C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard have put their own spin on pick-and-rolls
C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard are incredibly similar players on paper. Beyond being combo guards standing under 6-foot-5 and hovering around 190 pounds, they’re two of the best shooters in the NBA who have proven themselves to be drop killers. They even get their points in similar fashion and use their scoring prowess to post almost identical numbers across the board.
However, the similarities in their games isn’t necessarily what makes them a dynamic one-two punch. Instead, it’s how McCollum and Lillard use their similarities to score in completely different ways that makes them impossible to contain.
With role players surrounding them, Lillard and McCollum are the heartbeat of the Portland Trail Blazers. The only duos currently accounting for more points per game are Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. And yet, while they basically play the same position and rely on long-range shooting to bend defenses, McCollum is more of a blast from the past and Lillard is more of a Moreyball product.
The best way to illustrate it is by looking at how the Blazers set McCollum and Lillard up in their sweet spots out of the pick-and-roll, where they both score the bulk of their points. At it’s simplest, it can be broken down into two seperate screens.
The McCollum Screen
In general, McCollum wants to get something from midrange when he’s involved in a pick-and-roll. Only Russell Westbrook (10.5), Chris Paul (9.7) and DeMar DeRozan (9.3) create a greater number of points per game from pull-ups than McCollum (9.0) on the season and he converts 45.9 percent of his looks from that distance. For comparison, Lillard ranks No. 11 behind the likes of Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Carmelo Anthony and John Wall with 7.1 pull-up points per game at a 34.3 percent clip.
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To help McCollum get in position to pull-up from midrange, the Blazers big men usually set screens for him with at least one foot inside the 3-point line. That way, McCollum has the space to pull-up if his defender goes under the screen. Alternatively, he can easily walk into a jump shot around the free throw line if they go over the screen. It’s basically what we see from DeRozan, only McCollum is also a threat to step back for a 3-pointer if his defender insists on going underneath the screen.
To get an idea of how it works, check out how Mason Plumlee sets a screen for McCollum with his left foot inside the 3-point line and his right foot just outside. McCollum forces Klay Thompson to fight over the screen instead of under it by rubbing shoulders with Plumlee when he turns the corner. He then makes Zaza Pachulia pay for hanging back by pulling-up at the elbow, which happens to be the shot he wants in the first place.
Something else to pay attention to is how the screener uses their body to create space between McCollum and his defender. Whenever Plumlee, Meyers Leonard or Ed Davis run a pick-and-roll with McCollum, their job is to take his defender out of the play in order to create a mismatch so McCollum can attack the big man on an island.
The way the Blazers do it is subtle, but notice how Leonard’s shoulders are more or less the same width as his feet as he sets the screen on Ricky Rubio in this picture:
Now notice how wide his base is in this following picture:
By taking a step towards the half court line when he’s setting a screen, Leonard makes it significantly harder for Rubio to recover. Not only is it impossible for Rubio to shoot the gap — the result of McCollum rubbing shoulders with the screener — Rubio has to run into Leonard if he plans to continue on the same path.
McCollum makes it even harder for the defender to recover in those situations by snaking the pick-and-roll. Consider the following possession against the Brooklyn Nets. Had McCollum continued attacking the elbow, Yogi Ferrell would have had a better chance of contesting his shot. Instead, he cuts in front of Noah Vonleh to take Ferrell out of the play and uses his length to rise up over Luis Scola at the free throw line.
There aren’t many — if any — players who use their body as well as McCollum to set themselves up for jump shots outside of the paint. Snaking the pick-and-roll is one way he does it, but he can also put his defender in jail by getting them on his hip and using them as a springboard to create side steps or step backs.
It’s exactly what McCollum does on this possession to create a pull-up from just inside the 3-point line. With Noah Vonleh rolling to the basket, Ish Smith and Aaron Baynes have no idea how to defend the action because McCollum is comfortable waiting for all the options to unfold.
