As the season draws to a close, it's time for the chickens to replay the game for all the fans and friends.
This article will bring an inventory of the Suns' offense, and the author will talk about Durant's receiving cooperation on the new team and the summary of offensive tactics through samples of the Suns' past games against the Nuggets and Thunder.
Without further ado, let's go straight to the analysis!
Durant's flank cross tactic: One of the most important conjoined fits of the ABCD combination
Looking at the picture above, this is a tactic that can completely pinch Ayton, Booker, Paul and Durant in the entire offensive size of the Suns; It is also a frequent match of the sun. This shot took place in the first round of the game against the Nuggets.
It's still a tactical first.
The first layer of the fit is a 2-on-2 connection between Durant and Paul on the flanks. It can be seen that after Paul catches the ball, Durant will make the first block with him. Then Durant fell low, and Paul rose to the offensive position. And this first layer of blocking is currently the exchange of defenders.
This is also a very popular way for the sun to dismantle. Aside from Ayton, Paul is the player with the most blockers like Durant like this. The reason is simple, usually Paul's defense is the opposite No. 1 (short in height), and once the defense is changed, the lowest height player in the opponent's team can be changed to Durant.
We can see clearly in the picture, Reggie switched to Durant at this time. Of course, this one is not bad around the front.
This is the first layer of the main structure of the entire tactic. Simply put, if the opposing defender changes the defense slowly, or the strength around the front is not enough; Durant hit straight when he cleared low and faced the small one. Especially now that many teams face this offensive overflowing Sun, they will no longer use the 1st and 2nd highest level defensive resources against Paul.
Many times, it is the traditional alignment between position 1.
Let's look at how the second layer of tactics unfolds.
If the first chance on the side of Durant and Paul does not appear; Then Paul will step up and quickly give the ball to Booker, who is 45° on the opposite side. The Suns then prepared to play a second chance.
Booker would have a second ball cover with Ayton here. From the two ways of covering, we can see a big difference. Durant's cover focuses on blocking and directly falling low after the back; And Ayton's cover is the traditional No. 5 block to remove the shun. That is, on the whole, this is a 2-on-2 offensive combination of two wings at the same time.
Durant and Paul are on the left, and Ayton and Booker are on the right.
And because the overall attack is closer to the 45° sides, the space for blocking the middle is released, and the auxiliary defense resources here are redeployed. Especially if the defender wants to use the auxiliary defense resources of the weak side bottom corner, then it is Durant who is released. So, usually in the middle of Booker and Ayton's blocking, Ayton doesn't have a big obstacle.
It's also clear in the picture that Reggie interfered slightly with Ayton's final throw; Durant immediately appeared vacant. Of course, Ayton's treatment was in line with his usual style. And since there is still a pitcher hidden in the strong bottom corner of Booker's side, unless Booker quickly gets rid of the defender when using cover; Otherwise, this tactic will most likely end up in Ayton's hands.
The reason is simple, he has a better offensive environment here, closer to the basket, and the original opponent's defensive position is offset.
Let's see, immediately after this game, the next round of the Suns played a completely consistent tactic.
Still on the left wing, Paul receives the ball first, and then Durant blocks for him; In a split second, Durant penetrated low, and Paul walked up. Exactly the same as the previous round.
And this time Reggie continued to use the change of defense, but obviously the strength around the front was not enough, failed to give the physical confrontation in time, and was still looking for Durant's position. Paul handed the ball to Durant, which was a good chance to misplace singles.
Of course, this attack ended up falling through due to fouls in other positions.
Even when it comes to rotating lineups, this tactic still exists, but the form of the second tier will change due to personnel changes.
The lineup on the court at this time is: Durant + Paul + Biyombo + Ross + Craig. Monty likes to put Paul in the second half of Durant's solo team; Even in the game against the Thunder, Payne's time was compressed, allowing Durant and Paul to appear directly together.
From the first layer of tactics, it is still completely consistent. the same left side 45°; The same Paul holding the ball, Durant blocking; The same one low, one high; The same change of defense (depending on the opponent's strategy).
Although the ball didn't end up moving to the opposite side, we focused on the running on the other side.
Obviously, unlike Booker, who landed 45° early, Ayton was ready to step forward and block at any time. This time, it was Ross who was ready to catch the ball on the opposite side, using a weak side Stagger double cover and then lifting up, looking for a three-point opportunity to shoot on the catch. The player's running route is also from the bottom corner to the flank.
The reason is simple, Booker can initiate a complete ball block on this side, a personal breakthrough after the block, and a quick stop jump shot to finish; Or the spin-off of Ayton and potentially the far end Durant. But Ross or Craig didn't have this ability, so the tactics became an evolution of the pitcher on the weak side with the help of double cover.
