his own guy to create the open lane and Tophin has a wide open three This is by far the most important part of the offense When one person improvises everyone else knows what they have to do All of this works because it’s done so fast and in sync And that’s exactly why the Pacers don’t need to mismatch hunt Yes they obviously would love to have Jaylen Brunson in every single action But no matter who the defender is dealing with multiple actions at top speed is hard for anyone and this allows Indiana to continue running their normal offense because their main focus is figuring out how to create space That’s why this team loves to run so much The reliance on speed is really useful in transition especially off of made baskets because the opponent is naturally under their own basket That’s when Indiana pushes the most to create a numbers advantage In the Knicks series the biggest beneficiary of this fast pace is Pascal Seiakum He’s gotten a lot of one-on-one opportunities in space just because the Pacers are not afraid of making that initial pass as the Knicks are getting back because he recognizes when he can leak out The Pacers just look for him in transition And it’s not all about just scoring Even if the Knicks get back in time Seakum’s focus is to get good position early so that he can play one-on-one This one’s a pretty good example After Hart knocks down the three Seakum hustles down to get good position on the post up McConnell clears to give more space and Tophin comes up to bring his defender up So Seakum now has a one-on-one but he just can’t finish This is why the Pacers don’t really run set plays While plays provide structure to the offense they take time to set up And opponents have studied you so much that it gets easier to take those away But it’s hard to set your defense when Indiana plays so fast naturally And that’s how they get so many easy baskets even if they just gave up a layup In the half court Indiana’s much more focused on dictating the pace on every single possession Think of it as having control over the speed of the game at any moment Not just playing fast or slow but choosing when to shift those gears For example this just looks like a normal pick and roll And because Halleurn’s going slow Brunson thinks that he has enough time to get back to knee But Harley then speeds up which gives him a lane and a layup Later in the period how looks like he’s just isoing bridges So with McBride helping in the gaps Harley throws it to Tophin to make McBride move back And now they start speeding things up Howie has a lane top and stays at the three-point line and has a decent look This is how Halleurn gets defenders off balance They’re not sure when he wants to speed up or slow it down And on this double drag he looks like he’s just running it like a normal pick and roll but then throws it to the big man and turns it into a dribble handoff The defense is late to react again and Turner has a dunk When you put all these concepts together it’s easy to understand why the Pacers have made it to the finals Their offense is cohesive unique and something that most teams are just not used to guarding And while the finals matchup isn’t that sexy on paper it’s the best offense against the best defense that makes this matchup so intriguing to watch So hope you guys enjoy this video If you enjoy the content please like and subscribe and I’ll see you guys next time Peace

The Indiana Pacers have one of the best offenses in the league because they play with a ton of intelligence. We break down what they do so well and why it’s an impossible offense to guard.

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Produced By Daniel Li
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