McCollum pulls a similar move against J.J. Redick to set himself up for a floater over Blake Griffin here. Once again, look at the placement of Plumlee’s screen, how he lunges into Redick and the way in which McCollum creates his shot.
Pretty old school, right? 37.4 percent of McCollum’s field goal attempts on the season have come from mid-range compared to 21.4 percent for Lillard. On the other hand, 65.5 percent of Lillard’s shot attempts have come from 3-point range and at the basket compared to 48.8 percent for McCollum. Together, those numbers go a long way in explaining their different approaches to scoring.
With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to Lillard.
The Lillard Screen
The first thing to note about Lillard is he can shoot from deep. Compared to McCollum, he’s more comfortable dribbling up the court and pulling-up from several feet behind the 3-point line, or running off of screens for shots only Stephen Curry can hit. It explains why 63.2 percent of McCollum’s 3-pointers come without a dribble and 52.4 percent of Lillard’s 3-pointers come after at least one dribble.
Lillard’s thought process in the pick-and-roll basically falls into one of two categories:
- Can he curl off of the screen for a 3-pointer?
- If not, can he use the threat of a 3-pointer to get to the basket?
Let’s focus on option No. 1 first.
Watch how quickly Lillard rises up for a 3-pointer in the video below. With Leonard setting a screen far beyond the 3-point line, Lillard knows Jameer Nelson won’t be able to contest his shot if he goes over. Similarly, with Kenneth Faried backing up, he knows he’ll have a clean look at the basket once he curls off of the screen. It’s an incredible difficult shot to make considering the speed he does it with, but Lillard only needs a slither of space to work his magic.
It’s perhaps the biggest difference between Lillard and McCollum aesthetically. Whereas McCollum’s pick-and-rolls are slow and calculated, Lillard’s pick-and-rolls are explosive. He wants to put the defense in an awkward position and force them to make a split-second decision that will open the door for him to take one of the two most valuable shots in basketball. Setting screens several feet above the 3-point line as opposed to inside the line enables him to do that.
Lillard’s success in the pick-and-roll largely stems from his ability to knock down 3-pointers in volume. Just watch what happens to Dragan Bender in this pick-and-roll. The screen is set beyond the 3-point line, but Lillard uses the threat of his 3-pointer with a hesitation to get Bender to step up slightly closer. With Bender now on his hip, Lillard attacks the basket for a scoop shot in the paint.
It doesn’t just work against rookies, either. This time Lillard fools Andre Drummond and finishes at the basket with a nifty reverse. With how high the screen is set, it puts an incredible amount of pressure on a shot blocker like Drummond to cover a considerable amount of ground. Remember, 7-footers want to stay as close to the basket as possible, not chase a zippy guard like Lillard around the perimeter to contest 3-pointers.
Lillard’s focus in the offseason was to improve his finishing around the basket and the results speak for themselves — he’s shooting 61.9 percent within 3-feet of the basket this season after shooting 54.6 percent last season. He’s done a much better job of using his body to neutralizing a shot blocker by jumping into their body and using the rim as protection. Besides, getting into the paint has never been a problem for Lillard. Now that he’s finishing over 60 percent of his shots in the restricted area, it’s game over for the defense when he gets a step on the shot blocker.
Another key difference between Lillard and McCollum is the location of their pick-and-rolls. As the point guard, Lillard has the luxury of running a pick-and-roll as soon as he crosses half court. As the shooting guard, the Blazers tend to run something for McCollum to attack from the wing against a moving defense. The former makes it easier to create 3-pointers off the dribble; the latter makes it easier to create mid-range jump shots.
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That’s why these screens aren’t necessarily exclusive to Lillard or McCollum. Lillard will sometimes pull up from mid-range with a McCollum screen and McCollum can pull-up off the dribble from 3-point range if the Blazers set a Lillard screen on him. McCollum even gets those opportunities when he takes over as the point guard of the second unit. But when they do steal each other’s screens in the pick-and-roll, it acts as a curveball. Defenses know their tendencies, so being able to mix it up on the fly means they’re always in the driver’s seat.