It can be seen that as one of the core ace tactics, not only Durant and Paul successfully connected and became the main theme. In the details of the tactics, it is also very exquisite; It changes as personnel change.
Of course, Durant ended up hitting the ball with the assistant defense; First meet the online assistant defense, pass it, and then go down the line to meet the downline assistant defense, and directly pull the hit. That's the skill.
Next, let's introduce another set of bottom-line crossing tactics that many teams use:
It's still a tactical first.
The first layer of tactics still starts with Durant's crossing, but this time the object of the cross changes from no ball to a ball, from Paul to Booker. As we can see from the picture, Durant will first make a baseline cross cover with Booker at the bottom of the basket. And the purpose of this tactic is still to exchange potential defenders.
In this way, Booker's defender may be shorter to Durant after changing defenses; Durant's defenders may have a less flexible effect on Booker.
Of course, in the actual operation, Durant failed to completely hang Booker, and the reaction connection between the two is almost meaningful; As a result, the change of defense did not occur. Thus, the second layer of the whole tactic unfolds.
Very similar to the previous tactic; The initial purpose of this tactic is to ask for the ball low after the striker crosses the baseline; After the defender crosses the baseline, he uses the fixed cover wall of the center of the free throw line to ask for the ball at the top of the arc. This resulted in 2 chances and 1 backhand: 1 Durant low shot, 1 Booker's three-point chance to run without the ball, and 1 Ayton and Booker's second blocking opportunity.
And the Nuggets defended well in this defense, and Durant crossed at 1 point without changing defenses; At two o'clock, Booker followed closely to the top of the arc by bouncing outside the cover wall, including Reggie's pressure on Paul very well, and did not let him get the ball out in the first place. In the end, this tactic unfolded.
This tactic was actually used heavily during the Durant Warriors period, when it was due to the better quality of cover between the two; Often the foothold is placed on Durant's 1-point low finish. Including in the last match against Shanxi in Beijing Shougang, there are also a lot of shadows of the use of this tactic.
Durant and Ayton's bull corner tactics, and the derivation of various situations:
Next, we'll cover the various offensive initiations that are very familiar to both the Suns and Durant. Because for the two, one is a conventional offensive routine and the other is a conventional catch-and-catch routine.
The picture above shows an example of how to get Durant to receive the ball in the most comfortable core attack area after the most basic horn starting style.
First, Ayton will step forward to do a ball block for Paul, which can be a real cover or a fake cover. In fact, the Suns tend to use the latter more often, after all, the tactical foothold is in Durant; Even though the cover was hung solidly, Paul was mainly responsible for delivering the "cannonballs".
After taking cover for Paul, Ayton will immediately turn around and provide fixed cover for Durant, who is ambushed in the right horn. Then Durant used Ayton's cover to get out and catch the ball, so as to successfully receive the ball in the left horn or even closer; You can even get out of the control of some defenders by covering.
Well, we all know that Durant shot a staggering 58 percent from the field from mid-range season in this area. Therefore, the underlying logic of the whole tactic is not much complicated, and the goal is only one thing "how to get Durant to receive the ball where he is most accurate". Getting rid of the defense or not is not the first priority; After all, in the absence of strong pinching, it is difficult for someone in this range to interfere strongly.
Of course, with the previous shot "blocking and dismantling did not hang", in this shot there were some problems with the passing and receiving of the two, resulting in the opportunity not being grasped. This is normal, after all, the combination is also the appearance of 6 games.
Similarly, in the rotation lineup dominated by Biyombo + Durant, there will be some new changes in this starting style.
It can be seen that the beginning of the tactic, although it is still a ball blocking for Payne before Yongbo; Then he turned around and used Durant as a no-ball cover wall.
But this time, Durant didn't start out in ambush on the right side. Instead, he squatted in the bottom corner of the weak side, then pocketed out, lifted up, and caught the ball with the help of the stagger double cover on the weak side. The finishing form of the main body remains unchanged, still maintaining that Durant can at least catch the ball in the left corner, and Biyombo, who is the second cover wall, is a submissive threat.
Well, in fact, the author personally feels that this tactic is more of a change, and both starters and substitutes can be used. During his time with the Nets, Durant had a lot of such combinations, even receiving the ball after crossing the same horn with Irving.
If you insist on giving some explanation, it may be that there are not many offensive means than Yongbo after he has done cover, so that Xia Shun can be more threatening. At the same time, the overall core of the rotation lineup still points to the Durant attack, so the more tool walls are made, the better.
