Coach ,

Most people know Fran Fraschilla as a basketball commentator that works with ESPN, but Coach Fraschilla has 8 years of Division 1 head coaching experience including stints with Manhattan College, St. Johns and New Mexico.

He is especially proficient in international basketball concepts and studying the pick and roll. 

The pick and roll can be adjusted and executed many different ways depending on the defensive coverages.

Coach Fraschilla breaks down the Pick and Roll game into three levels: 

Level 1 - Create an Advantage

Level 2 - Find a Solution

Level 3 - Punish the Help

Level 1 - Create an Advantage

The first level of the pick and roll is creating an advantage. This happens at the point of the screen. 

The reason a player is looking to create an advantage is because this allows a numbers game.

Once an offensive player gets downhill a lot of times you have an advantage because there are less defensive players below the basketball.

One of the best ways to create an advantage is lying with your eyes and body. This means that coming off a pick and roll there needs to be deception.

(Click on Image to play Video)

Level 2 - Find a Solution

At level 2, finding a solution is dependent on how the defender is guarding the action.

In the video example, the Celtics are in drop coverage. Therefore, Chris Paul reads the defense and makes the proper play out of the pick and roll.

The pick-and-roll ball handler is looking to read the guy taking the basketball but also looking to read the off-the-ball help-side defenders.

Level 3 - Punish the Help

After creating an advantage --> then finding a solution → now the next step is punishing the help.

The fastest way to punish the help is rejecting the ball screen. 

The reason it is the fastest is because it gets the guard downhill at an advantage the quickest possible way. 

Anytime a defender peeks to the screen the ball handler should reject the screen.

The pick and roll is the most common action in basketball at any level. Coach Fraschilla does an excellent job of simplifying how to be successful in pick-and-roll basketball.

Thank you to Coach Fraschilla for putting together a great clinic.

Never get out-coached,

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