And after Ayton and Durant's bull corner, there are many highs and lows:
Let's look at the chart above, which is another tactical evolution under the bull's corner. If it is said that Ayton first covers the ball carrier and then covers Durant as a "single horn" cooperation just now; Then this is the "double horn cooperation" in which Ayton and Durant both stand on the bull's horn first.
It was still Paul who held the ball, this time Ayton and Durant opened the bow left and right; Then Ayton still cut sideways to cover Durant. But unlike just now, this time Durant did not penetrate the ball downward, but raised it to the flank to make a cover to catch the ball.
In basketball, we often see such players raised to one side 45° after being covered by a fixed point, but did not make a clear offensive threat. This tactic is most likely to be between high and low, and the high position is dealt to the low position; Or strong back players low clearance, 45 ° players safe global operation.
Obviously, the ultimate landing point of this tactic of the sun is the former.
Then after Durant picks up the ball, Booker will make a no-ball block for Ayton. This is actually a trick that many guards, such as Booker, Curry, and Hult.
From the point of view of the defender, at this time, the opposite player of the center (that is, Jordan Jr. in the picture) is carrying the basket and facing the ball carrier; And the center (aka Ayton) has moved down. The reason why Jordan Jr. subconsciously followed Ayton, but his eyes were still fixed on the side of the ball, was because he needed to assist in Durant's potential 1-on-1 breakup.
Just like this, Booker is blocking from behind at this time, Jordan Jr. is difficult to find, often can cause a sudden impact, thus forcing the defender to change defenses. Therefore, it leads to the situation that the center is on the inside to the small one, or when Booker blocks the outside bullet and is not followed.
Reggie handled well on this defense, bypassing ahead of time to continue following Booker. The tactics also came to the final high and low position, Ayton's inside singles.
In fact, in terms of the offensive environment, this is already a pretty good situation. After all, within the near basket, the Sun completely pulled the defense resources away through a series of operations, giving Ayton the opportunity to single out. But in the end, what kind of finishing method will Ayton use, well... Let's still be consequential, score or not (this goal is fouled)...
So in fact, in the double horn + Durant pocket line, and the high and low finally find Ayton's cooperation, the sun has another form of presentation.
Looking at the picture above, the final form of this ball is actually closer to Ayton's horn side after landing on the side of the ball to catch the ball first and be the dealer. Then Paul and Ayton made a horizontal continuous stagger cover wall, and Durant used this pair of cover to hand the ball and still came to the horn's attack position.
After that, it was the usual offensive threat release + Ayton's submissive.
And the final high and low formation is more like when the Thunder defense is good, the ball is scored in and out, thus forming a high and low position between Paul and Ayton. The offensive influence of the Suns ABCD combination has caused the Thunder to dare not do more defense when Ayton is down, which makes it relatively easy to catch the ball and single.
(Still the signature catch, Durant attracts defense, Ayton goes down to finish)
For Ayton, Durant's bringing and the team's overall defense have declined after the lack of top-level defensive players; It will inevitably have to expend more physical energy and energy on the defensive end. This also affects his ability on the offensive end to a certain extent.
At the same time, the serious spillover and abundance of the offensive end, especially the starting offensive end, makes it unnecessary to take on more offensive roles.
But don't get me wrong, simplifying the assumption of offensive roles and offensive opportunities is not a concept. That is, from a tactical level, Ayton no longer needs to be specifically given some singles; But in connection with Durant, he can get a better offensive environment and opportunities than ever before.
In other words, while Ayton has further declined in absolute tactical position, he has risen in absolute offensive chances.
(Still the same routine, activate Ayton again)
Let's take an example, Claxton has seen a significant increase in points per game during his time with Durant this season. Of course, this has to do with his personal growth, and Simmons and Irving can also have a good connection with him at that time.
But as the chart above shows, the center can get a good offensive opportunity in a large number of these kinds of blocking and dismantling cooperation with Durant's horns; It can therefore be activated.
Ayton also said this against the Thunder: "I worked more with his blocking today. Giving him a block is very different, a cover between the big ones. It's really fun, I just have to be ready to catch the ball. ”
There are also some syndication derivations similar to the others in the previous two figures.
For example, in Figure 1, Paul and Durant become the landing players on both sides of the bull. Paul goes to the flank to get the ball, while Durant first covers the bottom corner players and then uses fixed-point cover to catch the ball.
Due to the problem of space, the author will not analyze them in detail here. So in the first half of the article, we mainly talked about how Durant is part of the whole, ABCD together some tactical connections. In the second half, it is more based on Durant's personal ability and catch-and-catch routine.